tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34668372007-05-01T10:30:49.069-07:00MichaelBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-77166165745704420952007-05-01T10:24:00.000-07:002007-05-01T10:30:49.104-07:00<h1>Silverlight Map</h1><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://agorigin.net/g/silverlight.js"></script><br /><script type="text/javascript">function CreateSilverlight(){Sys.Silverlight.createHostedObjectEx({source: "streaming:/216/SilverlightMap",parentElement: SilverlightMapWrapper});}</script><br /><div id="SilverlightMapWrapper" style="width:800px; height:600px; overflow:hidden;"></div><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />var SilverlightMapWrapper = document.getElementById("SilverlightMapWrapper");<br />CreateSilverlight();<br /></script>Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-35263261047017907122007-03-04T20:23:00.000-08:002007-03-04T20:41:52.230-08:00<p><br />Take a look at my boys Alex (almost 5) and Sam (2) as Alex tells a story about a pig. <br /></p><br /><div><br /><embed src="http://images.soapbox.msn.com/flash/soapbox1_1.swf" quality="high" width="412" height="362" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" flashvars="c=v&v=33bd8a99-97db-4eec-9178-ba434b02466b" ></embed><br /><a href="http://soapbox.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=33bd8a99-97db-4eec-9178-ba434b02466b" target="_new" title="A Farm Story">Video: A Farm Story</a><br /></div>Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1153515633178169792006-07-21T13:58:00.000-07:002007-02-26T13:08:59.880-08:00<strong>Charette Forums are Down.</strong><br />The login on the phpBB forums has stopped working so people cannot login to the forums. I will see if upgrading the software this weekend will fix it.<br />Thanks to all who sent emails telling me about this.<br />MichaelMichaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1162971564750623992006-11-07T23:25:00.000-08:002006-11-07T23:42:28.813-08:00<strong>Fairfax Measure VV Passes!</strong><br />Through a door-to-door grassroots effort in the most progressive town in the San Francisco Bay Area, the controversial measure VV just passed by a landslide! If you didn't know, this measure prohibits the usage of the letter "W" in any official town communications. Once nearby San Francisco decided that they could pass a measure to impeach President Bush, residents in this ultra-progressive enclave in democratic leaning Marin County decided that they could do one better by banning the president's signature letter. Starting January 1, 2007, all official communications must use "VV" or "vv" instead of "W" or "w". Leonard Friskers, a long-time Fairfax resident who has been active in the VV Campaign had this to say, "It's about time that we did something to stand up to King George! VV is our Boston Tea party!"Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1160584443165802872006-10-11T09:29:00.000-07:002006-10-11T09:34:03.176-07:00A New Community at <a href="http://mindjetlabs.com">MindjetLabs.com</a>.<br />If you haven't found it yet, we just launched a new Mindjet Labs site. I am managing the site and I am very excited to be using it to build a community around enhancing productivity of MindManager users.<br />On the site we have:<br /><ul><li>Forums</li><li>Blogs (I have a new blog "<a href="http://mindjetlabs.com/cs/blogs/synergist/default.aspx">Synergist</a>")</li><li>Downloads (and you can upload maps, templates, macros, etc. as well)</li><li>Videos are coming soon!</li></ul><p>Take a look!</p><p>Michael</p>Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1156460711257411882006-08-24T15:55:00.000-07:002006-08-24T16:06:42.096-07:00A new personal project.<br />My father, Gary Scherotter, passed away almost nine years ago. He succumbed to cancer after reaching the personal goal of attending my wedding (my anniversary was yesterday). I miss him dearly but I know that he would have loved to meet my sons Alexander and Samuel. I wouldn't be able to tear them away from him - I just know that. And I know that my sons would have loved him. Alexander at four years old asks questions about him and I tell him about him.<br /><br />Sometimes when I think of him, especially when I think that my sons will never really know him, I tear up.<br /><br /><strong>The project:</strong><br />I want to make a video biography of him. In becoming a father, I developed a knack for videography and video editing and I would like to channel that to record his life as best I can. I want to have something that I can give to Alexander and Sam that they can look to so they can see a reflection of my father through others. To do this, I would like to videotape interviews with my family and my father's friends so that they can retell the stories that they have told countless times over the dinner table.<br /><br />I had tremendous respect for my father. In his actions, he showed me how to be the kind of father that I should aspire to be. <strong>I want to make a lasting tribue to him</strong>. If you want to help me with this project, please post a comment and we'll make it happen.<br /><br />MichaelMichaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1156460037142600162006-08-24T15:53:00.000-07:002006-08-24T15:53:57.153-07:00The Charette.com <a href="http://www.charette.com/phpbb">forums</a> are back up.<br />Enjoy!<br />MichaelMichaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1153286833170636402006-07-18T22:25:00.000-07:002006-07-18T22:27:13.180-07:00<div align="center"><a href="http://www.charette.com/uploaded_images/P1050652-732816.JPG"><img style="DISPLAY: block; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.charette.com/uploaded_images/P1050652-725752.JPG" border="0" /></a> Sam Shouting at a Sheep<br />at the San Francisco Zoo</div>&nbsp;<a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a> Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1153109653694917682006-07-16T20:38:00.000-07:002006-07-16T21:14:13.696-07:00<span style="font-size:180%;">Sam Climbs Out of his Crib</span><br />Well, our little firecracker Sam (18 months old) climbed out of his crib yesterday when he was done napping. By the crying that I heard from the baby monitor in his room, his dismount was probably less that a 10. I didn't see any bruises and a little holding calmed him down. That evening I removed the bumbers from the inside of his crib to make it a bit more difficult for him to climb out.Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1136418130746063222006-01-04T15:38:00.000-08:002006-01-31T22:33:46.200-08:00Everyone has called us to ask how we faired in the recent rains and floods. <strong>We are fine!</strong> The creek behind our house turned into a roaring river but at its height, it was still about 15 feet below grade of our property. I took Alex out to watch it and he was amazed (so was I). Our favorite little downtown, San Anselmo got flooded with up to four feet of water.<br /><br />A friend of a friend posted these photos and movie for you to see:<br /><a title="http://emoclients.com/jordan/floodweb/index.htm" href="http://emoclients.com/jordan/floodweb/index.htm">http://emoclients.com/jordan/floodweb/index.htm</a><br /><a title="http://emoclients.com/jordan/video/flood_web.mov" href="http://emoclients.com/jordan/video/flood_web.mov">http://emoclients.com/jordan/video/flood_web.mov</a><br /><br />MichaelMichaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1123037783862291292005-08-02T19:56:00.000-07:002005-08-02T19:56:23.866-07:00<a href='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/640/P1020787-2005.08.02-19.56.09.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #000000; margin:2px' src='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/320/P1020787-2005.08.02-19.56.09.jpg'></a><br />Sam having fun on the Train&nbsp;<a href='http://picasa.google.com/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' border='0' style='border:0px;padding:0px;background:transparent;' align='absmiddle'></a>Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1123037746720766532005-08-02T19:55:00.000-07:002005-08-02T19:55:46.723-07:00<a href='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/640/P1020801-2005.08.02-19.55.25.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #000000; margin:2px' src='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/320/P1020801-2005.08.02-19.55.25.jpg'></a><br />Alex on the Lego Thomas&nbsp;<a href='http://picasa.google.com/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' border='0' style='border:0px;padding:0px;background:transparent;' align='absmiddle'></a>Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1123037714572931092005-08-02T19:55:00.000-07:002005-08-02T19:55:14.573-07:00<a href='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/640/P1020797-2005.08.02-19.55.01.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #000000; margin:2px' src='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/320/P1020797-2005.08.02-19.55.01.jpg'></a><br />Alex in the Lego Thomas&nbsp;<a href='http://picasa.google.com/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' border='0' style='border:0px;padding:0px;background:transparent;' align='absmiddle'></a>Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1123037648998078552005-08-02T19:54:00.000-07:002005-08-02T19:54:09.003-07:00<a href='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/640/P1020807-2005.08.02-19.53.55.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #000000; margin:2px' src='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/320/P1020807-2005.08.02-19.53.55.jpg'></a><br />Boys and Trains&nbsp;<a href='http://picasa.google.com/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' border='0' style='border:0px;padding:0px;background:transparent;' align='absmiddle'></a>Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1123037565086617042005-08-02T19:52:00.000-07:002005-08-02T19:52:45.090-07:00<a href='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/640/P1020758-2005.08.02-19.52.29.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #000000; margin:2px' src='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/320/P1020758-2005.08.02-19.52.29.jpg'></a><br />Alex, Liz and Sam, riding on the Train&nbsp;<a href='http://picasa.google.com/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' border='0' style='border:0px;padding:0px;background:transparent;' align='absmiddle'></a>Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1123037455468898392005-08-02T19:50:00.000-07:002005-08-02T19:50:55.480-07:00<a href='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/640/P1020741-2005.08.02-19.50.43.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #000000; margin:2px' src='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/320/P1020741-2005.08.02-19.50.43.jpg'></a><br />Riding on the Thomas Train (kind of happy)&nbsp;<a href='http://picasa.google.com/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' border='0' style='border:0px;padding:0px;background:transparent;' align='absmiddle'></a>Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1122480255114662512005-07-27T09:01:00.000-07:002005-07-27T09:04:15.120-07:00<span style="font-size:180%;">Sam Melts Me</span><br />Sam enjoys watching Alex, Liz, Charm and me go about our days in his saucer knawing on his toys and teething implements. When I look at him and we make eye contact, a huge smile comes across his face and he flaps his arms and laughs. I love that.Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1122351269378424762005-07-22T20:14:00.000-07:002005-07-25T21:17:26.910-07:00<a href="http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/640/P1020715-2005.07.25-21.14.21.jpg"><img style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: #000000 1px solid; MARGIN: 2px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 1px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: #000000 1px solid" src="http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/320/P1020715-2005.07.25-21.14.21.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Alex having fun in the sleeping bag before Yellow Submarine started. <a href="http://picasa.google.com/" target="ext"><img style="BORDER-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BACKGROUND: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px" alt="Posted by Picasa" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" align="absMiddle" border="0" /></a>Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1122351379852888532005-07-25T21:16:00.000-07:002005-07-25T21:16:19.856-07:00<a href='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/640/P1020721-2005.07.25-21.16.15.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #000000; margin:2px' src='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/320/P1020721-2005.07.25-21.16.15.jpg'></a><br />Sam Watching Yellow Submarine&nbsp;<a href='http://picasa.google.com/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' border='0' style='border:0px;padding:0px;background:transparent;' align='absmiddle'></a>Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1122351349829132912005-07-25T21:15:00.000-07:002005-07-25T21:15:49.833-07:00<a href='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/640/P1020709-2005.07.25-21.15.43.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #000000; margin:2px' src='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/320/P1020709-2005.07.25-21.15.43.jpg'></a><br />Alex, Liz, and Sam watching Yellow Submarine at Creek Park&nbsp;<a href='http://picasa.google.com/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' border='0' style='border:0px;padding:0px;background:transparent;' align='absmiddle'></a>Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1122350822217311872005-07-25T20:58:00.000-07:002005-07-25T21:07:02.223-07:00<span style="font-size:180%;">Flat Nat</span><br />Ever since he could talk, Alex (age 3) has called his blanket Nat. The blanket is in tatters. It has airplanes on it and Alex loves it. When he goes to bed, he say "Flat Nat" which means he wants Liz or me to spread Nat on top of him flatly. This is also one of his dealying tactics for not going to bed immediately.Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1118523779377076042005-06-11T14:02:00.000-07:002005-06-11T14:02:59.400-07:00<a href='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/640/P1020358-2005.06.11-14.02.50.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #000000; margin:2px' src='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/320/P1020358-2005.06.11-14.02.50.jpg'></a><br />Uncle Dan the Pirate King Playing with the Kids at Alexander's Birthday Party&nbsp;<a href='http://www.hello.com/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbh.gif' alt='Posted by Hello' border='0' style='border:0px;padding:0px;background:transparent;' align='absmiddle'></a>Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1115309133274112892005-05-05T08:41:00.000-07:002005-05-20T09:36:59.970-07:00<span style="font-size:180%;">Instant Community<br /></span>When I was researching which play structure to put in my backyard, I saw the <a href="http://www.sunraypremiumplaygrounds.com/home.html">Sunray Playground 2005</a> on display at <a href="http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=11030089&whse=&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;topnav=&cat=&amp;s=1">Costco</a>. It looked like it had everything I wanted for my boys: a clubhouse, swings, a slide, and a climbing wall. When I got home, I did what everybody does now, I opened Google and started searching for information on the product. Everything that I found, except for one review on Epinions.com for last year's model, was sites for companies selling the product. I found the Sunray site on the internet and read all that I could, including the PDF of the instruction manual. I contacted their technical support to answer some questions that the single review raised about predrilling holes and the time that it would take to build it. Based on this limited information, I purchased the playground.<br /><br />When I started building the playground, I wanted to document my process so that I could tell others about it. At the beginning of each step, I took a digital photo from the same location. The building went fine. At the end of the first weekend, posted <a href="http://www.charette.com/articles/playground.html">this webpage</a>, turning the photos into an <a href="http://www.charette.com/articles/Playground.gif">animated GIF image</a> using <a href="http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Products/Display&pfid=1047024307383&amp;pid=1047024390003">Animation Shop</a>.<br /><br />A few days later, I did a Google search for <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=Sunray+Playground">"Sunray Playground"</a> and found that that page was ranked second after the site for Costco.<br /><br />Then the questions started:<br /><br />People with the same questions, were doing the same thing that I did:<br /><ol><li>See the playground at Costco</li><br /><li>Google "Sunray Playground"</li><br /></ol>But now they found my web page.<br /><br />Based on the information that I put there, someone did something that I did not expect, he posted a question in the <a href="http://www.charette.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=19">forums on my website</a>. Then another one found it, and another, and another. Within two weeks, my site <a href="http://www.charette.com">charette.com</a> was the top rank for the Google search for "Sunray Playground". People from all over were posting questions, comments, and answers about the playground.<br /><br />In two weeks, I built a community, not based on geography but a very specific subject.<br /><b>That's amazing!</b>Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1116475293561057862005-05-18T21:01:00.000-07:002005-05-18T21:01:33.566-07:00<a href='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/640/P1020231-2005.05.18-21.01.30.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #000000; margin:2px' src='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/320/P1020231-2005.05.18-21.01.30.jpg'></a><br />Me and My Boys&nbsp;<a href='http://www.hello.com/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbh.gif' alt='Posted by Hello' border='0' style='border:0px;padding:0px;background:transparent;' align='absmiddle'></a>Michaeltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466837.post-1116475162596779872005-05-18T20:59:00.000-07:002005-05-18T20:59:22.600-07:00<a href='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/640/P1020204-2005.05.18-20.59.18.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #000000; margin:2px' src='http://www.charette.com/hello/1575876/320/P1020204-2005.05.18-20.59.18.jpg'></a><br />Happy Sam&nbsp;<a href='http://www.hello.com/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbh.gif' alt='Posted by Hello' border='0' style='border:0px;padding:0px;background:transparent;' align='absmiddle'></a>Michael