This is the second computer at which I have used that has the new IE7 on it. That wasn't much of a shock. I think Microsoft put it in the latest update. What I wonder is if it was bundled with the awesome Google toolbar.
Maybe I am wrong, but I just don't see users of this computer intentionally putting it on. I noticed the spell checker was never run before. I got the first-time use splash screen on both machines.
One of my little brothers wanted to play a chess game with me. I used to love to play that game too. Of course, until I started to loose more than I won.
Anyway, no board could be found. I mentioned that there might be some wayto play on the computer. I was thinking about sitting at one computer and playing that way with some software that we used to have.
The more I thought, the more I wondered if someone already thought of this. Putting chess on the Internet where people could play from anywhere. Did a quick search and eventually we went to Yahoo! games.
It was fun to play, but I don't need to add to his already unhealthy adiction to games. I'd like to play again one day. Maybe in a week.
The last post and this one was actually composed on Saturday. But I think the server is set to Eastern time. Oh well, nobody reads this anyway.
Had some fun with the kids. It is hard to please them all. I assume the will get over things and just remember all the good things. Like I do?
I admit I did enjoy beating a 6-year old at a computer game. Ages of Kings is my favorite game, especially when i win! Put me on a game console, and I'd loose for sure. Even if I had the coordination.
When I got up this morning, I refused to help take all the Christmas stuff down because I thought it was kind of a waste to put it all up in the first place. I did go outside to help my Dad because it minimized the time he was out in the freezing cold.
I have been to a couple stores where Valentines' goods replaced Christmas. Unbelievable, these Holiday's are purely marketing ploys.
Oh well, when in Rome do as the Romans? Celebrate New Years a day early because New Year' Eve falls a Sunday? Some people in Utah did. Honestly, if I was not taking family pictures and had no other plans... I can see myself joining the throng of celebrators.
It is always amazing to watch my Dad at work (i.e. in the wood shop). In this case at Home Depot. I never seem him asking for assistance. He knows exactly what he wants. Today I watched him scan over several wood strips... What the heck is he looking for?
I wonder if I could ever be as cool as him.
So far the Christmas vacation has gone more or less according to plan. Few unexpected events arose, but it has been lots of fun. All my nieces and nephews want my attention. They can wear me out quickly. Especially when I don't get enough sleep as I should.
I felt kind of dumb when my brother asked if I got his gift that he sent to my place. A heater arrived a few weeks ago, thinking it was one of my roommates, i left it by the front door.
I thought it was odd that it stayed in that same position for so long. I didn't even check to see who it was too. Well, now I know. D'oh! I could have set it up in the family room.
I told everyone that if they wanted to get me something to ship it to my place and put some card under the tree. I did not want to pack a bunch of stuff back on the plane.
One of the classic moments was when I was involved in a hiring process. The position was for a web developer. More precisely, a PHP developer.
PHP is a server side scripting language that allows for dynamic pages to be built. See PHP.net for more information.
When it was my turn to interview one person, I was told that she said she was good with the client side. I did not think much of that comment until i got in the room. "I'm good with PHP on the client side." I was told immediately.
Really?, I thought. How in the world did you do that?
Needless to say she got my lowest ranking. The guy that was hired was ranked second to last. He seemed to be a yes-man, but I overhead that he had been preselected. I even asked why we should interview others if it was predetermined? Oh well, that is why I'm on the bottom of the "chain of command."
I just scanned over some posts from December of last year. Feels like yesterday.
I do remember doing some work on some dot-Net controls. I need to take time to fix things up, make a nice page for information and/or screen shots...
This year I will be on tour in my home state. Visiting my new niece, my family, and some friends. Should be lots of fun.
The title could apply to the plethora of women in my ward/stake, but I'm talking about online, printed, and audio books, podcasts, wikipedia, Netflix, etc.
I just learned of an MSDN podcast. I used to watch MSDN TV and should still, but there is not enough time for it all.
What are the essential things I should be doing?
One type of leach I wanted to post on are recruiters. Why bother calling me with “new” information and want me to call back for it? Just leave it in the email or the voice mail you sent to notify me. Another guy kept bugging me to “touch base”… It’s like “please hold my hand…”, “please call, I’m bored or I have no friends.”… “help me feel important or to look busy.”
I don’t want to call a leach every day unless for every call they loose a percentage of what they are stealing from me if I get a job from one of their clients.
For a moment, I was regretting I missed the work part Friday night, but it all worked out well. Went and looked at some monuments later that evening.
The next day was filled with activity. As was the day after that. Breakfast with my Thing people, events with great people, lots of hugs, great Christmas music, etc.
Hopefully this week will be just as fun. I guess it is as fun as I make it.
I got all excited about Skype thinking they were the only ones but I suppose they are just one of many tools out there. I found out Yahoo! has their own VoIP product. I learned about it while looking for info on passing my cell number as the caller ID.
Oh well, I got unlimited calls for a year. Yahoo! wants a penny a minute - which isn't bad at all. When will Google have an eternal beta product? :) Can MSN Messenger do VoIP? Who else is out there?
I got onto Skype and started making calls in the US. I thought to abandon my phone because of my animosity towards Sprint, but they are almost a necessary evil. I suppose if every one had a transceiver... nah, that would not work.
It is nice to call whenever. It is also good to get someones current location... but I'm at my computer most of the time anyway...
I do like text messages too. Very nice when you don't really want to talk or you want to send an inaudible message.
So, I was going to look into getting a cheaper plan and phone. I might get a new phone because of the one year warranty... I should still reduce the plan if I'm going to be using Skype. The less money Sprint gets from me, the better.
I walked into this Sprint/Nextel store that was close to a metro stop. It looked professional. I even got help right away and talked a very competent guy! Although, there were issues, partially mine, when I tried calling the manufacture. I thought it was kind of like when you call somewhere and while on hold, they tell you that there is information on the web site that you can access faster... often that is just to confuse people so they have to call back later anyway.
So, I get back in line to pay to have a technician look at the phone which was one of the options I got at the start. Well, I got this incompetent woman who had to "diagnose" the issue. She could not even put the battery in to see that my phone did not work! After ashamedly cursing, she finally did what I told her to do when I first talked to her. Did I mention her English was bad too?
When I went back to pick up the phone, at first I honestly felt they where making me wait because I was so rude to the lady. When I finally got help, I just demanded my phone back. They could not fix it, go figure.
When I called in to the manufacturer later, I was expecting somewhat of a fight. I was surprised when I did not. I suppose I should not have been surprised... They weren't Sprint!
I packed two Pepsi cans into work so I can enjoy what I bought. At least one roommate pays for the cans he takes. Anyway, on the way to work I feel something wet on my leg. It s raining right, so I don't think much about it. But, for some reason, I like to smell my hands when I touch something of questionable texture.
D'oh! One of the cans blew up (or leaked) somehow. I pulled out all my stuff in my bag to try and minimize the damage. D'oh! My phone was in there!!!!
The one entity I hate giving money to, especially this time of year, is the Sprint PCS people. I should just get a new carrier but I am always hopefully the blood sucking POSs will cut me a break one day. I doubt it, but it sure helps to hope.
I don't want to even think of buying a new phone, but my brain extension has been acting up. It has called people up a couple times. I think some of that was by design: If I power off the phone before hanging up, it tends to call the person back.
No, but it has called this one number multiple times. The first series of calls, it was because it was the last call I made. The second series, I'm not sure how it selected that number to call.
Now, the power button is jammed. I have to do this dance to turn it on and I lowered the timeout time for it to turn itself off if not in use.
What is next? I should take it in... but then what phone can I use? I can't just cut off a piece of my brain?
Last time I went to Eastern Market it rained. This time it was very cold out, but fun. I did not walk around the market last time. I did not have enough cash on me...... D'oh!
A new niece was born the other day. I cannot wait to go see her along with my other nieces... and nephews for that matter. Yeah, going to Utah!!!
My Home Teaching people get breakfast-in-bed tomorrow. OK, not really. We;ll bring it over and dine with them before Church. Next Sunday we will catch the others on our list and do the same thing.
Talked with the neighbor about some investment options. Hopefully, his advise will pay off!
I noticed there is a Shrek 4 in the works along with some other interesting movies. Route 66 sounds like a Cars knock off... and why not ride on the coat tails of Pixar?
I mean there was Antz for Bugs Life. Shark Tale for Finding Nemo. Route 66 for Cars. Monsters Inc.? Toy Story? Incredibles?
I left the house at 10am for this parade. It was interesting to see all these guys in kilts in 34+ degree weather. .. the bag pipes... gun fire... and the dogs. What is the deal with this town's obsession with dogs. I thought the dog park was too much but to hear some treat their dogs as family members...
I then went to a place to see Revolutionary War soldiers during a typical Christmas. I did not have to pay, but I wanted to ward off a crowd so I slipped the lady some cash. I thought it was great parents called their kids away... excellent.
The coolest part of that was the lesson from the Revolutionary War surgeon. Pretty crude from today's medical standards.
I then went to some friends movie debut. I could have hung out more with myself, but I'm glad I went to the 20 minute homemade documentary/comedy... Beautiful women, got a couple hugs... and the film was awesome.
Then we tried to see the boat parade but not sure it even went through. We saw no boats in the river. Did we miss it? Oh well.
Then I spent some time talking with a couple of us "older" guys. It was good.
Got home from seeing an interesting version of the Christmas Carol at Fords Theatre. It was great, except the one beam in my view. Oh well.
I was let on the bus with an old bus pass. I haven't gotten the December pass yet.
It finally started to get cold this evening. They kept saying this cold front was coming and now I fear it will be here a very, very long time.
I joked about someone who got "kicked out" of the ward because they reached the age threshold. My time is coming short. Arguably, it is already here and has been for some time.
If I leave my job, what are the odds people can see past their biases? This is quite a different part of the world, but somethings almost never change.
I went to great lengths to get some info to some flirtatious person only to find out it was in vain. Could have responded earlier so I would not have made an ass of myself... Well, I hope someone enjoys that. I do it a lot. I suppose the slow response was all a timing issue.
I'm already sad about my Christmas trip. I expect great things, but I only will come back here. Illusions are all I have anyway, why this melancholy tone? It's good therapy.... pity the sole who reads and/or tries to make sense if it all.