./janella.com

the chicago cubs are losing right now, 9-4. it seems it shouldn’t have gotten to this point but it has. last night they should have won the game, but a fan got in the way. you can see a still of the play at [thesmokinggun.com]

the poor sap will probably have to move out of the chicago area if the cubs lose tonight. if they happen to win tonight he will just be a minor footnote. i can’t imagine how he must feel with all those eyes, the stares of hatred towards him for possibly screwing up a chance to go to the world series.

but they say one play shouldn’t make a whole game. wait, i think that actually only applies to football. oh well, the guy is screwed.

i’m not saying i’m a cubs fan. out of the teams that are left - the marlins, cubs, red sox, and yankees - i am rooting for the sox and cubs. i am actually a yankees fan out of all the teams, but want to see someone else playing in the big game.

i sort of feel sorry for dusty baker. he goes to another team, after giants, and gets this close to the world series - two years in a row - only to lose it in the eight inning of game six. it must hurt.

ugh, it’s MY monday. it is kind of cool working off the normal monday through friday routine, but man it can wear on you. today everything is being thrown at us. gotta work through it right?

the [matrix reloaded] comes out today on dvd. at least that is something to look forward to, or is it? if you saw it you know that there is a lot, a lot lot, of talking in the movie. it wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t feel so compressed. but the movie has two things going for it: the car chase and [monica bellucci]! so it’s a must buy.

ah, better get back to work.

for some reason lately i’ve been trying to use different tools than your basic microsoft install tools. i guess with all the security and virus alerts i’ve been looking out more and more for good web tools. funny thing is i should have done it earlier.

i used to work at netscape. for those of you who can remember netscape, they came out with a popular web browser which was fairly dominant. until microsoft set their sights on the company. netscape tried its best to survive but couldn’t do so on its own. eventually it was bought out by aol.

anyway the tools i’ve been using lately? well, i like mozilla’s browser. you can download it at [mozilla.org] it’s a cool little browser, but for some reason some of its functions stopped working for me.

after that happened i started using opera, which you can get at [their site] it has been a fairly good stable browser with a lot of features. i have only had a couple of sites where i had to go and use internet explorer or mozilla to view, as opera couldn’t handle the page. but those are few and far between.

for email i have been trying eudora’s latest version, which you can get at [eudora.com] so far it has been an all right email. i’ll have to be honest and say it took a bit of time to import my email from outlook to eudora. i’ll have to give a full report later on how it works.

as far as instant messaging software goes, stay away from the msn thing that comes with windows xp. i’d rather use aim or yahoo! instant messenger, which most of our friends are on. if you are interested in an all-in-one tool consider [trillain]

welcome to a new test page for janella.com. yes, i have gotten bored again and wanted to try something new. the new item used is called movabletype and is a personal web blogging program.

most of the time visitors are just looking for the link to the photo gallery. well, that is located under the links section. more links will be added soon.

i’m not planning on changing the photo gallery program. i just wanted to mess with a new tool that has been on the web for some time. i’m going to see how configuration goes for the time being.

so i had the pleasure of meeting mitsuki for the first time today. i saw her as i was picking up doug to go to the s’vale dump (extra dump weekend). saori and doug look great as parents.

if you haven’t already you may want to see her photo gallery on [worldwhereyoulive] she seems so tiny in the photos, slightly bigger in person, and i’m sure growing everyday.

seeing matsuki makes me realize i need to visit scott, stefanie and skylar. i have to meet skylar or see scott and stefanie in a long time. time to give him a call.

while farrah was studying in the room tonight we watched the dvd confidence. it stars edward burns, rachel weisz, and dustin hoffman.

the movie is about a crew of grifters who accidently con the bag man of a local crime kingpin. in order to get out from under possibly getting killed, they make a deal with the kingpin to pull a grift for him, allowing him to choose the mark. it gets a little complicated from there.

well directed, written and acted it would make for a good rental for more information see the imdb.com entry for [confidence]

the giants lose to the marlins. no world series this year. ugh.

today we went to see kayla perform at a church play (photos of course to follow when developed). she was fantastic in her performance, both dancing and speaking. she had so many lines that she had to be hooked up to a wireless mike!

i was amazed at the production effort put forth by the church. i could tell kayla and those in the performance worked hard to pull it off without a hitch.

i noticed, besides the previous post, it has been awhile since i have posted any thing. i’ve been trying to get the photo pages up using the new system which i like pretty much…for now. i’ve only been jobin' it for these several months.

i’ve been trying for other positions at work but they haven’t panned out that well. i’m not sure if it’s my interviewing skills, my lack of time in the company, or my experience but it just hasn’t clicked. i guess i’ll try some time early next year to make something click.

another challenge has entered the workplace for me: time management. we’ve been tasked to take on other roles in our group. we were quickly trained on the tasks - which i’m not 100% comfortable with right now - but we have to do them. this makes me have to do what i already know quickly while being able to do that which i don’t know meticulously. it’s tough but slightly challenging.

i’ve taken up ping pong at work which i’m not good at compared to the other guys in the group. i blame the paddle though.

changes taken place. new photo program used to catalog images. it’s called coppermine and it uses a database as well as php for photos. it is very much faster than the old setup, and also provides a quick snapshot of new images posted. click on the photos link to login to the new photo. [janella.com] page. you only need to login one time. don’t login to the board yet. i’m not sure if i’ll be requiring that login. but please, make comments if you’d like to on photos or provide votes! tell me what you think also by writing in.

saying of the weekend: you smell like milkduds

i am working on optimizing the photos for faster loading of both pages and photos. i’m working on limiting size to 640 x whatever, and a max size of 100KB for an image. i’ve read that 30KB is ideal for loading (even on a 28.8 modem connection). this project will take time as i’d like to optimize the images from the source images, for the best picture. to help with the current load time i will be taking some photo galleries off line starting today. i’ll post updates on which photo galleries have been optimized.

currently the only gallery optimized is Yosemite 2003 under New Additions.

it’s good to have friends, isn’t?

i was pretty down the other day. not a mid-age crisis, but just one of those thinking funks, you know getting caught in a loop of thinking of things you can’t change? but it seems that friends always can pull you out of it. i appreciate the talks and emails. they helped me a lot. i think that’s part of what i miss now, from say three or four years ago. but times always seem better in hindsight.

as you can see, design and color scheme seems to have changed. call it being bored. i hope the color isn’t too drabby. right now it’s a reflection of my mood.

i’m down a little right now. i think i’ve been down for a couple of days now. don’t know why. i think part of it is the job, part of it is the weather, and part of it is the passing of another birthday. yeah, i forgot to write about or even on my birthday. it’s something i try not to miss, but for some reason i did this year. i guess i’ll have to take the time and write about it.

today wasn’t exactly a good day. work was very busy as things broke left and right. and the phone calls!?!? there were more than usual and from people who didn’t know right from left. i got one call from a customer who never heard of microsoft! i’m like, uh your on the internet right, that’s why you called me?????

i suppose good things happened in the world today. saddam’s statue was toppled in baghdad today, and more importantly the giants won 15 to 11. wow, that’s a football score. i don’t know if baghdad, iraq or even the world is a better place than it was three weeks ago but things are changing.

what’s my stand on the war? never liked the aspect of war, especially a war half-a-world-away. i know our troops had no choice in the matter of going, and when you’re put in that position you have to go full bore as people around you, as well as yourself, count on it. but death isn’t something to be taken lightly. it just seems as if this war is a stepping stone into other conflicts in the middle east. what next? syria? then iran? oh, let’s not forget about north korea. you would think things would have changed from century to century. right now it’s looking like 21st century colonization.

now that we’ve won the war - if you want to use those words - people are saying it was the right thing to do. people are saying, see GW was right! i don’t know about that. i don’t know if it was. only time will tell if that is the case.

well, enough rambling for now.