./janella.com

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.  Now it looks like I have the photo albums on my website.  You can still access the photos on Flickr as well.

So, this is another reason to sign up for a Flickr account if you wish to see more albums on //Janella.com Of course you need to be someone I know.  After all, the photos that I have private on my Flickr account are those of family and friends.  Nothing too embarrassing, but things I don’t wish to share with the general public.  As always if I have a photo posted in the public space (of yourself) that you wish for me to take down, please write to me and let me know.

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.  We went to a couple of places to eat during those days.

On the recommend list:

• Reo's Ribs - A good rib joint run by Snoop Dogg's Uncle.  Get the combo plate (pork and beef ribs).
• Syun Izakaya - A Japanese restaurant where the Unagi is tender. Service was fare, only because they get really busy at lunch time.
• //Huber's - I had the Five spice pork tenderloin which went well with a pint of Guinness

I came back for the weekend, then went back to join Rich for more training and food.  Other places we hit were:

• //Imbrie Hall - I liked the stuffed burger I had.  I think Rich liked the Jambalaya. They actually had to ask him if he had it before, because it is very spicy.
• Hale's Restaurant - Total diner type place.  Reasonable price for reasonable food. But yeah, a total diner place.  It even has a waitress that says, "Be with you in a minute, hun."
• //Russell Street Bar-B-Que - The last place we ate in Oregon before Rich and I took our flights out of PDX.  Very good ribs and meats cooked differently than at Reo's Ribs.  They also had a nice Iced Cinnamon Coffee (similar to a Hobee's Iced Tea), and Rich also got a Fried Chocolate Pies.  Good food worth going back for.

For photos from Oregon, see my Flickr album for //Oregon - Hillsboro and Portland

In-between my trips to Oregon we celebrated Susana’s birthday at the house.  We celebrated with a bar-b-que dinner - ribs, kabobs - and of course cake!  Susana’s got a digital camera for her birthday, so Farrah and I gave her a larger memory card to hold all the photos she’ll be taking.  Now all she needs is a computer to download all the photos!

For photos from Susana’s birthday, see my Flickr album for //Susana’s Birthday Celebration

When I finally came back from Oregon the bridal/wedding shower was the next day.  A lot of people worked very had cooking food, putting up decorations, cleaning up, and doing everything and anything to make the shower go off without a hitch.  We appreciate all the help people gave.  We also were happy to see so many people at the party!  Thank you for all the gifts!

For photos from the bridal shower, please see //Wedding shower and //Farrah’s Bridal Shower - Photos by Susana

Both albums are on my Flickr account. Please note: not all photos are visible to the public.  If you would like to see all the photos, please sign up for a Flickr account.  It’s really easy.

Simply click on the ‘Sign up now’ button on the home page for //Flickr After signing up, add me as a Friend or Family member and I’ll add you as one to my list as well.  You may have to introduce yourself if I cannot recognize your username.  Also Flickr just recently added the ability to get prints of online photos developed.  But you need to be on my Friends and Family list to see the option above the photos.  Photos can be mailed to you or you can pick it up at your local Target store.  Cool, huh?

I am working on a way to better share photos.  Flickr is a great service and I like most of the features, so for now photos will be primarily shared through that service.

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.

An hour later it felt worse.  By the next morning I knew something was seriously wrong.  So I made an appointment for the morning.  Farrah had to drive me because by that time the pain was unbearable.

The ophthalmologist who saw me was very nice and informative.  He determined it was a corneal abrasion and prescribed ointment and antibiotics.

This is how my eye looked after the visit:

One day two I looked a little worse then got a little better:

I went back to work today, straining my right eye to read the screen.  I also had another doctor’s appointment today.  He said everything is healing back up, with a few places high on eye that aren’t filling in quiet yet.  I’m on a dose of antibiotics and ointment to heal.

We’ll see how things progress by next Tuesday’s follow up.

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?  Well, I played with the new photo blog I have.  What?

Go to http://www.soulsofourfeet.com/ and take a look.

My mission, if I decide to continue with it, is to post one photo every day.  The photo can be something I have taken way back when or just on that day.  I’ll make my comments and ask anyone to make their comments as well.  I’m just trying to modivate myself to take more photos and realize what I am taken and how I am composing the photos.

One photo a day.

We’ll see.

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.  Normal oxygen levels should be between 90-100, so mine was slightly off.  I was being tested for [sleep apnea].

I was staying over Susana’s house when she noticed I stopped breathing during my sleep.  This was a little over ten years ago.  I did get tested back then, where I was hooked up with elaborate probes across my body.  It short of reminded me of William Hurt in [Altered States] minus the water tank.  The results were never really told to me, though the doctor did notice I have a slight [deviated septum].  Operating was a possibility but never fully discussed.

Fast forward to the present: I found myself really tired these last several months even though I was getting sleep.  Farrah would be bothered by my snoring, so if anything I wanted to get seen for trying to alleviate that snoring.  I’ve always snored, even when I was a skinny little kid.  Just ask anyone in my family.  They’d wonder how someone so small (at the time) could make so much noise!!!

So I made an appointment to be seen for sleep apnea once again.  The initial appointment to discuss my possible condition was conducted in a conference room with about 35 other people.  The way [Kaiser Permanente] deals with sleep apnea or snoring is to hold a mini-seminar with one-on-one counseling afterward.   The mini-seminar discusses causes of sleep apnea and treatments.  Treatments range from losing weight to wearing a special mask to sleep to having an operation, the latter being the most evasive and least effective treatment.  Afterward I was  scheduled a time to come back in to get the little machine mentioned earlier.

A week after the test I went to another mini-seminar meeting for the results.  The first thing I noticed when I entered the room, which was classroom size not conference room size, was that about 90% of the people were overweight.  They were of all different nationalities and about 99% of them were men.  Some of the people even had their eyes closed, not able to stay awake - which was one of the symptoms discussed in the earlier seminar.

The results were what I mentioned earlier:

...83% oxygen saturation...52 episodes lasting on average of 12 seconds...7.75 hours of sleep recorded.

The numbers aren’t bad, but they aren’t good either.  One young skinny fellow had an oxygen level of 68%!  I had the option of trying the machine or waiting six months to be tested again.  I opted for the machine.

It’s a scary looking thing, isn’t?  The little piece goes over your nose, the strap behind your head, and air is sent through the tube to your nose.  I’ve used it for three days now.  After the first day I felt about 25% better (if I had to quantify the results).  The second night was harder to sleep through, as was the third.  I’m having a problem with the mask slipping off my nose as I toss and turn at night.  I go back for consultation later this week for some adjustments and a new machine, as this one is only used for calibration.

It’s been an adjustment and as I understand it is going to take a long time.  It can take anywhere from three to four months to get used to the mask.  But I can tell you even though I’m a little tired, I am not as deeply tired as I felt before.  I’ve been looking online, especially reading posting in the Yahoo! Groups on sleep apnea, and it has helped me with a lot of question I have.

Hopefully, if I can sleep through one full night without having to wake up and adjust the mask, I can see results.

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.  And of course if the groom requests that you take photo after photo you’re going to do it, right?

I just felt pressure for the photos to come out right, perfect in a sense.  I think the over all result is ok, but some of the photos feel like they have too much flash.  I’ll need to see if I can work with some filters, Photoshop some of the photos to see if I can get a better look.  What is posted on the [Flickr account] and at Yahoo! Photos will be the straight RAW images converted to jpeg with no other real edits.

I had a problem working with the crowd of people and their cameras.  If I had to do it all over again, I think I would be a little more forceful with the subjects, ensuring they look at me when taking the photos and getting better position in taking the picture.

If you have any thoughts you’d like to share, please do so.  I can use any comments :)

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

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.  There are predictable portions of the movie, but they are pulled off well.

[Must Love Dogs] on the other hand has two likeable actors in a poorly scripted movie.  We find Diane Lane playing a recently divorced woman who is being pushed by her family into the dating scene.  To help her along, one of her sisters posts Lane’s character’s profile on an online dating service.  It is through there she meets a slew of men, including the recently divorced John Cusack.  From there the fun begins.

What doesn’t work in this movie is the writing.  The actors are likeable enough, oozing charisma off the screen.  If only they had some smart words to say, as they would in real life, and not the dribble that pours out of their mouths, it would make this film a much more pleasant experience.

Hitch: B+

Must Love Dogs: D-

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 understand it was a business decision, but it sucks nonetheless.  Suffice it to say I need to brush up on some Internet skills in hopes of landing another technical/Internet job.  We shall see.

I’m back to the rotating header bit.  Refresh the page to see what’s up!  My [LiveJournal] page will still be up, serving as a backup to this site now.  As I think I stated before, I enjoy the community aspect of sites like [LiveJournal] and [Yahoo!’s 360].  The only thing that turns me off is the lack of customization, though LiveJournal has more of this than Yahoo!

I may be trying some other new layouts here at [Janella.com].  If the page changes suddenly while you are on site, from one look to another, it’s just me f-ing around.

What Else

Since I haven’t posted much of late I’ll recap some of this weeks events.

Monday I found myself recovering from a long weekend of…shopping?!?!  Farrah, Yen and I went to the [San Francisco Giftcenter & Jewerlymart].  Let me just say this: if you aren’t interested in jewelry and other gifts you won’t like the place.  Well, let me rephrase that: they don’t have any cool electronic/computer stuff!  It was a total of about 8-10 hours of me watching Farrah and Yen look around.  It’s ok though.  I’m pretty tough (just as long as I had my coffee).  I took a couple of pictures and was able to try a new portable hard drive to transfer images to in the field.  I think it will come in handy on long trips, like to Hawaii.

Tuesday [Madden 2006] came out.    I’m not sure I’m going to buy it this year.  I mean are the improvements that great to justify the $49.99 price tag?  (Yeah, I ask myself that question every year).  Luckily Fry’s has it on sale until the 16th for $36.99 just in case I change my mind.

Two of the guys are work, Evan and Bert, got me watching [24]!  I mean really watching 24!  I rented, watched and finished season one in less than a week.  I’m almost done with season two which I find more interesting than the first.    If you don’t know what 24 is about pick up an episode and check it out.  BTW - Farrah will tell you how sick she is of hearing the title music from the DVDs for 24.

My other time has been spent working on getting the photo gallery back up.  It’s almost there.  Hopefully all will be well with it by the end of the month.