Head First Java, 2nd Edition

This is a book with which I had the privilege to assist. If you are starting out with Java, you will find this book approachable in a way that many other books aren't.

Mother to Son by Langston Hughes

This is to let my Mother know that all her hard work isn't forgotten and that I use her example as strength to excel . . . I Love you Ma.

via The Poetry Foundation

Mother to Son

by Langston Hughes

Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It's not left vs right . . .

This was a post on Digg by user named OfoarHeffinsake regarding a washington post article "Enough right-wing propaganda"

Although, I have advocated steam rolling, this comment has convinced me to be more patient :).

Call me whatever names you want, but I see nothing wrong with the way Obama handles the right wing in general. Yes, in a specific instance like the Sherrod "scandal" the White House was too quick to act, but in general, Obama's stalwart decision to "constantly reach out to them" is something I find commendable, not stupid.

I think those of us who consider ourselves liberals who bash Obama for not having balls are missing the point. Do you really want to have the Democrat equivalent of GWB in office? Do you really need Obama to just start steamrolling over everyone without doing his best to include all Americans, not just his base?

As an example, I would have loved to see HCR have more liberal ideas in it, specifically universal health care for all citizens. However, I'm bright enough to realize that such a thing is not going to happen that quickly. We as a country have been struggling over that issue, and many others, for decades now. Obama did what many people considered impossible, and he did it while constantly trying to get the Republicans to work with him.

He used to say in his campaign that these changes he wanted and we were voting for were not going to happen overnight. They might not even all happen during his presidency. But it's coming, and it's coming *OUR* way, not the right wing way. We can be better than them and still succeed.

To put it another way: I'm glad that Obama and his administration are mostly avoiding the Karl Rovian tactics of the previous administration. I'm glad that they are constantly trying to bridge the gap between liberal and conservative, and I'm glad that they aren't doing something as stupid as "proving they have balls."

It's not about win or lose. It's about progress, and so far I'm amazed that Obama's managed to give us some major changes to both the health and financial systems of our country. It's not everything I wanted, but it's more than I ever expected.

So please, let's stop complaining about how Obama doesn't have any balls or his administration is too weak on the right wing. I didn't vote for the guy because I thought he was going to be the Rambo President of the Left Wing. I voted for him because he's smart, examines all of his options before acting, and seems to be making a concerted effort to include the right wing.

Screw those people who think this is a war between the right and the left. It's not. It's about making this country better, regardless of which side "wins."

The Perfect Father's Day

Below is a wonderful note that was written by my oldest daughter, Aña, about Father's Day.

Father's day is a day that is all about dads. Sometimes kids have fun but not all the time. All the Father's days I've been alive for were fun because my family is good with including everybody and doing stuff not only about one person but everyone!! You should be thankful for having a GREAT dad!

I don't know about you but my dad is the best dad EVER! Yay!

Now that is something that warms my heart.

Basketball Rules . . .

Funny introduction of basketball rules at Wikipedia . . .

Points are scored by throwing (shooting) the ball through the basket from above. The team with more points at the end of the game wins, but additional time (overtime) may be issued when the scores of both teams are the same. The ball can be advanced on the court by bouncing it (dribbling) or passing it between teammates. It is a foul to walk with the ball or carry it. Disruptive physical contact (foul) is penalized, and free throws will be issued if an offensive player is fouled while shooting the ball. (violations).

Wikipedia Basket Ball Link

I am an American

This "full quote" is from CNN at http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/05/28/mosley.human.race/index.html?hpt=Mid

It is the clearest reading that I have read in a while. Enjoy.

New York (CNN) -- Who am I? I am an American from the soles of my feet to the hair that once adorned my bald head. An American whose black-skinned ancestors were stolen from their lives and cultures and piled in the holds of ships like so many sacks of skin.

An American whose Jewish ancestors stowed their lives into the holds of later vessels running from a thousand years of anti-Semitism that was soon to blossom into a Holocaust.

An American whose ancestors walked across the frozen waters from Asia to North America discovering a new world that would one day be stolen from their descendants. An English-speaking American whose language is also whispering French from my Louisiana relatives and sublime Spanish from the Mexicans and Mexican-Americans I rubbed shoulders with growing up in Southern California.

A man whose music is the blues that became rock and roll and hip-hop, jazz that is the bastard and the heir of the unconsecrated coupling between Africa and Europe.

Who am I? I am a man formed by history but oddly lacking in a clear perspective of the past. A man with so much to me that there is no clear identity to grab onto or claim. I might be related to Thomas Jefferson or any of 10,000 masters who raped and sometimes even loved their slaves.

Who am I? I am the target of ad men and pollsters, census takers and the evening news. To some I am the enemy, both inside this nation and internationally.
To some I am a brother.

I can be at the same time invisible and yet profiled, counted and yet forgotten, imprisoned by circumstance and yet declared free by one of the great documents of political history.

I am prejudged for my skin color, gender, age, education, and even for some things that I've done wrong. I am a minor shareholder in the great corporation of America and therefore responsible for everything good and bad that we've done in the name of business, things we did before I was born and events that shall occur after I'm gone.

I am the amalgamation of all the ignorance, ambitions, yearnings for freedom, and religions of the world. I am -- have been -- brainwashed so many times that innocence is second nature to me. Contradictorily, America is what I am but not my history, not my identity.

I am a new man almost every day. I and mine were once colored, Negro, black, Afro-American, African-American, brother, sister, Uncle Tom, revolutionary, good one, bad one, convict, malingerer, miracle, and so much more. In the end I can say with conviction that I am America.

Through my veins run 10,000 years of history that touches every continent, deity, and crime known to humanity. This history is not composed of the false accounts of the past; it is the blood and the beat and the light that passes through my mind, and yours. I am your sibling whether you know it or not, whether you accept me or not.

We, known and unknown to each other, form an identity that I can express but still not know, not completely. And for this state of being I am infinitely grateful because it means that I can be part of something greater than the individual, while still I am at home in my heart.

Einstein on Catholic Church

"Being a lover of freedom, when the Nazi revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom: but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. Only the Catholic Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised, I now praise unreservedly."

-- Albert Einstein, quoted in Time Magazine December 23, 1940

Borrowed from my friend, Blaise, via his facebook profile