I had one of those good days today where I’m reminded of how lucky I am to have friends. I had breakfast with one (and her daughter) that I hadn’t seen in a while. I chatted with a couple online for a few hours. And I spent more than hour on the phone with a third. The day pretty much zipped by. Talking and chatting with these folks does make time spent home alone less singular.
Now if only I could have squeezed some more work into the day, I would be caught up for Monday morning.
I’ve made it back from two weeks abroad. I have a cold of some kind that won’t go away and I’ve spent many hours getting DSL to work again. When you think of being on the road for so long you never assume that there will be so much cleanup at the end. Alas, that’s what today is for, I think.
Tonight (or this morning) I pack for what is sure to be some kind of interesting adventure. One week of fun filled customer visits in smog filled Taiwan. Then a follow up vacation in Thailand with virtually no planning on my part. I’m on the verge of complete panic, but I’m keeping it together.
If I get time to chronicle things a bit I’ll post stuff up while on the road. Otherwise, I’ll chat with you (or this log) in March.
I’m out in OK for the weekend for a grandmother’s 80th birthday. For once I chose not to fly AA and I made it here without fear of being denied access to the plane or without waiting for hours in the terminal.
My tradeoff for this trip is that it begins another month of air travel to all kinds of places. And I’m getting over a cold of sorts which has left me with virtually no voice. So I guess I can only type my complaints for now. Joy to you.
A friend invited me to yet another social network, this one called Orkut. So far as I can tell, its a more down to earth Friendster. Time will tell if this becomes another Google juggernaut (the guy who did the site works for Google.
I wonder if these sites really work. Thus far I have a good community on the business minded LinkedIn site, but have only connected with a few folks on there. Will Orkut find me love? I dunno, but I’m willing to bet it will find me some additional inbox spam.
Having just returned from the madness that is CES I can say that there are far more cool must have gizmos out there than I have either time or money to acquire. I have to give special props to my old employer Creative for their new, Microsoft driven portable media center. Time will tell if it is the real deal or just another flash in the pan.
As for me, I’m currently holding out for the DirecTV HD TiVo unit coming in April. At $1K it ain’t cheap, but then again this thing records HDTV and SDTV with 4 tuners. If this doesn’t get me to buy the flat panel HDTV, nothing will.
Oh, and my maybe, sometimes, I wish new car is finally shown: the C6. Mmmm, 400hp.
I’m the first to admit that I play a lot of video games. But now I have a new one that eats up every spare moment: Project Gotham Racing 2. Its not my style at all; driving virtual cars around a track, beating the clock, your own time, or one of several virtual drivers. But this game adds a twist: you can link up with other humans on Xbox Live! (internet gaming) and have a go.
I’ve never laughed so hard in my entire life. 8 people with Ferrari Enzo’s smashing into the same wall at 100+ MPH, screaming and cursing the whole way. It was just too good.
At a friends’ request, I joined a new site called LinkeIn. It’s about contacts, and reaching out to those people’s contacts in order to do business. Looking a bit harder at the news blurbs about the site (and others like them) I wonder if I’ve just signed up (and sent invites to others) to be seriously spammed.
In general, I believe in the idea that “x degrees of seperation” communities will work. I’m just not sure that they can be all business or all personal any more. I have contacts that I work with daily that are both categories, but I wouldn’t think of asking them to pay for the privledge.
I’m sending this quick post from the road in Incline Village (near Tahoe), NV. I’ve just spent the past 3 days skiing until I nearly dropped. Given the ambient temperature (20 F) and the conditions (blinding snow storms and fog) I’ve gotten in some good runs. Pictures to follow later.
In the meantime, enjoy a happy new year. I’ll be crumpled up in a corner somewhere with some Advil 
I spent the last few days assisting some friends of mine work on their house, and I decided to note a few things that are interesting (to me at least):
1. I can still remember how to paint walls w/o wearing as much as I roll on
2. Filling holes and sanding is still not any fun
3. Watch out for bookshelves: some items may shift, could fall, and cause damage to your head
4. Construction dust can and will go everywhere it can, even if you have covers
5. There are never enough hours in the day to get stuff done, nor are there any “on time” schedules or “on budget” projects.
Armed with this information I am now convinced that I should never buy a house, or at least not one that requires so much work. When would I ever have time to sleep?
