I've found that the amount that I talk is fairly closely related to the level of background agitation in my life. So while I was really rather bothered by pretty much everything back in school, I was certainly really vocal about it all—and generally had some amusing stories to tell....
Doing something complicated the first time is always exciting, interesting, and engaging. Doing the same thing the right way the second time is so much more....
It isn't too clear to those of you using the front-end of /dev/null, but the entire database backend is down. So comments don't work and this post won't actually make it to the site until whenever it is I actually get everything working again. This is mostly my fault. It...
The Orange County Convention Center, which housed the event I staffed last week, is one of the biggest buildings in the world—very close in size to the Boeing assembly facility in nearby Everett. I hear that the two buildings comprising the convention center are, in total, larger than the Boeing...
This is sortof moot since the site is going down in a few minutes ... but the site is going down. This all stems from an odd networking problem that exists between one of my laptops and my access point—so I'm taking it to the office to get it all...
Fourth in the series of laptops provided by my office (provided I exercise them thoroughly and file lots of bugs) is the Alienware Aurora m9700. Unlike the trim portables I've had in the past, the m9700 is a beast of a machine, and actually isn't really supposed to be terribly...
On Sunday morning on our way out of town, we stopped at an IHOP somewhere in Orlando for breakfast. Unfortunately, IHOP is probably the last place you want to go on a Sunday morning, but we were damned hungry and weren't about to order room service again. This was one...
Yes, the rides at Universal Orlando were a giant scam, but the park itself had one awesome moment that redeemed the entire experience. Part of the park is a giant lake, and on that giant lake are four or five ... bigass balls. They're probably 10m across and have projection...
In the theme park business, there's no sin greater than making the entrance to something that isn't a ride look like the entrance to a ride. A rope maze in front of the gift store or puppet show is surely a tresspass of divine proportions and while warnings for pregnant...
There's something to be said for being able to assemble a team of a dozen willing volunteers to help out at a conference on 10 days notice and ending up with a genuinely functional and damned effective workforce. I haven't seen this happen anywhere outside of Microsoft and I certainly...
I've been on my feet working today from 6am through 8:30pm. 95% of that was dealing with customers and helping solve miscellaneous tech issues. Stick a fork in me. It was fun, but I'm done....
So it turns out that the Windows Mobile folks brought an Alfa 159 wagon to the conference as a showcase piece—Microsoft and Fiat (who owns Alfa) announced a parternership a while back and the Euro-only1 159 bears some of the fruits thereof. Oh, that's hot. 1 Damn, damn. Damn damn...
Don't ever go there. It's hot and humid and fly-ridden and smells entirely like lotion and doo-doo. Also, the Orange County Convention Center has quite possibly the world's most confusing parking lot...ever. Take a look at the image at right—that's what it takes just to get out of the lot....
In a day and age of idiot-proof and strongly secured information systems, the airline electronic booking system is a delightful anachronism of trust and efficiency. Where else, for example, can you view and modify (!) passenger data on another company's flights with little more than a text terminal and some...
We've got a red-eye flight through DFW (hoorah) in our future, so this may be the last post here for a while. As usual, I'll be composing posts while I'm on the road and will upload what I can when I get the chance....
When I first moved to Washington, I noticed that there was a Church of Scientology right around the corner from the Microsoft campus. It's always seemed odd to find the Church over here on the eastside—it certainly didn't fit in too well. Today, however, I noticed that it's been turned...
I just wrote a longish (OK, not too long) post about how damned busy things are right now, but it got torched when I lost my net pipe around the time that I was submitting the post. So here's this, instead. La la la la la la la la la...
Ignore the "peaches" part of the title. Anyway, we're going to Orlando next week to help out with an internal MS event. I can't really say a whole lot more about the actual event (it involves Windows Vista) but we'll be working for about four days and partying for one....
Aleph has a wound on his right front leg. It started as a patch of fur that the veterinarian shaved off in order to provide Aleph with fluids through an IV so he didn't get dehydrated during his teeth cleaning, for which he had to receive general anesthesia because cats...
Does anyone out there have any recommendations for a good textbook set to getting a Private license and an IFR? I've been using the Cessna Pilot Center "textbook" + video-on-CD course material (pictured at right) but the textbook leaves a lot of stuff out and the videos are great at...
I've been back up in the air twice (and out to the airport thrice) but I'm already struck by how damned long it takes to get from the work or house all the way out to Crest Airpark. Crest is way far south—it's almost all the way down in Auburn,...
Last night I posted about all the assfaced spam being posted to my journal1. The picture I posted was of spam oozing out of a ThinkPad's optical drive...which was funny. What was funnier (or not) was that when I got to work today, I found that my laptop bag smelled...
Over the last six hours, I've gotten 400-some-odd spam comments on this journal. Lovely. Movable Type assigns a "-1" for comments posted from a blacklisted IP but also assigns a "+1" for including a previously-published email address. Previously, I was publishing all comments with a legitimacy rating of 0 or...
Spotted today on the way to my flight....
During the ~90 minutes I was around downtown Kirkland last night, I saw:A mid-1950s Mercedes convertible Two C3 Corvette Stingrays A half dozen 911s, including a 997 Carrera and a 996 GT3 Easily a dozen BMW M3s Ferrari 308 Ferrari 360 Spider Some odd mid-1980s Rolls Royce And this wasn't...
I was asked recently what the weirdest movie I've ever seen was. Since apparently I haven't mentioned it on this journal before, here it is. The weirdest movie I've ever seen is, without a doubt, Zardoz. It's an odd science ficton film made in the mid-1970s and starring Sean Connery,...
A few months back the local radio station replaced their local morning show (hosted by DJ No Name and Jennifer White—both now doing their thing on XM) with the Adam Carolla show, syndicated out of somewhere in Los Angeles. While I don't like Adam's show nearly as much as I...
For the first time ... ever, I'm flying planes near sea level. In the cold, and in the drizzle. So things are a bit different here. Here's a list of the things I noticed today, during my first flight out at Crest Airpark.Check the weather reports. For the first time...
My understanding is that old people only ever use the internet to look at pictures of their grandchildren....
I know, it's really breaking news. And poof, they're gone....
Being that Seattle sits astride a number of lakes, and being that lakes don't tend to combust particularly well, most of the 4th of July fireworks shows in the area occur on the water. And since it was a damned nice day, Layla and I (and a number of others)...
I took Aleph and Fifo to the vet last week for their annual checkups. Fifo doesn't seem to enjoy the vet nearly as much as Aleph does, and the first thing he did once I let him out of his cage was to climb behind the computer screen in the...
Right when I start looking into repairing the blower motor in the Mercedes, I actually give it a shot...and the damned thing works. Right away. But now, there's no heat in the core. Agh. Oh, and even though I've got a replacement seal kit for the trunk lid, there's so...
After a three-year hiatus, I'm going to get back in the air to finish my private pilot's license. I've finally unblocked the only issue that was holding me back before (i.e., money) and now it's my chance to finish up what I started. I've wanted to get my license since...
Aleph really wanted to play with the green feather at right. He climbed up onto the shelf at the very left-hand edge, and then slooowly made his way over. This was shot on the way back. Awesome....
No! Duct-tape is not how we attach a dryer hose....
