Snowulf - Today In

I hate people; they make me sick

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:00:00 -0800

"Gasp!" you say to yourself, "He is so anti-social now that even the concept of people makes him ill". Ok, well, maybe not exactly. I'm sick sick, as in I have a cold. It annoys me to no great end. The problem isn't the sniffling or the coughing or anything like that, those symptoms might be problematic, but not truly annoying. What truly annoys me about having a cold, is how it turns my brain into fuzz and makes it very difficult to concentrate or have the energy to get things done. I have many personal projects going on right now, and I'd like to get them done, but having a cold makes it very difficult.

Hence, I hate people for getting me sick. This is one of the odd bonuses to telecommuting that you don't hear about. You're not in an office, so generally you are less likely to contract ailments since you don't have nearly as much human contact. Especially if you're someone like me who doesn't have a family/wife/girlfriend/significant other to pester you. Even if you work in a place as great as our company, where the boss orders you home if you are in the least bit sick, people still tend to show up and get everyone sick. Hell, I remember once the resident German came into the office sick, even though we yelled at him to stay home... and you know what? He got EVERYONE in the office sick. So to remind him why this is a Bad Thing™ I bought him a Bubonic plague (Black Plague/Black death) plushie for Christmas. Something that now remains in his cube for all time.

So, I hate you all; you make me sick.

PS. This is why you've gotten to enjoy a filler "Happy Holiday" post along two posts in a row from John in one week. With any luck I'll be able to ~~sucker~~convince him to write another entry for tomorrow.

Today in: Taking the day off!

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:00:00 -0800

Happy Presidents Day everyone! As today is a Federal holiday, we strongly believe in everyone taking the day off! All holidays should be like the 4th of July, ya know, where everyone has taken the day off and goes and does something nice and relaxing (like crowding onto a beach in Tahoe to watch fireworks). Since we feel so strongly about this, we're taking the day off of blogging.

So... Enjoy your day off, We are!

(PS. If you don't get the day off, I'm sorry to hear that, you should demand to have the day off. After all, federal holidays are NATIONWIDE holidays and required by law!)
(Editor's note: Federal holidays are not actually required by law to be nationwide.)

Google Buzz

nospam@example.com (John) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:00:00 -0800

Google announced Buzz yesterday and has started rolling it out to its users. This morning when I logged into my gmail account it notified me of this and everyone who was following me, along with who I am following.

If you know nothing about it, check out the Google link above and this PC World article. They both give a quick bit of info about the service.

I played with it for a few minutes, basically adding a few more follows, turning off the sharing of my information. Right now, if I comment all anyone sees is my name, however you can change this to include a plethora of information, such as how many people you follow, as well as are followed by, location, etc, etc. I don't have Facebook; I don't want it. I have a MySpace from days of yore, but I don't really use it. LinkedIn I use because it is a nice professional medium (though I have gotten the occasional connection request from people who are trying to grow their networks by just adding random people) and I think of it as a good resume and networking tool (that I thankfully haven't needed to use). I have a twitter (as you have probably seen on the blog).

In general, I don't want to share my information with others. People I know and care to chat with know how to contact/chat with me. Maybe I'm just getting all crotchety in my old age, but I don't feel the need to make myself exceptionally accessible to others. I keep hearing that I have a really basic phone for a techie. I always tell people that I like having a basic phone; it gets great battery life, and I don't want to be more accessible when I'm away from my computer. I have an iPod Touch and it is starting to have issues (audio keeps cutting out intermittently), and rather than replace it I am considering an iPhone, but... I don't know if I would use it enough to justify the expensive data plan that goes along with it. Yeah, there are times when that thing would really help (so that I don't call Jon to verify/for directions - speaking of which thanks for putting up with that), but in general I don't need it 24/7. I have a GPS that I rarely use. I have a Kindle. Worst case scenario, I could pull up Google Maps on that, however the iPhone would obviously be faster.

Google Buzz seems like another step toward the Googlezon, though not one I'm overly excited about.

What about y'all? Do you have Google Buzz? If so, do you like it?

A month down!

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0800

Well January has come to a close (at least as far as it has to do with blogging Monday through Friday) and we made it. Some of the posts might have been a little bit delayed, then there was the server issue that took us offline for a bit and there was that entire DNS mishap which took the blog offline for half a day. All in all, we made it, and I'm fairly happy with the results. I expected to have some junk "filler" posts on occasion, but it really only happened once, at that was at the halfway mark.

As it hasn't been a huge problem, even though we're still slammed at work with our major project, I'm going to continue posting on the 5 days a week schedule. I've noticed that many of the posts I'm writing are even more (longer) than I typically did in the past (especially with the Disaster Prep series) and that is a Good Thing™. For now I don't have too many specific plans for what comes next, but I'm looking forward to continuing the Disaster Prep series and possibly starting a new one or two.

Woah, we're halfway there

nospam@example.com (John) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0800

It is now halfway through the first month of 5 blog posts a week. What do y'all think?
We'd love to hear from y'all, even if it is negative.

Do y'all have any suggestions of what y'all would like to see on here?

Would you like more Tech entries? More reviews?

Would you like more entries from Jon? Or do you like John better?

I generally bake a dessert at least once a week for some sort of family dinner. I've never written down any of the recipes I've used, much to the chagrin of some of my recipients. Perhaps I'll devote an entry a week to the dessert I made. Perhaps it will inspire you to your own culinary creations.

Let us know what y'all think!

New Year, New Schedule, Same awesome blog

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0800

Happy 2010! We made it through the decade of the shitty name. I mean, what do you call 2000-2009? "The Zero's", "The O's"? I don't remember hearing one good name for it. At least now we're into "The Teens", and that is something I can get behind.

We (John and myself) have managed to keep on a 3 post a week (Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday) schedule since May of last year. Nine (9!) Months of on schedule posting isn't half bad, especially since the few months before that was a very irregular "schedule" (for certain very loose definitions of schedule), and the end of last year it was almost no posts at all (Some months like August & October '08 were as low as 1-2 posts a month). So we're very proud of ourselves, it might not be a huge achievement, but for us it is damn fine site (pun intended) to see.

So since it is the new year, and we've been doing so well, I figured it was worth a change in schedule. Starting now, I'm going to ramp it up to 5 posts a week (A post every weekday). I'm not exactly sure how it will work out, but it is worth a shot. If it is too much work, or we fail to maintain the schedule, February will see the return of 3 days a week. The key for success will be, of course, me being not lazy and actually writing on a regular basis. It's good for me, not that I'm very good at it.

Go forth and look forward to more posts!

Hiatus until the new year

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:00:00 -0800

While we could continue with the M-W-F schedule during the holidays, there really isn't much of a point. On top of that is the fact that we'd like a break once in a while too. Three entries a week might not seem like much to the casual reader, but we're busy people with lots of things going on (mainly work). Plus, we've done a damn good job sticking to our schedule for the last... 4 months now? So I think that calls for a well earned rest. As such.... The Jo(h)ns are on vacation. Try to hold out until we get back.

If you really need your Jo(h)n fix, try perusing our archives.

Ride Friday: The reverse lane split?

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:00:00 -0800

I've never heard of this being done before, and I've certainly never seen it before. Since I lack a better term for it, I've titled it the "reverse lane split". For those that might not know, lane splitting is: riding a motorcycle between lanes in the same direction as traffic. It is also sometimes called lane sharing, whitelining, filtering, or stripe-riding. In short, it is when motorcycles ride the white line on the freeway in slow traffic (and sometimes in not so slow traffic). It is illegal everywhere in the US except for California (thank you Cali for at least one decent law). What happened to me was the... opposite.

I was riding in the left lane behind someone who was not going as fast as I wanted to go. After a brief stretch a new lane was added on the left, and I immediately moved over into this lane to pass the slower vehicle. Right after I did this, I notice an Audi right on my tail. I'll be honest, I don't know where he came from. I'm observant and normally catch these people coming up on me, but all I can assume is that he was moving very fast previously. I was riding on the extreme left of this left lane, almost on top of the yellow lane when I noticed the Audi moving to the right side of the lane. I don't know why, but I knew exactly what he was going to do and knew that the best course of action was to stay where I was. He stomped it, and did it.

The Audi lane split me.

Continue reading "Ride Friday: The reverse lane split?"

Dentist really isn't all that bad

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:00:00 -0800

Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting the dentist office. It wasn't a regularly scheduled checkup; I was having some pain with a tooth. After some tinkering, they figured that I probably just bruised myself. I enjoyed myself so much that I signed up to go twice more over the next week. Ok, so maybe I didn't "enjoy" it, but they found some locations of concern and wanted to do a little drilling. Of course they couldn't do it in one sitting, hence the two appointments.

When I was young, I was drilled on and it was a very unfavorable experience. Once they even threatened to pull a stubborn baby tooth that wasn't getting out. One of the worsts cases was when they dumped way too much nitrous in me and I freaked out; I've not touched nitrous since then.
Dentists tend to have a bad rap and not too many people enjoy going. Mostly I think it is because of these experiences we all have as a child.

Continue reading "Dentist really isn't all that bad"

Adverts, Costs & Amazon

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:00:00 -0800

Amazon.com Widgets

If you're a regular reader, you may have noticed that there is a banner ad on the right side of your screen. This is very surprising to many of you because you've got adblock on and it is unusual that things like that slip past it. This is happening because I know how adblock works (I run it myself) and I also know how to bypass it. I am not really sorry for doing this to people, as I think it is only fair. Let me explain.

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Cyber Monday / Black Friday

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0800

First - Black Friday.
Did you go out? Did you get any deals? I certainly didn't go out, though I hear things are getting massively out of hand. My mother was checking the sales on Thanksgiving and found that JCPenney was opening at 4 AM on Friday. For the love of kami-sama, that is too frakking early!!! Also, according to the news, people were lined up as early as 11pm on Thursday. What could be so amazing of a deal that necessitates you spending 5+ hours outside of a store? Of course, every year the stores open earlier (along with closing later), soon stores will be opening up at Midnight. I wonder if people will start lining up at noon then? Sigh...
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Have you slaughtered a turkey today?

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0800

Wild Turkey, courtesy of wp:MONGO

I realize that it is tradition for most, but you don't have to kill a super fat turkey just for one day. Frankly, I'm not a big fan. I think turkey meat tends to be overly dry and the only way to make it worthwhile is to kill it with gravy. Oddly enough, I do love reprocessed turkey (you know, the Oscar Mayer kind you get in the grocery store). It doesn't make sense, but then again, when does anything I do make sense.

Regardless of the turkey "situation", I wanted to wish everything a Happy Thanksgiving. Today is a day to give thanks for things. Give thanks for family, friends, food, so on and so forth. Even if you're off to a location you don't want to go (god knows I am), try to at least give thanks. If nothing else, give thanks that it isn't worse (you could be in prison, or forced to eat the driest turkey you've ever met).

So yea, Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Veterans Day

nospam@example.com (John) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0800

Hopefully, this doesn't come to a shock to any of our readers, but on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 the major hostilities of World War I ended (with Germany signing the Armistice). Here in the United States of America, we refer to this as Veterans Day, others know it as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day. Regardless of how you know it, I hope you are able to celebrate it by thanking a veteran.

As someone who knows and is related to many veterans, I wanted to quickly offer a thanks and offer a reminder to our readers that if it wasn't for these soldiers, we wouldn't be able to enjoy the freedoms that so many of us take for granted. Including the ability to post what we think on this blog, even when it is filled with vitriol.

New column: Food Review

nospam@example.com (Jon) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:00:00 -0700

I like to go out to eat. I'll be honest and admit that I probably go out a little too often. Like most people, I go out when I'm out of town, but unlike most people, I'm out of town about one week a month, on average. On top of that, I go out to eat fairly often when I'm at home. Mostly for social reasons, but partially because I don't want to cook. It isn't that I can't cook, I can, and I'm fairly decent at it... I just don't like putting on a big production cooking for one person. So that brings us back to the topic at hand... our new column, food review (Editor's Note: Om Nom Nom)!

How does it differ from regular reviews? It doesn't really, it's still a review, but it has its very own category. Most of what gets posted here will probably be Bay Area eateries, and mostly in the Asian vein, because that's what I really enjoy. I will post some eateries from my travels in different area too. I may also see about tossing in some packaged products too. When a restaurant is involved, I'm going to include more than just how the food was. Service, selection, price, quality... all important things. For Japanese places I'll have even more, like the quality of their Sushi.

I get mocked by a few of my friends about the fact that I go to new restaurants all the time, but always eat the same thing. They don't seem to get it, but for me it makes perfect sense. First off, what I tend to order is my favorite, but more importantly, I've had those types of food so often, I can really compare and contrast one location over another. Sure, I have my all time favorites, but I'm always open to new and different ways of preparing the same dishes. Plus, once I've been there once, the next time I can go back and order something different. I try to make it a point of going everywhere at least twice (time/cost permitting, of course), and I try especially hard to make it twice when I don't like it. That will also be something important that will be included in my notes, if I've been there more than once. Wouldn't want to give someone a bad rap because they had one off night.

Enough for now, I've got tasties to try!

Today In: Initializing a new hard drive

nospam@example.com (John) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:00:00 -0700

So, I haven't done this in freaking forever. The last clear memory I have of setting up a brand new drive is sometime in the late 90s and doing everything in DOS (fdisk anyone?). Because of this, I had forgotten all about the joys of doing this.

But first, a little background info. Earlier this month, I got a Newegg combo deal for a 1 TB Western Digital Caviar Green drive plus dock for $84.99 Shipped

That deal is no longer available, but a similar deal now available for $79.99. Though it uses a Seagate Barracuda rather than WD Caviar.

The dock arrived before the drive, so I tested it out with a spare SATA drive Jon had on his desk. Plugged it in and worked great, no problems.
The next day the drive arrives, I plug it in and then nothing happened (other then the standard windows installation for new devices being plugged in). I try it on another computer before harassing Jon about it and then realize "Oh yeah, have to format it!"

Continue reading "Today In: Initializing a new hard drive"