Today I'm thankful for ...
... seeing a friend make some real progress in her life. She's been through a lot and there are still some rough waters ahead. But I think she's starting to get a good grip on life and push herself forward. I try to help where I can, but she's got to do her own thing.
08 August 2008
07 August 2008
06 August 2008
A deeper understanding
Today I'm thankful for ...
... a really good music session tonight. We ran over by a bit but it was good nonetheless. We went through a lot of examples and his feedback on my homework was very helpful. I like the way we kind of wander around topics and just follow the conversation wherever it goes.
... a really good music session tonight. We ran over by a bit but it was good nonetheless. We went through a lot of examples and his feedback on my homework was very helpful. I like the way we kind of wander around topics and just follow the conversation wherever it goes.
05 August 2008
All rowing in the same direction
Today I'm thankful for ...
... lots of good chats recently. I was able to report good progress to one of my managers regarding the synergy of the team. It's nice having a couple of extra very capable hands on deck to push the projects along.
... lots of good chats recently. I was able to report good progress to one of my managers regarding the synergy of the team. It's nice having a couple of extra very capable hands on deck to push the projects along.
04 August 2008
Surprise!
Today I'm thankful for ...
... meeting a cool guy. We celebrated his birthday by all showing up as a surprise squad. The restaurant was a bit crowded, but hey, it's San Francisco!
... meeting a cool guy. We celebrated his birthday by all showing up as a surprise squad. The restaurant was a bit crowded, but hey, it's San Francisco!
03 August 2008
Vrooooooooooooooooom
Today I'm thankful for ...
... having some time to clean. I really needed to do it. I didn't get as far as I'd have liked, but I did whip bits of the apartment into shape. Dishes being a major component!
... having some time to clean. I really needed to do it. I didn't get as far as I'd have liked, but I did whip bits of the apartment into shape. Dishes being a major component!
02 August 2008
Happy gathering
Today I'm thankful for ...
... awesome weather in the South Bay. I went down for a party at a friend's house and we had a great time just hanging out and bringing our food down. Of course it was even better that it was her birthday!
... awesome weather in the South Bay. I went down for a party at a friend's house and we had a great time just hanging out and bringing our food down. Of course it was even better that it was her birthday!
01 August 2008
Even exchange
Today I'm thankful for ...
... not going to New York. As much as I wanted to go with a friend on her extended vacation to New York, I think it was better that I just stayed at home. I had a lot of things to do and quite frankly I'm pooped. She's got bundles of energy and so it's best to let her go off and run at her own pace. Besides, she'll be surrounded by friends ... and pizza!
... not going to New York. As much as I wanted to go with a friend on her extended vacation to New York, I think it was better that I just stayed at home. I had a lot of things to do and quite frankly I'm pooped. She's got bundles of energy and so it's best to let her go off and run at her own pace. Besides, she'll be surrounded by friends ... and pizza!
31 July 2008
Theatrics
Today I'm thankful for ...
... getting a chance to do something fun like going to the theater to help celebrate a friend's birthday. We also got to build cupcake monuments and set things on fire!
... getting a chance to do something fun like going to the theater to help celebrate a friend's birthday. We also got to build cupcake monuments and set things on fire!
26 July 2008
Thawed
Today I'm thankful for ...
... Apple's Time Machine. Oh heck yes.
Yesterday my Parallels installation of Vista bit it hard. And I mean hard. Its virtual hard drive was so corrupt that chkdsk was trying to recover system files. I blame me dropping my laptop last week, but who knows. Anyways, so I've been using Time Machine quite regularly and so I had a backup of the Vista installation. I opened up the archive, scrolled back to July 20, and there it was: the old versions of the virtual machine. So I just copied them back and Vista is back working again. YAY!
... Apple's Time Machine. Oh heck yes.
Yesterday my Parallels installation of Vista bit it hard. And I mean hard. Its virtual hard drive was so corrupt that chkdsk was trying to recover system files. I blame me dropping my laptop last week, but who knows. Anyways, so I've been using Time Machine quite regularly and so I had a backup of the Vista installation. I opened up the archive, scrolled back to July 20, and there it was: the old versions of the virtual machine. So I just copied them back and Vista is back working again. YAY!
17 July 2008
Halt!
Today I'm thankful for ...
... my Mac sleeping nearly instantaneously. I was at a club last night for an event where I needed my Mac. In a dark corner and on a very short table ledge I perched the Mac. After I was done with a quick bit of work I closed the lid and started to turn away from it. At that instant the Mac tipped off the ledge and made a sickening smack on the floor. I turned back just in time to see it land on its bottom side.
Holy crap.
I picked it up and looked for initial damage. The right side received a dent because I had a laptop security cable plugged in it and it must have landed on that first. But then it must have tipped flat and the whole bottom side clattered to the floor about the same time. Other than that there is no visible damage.
I powered it up to find that it was in fine working condition, no screen cracks, no case cracks, no broken keys or trackpad controls. Then the moment of truth: would the Mac's operating system report errors? After logging back into the computer ... it was fine! Yes! It appears that as soon as I shut the lid the drive stopped spinning and so the heads were already parked when the laptop smacked the concrete. I know the Mac has an accelerometer to suspend the disk in a fall, but I think the Mac was already asleep before it hit the ground.
Back at home I ran a disk check and things looked a-OK. Whew. I'm so glad I set the Mac to hibernatemode 0.
... my Mac sleeping nearly instantaneously. I was at a club last night for an event where I needed my Mac. In a dark corner and on a very short table ledge I perched the Mac. After I was done with a quick bit of work I closed the lid and started to turn away from it. At that instant the Mac tipped off the ledge and made a sickening smack on the floor. I turned back just in time to see it land on its bottom side.
Holy crap.
I picked it up and looked for initial damage. The right side received a dent because I had a laptop security cable plugged in it and it must have landed on that first. But then it must have tipped flat and the whole bottom side clattered to the floor about the same time. Other than that there is no visible damage.
I powered it up to find that it was in fine working condition, no screen cracks, no case cracks, no broken keys or trackpad controls. Then the moment of truth: would the Mac's operating system report errors? After logging back into the computer ... it was fine! Yes! It appears that as soon as I shut the lid the drive stopped spinning and so the heads were already parked when the laptop smacked the concrete. I know the Mac has an accelerometer to suspend the disk in a fall, but I think the Mac was already asleep before it hit the ground.
Back at home I ran a disk check and things looked a-OK. Whew. I'm so glad I set the Mac to hibernatemode 0.
16 July 2008
Bigger! Bigger!
Today I'm thankful for ...
... FedEx Kinko's having online printing. I was able to collaborate with my boss on a series of fliers and posters, and we were able to send the job electronically to a 24-hour Kinko's. Better yet, we got the PDFs blown up to 36"x46" size and a series of double-sided fliers were generated too.
... FedEx Kinko's having online printing. I was able to collaborate with my boss on a series of fliers and posters, and we were able to send the job electronically to a 24-hour Kinko's. Better yet, we got the PDFs blown up to 36"x46" size and a series of double-sided fliers were generated too.
15 July 2008
You so smrt
Today I'm thankful for ...
... B knowing how to write Cocoa apps. With his help I was able to put together my very first app for the iPhone. He gave me a quick tour of Xcode, Interface Builder, and showed me how Objective C sends messages. At the end of about an hour we had an interface that was able to hide and reveal a text label, count the number of times that switch was toggled, increment a page counter, toggle a button bar, and increase a progress meter. It may be ugly as heck, but it really helped me understand how this all fits together.
... B knowing how to write Cocoa apps. With his help I was able to put together my very first app for the iPhone. He gave me a quick tour of Xcode, Interface Builder, and showed me how Objective C sends messages. At the end of about an hour we had an interface that was able to hide and reveal a text label, count the number of times that switch was toggled, increment a page counter, toggle a button bar, and increase a progress meter. It may be ugly as heck, but it really helped me understand how this all fits together.
14 July 2008
I love it when a plan comes together
Today I'm thankful for ...
... a wonderful weekend trip. I got home safe and sound pretty much right when I predicted I would. After stepping through my door I plunked down on my couch and reflected on a great visit up north.
... a wonderful weekend trip. I got home safe and sound pretty much right when I predicted I would. After stepping through my door I plunked down on my couch and reflected on a great visit up north.
13 July 2008
Plan B
Today I'm thankful for ...
... not waiting for Cousin B to get off the ferry and skipping dinner with some other relatives. It turns out B was delayed by traffic and a detour the boat needed to make, so she and I were never able to meet up. But Cousin P and husband decided to go out to dinner at a local place instead. It was a nice gathering of 6 of us.
... not waiting for Cousin B to get off the ferry and skipping dinner with some other relatives. It turns out B was delayed by traffic and a detour the boat needed to make, so she and I were never able to meet up. But Cousin P and husband decided to go out to dinner at a local place instead. It was a nice gathering of 6 of us.
12 July 2008
Long time, no see
Today I'm thankful for ...
... mom and dad keeping in touch with their families. It was because of them I was able to get the details on an uncle's 80th birthday. The evening was nothing more than visiting and eating, but it was nice to see us all there to wish D a very wonderful birthday.
... mom and dad keeping in touch with their families. It was because of them I was able to get the details on an uncle's 80th birthday. The evening was nothing more than visiting and eating, but it was nice to see us all there to wish D a very wonderful birthday.
11 July 2008
No thanks, I'm OK
Today I'm thankful for ...
... not having upgraded to the iPhone 2.0 software today. According to what I've read the AT&T servers have been down part of the day. And, since I'm traveling in Canada right now I really don't want to be stranded up here w/out any phone! Besides I'll be back in the US soon and hopefully all the kinks in the activation process will have been ironed out by then.
... not having upgraded to the iPhone 2.0 software today. According to what I've read the AT&T servers have been down part of the day. And, since I'm traveling in Canada right now I really don't want to be stranded up here w/out any phone! Besides I'll be back in the US soon and hopefully all the kinks in the activation process will have been ironed out by then.
10 July 2008
Go go spaghetti power
Today I'm thankful for ...
... only being partially hungry for dinner tonight. It turns out that I had plenty of leftovers. Since I was up late I ended up finishing all of them. It kept me going until about 3am, when my body finally quit out on me.
... only being partially hungry for dinner tonight. It turns out that I had plenty of leftovers. Since I was up late I ended up finishing all of them. It kept me going until about 3am, when my body finally quit out on me.
09 July 2008
Networking
Today I'm thankful for ...
... professionals who know other professionals. My doctor referred me to another person who is pretty awesome.
... professionals who know other professionals. My doctor referred me to another person who is pretty awesome.
08 July 2008
Quick on the draw
Today I'm thankful for ...
... having upgraded to Photoshop CS3. It really is pretty awesome and my boss and I were able to rapidly fix a number of things on an image for marketing within minutes.
... having upgraded to Photoshop CS3. It really is pretty awesome and my boss and I were able to rapidly fix a number of things on an image for marketing within minutes.
07 July 2008
Today I'm thankful for ...
... trying to reinstall iTunes. After doing the Leopard upgrade I noticed the iPhone was not syncing at all. The System Profiler did show the device as being connected, but then looking in the Console log I was seeing:
I searched around for "USBMuxListenerCreate" problems and almost nowhere did I see an appropriate solution. I was just about to give up right now when I decided to try to download iTunes again. And, what do you know? It worked! No problems syncing anymore.
... trying to reinstall iTunes. After doing the Leopard upgrade I noticed the iPhone was not syncing at all. The System Profiler did show the device as being connected, but then looking in the Console log I was seeing:
Jul 7 00:03:48 Xxxxxx [0x0-0x1e01e].com.apple.iTunes[195]: USBMuxListenerCreate: No such file or directoryI searched around for "USBMuxListenerCreate" problems and almost nowhere did I see an appropriate solution. I was just about to give up right now when I decided to try to download iTunes again. And, what do you know? It worked! No problems syncing anymore.
06 July 2008
SuperDuper saves the day ... again
Today I'm thankful for ...
... SuperDuper. This Mac OS X Tiger to Leopard upgrade sucked beyond belief. The problem: my Macbook Pro had an Apple Partition Table on it when Leopard requires a GUID Partition Table.
(I don't know if it was because this is the new 250 GB hard drive I put in recently and it may have been defaulted to the Apple Partition Table.)
So after backing up my drive to an external HDD in a USB enclosure, I went about trying to upgrade the computer. That's when it put up the error message that my computer's HDD did not have a GUID Partition Table. Well, the problem here is that to change the partitioning to the GUID way requires blanking the hard drive. Which means you have to move all the data off, then back again---to my knowledge. What complicated this is that even though SuperDuper made a bootable copy of Tiger on the external HDD, it's a USB 2.0 enclosure! And booting off of the Leopard install disk didn't let me access the USB device.
So I was in trouble yesterday after having switched my Macbook's HDD to the GUID, but my data lived off on the unreachable external drive. I ended up at Best Buy and found a Western Digital MyBook drive. When I finally got home late I was able to use the Leopard install disk to make the MyBook drive the bootable startup disk. Then running that I was able to reinstall SuperDuper and copy everything off the USB external drive back to the Macbook, and then I was able to rerun the Leopard install on the Macbook as an upgrade, not a fresh install.
Whew.
All told the time expenditure went something like this:
Of course, that doesn't include the extra time required to do all the system updates.
I'm exhausted.
... SuperDuper. This Mac OS X Tiger to Leopard upgrade sucked beyond belief. The problem: my Macbook Pro had an Apple Partition Table on it when Leopard requires a GUID Partition Table.
(I don't know if it was because this is the new 250 GB hard drive I put in recently and it may have been defaulted to the Apple Partition Table.)
So after backing up my drive to an external HDD in a USB enclosure, I went about trying to upgrade the computer. That's when it put up the error message that my computer's HDD did not have a GUID Partition Table. Well, the problem here is that to change the partitioning to the GUID way requires blanking the hard drive. Which means you have to move all the data off, then back again---to my knowledge. What complicated this is that even though SuperDuper made a bootable copy of Tiger on the external HDD, it's a USB 2.0 enclosure! And booting off of the Leopard install disk didn't let me access the USB device.
So I was in trouble yesterday after having switched my Macbook's HDD to the GUID, but my data lived off on the unreachable external drive. I ended up at Best Buy and found a Western Digital MyBook drive. When I finally got home late I was able to use the Leopard install disk to make the MyBook drive the bootable startup disk. Then running that I was able to reinstall SuperDuper and copy everything off the USB external drive back to the Macbook, and then I was able to rerun the Leopard install on the Macbook as an upgrade, not a fresh install.
Whew.
All told the time expenditure went something like this:
- Back up the Macbook to the external USB HDD via Super Duper: 5.25 hours
- Install Leopard on the MyBook drive: 35 minutes
- Copy all data back from the external USB HDD to the Macbook HDD: 3.5 hours
- Upgrade the Macbook Tiger to Leopard: 1 hour
Of course, that doesn't include the extra time required to do all the system updates.
I'm exhausted.
05 July 2008
We want to dance like crazy
Today I'm thankful for ...
... being introduced to the Red Elvises band. While almost every song has to do with drinking, they are very fun to listen to and put on a great show. Go see them!
... being introduced to the Red Elvises band. While almost every song has to do with drinking, they are very fun to listen to and put on a great show. Go see them!
04 July 2008
Give it more gas
Today I'm thankful for ...
... B not destroying my car's transmission. He learned how to drive my stickshift MINI today. We did a full hour's worth of lessons in the morning where I taught him about my "coasting" technique. He picked up the shifting thing really quickly and even got to do some extended highway/city driving. He only stalled out a few times, too.
Before he got in my car he had told me that he would never really consider driving a manual. I'm hoping this will change his mind!
... B not destroying my car's transmission. He learned how to drive my stickshift MINI today. We did a full hour's worth of lessons in the morning where I taught him about my "coasting" technique. He picked up the shifting thing really quickly and even got to do some extended highway/city driving. He only stalled out a few times, too.
Before he got in my car he had told me that he would never really consider driving a manual. I'm hoping this will change his mind!
03 July 2008
Dance all night
Today I'm thankful for ...
... another really good after-work jam session with the boss. He and I laid down an hour-long set of good music and it was recorded. I've already listened to a little bit of it and it's actually really good.
... another really good after-work jam session with the boss. He and I laid down an hour-long set of good music and it was recorded. I've already listened to a little bit of it and it's actually really good.
02 July 2008
Don't give up
Today I'm thankful for ...
... not giving up on going to tonight's photography meetup. I was really late getting there because of the baseball game, and there was no parking nearby. But I found a spot a few MUNI stops away and rode the train over. It turned to be an awesome meeting where I got some pointers on how to better photograph the products I'm shooting right now. There's a few pieces of equipment I need to get and that should totally improve the quality of the shots.
... not giving up on going to tonight's photography meetup. I was really late getting there because of the baseball game, and there was no parking nearby. But I found a spot a few MUNI stops away and rode the train over. It turned to be an awesome meeting where I got some pointers on how to better photograph the products I'm shooting right now. There's a few pieces of equipment I need to get and that should totally improve the quality of the shots.
01 July 2008
WALL-E!!!!!!!
Today I'm thankful for ...
... everyone that was able to go to the showing of WALL-E. There must have been at least 9 of us.
... everyone that was able to go to the showing of WALL-E. There must have been at least 9 of us.
30 June 2008
Better progress
Today I'm thankful for ...
... making more progress on a very annoying project. A simple system has turned into an ugly hairy mess of programming. :( But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel---and I'm sure it's not a muzzle flash.
... making more progress on a very annoying project. A simple system has turned into an ugly hairy mess of programming. :( But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel---and I'm sure it's not a muzzle flash.
29 June 2008
Air
Today I'm thankful for ...
... being able to breathe easily. I was feeling really sick last Thursday with all the smoke particles in the air. The neighborhood I live in typically gets a lot of fog and the air is fairly heavy especially in the morning. Last Thursday the air was so thick and disgusting I was lightheaded just walking to my car.
Today was the first day in recent memory I felt I could breathe.
... being able to breathe easily. I was feeling really sick last Thursday with all the smoke particles in the air. The neighborhood I live in typically gets a lot of fog and the air is fairly heavy especially in the morning. Last Thursday the air was so thick and disgusting I was lightheaded just walking to my car.
Today was the first day in recent memory I felt I could breathe.
28 June 2008
Flexibility
Today I'm thankful for ...
... B being flexible. We swapped plans around so we could stay at my place last night. That way we'd be able to take the train down to the SF Pride parade route. That was cool of him.
... B being flexible. We swapped plans around so we could stay at my place last night. That way we'd be able to take the train down to the SF Pride parade route. That was cool of him.
27 June 2008
Progress
Today I'm thankful for ...
... a good bit of progress in the past few days on a project at work. Besides firefighting certain issues I am making really good progress with a games system! It's fun!
... a good bit of progress in the past few days on a project at work. Besides firefighting certain issues I am making really good progress with a games system! It's fun!
26 June 2008
Just swingin' by...
Today I'm thankful for ...
... N having written me e-mail the night before. She was in town for a mini trade show so we got dinner afterwards!
... N having written me e-mail the night before. She was in town for a mini trade show so we got dinner afterwards!
25 June 2008
Um, er, what was that...
Today I'm thankful for ...
... not falling asleep during a talk I went to. I thought it was going to be something more enlightened but it turned out to be more of a list of reasons why school is a good thing for you.
... not falling asleep during a talk I went to. I thought it was going to be something more enlightened but it turned out to be more of a list of reasons why school is a good thing for you.
09 June 2008
That's good hash
Today I'm thankful for ...
... md5 being installed on Macs. I couldn't remember how to get the MD5 checksum/hash of a file so I just typed "md5" on the command line and voilà it worked!
Easy breezy...
... md5 being installed on Macs. I couldn't remember how to get the MD5 checksum/hash of a file so I just typed "md5" on the command line and voilà it worked!
> md5 Adium_1.2.5.dmg
MD5 (Adium_1.2.5.dmg) = 308b1fc45bb441b44fde48c8a0485e79
>
Easy breezy...
05 June 2008
Foodies
Today I'm thankful for ...
... friends that like to try new places. A friend from out-of-town decided we should try out Farina. He's a major foodie---and that's an understatement---and I think tonight's meal met his expectations. He even spoke with the chef for a while. Me, I just go along for the ride.
... friends that like to try new places. A friend from out-of-town decided we should try out Farina. He's a major foodie---and that's an understatement---and I think tonight's meal met his expectations. He even spoke with the chef for a while. Me, I just go along for the ride.
04 June 2008
Smooth sailing
Today I'm thankful for ...
... being in good health. I had my annual check-in with the doctor and we went over my numbers. He noticed high blood pressure, which doesn't surprise me in the least. I've been under a tremendous amount of pressure recently and I've been eating salty foods. But other than that everything else seems to check out neat and square.
... being in good health. I had my annual check-in with the doctor and we went over my numbers. He noticed high blood pressure, which doesn't surprise me in the least. I've been under a tremendous amount of pressure recently and I've been eating salty foods. But other than that everything else seems to check out neat and square.
03 June 2008
Play that funky music, Pt. 2
Today I'm thankful for ...
... getting access to a preview of Doc Pop's latest album: Me Geek Pretty One Day. Check it out!
http://www.drownradio.com/mgpod
... getting access to a preview of Doc Pop's latest album: Me Geek Pretty One Day. Check it out!
http://www.drownradio.com/mgpod
02 June 2008
Play that funky music
Today I'm thankful for ...
... being around people who are super-creative and just awesome artists. One gave me some links to a music competition he organized and it's really interesting with the results: $12 and 12 hours to produce a full CD of at least 6 songs of at least 3 mins each. Whoa!
... being around people who are super-creative and just awesome artists. One gave me some links to a music competition he organized and it's really interesting with the results: $12 and 12 hours to produce a full CD of at least 6 songs of at least 3 mins each. Whoa!
01 June 2008
31 May 2008
Sleep is golden
Today I'm thankful for ...
... not promising anyone we'd be anywhere at any particular time today. It was lazy lazy lazy.
... not promising anyone we'd be anywhere at any particular time today. It was lazy lazy lazy.
30 May 2008
Me time
Today I'm thankful for ...
... things working out so I had a little time to myself to unwind. Everyone left from work about 6:30p today so I plugged in the guitar and rocked out for a while with the drum machine. It's weird playing my own guitar...the feel of it is so different than my other colleague's. I think I need to lower the action a little so I can move a little faster up the scales---or I need to have callouses on my left hand so the strings don't sink in as much.
... things working out so I had a little time to myself to unwind. Everyone left from work about 6:30p today so I plugged in the guitar and rocked out for a while with the drum machine. It's weird playing my own guitar...the feel of it is so different than my other colleague's. I think I need to lower the action a little so I can move a little faster up the scales---or I need to have callouses on my left hand so the strings don't sink in as much.
29 May 2008
A Thousand Thanks
Today I'm thankful for ...
... the very very nice parking lot guy who reopened the garage exit to let us retrieve our car 8 minutes past closing time. Whew! We tried to tip him too but he wouldn't have any of it...
... the very very nice parking lot guy who reopened the garage exit to let us retrieve our car 8 minutes past closing time. Whew! We tried to tip him too but he wouldn't have any of it...
28 May 2008
Nerds here, nerds there, nerds everywhere
Today I'm thankful for ...
... gatherings like Google I/O. It's nice to know what big companies like Google are doing to try to stay in the developer community. It's fairly clear to me that Google has finally hit that tipping point where they themselves need to solidify their own APIs so they can use them. They have a lot of little projects that have turned into products but each on their own little islands. The first step is to create some congruence in their AJAX APIs and it seems like it's happening. Their RESTful URLs are much more similar than not.
... gatherings like Google I/O. It's nice to know what big companies like Google are doing to try to stay in the developer community. It's fairly clear to me that Google has finally hit that tipping point where they themselves need to solidify their own APIs so they can use them. They have a lot of little projects that have turned into products but each on their own little islands. The first step is to create some congruence in their AJAX APIs and it seems like it's happening. Their RESTful URLs are much more similar than not.
27 May 2008
A little break
Today I'm thankful for ...
... midweek gaming sessions. D had a little game nite at her house---we had talked about going to see a movie but the one we were going to see got horrible reviews. Oh well, at least we got to play Race For The Galaxy. W and I tied for first place at 37 points, but I won because I had more cards.
... midweek gaming sessions. D had a little game nite at her house---we had talked about going to see a movie but the one we were going to see got horrible reviews. Oh well, at least we got to play Race For The Galaxy. W and I tied for first place at 37 points, but I won because I had more cards.
26 May 2008
Lazy drive
Today I'm thankful for ...
... a long, lazy drive back up the coast. I fell asleep again while B took the reins. We finally ended up at his place in the late afternoon so he could watch the game and I could get a little work done. It was a nice way to put our minds back into gear for the week ahead.
... a long, lazy drive back up the coast. I fell asleep again while B took the reins. We finally ended up at his place in the late afternoon so he could watch the game and I could get a little work done. It was a nice way to put our minds back into gear for the week ahead.
25 May 2008
El sol
Today I'm thankful for ...
... sunlight. The weather forecast had predicted patches of rain this weekend but it was only overcast down in Carmel. That meant waking up to little beams of sunlight filtering through our hotel window. We didn't have a particular goal today so it was just whatever and whenever. We didn't try to watch the sunset again, but we did get to walk on the sand and spend time just sitting in the light breeze.
... sunlight. The weather forecast had predicted patches of rain this weekend but it was only overcast down in Carmel. That meant waking up to little beams of sunlight filtering through our hotel window. We didn't have a particular goal today so it was just whatever and whenever. We didn't try to watch the sunset again, but we did get to walk on the sand and spend time just sitting in the light breeze.
24 May 2008
It's Saturday
Today I'm thankful for ...
... B doing the driving. I conked out in the passenger seat in the warm sun as we drove down the coast. When we finally arrived in Carmel it was about dinner time. Perfect. We got to eat outdoors and ended up at a cafe eating filet mignon. Mmm. A bit too much meat for me but it was really tasty.
... B doing the driving. I conked out in the passenger seat in the warm sun as we drove down the coast. When we finally arrived in Carmel it was about dinner time. Perfect. We got to eat outdoors and ended up at a cafe eating filet mignon. Mmm. A bit too much meat for me but it was really tasty.
23 May 2008
Local bars
Today I'm thankful for ...
... local little bars. A few of us hit up Jade on Gough to try more of their very tasty Jade Cocktail. Girly or not, I think most people can agree it's tasty.
... local little bars. A few of us hit up Jade on Gough to try more of their very tasty Jade Cocktail. Girly or not, I think most people can agree it's tasty.
22 May 2008
Kick my butt, please
Today I'm thankful for ...
... friends who keep pressuring me to produce things. I instructed someone to keep verbally kicking my butt until I produce the website the two of us are meant to put out. It's really a question of me following through.
... friends who keep pressuring me to produce things. I instructed someone to keep verbally kicking my butt until I produce the website the two of us are meant to put out. It's really a question of me following through.
21 May 2008
Solitude
Today I'm thankful for ...
... being in my own little apartment. Sometimes I like having people around, but on late nights like these I like being able to wander freely and do whatever I want. No waiting for the TV or for the bathroom. I can stumble into the kitchen for a late night snack w/out worrying about waking other people up. I don't have to worry about anyone drinking all my alcohol either. (Sorry, everyone needs their creature comforts.)
... being in my own little apartment. Sometimes I like having people around, but on late nights like these I like being able to wander freely and do whatever I want. No waiting for the TV or for the bathroom. I can stumble into the kitchen for a late night snack w/out worrying about waking other people up. I don't have to worry about anyone drinking all my alcohol either. (Sorry, everyone needs their creature comforts.)
20 May 2008
Best. Death. Ever.
Today I'm thankful for ...
... actually sitting through a screening of the English-dubbed version of Deathnote, the live action movie. I wouldn't say it was a horrible movie nor was the voice acting bad. No, it's just one of those things that I don't think translated that well in a dubbed format on the big screen. I can totally see how this would make a compelling comic or anime series---I haven't seen either of the two but I've heard they're good. It's just that when live actors try to do something like this it just feels a bit corny.
... actually sitting through a screening of the English-dubbed version of Deathnote, the live action movie. I wouldn't say it was a horrible movie nor was the voice acting bad. No, it's just one of those things that I don't think translated that well in a dubbed format on the big screen. I can totally see how this would make a compelling comic or anime series---I haven't seen either of the two but I've heard they're good. It's just that when live actors try to do something like this it just feels a bit corny.
19 May 2008
I haven't given up
Today I'm thankful for ...
... not giving up. Not giving in. Not letting my dreams wither and die along the side of the highway of life. We move so fast, sometimes caught up in the rush of doing everything else for our bosses, our families, our communities, that we forget to make time for ourselves and our dreams. This is not to say that we ignore our responsibilities, but that we make room in our lives for them and make our happiness a priority. I'm making my happiness and time a priority and I think I'm beginning to make headway with it.
... not giving up. Not giving in. Not letting my dreams wither and die along the side of the highway of life. We move so fast, sometimes caught up in the rush of doing everything else for our bosses, our families, our communities, that we forget to make time for ourselves and our dreams. This is not to say that we ignore our responsibilities, but that we make room in our lives for them and make our happiness a priority. I'm making my happiness and time a priority and I think I'm beginning to make headway with it.
18 May 2008
Shoot steady
Today I'm thankful for ...
... a little miracle. B's team pulled off a couple of wins today and this puts them in good standing in their tournament. Yay!
... a little miracle. B's team pulled off a couple of wins today and this puts them in good standing in their tournament. Yay!
17 May 2008
Thank you for ... you
Today I'm thankful for ...
... B being totally awesome. For making reservations at a wonderful restaurant. For getting us great tickets to a fun Latin jazz show. And for being the gentleman he is. I'm so grateful.
... B being totally awesome. For making reservations at a wonderful restaurant. For getting us great tickets to a fun Latin jazz show. And for being the gentleman he is. I'm so grateful.
16 May 2008
Honesty is the best policy
Today I'm thankful for ...
... being able to playtest the latest round of the card game with another group of friends who aren't normally card game players. They came up with a lot of good suggestions!
... being able to playtest the latest round of the card game with another group of friends who aren't normally card game players. They came up with a lot of good suggestions!
15 May 2008
Tick tock
Today I'm thankful for ...
... being able to rush-print another deck of cards for the game tomorrow. Ugh, so much time is needed to make these things work just right! But at least now the cards are bridge card size, the fonts are much cleaner, and the instructions are more succinct.
... being able to rush-print another deck of cards for the game tomorrow. Ugh, so much time is needed to make these things work just right! But at least now the cards are bridge card size, the fonts are much cleaner, and the instructions are more succinct.
14 May 2008
Caffeine
Today I'm thankful for ...
... vast quantities of caffeine in warm tea keeping me powered up as I spend all night the office getting work done!
... vast quantities of caffeine in warm tea keeping me powered up as I spend all night the office getting work done!
13 May 2008
Easy in, easy out
Today I'm thankful for ...
... a quick exam at the doc's. This was my follow up appointment for my back issues. Plus I got my blood drawn for an upcoming physical. Yay. I like staying healthy.
... a quick exam at the doc's. This was my follow up appointment for my back issues. Plus I got my blood drawn for an upcoming physical. Yay. I like staying healthy.
12 May 2008
Hard stop
Today I'm thankful for ...
... getting on the early train. I got to dinner early, though E beat me to the restaurant. We had a really laid-back dinner early because I needed to be sure I stopped eating by 9 PM so I could fast for tomorrow's doc's appointment. The Mediterranean food was delish!
... getting on the early train. I got to dinner early, though E beat me to the restaurant. We had a really laid-back dinner early because I needed to be sure I stopped eating by 9 PM so I could fast for tomorrow's doc's appointment. The Mediterranean food was delish!
11 May 2008
Awwwww
Today I'm thankful for ...
... Mom being in good health and spirits. I'm so glad she's doing alright. When your parents get older you start worrying about them...
... Mom being in good health and spirits. I'm so glad she's doing alright. When your parents get older you start worrying about them...
10 May 2008
Fwends
Today I'm thankful for ...
... awesome friends. We all went a clubhouse today to just have a good time. It was a great gathering of friends, some old and some I would meet for the first time. The food was great, but I think I had way too much sugar!
... awesome friends. We all went a clubhouse today to just have a good time. It was a great gathering of friends, some old and some I would meet for the first time. The food was great, but I think I had way too much sugar!
09 May 2008
Sabotaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggggggge!
Today I'm thankful for ...
... Rock Band! Of coruse, B got to try his hand at Sabotage. But he is still recovering from the flu, so he wasn't giving it his all tonight.
... Rock Band! Of coruse, B got to try his hand at Sabotage. But he is still recovering from the flu, so he wasn't giving it his all tonight.
08 May 2008
Pearly whites
Today I'm thankful for ...
... a great dentist. I love them. They keep my teeth clean and white. :)
... a great dentist. I love them. They keep my teeth clean and white. :)
07 May 2008
Long time no see
Today I'm thankful for ...
... keeping in touch with old friends. We hit up a dive bar in the FiDi and chatted for a while. I had a really salty martini. Ick. Of course what did I have for dinner when I went home? Mexican. Yeah, I'm crazy like that.
... keeping in touch with old friends. We hit up a dive bar in the FiDi and chatted for a while. I had a really salty martini. Ick. Of course what did I have for dinner when I went home? Mexican. Yeah, I'm crazy like that.
06 May 2008
Mmm mmm ... ick
Today I'm thankful for ...
... not gagging at the amount of batter I ate. There was a special fish and chips place we went to tonight that serves them battered with cornmeal. It was crispy tasty but let me tell you that it was FILLING and GREASY. OMG, so much fat and grease! I'm glad I don't eat this stuff every day.
... not gagging at the amount of batter I ate. There was a special fish and chips place we went to tonight that serves them battered with cornmeal. It was crispy tasty but let me tell you that it was FILLING and GREASY. OMG, so much fat and grease! I'm glad I don't eat this stuff every day.
05 May 2008
Zzzz!
Today I'm thankful for ...
... getting good sleep. I thought I had a bit of a relapse today but it turns out not to be a big deal. Things are fine.
... getting good sleep. I thought I had a bit of a relapse today but it turns out not to be a big deal. Things are fine.
04 May 2008
Well done
Today I'm thankful for ...
... a good playtesting session today. D and I played our little card game we've been developing and it was warmly received. We split up into two games and so we had two game boards going at the same time! We ended up staying really late at the party, pretty much to the end. I learned a couple new games and I hope to play them again soon!
... a good playtesting session today. D and I played our little card game we've been developing and it was warmly received. We split up into two games and so we had two game boards going at the same time! We ended up staying really late at the party, pretty much to the end. I learned a couple new games and I hope to play them again soon!
03 May 2008
Laser harps and drivable muffins
Today I'm thankful for ...
... being in the Bay Area, where being a nerd is celebrated. I went to Maker Faire with B and a couple of other friends. It was a blast. I still haven't had a chance to download my pictures yet but it was a trip to see what people do with their spare time. The Eepy Bird professors showed up, the Diet Coke + Mentos people. They're even selling nozzle kits. :)
... being in the Bay Area, where being a nerd is celebrated. I went to Maker Faire with B and a couple of other friends. It was a blast. I still haven't had a chance to download my pictures yet but it was a trip to see what people do with their spare time. The Eepy Bird professors showed up, the Diet Coke + Mentos people. They're even selling nozzle kits. :)
02 May 2008
Aaaa!!! Okaeri nasai ne!!!!!
Today I'm thankful for ...
... still being in contact with friends in Japan. One was visiting and came by the South Bay. I haven't seen her in like 15 years. I barely recognized her because she grew her hair out. But, man, she's like completely crazy. She's probably a smidge older than me and parties like she's still in her teens. She goes drinking almost every night and still looks waifish thin! How does she do it?! Anyways, we caught up on all sorts of things like the fact she's married and in Tokyo. Cool. I hope to visit her one day!
... still being in contact with friends in Japan. One was visiting and came by the South Bay. I haven't seen her in like 15 years. I barely recognized her because she grew her hair out. But, man, she's like completely crazy. She's probably a smidge older than me and parties like she's still in her teens. She goes drinking almost every night and still looks waifish thin! How does she do it?! Anyways, we caught up on all sorts of things like the fact she's married and in Tokyo. Cool. I hope to visit her one day!
01 May 2008
30 April 2008
Slogging through
Today I'm thankful for ...
... having a productive work day. Sometimes it's really good just to get down and power-code.
... having a productive work day. Sometimes it's really good just to get down and power-code.
29 April 2008
All together now
Today I'm thankful for ...
... Google Docs. Granted, this stuff was absorbed from Writely, but I think it's working pretty well. D and I are organizing our documents online and we have a lot of really good ideas coming together. I think this crazy venture of ours will work out just fine. And having the documents online makes it all that much easier to collaborate.
... Google Docs. Granted, this stuff was absorbed from Writely, but I think it's working pretty well. D and I are organizing our documents online and we have a lot of really good ideas coming together. I think this crazy venture of ours will work out just fine. And having the documents online makes it all that much easier to collaborate.
28 April 2008
No pain, no ... pain!
Today I'm thankful for ...
... this is Day 3 of Prednisone. I think it's working. Really working. I had solid sleep this weekend and I'm feeling peppy. Thank goodness.
... this is Day 3 of Prednisone. I think it's working. Really working. I had solid sleep this weekend and I'm feeling peppy. Thank goodness.
27 April 2008
You still there?
Today I'm thankful for ...
... good friends who don't drift too far. I moved to the City, she got a full-time job. But we still keep in touch. Yay. She came up to the City and we did the dinner thing. :)
... good friends who don't drift too far. I moved to the City, she got a full-time job. But we still keep in touch. Yay. She came up to the City and we did the dinner thing. :)
26 April 2008
New faces
Today I'm thankful for ...
... meeting new people. B had a few friends getting together for a reunion of sorts, so we headed to E Tutto Qua in North Beach.
... meeting new people. B had a few friends getting together for a reunion of sorts, so we headed to E Tutto Qua in North Beach.
25 April 2008
And ... that's a wrap!
Today I'm thankful for ...
... finishing out another week. It has been a bit of a struggle getting things done at work but progress has been made.
... finishing out another week. It has been a bit of a struggle getting things done at work but progress has been made.
24 April 2008
Docs in the cloud
Today I'm thankful for ...
... Google Docs. It's so much better to coordinate things when everyone can see them at the same time. Hooray for online document systems.
... Google Docs. It's so much better to coordinate things when everyone can see them at the same time. Hooray for online document systems.
23 April 2008
Polly wants a song, Polly wants a song
Today I'm thankful for ...
... iTunes' duplicate detection. I'm merging all of my music onto my little laptop's hard drive which doubled in size recently. As a result there are a bazillion duplicates since I'm copying several backups en masse to it. But there's a little menu option in iTunes now that lets me manage this mess. Yay.
... iTunes' duplicate detection. I'm merging all of my music onto my little laptop's hard drive which doubled in size recently. As a result there are a bazillion duplicates since I'm copying several backups en masse to it. But there's a little menu option in iTunes now that lets me manage this mess. Yay.
22 April 2008
Home print shop
Today I'm thankful for ...
... technology being at the point one can run a fairly professional design studio right from their home office. I'm impressed that the quality of home equipment today means crisp, clear, vibrant printing and software that can run on a laptop. Without the project D and I are working on would never have a chance of getting done on a zero budget.
... technology being at the point one can run a fairly professional design studio right from their home office. I'm impressed that the quality of home equipment today means crisp, clear, vibrant printing and software that can run on a laptop. Without the project D and I are working on would never have a chance of getting done on a zero budget.
21 April 2008
Would. You. Like. To. Play. A. Game?
Today I'm thankful for ...
... how about global thermonuclear war? No, let's not. Let's just have a friendly gaming session with a bunch of people that like the same thing. Let's meet in a cafe in San Francisco, where there are lots of other people who want to meet too!
... how about global thermonuclear war? No, let's not. Let's just have a friendly gaming session with a bunch of people that like the same thing. Let's meet in a cafe in San Francisco, where there are lots of other people who want to meet too!
20 April 2008
Lazy Sundays
Today I'm thankful for ...
... not completely committing myself to be anywhere today. I was thinking about making it down to a BBQ in the South Bay but I realized that I really needed to do things like laundry.
... not completely committing myself to be anywhere today. I was thinking about making it down to a BBQ in the South Bay but I realized that I really needed to do things like laundry.
19 April 2008
Mr. West
Today I'm thankful for ...
... a good concert down at the HP Pavilion, even it was a little hard to hear Kanye's words sometimes. It's the venue---I hate the acoustics there. But Kanye put on a good show.
... a good concert down at the HP Pavilion, even it was a little hard to hear Kanye's words sometimes. It's the venue---I hate the acoustics there. But Kanye put on a good show.
18 April 2008
Just chillin'
Today I'm thankful for ...
... being at this place in my life where things seem to be headed in a positive direction. It has been a long road. Of course, who knows what's next around the corner but I do give thanks.
... being at this place in my life where things seem to be headed in a positive direction. It has been a long road. Of course, who knows what's next around the corner but I do give thanks.
17 April 2008
Ikuzooooooooo!
Today I'm thankful for ...
... having watched anime for many years. It explains the weirdness in some Japanese movies. Really, what is up with Casshern? Its plot doesn't necessarily have holes but rather continuity problems. It jumps around a bit and there are a few places where the audience just has to believe that a bolt of lightning really can change the world. Oh, and it helps to know something about how spirits from dead bodies can visibly rise and coalesce into a blinding white light.
Speaking of Japanese, my Sony Playstation 3's Blu-Ray drive died. Yeah. The PS3 might not have the "red rings of death" but the more subtle I'm-not-going-to-read-you-disc problem. My old PS2 had a problem where if you played it long enough the discs would stop being able to be read---some overheating problem causing the laser lens to get misaligned I think. It sucks too. I had just gotten the PS3 about 3 weeks prior. But, fortunately I have the Best Buy electronics protection thing so I waltzed in to the store and they exchanged it, no questions asked.
... having watched anime for many years. It explains the weirdness in some Japanese movies. Really, what is up with Casshern? Its plot doesn't necessarily have holes but rather continuity problems. It jumps around a bit and there are a few places where the audience just has to believe that a bolt of lightning really can change the world. Oh, and it helps to know something about how spirits from dead bodies can visibly rise and coalesce into a blinding white light.
Speaking of Japanese, my Sony Playstation 3's Blu-Ray drive died. Yeah. The PS3 might not have the "red rings of death" but the more subtle I'm-not-going-to-read-you-disc problem. My old PS2 had a problem where if you played it long enough the discs would stop being able to be read---some overheating problem causing the laser lens to get misaligned I think. It sucks too. I had just gotten the PS3 about 3 weeks prior. But, fortunately I have the Best Buy electronics protection thing so I waltzed in to the store and they exchanged it, no questions asked.
16 April 2008
Rabbit food
Today I'm thankful for ...
... places like Herbivore that serve vegan food that tastes awesome. I don't know why people have to make fake meat products when you can have really tasty dishes made from veggies. Seriously, I had one of the most awesome strawberry shakes---and there was no milk in it!
... places like Herbivore that serve vegan food that tastes awesome. I don't know why people have to make fake meat products when you can have really tasty dishes made from veggies. Seriously, I had one of the most awesome strawberry shakes---and there was no milk in it!
15 April 2008
Calm seas
Today I'm thankful for ...
... being able to get back on a pretty regular sleeping/eating schedule again.
... being able to get back on a pretty regular sleeping/eating schedule again.
14 April 2008
The man of many voices
Today I'm thankful for ...
... being told about the Robin Williams show at Bimbos 365 club. He is doing a very limited show---two shows---called "Working on Material". And, yes, he's working on material.
A friend got in touch with me over the weekend saying that tickets would go on sale Friday at 12:00 PM. I synchronized my clocks and started clicking away just before the stroke of 12:00 PM. A few minutes later I had a completed order for the tickets! (Apparently they sold out within a couple of minutes.) She was ecstatic to hear the news!
We met up Monday evening about 6-ish and she was already in line. I ran to get the tickets from willcall and back to her. We got a table about 4 rows back from the stage and it was great viewing. A couple we met in line ended up being our tablemates too.
Robin was as crazy as ever, although I would say he is looking a lot older these days. But he still has bountiful energy.
... being told about the Robin Williams show at Bimbos 365 club. He is doing a very limited show---two shows---called "Working on Material". And, yes, he's working on material.
A friend got in touch with me over the weekend saying that tickets would go on sale Friday at 12:00 PM. I synchronized my clocks and started clicking away just before the stroke of 12:00 PM. A few minutes later I had a completed order for the tickets! (Apparently they sold out within a couple of minutes.) She was ecstatic to hear the news!
We met up Monday evening about 6-ish and she was already in line. I ran to get the tickets from willcall and back to her. We got a table about 4 rows back from the stage and it was great viewing. A couple we met in line ended up being our tablemates too.
Robin was as crazy as ever, although I would say he is looking a lot older these days. But he still has bountiful energy.
13 April 2008
Power up
Today I'm thankful for ...
... Red Bull and warm tea. After dillydallying most of the day, I finally got down to get some work done. (I had planned to work the entire day but due to mitigating circumstances I got home later than expected. However, I finally hit that zone of pure focus about midnight and by 1 AM I was definitely rockin' the keyboard. Bursts of caffeine kept me up (and warm) as I coded until about 6 AM. Then I had to finally convince myself that any amount of sleep would be better than none. After all, I had Robin Williams tickets for Monday night.
... Red Bull and warm tea. After dillydallying most of the day, I finally got down to get some work done. (I had planned to work the entire day but due to mitigating circumstances I got home later than expected. However, I finally hit that zone of pure focus about midnight and by 1 AM I was definitely rockin' the keyboard. Bursts of caffeine kept me up (and warm) as I coded until about 6 AM. Then I had to finally convince myself that any amount of sleep would be better than none. After all, I had Robin Williams tickets for Monday night.
12 April 2008
Here comes the sun
Today I'm thankful for ...
... gloriously beautiful weather in San Francisco today. I'm tired of the freezing cold weather. Not that I don't expect the chilly nights out here at the tip of the Peninsula, but lately it has been wool coat weather. I mean, really. It's April. Sure Steinbeck said the coldest winter he'd experienced was a summer in SF, but geez.
Today B and I walked around Yerba Buena Gardens after checking out the Cartoon Art Museum. Each of us had gotten a book and so we sat in the dimming afternoon sun over the park with a light breeze. It was perfect.
... gloriously beautiful weather in San Francisco today. I'm tired of the freezing cold weather. Not that I don't expect the chilly nights out here at the tip of the Peninsula, but lately it has been wool coat weather. I mean, really. It's April. Sure Steinbeck said the coldest winter he'd experienced was a summer in SF, but geez.
Today B and I walked around Yerba Buena Gardens after checking out the Cartoon Art Museum. Each of us had gotten a book and so we sat in the dimming afternoon sun over the park with a light breeze. It was perfect.
11 April 2008
Daddy Dearest
Today I'm thankful for ...
... chilling with the Dad. I got up late and walked down to the back patio. Dad was sitting there looking at some paintings he's working on. Sure I had promised Mom I'd get some dusting done and maybe even polish her teak cabinets. But Dad and I got to talking for a while. It's good catching up with him and I learn a little bit more about him every time I talk to him. He doesn't say much about his life, so it took a lot of prying to figure out where and when he went to school, who were the people he knew, where he went driving in his car, etc.
Mom is similar too. I never got to know her mom (my maternal grandmother) because she passed away when I was really young. I asked about what she was like. Of course my Mom said "oh she was normal" or things she did were "just regular". But I have no context what that really means. I asked if she was boisterous or quiet, if she was into cooking or arts and crafts. I got a few answers but they're still pretty foggy. I haven't even really seen pictures of her.
Also, credit needs to be given to Super Duper, the awesome backup/copy program for Macs. I'm definitely registering this bad boy. Going from my 120 GB HDD to a new 250 GB HDD was so painless it's crazy! I was dreading the upgrade because I've been through it before where you have to reinstall everything. Unless the drives would be an exact image (e.g. same size) I was thinking that I'd have to go through a backup, reinstall, and transfer process. However, Super Duper creates bootable clones of your hard drive and does it on a file-by-file level. So, no downtime! Yay! So if you ever need to upgrade your Mac's hard drives, definitely give Super Duper a shot!
... chilling with the Dad. I got up late and walked down to the back patio. Dad was sitting there looking at some paintings he's working on. Sure I had promised Mom I'd get some dusting done and maybe even polish her teak cabinets. But Dad and I got to talking for a while. It's good catching up with him and I learn a little bit more about him every time I talk to him. He doesn't say much about his life, so it took a lot of prying to figure out where and when he went to school, who were the people he knew, where he went driving in his car, etc.
Mom is similar too. I never got to know her mom (my maternal grandmother) because she passed away when I was really young. I asked about what she was like. Of course my Mom said "oh she was normal" or things she did were "just regular". But I have no context what that really means. I asked if she was boisterous or quiet, if she was into cooking or arts and crafts. I got a few answers but they're still pretty foggy. I haven't even really seen pictures of her.
Also, credit needs to be given to Super Duper, the awesome backup/copy program for Macs. I'm definitely registering this bad boy. Going from my 120 GB HDD to a new 250 GB HDD was so painless it's crazy! I was dreading the upgrade because I've been through it before where you have to reinstall everything. Unless the drives would be an exact image (e.g. same size) I was thinking that I'd have to go through a backup, reinstall, and transfer process. However, Super Duper creates bootable clones of your hard drive and does it on a file-by-file level. So, no downtime! Yay! So if you ever need to upgrade your Mac's hard drives, definitely give Super Duper a shot!
10 April 2008
Roll up yer sleeves
Today I'm thankful for ...
... remembering that I had forgotten my Torx T-6 screwdrivers at home. Yeah, that would have made the hard drive replacement impossible. Unfortunately the Macbook Pro has two Torx screws right around the memory compartment. TWO. Just TWO. I mean, really? Really really? Why not just use a standard screw? Maybe it's to deter people from opening up the Macbook Pros casually, but still even the plain Macbook makes hard drive replacement a snap! They even have a pull-tab for it! Anyways, I ran back home after work to get the screwdrivers.
I guess I'm also thankful that I've already been through a hard drive replacement so I knew exactly what to do.
... remembering that I had forgotten my Torx T-6 screwdrivers at home. Yeah, that would have made the hard drive replacement impossible. Unfortunately the Macbook Pro has two Torx screws right around the memory compartment. TWO. Just TWO. I mean, really? Really really? Why not just use a standard screw? Maybe it's to deter people from opening up the Macbook Pros casually, but still even the plain Macbook makes hard drive replacement a snap! They even have a pull-tab for it! Anyways, I ran back home after work to get the screwdrivers.
I guess I'm also thankful that I've already been through a hard drive replacement so I knew exactly what to do.
09 April 2008
What's that smell?
Today I'm thankful for ...
... Yelp.com. Yelp is awesome. They helped me find a very out-of-the-way Mediterranean restaurant in San Mateo, Lahmacun Pizzeria. The food was definitely good. If only their location was better they'd do really well.
... Yelp.com. Yelp is awesome. They helped me find a very out-of-the-way Mediterranean restaurant in San Mateo, Lahmacun Pizzeria. The food was definitely good. If only their location was better they'd do really well.
08 April 2008
Shiny ideas
Today I'm thankful for ...
... being mostly free from bugs at work. After slaving through bugs last week I was able to sit down and plan out a new application for our product. I think it'll work and help us grow.
... being mostly free from bugs at work. After slaving through bugs last week I was able to sit down and plan out a new application for our product. I think it'll work and help us grow.
07 April 2008
Wasaaaaaaaaaaaaap?!
Today I'm thankful for ...
... the fact I still keep in touch with my old roommates. I had received some mail that apparently was not forwarded to my new address. So I picked J up and took him home. I also got to catch up on what's happening with him. That's cool.
... the fact I still keep in touch with my old roommates. I had received some mail that apparently was not forwarded to my new address. So I picked J up and took him home. I also got to catch up on what's happening with him. That's cool.
06 April 2008
Zzzz...
Today I'm thankful for ...
... sleeping in. I haven't done that in a while! Sometimes it's the simple things that matter the most.
... sleeping in. I haven't done that in a while! Sometimes it's the simple things that matter the most.
05 April 2008
Arrrr! Thar be me treasure!
Today I'm thankful for ...
... being shown where the Pirate Store is. It's part of a creative writing workshop center for kids, 826 Valencia. They have all sorts of great gag gifts and other odd things. I guess if you're looking for inspiration, this would be the place! Plus, don't be surprised if you get "mopped". Ask at the counter where you can find out about mopping.
... being shown where the Pirate Store is. It's part of a creative writing workshop center for kids, 826 Valencia. They have all sorts of great gag gifts and other odd things. I guess if you're looking for inspiration, this would be the place! Plus, don't be surprised if you get "mopped". Ask at the counter where you can find out about mopping.
04 April 2008
Beer beer beer beer beer beer beer beer!
Today I'm thankful for ...
... being told about the Asylum Street Spankers. What a weird group! It has a folk feel and there's even a song using the saw. Yes, saw. And throat singing. But they're fun and good musicians. We were also really lucky to get seating in the front row of the chairs section. We had perfect visibility.
... being told about the Asylum Street Spankers. What a weird group! It has a folk feel and there's even a song using the saw. Yes, saw. And throat singing. But they're fun and good musicians. We were also really lucky to get seating in the front row of the chairs section. We had perfect visibility.
03 April 2008
All together now...
Today I'm thankful for ...
... being part of a company that values human relationships. We had the first of our Thursday Hang-Outs and it was just good to kick back outside the office and take down some wine and hors d'oeuvres.
... being part of a company that values human relationships. We had the first of our Thursday Hang-Outs and it was just good to kick back outside the office and take down some wine and hors d'oeuvres.
02 April 2008
Yeah yeah whatever
Today I'm thankful for ...
... being able to see through a personnel issue we're having right now at work. The problem is that I feel like I'm being micromanaged by someone who isn't even my boss. He's literally dictating my work schedule and trying to withhold information from me that he deems not necessary. It's really frustrating working with this individual because he seems to believe he has the correct answers and is in charge of the roadmap. I've been doing a lot of thinking about how to solve this problem because clearly I'm never going to be able to shout louder than him---he'll find a way to out-speak, out-volume, out-maneuver me. It's tricky. So I think I'm going to try a different approach.
I have been trying to analyze the psychology behind his motivations and I'm fairly convinced that he perceives me as being inferior in a number of ways. He may be smarter, true, but that does not give him the right to try to control me. Firstly, we have two totally different roles---he's more of a developer and I'm more of a designer. Secondly, we have a very different range of experiences---he's into very structured programming, I'm into flexibility to accommodate rapid design iterations. Thirdly, we have different working styles---he always works from high priority to low, I work mostly in that order but if I need to take a "break" I'll pick off some low-hanging fruit.
I've boiled it down to an issue of trust. It is my current belief that he doesn't trust me to do the job right or to do the highest priority items first. However, if he would just stop and examine my track record I think he'll find that I always get the job done, on time, and with better results than originally expected. Just because I don't do everything in his manner does not mean I don't have validity. In fact, many of the misunderstandings lately have come as a result of 1) his lack of proper documentation, 2) difficult-to-decipher logic that is overly complex, 3) his lack of visibility into my current task list which includes items not currently in our bug tracking system.
It is now my goal to try to get him to see my perspective so we can work together. I'm composing a very point-by-point based e-mail (which is how he thinks, not how I usually think) to address very specific issues. I'm hoping he'll at least give it a chance.
This has turned out to be a little more of a rant than a mini blog entry but I'm sure that there will be a number of future entries related to this one.
... being able to see through a personnel issue we're having right now at work. The problem is that I feel like I'm being micromanaged by someone who isn't even my boss. He's literally dictating my work schedule and trying to withhold information from me that he deems not necessary. It's really frustrating working with this individual because he seems to believe he has the correct answers and is in charge of the roadmap. I've been doing a lot of thinking about how to solve this problem because clearly I'm never going to be able to shout louder than him---he'll find a way to out-speak, out-volume, out-maneuver me. It's tricky. So I think I'm going to try a different approach.
I have been trying to analyze the psychology behind his motivations and I'm fairly convinced that he perceives me as being inferior in a number of ways. He may be smarter, true, but that does not give him the right to try to control me. Firstly, we have two totally different roles---he's more of a developer and I'm more of a designer. Secondly, we have a very different range of experiences---he's into very structured programming, I'm into flexibility to accommodate rapid design iterations. Thirdly, we have different working styles---he always works from high priority to low, I work mostly in that order but if I need to take a "break" I'll pick off some low-hanging fruit.
I've boiled it down to an issue of trust. It is my current belief that he doesn't trust me to do the job right or to do the highest priority items first. However, if he would just stop and examine my track record I think he'll find that I always get the job done, on time, and with better results than originally expected. Just because I don't do everything in his manner does not mean I don't have validity. In fact, many of the misunderstandings lately have come as a result of 1) his lack of proper documentation, 2) difficult-to-decipher logic that is overly complex, 3) his lack of visibility into my current task list which includes items not currently in our bug tracking system.
It is now my goal to try to get him to see my perspective so we can work together. I'm composing a very point-by-point based e-mail (which is how he thinks, not how I usually think) to address very specific issues. I'm hoping he'll at least give it a chance.
This has turned out to be a little more of a rant than a mini blog entry but I'm sure that there will be a number of future entries related to this one.
01 April 2008
Can you hear me now?
Today I'm thankful for ...
... finding one little spot in the office that was able to connect to our wireless router. We've been having severe networking problems at the office with our wireless connections and because of that I've been holed up in the back part of the office where I could get a WiFi connection. But it's kinda lonely and dark back there. So I found a little spot near the wall today in the main room that I can use with a strong signal. After a little furniture rearranging I'm set up near one of the whiteboards.
Oh, and I also got to see The Boyfriend after a week of being away. Hugs are an awesome thing. Very awesome.
... finding one little spot in the office that was able to connect to our wireless router. We've been having severe networking problems at the office with our wireless connections and because of that I've been holed up in the back part of the office where I could get a WiFi connection. But it's kinda lonely and dark back there. So I found a little spot near the wall today in the main room that I can use with a strong signal. After a little furniture rearranging I'm set up near one of the whiteboards.
Oh, and I also got to see The Boyfriend after a week of being away. Hugs are an awesome thing. Very awesome.
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