schmonz.com sports a fresh site design: cleaner, simpler, and it validates!

If not for server-side scripting such as PHP, making this sort of site-wide change would be way too annoying to ever consider implementing, and I probably would never have bothered to create schmonz.com. If not for excellent free Web server programs such as Apache, this site would be hosted elsewhere — if I could afford it — or not at all. If not for fantastic free operating systems such as OpenBSD, I would have learned Unix much less painlessly, or not at all. This site would not exist. I might never have worked at OhioOnline, taken classes at CWRU again, and met lots of terrific people.

The day-to-day nature of my life is what it is because of the hard work, commitment, and generosity of thousands of people I've never met, who have no idea I exist and no reason to care. The shoulders of giants…

Dutton, Vic, and I discussed our particular brands of idealism, and how they drive our personal values and choices. Vic is going to be moving to Chicago to improve himself by studying Eastern spirituality. Focusing one's energy on self-awareness and self-improvement, according to him, requires the excision of inessential practices. Pretty reasonable. But one of the things he is giving up is the classical guitar. In my experience, music is one of the purest spiritual tools available. What really confuses me is his claim that he will be giving it up permanently. How can he know that he will never be able to come back to it? I don't know what value he derives from playing, but I can only assume that it is relatively small compared to what he will derive from his primary studies. I hope the experience will be everything Vic wants it to be.