I’m not going to say anything long winded about it. Just wanted to mention that I’ve been extremely amused by the whole Dick Cheney shooting his friend thing.
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Just so yall know, I (and Brandy and Amy) are having the same mail problems as Rebecca. It has been going on for a little over a week now. It is being worked on, but may take another week to resolve. Basically, if you send me email at my normal address, it takes up to several days for me to get it (although every once in awhile something randomly seems to get through in less than 12 hours). And if I send an email, it takes the same kind of time frame for it to get to where it is going. I do have several other personal email addresses, but I don’t like using them and check them much less frequently (cause they usually only get spam). If you know one of those personal addresses, feel free to use it if you like. (If you know it, don’t use my work email though, I try to keep the personal mail completely seperate. Thanks.) So, bottom line, if you need to get to me in any sort of timely fashion… call me.
Yesterday I put in all the paperwork for an apartment. Six month lease. A two bedroom rather than a one. That way we’ll be a little more comfortable for the last three months of the six months, when Brandy and Amy will both be with me. It is not where I would want to live long term. But it will do for six months. My move in day is the 24th. The same as my move out day at the corporate housing I am in now. Everything is reserved and the initial deposit in, but I don’t sign the actual lease and give them the cashiers check for the rest of the initial money until the 24th. And before then I have to make arrangements for electricity and broadband too. I’ll try to get that done later today. Ah… broadband! That will be such a relief. 56k is so increadibly frustrating!! So I move out of this place the morning of the 24th. I move into the apartment on the afternoon of the 24th. Then the morning of the 25th I head back to Florida. I’m actually staying longer than a weekend. A previous engagement that existed before I started the new job. Taking Brandy and Amy to a concert (Moody Blues) that Tuesday night. Twas a Christmas/Birthday present for Brandy. And then once that is over, Amy and Brandy are flying back to Seattle with me for the rest of the week. Amy has interviews for schools. I think one is scheduled so far, but more will be scheduled by the time we get there. It will be a busy week.
I didn’t note it when it happened, but yesterday (Saturday the 11th) at 03:29 UTC it had officially been 30.4368 days since I initially walked in the door of the building to start my new job. In other words, it had been a whole month. It actually has seemed to go by quickly, because I am having fun and enjoying myself. And learning a lot. And also, more importantly, I can say the transition from being purely in a learning mode to actually being able to contribute finally started to kick in this last week. At least I feel like it did. I am still getting up to speed. No question about it. Several people have told me that it took them six months to feel like they really knew what was going on. But I have started to more actively participate in discussions and add things and I’ve been doing a few things that I can actually point to and say I did something and finished it. Now, nothing too horribly significant yet, but I’m getting there, and people seem to be pleased with my progress, so that is good. By the end of the second month I hope I can say almost all of my time is doing things which actually contribute to the group rather than most of it being learning and getting up to speed time. The learning is fun, but I am here to actually contribute and move things forward, not just learn for my own sake. I’d say the first two weeks were almost 100% learning. Third week I probably managed 10%-15% productiveness and the rest learning. Fourth week I think I was getting over 30%. I’m hoping to be over 50% this coming week. Ramp up is necessary, but sucks. I want to be DOING stuff as quickly as possible. I’m getting there though. Since Cronus seems to be coming early, I went to the Apple Store this afternoon and grabbed a USB modem for it. Didn’t think I would need that since it was due to arrive in March, so I hadn’t ordered it bundled. But while I was there I also grabbed a Bluetooth Dongle from Zeus. I figured I could get the bluetooth thing all figured out, cause that will be faster that dialup on Cronus. Now, Cronus will have bluetooth build in and thus will not need a dongle. But with Zeus I need it. Now, I can’t get incoming calls while I am connected with Bluetooth, so I would still need the old dialup for other times… OK, so I could have just bought nothing and used Cronus’s bluetooth only (just not stay online all the time) or just bought the USB modem… but… Anyway, I have the Bluetooth set up now on Zeus. So I am connected to the internet via my Treo on the Sprint network. It is averaging 3 to 4 times faster than the dialup did. And that is a huge difference! It is not fast… but it is no longer PAINFUL like the dialup was. Plus, the dialup would randomly hang up occationally or just stay connected but slow to almost zero speed, both of which were very very annoying. This is MUCH better. I suddenly feel like the computer is usable. I can surf the web and get other things done without going away for ten minutes between each click. This is very nice. Of course, Cronus will arrive in a few days. And then I’ll move to an apartment within the next two weeks. And shortly after that I’ll have real broadband back. But this is a huge improvement over yesterday! So for now… bluetooth on Zeus after about 5 UTC when Brandy goes to sleep back in Florida. Dial up between 12 UTC and 5 UTC if I really need it. Then once Cronus arrives same thing for as long as I am here. Then once I move to an apartment all Bluetooth (just not all the time so I can still get calls) since I won’t have a landline there. Then soon after that I’ll have broadband again and all will be right with the world. Anyway… long and boring… but I was quite excited about it. The internet suddenly works again! (I can’t believe I can remember when 56k was fast… urgh!) I’ve been checking my order status page at least daily, sometimes more. As of my checks yesterday, they still said they expected Cronus to ship on March 1st and arrive by March 8th. (I’d just gotten regular shipping.) That’s what it had said ever since the moment I ordered it. Well, a little over an hour ago, I unexpectedly got an email letting me know that it had indeed shipped and was on the way. It has just been picked up by FedEx in Shanghai, China. According to the email from Apple, it should arrive here in Seattle on the 14th. That would be Tuesday. Woo!!!! Of course, this is earlier than expected, so I am not actually fully prepared. I had expected to be in a real apartment and with broadband access before I got it. So I didn’t get the external modem dongle thing. I should be able to use Bluetooth DUN on my cellphone, but then of course when I was online I would not be able to use my phone. So I may have to make a run to the Apple Store this weekend for one of those modem dongles, so I can keep dialing up at 56k until I do move into a real apartment and have broadband and all. It will be a shame to run a nice new machine like that on a 56k Internet connection… but I’ll manage. :-) It is on the way! Woo! For the first time in many months, Brandy is driven to post on her blog. There is a time…
Read the whole thing. I only wish her inspiration had not come this way. It has been a very rough few months indeed. :-( This is very cool. 2 Web Sites Push Further Into Services Real Estate Agents Offer
(via Memeorandum) I think Zillow is overvaluing our home by a little bit though (based on conversations we have had recently with an agent about the current slowdown in the market). I would of course be very pleased if that was not true. :-) The other site (RedFin) is starting out in the Seattle area, so maybe we’ll check it out some too. The little snail that could – Snails are faster than ADSL
(via BoingBoing) “The Road Ahead” 10 years on
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