Oh Canada

Life is good here in Vancouver. But they don't discount a carton of cigarettes. Whether one wants 1 or 10 packs, it's the same price!

Doh.

Oh well there must be something else to blab about but no time just now.

Monday, Sep 30 at 9:06 AM #

Obligatory

I don't have anything to say, but didn't want today to go unmarked with no entry. I'll post a hyperlink to a memorial entry on Slashdot.

I'm in Canada today. I don't especially like how it makes me feel, but still I am wearing a red, white and blue ribbon to make me think and remember and feel something about what happened. It'll be interesting to see how my co-workers react to the ribbon.

Maybe I'll go drinking tonite.

Wednesday, Sep 11 at 7:46 AM #

Have you scanned yourself recently?

I just got a (crummy pop-up ad) reminder that I haven't scanned my system lately. Sure glad I did -- I recently put up a new server, and forgot to close a common service. Now things are better, but it seemed a blogworthy entry.

The best, most handy, coolest thing I can recommend for this type of thing is Steve Gibson's "NanoProbe Technology Synchronous Internet Port Probe". Steve has a ton of good stuff like that at his website, so check it out! Use the Shield's Up "Test My Shields" scan and also the "Probe My Ports" scan, and if both look good... break out the champagne, heh.

Sunday, Sep 8 at 12:46 PM #

State Fair 2002

An annual tradition, Aunt Susan judges the state spelling contest at the fair, so we have a good reason to go and see what's happening. It's more fun with kids, and we had a few in attendance this year so I took a bunch of pictures. Not my best work but oh well.

Good times!

Sunday, Sep 1 at 10:23 AM #

Healthy margarine!

Monica doesn't let me eat margarine any more. Not that it was ever my first choice... time was I would just eat real butter, confident that the scientists would one day say that the real thing is better than the artificial crap. And besides, butter tastes good :)

Well, Monica told me she wasn't waiting for the scientists to agree -- there's enough documentation that partially hydroginated(sp?) oils are bad for the heart. So, here's what we do:

Let one pound (4 sticks) real butter warm to room temperature
Mix in 2 cups canola oil
Pour into a nice tupperware bowl
Chill in fridge until hard

Tasty stuff, and spreadable, and less animal fat than pure butter, and way way better for you than that margarine junk they sell in the store.

Mostly I take the time to write this because I can never remember the ratios... Monica generally will take care of mixing up a new batch but from time to time I like to help. So now it's recorded for posterity. And you might enjoy trying it yourself!

Thursday, Aug 29 at 12:29 PM #

Well now...

It's time to get something done on this app. I've satisifed some basic "soft launch" requirements, and actually have some users registered, but not much activity...

I have my basic "homie page" close to the way I want it to look. Still some tweaking there, but I think my time is better spent coming up with a different section altogether.

SO, I've begun work on the "My New Mac" section, and shortly will have something else to show off. Maybe that will propel some momentum... dunno.

Tuesday, Aug 27 at 11:14 AM #

In the rack!

Another step closer to a no-compromises service level, I got my machine into a rack-mounted case tonite! Wahoo, so very professional and stuff!

Sunday, Aug 25 at 4:37 PM #

It Has Begun!

I haven't posted in quite awhile, because I've been working to get this thing to something resembling a "production ready" state. Not sure if I got finished -- but today I'm pulling the trigger and rolling out the production version. Wish me luck!

In other news... the monkey won (what a surprise) so ignore the nonsense below about quitting smoking. Next time, full-on cold turkey, it is too hard any other way.

I was speaking of finishing up at my old job, that's long gone now... I've been un- or self-employed for a few weeks, doing well, wish it could continue this way indefinitely.

Well that's all for this one, to my new visitors I say: watch this space for further developments :)

Monday, Aug 19 at 12:17 PM #

Nearly forgot, I didn't smoke yesterday!

First time in what, 18 years, that I had ZERO cigarettes all day. I did resort to chewing nicotene gum... but it was smoke free!

So, if I can stay way from the tobacco, and just "enjoy" the gum for awhile, maybe I can find my way to throwing the monkey from my back. Would sure be nice, I'm tired of this shit.

Thursday, Jul 11 at 9:06 AM #

Great Advice

Kris just sent me a message, saying to enjoy my summer. She took a (surprise) layoff at the start of last summer, and said her friends gave her the same advice. I hope I can just enjoy the month that I have scheduled, and not get too stressed about things!

It just hit me this morning, as I was unpacking boxes of crap from the office. What the heck am I going to do with this Fiserv baseball cap? How about the contact lens rewetting drops I always kept in my desk at work? It is weird, these things hit me harder than knowing I don't have to go in today. I guess, because it's not just about today... and dealing with the physical junk tells me that more than the scheduling part of my mind.

Odd.

Thursday, Jul 11 at 7:20 AM #

Nearly there...

Today I cleaned out my office... now a few final days on-call. I don't have to go in anymore, 'cept to get my last check on Monday.

Whew!

Wednesday, Jul 10 at 9:21 PM #

Spoiled by Tivo

I am SO spoiled by my Tivo. I don't know how people do it, commercials... so amazingly stupid I can't tolerate them any more. Monica just left the room and "hid" the remote over on the wrong side of the couch. Somehow the show ended and the inane commercials began, and man... 15 seconds and I started losing it.

another boring blog entry, oh well.

Wednesday, Jul 10 at 6:44 PM #

Drool

I just popped past Logan's desk to drop off a Flash book I borrowed... and saw another book that would be great on my shelves:

The Designer's Guide to Color Combinations
by Leslie Cabarga
Published by North Light Books, Copyright 1999

I bet they have somtehing on the web I go look... Of course Amazon has it, $19.59 ouch it's available

Here is a nice review.

A blog entry?

And an alternative source to Amazon: here

Well it's a cool book because it hits color combos over the century... I only skimmed it... I'll try to find it soon.

Tuesday, Jul 9 at 12:37 PM #

Wednesday

I made it, didn't smoke but the two cigs on Monday, as planned. Yesterday's performance was not as good. Oh well. Today, ZERO so far but I'm thinking of going home early to have one :)

Speaking of going home... it just struck me, next week is the last week and it's over! YAY!

I'm struggling to get the last test cycle started so I will quit blabbing and get back to it :)

Wednesday, Jul 3 at 2:47 PM #

Monday

Another Monday... but today is pretty big. First, we are about done at work, one more client left. Second, today I hear from Qwest about the hugeband connection to my house. I hope it can be done!

Also, two weeks ago yesterday I decided to stop smoking. It's been difficult, I've allowed myself a few cigarettes a day (down from a pack a day, to a pack a WEEK) but last weekend I started to backslide. Today I need to resume my effort to quit. But I couldn't get out of the house without having one, so... well, I hate this "loser" feeling and will just have to redouble my effort. Or something. Anyway, I had one and I'll allow myself another at 9:00PM -- not 7:00 "what's the difference" or even 8:00 "close enough isn't it?" but will hold out to 9:00 tonite, and hold it to one more.

It's hard to quit!

Monday, Jul 1 at 7:41 AM #

Semi-successful quitting effort

Well I'm not done with 'em yet but making progress. I quit smoking Sunday AM, ending a 19-24 cigarettes-a-day habit. Since making the decision I have held it to just one a day -- a little reward for leaving the pack at home and not getting into it whenever I feel like it.

I do feel better each day, but it's hard... I wanna smoke! OK not really, but yeah I think about it.. A LOT!

So anyway, one of these days soon I'll not have any at all... but not yet, I am not exactly backsliding but can't quite shake the monkey off my back.

Wednesday, Jun 19 at 10:56 AM #

Quitting Smoking!

After some 18 years (Apr 83-Jun 02) I've decided to quit once and for all. It's been on my mind for some time, and as we wind up the work thing I'm about to lose access to the Bupropion (I have insurance paying for Wellbutrin, been on it awhile, just haven't made the leap). I decided Friday AM that I'd start Sunday without a cigarette, and did so.

So yesterday was day #1... I made it all day, wasn't too uncomfortable but of course it wasn't pleasant. Today I feel much the same way, the drug is definitely working as I don't feel a huge physical craving -- but after 18 years the psychological draw is quite strong.

I'm determined to quit, there are so many good reasons, but yeah it is hard. I don't think it will help to list them but why not:

The financial benefits
The health benefits
Society's increasing intolerance of the habit

Well those are some obvious reasons... how about my own special list:

The hassles of keeping cigarettes available... I hate going to the store for them
It seems there are no limits to society's willingness to take advantage of smokers (exorbitant taxes, prohibition in most public areas)
I don't enjoy the "rush" anymore (that feeling you get if you smoke rarely, or have a light day)... I feel sick and no longer label it "peaceful"

There are a few good reasons to quit, and it did distract my mind some as I drafted it, so yeah the listing exercise helped. But not much, I STILL WANNA SMOKE :)

I'm going to stay with this for three weeks... it'd be easy to get discouraged but I will not, at least not until I have really tried. I did have one yesterday (down from 19-25 the day before and every day before that for the last 18 years). I'll likely have another here or there for the next few days. But I do want to quit, and will feel really bad if three weeks from now I decide it's "too hard" or something.

Enough rambling I will post this and go have lunch. And try not to smoke. Heh.

Monday, Jun 17 at 11:42 AM #

Anniversary!

Today Monica and I are headed to Seaside to celebrate our 3rd year anniversary. Yay!

The project is coming along nicely but will just have to wait until Sunday. I have been "applying polish" trying to make the thing look good, and feel more like a production-ready service, and it's starting to pay off. Just a few more tweaks and I'll be ready to freeze the screens, focus on doc and bugfixes and the like.

And my Lego project is also starting to take shape. I have some pictures and will try to get them uploaded... also starting to get exciting, heh.

So, watch this space for more!

Friday, Jun 14 at 6:36 AM #

Moz 1.0 demos

I found myself drafting this message to Kyle, and wondered why I wasn't blogging it... after all, the theme of the RNN blog is: misc!

I wonder how IE handles these demos? They're all (supposedly) standards based... I'll CC myself at work and try stuff out, but thought maybe you'd be interested?

Moz demos

Not too shabby, the blog dialog isn't a whole lot more tedious than writing email... I'm still waking up but this seems a good test of where I'm at -- if I was logged in, it'd be not much work at all! But, this test case does give me a couple ideas, I go add them to the enhancement list :)

Sunday, Jun 9 at 8:57 AM #

much better than "sit down, shut up, get back to work"

"An employer can only show his true appreciation for a job well done, on payday"

Jimmy D. White