./janella.com

It’s great to hear the Writer’s Strike is over. But according to Kristin at E!online, some of my favorite shows won’t be on until next season!

My favorites:

24 - Looks like Jack won’t be back until next January, since they only finished half of their episodes. A long break may be good for this show, which has had some weak writing as of late.

Battlestar Galactica - For the final season, it looks like they are going to split it just like the 2.0 - 2.5 box set. Razor quenched my thirst for new Galactica, but only for so long.

Big Love - Looking good for this summer!

Brothers & Sisters - Only four new episodes this year?!?!?!

Dirty Sexy Money - One of my favorite new shows. Too bad it won’t be on until next fall.

Gossip Girl - Yeah, really. I always walk in when Farrah’s watching and I know what is happening. A favorite?

Grey’s Anatomy - Some new episodes, according to the article. Frankly, I’ve lost a bit of interest in the characters.

Heroes - No new ones this year. They really need to work on the story lines, and it sounds like they are from the article.

How I Met Your Mother - They might cancel it?!?!? How could they?

Lost - There are new episodes now - if you’ve been watching. I guess they’ll be doing a few more this season.

Pushing Daisies - My favorite show of the new season! It sounds like they might have a few new episodes this season. I really hope they do.

Read the article for more information on your favorite shows. For now, I guess I need to be satisfied with my reality show diet of - Rock of Love 2, Project Runway, American Idol, America’s Next Top Model, and Celebrity Rehab.

Yes, I watch too much tv. Thank goodness for Tivo!

Since I had ordered my Dell over the phone, I tried to seek technical support the same way. The Dell answering menu kept directing me to seek help online. After nearly an hour, I finally contacted a human, but there was an infuriating language barrier. It sounded as if the customer representative was repeatedly asking if I’d pressed the “cat slap button.” Then I realized she was referring to the “caps lock” button. I asked where she was. “In the Philippines,” she replied.  -- Sending an S O S for a PC Exorcist

Ah, you have to love outsourced technical support.  But the main point of the article isn’t support via the Philippines, it’s about PC/Windows support in general.

You know me, I go with what John C. Dvorak says in the article:

“I advise everybody to buy a Macintosh because Apple products are the easiest to use,” he said. “If you own a PC, you have to find a local nerd, a kid, maybe a relative. Every family has one unless they’ve just moved here from a foreign country. That’s the only solution.”

Unfortunately, I happen to be that one Dvorak speaks of.  So please, please, please, if you are buying new computer, please buy a Mac.  It will make your (Internet) life easier.

I’ve been meaning to blog more this year than I have in the past. Unfortunately (or fortunately), it has been busy at work.  Then two weeks ago I had dinner with friends I had not seen in years.  It was great seeing them, but I caught the flu from one of them!  A small price to pay to see friends, but it really through ‘my game’ off for the next couple of weeks.  I still have a lingering cough at this point.  This thing is nasty.

Anyway, I’ll be back to blogging soon. There are several subjects I’ve been itching to write about but I haven’t set aside any time to write.  I will shortly.

One's past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged. -- Oscar Wilde

Since the site change in late December, only a week ago, I have been in several online and offline discussion about the older blog entries being gone. Some understood why I wanted to change. Others simply didn’t like it. After all, in life you cannot easily deny what has come before. On the Internet, almost anything you post will always be online. So, like a brow-beaten politician who has stumbled on the campaign trail, I am changing my position. I have relented and am reposting all the old content.

But I am slowly reposting it.

I am also working deliberately on the photo section on Smugmug. Unfortunately, I haven’t had much time to devote on the photos, but will try to set aside some time in the future. OK, enough talk about updates. I’m going to bed.

Photos no longer available

Interesting building I found on my visit to Digg.com. Imagine being drunk and wandering by this place in Paris. I guess it’s a surrealist building, but I’m not sure if it is built this way or if the building is covered to obtain the look. You can find more information about the building by visiting the following website . This is where I obtained these press photos (more photos after the jump).

The website is in French. I cannot translate the text. If you happen to garner more information on this building I’d like to know.

Photos no longer available

Happy New Year to All!!!

May your year be a joyous and prosperous!

Now, I need to do that resolution thing, right?

Ok, in particular order, my resolutions are to:

• Use the sleep apnea (CPAP) machine more often, which will give me more energy to...
• Exercise more, which will help me in...
• Losing weight, which will also help with...
• the sleep apnea-thing

For those you of you who don’t know what sleeping with a CPAP machine looks like, see the photo below:

Read the story here for more on sleep apnea.

Not sure what Farrah’s resolutions may be. You’ll need to ask her.

I am starting with a clean slate.

Janella.com is rebuilding from the ground up. I’m starting from zero. This means blog postings previous to this one are no longer available to view. This purging does is not only limited to the blog you are reading now, but also the photos section - which will now hosted on Smugmug. My thoughts on my Flickr account is to post only individual photos there. More on what individual mean in the future.

Why am I doing this?

I have been contemplating this for quite some time. I have been on a creative slump, both in writing and taking photos. It has persisted for awhile now. I have tried dealing with this slump by making manic site design updates to the web site, which regular visitors have seen in the last year.

Part of the problem is with Wordpress, which makes it easy to change your web site’s look by offering plenty of free wonderfully hackable themes. Plug-ins for Wordpress provide additional ways to add features and change the look of the site. Then there are the software updates which can add or change base features. When I started using Wordpress to power the site I started with version 1. As of this posting it is at version 2.3.1.

When I make changes I am satisfied for a short time. Then I start browsing older entries created when using version 1.x or even 2.0, such as the entries of our London trip. I then become unhappy with the way the site looks. The cycle then begins again, changing the site once more. The one constant through these late struggles has been the same - the content.

Yes, the words I have written should stay the same. They should not be edited or reformatted. I should not care that 5 years ago I did not like to capitalize blog entries properly or that post tagging is something I didn’t do last year. I wouldn’t think I would have been the type of person who would care about this, but I do care for some reason I cannot articulate.

What I should be doing is adding new entries when the writing urge hits. I should be taking photos and posting them. But then the above takes a hold of me. It hinders me, stopping me from writing a word or taking a photo. At this point it is something I can’t seem to shut off.

So I have decided to start over.

I tried to think of a graceful way to archive the previous content, other than the archive method offered through Wordpress. At this point I have come up with nothing. What I have written before, and what you have graciously shared your comments on, is not lost. It is simply offline at the moment.

./Janella.com is now ‘red’. “Those of you who know me know that red is my favorite color,” he says sarcastically. I found the Half-Baked via the Weblog Tools Collection site and liked it tremendously.

I hope you are interested in what I write in the future. I hope you comment when you feel the need to do so. I hope to take more photos, interesting photos. I hope to update the site often - in content, not necessarily in design (but perhaps playing a bit with the layout).

From here on we begin anew.

As you have most likely noticed, I have update the site once more. I have added a Twitter widget.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

The postings to the left - at the time of this writing - are made mostly though SMS. When I have access to a computer, and I think about it, I might make an update through there.

I heard about Twitter awhile back, but never jumped on board. I wondered - who would be interested in what I’m doing? But then again I blog right? Clearly I regard myself as interesting enough to blog, so why not Twitter as well?

Twitter is also known as micro-blogging, since entries are limited (140 characters). It’s similar to sending text messages to someone, but I am sending it to my blog as well. Pownce, which I did a write up on as well, is a similar service with a few differences. I guess Pownce isn’t doing well according to Techcrunch. But Twitter also has issues, mainly downtime, which Techcrunch reports is on the upswing.

You can follow people on Twitter - where you will receive a text message on updates they make on Twitter. I haven’t done this yet because I don’t know anyone on there. But if you sign up for Twitter let me know. I can then follow you!

Give Twitter a spin.

Last Saturday I attended the holiday party for Genentech. It was held at AT&T ballpark. Yes, Genentech took over the whole baseball park.

First off, let me say that I hate calling it AT&T Park. Though PacBell no longer exists as a company, the former ballpark name PacBell Park rings more true when spoken aloud.

Last year’s holiday party was held at the Marriott in San Francisco. It was a more formal affair, dressing up for dinner and dancing. The party was great, but very crowded even though the party took up all the ballrooms and most of all the other nooks in hotel. I’m guessing the venue change had partially to do with that situation plus the Marriott is going through a slight renovation at this time, so it may have not been available for this shindig.

This affair had been built around two ideas: do you want to dine and dance or did you want to dine and get down-and-dirty in the snow. Yep, snow. We chose the latter, which meant dressing more for a trip to Tahoe then a trip to a ball.

We met up with Farrah’s co worker one her co workers (plus her boyfriend). It was my first time meeting both of them and we hung out most of the night together. Farrah co worker brought her ice skates as we heard there was going to be an ice skating rink somewhere in the ballpark.

We both entered ballpark at 7:00pm sharp. Once we got to inside we headed up toward the ballpark. We looked out onto the field to see what was in store. So much could be done:

• Near the middle of the baseball diamond there was the ice rink.
• In left field a hill of snow was available to sled down.
• In each dug out you could stand in line to have a whack at the batting cages.
• There was a dance floor and band set up in center field. The band played 70's disco and soul music.
• In the field and club level, a dining area and music was set up. Jazz and an 80's coverband where at the club level, a DJ in the field level area.
• Fireworks lit up the sky a little after 9:00pm
• There was food throughout the ballpark. A big favorite was smores which was available int he Promenade level.

Farrah and I watch as her co worker and her boyfriend ice skate for some time. We met up with Sarah and her date, who also ice skated. We danced and ate the night away, spending all of the five hours in the ballpark.

It was a very very good holiday party.

I’ll post some photos when I get a chance.