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Sunday, February 24, 2008

Welcome to Texas

I'm in Edinburg, TX, on a recruiting trip for Microsoft. After some pretty mediocre BBQ last night (the place smelled GREAT from outside and looked authentically run-down enough to be good, but oh well), I decided to find a grocery store and just stock up on food in the room, since it has a fridge and a microwave. I drove around for hours looking for a grocery store, when I finally realized, after about the 10th Wal-Mart sighting, that the Wal-Marts were the grocery stores. The selection was vast and inexpensive, so no real complaints (Laurel is fairly anti-Wal-Mart but being from the midwest, I'm used to it ... I was just surprised that there were no other grocery store choices at all).

Monday, February 18, 2008

My favorite songs

(according to the number of times I've played them, as recorded by iTunes, which probably isn't correct since I've moved files to a new disk recently ... in other words, some of these are really odd):
  1. "Here's Your Future" by The Thermals (heard at the end of a Weeds episode)
  2. "Girl Anachronism" by The Dresden Dolls (again, another Weeds song)
  3. "Get Over It" by OK Go (First heard this playing in the background of an internet video of an ... alternative? ... nature)
  4. "Debonair" by Afghan Whigs (A song I have always truly loved since the day it was released)
  5. "Work It" by Missy Elliott (what??? ... OK, I like the backwards part, and this song is DIRTY AS HELL if you really listen to it)
  6. "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse (huh??? Not sure why I listen to this)
  7. "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie (amazingly good, but first heard this done on youtube by the girl who won that Doritos Superbowl ad and her sisters, who actually do it better)
  8. "Misunderstanding" by Genesis (embarrassing! My first two concerts -- Phil Collins solo, and then Genesis)
  9. "Megalomaniac" by Incubus (Bought it thinking it was something else, and liked it)
  10. "Dreams" by Van Halen (Laurel and I both had this in our heads one day and both bought it on iTunes. I then listened to it enough to permanently blast it from my head.)
Update!: The list above didn't include videos ... so actually "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira comes in between "Work It" and "Rehab" ... the whole list is bogus, though, because I know I've played "Cigaro" by System of a Down more times than any of the above combined, but the iTunes playcount says 0. Further update: I realized after Laurel read this list that a) I probably spent two weeks of non-contiguous lifetime making playcounts work in Windows Media Player 7, only to end up using this iTunes thing where they obviously didn't give a twist if it worked or not, and b) her list of randomly top songs is even more embarrassing, as it includes Celine Dion. At least mine are cool. Ish. Except for Genesis.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

New camera software

At the top of my blog, I usually have my best-selling pix from Shutterstock showing. I've added some code that will switch that view over to my live webcam, if I happen to be online, so watch for that!

Monday, February 04, 2008

Oh, Apple, why must you tempt me so?


The Air's in there!
Originally uploaded by Seattle Dave.

I usually don't leave the house by 9 a.m., but today I had a 9 a.m. meeting ... and FedEx usually doesn't come before 9 a.m., but today they did -- delivering my MacBook Air five days earlier than scheduled! Now I have to work all through the day knowing that my Air awaits at home in its tiny little box (although Laurel says it is surprisingly heavy).

Saturday, February 02, 2008

"We Disappear" video appears

I've never seen a video trailer for a book before, so it is pretty neat that this is from an author I know personally ... I can't wait for his new book, but in the meantime, we have this "atmospheric" trailer: