See Snearys.com for update (picture is link)

Lil’ Girl (who is scheduled for arrival Dec 12th) sent me a message via Alanis Morissette in Princes Familiar:

Papa love your princess so that she will find loving princes familiar
Papa cry for your princess so that she will find gentle princes familiar

Papa listen to your princess so that she will find attentive princes familiar
Papa hear your princess so that she will find curious princes familiar

Papa laugh with your princess so that she will find funny princes familiar
Papa respect your princess so that she will find respectful princes familiar

Yes, darlin’ I hear you. It’s a promise.

When I need a phone number or address, I let my fingers do the walking. Walking across the keyboard at my computer. The YellowPages, Dex, and every other 5lb. paper doorstop I’ve had in the past 5 years has been a sad waste of paper.
 Here’s a great way to stop receiving those outdated recycling nightmares. Stop delivery of future printings.

http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org/index.html

This site has an updated database of phonebook publishers for various areas of the country. If you sign up, they forward your request to any/all publishers for your locality. Do your part to stop wasting paper!

~Aaron

Hooray! We found out today that we are having a baby girl in December (93% accurate) . And Doctor says she looks all healthy and normal.

So, I can expect a sudden influx of pale pink, white lace, and all manner of teeth-rottingly-sweet things entering my home. We are all manner of excited and pleased and happy. Oh, and I’m knee-knockingly scared!

It starts with the diaper changing, there’s some exacting method of changing a baby girl, or else! Are there online courses for that? Then there’s the public bathroom dilemna during potty-training years: Dirty men’s room with uncovered…ah urinals OR sending her into the women’s room while I stand by the door looking like a perv. Or perhaps only shopping in places that provide a family restroom (surely some website has a list). And that’s all before we get into the make-up, skirts, and boys phase. Also known as Daddy takes Xanax and shooting lessons phase. Gah! Prom, school trips, and boyfriends will give me grey hair and sleepless nights.

Ah, but to raise an adorable princess with brains, wit, and confidence will make it all worthwhile. I’ll gladly suffer ‘Daddy make-overs’, tapdance lessons, and ear-piercing screeches of excitement (have you ever noticed that only the female of the species seems capable, ney required to mimic rusty brakes at the slightest exciting news).

And I’ve still got four months to install bars on the windows, perfect the half-nelson, and discover the difference between Ballerina Pink, Rose Sachet, and Primrose Garden!

Finding new music and bands that I like is tough. The Clear Channel radio plays one new non-American Idol song a week, and then they don’t mention who it is.

So when some looney at work left some CD’s out ‘free for grabs’, I put Dead Hot Workshop’s River Otis into my CD player. Out comes this angsty, haunting voice accompanied by pulsing guitar chords like my dad always tried to play on Saturday nights. I don’t know what any of the lyrics really mean, and I don’t care (which is totally out of character).

I’m trying to get my wife to bring them to town as part of her ‘By Request’ season of concerts next year, but the band is as ethereal as their songs. Where the heck are you guys?

Anyway, if you like music, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can listen to: Dead Hot Workshop

I not a font of knowledge, merely a divining rod to find it. - Aaron Sneary, 2008

My cousin, Mick, besides having stepped into the shoes of his famous grandfather, B.C. comic artist Johnny Hart, is also developing his own strip:

Good luck, Mick. And I’m so proud you have kept B.C. alive.

~Aaron

Some of you probably know about my passion and interest in colour, colour theory, and that I refuse to give into the American spelling of the word.

And many of you know that I love Flickr. (Heck, I’m in the process of moving my photos from my own site to Flickr because it’s better)

So, happy Aaron discovered on Oh My Stinkin’ Heck today that Flickr has a new search function using colour! Here’s a cool colour palette I chose for demonstration:

USA Today published an article about the change left behind at airport security. In October of 2004, Congress passed a law allowing TSA to use the coins left behind to offset security costs.  The article mentions some interesting facts about the change left behind, including the cities with the most ‘donations’ and the city least likely to leave behind a single cent. My hometown:

The cash laggard: Chattanooga (Tenn.) Metropolitan Airport, whose 300,000 departing passengers in 2007 left just $1.20.

 Some quick math shows that the average Chattanoogan leaves only $0.000004 going through security. Actually, those are probably Yankees or Westerners leaving beautiful Chattanooga at the end of a visit. I’d guess Chattanoogans simply DONT leave behind change at all.

 Well, that’s my two cents.

~Aaron

In case you haven’t heard, I have accepted a position with the U.S. Army as a civilian employee of ISEC. What I discovered after accepting, and turning in my notice is that I have to legally swear my allegiance to the Government of these United States:

I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

No small promise. But, honestly, I’m really pleased by this - excited almost. There are many ways a man may serve his community; many ways he may be seen as honourable. But to officially stand and swear my allegiance to the United States of America swells me with pride and self-respect.

I will become something more than I am. And I join the ranks of better men that have sacrificed more. I stand behind and beside giants that defend, protect, and lead our country. Thanks to soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen, I have many freedoms and gifts. I’m glad to give back in my own small way.