I write about myself because I can.

Yearly archives for 2004

Frankly it's Friday

Dec17
2004 Written by Andrew

So yes, here I am again. As you can see, things look a bit different around here. I was having some troubles with the backend of my website, so I decided to just upgrade it to the latest version of the posting software that controls entries, archiving, layout, etc. Specifically, in the battle to prevent comment spam from coming in to my website, I accidently broke the ability to comment altogether. OK, so it wasn’t such an accident, really. I was attempting to install a plugin that would prompt you to post a different six-digit code every time you wanted to post a comment, and when I ran into trouble the plugin’s authors wasn’t exactly forthcoming with his assistance. So I ended up saying “screw it” and scrapping the whole project, but things were already broken.

So I just upgraded versions. I’ll have to redesign the front page, but this is what it looks like by default. And so here I am.

I have much to discuss, really. I haven’t been avoiding posting on my site, just otherwise preoccupied. Frankly, I’ve had a lot of other things on my mind that have filled my time and thoughts and have driven away what desire I had to sit in front of my computer and write, or surf, or whatnot.

The biggest news is that for the last month or so I’ve been seeing a wonderful woman named Erika. She and I met through craigslist, a great Internet catch-all site of classifieds, forums, apartment listings, personals, etc, and after emailing back and forth a bunch of times we met, had dinner and drinks, and sat in the restaurant chatting until they booted us out at 11 PM. Things only got better from there.

As some of you know, this has been a hard year for me. I had a good relationship that I didn’t talk much about end early in the year, and then it wasn’t long after that when my four-year on-again off-again relationship with my college girlfriend Heather came to a close under extremely bad circumstances. I’d prefer not to go into specifics, but she did some things that hurt me a great deal and fundamentally shook what I believed about her after four and a half years of her being my closest friend and someone who I’d been extremely emotionally close to for nearly that long. She and I had an…odd relationship. I think that’s the only way to describe it, really. I was trying to move it out of the odd and into the normal, and she apparently had other things in mind. So it ended up with a long period of time in which I was not very happy at all. I’d lost both my best friend and someone who I was, well, I guess there’s no real harm in saying I was in love with her and had been for a long time, and I thought the same of her, but so that sudden loss really threw me for a loop–no, a series of loops. She hurt me, I was in pain for a long time, now I’m better. I reached out to her on two separate occasions to try and set things right, back to the way I thought they should be, but I didn’t hear a peep back from her until recently when she asked if we could be friends. I politely but firmly said “No thank you.” I guess that was her way of saying “Wow, I really screwed you over.”

Then Erika and I crossed paths, and everything’s been great since then. She’s already met both my parents, and we see each other two or three times during the week and for most of the weekends, too. I’ve taken her to various McMenamins and she knows about my obsession with them–and she’s OK with it! She even likes beer. She and I have been to the Bridgeport Brewery as well as the Bridgeport Ale House (a restaurant on the other side of town), seen a movie at the Baghdad Theater, even watched “Band of Brothers” all the way through. I made her my pasta sauce. I made her my pizza. She goes and jogs with me in the exercise room of my apartment complex. We drink wine and eat cheese together. She wanted to watch Bridget Jones’ Diary and I said yes, so she came over and made crepes for me and we watched a girlie movie. We went to a party together at one of her friends’ apartments (and ran into someone who’s starting here at work in a week). We went to the Holiday Ale Festival downtown. And after all that beer, all those DVDs, and all those McMenamins, she still wants to see me time and again. What a woman! In fact, tonight I’m going over to her new apartment and she’s making dinner for me and then we’re going to watch HER copy of the extended edition of Return of the King that she picked up at 7:30 AM on Tuesday when it was released. Nothing like dinner and a four-and-a-half hour movie to end your week nicely. Then tomorrow night the two of us are meeting my sister and her best friend Jane at the Bridgeport Brewery for one last hurrah of pizza and beer there before they close it down for remodeling for much of this next year, and then back to the apartment for board games and my oh-so-special blender drinks that my college friends came to expect from me on a Friday night. I’m not just making my blender drinks, I’m hauling out all the stops and doing it right.

Yes, Dan, that means real strawberries mixed in. And two-liter bottles of ginger ale scattered around. Then I plan on putting in Moby and The Crystal Method in the CD player and it’ll be like I’m back in college again. I can’t wait!

Work is going vry well. It’s amazing what a positive outlook on things for the first time since–well, joining the firm, considering how down I was since day 1 about non-work things–can do for you. I’ve been working for the last month on a fairly large project all by myself, and it’s supposed to come to a close on January 3, but there’s no way I can see that happening. I’ve uncovered too many critical bugs that our client has to fix before they ship it, and from what I understand they have the next couple of weeks off. So right now my in-house testing is nearly complete with just a couple of things left to fix, and then the rest are all on our client’s shoulders.

I don’t think they’re shipping on January 3. Call it a hunch.

Miscellaneous things are going well, too. I recently set up both my car payments and student loans payments to be able to be paid online, so that will save me some time and effort. In fact, my car payments have dropped a solid $40 in my per-month payments since I started paying them in June or so, so I figure by this time next year they’ll want less than $100/month. By my calculations, I’ll actually pay off my car a full year before I’m scheduled to, which is a great thing. But I’m still paying rent, car payments, student loan payments, buying food, paying my cell phone bill, etc, and I have enough money left over to buy Christmas presents, some new computer stuff in the spring (RAM in January, new motherboard, CPU, case, and video card with my tax refund a bit later), and still manage to pay for dinner when I take my girlfriend out to eat or make her dinner. Not much to sock away in the retirement fund, but enough to live my life the way I want it.

So yeah, I’m pretty happy, emails from ex-girlfriends trying to atone for their past behavior notwithstanding. I thought back as far back as I could, and the last healthy, stable relationship where there wasn’t some amount of cheating, sneaking around, pretending, and full disclosure about things by both parties was back when I was in high school. High school! I’ve dated more women since then than I can count on one hand (and close to needing a third), but I just haven’t had a stable, healthy relationship for a long time. It feels good. I like being an adult and having an adult relationship. I wish I could have done this ages ago.

Anyway, it’s pretty obvious that things are going well for me. It’s even a Friday and my boss is already gone, and I’m looking forward to going home myself and getting going with my awesome weekend. Movies, beer, and blender drinks await me.

Talk to you soon.

Posted in Beer, Erika, Geekery, General, Movies

The list of my life…for a week or so.

Dec06
2004 Written by Andrew

I’m going to do the short version of this as I just can’t find the energy to write. I’ve seen other people do this successfully, so I’ll try my hand at it. I haven’t written much lately, but this is what I’ve ben up to in no particular order except as they come to me.

I…

…went to Ringler’s downtown and had drinks. Twice. In one night. That means two separate checks, though I didn’t leave the building between sessions.
…returned to the Bridgeport Brewery for what will likely be the last or second-to-past time before they close for a ten-month renovation period starting late this month.
…ate Chinese food at a place far too nice for my own good. As a side note, “Chinese food” and “chic” should never belong in adjectives describing the same place.
…went to the Holiday Ale Festival downtown and fought crowds to stand in line for 26 different kinds of beer, though I was only able to try three because 5-10 minute lines weren’t all that exciting.
…ate a Magma Dog with grilled onions, peppers, and garlic at Good Dog, Bad Dog and got the last half-pint of beer in the restaurant.
…was unintentionally party to a friend’s car getting towed downtown and the resulting $140 towing fee and $40 ticket.
…went out to a birthday party where I knew only one guest and the birthday individual only a little bit.
…had coffee for the first time in months.
…started watching “Band of Brothers” for the fifth time.
…made the most expensive pizza I’ve ever made by far, with the grocery bill for the one evening’s meal clocking in at $54. The $4.13 red bell pepper was the lynchpin of this travesty since they were retailing for $7.99/pound.
…bought a six-pack each of Newcastle Brown Ale and Bass Ale and drank them (the beer, not the whole six-packs) in Newcastle Brown Ale and Bass Ale pint glasses.
…helped a friend find work…at my company.
…played Half-Life 2, the sequel to what is largely considered to be the best game ever made. Worth every penny of the $60 I paid for the sequel.
…discovered that despite my enjoyment of the sequel and $60 price (so I feel obligated to play), it’s not interfering with my social or work life as much as the first game did.
…received a rather surprising and thoroughly late email that I sent an uncharacteristically and probably unwise cold response to.
…realized that in the last few weeks I’ve taken MAX downtown exactly five times yet have only taken public transportation home once.
…have been too busy to watch all the programs on my TiVo and resultedly lost two new epiodes of “ER” and one new one of “Law & Order.” No big loss.
…canceled my subscription to the game City of Heroes. I love the game, but I don’t have the time to put into playing it as I once did and can’t justify the $15/month subscription fee.
…almost immediately considered starting up a subscription to another monthly fee-type game, though I dismissed it rather quickly.
…think I may have figured out how to get the wireless networking up and running on the ultralight notebook I brought back from work, though I’ll need some time to sit down and troubleshoot properly.
…discovered that my website is read by people (a person, rather) who I didn’t realize read it.
…found some utterly obscure bugs in software at work that have the programmer working on it just as confused as I was upon finding them.
…should be getting a new computer at work this week, something that’s been promised to me for almost three weeks now.
…introduced a woman as my girlfriend for the first time since July, 2000 at a wedding in Denver. Different woman, though.
…felt guilty for blowing off someone who ambushed me to get me to sign up for a charity then felt sorry for the people I saw ambushed later by the same people.
…walked 22 blocks downtown–11 there, 11 back–just for pizza and beer.
…ended up having pizza and beer twice in one week.
…drank twelve pints of beer in five days.

So there you have it. That’s what’s largely been going on in my life. I’m sorry for the abbreviated form, but that’s all I can bring msyelf to write at the moment.

Have a good week.

Posted in Beer, Geekery, General

Alive and very well, thank you.

Nov27
2004 Written by Andrew

It’s been so long since I wrote (OK, less than two weeks, but still) that I scarcely know where to begin. So much has happened, and for once, I actually want to talk about a lot of it, but I can’t find the motivation to really get into it at length now, so I’ll do what I can.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all. I’m currently sitting at the dining room table at my grandmother’s house in Boise, Idaho, leeching wifi Internet access off some poor sap in a nearby house. Before I came, I set up a dial-up service to use sparingly since my grandmother only has one phone line and I couldn’t tie it up, but on a lark I plugged in my wireless networking card and found that a neighbor of hers is using unsecured wireless networking in their house and has a high-speed Internet connection. I can just connect to it and use it as if I were sitting in their house, though since I’m not doing anything malicious with the connection, I don’t feel too bad.

The moral of the story? If you use wifi networking, secure your network. Otherwise some industrious soul such as myself may decide to connect to you network.

That’s all I have the motivation to talk about right now. I just don’t feel like writing, for once. I’ve told you about Andrew’s rule of three, yes? The weird thing where I can only focus on three things in my life at a time? Well writing isn’t one of them at the moment. I’m all full up with some other distractions, some of which I may talk about at some point. But not at the moment. I just wanted to post and let everyone know that I didn’t suffer some horrible disfiguring accident and that I’m still out here, just busy and happy and not feeling like writing.

I hope everyone’s Thanksgiving included a lot of eating as mine has. This has been a week of several of the Seven Deadly Sins, gluttany most of all, though a couple of the others have reared their ugly heads, as well. Sloth is really an overrated sin, y’know. But nonetheless, I’m just at a loss for words at the moment, so I’ll leave you with that.

Happy Saturday.

Posted in Geekery, General

Tuesdays have no feeling.

Nov16
2004 Written by Andrew

Indeed, there is much to discuss.

Firstly, I would like to announce the release of Mozilla Firefox v1.0. Nineteen months of development, more than a dozen pre-release test builds, and millions of testers worldwide have culminated in the best web browser that’s available on the Inetrnet today. It has built-in popup blocking, it doesn’t fall prey to spyware, it doesn’t put your computer at a security risk, it has tabbed browsing, and best of all, it’s small, fast, and free. Weighing in at under 5 MB for the Window sversion, it will only take you 15 or 20 minutes to download in the background. There are dozens of extensions and themes to change the look of your browser and add additional functionality, too. Best of all, it will automatically import your Favorites, History, even your Cookies from Internet Explorer so that you won’t be starting over and forced to move a lot of data over.

So really, what do you have to lose by trying it? In the seven days since its formal release, close to four million people have already downloaded it. For the first time since the browser wars were won six years ago, Internet Explorer’s market share has dropped. Not just one tick, but month after month, literally millions of people are switching from IE to Firefox. I’ve been using it since close to the very beginning, and I wouldn’t use anything else to browse the web. I’ve found that I can’t live without tabbed browsing, the Find bar that doesn’t block any text on the page you’re searching, and the built-in search box that allows you to search Google, Amazon.com, Dictionary.com, IMDB, and hundreds of other websites, whatever you want to add. I can’t stress enough how much I like this web browser, and while it won’t change your life, it’ll change the way you browse the web. It’s faster, it’s smaller, it’s safer, and more importantly, it has way more features than Internet Explorer. I highly recommend you check it out.

Take a look at the product information at the Mozilla Foundation website. You can download it from the same page, too. You won’t regret it, I promise.

So, what else? I’ve been reading about this marine in Iraq who shot and killed the unarmed, injured insurgent in a Fallujah mosque, and the only problem that people seem to have with it is that it was captured on tape and thus recorded for everyone to see. Now, I’m not exactly naive when it comes to the horrors of war, and though I’ve never seen them myself I’ve read enough accounts of previous wars to know some of the kinds of things that go on. The key is to never underestimate the depravity of humans. Regardless, I’m a little frightened and sickened to see all the “Rah rah! Go get ‘em boys!” floating around the Internet. Because we’re involved in hostilities against an enemy who has chosen to use unorthodox tactics, it’s OK for soldiers to summarily execute injured and unarmed combatants? A guy reaches for his wallet in New York and police shot him dozens of times and there violent demonstrations and riots for days. What would it have been if he were already injured and lying on the ground and the police did the same thing? I think that the LA riots would have been put to shame if that had happened.

Regardless, I’d like to formally express my disgust at the soldier who took that action. I’ll never be able to be in his place and feel what he did to take that action, but above all I know that our forces are supposed to follow a code of conduct when fighting.

Mostly, I know what the reaction would be in this country if the tables were turned and a network caught the summary execution of a wounded, unarmed Marine by an Iraqi. Our collective blood would be boiling, and I don’t understand how so few people can see the hypocrisy of the situation. It’s OK for a Marine to do it to an Iraqi, but not OK for an Iraqi to do it to a Marine? I call bullshit on that.

This is a different kind of war, yes. It’s entirely guerilla warfare, and soldiers don’t know who the enemy is until they’re getting shot at. I can’t possibly understand what the life of a Marine in Fallujah is like, but there are reasons we have rules of engagement. They exist for us as much as the enemy. Am I critical of the military on the whole for this? Of course not. But I am willing to single out this one Marine, point my finger at him, and say “War criminal.” From now on, the Iraqi insurgents and terrorists-in-training around the world know that American forces will kill unarmed, injured people. Way to go, asshat.

Yeah, so that’s been bugging me for the last day or so since I first read about it, and I needed to vent.

This past weekend was a lot of fun, though I won’t bore you with the details. I believe I can sum it all up by saying that there was a lot of rich food involved, starting with the slice of mocha-fudge cheesecake I had on Friday night at Rimsky-Korsakoffee House and ending with the wedge of brie with roasted garlic I polished off with a glass of port Sunday night. I felt so upper-crust eating that. There I was, eating my brie with fresh roasted garlic on rosemary crackers, drinking a glass of port, and watching “Married With Children.” OK, so that last part wasn’t so upper-crust. I guess I could have switched to “Frasier” and been able to pull it off, perhaps.

So that about brings me full cricle and up to today, where I sit at work almost complete with phase I of this big project. Since I’m the only tester on this software, you’d think it would be slow going (which it really is, but only due to the speed of my computer), but as it turns out after listening in on a conference call on Friday, we’re way ahead of the competition doing the other half of the project. They have a bunch of programmers and a couple of testers working on the Palm sync side of the project, and we’ve got one programmer (not fully dedicated to the project) and myself doing the PocketPC side of things. As I sat and listened to the call, I kept hearing them listing off their bugs knowing that our side of that worked perfectly the first time. I guess that affords me a little latitude in the length of time I spend testing, but I get to fritter that away every time I have to wait five minutes for my computer to respond after opening the software, or waiting another three for the sync to start.

I’m told I’m getting a new computer here at work this week. Huzzah!

I had a fantastic idea for my website a couple of weeks ago, and I’m solidly in the middle of planning out something so drastic, so mindblowing that not only would it make my site into something truely unique in the world of personal blogs, but it would increase my traffic dramatically. I need the help of at least two other people to do it, though, and once I have a better idea of planning, maybe even cost, I’m going to spring it on them. You don’t know who you are yet, but trust me, you will soon enough.

Tonight I’m headed over to my Dad’s for dinner, though I can only marvel at the irony of the package I’ve been waiting to arrive for nearly three weeks being delivered today of all days. I haven’t been to his house for dinner since I made pizza awhile back, and we pick tonight out of the air, and of course, my package is waiting for me in the office that closes long before I’ll get home. Contained within the carboard shell will be the power cable and sync cable for the ultraportable laptop-esque device I wrote about recently that I brought home from work. I’ve been waiting since the end of October for it, and it arrives TODAY, of all days. I mean, of course I’m still going to dinner, but I’ve been wanting to play around with that thing since, oh, May. Blast! Oh yeah, and I was going to do a load of laundry, and I forgot to bring that, too. I only had a single load, but laundry is laundry, I suppose.

I think that about brings us up to speed for the most part. Back to work.

Posted in Geekery, General

Thinking up titles is never easy.

Nov12
2004 Written by Andrew

Oddly enough, I’ve been noticing when I leave my apartment each morning that it’s been lighter out than it was the morning before. Now, I understand that with the time change and all the daylight hours have been messed up, but it’s been my experience that the morning after the time change and the following week are all pretty much the same. Yet somehow, the last two mornings have been light out and last week it was dark out. Is it moving towards Spring rather than Winter?

I think what I like best about this time of year (aside from freaky mornings that are dark one week, light the next) it the weather. I like it when it’s grey and cloudy and rainy out. Great stay-at-home weather where you don’t need an excuse to throw on sweats and sit under a blanket. Not that I dislike the spring and summer, mind you–ithere are just different things to do. I like beiing outside when it’s cold and chily and the tips of my fingers, the tip of my nose, and the tips of my ears get cold. I think that’s a great feeling, bundling up and keeping warm. Now, before any of you smart-alecs out there pipe up and remind me of my four winters in Wisconsin, let me remind you of the moment I decided to come back to Oregon instead of staying in the midwest:

“Let me tell you something, if you think you’ve been cold before, think again. I think it’s cold when the ambient temperature is about freezing, but it was below freezing yesterday. Probably about 20F or 25F, actually. When we walked out of the parking garage and that wind was coming off the lake…holy COW. I have never, not once in 23 years, been that cold before with so many layers of clothes on. I had on my coat, gloves, and a winter cap covering my head, and in the three minutes it took to walk from the garage to the pier, my toes got numb inside my shoes. Should have worn my wool socks…. In the less than 10 minutes total I was outside, my face went so numb that I could barely speak.”

That was copied from my 12/8/02 entry during my last trip to Chicago-proper (rather than O’Hare) during my college years.

On the bright side, we get rain in setad of snow here. On the other hand, we get rain instead of snow here. Wet Christmases instead of white Christmases. Ice storms. Freezing rain. Sleet. But rarely do we get snow. Well, I get that’s for the best. I’ve onloy driven in snow once, and my car probably wouldn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I would.

Speaking of my car, I’ve been noticing that my monthly car payments have been consistently dropping since I began overpaying six months ago when I purchased it. As a matter of fact, they’ve dropped about $10 a month every two months. At this rate, in less than a year they’ll want under $100 a month if it keeps dropping. Just something I wanted to point out.

This has been a pretty good week. Monday I went out and met a friend for beer at the Rock Bottom Brewery and didn’t get back until late, though Tuesday morning I neglected to change pants to I smelled of stale smoke all day. Whee. That’s always a pleasure. Honestly, I didn’t smell smoke the entire time I was in there, and so I wasn’t expecting to reek afterwards, and since I’m usuaully lazy and wear the same jeans several days in a row I guess I had it coming.

Tuesday I bought Baja Fresh for dinner and stayed up until 11:30 just bumming around, watching a bit of TV. Same with Wednesday and Thursday, though subtract the Baja Fresh part. Wednesday I was going to go jogging, but when I got home from work I was a a little light-headed despite a substantial lunch, so I skipped it and instead did some weight-lifting, crunches, lunges, and squats. My butt and thighs have been a bit stiff for the last couple of days, but it’s all good. Today after work I think I’ll try and get some cardio in by jogging.

I think the greatest compliments I’ve received this week are from two conservative people who complimented me on my rational arguments without resorting to name-calling or rhetoric. One was in the context of arguments on gun control, and the other came from someone who came across my website and write me a note about how I was able to support Kerry but not at the expense of hating Bush. On one hand, I was glad that I was able to break out of their expectations and to present myself and my views in such a way that I wouldn’t disinterest them, but on the other hand, it’s sort of a sad state of things when my behavior is uncommon. I hadn’t really noticed that both of them were being the same way I was, and I didn’t even think to compliment them on their own rational discourse, even though I know that there’s plenty of the same coming out of the opposing political views.

On the other hand, I also got into verbal (well, written) tussles with several people this week regarding John Ashcroft, his successor, and the legality of the USA PATRIOT Act. I know that I’ve never brought it up in the past, but the PATRIOT Act scares me. It legalizes searches and seizures in siome provisions that under any other circumstances would be deemed illegal in any other instance. I understand the need to fight the so-called “War on Terror,” but do we really have to sacrifice civil and/or political rights to do so? Why do the ends justify the means in this case, but not in the, say, gathering of evidence against a mass murderer, or a serial rapist, or a child molester? Do those instances somehow have less of a priority than investigating possible terrorists? Better yet, to quote Benjamin Franklin, “They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” It’s always going to be temporary safety. The War on Terror will never be won. It’s been going on for decades–nay, hundreds of years, even thousands of years–and like all our wars, we’re just late getting started.

Some of my primary arguments against the PATRIOT Act were the writings of the ACLU, but for some reason my main opponent in that argument chose to believe that the ACLU’s thoughts were more propoganda than anything else. I would disagree. I feel, in fact, that the ACLU is one of the greatest organizations in this country. Their sole purpose is to defend the civil and political rights of each and every one of us, and they’re one of the only things that stands between us a government that would overreach its influence a little too much. Some people in the discussion felt that they could dismiss the ACLU given their past support of neo-Nazis, NAMBLA, and even pro-choice defendents, but you have to remember, the ACLU is completely non-partisan. They never support the message, but they’ll fight tooth and nail for the messenger’s right to say it or do it, no matter who the messenger may be. I think that’s so cool.

So in the end, it’s been a pretty good week. I’ve been able to keep busy at work, the two new people started here this week so the phones are covered for the most part, and tonight I’m going out for awhile to shake things up. It’s been a pretty good week, yes it has.

Posted in Beer, Geekery, General

Behold, the Republic of Darter.

Nov05
2004 Written by Andrew

The Republic of Darter
“Live free, or don’t.

UN Category: Scandinavian Liberal Paradise
Civil Rights: Excellent
Economy: Reasonable
Political Freedoms: Average

The Republic of Darter is a small, socially progressive nation, renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape. Its compassionate population of 16 million enjoy extensive civil rights and enjoy a level social equality free of the usual accompanying government corruption.

The large government is mainly concerned with Social Welfare, although Education and Healthcare are secondary priorities. The average income tax rate is 30%, but much higher for the wealthy. A robust private sector is led by the Information Technology, Retail, and Furniture Restoration industries.

Scientists regularly clone human beings for research purposes, meat-eating is frowned upon, same-sex marriages are increasingly common, and the tenet of free speech is held dear. Crime is relatively low. Darter’s national animal is the muskrat, which is also the nation’s favorite main course, and its currency is the dollar.

Darter is ranked 3224th in the region and 51,210th in the world for Largest Basket Weaving Sector.

—

See? I always knew I’d be a good leader. Just look at what I’ve managed to do for my own country. The description is generated by the game as are the products that drive my industry, but the description is based on the decisions I’ve made since creation of the country.

If you want a NationState of your own, just head over to http://www.nationstates.net and create your own government. It’s a two-step process that will take about five minutes, and you only have to check on your country once a week if you so desire, though I have mine set to give me two issues a day.

For those of you who have switched to Firefox from another web browser (most likely Internet Explorer), the Boston Globe is gathering opinions from recent converts for a forthcoming article to coincide with the upcoming v1.0 release next week. If you want to drop them a line and tell them your experiences with Firefox, you can go to http://www.boston.com/business/globe/globe_article/ and drop them a line. Don’t worry, I’ll be pushing my readers to download the official v1.0 release of Firefox soon enough, but if you’ve switched already you can give them your opinion, positive or negative. I’ve been using it for the last two years, since back when it was only v0.4 and called Phoenix instead of Firefox, and I’ve never had any serious complaints about it, at least none that haven’t gotten fixed fairly quickly.

Another week, rolling to a close. I met with my boss today about the candidates that came in this week for interviews, and it looks like we’re going to hire not one, but two new people. One of them has the organizational skills that he needs for long-term planning and the other has the nuts and bolts skills, but neither is pefect for what we need. That, of course, may change, but it was his initital impression. Each of them is about 85% of what he needs, so he figures he might as well hire them both on. He also laid out the plans for the next six months or so, and he has some pretty ambitious things planned. One of them is so super-secret that he told me I couldn’t even tell my coworkers what the whole deal was, so I probably shouldn’t say anything here, either. I don’t see the harm, but still…

That super-secret one, though, may delay our move to a new office by a month or two if it goes down the way it’s looking like now. The customer’s original plan was to have the project done by next May 1, but my boss thinks that to do it that quickly, he’ll have to charge about four or five times our regular rate, which for them would be a drop in the bucket but we’d really be pushing the limits as far as work goes. It’s somewhat of a daunting project to me, and it would require outside assitance to write special code, and in the amount of time required that wouldn’t come cheap. My boss is meeting with the client soon, though, and he’s going to offer a year instead of six months, which would cut his bid by almost a third. He figures that the higher-ups will realize that the project is a bit more complicated than the manager had originally thought, too.

The ambitious project (that’s not secret, but I won’t go into details about here) is for a tool that doesn’t exist in the industry, and the people he’s talked about it with so far have said “Now why didn’t someone think of that sooner?” Probably even going to be one of our main selling points for the next few years, and he’s seeking outside programmers for this one, too. It’s pretty simple, though, and he anticipates that it might be as little as a month from project inception to project completion, testing included. And we’re eight days in already.

In short, even with two new people coming on I’m going to have my hands full for awhile. Good to know.

My Friday is looking like I’ll head home at 4 PM, go jogging at 5 PM, eat dinner and watch some TV, and sweet, sweet slumber until tomorrow morning. Sounds like a great plan to me.

Posted in Geekery, General

Elections and make-believe governments. No, really.

Nov03
2004 Written by Andrew

OK, so I stand corrected about one thing from my last post: Oregon isn’t entirely absentee balloting, but it’s entirely mail in. Of course, that means that no one’s at the polls, so in my mind, they’re all absentee. See? I’m still right Dad.

The outcome of the election was about as I expected it to be, so I really don’t have much to say about it. I voted for Kerry, he didn’t win, there isn’t much more to say. I had friends four years ago who couldn’t stop complaining about how bad the next four years would be, and in a sense they were right, but not for the reasons they thought. One person in particular went on about how conservative Supreme Court justices were going to be appointed so that Roe v. Wade could be overturned, yet neither of those happened in the last four years. Of course, Bush will likely have the opportunity to appoint not one, but two justices in the next four years. Conservative justices don’t really worry me all that much if they end up being anything like, say, Justice Thomas or even Justice O’Conner (who is likely retiring), but if we get two more justices like Justice Scalia, then I’ll truly be worried.

In all honesty, I’m not too worried about what the next four years will bring. Things always reach an equilibrium, so even though there’s been a significant shift towards a conservative agenda not only in the federal government, but also in the state governments, it’ll shift back eventually. Most of the 90′s was spent with a fairly progressive agenda at both the state and federal level, and in the current state of uncertainty and fear in this country (the latter of which I hold the current administration largely responsible for fostering), I can see why things have gone the way I did. That’s why six or eight months ago I loudly proclaimed that Bush was going to win. I knew that no level of involvement from myself or activists could change that. A defeatist attitude? Hardly. Simply realist.

The one major disappointment I had yesterday was seeing Oregon’s measure 36 get passed, which establishes marriage as between a man and a woman in the Oregon constitution. I have no real opinion on the issue either way, but I loathe people who constitutionalize social policy of the day. The Constitution, whether it’s on the federal or state level, is about your rights as a citizen of the territory in which you live and how the government operates. The Consitution is NOT about what you’re not allowed to do. Since gay marriage bans passed in 11 states (Oregon was the closest it came to failing with a 57-43% majority), members of the Bush administration have again raised the possibility of reintroducing a federal ban on same sex marriages, to whcih all I could do was shake my head in a combination of disappointment and disgust.

It’s a touchy issue, and I realize that many people have moral objections to the idea of homosexuality to begin with, and I can’t begin to even make a case that would convince die-hard people who oppose gay marriage, but I hope that my readers recognize the folly in using the Constitution as a social weapon. What if an amendment had been passed legalizing slavery in the late 18th century or early 19th century? It was still commonly accepted for people to own slaves, and the Supreme Court had already recognized slaves as property even when travelling to the North. Now here were are, more than 200 years later, and slavery is looked upon as one of the black periods in our nation’s past.

And then of course, we have a more recent example, Prohibition, where people thought they could improve the moral fibre of this country by banning spirits. People seem to think they can improve the sanctity of marriage by disallowing homosexual couples to marry, but methinks the 50%+ divorce rate among heterosexual couples already speaks to the condition that the sanctity of marriage holds in this country.

In any case, the Constitution is supposed to be about enumeration of rights and governmental operation. The first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States are dedicated solely to listing the things that we as citizens of this country are allowed to do! So much they’re even called the Bill of Rights!

Sigh.

Social policy doesn’t belong in any Constitution, federal or otherwise. I’m very disappointed at the knee-jerk reactions of the citizens of 11 states in this country, including my own.

I did two more interviews at work today, and I think I’m getting better. My boss doesn’t seem to think that we have a great selection to choose from, and I hope he’s willing to pass up someone this time around and hold out for a better candidate if that’s what it takes. He only received 15 resumes for this posting, and only four got interviews. The last one is tomorrow, though, so maybe we’ll find someone in the end.

Yesterday was a great day for being frugal. I cashed in my filled card at Big Town hero and got a French Dip sandwich and a free drink, though I was less than impressed with the sandwich. They put some sort of butter sauce on the sandwich, and I felt kind of sick afterwards. Then again, I’m also not used to eating a whole lot of beef in one sitting, either. For dinner, I got my chicken fajita burrito at Chipoltle in what I can assume will be my last trip there for a long time, if ever. The food didn’t agree with me this time around, and let’s just leave it at that. To extend my frugalness, on Friday I’m going to redeem a filled Subway Club card and get a free sandwich there as well. I like going to Subway on Fridays (at least this one, I don’t know if this is a franchise-wide promotion) because I get a free cookie with my sandwich.

Speaking of Subway, Northwest stores are doing a promotion allowing customers to make up a “Northwest style” sandwich to go on the menu for a couple of months, and I think I might take up the challenge to invent a good Northwest sandwich. The only rules are that it has to be be reflective of the Northwest (in spirit as well as ingredients) and easy to make. I was thinking of something with Foster Farms chicken, Tillamook cheddar cheese, and maybe even Hermiston Sweet Onions (since the Walla Walla season is over with, otherwise it would be those), but I’m having trouble thinking of other ingredients and a sauce. If I can’t think of a sauce, then I can always add the note “If you can’t be dry, then at least your sandwich can.” That’s mostly my personal preference, though. When I buy a sandwich at the grocery store I always get turkey when cranberry sauce, but at Subway the most liquid that goes on my sandwich is a dash of vinegar for flavor. None of that nasty mustard or mayo stuff. Yuck. I still have awhile until the deadline of the promotion, so I’m going to put some thought into it.

It’s awfully strange seeing myself in the mirror without a goatee again, but the shock isn’t as great as it was in what, April? when I last shaved it off. Now that I’ve at least seen myself recently without a goatee, it’s not as strange and I’m not as concerned about keeping my face clean-shaved for awhile. Frankly, it’s more work in terms of facial care since I have to shave more area and more frequently, but then again, I don’t have to trim my goatee and get those little hairs all over my sink and bathroom counter. I can never get them all.

I’ve been participating in a government “simulator” run by the author of a novel called Jennifer Government. I can’t offer an opinion of the book as I haven’t read it, but the first chapter was interesting enough for me to seek it out next time I’m in Borders or Barnes & Noble. The simulator lets you create a country with a basic questionaire, and then by presenting you with issues to deal with, you can shape the present and future of your country. If you don’t like any of the choices offered in an issue, you can dismiss it, because if you choose one particular option it changes different things, creates dissent, etc. There’s no trade or war in the simulator, though, so it’s not terribly accurate, but it at least gives you a basic indication of your skill at guiding a government. Right now I’m waiting to deal with economic issues, and most of my issues I’ve been presented with have been about domestic policy. In the game, the UN rates me as a Democratic Socialist nation, but hey, I have excellent civil rights and political freedoms. At least my economy hasn’t imploded like the most powerful nations in the “world” and my government run by mega-corporations. Then again, from what I understand Jennifer Government is all about mega-corporations running the world.

My national motto is “Live free, or don’t.” Apologies to “Futurama” for ripping it off, but it’s funny and it sounds good.

2004-11-03.jpg
Short hair, no facial hair. Who is that guy, anyway?

Posted in General

Election Day and weekend summary

Nov02
2004 Written by Andrew

My weekend went just about as expected, and I ended up being fairly inactive through most of the time. Then again, that *had* been my prediction.

Friday found me feeling sick after eating a whole loaf of bread by myself, though in all honesty the loaf wasn’t that big. I’ve picked up a few loaves of this particular type on more than one occasions in the recent past, and each time I’ve enjoyed it immensely. This was the first time, however, that I felt sick afterwards. Too much grain in one sitting, methinks.

Saturday took me to the gas station with fears of having to push my car the last distance since my gas light had been on for far too long. I seem to run it all the way down to the wire before I fill it up, which is a bad habit to get into, but what can I say? I like to see how far I can go on a tank of gas. With regular driving, it seems to be about 250 miles. All highway (like on a roadtrip that I won’t take any time soon) will probably run a bit higher. I was a bit confused, however, when I only filled up for eight and a half gallons, but according to various sites I’ve been to, my 2001 Ford Escort ZX2 has a twelve gallon tank. Why had the gas light been on for the last day, then? An odd question for another day, perhaps, but I’m not willing to run the tank dry just for a test. Not without some sort of contraption like they used in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to run back the odometer, but the risk of catastrophic failure and my car crashing out into the backyard increases dramatically in that situation. Oh yeah, I also returned a couple of bags of cans and bottles, bought myself a sandwich, and had a nice afternoon watching TV. I tried playing some City of Heroes, but I just couldn’t find a group to play with, and ended up largely avoiding the whole situation and only playing for short amounts of time.

Sunday found me more focused on the game and catching up on some TV sitting in my TiVo buffer. I played off and on all day long, but found myself stuck in a mission that I couldn’t drop out of in the evening. For Halloween, the game developers had introduced some new Halloween-themed villains (including a giant pumpkin-headed creature that caused many a death in Paragon City) and the ability to trick or treat. Trick or treating was easy, and once every minute you could click on any door in the game you you would either be rewarded with a treat or a trick. Treats took the form of bonuses called inspirations that you pick up in battle anyway or a rock. I didn’t understand the reference to the rock at first, but my childhood reminded me that Charlie Brown always complained he got rocks when trick or treating. If you got a trick, the door opened and monsters came out. Not a bad deal, really.

But I ended up starting a task force in the game, and conveniently forgetting how long a task force takes, close to five hours later we were done. I would have quit sooner, but if you quit a task force, you have to completely restart it and can’t rejoin. I wasn’t about to give up the hours and hours of gameplay, frankly, so I ended up playing until about 7 PM before I got dinner.

I had read about a promotion that the Mexican restaurant Chipoltle was doing, where if you buy a burrito on Halloween you get a free burrito on election day if you take in your receipt. So I bought my burrito on Halloween, and I’ll get a free dinner tonight. Actually, since I have a filled frequent purchase card for Big Town Hero, I’ll get a free lunch, too. For my quick Mexican food, I normally stick to Baja Fresh, but the Chipoltle place opened up down the street a couple of months ago and I’ve avoided it thus far. I have a few objections to my eating there, but it’s mostly for personal reasons. There are restaurants I tend to avoid for various reasons–mostly dietary–but I have no such qualms about Chipoltle. I just don’t want to eat there. Free food is hard to pass up, no matter my personal objections.

We only got one knock on the door Sunday night, which meant I was snacking on candy for most of the evening I easily could have done without. I placed the rest of the bowl of candy bars and Tootsie rolls next to my sister’s purse in the hopes that she would get the message and take the rest of the bowl to work with her for everyone to enjoy, but alas, she decided to leave them at home to torture me. That’s the LAST thing I need at the moment: candy. I’ve been largely watching what I eat, trying to avoid fried foods and alcoholic beverages, but without regular exercise it’s sort of a losing battle. What can I say, though? When the end of the day comes, I’m too tired to do anything else. Sitting in a chair all day is tiring work. I went jogging yesterday after work and it felt great, then I had a nice healthy dinner and didn’t have a single piece of candy. Why can’t I eat like that all the time? Because it’s boring. So for lunch today I think I’m going to go get a roast beef au jus sandwich at Big Town Hero, and tonight a chicken fajita burrito at Chipoltle.

We’re finally hiring someone new here at work to fill a vacant position, and so interestingly enough, I’m helping to conduct the interviews. I’ve never really done that before, and while I’m not directly interviewing people I’m administering some of the tests that we give for the position that we’re hiring for. In other words, I don’t have to make any direct judgements, but it’s a new situation nonetheless.

As if anyone could possibly forget, today is Election Day. I voted last week since Oregon is entirely absentee, so I hope that for those of you who actually have to go to a polling station you find the time to cast your vote. Personally, I’m just glad that this is all coming to a rest. Election years give me the heebie jeebies, and I’m tired of the focus on utterly insignificant and irrelevent issues. No matter who wins the election tonight (or a month from now, if it goes back to the courts again, though I’m hoping that the courts have better sense than they did four years ago), I’ll be happy to see all this at an end and whoever is elected can actually do some work instead of constantly campaigning. I offer no 11th hour predictions here on my website, but those of you who have spoken to me in the last few months know that I made a prediction in June that I stand by. I’m a realist, if nothing else. Should be an interesting evening, though I don’t plan on watching election results. I can just as easily get them online, and that way I don’t get erroneous news reports, mindless and inane commentary, and filler material.

I shaved my goatee off. Again. I don’t really know why, I just had the idea and did it. Looks interesting, and I figure I’ll hold on to this look for awhile.

That’s about all I can think of. Happy Election Day, and I’m glad this is all coming to an end.

Posted in Geekery, General

Apparently fiscal responsibility and furniture assembly aren't my strong suits.

Oct29
2004 Written by Andrew

Yesterday I got up about 15 minutes earlier, left a bit earlier than I normally do, and I dropped my car off at the dealership to have the scheduled service done on it. Normally I would just take it in to someplace local to have the oil changed, but since it’s a factory-certified used car, one of the terms of my extended warranty is to have all the service done at the dealer. That’s not too bad, I suppose, since their price for and oil change is competitive and the inspections and tire roations are free.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t an inspection or oil change. It was the 30,000 mile workup, and as I was afraid, they’re going to charge me the distance. I got an estimate from them before I hopped into their complimentary shuttle, and it looked like it was going to come out to be about $320. I had inquired with them that since I haven’t even been driving it for six months and I purchased it FROM them, wouldn’t a lot of that stuff have been done? Apparently not, according to their records. They only do the scheduled service when the car is on their lot and within 500 miles of the service. Since I purchased it with about 27-28k miles on it, I was out of luck.

Good thing I get paid next week.

I checked my checking account, and I had enough to cover my car maintenance, my new desk and chair, my rent, and have enough left over so that the checks I’ll write for my car payment, student loan, and rent next week will still leave me with money. Not a whole lot, but I’ll still have money. Wasn’t I trying to save money for something? My own apartment or something like that? I vaguely remember that. Anyhow, as it turned out, they didn’t need to do everything, and so I only got socked with a $230 bill. Not great, but still a heck of a lot better. I wish I could say my car “feels” different, but let’s face it: they just did routine maintenance. They didn’t install an NO2 system or a turbocharger. I wonder how much those would cost, though?

The good news of that particular transaction was that I paid less than they inititally quoted me for, but the bad? news is that I spent most of the difference already. You see, I’ve had my eye on a particular piece of machinery here at work for the last six months or so–heck I’ll even post a picture of it:

…and I finally got up the nerve to ask my boss if I could buy it off him. I had inquired abou tit at one point, and he’d said I could probably have it, but since I’d been working there for about a week I didn’t wnat to press my luck. So I waited, and offered to pay for it, but he just told me I could have it. My boss is kind of ornery sometimes, but he’s been particularly generous with me when it comes to stuff around the office that isn’t needed anymore. I figure since Dan gets the run of old computers at Red Hat where he works, I can get the run of PDAs and miscellaneous equipment. Last week he let me have a brand new piece of computer hardware that he bought to qualify for the Spanish version of Windows XP. You see, Microsoft has a strange licensing scheme where in order to buy OEM copies of Windows (the discounted copies they sell to computer makers), you have to buy hardware with it. They normally mean like a computer, but white box retailers can get around this by selling any old piece of hardware with it. My Dad and I both bought copies of Windows XP in the past that got shipped with a piece of crap mouse, and my boss bought the Spanish Windows XP with a particular type of network adapter that just happens to also work on my TiVo. I offered to buy it, he gave it to me instead, and now my TiVo downloads its program listings over the Internet instead of using the phone line to call up a local access number.

Anyway, I bummed the above piece of equipment off him. I wrote about this little gem back in May when I first started working here, but I kept putting off asking for it. To sum up, it’s not exactly a laptop. It’s more like an extended PDA. It has an LCD screen and keyboard like a laptop, but it runs Windows CE, Microsoft’s operating system for handhelds. It has no bootup time, no shutdown time (instant on/off), and about ten to twleve hours of battery life. It has versions of Word, Excel, and Outlook loaded on it, I can plug a network card (even a wireless card) into it and browse the Internet or check my mail, even load AOL Instant Messenger on it. In short, it’s an underpowered machine that has decent functionality and battery life.

Laptops are spectacular pieces of machinery. Having a whole computer compacted into such a small space where you can take it anywhere is great. When I use a laptop disconnected from AC power, though, I’m always worrying about battery life. My current laptop (that is, before the ability to run off battery finally gave out) had a battery life of about 30 minutes, and even when it was brand new to get the most out of battery life you had to turn down display brightness, not use hardware you don’t need, allow it to sleep when you don’t use it for oh, 30 seconds, those sorts of things. Laptops are great machines, but they’re notiriously power-hungry due to the display. In any case, once I get the Clio (the laptop-esque notebook I brought home) up and running, I’ll have a portable machine I don’t have to worry about.

Now, the key words there are “up and running.” The hitch with this thing is that there’s no AC adapter and no sync cable to connect to a PC. I don’t care about synchronizing an address book or calendar, but I do care about being able to transfer files. Fortunately, the company that took over manufacturing and distribution of the machines is not only still in business, but still selling parts. For only $50, I was able to pick up a combination of sync cable and AC adapter. For another $25 (minus $14 in rebates, bringing my total to $11), I picked up two 128 MB CompactFlash cards–one for the Clio and one for my digital camera. I already have a 128 MB card for my camera and can in fact store about 200 pictures on it before it runs out of room, but heck, it’s cheap, and extra storage is always nice. The other 128 MB card is going in the Clio, even though it’s overkill. A deal is hard to pass up, though, and the only other cards I have that would work are the one currently in my camera and an 8 MB one that originally came with my camera. That wouldn’t even be worth it.

So if I’m writing about wanting a new laptop on a regular basis, why would I pick something liek the Clio up? Three reasons. Firstly, I’ve always wanted a Windows CE device of my own. I used to browse the eBay listings for used Windows CE devices endlessly as long ago as when I worked at Stream in 1998-1999. The ones I was interested in were only a couple of years old and still about $200-$300. I just wanted one to play with, mostly. I’ve used them here at work, but it’s not the same. Secondly, having a lightweight ultraportable device that allows me to write, read, and browse for up to ten hours seems like it would have use to me. I’m sure I could find a pub or coffee shop with wireless Internet and hang out there with my Clio and look hip. Lastly, it makes a good addition to my computer hall of fame. As far as PDAs go, I already have an Apple Newton and a Sony Magic Link, and this will be a fine addition to my unusual PDA collection. Anyone can pick up an old Windows CE device, those are a dime a dozen. The Clios are works of art, very unique. Now if I can just find a working Palm Pilot (original, first generation) to add…I think we might even have one or two here.

My desk and chair were delivered yesterday, and I spent the whole evening assembling the two of them. The chair took me less than a half hour; the desk took me about three and a half. Technically, it’s still not “fully” assembled, either. I left off a couple pieces of backing because I have items on my desk with cords that need to drape behind it, and for some reason a couple of the anchor screws didn’t want to go in. From a structural standpoint, the four that didn’t go in are unneccessary, but it bugs me a little. Overall, it’s a success, though I need to move my desk further back into the corner. It’s too heavy to just push (particularly with my 55 pound monitor on it), so I’ll have to unload it a bit and try again. Today I’m all banged up, though, between what feel like callouses developed on my hands to the tears in my skin from catching myself on sharp edges to the very odd cut running across my nose. Apparently I hit my face on one of said sharp edges at some point during assembly, but I don’t remember doing it. I guess in a strange way that makes perfect sense.

But now I have a huge desk taking up a whole corner of my room, but it works nearly perfectly for what I need. The chair is comfy, my room smells like freshly cut (or drilled, in my case) wood, and I was able to consolidate a lot of computer and desk stuff into one place. Except for one incident of nailing a piece on backwards and the four anchor screws that don’t want to go in, it was a resounding success.

Getting it out of the room is not something I look forward to. It’s not exactly what I’d call easily disassembled.

Boy am I glad that today is Friday. I get to go home and not have to worry about getting up at 6 AM tomorrow morning, though I’m sure that I’ll be up by 7:30 and playign City of Heroes nonetheless. I haven’t touched it since Sunday, and so my reward for staying away from it during the week is going to be playing it this weekend. Hopefully not for nearly as long as last weekend, but heck, I gotta give my chair a trial run.

Happy Halloween, all.

Posted in Geekery, General

Rumblings and mumblings from a bumbling…something.

Oct27
2004 Written by Andrew

Last week I came across a deal online where Dell was offering substantial savings on its line of laptops. Now, normally I wouldn’t want to spend that much for a laptop (and indeed, I’ve been pricing laptops for the last year and a half at around $1500), but since the quarter was coming to the end and they needed to meet their sales goals, they had come up with a deal that impressed and tempted even me: $750 off a laptop when you spend $1500 or more. That’s right, half off. I priced the laptop I wanted, I had it in my cart and I was ready to check out, but alas, the coupon had expired at 6 AM that morning. I had missed out on the deal.

All for the best, I guess. I didn’t have $750 to spend at that moment in time, but Dell offers good financing and a deal where if you can pay off the balance by a certain date, you don’t pay any interest. I could have tightened my belt for awhile and paid it off over a period of six months or so easily. The laptop I have now is really starting to show its age, and I’ve been hoping that I could afford a new one for quite some time now, but this just wasn’t meant to be.

But it was a hell of a deal.

I did pull a couple of good things from it, though. The laptop I’ve been looking at for the last year or so from Dell has just about everything I could want, though I found another model they offer that has EVERYTHING I want and for the same price, so at least I have a different model to keep my eye on.

I decided the other day that I had had enough with my chair that I use in front of my computer. When I moved in with my sister, my computer chair had just broken and was no longer comfortable and literally on the verge of collapse. Since I was unemployed, though, I had no choice but to make do with all I had t the time–a canvas director’s chair that I was given fro my birthday many years ago. It’s fairly comfy, but it doesn’t have casters, sags and bends under my weight, and the wooden armrests irritate my elbows. The fact that it sags isn’t really a critique of my weight, rather, it’s a critique of a canvas chair being used for long periods of time.

So anyway, I began looking at desk chairs this week after my game-a-thon this past weekend, and I came to the conclusion that I could easily afford a new desk chair, but that it would be out of place and in the way in my room the way it is currently arranged. So I started thinking of a way to rearrange my room. THEN I decided that heck, I could get a better desk for myself while I’m at it! The desk I’m using now is a hand-me-down from my Mom and she’s using MY old computer desk, and while it’s satisfactory as a computer desk, as a workstation where I can keep things I need handy, have a writing surface, etc, it sadly fails miserably. I had the opportunity recently to hand write soemthing of great length, and I had to pull my keyboard completely off my desk to get any room, and even then I didn’t have much space to write.

So I looked at desks, too. I knew that I would be ordering online because places like Office Depot offer coupons that can only be used online, but since their in-store inventory is frequently identical to their online inventory, I was able to find good choices and then check them out in the Office Depot store that’s either near my work or near my apartment. I ended up finding a nice-looking corner workstation with a all of room, space for a large monitor, plenty of shelves for other stuff, and best of all, a lot of surface area for writing and storage. The desk I ended up with can be viewed here, and the chair I chose can be viewed here. With the coupon I used ($30 off $150), I only forked over $180, and with free delivery I’ll have it on Thursday.

Naturally, this means I’ll have to completely rearrange my room, something that is not easily done in my current living arrangements. I fear moving my TV and electronics equipment due to all the cables behind it. Not that they’ll get tangled or something, but that I’ll have to unhook them and then reattach everything. On the bright side, though, I’m going to reduce some fo the clutter in my room. With a larger desk, I can move more things over to it and pull them out of the closet, off my dresser, etc. I can bring over my stereo from my Mom’s house because there will be room on the top shelf of the desk for it. I can even get rid of a whole piece of furniture that’s just standing around holding things that have no other place to go. My only real concern, though, is where my bed goes. I could actually leave it in the current location if I wanted to, but then I wouldn’t be able to sit on my futon and watch TV because my desk is going where my TV currently is. Eh, I guess I’ll just have to get the desk assembled and see what arrangement shakes loose from my masterful Tetris-playing brain.

I’ve been haggling with TiVo for the last couple of weeks in order to straighten out why I haven’t gotten my $50 rebate that I was promised when I first signed up for the service, and I finally got it straightened out today. I’ve had nothing but good luck with both TiVo as a product and TiVo as a service so far, but these rebate hassles really pissed me off. I had mailed in all the required information for the rebate, and when I hadn’t heard anything about it I checked with the largest TiVo forums on the Internet to see if other people were having the same problems. Indeed they were. The company that TiVo had paid to deal with the rebates was dragging its feet like most companies dealing with large cash rebates, hoping that people would either forget or just get fed up and throw their hands in the air. Mainly, people were complaining that information that had been sent was reported missing (i.e., barcodes, service numbers, etc).

So after going back and forth with the company’s customer service reps via email and not hearing anything back from several emails, I did a little research, found out the information I was missing (my TiVo service number, something I’m almost certain I included in the first place), and called them up to give them the missing number. Thank goodness it wasn’t something like the barcode since the packaging has long since been recycled and I didn’t make a copy of it. Yeah, yeah, I should have, but I thought that TiVo would handle this themself.

At least my $50 rebate was approved. After all, that was the whole impetus for picking up the TiVo in the first place since it was such a good deal. Well, that and the reputation of excellence the service has. I read a bit ago that TiVo and Nielson are teaming up so that Nielson can find out if people are skipping over the commercials (like I do…six or seven clicks of the 30 second commericial skip and I’m back to the program), and I’m wondering what impact that may have on my ability to skip commericials in the future.

Remember kids, if you want to get a TiVo of your own, I would be grateful if you’d use me as your referral tot he service. I get points for that, and points can become merchandise for me. So act now!

One of the reasons I stayed with AT&T Wireless is that Cingular bought them out and I was looking forward to, well, better service. Apparently that will constitute a change of the service agreement, though, which all paying subscibers must approve of. However, I’m told (but have not yet gotten confirmation of) that if you don’t agree with the service agreement change, you’re able to say no, you don’t approve, and walk away from the service. Without paying a breach of service fee if this is done before your contract runs out. Now, this isn’t a big deal to me since I’m relatively happy with my service, and even if I had the ability to switch to another carrier at will I’d have to buy a new phone. AT&T, however, was recently offering a sweet deal where you could get a $320 phone for free if you upgraded to it and renewed your contract. I thought about it, but that would have put my contract at 21 months instead of the 9 I have left. If I’d known about the whole “able to walk away from your contract without paying any fees” thing, I would have taken that offer if only to get a nice new free phone. The one I have is nice, does everything I want, but I’d really like to be able to take pictures, y’know? Camera phones are just so handy.

On a somewhat related note, yesterday at work I noticed that my phone said it in Cingular range and not AT&T Wireless. When I got home it was back to AT&T, and now here at work it says AT&T again and not Cingular. Guess they’re starting the switchover early.

I’ve used the last two days to catch up on things I should have accomplished days, weeks, even months ago. I finally called my grandmother to thank her for her birthday present to me since she was the only one I didn’t thank in person already, I called to schedule my car for its routine service checkup, called USAA to see about a break on my rates since I turned 25, called the company that makes the alarm in my car to see if I could find out the model number, things like that. Landmark Ford wants to charge me $355 for a 30,000 mile service on my car, but I’ve only been driving it for six months–I think I can skate on most of the stuff they want to do to my car and get by with just an oil change, tire rotation, fluid check, etc. Much more reasonable since I’ve only put about 1500-2000 miles on the car since I got it.

In any case, that about wraps it up for now. Oh yes, and I voted yesterday. Oregon is all absentee ballots, so we get to vote early. Now that I’ve voted, I plan on completely distancing myself from all topics of political discussion until next Tuesday at the very earliest. Not only am I out of things to talk about, but my role is complete. I figure since I’ve voted, I can shut up for the time being.

Catch you all later.

Posted in Geekery, General
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About me

Early 30's, Portlander, professional geek, runner, cook, beer drinker, beer brewer, gamer, occasional blogger.
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