Random thoughts, organized and categorized for your consumption.
Rants
If I have a problem with something, here it will be.
Hot and Hot
Aug 17th
I got to spend a birthday in hot and humid Dallas, TX. Working, too, I might add. I had forgotten how much humidity really sucks and I was blissfully reminded of this fact with three days of exposure to it. How the people in the mid-West and South cope with this issue I’ll never know.
I can say that I had also forgotten just how amazing Texas women are. They are beautiful, well dressed, polite, and just the right amount of sass. If only they could be exported to the female starved CA/BA peninsula I’d be set. For now I’ll have More >
Don't Tempt the Reaper
Jul 13th
My hobby reminded me today that it’s all fun and games until someone loses an appendage. In my case it was a slice of my finger and about a pint of blood, according to the bystanders. The prop on one of my planes got two fingers in one pass before I was startled enough to pull them back. I think I’ll be fine again once I get the pain to subside. Oh, and my silver airplane has a nice coat of crimson spots on it now. At least I didn’t lose the fingers… a few others have. Lucky me!
More >The Big Choices
Jun 24th
I’m closing in on a couple of decisions that impact the checkbook in a major way. On top of this I have work going crazy and a bunch of trips coming up. If that weren’t enough I am feeling a bit under the weather. Oh, and T3 opens in a few days. Could it get any more hectic? Really, could it?
Traffic, Heat, and Air travel
May 21st
Having a 5 mile commute to work has its advantages… like not sitting in traffic. Today I had to drive up the peninsula via I-280 to get to Palo Alto. What I got instead of a drive is an extended crawl and park. Now I remember why I didn’t like commuting. Good riddance to that dash dining.
The weather has recently turned warm here. Now by New Orleans standards (I was just there) it isn’t hot, just a comfortable 85F. However, after being in doors all day and coming home to a room full of 83F heat simply isn’t fun. Guess More >
Everything Costs Something
Mar 17th
I spent the day looking at potential places to buy, and what I found was rather shocking. Ranging from “the low end” of around $340K to the upper end of the “high $400’s” I saw a huge swath of places that neither seem to be worth that much nor a good buy. Yet, looking at the housing market, it appears this is really the lower end of the good stuff. Yikes! How can anyone afford to buy stuff any more?
As if that wasn’t enough I decided to fire up Money 2003 and feed it 3 to 4 months of financial More >
Complete and Utter Crap
Mar 3rd
It’s time for companies to fess up to shipping crud. I mean it. Why do I have to spend the better part of two days building a PC from scratch to play with some new software, only to have it crash after 30 mins? And the company responsible for this mess isn’t Microsoft, either. It’s Electronic Arts!
While I’m on the subject, what’s going on with those crazy people overseas? I think it may be time to just pack it all up and bring all of our citizens and troops home. Oh, and we should pull all our money back too. More >
Dodging the Bullet
Feb 14th
Had a close call with near product disaster at work today. Luckily everyone pulled through with nary a scratch. It makes me wonder what really is the meaning of life, and if there is intelligence in the universe.
I wonder this because there certainly isn’t any intelligence in upper management. Who knew?
Public Speaking
Jan 28th
I survived another round of public speaking today. Sure the crowd was small (10 or so folks) and reasonably friendly. Yes, I knew the subject matter (audio on the PC) well. Still, I can’t help but cringe when I know that my entire performance was video taped and will be critiqued by others… an myself. I can’t stand to listen to my own voice, much less see myself on camera. Imagine what watching a technical presentation on video will do to me. I think I’ll go blow some stuff up in Ghost Recon now.
Home Work
Jan 19th
Well, it looks like I spent the day bringing my two home systems back from the dead. The good news is I now have a working .Net server system, a domain, and a working client/game PC again. I also did a load of filing, bill paying, and a lot of laundry. I snuck in some BtVS and CYE as well (two of the most well written shows on TV these days, IMHO)
The bad news is I zipped right past doing the newsletter again. It will happen shortly. I just need to make time for it. Doh!
Cleaning
Jan 18th
I’ve found the yuckiest thing in the whole world: cleaning the bathroom. I don’t know how anybody does this on a sustained basis. I mean, how and where does all the dirt, grime, and other stuff come from? If I smell one more bit of bleach I think I’ll hurl. Guess its time to look into some cleaning staff.