I wanted to jot down a few things to remember this month, besides the wedding. Most of these events happened in Hawaii, so I guess it still involves the wedding in some way.
Remember…
the lady on crutches at //Sam Choy Breakfast, Lunch & Crab who offered to take our photo during breakfast? She took Farrah’s camera, took a step back, and raised the camera over her head, then quickly fell to the ground.
Below is the list of songs we had on our wedding compact disc:
Songbird Eva Cassidy Pualena Vika You’ve Got a Way Shania Twain Sunday Morning Maroon 5 Every Breath You Take UB40 Banana Pancakes Jack Johnson Is This Love? Bob Marley and the Wailers In A Little While U2 Turn Me On Norah Jones The Way You Look Tonight Frank Sinatra You Are So Beautiful Nohelani Cypriano
We just wanted to say Merry Chirstmas to everyone!!! Hope you have a great Christmas day!!!
I’m sitting in //Starbucks again as Farrah finishes some Christmas shopping. Last night my mom left back to California, arriving safely home early this morning. We head out on Monday, spending Christmas with those remaining behind. Doug headed out to Japan yesterday. I didn’t have a chance to talk to him before leaving.
Today Ann treated everyone to //Sam Choy’s Breakfast, Lunch & Crab off the Nimitz. Farrah had the French Toast Platter while I had the Papa’s Beef Stew Omelet.
It is official! Farrah and I our now husband and wife!
We took our wedding vows on the lagoon lawn at the //JW Marriot Ihilani yesterday afternoon. The weather was very nice, except for the gusting wind - which blew at about 15-20 mph - but that didn’t really make a dent in the day’s events. It’s only worth noting because today is such a calm day at Ihilani. But like I was telling Farrah, “That day was our day”.
We checked into the condo on our tour of Hawaii. More in a bit.
The morning found us having Kim Chee Fried Rice with two eggs over easy for breakfast. We knew today we had two important meetings, so it required a special breakfast.
The first meeting was at Ihiliani with Terri at Ihilani to work out some final details. This went by without any major concerns. We then had a lunchtime meeting with (Pastor) Curtis Fong, who will be performing the wedding ceremony. He was very informative and brought along years of experience to share with us on how we should conduct ourselves before, during and after the ceremony.
When I post this blog entry, I will be in a Starbucks in Aiea, Hawaii. Farrah and I arrived in Oahu last night, earlier than we thought, since the tradewinds were kind.
Farrah is still under the weather. She wasn’t feeling well last Friday night when we went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Saturday morning she had full blown flu symptoms. I couldn’t go to YEP (Yahoo!
Thanksgiving was the usual affair at my sister’s house. This year was a little different with it being the first year without Bill. It reminded me of the first holiday season without my father. But life goes on. We drank a toast to Bill, had a good meal and good conversation about anything and everything.
I was so stuffed that I almost couldn’t do dessert! But I did manage to partake in the chocolate cake and pumpkin pie (yes, both for dessert).
Just wanted to post a quick to find some deals on Black Friday. What is Black Friday? The first day of holiday shopping (the Friday after Thanksgiving) where retailers are in the black from all the sales they make.
So if you plan on hitting the stores, go see
//www.bf2005.com
for the scoop on not only deals but what might actually be in-stock!
Well, I’ve been updating a few things on the website. The biggest update is the use of a //Flickr plug-in called //FAlbum To see it in action click on the Photos link above. Cool, huh?
This just adds another reason to love Flickr, which allows the use of their API’s to interact with the data stored on their website. I don’t fully understand API’s, but hey someone does and made this plug-in.
I have been trying to find an online solution to display my photos that isn’t reliant on hosting the software myself. If you go to //http://www.janella.com/photography you will see the photo gallery that is hosted on my site.
The software is provided by //Gallery and is a great piece of open source work. My problem? For one thing, I am getting a little time crunched on doing any patches that is required from time to time.
I pull out of the house this morning around 7:00am. I get to the corner of Ahwahnee and Fair Oaks, the first major intersection I hit as I head into work. I stop at the red light and watch a guy in a black side-dented Chevy truck make a U-turn to go to south-bound 101, even though no u-turn is allow. The guy in the black Chevy truck proceeds to go around in circle, burning rubber in the intersection, as people wait to cross.
Ok, here’s my end of month rant for October. The only times I do rants is when I haven’t written much or I have so much to write about. So here goes.
I was in Hillsboro, Oregon for about a week and a half, helping to train those who will be doing my job in the future. Nice place, nice people. Overall it was a good trip. I was there for the first three days with two co workers, Rich and Bert.
A lot has happened in the last two weeks. I’ll write more on the End of Month Rant which is coming up shortly. In the meantime check out the new Flickr albums for:
Farrah’s Bridal Shower
Bixby Injured
I’ll comment more when I get a chance.
I’ve been out of commission the last couple of days. It seems I have a [corneal abrasion] on my left eye.
How’d that happen?
I had some problems on Monday night taking out my left contact lens. It has always been a problem since I started wearing contacts again, but this time it was more difficult then previously. I guess I got a little over anxious and scratched my cornea. I knew it almost right away.
Get It Poppin’ (featuring Nelly) – Fat Joe Feel Good Inc. – Gorillaz Go (feat. John Mayer) – Common Beverly Hills – Weezer Maybe I’m Amazed – Jem Falling Out Of Love – Aqualung Girl – Beck Dreamgirl – Dave Matthews Band Best Of You – Foo Fighters
I’ve been working since last Monday and finally had a day off!!! But I’m back to work for three days in a row. Yes, I have to work on Saturday.
The reason why I had to work was because of Hurricane Rita. Our support center in Houston had to evacuate, so their support tasks needed to shift to the group I’m in. A lot more work for everyone involved.
So what did I do today?
Farrah and I took a quick trip to Hawaii last week, from the 9th to the 13th. We were meeting vendors and looking at other items to use for the wedding. Boy, it’s only a couple more months away!!!
We took off on Friday night and landed in nice humid Honolulu. The first thing I noticed when we got our rental car were the gas prices they were charging. If you wanted the car rental company to fill up the tank, it was $3.
This entry fall under the too much information category, but I want to vent about my sleeping condition. It goes something like this:
…83% oxygen saturation…52 episodes lasting on average of 12 seconds…7.75 hours of sleep recorded. The above is a summary of a little test I took last week. If you’ve seen my [Flickr] photo stream you’ve seen these photos:
The little machine measured my oxygen saturation level as I slept, and recorded any episodes of not breathing or if I woke up.
If you haven’t already, please consider donating to the relief effort for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. You can find a list of online places to donate on the [Network for Good] web site. Every little bit helps.
Yesterday I attended a wedding banquet for one at my friends at [eGain], Ali Chan. I was able to meet his lovely wife Meeko, some of his family, and catch up with some old friends and aquaintences from eGain. I brought along the D70s to take a few photos, but I ended up taking a lot more. At one point it seemed like I was the elected wedding photographer, as there wasn’t but one other person with an SLR.
I just posted photos of celebrating Farrah’s dad’s birthday last night. You can access the [specific photo set here] on Flickr.com
You can also find some cheeseball photos of Farrah [at this set]. I was practicing taking rapid fire pictures while Farrah made goofy faces. Watch it in slideshow mode for full effect.
Concert date: 08.20.2005
Matt CostaAnimal Liberation OrchestraGirl I Wanna Lay You Down
F-Stop Blues
Inaudible Melodies
Fluke
Sitting, Waiting, Wishing / Just What I Needed (The Cars)
Gone
Sitting, Waiting and WishingJeremyDaughterReleaseMoney Mark
swinging
Ah another me site. I heard about [43 Things] some time ago, but never really took a deep look at it. It is a web site where you can list your hopes and dreams in life for all to see. When you accomplish your listed item, you then check it off the list. You can then add more.
The site goes hand-and-hand with [43 Places] where you can list the places you want to travel to or where you have traveled before.
Just finished watching [Hitch] on DVD. The movie stars the likeable Will Smith as a matchmaker for men. Hitch puts his clients in the best possible situation to succeed in having the women of their dreams fall in love with them. “The rest is up to you”, he says.
The movie has some pretty good pacing the cast (Smith, Kevin James, Eva Mendes, and Amber Valletta) are very likeable and funny in their own way.
Anyone check out [http://maps.a9.com/], the Amazon map search engine? If you haven’t, pop on over there and see if you can find where you live. There may be a photo of your front door!
What?
The thing about A9’s map engine is that it shows street-level photos. Steven says he can see his place on the map, and even a local merchant walking on the street! I guess a rolling van drives by taking digital images of the street.
Just downloaded [Fiona Apple’s O’ Sailor] from iTunes. It’s good to hear her voice again, but the song sounds like something off her first album. But hey, I’m craving some new stuff.
Speaking of new stuff, anyone hear the new [Goapele] cd? Man, I like some of these artist’s web sites that allow you to hear album tracks. Granted you can’t download them - listening to the album through a Flash player (I’m sure there is a way around this), but it’s good to know they want to make their music accessible.
Farrah and I went to San Francisco this morning, going to [Paper Source] to look at paper products (of course). While there we had breakfast at the local [Noah’s Bagels] on Fillmore. I’m not a big bagel person, but I had the Egg Mit with Turkey Sausage. Not too bad.
After spending time at Paper Source, we headed down the street to Japantown to look at the [Nihonmachi Street Fair]. We arrived just in time to catch the taiko drum performance by the [San Francisco Taiko Dojo Rising Stars].
As you can see, I’m at it again. I’m changing site pages here and there, trying to keep up with some technical skills. I am hoping it helps me on my next job.
Next job?
Yeah. If you don’t know already my time at my current position is short. In about three months and a week I will be in the unemployment line. It seems it’s cheaper to have a customer care workforce out of state then it is in state.
I received the following IM:
Lil’ Gordon (8/1/2005 11:34:00 AM): i got my lisence
Lil’ Gordon (8/1/2005 11:34:02 AM): license i mena
Lil’ Gordon (8/1/2005 11:34:09 AM): how eva u spell it’ So congratulations Gordon on passing the driving tests. And to everyone one else, watch out! (I’m joking…or am I?!?!?!)
I haven’t written anything of too much substance this month. So let’s see what I can pull out of my butt right here.
First off, I added two new albums to the [Flickr] page. The first is a long over due album from Skylar’s birthday celebration in May. The photos were taken with the Sony T-1, before I got my Nikon:
I’ll need to go down and take some more photos of the kids, as well as Scott and Stefanie.
I know it’s difficult to tell in the image above, but when searching for ‘janella’ on Yahoo! this web site is the first result now! This makes janella.com the #1 result on Google and Yahoo! now. Who was ranked #1 before on Yahoo!’s search engine?
The item currently listed as #8
“[ I Will Only Love You ] Open this result in new window … Best Viewed In 1024 x 768.
You have 30 seconds to spare and Flash installed? Then watch [this quick version of Pulp Fiction]
Also available:
[Alien][Jaws][Titanic] and others.
Ugh! Bad update last night. The [photos]janella.us is offline. Any photos to see are only on the Photos@Flickr site.
It’s going to take sometime to rebuild stuff.
Ugh!
Met up with Dave yesterday to do our weekly coffee talk. I had a chance to test out the replacement 50mm since I needed to get headshots of him for a web site. Well, here they are:
Overall I think they turned out well. I had to remember to enable the flash after the first shot, to fill out the shadows. I think it worked out. Man, I never noticed how much I like the 50mm.
Ah, another Internet and ME moment. Found this nifty plug-in/site called [Audioscrobbler]. From their site it states:
Audioscrobbler builds a profile of your musical taste using a plugin for your media player (Winamp, iTunes, XMMS etc..). Plugins send the name of every song you play to the Audioscrobbler server, which updates your musical profile with the new song. Every person with a plugin has their own page on this site which shows their listening statistics.
The Governor of California visited work today to make a little speech. We waited in line, hopeful to get in, but fell about 50 people short of the door. Oh well, I didn’t vote for him (or the recall) anyway.
Here’s some photos from outside (with a few more @ my Flickr page):
Thursday was one of the times I was glad I checked my spam email. I get the weekly email from [Ticketmaster] about concerts. I guess I missed the one earlier about [Esthero] coming to town, and only found out on Thursday when she was playing on Friday?!?!?
I called Farrah to quickly confirm we had nothing plan, and was able to purchase some general admission tickets online. Finally, we get to see Esthero after missing her so many years ago.
“I was born Wednesday, June 29, 2005 at 8:24am. I weighed 7lbs 3oz and measured 18.5 inches. My turn-ons include nipples, balmex and pink onesies."
Congratulations to Mark and Ivria
It’s been a pretty low-key weekend. I have just been trying to recover from this cold-thing. Saturday I spent most of the day in bed, hoping I could go out and about on Sunday and Monday. And so I have been able to do so.
Yesterday, Farrah and I just hit the malls - Valley Fair, Vallco then Fry’s - to do a little window shopping for the most part. Coming back from a late breakfast we ran into Mitsuki and her father on their mid-day walk.
Farrah and I ran into Doug and Mitsuki on their mid-morning walk. I had the camera with me and started to take some photos of Mistuki, which I haven’t had the opportunity to do. I went to manual and forgot the sunny 16 rule, so few of the shots here have way too much light:
Luckily I could look at the LCD and quickly remedy the situation to get a couple of good shoots as well:
I’m recovering from this damn cold still. I got the stuffy head thing going right now. Hopefully it will be gone soon so I can enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Right now as I’m writing this I am watching the the Live 8 concert feed on [AOL.com] I know the Internet has been around for a while now, but I’m just amazed that I am able to jump back and forth between the feeds in London, Berlin, Toronto, Philadelphia and Rome.
These new albums now available for viewing:
Photos from Yen’s birthday dinner.
Photos from Lotte’s birthday dinner.
Its official: I got some kind of bug. Aching back. Runny nose. Hacking cough. Ugh, I hate this stuff.
Of course, I decided to go out yesterday after work and spread my germs! No, I had to pay a bill at the mall. So Farrah and I grabbed dinner at [Alexander’s Steakhouse] - more on that later - and headed around the very dead Vallco Mall. I started to feel progressively worse.
Most of the postings lately have been about birthdays. Let’s see, birthday’s this month were for Skylar, Little Gordon, Yen, Lotte, Doug and Kevin this month. Did I miss anyone?
A lot of photo opportunities present themselves at birthdays. So I took it was an opportunity to take photos with the D70s. Pictures of Yen’s birthday (when we took her out to dinner at Straits @ Santana Row) and of Lotte’s birthday (at [Buca di Beppo’s] in the City) will be posted on the [Photos] janella.
Still, there are plenty of early Peas-heads who remain disgruntled about the group’s leap to the pop world. But go ahead and call them sellouts. Lead lyricist will.i.am doesn’t mind. “It’s cool. It makes me feel good because that means they really liked our first record.” I wouldn’t say I’m disgruntled, I just liked their old sound better. Not sure I’m getting into their new album. It’s pretty much pop, with a lot of contributing artists (Jack Johnson, Sting, Justin Timberlake…).
Today we had Father’s Day breakfast/brunch at Aloha Kitchen in San Jose on 1041 East Capitol Expressway.. Uh, the food was so good. I had the Samin with BBQ Chicken and it was delicious!!! Farrah’s dad had Samin as well, her mom Portuguese Sausage and eggs, and Farrah had Hawaiian Pancakes.
Farrah’s dad struck up a conversation with another customer. The talk started off normal - How you doing? Where you from?
I went to Kayla’s dance recital practice to take some photos, because there is more freedom to use a tripod or move around during the practice session All of these photos were taken with the aperture wide open to f/1.8 using the 50mm lens. Average shutter speed hovered at 50 so I got some blur here and there. Take a look at the photos and make any comments you’d like.
Well, I broke out the 50mm lens - which I’m going to use for Kayla’s dance recital practice - and took some self portraits. They turned out ok I suppose. I think I’m a little too close to the camera. Do they look a little washed out? I’m sure I can fix it in post-processing if I really wanted to - or knew how. I shot them in RAW format so this allows for easier tweaking of the image without degradation.
Rating: **** out of 5
Quick shot: The movie chronicles the Batman’s beginnings.
What I liked about the move:
It’s back to the serious Batman. The storyline is very well structured, good acting all around, and Gotham City looks like an actual city. Plus Batman’s toys are pretty cool as well.
What I didn’t like: Bale’s Batman voice didn’t do it for me, except for one scene where he was very effective.
Can Darth Vader read your mind? Visit [this web site] and challenge a Lord of the Sith. He did guess correctly what I was thinking! Weird.
Well, I have had the D70s for two weeks. I’m loving the freedom of taken the shot and seeing the results right away, but with an SLR type camera! I know that’s how it is supposed to be with a DSLR but I’m still getting used to the feeling.
I have been messing with [aperture priority] and shutter speed the last week. The reason I have been is I want to take photos at Kayla’s dance recital.
Rating: *** out of five
Quick shot: Boy and girl meet. Boy and girl get married. Boy and girl are spies for competing agencies and don’t know it. Boy and girl must kill each other, or die trying. Will this have a happy ending
What I liked about the movie: Good action - gun play, hand-to-hand combat, and car chases. Good chemistry between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Fair and snappy dialog
I think I mentioned a post or two ago that I was starting a new blog. Yeah, another blog. This makes a total of three blogs!!! Well, actually it’s more like two. There is:
[weblog] janella.com - The main blog. I use this to keep family and friends updated on what is going on with life’s events. It also serves as the main method to hear about new photos taken and posted involving those life events.
Some photos I took on my day off this past Wednesday. The weather was a little overcast, which minimized some of my outdoor shooting as it was raining a little. I liked the [Legion of Honor], but preferred seeing the sculptures inside over the paintings. I’ll need to go again because I didn’t feel comfortable shooting pictures inside the building, even though you can! Just no flash photography or shooting during the special exhibits (I think?
I’ve been able to get some more reading and shots in the last day. Last night Farrah, Yen, and I went out to look at fabric and dinner. I was able to take a few outdoor shots - around dusk) and indoor restaurant shots with the D70s’ built in flash. The flash photos look a little saturated, and the outdoor photos needed adjusting as well. The results are the adjusted photos here:
Not much happening today. My picture opportunities have been limited. I spent about an hour and a half walking around the [Sunnyvale Art & Wine Festival]. Good time to take in some sun. Boy was it crowded though. I kept running into people. I did come across some vintage cars on display.
I took a couple photos here and there, nothing exciting. You can see more on the set @ [Flickr].
Well, I’ve finally started some shots with the D70s. I haven’t read all of the instruction manual. In fact I have probably read less then 10 pages of a 100 page manual!!! I just wanted to get out and start shooting.
Yesterday, I got a 1GB 80x Corsair Compact Flash card. I was hoping to get the [Lexar 1GB 80x Compact Flash card]. Now the Corsair is not on the test and approved list of cards, but it is working and I hope it lasts me for a while.
It’s been a pretty quiet day so far. Not heavy on the work stuff. I’m using the time to study some photo techniques. Problem with studying it is wanting to apply it after reading, which I can’t do.
We had a BBQ for lunch here at work. Burgers, ribs, salad, dessert. Not too bad, though I know I can cook better ribs :)
Plans for the weekend? A lot of picture taking.
The memory card pain continues today. I found out I can’t return the memory card I accidentally bought, even if I didn’t open it (which I did). Oh well, the card is going to go up on the for sale list at work in hopes of recovering some $$$. If I didn’t mention it I accidentally ordered a Secure Digital card and not a CompactFlash card.
The different memory cards can be a pain.
I received my delivery from FedEx today at work. It difficult to not open the box and look at the D70s, but I held off for a while. I should have open it there though because something was wrong.
After running some errands with Farrah, I was able to finally start putting the D70s together. The body is slightly thicker in my hand then the N80, and with the kit lens attached (18mm-70mm) the camera feels nice.
Cool site: TrekEarth
Found this cool photo site as I was doing research for my new blog. New blog? More on it later.
Anyway:
“The underlying theme of TrekEarth is learning more about the world through photography. TrekEarth fosters this by allowing photographers to display their work grouped by regions in a supportive and orderly environment.”
I found the site to be fascinating and inspirational, as I try to increase my photography skills and time spent taking pictures.
I hope this doesn’t sound too much like ’look at me and what I have" but I wanted to write down why I chose the equipment I currently have. The equipment is listed on the right-hand column in no particular order. First up is the Sony DSC-T1
Sony DSC-T1
Farrah and I were in the market for a new digital camera. When knew we wanted something small yet could take great pictures.
Mr. Brightside The Killers
Somewhere Only We Know KeaneSleeps With Butterflies Tori AmosBreakdown Jack JohnsonCollide Howie DaySuper Duper Love Joss StoneJust Like Heaven The CureFloat On Modest MouseBehind These Hazel Eyes Kelly ClarksonDon’t Phunk With My Heart Black Eyed Peas
- tri’al
- Pronunciation: ‘trI(-&)l
- Function: noun
- a tryout or experiment to test quality, value, or usefulness b : one of a number of repetitions of an experiment
trib’u’la’tion
Pronunciation: “tri-by&-’lA-sh&n
Function: noun
- distress or suffering resulting from oppression or persecution; also : a trying experience
Oh so many blogs, so much to learn, so much to write about, so little time. This is my third blog, but really I only maintain one somewhat frequently.
Ernie @ Prolific Oven Originally uploaded by sith_kicker. Farrah and I had dinner with Ernie today. We ate Yan Can in the Rivermark Center - at Ernie’s suggestion.
I just wanted to post this picture because I told him I would :)
Oh, and we had another local celebrity sighting: [Raj Mathai] walked into The Prolific Oven while we were having our dessert.
052905039 Originally uploaded by sith_kicker. Today was good day.
Farrah and I decided yesterday to go to the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers. I told Farrah about the Amorphophallus titanum, which blooms once very couple of years. When it blooms it smells like “rotting flesh”. Yum! I wanted to see it, wanted to see the City since it is a three day weekend. So we went.
The drive and weather was very nice.
google-janella Originally uploaded by sith_kicker. I know this is cheesy, but janella.com is the #1 search result when searching for ‘janella’ on Google! The site was not even ranked in the top 20 results before. Guess Google fixed some things?
We attended a memorial service for Bill today. It was a very nice ceremony at the Los Gatos United Methodist Church. Rex and Wendy shared some memorable moments about their father, and Kayla and Ella even spoke of their memories about their grandfather. Bill will be missed but never forgotten.
This is the obituary notice as posted in the Mercury News:
William Fred Traber
William Fred Traber (Bill) Aged 76, passed away May 15, after a massive stroke.
Rating: * out of five
Quick Shot: Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader, killing every Jedi in sight.
What I liked about the movie: A lot of action, some dialoge. Nice to see the pace pick up, which made the movie flow better. Love the lightsaber duels.
What I didn’t like: The acting is still wooden, probably due to the director and the script.
More later on the overall theater experience.
Gordon Originally uploaded by sith_kicker. My nephew Gordon might be coming out for the summer. Should he cut his hair before he comes out to California? Cast your vote (which requires you to register for an account at [LiveJournal.com] It’s free so why not?) Or you can leave a comment and decide.
…but not soon enough. Have you seen the new Playstation 3 design? From what I read it has a pretty powerful processor comes in different colors too! You can probably find more information at places like Gamespot.com
Hand-to-hand Combat Training Originally uploaded by sith_kicker. Susana called me to tell me that Rex’s father had passed away. He suffered a stroke earlier this month and never recovered. He will be missed.
I didn’t know Bill that well, only talking to him at family get-togethers such as Mother’s Day brunches at the Coconut Grove, Kayla’s birthdays and especially Thanksgivings. He was always very talkative, very energetic and always willing to lend a hand to anyone.
Since I was contemplating a new blogging service, I was looking at my old blog at [blogger.com] You can take at look at it here:
http://www.janella.org/
You can see the whole in entries from April 2003 when I stopped using it to April of 2005 when I came back to play. I recently did some side-by-side posts on my blogger.com site and [LiveJournal.com] using [Flickr.com]. I must say the template look for blogger.
National Treasure Originally uploaded by sith_kicker. Rating:** 1/2 out of five
Quick Shot:Nic Cage plays a treasure hunter/treasure protector in this action packed film. Yeah, it’s a little like “Indiana Jones meets teh Da Vinci Code”.
What I liked about the movie:Good chemistry between the cast. The storyline keeps moving. A good film to put in and just enjoy, not thinking much about anything.
What I didn’t like:I didn’t care much for the Jon Voight character.
Drawing on Yen’s cast Originally uploaded by sith_kicker. These are photos from our visit with Yen and Heidi last week. You can see the rest by logging into the [Photos @ Flickr] pages. Yes, you will need to sign up for an account. It’s free and easy!
So as you can see the page is now a little different. This is because I’m trying out new services and am planning to move {Janella.
Thinking of being a first-time home buyer in the Bay Area? Well, you might have to put in a couple more hours on the job:
“The San Francisco Bay area had the highest gap… where potential homebuyers had a median household income of $67,770 but needed qualifying income of $160,700 to purchase a median-priced home at $689,240.” [Read the full article]
Check out the flash game [Guess-the-google]. 20 images are shown to you and you need to guess the term used to bring up those images. Worth a couple of plays.
Link provided by Steven.
I was feeling nostalgic yesterday afternoon. It most likely started because I was listening to R.E.M.’s (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville, a song we played quite often when I was stationed in Iceland.
The year I spent in Iceland started very rough. When I arrived in March, the snow had yet to begun to melt. I remember falling down a couple of times in my dress blues, not getting used to all the ice and snow.
Last night we saw Tori Amos perform at the Davies Symphony Hall. It was our first concert at Davies, but not our first Tori concert. I have been to a handful of her concerts at various venues. It never ceases to amaze me how such a tiny, seemingly fragile woman could have such a powerful voice, and play the piano with such extreme passion.
The original tickets we got from [ticketmaster.
Ok, a moment to reflect on last night’s concert.
This was the sixth time seeing U2, but my first general admission experience in seeing them. The first time I saw U2 was from behind home plate at the Oakland Coliseum on the ZooTV tour. The Pop tour came next, the first time seeing them two shows in a row. This experience was unique in that the first night Farrah, Doug and I had seats way up high in the 200 section (again at the Oakland Coliseum), then the next night we were in the 5th row!
Just got back from the U2 concert at the HP Pavilion. I’m still a little jazzed from the experience. I’ll probably be really tired some time tomorrow. I’m winding down right now to last night’s episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent. I’ll write more on the concert later.
Today’s blog entry was typed in the Yosemite Lodge, room 4109 Aspen building in Yosemite, California. It’s around 10:40 pm right now.
Today is my birthday. It has been a wonderful day. I don’t have access to the Internet here, at least not in the room, so I am typing this blog entry into Microsoft Word and will place it on the site later. And later is now, since you are reading these words at this moment.
I haven’t posted anything personal lately. I’ve been a bit busy with little things here and there. Plus most of the things I want to vent about deals with work. If you’ve read some of my past posts you’ll know about reasons for my hesitation to vent about work.
Farrah and I have been planning our concerts to see this year. So far on the agenda there is U2, Tori Amos and Jack Johnson.
Ok, I couldn’t stand just having the Spring Fairy theme as an option. So I implemented the [Theme Switcher] plug-in for WordPress. In order to switch the look for [janella.com] simply choose from the pull-down menu on the right. The default theme for now is the Spring Fairy theme. Janella Default is the theme with the rotating banner images. WordPress Default is the standard theme. I’ll be adding more, tailoring the theme for [janella.
Well, spring is just around the corner. So I decided to use a spring theme on the site. Don’t worry, it’s only temporary. It’s a girlie-type theme, and since I’m the one who mostly updates the site I probably wouldn’t normally use this theme. But it’s springtime.
I’ve been thinking of allowing different themes on the site. What is a theme? Well, for WordPress purposes a theme gives a blog a certain look.
It looks as if [Friendster] has joined the blogging craze! I just did a test blog at
http://giron.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/ It seems simple enough.
The blogging engine is provided by [Six Apart] who also does [TypePad] and recently bought [livejournal.com] It looks like Six Apart is trying to take over all of the blogging community!
The deal with Friendster provides them with a very good user base and exposure to revenue TypePad is a pretty successful subscription service livejournal.
I haven’t been feeling too well, especially since last night. I had that itch behind my nose feeling on last Saturday. Sunday it was the same as well. I took my Claritin but no use. I think it’s a cold, because others at my work (in my row!) are sick. Great.
Visit the [Baby Name Wizard] for a visual historical look at your first name’s use. Just enter your name in the upper left corner, next to the flashing cursor. You will need to launch the link in Internet Explorer as it requires Java and some other Internet Explorer aspects. At least I wasn’t able to use it with FireFox. Link provided by Steven.
Insight / joke forwarded by Tage (and worth sharing):
A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.
“House” for instance, is feminine: “la casa.” “Pencil,” however, is masculine: “el lapiz.” A student asked, “What gender is ‘computer’?” Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether “computer"should be a masculine or a feminine noun.
When I found out the weblog wasn’t resolving, I looked on [wordpress.org] for answers. There I found a new version of Wordpress available. I downloaded and installed it. Now the thumbnails included in some posts (mainly the reviews) are not appearing. Hmmm… need to figure out how to fix this problem.
Oh well, at least the site is up and running again.
The weblog has been down most of the day due to database issues. Hopefully they’re resolved now.
Well, I’m no longer an AT&T Wireless customer. I’ve made the switch to Verizon. It wasn’t as painless as the [previous experience] for Farrah’s phone, but I think it went as smooth as possible.
The main selling points with Verizon for me were (1) the good rating for Nationwide reception, (2) the good rating for customer service, and (3) it wasn’t Sprint or AT&T. I’ve never considered T-Mobile or Cingular for service.
Rating: ***1/2 (out of 5)
Quick Shot: A blind masseur is more than he seems.
What I liked about the movie: There are about three or four subplots in this film, woven together with Zatoichi in the middle. It’s done very well. Plus you can rarely go wrong with Beat Takeshi. Just remember, it does get a little bloody in this film.
What I didn’t like: It took me a while to get adjusted to the cinematography/look of the film.
Recently I saw a long preview commercial of NBC’s [The Office], which premieres in March. The original version, which you can watch on [BBCAmerica] or on [DVD], is a very hilarious comedy, with uncomfortable comments and silences being an important part of its charm. I don’t think the American version can compare, but I am just basing this on what I saw in the commercial. Then again, there is past evidence that translating shows from BBCAmerica hasn’t worked before:
[Using animated stacking blocks] to tell time. It’s in military format. Watch it for a while to see the animation in action. This cool site brought to you by rsang.
For the past three days, including tonight, I haven’t been able to go to sleep until after midnight. I don’t know why. I’ve been very busy at work, stress-fully busy, the when-is-this-day-going-to-end busy. To top it off I am restricted to the eight hour work day to complete my work. No overtime, no extra time to get things done. You would think with all that I would be sleeping earlier.
Wordpress has this cool feature where you can post an entry by email submission. I guess it’s pretty cool to do this is (1) you are traveling and access a public computer, so you access your email to post instead of the site itself, or (2) you can send a text message via phone or Blackberry and have it posted.
Well, let’s see if this post works. Pressing send now….
[This lovely puzzle] comes to us courtesy of Steven. So blame him if you can’t solve it.
Everyone have a lovely Valentine’s Day. I know it’s a Monday, but try to enjoy it anyway.
It’s been one of those weeks. one of those weeks where the days last longer than they should. I wish I could write, put down what is on my mind right now, but I can’t since it’s about work. At least I can’t write about it this instance.
The blogger I mentioned in an earlier post was actually [fired from Google]! It has come to that in this high-tech society. Sure I can write in generalities but I’m sure someone from work who stumbles upon the site would know who or what I’m writing about.
Here are some of the new/old albums we’re listening to on the iPod - in no particular order:
[Careless Love] - by Madeleine Peyroux : Farrah turned me on to her. Love the album. [Trouble] - by Ray LaMontagne : I think Farrah said she heard a song of his on the WB (damn advertising). Album is actually very good. [New Danger] - by Mos Def : My first Mos Def cd.
Ugh, I’m on a blog improvement kick.
No, I’m not thinking of messing with the layout. I think I’m pretty happy with how the page and functions overall. I guess I’m looking to add those bonus features and little touches here and there.
I’ve been checking out other people’s blogs lately, trying to find something else to add, some little feature. For instance: on a [co-worker’s blog] he’s got a little radio/mp3 player deal going (see the launch vp player) .
Why do I blog?
I’ve been thinking about it the last couple of weeks. I guess because I do it so infrequently while others make it a daily ritual. I wonder how they do it, how the create the daily blog to share with others - or possibly no one.
There are many reasons to blog and many people who are doing it. From [political] blogs to blogs about [porn] to [infamous] blogs and blogs by [friends].
Rating: **** of 5
Quick Shot: World War I love story. Audrey Tautou is the Mathilde to Gaspard Ulliel Manech in this magical journey to find each other. Or do they?
What I liked about the movie: The cinematography and direction was very impressive. Audrey Tautou is adorable as ever.
What I didn’t like: A little long (2 hours 14 minutes give or take), most of it setting up the story in the first third of hte film.
This morning Farrah and I took a whack at trying to buy U2 tickets on [Ticketmaster.com]. I’m usually the only one trying to get tickets, but since there was a hard limit on the number of tickets one could buy, both Farrah and I tried.
Well, 10 AM came around. We started trying to get tickets on both the laptop and desktop, entering in the amount carefully and just waiting for the results.
The Girl Scouts are back to spread their good cheer by selling you those evil cookies. Yeah, my niece is one of them ! I put down some money to buy at least one box of each type available this year. Now, you want to know the price you’re going to pay when you eat one of those cookies? Take a look at [this website] for the nutritional facts.
Now enjoy those cookies.
Not much happening this weekend. I think we’re still recovering from the holiday season. I’ve still got a little cough/congestion going. What is that now, a month? I think it’s going away, but very slowly.
We’ve been spending a lot of time catching up on the Tivo’d shows as well as movies we haven’t watched. Farrah’s been a little ahead of mean watching movies so her more recent movie knowledge is better than mine!
Wait, isn’t it January 2005? Well, I haven’t posted a song mix for a while. This mix I made for November broke some rules I usually set myself like
(1) no more than one song from the same person or group, and
(2) no older songs on the mix.
I guess in November I was just trying to fill up the disc! Here was the list of songs for November 2004’s CD:
Rating:**** out of 5
Quick Shot: Vince Vaughn plays the underdog/hero gym owner trying to save his gym from the evil (and hilarious) Ben Stiller. So how can Vince save the gym? By entering a dodgeball tournament!
What I liked about the movie: Ben Stiller, who’s in about every other movie made right now, is just funny as hell! Way better than his turn in Starsky and Hutch.
What I didn’t like: Nothing.
Ugh, this cold is still hanging on. It’s coming up on the worst part: the running nose and coughing. It supposed to be a good sign - a clearing of the system. It just feels annoying and uncomfortable to go through.
The only plan on the board is to watch the big football game on Sunday - the Colts at the Patriots - and to watch the Golden Globes later that night.
I got a little stuffy nose action happening these last couple of days. I think I’m sick again! I was sick Christmas week. I managed to take three days off during that week - getting better the Sunday after Christmas. But that didn’t last long.
The next week, the last week of December going into New Year’s Eve, one of my lymph nodes decided to work overtime. It got a little large on the side of my neck and felt uncomfortable for two days.
Today’s addition in the albums:
The Christensens Visiting California [2001] (under Family)
Just got the Christmas photos back from the lab. They are now posted in the Holidays section. Tried using Longs Drugs this time to see how they are. Eh, there ok. Also posted some older photos (Halloween stuff). Slowly getting more photos online just to have them all there. So what was added?
Christmas Albums [2004], [2003], [2001], and [1999] (under Holidays) Halloween [2001] and [2000] (under Holidays) Rex’s Birthday [2004], [2002], and [2001] (under Birthdays) Note: above links only work if you are already logged into the photos page.
Catching up on some movie trailers since we haven’t been to the theater in a while. If you view these trailers, most require Apple’s QuickTime to view. Check these out:
[Batman Begins] - The Dark Knight’s tale goes back to Year One. Christian Bale plays a serious Batman. Hopefully this will erase the Schumacher Batman movies from memory. [Bride and Prejudice] - From the director of Bend It Like Beckham. [Charlie and the Chocolate Factory] - The Tim Burton/Johnny Depp remake of the Gene Wilder classic.
Happy New Year!!!!! Have a happy 2005!
The photos section is now set to use [Gallery]. So much for the weblog portion and photo pages looking the same. At least the color scheme is close. I know that the folks at Gallery are working on trying to make [Wordpress] and Gallery work together, so perhaps sometime in the future navigation will be smoother.
Email requests have been sent to users who have had an account, requesting they sign up for a new password.
