i helped dad poke around his web site - at the shell prompt level. he'd be considered a power user on windows, but on a *nix system he's helpless, as many of us once were. something as simple as ssh'ing in and checking out his access log is beyond him at this point. his site is built in php w/mysql backend - no problem, i'm not a php programmer but what's to learn? php seems fairly simple and mostly self-explanatory. i can help him out and answer his questions (how are accounts really stored, is it possible to do this or that, is the system itself maintainable and extendable, how secure are things) . . . i've been telling him for more than 2 years that he needs to learn sql and basic shell use and scripting. for him, that's too low-level and hands-on to want to do - almost beneath him. it reminds me of the several times he asked me to drop out of school to do all the technical dirty work for whatever his current get-rich-quick internet scheme was. ;) he's fun.

moved to a "wake excessively early work till noon chill out work a bit at night" schedule. it's been more effective so far than what i was doing before. it feels so much like studying for finals - i have to really crack down and do it or i'll find any excuse to procrastinate. like what i'm doing right now - keeping up my log is taking time away from [idea], which i'd really like to see come to fruition and provide . . . anyway. the solution is to work in a non-connected environment. if i have access to the internet, i'm screwed.