The Waiting is the Hardest Part

You are waiting to hear the news. It might be good news you are hoping to hear, something favorable to your future. Or, perhaps it’s bad news you wish you could avoid, news that can prove to be an obstacle for some time. Either way, you just want to know what is going on, and what is going to happen, so you can take the next step(s) to arrive at a conclusion. You are almost not concerned about the why, you simply want to know the what. But all you can do is wait.

Why do you have to wait?

Well, the decision, the next move to make things happen, may be out of your control. Or perhaps time is a necessity, it needs to pass in order for results to occur. But all you know is that it sucks. And you wait.

I’m in a situation like this now. I’m hoping for favorable news. If a ‘negative’ is given as a response, it won’t be the end of the world.  But it will be disappointing.

A friend of mine is waiting for news as well. It could be good or bad. Not sure what it will be, but I’m hoping for a positive outcome.

Waiting, in either case, is the only option.

Domain Swapping

If you found me - if you are reading these words on this blog - you could have only come here one of two ways. Either you’ve come directly to ://giron.me or you followed a link from my photo site, ://janella.com.

Prior to this new endeavor, I wrote on janella.com. But as you can see, things have changed. Those older blog posts still exist. I didn’t delete those posts. I simply moved them to ://janella.giron.me. They are safely there to search and read.

Why the shell game?

I wanted to keep words and photos separate. Not that I won’t post photos here.  I’m just looking for a little more segmentation, a little separation. When people ask about photos we’ve taken, I’d like to simply point them to janella.com - which would load the photo gallery - instead of a blog where you would need to find the photo link.

Plus, I don’t write often. And I find it a bit embarrassing when I point someone to the blog - again, to see photos - they will inevitably comment that I haven’t written in quite some time.

So, I’m still settling in on this space of the interwebs. Drop on a by every once in a while to see what’s up here, ok?

A Sunday Post

I wanted to start writing a regular post on Sunday, time permitting of course. I’m not sure what subject it may be. Perhaps it will be about something that happened during the week. Or it could be a summation of the week’s events in total. Or it may simply be another photo. Let us see what comes of this.

Mia turned nine months old this past week. She has been out of the womb longer than she was in it. A fantastic thing to realize this week. If you were told me 18 months ago we’d have this babbling bundle of joy to deal with I would have simply replied, “Huh? You’re crazy.” Yes, we’re happily crazy.

Farrah was able to put Mia in short sleeves, sunglasses, and a hat, as the sun finally came out of its hiding place behind the clouds. Earlier that day Mia had some blood is drawn, an unpleasant experience for all of us. I was the lucky one to hold her still while the needle was inserted. It’s a task I hope I do not have to do often. But going outside in the sun cheered up Mia immensely.

I had a birthday recently. As a whole, it was a pleasant experience. But there were individual elements, like being stuck on Highway 17 for over two hours, that were unpleasant. A tree was down across the highway, making the trip to Santa Cruz more arduous than normal.

Part of the presents I received was a very cool backpack and tickets to WonderCon.The last time I went to a comic book convention was over 15 years ago. I had never been to WonderCon, a large local comic book convention. This would be Farrah’s first comic book convention, making the experience even more memorable.

The Moscone Center, where the convention is held, was extremely crowded. There were many people in costume, though a majority of the attendees were in everyday clothes. We saw at least a dozen Stormtroopers, a couple of Wonder Women, a Superman, an Alien, a couple of Jokers, and several scantily clad women who were, I’m guessing, some Sucker Punch characters. (I need to watch that movie.)

We were able to attend a talk from one of my favorite comic book artists, Bill Sienkiewicz.  I’m not an artist, and not being able to draw is worth a lick. But I enjoy listening to creative people talk about their passion. Sienkiewicz talked with no prepared topics, simply taking questions from the audience. It was interesting to hear about his past experiences which help shape his artistic point of view.

Wondercon was crowded. Moving around the first half of the show floor was like swimming through molasses. When we got to the middle of the showroom floor we had more opportunity to move a breath more freely. Even with all of this, I think I’d like to go to Wondercon next year as well.

The above photos were taken on April 1, 2011.

Comment No Longer

I read a lot of things online. I would often read comments that accompany the articles and blog posts. But I’ve grown tired of the often snide and rude remarks people make in the comment section.  Instead of providing meaningful comments, and thoughtful responses that could add to the subject of the article, blog post, or photo, some people choose to make an ugly destructive comment. They make these ugly comments with ease, enjoying the lack of repercussion afforded by their anonymity.

I know my blog doesn’t run into this issue. What I’ve had problems with are spam comments. I receive more spam comments than actual comments each month. And since most people now comment via Facebook, where I crosspost often, having comments enabled on the site appears unnecessary. If you don’t have a Facebook account, I have to ask: “Who are you?”

iPad 2? Not for Me

MacBook Airs

The iPad 2 was announced last week. It appears to be another cool Apple device, a nice upgrade from the original iPad – which I currently own. Though I love my gadgets, I don’t think the iPad 2 is for me.

My current item of lust is an 11” MacBook Air (128GB with 4GB of RAM of course).  I have to stress that it has 4GB, because, unlike the MacBook Pro, aftermarket RAM cannot be added later on.  But why would I choose a MacBook Air over an iPad 2?

I agree with Vicky Beeching’s take on the two. It comes down to this:

  • iPad=consumption device
  • MacBook Air=creation device

Now, there are some people who find the current iPad an adequate creation device, but I am not one of them. My primary form of creating is writing, which I find difficult to accomplish on an iPad. I’ve tried using a Bluetooth keyboard with the iPad. I simply find it awkward to use it in conjunction with the iPad.

The iPad 2 appears to be amazingly fast. It also adds the ability to create more content, having added cameras and other software, which allows you to take photos and videos. You can also edit those photos and videos – a by-product of the amazing speed. But I don’t think I’d use the iPad 2 for such tasks. That’s what I would use the monster iMac to do.

To me, the appeal of the MacBook Air is size and weight. It would be easy to lug around with the heavy DSLR in tow. It would also be easy to simply take out, write a few thoughts, and plunk them back into the backpack.

Of course, this blog post is not stating I am getting a MacBook Air. I’m just saying if I had a choice, I’d prefer a MacBook Air over an iPad 2 (for like Christmas or my birthday).

I’m just saying…..

Rough Night

Lately, Mia has been able to sleep through the night. Unfortunately, she had a rough night sleeping last night. She woke up crying around 1:40am. This alone wouldn’t be so bad. But then she woke up crying twice more, once at 2:40-ish and then at 4:20-ish.

Each time she wakes up you go through the checklist: Is she hungry? Does her diaper need changing? Is she cold? None of these seemed to be the case last night. I think it came down to her not wanting to be alone, perhaps a night terror attack. Mia was only comforted by having her back and head rubbed while we stood next to her crib.

I’m sure she’ll have a few rough nights in the future. I imagine a time when she’s older when she finds the dark corner in her room scary, or an unfamiliar noise outside will startle her awake. She’ll scream or cry, come running into our room and ask if she can sleep in our bed. We’ll say OK, but only for a little while. She’ll fall asleep in between Farrah and I. We’ll pick up her little self and place her back into her own bed. We’ll rub her back and her head, making sure she’s comfortably asleep.

I know there will be a time when she will no longer come running to our room. But I can imagine a time when she still will, and I smile. I smile because she’s our little girl who’s coming to mommy and daddy for reassurance that everything is OK. And it is OK, even in the middle of the night.

I smile because she’s our little girl.

MoBowl - A Review

This week I had the opportunity to eat lunch at Mobowl. MoBowl is a food truck serving Chinese cuisine with a twist. We’ve tried MoGo, a similar concept involving Korean cuisine, and we’ve enjoyed what they had to offer. Would MoBowl be the same?

To find out where MoBowl will be on any given day, you need to either look on their homepage or their Twitter stream. They only serve food on weekdays during lunchtime. On this particular day, they were only three minutes away from my workplace.

On to the review.

Atmosphere

Well, it’s a food truck. The truck is clean, with available drinks and plastic utensils available upfront. The menu is written in chalk and is easy to read.

Service

They were a half-hour into their lunch service. I only saw one customer in line. I wondered if this was a bad sign, but I walked up to the truck and ordered. The order taker – possibly the owner – was friendly, giving me several options for what I ordered. I had the Five Spice Pulled Pork bowl. There were two additional options with my meal, a fried egg, and brown rice. Each would cost an additional dollar. I opted only for the fried egg. The meal came out to nine dollars total.

They were able to make my dish in less than five minutes. I took it to go, as is the case with these food trucks, and took my meal back to the office.

Food

The food comes in a sturdy plastic bowl. Items in the bowl are segregated into three areas: a salad, rice with a fried egg on top, and pulled pork. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like that much food. Then you realize the bowl is deep, and the contents of the bowl make up a hearty meal.

The salad was a normal regular green salad with a light dressing. The egg was fried medium with a slightly runny yoke. The rice was perfect, not too soggy or too dry. The meat, at first taste, was extremely tender and flavorful. I enjoyed it for a while. But after some time the five spices, which I’ve had before in other dishes, became overwhelming.

Verdict

I enjoyed my meal, though again, the five spice was a bit heavy-handed in my opinion. I think I’ll go back to try another offer. But for now, I give it 2 1/2 stars out of 5.

Investing in a System

I’m trying to invest in a cross-platform note-taking system. What I’d like for this system to do is:

  • Be available on whatever device I’m on - primarily a Windows machine, a Mac, iPhone, and an iPad.
  • Have the ability to take notes offline, then upload them for later access.
  • Have the ability to access notes while offline, somehow storing a local copy on each device.
  • Easily export all my data - just in case the company or system goes under.
  • Be easy to use and secure.

I like the idea of Evernote. I’ve tried to use it before when it first became available on the iPhone. For some reason, I haven’t taken to the system. But now that I have the application on all my devices, I’ll take the opportunity to take it for a full run. I’m going to try using the free version of Evernote for all my note-taking (e.g. blog posts, blog ideas, longer personal projects, etc.) The only thing the free version appears to be missing from my list above is the offline abilities. Those can be had with a premium account. Let me set a 30-day trial period, ending on February 25th. Let’s see how that goes.

So what am I using now?

I’m trying to get by with Elements. It’s a cool little iPhone and iPad app that syncs with Dropbox. But that’s the limitation, the availability of the app on those two platforms. I know I can use a simple text editor to access the Dropbox-created file or create a text file and put it into Dropbox for editing in Elements. But it seems laborious at this point. But it might be the more elegant solution if the Evernote software on the Mac and Windows machine proves to be cumbersome. Who knows.

I’ve also been trying out Scrivener for writing. Again, the problem is it only resides on my Mac. And again, I suppose I could export the file to Dropbox to make further edits, but it seems too much work to accomplish this.

I’ll let you know how it progresses.

Salt - A Review

Angelina Jolie as Salt

Netflix Synopsis:

After she's accused of being a Russian sleeper spy, rogue CIA agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) goes on the run, using every tactic, accent and disguise she knows to elude her pursuers, clear her name and protect her husband. Her supervisor, Winter (Liev Schreiber), buys her story, while counterintelligence officer Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor) decidedly does not and will do anything to stop her in this fast-paced, intrigue-filled spy adventure.

My Take:

I really wanted to like this movie, and I did for about the first third. But then it took a sudden turn down when the movie changed direction from plausible to unbelievable super-action hero. I mean, I believe the Jason Bourne movies more than Salt. Granted, the film was well shot, and the chases and stunts were well choreographed. I know, it’s a movie, and things don’t have to be realistic. Perhaps it was my mistake going into this film hoping for an actual action/espionage film, as opposed to pure cartoonish action sequences. I prefer Angelina Jolie’s in Wanted than in this film.

For me, any empathy for “Salt” was lost, as the story failed to support her actions or motivation. But I guess this isn’t a movie about character motivation, but of the momentum of action.

Rating: Cable TV Worthy

Immunizations

Mia had her first immunization shots yesterday. Oh, the pain! But she’s a trooper, a tough cookie, like her mom.

She was given three shots and a sweet liquid that was taken orally. Farrah readily volunteered to hold me, though she didn’t really know what to expect. As she tightly held Mia the nurse gave the first shot into Mia’s right leg. When the needle entered Mia’s thigh, and the plunger was pressed down, Mia let out the biggest cry I ever heard from her tiny mouth. The scream was heartfelt and piercing. The nurse then gave Mia a few drops of the sweet liquid in an effort to soothe her. It calmed her for a brief moment until the other two shots were administered to her left leg. She was given the last of the sweet liquid to calm her down a bit. But you could see the tears streaming down the side of her face. It’s heartbreaking not being able to do anything but say, “It’ll be all right. You’re fine now.”

She cried until she could cry no longer. Exhausted, she fell asleep on the drive home.

Mia was quiet for a few hours. But then she awoke screaming, most likely from the pain in her legs. I was on my way home when Farrah told me 0.8 ml of acetaminophen, as dictated by the doctor, helped Mia through the next rough few hours. I don’t think we ever heard her cry so badly.

Goodbye Vox

I’m extremely late in posting this, but it’s time to say goodbye to Vox. I hosted this blog there for a while - from July 2006 to June 2008.

The appeal of Vox, to me, was the community that was created during its inception. I found it easy to connect with people who shared common interests from various places around the world. Vox also allowed a user to post privately or to a specific group of people you designated. Unfortunately in order to comment on any post you had to be a Vox member.

Vox’s other limitations - lack of customization, lack of exporting data, lack of using a personal domain, and displaying of advertising you couldn’t control - made Vox not worth the trouble. People I had connected with started to drop off, going back to their personal websites (e.g. WordPress, Movable Type, etc). Thus ended my time at Vox.

I plan to import the view posts I have from Vox into this blog. They’ll be tagged appropriately, probably something as simple as “Vox”.

It was good while it lasted.