A good weekend

It's a nice day in Michigan, I have always loved the way it smells in the summer... that hint of wetlands mixed with pollen and grass. I went to Houghton lake this past weekend, and the cottage is looking great!

It was a little rainy when we first got up there, and it was really nice to take the pontoon boat out on the lake!

I just wanted to throw this picture up really quick, but I will update the site a little later.

Later,

SteveO

I'm getting ready to leave!

I'm packed... Jaani has all his stuff... I am just finishing washing
his matt for his house now (it's in the dryer)...

I leave my home for the transit center at 3:30PM PST... Arrive in
Michigan around 11PM PST (2AM EST)... and then I am on vacation!

only a few last minute things (like take Jaani out) which I will do
just before 3PM to make sure he digests everything. I am just about
to heat up some food, take out the last bag of trash... then I'm off!

I might update once I get into the airport because I get free Wifi at
the Starbucks at the airport... but other than that, I'm almost there!

Later,

SteveO

Leaving for Michigan in T-...

25 hours and 15 minutes!

Just to keep everybody up to date on the whole thing...

makes you think where our priorities are.

The New, Greener Mircosoft!

So, there is a new trend around here at the soft... it is the compost bin! We now have a garbage, recycling, and compost bin to make sure we need to keep thinking even if we are just getting rid of our junk. On top of that, we have new cups, plastic ware, coffee stir straws, and disposable dishes that are all compostable! BTW, Compostable is now a real word around these parts... even if English does not recognize it, it's OK, if we say it, then it becomes a word.

However, with the new environmentally friendly approach, we now requite coffee cup sleeves... which are also compostable... We need the sleeves because the new cups conduct heat (which doesn't affect me because I have my own coffee mug (as seen below in the picture of my desk...)

However, you will also see that I have a coffee cup on my desk... it is there to see if the cups will actually decompose if they are left (empty) on a desk, and never used...

On top of that, the heat conducting cups are not the only issue that apparently comes from being green... The new plastic ware that we have is actually not made of plastic anymore... it is some sort of compostable corn-starch based material... that adds this funky flavor to your food and will loose it's shape if left in a hot liquid for too long... other than that, replacing the old plastic stir sticks for our coffee with thin wood strips is good... and from what I hear nobody minds the styrafoam plates being replaced with cardboard plates... and we can now recycle our milk cartons, beer bottles, and stuff... The new compost bins allow us to recycle food we don't eat rather than just throwing it out (which believe me is a lot of food.)

So, that's the new story about work...

On the lighter side of the news, I take Jaani in on Wednesday morning to get him sedatives and a certificate of health... I decided not to work, that way I can make sure I packed everything I need, and get anything I may have forgotten.

Yesterday I dropped my trees off at Evelyn's place for her to take care of for the next 2 weeks.

I did most of my packing over the weekend... mainly the things I thought I might forget like that dress mom made, and the basics... I also have almost finished cleaning everything... I have this feeling my apartment will be cleaner when I get back then it ever has been... at least sense I actually started putting stuff in there.

finally, I just have to make it through today and tomorrow at work. I have a test plan review tomorrow, and I guess it is a little annoying that my manager isn't here today, and if he wants me to make any other changes, everything will have to be done before 3 tomorrow... grr

so... that's my story... I'm stickin to it, and yup... I go home on Wednesday night!

Later,

SteveO

Do you still Suck at Photoshop?

I just got email from David from My Damn Channel who was kind enough to send me an email to notify me that You Suck At Photoshop (YSAP) is coming back! In 4 days! That is just totally sweet. He also sent me a link to a video that is kind of a prequel to the new season, however it is the finale of Sn4tchbuckl3r's Second Chance. You should check it out! If you liked YSAP you will love this!

Later,

SteveO

I knew it would be slow... but this is rediculous!

Well, I wanted to be part of the world record, but it was taking too long, and I couldn't wait... so I downloaded Firefox 3 via FTP. To be honest, it's the same as Firefox 3 RC5... at least I can't really tell the difference so far... meaning the past half hour... anyway.

If you haven't upgraded from firefox 2, you really should. Firefox 3 is faster, and seems to use less memory with all of the extensions I normally run. I am sad that Google Browser Sync won't be available anymore, but I guess that happens sometimes... I guess there are a dozen other apps to do the same thing anyway, but I have a thing for Google products. anyway... I gotta get back to work, I just wanted to let everyone know that the Mozilla site is running really slow, and if you want, look in my Google Reader Shared items (on the right) and there is a link to the FTP site... you won't be counted in the world record if you download via FTP, but you will be able to obtain the really cool brand new and shiny... well, maybe not so shiny, but new and improved Firefox 3.0...

P.S. for any Linux users... Win 1.0 was just released. 15 years after the project began, they finally have their first stable release. that is totally awesome!

anyway... I also forwarded the mail about downloading Firefox from the site to my blog... so if you want to (try to) participate, then you can click the link in the posting below this one...

Later,


SteveO

Today you'll make history with Firefox

Are you ready to make history? Are you ready to set a World Record? Today is Download Day. To become part of the official Guinness World Record you must download Firefox 3 by 17:00 UTC on June 18, 2008, or roughly 24 hours from now.

The sender of this email is Mozilla Corporation, 1981 Landings Drive, Bldg. K, Mountain View, CA 94043-0801.

The Sun has returned!

I suppose I could have played a punn on words by waiting a week and saying son... get it... ha ha... anyway, the title is true, the sun has come back to Seattle!

So, now that it is spring again (or summer...) My Bonzi went back outside. Well, I guess my Bonzi just sat in the window all last summer, but now it gets to hang out on my balcony now that it won't walk off on me.

My other Bonzi, which is an indoor bonzi, just got fed today because it was looking a little ill. Actually it still doesn't quite look as nice as it should. the branches that hang off to the side near it's base look like an under-inflated baloon... when it should look like a fully inflated baloon. None the less, it sits on my coffee table with it's little Buddhist shrine.







The outdoor bonzi also got a new man who is fishing in he river (which dries up every day...) he caught a fish about 2 weeks ago now, but he still hasn't gotten over watching it hang from his fishing rod. The two trees are my little plants.









As far as this past weekend... I got my Tux situation taken care of for Susie's wedding, and I took Jaani to Point defiance with Evelyn, Babli, and I. We all walked around the park, and we had to stop to smell the roses...


There were a lot of Roses. The Point Defiance rose garden is very big. I also included the picture of the entrance way, which is a path with flowers in the middle, covered my a tunnel made of vines.

They also had a lilly that I put in the picture collage.


There really is a lot to see at Pt Defiance, there is a Zoo there, a huge Beach, an Anthony's (expensive sea food with a spectacular view of the Olympic Mountains,) and miles of nature trails.
We walked around for a while... about half way out the point, until we came to a view point for the Tacoma Narrows bridges. If you look closely you can see that there are two suspension bridges going across the narrows. These bridges are build on the spot where the famous "Galloping Gurty" once stood. The lesson learned was that suspension bridges need to almost be strong enough to stand without the cables, even though the cables are what hold the bridge together.

Another neat little fact is that if you look at the water in the picture, the dark areas near the center of the Sound, you can actually see the disturbances that are caused by the water flowing both directions through this passage. In fact, you can not navigate these waters under sail. The two currents fight each other so much that only powerboats can fight the current in the middle. If you want to see where I took these pictures, I'll get the geo-tagging data up soon, so keep an eye on my Picasa blog album.

So, I'll leave you all with a picture of Jaani, Evelyn, Babli, and I all standing in the little gazebo they have in the middle of the rose garden, and I'll be sure to update again soon.





Later,

SteveO

Here is an update!

So, I pretty much dropped off the grid for the past week. I guess I just got a little caught up with work, and a few side projects I'm working on. One thing I've been doing lately is making a financial tracking spreadsheet that has nifty little tools and charts that I can use to manage my money. I like it so far, but it has kept me a little occupied lately.

One thing I've been doing every day is walk on the trail. I was happy to see this bird that is living in one of the trees above the trail. It is flying around all the time, and it doesn't seem too bothered by the dogs or people. The bird feels quite at home on the river, with lots of food and fresh water for the bird, and the locals don't disturb it.

I also got my computer to display full resolution on my TV. The TV only accepts 2 resolutions, a 16:1 perspective and a 4:3 perspective... with only one resolution for each perspective. anyway, I couldn't get it working in windows, but it works fine in Linux. The only bad part about that is that I can't use the Zune software in Linux. This is the bad part about working on a Windows only product. Grr.

I guess other than getting my computer working the way I want it to on my TV, and creating a document to help me manage my money, I have been thinking about getting a Asus Eee. It's a "netbook" or "cloudbook". The concept is very much like the Apple Air, but much more affordable. A netbook/cloudbook is a little laptop. They typically don't have large hard drives, and they are intended primarily for internet usage. The model of Eee I was looking at is one that includes a built in webcam. It has a 4GB solid-state HDD, and 1.7 Ghz Atom processor. 7" screen, and keyboard. They are usually a little smaller than a standard spiral notebook, and they are usually under 2 lbs. The Eee I'm looking at actually has no moving parts.

However, I don't think I'll have an extra $500 for a little while, so I will have to wait on one of those. The weather last week was just so... depressing. Everyone was depressed and angry that it was raining with strong winds. It was really nice that on Thursday the weather got really nice, and it's been pretty nice sense. I guess the clouds were out today, but the sun came out a few times. It's definately good weather.

Anyway, I'm going to get to bed. I'll be sure to update again soon!

Later,

SteveO

Google Video

FYI I'm doing fine.
That's all for now.

Later,

SteveO