Either I am getting sick again (2nd time in 2 months) or the humidity or something messed me up on my trip to Atlanta this weekend. I am now feeling how I get right before I get a cold. I also get this feeling when I am allergic to something in the air. My gut is saying it is a cold. I need to get to the Cold Ez, or that ZiCam that Michael got me into when I got sick at his place in December. Either way when I get home I am going to take something. I am on the plane now, and it is not very comfortable feeling this way in the air. I have a bad feeling that my ear’s are going to not react well when we land. I used to have horrible problems flying when i was a kid and a teenager. As an adult it has been allot better, but every so often I fly and have issues. Fingers crossed that this landing my ears are ok!
Month: January 2008
Traveling Again
This weekend I had a quick trip down to Atlanta. All in all the trip was not eventful. The biggest thing that happened was I forgot the suction device that holds my Dad’s GPS to the windshield in the rental car. i remember taking it off the wind shield, but must have forgotten to put it in my bag because I cannot find it.
As much as I am still pissed at Delta for my trip to nowhere (see previous posts), they were not bad this trip. We actually departed on time both directions. I also cannot complain when I get into the Crown Room Club free (gotta love Amex Platinum Card).
I need to remember this weekend since I will most likely not remember the last time I drove until I remember that I drove this weekend. Before this week, I cannot honestly remember the last time I drove a car. I think it was the week I stayed at my parents place in August but then again I might not have even used one then. That is one of the sad things about living right by public transit (in this case the subway) you don’t need to drive. That is good and bad I guess.
My Big Boy Apartment
I am 99% done with decorating and furnishing my new apartment. My mom got me some acent pillows and some sort of blanket throw or I don’t know what to call it for my big chair and sofa. My coffee / dining room table arrived two weeks ago. I even received the 3 prints I bought to hang on my walls in the living room. I haven’t hung them yet but they look really cool.
The last few things that I need to make everything complete is a few chairs for the table when I use it as a dining room table. Michael’s dad had dining room chairs that stacked nicely. I want to look for a few like he had, so I can keep them out of the way when I don’t need them but break them out quickly. I think that is better than storing folding chairs. I need something soon since I want to have poker at my place soon now that I have a table.
I am happy with the way everything came out. This is my first apartment that I bought nice real furniture. My first place i had cheap stuff. Then when I moved a few years ago my parents gave me their old stuff. It was basically nice but almost 20 years old and not my own. Now I think I finally have grown up and did my place up on my own. So it is really my big boy apartment!
Now I need to have a few poker parties to (hopefully) help pay for it all:)
Web Hosting
Ok, I made a mistake by canceling my web hosting account. I miss the flexibility of having a hosting account even if I don’t really need one all the time. I went back to Site5. They were good, and the only reason I canceled the account was because I didn’t want a provider at all. I am in the middle of configuring the site now.
I am trying to keep my Internet spending down this year so to offset the hosting costs for the year I am getting rid of .Mac. I don’t really use it, so I am going to let the account lapse when it is up for renewal at the end of February.
Blogging Update
I am actually writing, but you don’t see the results here just now. I have found it wise to leave most current work related entries on a site secured from the general public. I also write some of my more personal stuff in another secured journal. Unfortunately that hasn’t left much to put up on this site. I hope to change that. I am thinking I am going to continue to write work related entries on the private work blog, and only publish them here when I leave a job. That way I am not under and obligations or restrictions. The other thing is that by the time anything is published it is extremely dated and most likely no longer relevant. Some posts still will never make the light of day just due to what I write, but I not going to totally disregard common sense and publish everything I write.
The Busiest Day of The Year
Today was the busiest day of the year for me at work. As it turns out this statement is true on several levels. My current company has a bi-annual event that generates the highest volume of web traffic on one of our sites. We literally began planning for today back in June during our last event. Because of the work shifts we ended up doing, and problems creeping up throughout the day today was also probably the hardest work day I have had since I started working at this job last February.
The odd thing is I kind of liked it regardless of the craziness. There is something about being in the thick of issues with the pressure mounting and you having to make split second decisions that has an odd attraction. I guess I am still sometimes an adrenaline junkie from my days volunteering as an EMT in College. The other alluring aspect of today is you see six months of work put to good use (hopefully), and for me all my skills as an engineer and a manager put to the test. The result is exhausting physical and emotionally, but in the end very rewarding. During our last event in June I commented afterward that if you are in an operations group and you don’t secretly enjoy such days you are in the wrong profession or lying to yourself. I still think that to be true.
The day did have its high and low points. In the end I know now that I have to handle a few personnel issues, and our systems performed better than anticipated. All in all a mixed ending for a roller coaster ride of a day.
The Kindle
Since I traveled full time back in 2000 I have loved the idea of e-books. The idea was great but in practice it had a lot to be desired. I have read a handful of books in the ebook format. Most notibly when I was on the road on using my HP Jornada Pocket PC. It had a big screen but for reading books it wasn’t ideal. At the time it was the only game in town, and since there were times I didn’t want to carry a book with me having a book on my PDA was nice. Ever since I have been on the hunt for the perfect device to read books off of. Eventually I figured e-books would become more common, but so far they haven’t taken off so much.
When Sony came out with there reader I was fascinated by the technology. The size was right, it looked easy to read off of. I was all set to buy one until i read that you could only buy books from Sony for the reader. That on top of the fact that Sony’s selection wasn’t too hot I opted to hold off on my purchase.
That leads us to late November when Amazon announced the Kindle. It was very similar to the Sony reader, and it was backed by the book store at Amazon. I was still a bit hesitant to order one due to the DRM in the Amazon file format, but they offered over four times the books Sony did and they expected to continually add more books. After going back and forth on my decision I ended up placing an order for one in early December.
I was concerned about my choice because I read a few mixed reviews. I felt a bit better when I read Howard Morgan’s review late last month on his blog. I cannot remember a bad technology decision that he has made since I have known him. Well, I don’t count the fact that he wont switch to a Mac!
I found out late last week that my order finally shipped and I should expect to get my reader tomorrow. I already ordered 2 books for it that i was planning on reading. They should auto download to the reader when i turn it on. Hopefully this device lives up to my expectations since I have been waiting 8 years for it.
The Futile Attempt
Today I made a futile attempt at finding a Notary Public. Apparently no UPS Store I went to or Fedex Kinkos had any. This is in contrast to what UPS said on their website. Apparently when a multinational company lists available services at specific locations that means that one guy may be able to provide said service. If he is on vacation then they cannot.
What bothered me about the whole experience was I did my research and went to stores that said they had the service (UPS only, couldn’t find any info about Kinkos). I get there and I am told the guy who can do it is on vacation. I am not offered another location that can do it, just sorry. On my way back to the subway I saw a Kinkos so i tried them. I was told they don’t have one either but another Kinkos a few blocks away might. At this point, wouldn’t good customer service offer to call that store and check for me? They didn’t, and when i got to that location they looked at me funny. I fared worse at Staples where the clerk just looked at me funny and had no idea what i was talking about.
Now I need to find a bank on Monday that has a Notary that will actually notarize something for me without me having an account at the bank, since we know banks love to turn people away for simple crap like that if you aren’t an account holder. That has happened more times than i care to remember.
I write about this of all things because an errand that should have taken 30 minutes that I actually researched before I left my apartment turned into a 2 hour excursion around mid town manhattan.