I put my RailsDay entry at weather.ericwagoner.com. It’s exactly as it stood after 24 hours, typos and bugs and all.

I finished with four minutes to spare. Here’s a shot of the front page of the app. It turned out pretty nice for 24 hours… though I’ve seen screenshots of some of the competition and wowsers!

I’ve now got a complete application. I could be adding bells and whistles, but with only two hours to go, it’s time to clean everything up, do some final testing, write some simple instructions to the judges, and let it go.

Four hours to go! Here’s another screenshot. On a whim I tried a “Rock Star (diet) Energy Drink”. It’s like condensed cool-aid with a few Flinstones vitamin pills crushed in. Yum yum!

After 15hrs (including a four hour nap and some quality Vivian time), I’ve got the makings of a nice little app. Here’s a screenshot of the work so far.

I’m comfortable enough with Ruby on Rails now to participate in RailsDay 2006, a 24-hour challenge to build a web application from start to finish. There’re lots of cool prizes, the best of all possible judges, and no small number of participants. It all starts at 12 midnight tonight (Eastern), and we’ll have the next 24 hours exactly to build something cool. Myself, I’m building a weather tracking application (shhh… keep it under your hat!). We’ll see how it goes. This page will show my activity in real-time, if you happen to wander by here on Saturday. In other news, the #1 magazine for market farmers (Growing for Market) has for its current cover story a lengthy article about my latest public project – FarmNotebook. So far the reception has been quite positive. It was a great article (since they let me write it) that makes a strong case for using my website.

I’ve long maintained that sleep’s a crutch, and I’m glad to see that the fine folks at Folger’s agree with me.

How can I keep me from moving? Now I need a change of scenery Just listen to me I won’t pretend to Understand the movement of the wind Or the waves out in the ocean or how Like the hours I change softly slowly Plainly blindly oh me oh my!

-- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah “Skin of my Yellow Country Teeth " The debut album from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah has been getting a lot of listening to from me. (Want to see?) Besides being just a really good album full of really good music, it also makes me think of Randy. I can’t say why, exactly. Maybe it’s the blend of David Byrne and Robyn Hitchcock that CYHSY’s lead singer brings to the music. I’ve been thinking of Randy a lot lately. A new wife, a new son, new rooms in the home – I wish I could be there to witness them. Someday, maybe. Hopefully.

“Most children begin recognizing some letters between the ages of 2 and 3 and can identify most letters between 4 and 5. This means that you can start teaching your child the alphabet when he’s around 2 — but don’t expect full mastery for some time…” I think I had my mind blown tonight. Vivian, not quite 21 months old, read to me. All by herself. Of course it was only one letter at a time, but still. She hardly has a vocabulary of twenty words, so reading sentences is still a bit beyond her reach. And she’s known her letters for some time. A couple months ago she began going over to her pile of letters and pull out the correct one when we asked, and recently she began saying their names herself. But I had no idea she’d put together that those black squiggly things in her beloved books were actually composed of individual letters. We popped by a local diner on the way home from the farmer’s market today, just the two of us. I gave her a menu to keep her occupied while I figured out what I wanted. I’d not even got through the egg section when I hear her saying, “Aitch. You. Dee! Dee!” I sat my menu down and gave her my attention. She moved her finger from letter to letter, in order (I have no idea where she figured the left-to-right thing out), reciting as she went. “… Oh. You. Essssss. Eeeee!” I waived the waitress off as Vivian opened her menu. She pointed at the omlette picture. “Numm numm!” Then she started right back into the words. Starting at the top left. “Bee. Arrrr. Eeee! Ay. Kay. Effff. Ay. Esssssss tee!” And on she went. And not just the headlines, and not even just the words. She moved her finger over a tiny ® -- “Arrrr!” I thought for sure we had at least a couple years before we had to think about home schooling or other options. I guess not…

If you leap awake in the mirror of a bad dream, and for a fraction of a second you can’t remember where you are, just open your window and follow your memory upstream. To the meadow in the mountain where we counted every falling star. I believe the light that shines on you will shine on you forever (forever). And though I can’t guarantee there’s nothing scary hiding under your bed, I’m gonna stand guard like a postcard of a golden retriever. And never leave ’til I leave you with a sweet dream in your head. I’m gonna watch you shine, gonna watch you grow. Gonna paint a sign so you’ll always know. As long as one and one is two. There could never be a father who loved his daughter more than I love you. Trust your intuition. It’s just like goin’ fishin’. You cast your line and hope you get a bite. But you don’t need to waste your time worrying about the marketplace, try to help the human race. Struggling to survive its harshest night. I’m gonna watch you shine, gonna watch you grow. Gonna paint a sign so you’ll always know. As long as one and one is two. There could never be a father who loved his daughter more than I love you. I’m gonna watch you shine, gonna watch you grow. Gonna paint a sign so you’ll always know. As long as one and one is two. There could never be a father who loved his daughter more than I love you.

-- Track Eleven, “Father and Daughter " Paul Simon has returned with a new album, a collaboration with Brian Eno, titled “Surprise “. I like what I’ve heard so far, but then the only album of his I didn’t care for (and don’t own) was the soundtrack to his Broadway musical from a few years back. He’s taken the unusual step (for mainstream artists) of streaming the album on his website -- several songs in their entirety and samples of the others.