Brandon Kraft

Occupy Austin

February 4, 2012 in Rants with 3 Comments

Last night, around 11 p.m., the Austin Police Department proceeded in an enforcement action of new policies established by the City of Austin concerning usage of the public areas of City Hall. In layterms, they evicted the protest.

photocredit: flickr/aaabbbccc8d

I’m torn on this issue. The first amendment freedom of assembly is extremely important. We, as citizenry, have the right to protest peacefully and that is an absolute cornerstone of the American democratic process.

But, I’m a pragmatist. A protest designed to be indefinite, seeking vague goal (“end corporate greed”) with an unclear reason to protest at City Hall seems silly to me. After reading their own brochure, I don’t understand what, specifically, they’re trying to protest. Continue Reading…

Order For A Moment

February 3, 2012 in Daddy's Corner with 2 Comments

Sometimes we just have to create order out of the chaos, if it is minor and seemingly meaningless.

If you know me personally, you know there is much physical chaos to my environments. I like the idea of organization, but I miss the boat when it is time to execute. Being married to Vanessa has helped with execution, but I still need to take a timeout once a week when I realize that my desk became a mental distraction.

photocredit: flickr/CarbonNYC

Olivia is putting away her toys and books each night more and more often, but not yet every night. When I put them away, I become very anal. The train cars must be “parked” in the parking spaces on the city playmat. Each toy veggie must be reassembled and go back to the grocery bag to which they belong. This bin is for wooden building blocks. This one is for the plastic blocks. The boxes slide onto the shelves like this, not like that. Until very recently, each night, I would reassemble and correctly order this alphabet puzzle that has a letter on one puzzle piece and a picture of an item of that letter on another. Continue Reading…

And We’re Live!

February 2, 2012 in Site Info with 2 Comments

This weekend, I migrated this site from Nexcess (on a reseller account that I own) to WP Engine. First, I still love Nexcess. They have served—and continue to serve—me extremely well. I’ve been with Nexcess since 2006 with zero problems, issues or complaints. I’m maintaining my account with them. They’re still hosting everything not at www.brandonkraft.com for me and are still hosting my client sites. I’ll write a review of my great experience with Nexcess later—this isn’t a comparison, except the speed test.

photocredit: flickr/brunogirin

WP Engine made me an offer to try them out and I’ve heard too many good things to not explore an Austin company dedicated to hosting sites built upon the same content management system that I primarily work with now. Continue Reading…

Compromise and Conflict (New on ACNM)

February 1, 2012 in Offsite Pieces with 0 Comments

Writing on Austin Catholic New Media today:

My wife and I are fundamentally different. My idea of “on-time” is arriving 10 minutes before needing to be somewhere and being able to take my time to get into position, ready to go when I’m supposed to be there. In college, I was the guy that would rather skip class than walk in after the professor started the lecture.

My wife’s idea of “on-time” is arriving 20 minutes or less after the event starts.

Add to the mix Austin traffic and that I-35 from Airport to Oltorf is our most direct route to most of the places we go (work, church). Hello marriage counseling!

Sleep Training: Part 239

January 31, 2012 in Daddy's Corner with 5 Comments

Trying to continue sleep train Olivia. We’ll letting her cry it out a bit…
Olivia: Daddy! Come rock me! It’s my favorite!

During a conversation concerning having both girls cry it out at night
Vanessa: There will be yelling in the House of Kraft tonight.

Sleep has been a constant struggle with Olivia. We were those parents that simply couldn’t understand how any type of “cry it out” method was humane. She was just 8 pounds of joy…how could we just let her cry? Her first three months of life, she would not sleep without being held and we were too wimpy to let her cry herself to sleep ever.

We were zombies for a long time.

photocredit: flickr/xlibber

While it had overall improved for both girls, they took a few steps back recently. Catalina shouldn’t still eat at night. Olivia went from not waking up most nights to waking up more times than I have fingers. We would rock her for a minute and put her back down. When she occasionally woke up once a night, that was fine. When it is 10 times, it is just stupid. Continue Reading…