For some reason our dog, Tasha, has always prefered to nap on backpacks, homework, lunchbags or any combination thereof. But, all summer long the kids’ backpacks were nowhere to be found–stored away in some closet. Tasha was relegated to the lazy-boy by the window, but naps just weren’t the same.

So, the kids may not be too thrilled about going back to school today, but our dog, Tasha, seems a bit happier to have the backpacks back.

We’re happy to have finally finished the April edition of our newsletter, Unga-Bunga Illustrated. We had so much to write about we didn’t think we could squeeze it all on one sheet of paper. Then we stumbled upon a great compression algorithm: pictures!

We have some news about my assignment, a bit about a snow problem in Ivory Coast and a strange looking package of Smarties. Head over to our newsletter page to have a look. You can also try out my new & improved javascript newsletter viewer thingy.

Thanks to David’s enthusiasm and persistence, he and I went to the Newsboys concert here in Calgary on Monday night. I knew nothing about the Newsboys so, I have to admit, I had low expectations for the evening. But after the two warm-up bands finished, things really got rolling. We were on our feet most of the show, waving, clapping, swaying, cheering and singing along. I was so impressed by their testimony, enthusiasm, commitment to the Lord, and musical talent. It was an awesome concert. For some reason the band has escaped my notice all these years. Newsboys!… where have you been all my life?

PS. My favorite song is “Born Again“. You can download it for free at www.newsboys.com.

Our basement is currently unfinished, which means it’s a wide open, free-for-all for the kids, and they love it. In one corner is the Lego zone, another corner has the hammock, along the wall is a mini basketball hoop, in the middle is the swing and usually some form of a fort with Nerf bullets sprinkled here and there for good measure. But lately we’ve been imagining a new look for our basement with the help of a free program called Sweet Home 3D. Every few days we tweak and adjust our ideal plan and then ponder it for awhile. With it’s rendering capabilities, we can see how it’s going to look and even do a virtual walk through. Here is the latest draft. Only the Lord knows how this will ever become a reality, but it’s fun to dream a bit.

Last week, OpenOffice 3.2 was released. While this may seem like a ho-hum announcement, I’m proud to announce that this release incorporates Graphite font rendering technology that was developed by some computer geeks at SIL International, a partner organization with Wycliffe. From the official announcement: “Using this technology, the support for new minority scripts becomes manageable. Just one font needs to developed for the specific needs of that minority.” Way to go team!

This release also boasts faster startup times. I’ve given it a try and it is indeed faster.

FYI: OpenOffice is an open source, free suite of office software.

It’s February already and figured it’s about time I post our December newsletter. While I was in the ‘website’ mood I tackled the job of upgrading my WordPress from 2.6 to 2.9. They’re only 0.3 apart but the difference is huge. I also wanted to change our newsletter page to break away from the PDF plugin and keep the bots from snooping around. JQuery to the rescue! I dug around in some PHP/HTML/CSS/JQuery code and came up with an neat little onscreen reader. Give it a try and let me know what you think. JQuery is way cool!

Next up: Unga-Bunga.com facelift…

Last weekend I took Jesse’s old bed with drawers underneath and converted it so that it would fit under their new/old bunk bed. And now, by popular demand, here is the finished product. We’re still not quite used to the thundering BOOM of Jesse jumping from the top bed.

Sparks flying, smoke rising, skin burning… oh the joys of welding! It’s been a long time since I’ve melted metal in my brother’s machine shop but it’s nice to know I haven’t lost the knack. Last month somebody gave us a well used, metal frame bunk bed. Even though it was well used, with a little help we thought it could still make a good bed. I got some scrap angle iron, borrowed a tiny little wire-feed welder and angle-grinder, and did some modifications to the frame and straightened out the cross bars. This week I’ll make a cross brace and throw some paint on in and it should be ready for use. Emma’s been sleeping on the floor for the last year so it will be nice to give her a ‘real’ bed. My welding beads won’t go down in the Dirks’ welding hall of fame, but I think it should hold up for a few years.

Someone gave us a Lego Mindstorms set in really good condition and over the Christmas holidays, Jesse entered the thrilling world of building and programming Lego robots. The tutorials and challenges on the cd gave him a really good start. Pictured here is one of the more difficult challenges, the InventorBot. Jesse named him Horace. He twists, tips his hat, moves his arm and beeps at you in response to your actions. Pretty cool! He won’t last long though because I’m sure Jesse will tear him to pieces to build the next robot. Thank goodness for rechargeable batteries!