Month: July 2006

Sleepy Sunday

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I was going to goto the Beer Garden today but felt like I was getting a migraine so I passed on the opportunity. Glad that I did. I crashed around 4PM and slept for a few hours. I felt like crap when I woke up so I did what I normally don’t do when I am home and getting a head ache. I medicated. I feel better now but I know it is only the prescription talking. I am hoping to be sleepy enough to goto bed soon and get a good night sleep.

The rest of the weekend I did some DVD and DVR watching. This week I was into The Wire. I watched season 2 and now I am on clearing out season 3 from my DVR. Man that is a good show.

Reminds me of Homicide Life on the Street. Back to the work grind tomorrow!

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The Non Event Saturday

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I laid low today. I got a hair cut today and tried to do some shopping, but ended up getting nothing. I did get stuck on the 6 train for like 20 minutes after someone pulled the emergency brake. The consensus of everyone in my car was if we found out who thought it was funny to pull the brake they wouldn’t find the body of the person that did it. The only upside was the AC ran while we stood crammed in there for that long. It was too hot to do some bike riding. I hope to get a ride in tomorrow or during the week.

Sleepless Night

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I got woken up at 3AM with a problem with our phone system. Dan seemed to think the voice mail being down the day of the picnic was the end of the world. Turns out it wasn’t voice mail that was screwed up but our AC unit in one computer room was acting up again. Kai ended up sending Ian out to the office at 5AM to get the Unity server up and the room venting so the rest of the equipment didn’t over heat. yet another facilities issue that is not resolved.

My sleep was totally screwed up today because of the early morning calls. They where necissary but my team needs to learn when it is necessary to call 4 times in the middle of the night and when it is ok to send an email update or wait till later.

The Digital (Camera) Age

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I have been a slacker child. For fathers day and my dad’s birthday I didn’t get him anything. It is not because I forgot, or was cheap. it was just my dad didn’t know what he wanted. Last year was the same problem. I told him I would get him any DVD’s he wanted (he is a big old film buff) and we went to the store and didn’t pick anything. Unless it is coins he is impossible to buy for. Today I finally got him something I know he needs (even if he may not want it). He has this old Nikon 35mm camera that he barely uses anymore. He has 2 grandchildren and takes only a few pictures. The ones he does take don’t get developed for months. Knowing all that I got him a new Canon Powershot A540 digital camera. The 1gig SD card that will go into it gives him the ability to take a few hundred pictures before he has to download them to his computer. I went with the larger Canon over the nice Sony Cybershot that was so small. The reason is the Canon seemed easier to use and had bigger buttons. My dad may be an old school gadget person, but the simpler the better.

I will give the camera a test drive tomorrow when I see Morgan and Zachary! Hopefully he will like it. I have to stop with the expensive presents. I don’t want to set any trends or anything! The next digital upgrade for him will be a digital video camera, but I won’t be the one buying that one.

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The Perpetual Upgrade

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Since I am perpetually upgrading I am now sporting a new Apple Macbook Pro. Well honestly it is not mine. it is my new work computer. I have given up the small size of my Powerbook 12″ for the power and the Core Duo intel chip of the 15″ Macbook Pro. It is big, but that means the screen is also big. I am hoping not to carry it home every day like I did with the Powerbook. That may make me not care so much about the size. Every so often I swap back and forth between wanting a nice size screen and a small form factor. Neither are perfect, so I never know what I want. I am at a point where I want a nice size screen so I can work off the laptop anywhere.

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Outlook to the Mac

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Last year I found software that would export mail in my outlook pst files to plain old text and html files. That was great for archiving. I exported everything so I can keep it in a universal format such as plain text instead of being reliant on Microsoft’s outlook pst file format. I was very happen until recently when Andrew showed me O2M. It is a tool that exports outlook pst data into mbox files so I can then import them into Mail or Entourage on my Mac. This is also very helpful since now I can keep all my old mail in the mail program that I actually use. I have been cleaning up my PST files so I can port them over to Apple Mail. My results so far have been great. Well worth the $10 for the tool!

My only problem now is that I have (will have) everything in Apple Mail. I hope there is a tool where I can extract mail from that program and port it to something else? I like having my options open even if I don’t have an immediate plan to move off of Apple Mail.

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My Exercise Routine

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So far I have gone for 3 rides on the new bike. I just got back from one a while ago. Man I was tired. I think if you feel like you are going to puke you did a decent work out? I remember that feeling when I was in training for the life guard test my senior year of High School.

I think I have a routine I am going to follow until I get more stamina and build up the cardio. I leave my apartment and head over to Central Park. I take the bike road/trail up to the 102st service road (cuts the look down by a mile or so), then I cut over to the west side. I ride on the west side until just 72nd street (i think). From there I can cut back over to the east side and ride back uptown to the exit from the park by my apartment. From there it is all down hill back home. The hardest part is the big hill south of 102st on the west side, and another incline on the east side north of 72st. those two areas alone give me a crazy work out. Well honestly I can’t make it up the hill on the east side just yet. I walk the bike each time I have tried it.

My goal is to get in decent enough shape that I can expand my ride to eventually include the entire 6+ mile look of the entire park. From my progress so far I need to work on my condition a bit before I can try that. The good thing is the last 2 times I rode I actually looked forward to the ride. That is a good sign to me!

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Superman Returns

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We left work early today since not much was going on. Danny, Jayson and I went to see Superman Returns. Overall it was a good movie. I did come to a few realizations during and after that movie though that had nothing directly to do with the movie, and that is I don’t want to goto movies anymore. I used to love going to the movies. My friend Rich and I used to do it all the time. Now I can’t really justify it to myself. I don’t want to spend $11, plus another $10 for food (i have to have popcorn and a soda when I goto a movie) to sit in a theater with noisy inconsiderate people. I also don’t want to have to get there an hour early just to get an OK seat. I finally got fed up with the whole process today. One of the final straws was the fact that the theater didn’t even have the AC at a decent level during the movie. That was after the lobby of the theater didn’t even have AC on. That seemed to me to be a purely cost thing. Why run AC on the ground level by the tickets, but upstairs in the theater it was on? It wasn’t some sort of problem. That is like the 3rd movie I have been to at the theater south of Union Square on 13th and had that issue.

Superman wasn’t a bad movie, but it wasn’t worth that level of aggravation, and cost for a movie. I would rather wait for it to come out on DVD and watch it on my 40″ LCD in HD for the flat rate I pay on Netflix than deal with all that production at the movies. Now some movies I will just suck it up and go, but I won’t go as much as I used to. It just isn’t worth it.

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My Travels to Date

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According to my calculations I have been tot he following states in this country (see picture below). I am not sure about ever being in Idaho or West Virginia, but I may have been there. I used to travel extensively through work, and I did a cross country trip with a camp when I was younger so I may have driven through both states. I have been all over this country, but not very many other countries. I am working on that!



create your own visited states map or check out these Google Hacks.

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A New Old Hobby

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Today I finally went out and did something I have been saying I was going to do for a while. I bought a bike. Since the winter time I have wanted a bike to ride for a few reasons. First I need to exercise a bit more (aka at all). Second as a backup mode of transportation. I was fed up with walking during the transit strike. The funny thing is that biking for me is not something new. When I was a teenager and younger I used to bike everywhere. I did it all the time, and I enjoyed it. Even when I was old enough to drive I still would use my bike to go places locally.

Since college my off and on outdoor exercise has been roller blading. It is fun, but it is not something you want to do if you want to travel long distances. The more I think about it, I don’t know why I didn’t go out and get a bike sooner? After recommendations from friends I bout a Trek bike. The model I originally wanted was out of stock. It was a bike specifically designed for urban areas like Manhattan. I ended up with something similar in the same price range. So far it seems great.

My goal is to ride a few times a week, weather permitting. I have one ride down today! I need to force myself into this, since I think I need to exercise!

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