Days off!

Due to a huge office move (in which my office, which consists of one small box of personal effects and a computer, will be moved to the opposite end of the hallway), I have TWO DAYS off. And that's not counting Monday, when we've got half the day off to see the Hitchhiker's Guide movie, while they replace our carpet (yes, AFTER the move is completed instead of during).

Whatever. Two days off, whoo hoo!

What am I doing with the time? Well, Laurel has the car, so not much. I did ride the bus downtown today and had some lunch at the record store / cafe in West Seattle -- little story there ... I was waiting for a club sandwich and they brought me a BLT. I picked it up and almost took a bite when I realized it wasn't right, so I put it back. The waiter came over and I said, "This is wrong, but I picked it up, so whoever ordered it probably wouldn't want it anymore." The woman sitting next to me at the counter, who worked at the record store, said, "Ah, who cares, look where we are!" I didn't see if it did end up on someone else's table, but it did make me keep a good eye on MY food ;-) ... it was good, and so far, I seem to have lived.

Pop, Soda, Coke?

It's POP. Get over it. Coke is a brand name, and "soda" is generic carbonation. Actually, it should be "cola," but let's not be dorks.

Besides, as the Pop vs. Soda site reveals, scientifically, "CONCLUSION: People who say 'Pop' are much, much cooler." Full map of pop-term-by-region is here.

(And everyone knows RC Cola is the one true Pop!)

As seen on the Daily Show

(It is Steve Ballmer's email, featuring an appearance from Clippy ... probably the best commentary on this subject I've seen yet!)

Anti-MS bloggers

Mini-Microsoft and Microsophist, along with a host of other folks who are more willing to put their actual names on their blogs (although with much softer job-safe points-of-view), are publishing blogs about Microsoft's dirty laundry that are just crazily fun to read (can't wait till the first person gets fired for doing this!)

I'm used to people *outside* of Microsoft hating us, and used to people in every job I've had inside MS or out complaining about their work environment, but this is a new level!

I may not be happy that my stock is worth somewhere between zero and pennies, but I'm sure there are plenty of people who would be happy to have that to worry about. Doesn't stop me from being sad, though ;-)

A coincidence

Happened to sit on the bus next to someone using my bus app :)

The bus

I've added a little sidebar item on the blog to automatically show when I'm on the bus (or not) ... If I'm on the bus, it will show a map of where it is; if not, you'll see what you're most likely seeing there now (a graphic saying I'm not on the bus).

Find me on the bus

I ride the bus to work every Tuesday and Thursday, because Laurel has to take the car in to school very early in the morning.

So, of course, I had to apply technology to the situation, and came up with a way to watch the Seattle buses move on a map.

And whenever I'm on the bus (or at least pretending to be on it with my phone), you can watch the exact bus I'm traveling on, here.

(It works by ... oh, it would take a (computer) scientist to explain, and I'm just a journalist.)

We have a winner: The iJoy chair

Laurel, who arguably is the world's foremost expert on how to spend my money, wins the contest to figure how to spend the $500 that will soon be burning a hole in my pocket -- turns out it will burn a hole straight through to the Sharper Image, who will in turn send me an iJoy chair (actually in "mocha," which you can see if you pull down the color drop-down).

You may note, if you visit their website, that the chair is more than $500, however, Laurel not only had the idea for the chair, but also where to buy it (eBay), and I got it for $543 including tax and shipping. Not a bad deal.

(When I pointed out that since it was $43 over the limit, and therefore did not "count" as my $500 purchase, requiring me to make another one, Laurel made what can only be described as "that face.")

Of course, we already have a massage chair, but it has seen better days, and is more workable as a plain ol' chair at this point. Not sure where we will put the iJoy -- I've been thinking about putting it in my office at work!

How will I spend that $500?

I'm not asking how you would, or should, spend $500 ... but if you have any suggestions for how I should, let me know with a comment here.

As anyone who knows me knows, I am not very impulsive with my spending, I try to make every dollar count, and a I rarely waste money on things I don't need (cough, boat, cough, every video game console ever made, cough).

So, and let's just assume that charity is out of the question and I really want to spend my money on material things for a fun change of pace, what material thing do you suggest?

I "won" I "won"!

My little app below for the new TextAmerica developer API is apparently a winner -- although because they aren't really running an actual contest, they are describing it as an "earner" ... as in, I earned 500 bucks.

Wow ... it has long been my dream to actually get paid to write computer programs, and now at long last, it has come true.

Oh, wait a minute -- is that what that money that shows up in my bank account every two weeks is for??? I thought I was just showing up at Microsoft for the non-stop fun!

TextAmerica application entry

I whipped up a little app (and reusable .NET library) for TextAmerica's new developer API.

The application, for the AudioVox SMT5600 Smartphone is here.

The .NET library is adaptable to the Smartphone, PocketPC, and any desktop computer that has .NET, and is basically the TextAmerica.cs file found in the full sources for the Smartphone app.

Whoo hoo!

I got a letter from the college today telling me I made the Dean's list for last quarter.

I'm enjoying this quarter so far, especially the classes in the gym. Except for the 2 days I have to be there at 6:30 in the morning - I'm not really feeling the love for that :) We are practicing fitness assessments on each other in one class. Looks like my weightlifting is paying off - my body fat percentage was down in the "athletic" category (<20%) and my upper body strength is at the 100th percentile for my age group. Also I have clawed my way up to slighty "above average" in flexibility - a year ago it was "poor."

Back to school

This was my first week back in school after spring break, and boy am I busy! I have 23 hours of class plus 4 hours of shadow each week. Shadowing is when you watch someone else train a client. At some point, this quarter or next, I'll be tested off on the machines and can then train people at school myself. Students at LWTC get personal training at greatly reduced rates ($50/quarter) in return for being the Fitness department's guinea pigs. So what am I taking this quarter? Nutrition, the anatomy of the cardiovascular system, weight training, exercise science research, my classes in the gym.... and a "wonderful" required class called Professional Skills for Fitness. Half the people in the class are my age or older and I'm pretty sure we've all held jobs before :) What a joke. If I decide to drop any classes this quarter, that will be the one.

As predicted

The videos are gone. I didn't want to pay $5 / month for a service I wasn't using ... unfortunately, canceling it meant that the existing videos were deleted. Oh, what a loss!

Listening to "DSC-2005-04-03" by Adam Curry from the album From the balcony of Curry Condo in South Beach. First 'cast on windows!

Comments working again

Thanks to Joe (aka my father-in-law) for pointing out that the comments page for the baby picture wasn't working. It is now. So comment away! (FYI, the problem was that blogger.com was having server issues that prevented the comments page from being published, but I forced a reset and it is working now).

Listening to "School Girl, Black Straw, Drunken Irish Lad and Popoff's Miracle Water" by Urban Family Night from the album UFN

Dave falls for the PSP

I got a PlayStation Portable yesterday ... actually, I had picked it up during a Costco trip (we just got a brand new Costco -- right across the parking lot from the old Costco) and decided at the last second to put it back on the shelf. Then I thought better of it and went back and got it. It's pretty neat -- the games I have are pretty lame, but the video playback ability is GREAT ... I can take anything we record on ReplayTV, pop it onto the PSP, and watch it anywhere. Now I just need a bigger memory stick (mine is only big enough for about an hour's worth of TV).

I wish this had been an April Fool's joke

Yesterday, *all* outstanding Microsoft stock options became worthless.