August 2006 Archives
Me: did you resize the photos?
MacOsXRocks: no
MacOsXRocks: i just constrained their size
MacOsXRocks: i don't have a photo editor
Me: the one on the train looks funny
Me: YOU DONT HAVE A PHOTO EDITOR??!!!???
MacOsXRocks: not at work
Me: What happened to http://www.apple.com/getamac/
Me: ??!!??
MacOsXRocks: lol
MacOsXRocks: i don't think iPhoto will let me resize photos
Me: WHAT!
Me: I love it
Me: I"m picking on you
Me: I'm sorry
Me: iphoto will let you resize 'em
Me: I'm sure
MacOsXRocks: well i can't figure out how
Me: push F1 for help and look it up
MacOsXRocks: oh, i think i figured out how
Me: http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-26753.html
Me: http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-151944.html
MacOsXRocks: ha, so there
Me: I'm so blogging this.
Cool.
Will be snarfed by others in ...3... 2... 1...
For maybe the second time this year, I'm flying American Airlines. We're chasing the sun from Austin to the Southern California Coast. I got a bump up to first class, so I have a nice power outlet, and surprise, surprise, there's a nice meal. Chicken and gravy with mashed potatoes and spinach. Couple that with the tart (!) Cabernet from the stewardess with a mad glint in her eye, and it makes for an enjoyable flight thus far. Oh, a sundae too. I'm going to have to get some exercise while in California.
I'm off to LA for a couple days of hand-holding with the Boeing users of the technology. They've got a cool use of the software, with the concept of this stuff on a combat-facing unit, using it to find other information sources, both in the combat zone and behind. But first they have to figure out how to install it. That's where I come in. It's kind of fun that they're using jboss and linux to get things all installed and running. There's going to be some geeks in the military to run all this.
I'm 5 segments away on Continental from über-platinum, and I got stuck doing this trip with American and Frontier, which is rather annoying, but they have direct AUS-LAX-DEN-AUS routing. This trip I'm being a bit more direct with my travels, since I'm checking my bag with all my noxious gels and liquids, which are no longer allowed in carryon.. you know I could be a terrorist. Who knows what I might do with my bear-in-the-woods soap from Bath and Body Works if I were left to my own devices.
I'll get at least 2 of my segments in 10 days when I head to Chicago, then who knows.. I might spend some money flying to houston and back to get the rest of them. It'll make for a trip to Amsterdam next year, I think.
The weekend was nice and easy with Charles in Arlington. We worked on his resume a bit, trying to get it in shape for finding a job in Austin. He's a bit frustrated with the tedium of working in Arlington, and being away from the house. I miss him being there too, though it is nice having the house stay nice and tidy the way I like it. We saw the Will Ferrell movie, Talledega Nights, on Sunday: tragically funny, and entirely amusing. "Shake... and Bake".
Coming home Monday, my lawn is getting to that 'extra crispy' stage of summer. With more than 30 days of over 100F (37C) temperature, it'll happen, and I dont particularly feel like paying the extra money on my utility to drain the lake just for my grass. The squirrels nesting in my yard are doing fine enough, and they have enough sense to go over to the neighbors to get their juicy nibbles. They're coming to my place to get some nice pecans and acorns off the oaks.
I've found my mp3 CD, and I totally forgot I have Ravi Shankar on it. Totally cool when buzzed on a sundae and red wine at altitude.
Looking at the calendar, today is the start of week 34 of the year. Most of the rest of the year has been plotted out, and it goes like this.
34: LA (Boeing), Denver (Oracle)
35: Austin, Chicago (Labor Day holiday)
36: Austin
37: Austin, Munich (Oktoberfest)
38: Munich, Austin
39-43: Austin or TBD
44-48: Nepal, Phuket (Trekking)
49:Austin, Denver
50-52: Austin, Dallas
Crazy.
Spotted on IH-35 southbound today at 2pm.
Indeed, its the Girls Gone Wild bus, bringing untold mayhem to Austin this weekend. Might be time to head to Arlington before those wild girls get a hold on Sixth Street.
Just upgraded to MT 3.3... amazingly seamless, and in only 10 minutes. I let it overwrite my buggy stylesheet. Maybe that will please the monkey.
Heard how LHR was locked down and ultra-secure this week?
Yeah, right.
Boy boards plane without tickets
The boy passed through all security checks in the airport building An airline boss has admitted to "multiple failures" after a boy managed to board one of its planes without tickets during the security alert.
For Austin ISD, the school year has begun. I'm so grateful for this because it means....
The pool at the YMCA is mine at lunch hour again! Day camp is over, and there is order and peace in the village again.
I took the motorcycle out to the pool today. It was hotter'n hell feeling the sun beating down, and the black asphalt radiating up from underneath.
This is really cool. Munich has installed an underground garage for a neighborhood, but it's computer/robot controlled. There's an animation from the construction company here. Pretty cool solution to some extreme population density issues there.
Weather in Munich is cool and rainy, as Franz reports today. I told him it would be a welcome change from the ceaseless heat we're having here.
The weekend brought my family down for the 50th anniversary of Chaz's Mom and Dad. He was catering and decorating for the event, and its consumed most of our weekends and free time for the past 3 months. There was gold throw-up everywhere in the house, and I had to taste test marsala sauce at every chance. We got up at 6am to start decorating the hall, and by noon it was pretty much done, and last minute running around occupied most of my time. At 4 we went to his parents' church for mass and a 'presentation' to the family. Charles' mom supposedly made quite a political statement by having me up on the altar with the family, but I think people were ready to go have cookies and coffee so it wasn't that big a deal. The soiree for which we decorated was well attended, and lasted from 6 to 9ish. By 10 most of the hall was cleaned up, and only a few family remained. At one point those of us that had started early in the morning began to have brain lock-ups. We couldn't decide who's house to go to, what things were going where, who the children belonged to, what day it was. Inertia and exhaustion settled in over us. Someone made a decision at one point, and we managed to get the hall cleared by 11, and the kids wedged in to vehicles to go somewhere. Charles and I wound up back home close to 11:45. His mother was delighted by it all, as were her guests, so as tiring as it was having an older 'bridezilla' running around trying to make it all perfect, our mission was accomplished.
How in the hell did they do this? [youtube]
Being a business traveller, additional travel restrictions affect me directly, and onerously. And knowing that the measures are useless, there's salt in the wound. Patrick Smith expressed it very succinctly in salon.com this week.
Since I'm contracting with a company with a large Israeli presence, this shouldn't have been entirely unexpected, yet it kind of is. I don't know him, rather just happened to meet Avrami for the first time in Boston last week, as he gave a 'pep talk' to the consultants. Pretty smart guy all told. The world is shrinking every day.
One of the mega-churches up in Williamson County has littered Austin with billboards containing 'superstar' photos of their pastors on it.
That same picture is used on their website (along with lots of other photos of white people) so I figured I'd make a record of it here.
There's just something about their ultra-brite perfectly aligned white smiles and somewhat too-perfectly adjusted eyebrows that makes the hairs on the back of my neck start to tingle. And what kind of name is Champion?
The pod people are gathering, just north of Austin. And they have billboards. And they're eerie.
