I took today off, mainly to wait for the hot water heater installer, but also to try and catch up with a few projects (and also I have a lot of vacation to use before yearend). One project was to put lights in the huge pine tree in front. This thing is thirty feet tall. It was cold and windy, and I was standing on a 10 foot ladder with a 10 foot pole with my 7 foot reach ... almost made it to the top. Every time I see one of those videos with the lights synchronized to music, the end product is very cool, but just imagine the time commitment.
Quotes from movies I watched today ...
"Do you remember when everyone was shouting my name, and I used my strength to rip my blouse?"
"It's so damn hot ... Milk was a bad choice."
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
I've been thinking a lot about personal finances lately, mainly trying to get back on top of things. It seems that during the study season, this is one area that I let go, probably because it doesn't need daily attention. Thanks to Knapper, I now have a few personal finance blogs in my feeds. Knapper also has been talking about possibly putting together a personal finance site, maybe with more analyses than the other sites give. I think this would be a cool project for him, and I've extended my web design services.
Currently, I use Microsoft Money to manage my accounts. Having used it for many years, I wouldn't be opposed to switching to a different application, given time to do so. There's obviously Quicken and a few online apps popping up. I realize that there can be no single software that can do everything that everyone wants, but it seems that these applications should be better by now. The two things I can think of are budgeting and importing. The budgeting in Money is quite basic and can't handle some features I would like. I've read a lot of others feel the same way and the trend is to use a separate spreadsheet along with Money or Quicken. What I mean by importing is getting the daily transactions from various accounts into the application. It's gotten better in recent years, since all you really need to do is give Money your account information and it grabs the details online. This assumes that your accounts have online access (and Money knows about it) and offers downloads. Worse case is that you download the transactions in some format and import them into Money. I guess worse case would be that Money doesn't recognize the file. Anyway, I've always wanted to build my own financial software, but that would be quite an undertaking. I would certainly offer it for free on Knappers site.
Currently, I use Microsoft Money to manage my accounts. Having used it for many years, I wouldn't be opposed to switching to a different application, given time to do so. There's obviously Quicken and a few online apps popping up. I realize that there can be no single software that can do everything that everyone wants, but it seems that these applications should be better by now. The two things I can think of are budgeting and importing. The budgeting in Money is quite basic and can't handle some features I would like. I've read a lot of others feel the same way and the trend is to use a separate spreadsheet along with Money or Quicken. What I mean by importing is getting the daily transactions from various accounts into the application. It's gotten better in recent years, since all you really need to do is give Money your account information and it grabs the details online. This assumes that your accounts have online access (and Money knows about it) and offers downloads. Worse case is that you download the transactions in some format and import them into Money. I guess worse case would be that Money doesn't recognize the file. Anyway, I've always wanted to build my own financial software, but that would be quite an undertaking. I would certainly offer it for free on Knappers site.
Monday, November 27, 2006
The more I use digg.com the more I like it. At first I was just reading the front page and didn't find a need to create a profile, then I created a profile and starting digging articles. Then I started looking at the upcoming stories, playing with their visualizations, and adding friends. This is an incredible idea and seems to work good as long as, by definition of the site, users continue to support it. User driven sites can take up a lot of time for the users and it's possible that the "novelty" will wear off.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Another lazy weekend. We watched some old home videos of a Jamaica trip. It got me thinking ... I've need to transfer all these tapes to the computer (I need to get the network running smoothly), I have to either get a new video camera or fix the current one, I need to shoot more video, I need to edit more video, and I need to start working out again.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
It's easy to take for granted when things work smoothly. I compiled about 20 pictures of London using Picassa and put them on my flash drive. Karl uploaded about 30 pictures to Google's Web Albums using Picassa. Then after the Thanksgiving meal, I easily upload my pictures to his album and we used somebody's wireless laptop to display a slideshow through S-video to the TV. Brilliant.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
This was the first weekend since my exam that I could really relax and do whatever I wanted. It seems like I'm really behind on a lot of projects. I got through my pile of periodicals and watched a few movies. I still have about 4 beer kits to brew. I need to start posting about my tech projects again, but I guess I actually have to do my tech projects.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
The first day back in the routine of work. I think I can officially say that I have no jet lag. I think staying on the roughly same sleeping schedule (+/- 4 hours) sure helped. Towards the end of the London trip, I could feel my body wanting to shift sleeping patterns, but it's all mind over matter. Anything longer than 4 days would have been difficult.
Monday, November 13, 2006
The day went by quick and now I'm finally back home. The past week sure seems like a whirlwind. I'll let you know tomorrow if I have any "jet lag".
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Today was the day I returned to the States. Because it's actually 2:00am here in Hartford, I'll keep this brief. I was supposed to arrive at 11:00pm, but of coarse there were delays. I'll sleep for a few hours and then get into the Hartford office, do a presentation on something, and fly back to Minnesota Monday evening. (One of the reasons I went to London was that the airfare was only $80 more than if I just went to Hartford.)
Saturday, November 11, 2006
We got to
We started off the day pretty slow on the pub front. One of the pubs we ended up at was the Coach and Horses. Of all pubs we visited, this was by far our favorite. We were on the busy Saturday streets where it'’s a zoo with all the people. We stepped into this pub and as cliche as it sounds, it felt like we transported back in time. Along with the incredible atmosphere, I think it was just a combination of our mood and exhaustion and the many pints throughout the day.
I'’ll tell you one thing: it'’s damn expensive here. But once you stop doing the conversions in your head during every transaction, it'’s bearable. And another thing, to get deals on souvenirs, look for the dimly light stores compared to the bigger stores. We attempted to haggle over price at the bigger stores and they pretty much ignored us. When I did the same thing at the "“shady"” store for the exact same things, I was able to get things a lot cheaper.
Friday, November 10, 2006
It sure gets dark here early. We ended up going into London in the afternoon. Without the internet, the public transit would be slightly confusing ... I kinda take that back. I'm the type of person that likes to research options before hand and come up with a plan. Karl is the type of person that likes to take the probable plan and deal with obstacles as they come. So, I think if you just threw yourself into the system, you'd probably figure it out. Although, the suburb of Watford we're staying in has 4 different stations, all ending in different places. So getting on a random one might have sent you very far away.
Anyway, we ended up by the Parliament during darkness and got some cool photos. I'll probably end up going to bed around 2:00am, but still no real effects of jet lag, yet.
Anyway, we ended up by the Parliament during darkness and got some cool photos. I'll probably end up going to bed around 2:00am, but still no real effects of jet lag, yet.
Thursday, November 9, 2006
Wow, seven months since my last post. I apparently got out of the routine of posting nightly, and apparently one thing lead to another, and now it's November. I suppose a brief update regarding the last few posts might be good ... I ended up not taking the spring exam and sat for the fall exam, which was last Thursday. There, all caught up.
As a treat, more an opportunity, I booked a trip to London to visit Karl whose over here on business. So, right now I'm in London at the hotel drinking a pint.
I left Minnesota at 5:00pm, had a layover in Detroit for 2 hours, then landed in London at 10:00am local time, which would be 4:00am home time. The way I figure it, I should experience no "jet lag" as I'll be going to bed around 3:00am and getting up around 9:00am (which would be 9:00pm to 3:00am home time). If I can stay on this schedule, then my body really won't need any adjusting. Everyone I've talked to said this won't be the case and somehow my body won't cooperate. Anyway, I got about 4 hours of sleep on the plane coming to London. Right now it's 10:00pm here and I won't go to sleep for another 5 hours. I'm a little sleepy, but I attribute that to all the pints I've drank during lunch (which would be my breakfast). Karl is sleeping right now and will get up in a few hours to go to work, and I'll be able to sleep while he's at work. Brilliant. So, along with activities we do, I'll keep you posted about my "jet lag".
Today's activities were pretty laid back. I got in to Gatwick at 10:00am, customs was a breeze so I was able to take the 10:37am train to Watford. Since this was an hour earlier than I told Karl, I walked from the station to the hotel, which was less than a mile. Watford is maybe an hour from London, so the locals were quite polite and I was offered a ride several times along my walk. We ate lunch and drank beer at O'Neills, toured the local shops, and drank some whiskey.
We'll either go out to another local pub (or more) with Karl's coworkers or possibly head to London tomorrow. Bigger adventures await ...
As a treat, more an opportunity, I booked a trip to London to visit Karl whose over here on business. So, right now I'm in London at the hotel drinking a pint.
I left Minnesota at 5:00pm, had a layover in Detroit for 2 hours, then landed in London at 10:00am local time, which would be 4:00am home time. The way I figure it, I should experience no "jet lag" as I'll be going to bed around 3:00am and getting up around 9:00am (which would be 9:00pm to 3:00am home time). If I can stay on this schedule, then my body really won't need any adjusting. Everyone I've talked to said this won't be the case and somehow my body won't cooperate. Anyway, I got about 4 hours of sleep on the plane coming to London. Right now it's 10:00pm here and I won't go to sleep for another 5 hours. I'm a little sleepy, but I attribute that to all the pints I've drank during lunch (which would be my breakfast). Karl is sleeping right now and will get up in a few hours to go to work, and I'll be able to sleep while he's at work. Brilliant. So, along with activities we do, I'll keep you posted about my "jet lag".
Today's activities were pretty laid back. I got in to Gatwick at 10:00am, customs was a breeze so I was able to take the 10:37am train to Watford. Since this was an hour earlier than I told Karl, I walked from the station to the hotel, which was less than a mile. Watford is maybe an hour from London, so the locals were quite polite and I was offered a ride several times along my walk. We ate lunch and drank beer at O'Neills, toured the local shops, and drank some whiskey.
We'll either go out to another local pub (or more) with Karl's coworkers or possibly head to London tomorrow. Bigger adventures await ...
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