Insignifica

Awesome Weekends, Jeopardy!, Loving Hut, Garlic and Onions, No Exercise, Anniversary, Friday

Happy Friday!

Picture of the day!

The girlfriend and me, about this time last year.

Tomorrow's my 12th anniversary with my girlfriend - that's crazy. But she's pretty awesome, so we'll stay together.

No exercise this morning 'cause we woke up late, but we did some yoga last night that kicked my ass.

We could probably all use some more onions and garlic in our diets. We'll stink, but it'll be awesome if we all do it.

Visited the Loving Hut, a new vegetarian/vegan restaurant in Orange yesterday. Pan-Asian, with soups, mock-meat dishes, and some American faire. Fantastic food, low prices, and less than 2 miles from my house. Funny story: We asked the owners if they were on Facebook or Twitter, and had no idea how a restaurant would ever use such things. Maybe I spend too much time with social media types, but we let them know how useful it might be. For example, as close as I am to this place, I didn't hear about it until it was written up on our food blog.

Took the Jeopardy! test last night. At least as hard as usual, and I don't think I did very well. Who knows, though - I think that now, but this'll be the time I get the call.

I hope your weekends are awesome, my friends. Enjoy life!

Sunny and Windy, So Professional, No Workout, Workin' Early, Birthdays

Happy Thursday! Happy Birthday to Joe and Marie!

Picture of the day!

Joe, apparently winning at poker.

Workin' early today 'cause I got meetings and various other things going on. Oddly enough, I'm also staying late to take the Jeopardy! test here at 8pm, 'cause there aren't any likely interruptions by 3-year-olds.

Workin' early meant no workout this morning, but the muscles could use the time off. I'll get in some yoga or something else tonight to change it up a bit.

I feel so professional lately - I have someone coming in today to shadow me in my librarian job, and I have two speaking engagements in February - one for my librarian hat, and one for the atheist hat. It's strange.

It's sunny and windy here in beautiful Socal. I hope it's awesome where ever you are. Seeya!

Forgetting Something, Weird Al, Acceptable, Apple, Working From Home, Wednesday

Wednesday!

Picture of the day!

Moi. New Years 2006/2007

Because I actually have someone else in the office, I've kinda taken to working from home for the first couple hours of my day on Wednesdays. It's nice not to have to rush back from my morning run, and be able to sit and enjoy breakfast.

I like my Apple product as much as anyone, but I'm wondering why so much attention is payed to Apple's press events/release parties. We don't do that for anyone else, at least not in such a fanboy way. It's weird.

A cool, sunny day is in store for us here today in Socal. Perfectly acceptable. I did just notice, however, that the smelly trees outside are starting to flower. That's not acceptable at all.

Bought Weird Al tickets for August today. It's been a few years since I've seen him in concert.

I've felt all day that I'm forgetting something, but forgotten things have a habit of reminding you about themselves, albeit too late. Have a great day!

Eat Something New, Early Spring Cleaning, Mardi Gras, Breakfast Burritos, Run, Tuesday

Oh, hello. Happy Tuesday!

Picture of the day!

Wee little Katie in her walker. About 5 months old.

Once again ran most of my 1.4-mile course this morning. My legs ache, but it's the good kind of "Boy, I sure used my body!" ache.

Breakfast burritos: awesome. Just thought I'd share that.

It's time for a game night. Well, it's almost time for Mardi Gras, but I'm still deciding how I wanna work that. We could do a game night, a "Carnival" style party, a Ragin' Cajun blowout, a masquerade, or just a Southern food night. I have options.

I'm slowly, and quite unexpectedly, doing some cleaning in my house that's needed to be done for a long time. Things like my desk, the surfaces that have collected crap in my bedroom, etc. It's like an early Spring cleaning.

Your task for today: Eat something new. If you don't like it, you don't have to eat it again. If you do, then BOOM, you're expanding your horizons. Easy! Have a great day!

Fantastic Monday, Edit, Babyface, Ran, No Rain, Bowlin' Fingers, Monday

Happy Monday!

Picture of the day!

Katie in the mask she got for Christmas. It's pretty creepy.

Nice weekend - went bowling at Nathan's birthday party on Saturday, and did pretty well for not having picked up my ball for 4 or 5 years. I could really get into bowling regularly again. However, between bowling and playing Rock Band on iPhone, my fingers and wrists are wondering what the hell is wrong with me.

The other nice thing about the weekend - no rain. In fact, there was abundant sunshine, which continues today. we're getting some more rain tomorrow, but not "build an ark 'cause it ain't stoppin'" rain.

Ran most of 1.4 miles this morning. Yeah, I'm surprised too. Feelin' pretty damn good.

Shaved this morning, and I'm feelin' like a babyface. This is effectively what I'd look like sans goatee. I drop a few more pounds, and it's likely all coming off.

I think there was more, but there's work to be done.

Edit: Oh yeah! I cleaned the fuck out of my desk yesterday, and it's shiny and dust-free. I also did some nice hardware hacks and got some stuff working with Ubuntu that never worked before. Good times!

Have a fantastic Monday!

Enjoy Your Weekend, Thai Food, Wiki, Waning, Joz, Rain, Nathan's Birthday

Friday! Happy Birthday Nathan!

Picture of the day!

Katie and Nathan playing.

Finally Friday, and finally an end to the rain, at least for a few days. It's still dark outside my office window this morning, but hopefully we'll be done with this by this afternoon.

Joz is in Time Magazine this week! Congrats!

Feelin' pretty good today, though I'm underslept. This cold is waning, it seems, and for real this time.

If you've ever been interested in such a thing, I set up the MediaWiki software (the same stuff Wikipedia uses) on one of my own sites (Dead Goblins, my D&D site), and it works fantastically. It was also super simple to set up, which is nice with such a large, powerful software package. And because it uses the same layout/template/options as Wikipedia, users are already familiar with it. I highly recommend it if you've got a project it'd work for.

Ooooh, Thai food tonight. That's exciting!

Good day to all of you readers out there - enjoy your weekend!

Time for Work, Beer Tasting, Grilled Cheese, Project, Wet, Thursday

Thursday!

Picture of the day!

My child.

It's wet out there, like, really wet. Even when it's not raining, things aren't drying quickly - it's pretty interesting and fairly rare for socal. Also, the storm drains seem to be draining just fine, but that's not stopping the water from collecting behind them. Stay dry!

I feel like I need a project - it's a long time until the fun holidays, I read too much Make magazine, and I'm kinda tired of saying "oh, you know, same old stuff" when a friend asks what's new. Your suggestions welcome.

I made an awesome grilled cheese sandwich today, with American and Monterey Jack cheeses and some tofurkey lunchmeat. It was as perfect as such a sandwich gets.

Let's do a beer tasting. Everyone bring a 6pack of a beer they really like and think everyone should try, and we'll all sit around and sample everyone's beers. We did it a couple years ago successfully - it's time.

Time for me to work. Enjoy your day!

Check Back Tomorrow, No Exercising, Tax Time, Democrats, Rainy, Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!

Picture of the day!

Katie, not entirely sure what that beast is up to.

Rainy. Really rainy, in fact. More today and tomorrow and Friday, then a little time off. Take it easy out there.

So, the Dems lose Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts. Wow. I'm a democrat, and absurdly liberal, but the party is disappointing me a lot lately. I know they can't do everything, but they squandered a supermajority that was in place for more than half of last year (once Al Franken got placed). I'll still vote liberal, but the weirdo "switch parties because I want to and apparently Palin is the same as Obama" folks are going to go with the flow and start voting Republican again. Boo.

Ooooh, it's almost tax time. I love me some tax time.

No exercising today, between wet weather and weird relapsing of symptoms. A pox on you, poxes!

Alrighty folks, have a fantastic day, and we'll check back tomorrow!

Customizing status updates and creating friends lists - a tutorial

Customizing status updates and creating friends lists - a tutorial

Note to non-facebook users: If this makes absolutely no sense to you, don't worry. I'm posting it here for the sake of facebook users who might like to take advantage of everything that site has to offer.

Sometimes you want your status updates to be read by the whole world. Other times, you might want only certain friends to see them. This is a tutorial on how to accomplish this easily.

On the top blue menu bar, click "Friends".

In the left menu you'll see a variety of options. Click the top-most entry, "All Connections". This will show all of your friends and pages you're a fan of.

At the top of the page is now a button that says "Create New List". Click this.

A popup menu appears allowing you to create a new list. Where it says "Enter a Name", choose an easy-to-remember name for the list you're creating. You can then select friends by typing their name in the box, or selecting them one-by-one. Note that pages you're a fan of will also appear in this list - unless you want those pages (and their owners) to see your updates, do not choose any of these.

Once you've chosen who you'd like in your list, click "Create List". You'll be returned to a News Feed page, but see only the updates from the friends you just selected. In the left menu, you'll see that list name is highlighted. You can click "News Feed" at the top to see your regular news feed again.

Back at the main News Feed (or Live Feed) page, you can now specify who you'd like the next update to be seen by. Click the Status update box, and look for the padlock icon with an arrow next to it. Hold your mouse over the icon (but don't click) to see who the "default" group is set to. If you enter a status update now, people who match that criteria will see your update.

To create an update that only a certain list of people will see, click the padlock icon and choose "Custom -- Edit". This brings up the custom privacy popup. Click the box after "These People:" and choose "Specific People". Then in the box below, type the name of the list you just created. If you'd like this to become the new default setting, click the appropriate checkbox on the popup. Otherwise, click "Save Setting".

You'll be returned to you Feed page. Once again, put your mouse over the padlock icon. You should now see the name of the list you just created. This means that the next status update (and ONLY the next status update, unless you made it your default) will be seen only by people on this list.

In addition to your defined friends lists, you can also allow "Everyone", "Friends and Networks", "Friends of Friends", and "Friends Only" to see your status updates, and you can change this every time you update if you desire. By clicking "Custom -- Edit", you can also choose friends one at a time that can see a specific update, or allow everyone EXCEPT certain people to see an update. Friends lists, however, make the task of routing specific updates to specific people easy to do.

Stay Dry, Facebook Updates, Exercise, Rainy, Veganamese, Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!

Picture of the day!

Another old college scan. I have no beard, black hair, and a handfull of Smarties. I'm good to go.

I was supposed to go try a Thuyen Vien, a vegan Vietnamese (or Veganamese) place today, but got word that it shut down on Sunday. D'oh! Hopefully it'll reopen soon.

Rainy week here, though the sky cleared nicely yesterday in the evening. Today's still just "threatening", but rain is most certainly on the way.

Ran (and walked) 1.4 miles today. Feelin' pretty good.

Lots of people have been inquiring about how to selectively allow only some people to view facebook updates on a per-update basis. It's not that difficult, but requires a few steps. I'll post a tutorial on this a little later.

Stay dry, friends, and enjoy your day!

Awesome Week, Rain, Delicious Smells, Brownies, Websites Stuff, Health, Monday

Monday!

Picture of the day!

More college-era scans: Primus, myself, Adam and Eric, freshman-year roommates. I had forgotten that I'd had that Elvis picture (hanging on the wall behind us) for so long.

Back at work. Katie's feeling better, though she's still got a bit of a cough. I'm at about 80%, mostly a bit worn down and wheezy, but otherwise operational. After 3 1/2 days at home (for either me or the kid) last week, I'm looking forward to a normal week of work in the office.

Lots of website stuff to do today (and this week). I love my little projects.

I made chocolate chunk brownie bites last night. They're delicious.

Speaking of delicious, I just returned from our cafeteria here with a cup of coffee, and whatever they're doing this morning made the whole 4th floor smell like sausage and potatoes. Pretty awesome.

So, rain. It's gonna rain all week. Between my non-leaky roof and short commute, I'm pretty OK with this. We can probably use it.

I hope you and yours have an awesome week, and start it off right today. Enjoy!

Great Weekend, Twitter and Facebook, Conning Child, Scanner, Friday

Friday!

Picture of the day!

The Girlfriend and me, circa 1999 or 2000.

I got a scanner yesterday, and started on my print photo collection. So far, I've got a college and a youth set - more to come.

I took the kid to daycare today, got to work, and 20 minutes later got a call telling me she wasn't feeling well. So I went to pick her up, and she's got a slight fever but is otherwise fine. It's possible this child is conning me, but it's hard to tell. Either way, I'm at home with her for a few hours.

I uncoupled my Twitter and Facebook accounts yesterday, meaning I can get them both to work a little better without worrying about weird affects of one on the other. Also gives me better privacy controls. Good stuff.

That's all for today. Have a great weekend!

Happy and Healthy, OC Atheists, Bright and Sunny, Haiti and Charity, Illness, Thursday!

Thursday!

Picture of the day!

Icee rules!

Still a little sick, but getting better, and at work in the morning for the first time since Monday. Katie and The Girlfriend are quite congested (believe me, I had to listen to each of them sleeping last night), but I've avoided that so far.

So, Haiti. The situation there is pretty shitty, but it's weird seeing so many people (especially on twitter, but on facebook and websites too) soliciting me for donations to the Red Cross. Utopian Mike says we should have been giving to Haiti (and a thousand other countries) this much money and attention before the quake - life wasn't peachy there before Tuesday. Realist Mike knows people generally don't think that way. I'm also reminded of an old article that basically said that charity is for suckers - we've been conned into believing that it's our responsibility to pay for relief and disaster services, when it's exactly the kind of thing governments and international organizations should be doing. Instead, government pays for wars. Sigh.

In happier news, it's a bright sunny day here, and it should be a pleasant afternoon (the morning was dewy and cool, and tonight will be as well). I hear rain's comin', though...

OC Atheists meet tonight! More info here.

I hope you're happy and healthy, and today's a great day. Have a great one!

Back to Work, Jay and Conan, Tooth, OC Atheists, Sick, Hump Day

Happy Hump Day!

Picture of the day!

I wonder if there's something wrong with the cake, or if I just don't care for the cameraperson. Also: I wore a lot of rings in 2003.

Home sick. It was my turn to get Katie's cold. I didn't feel like infecting everyone at work (Wednesday's a day where there are actually other people in my office), so I'm working from here.

OC Atheists meet tomorrow in Irvine. Come join us!

My new tooth is in and fitting nicely. The prying off of the temp crown took 40 violent, unnumbed minutes, but the actual new crown placement was easy.

So, Jay and Conan. I'm not exactly sure why there's so much hate for Jay - it really seems to me like NBC's making all the decisions here. I appalude Conan's letter to NBC, but I really don't know if Jay has anything to do with it. Also, I really wish I enjoyed Conan's humor, but I don't.

Back to work for me. Have a great Wednesday!

Real or Fake, Puzzles, Computers, Sick, Tuesday

Tuesday!

Picture of the day!

Katie on New Year's Day

At home with the kid today, who's got a bad cough and is (hopefully) coming out of a bad cold. She's also having asthma, just like with her last several colds, which leads me to believe this trend is likely to continue. What a bother.

As part of being at home, I've got two computers fired up (and one more I'm not using) plus my iPhone. This is the future, friends.

As a counterpoint to all that technology, Katie decided to get a puzzle out today that's really meant for grown-ups, as it's got 1,000 pieces. I started putting it together, and found it to be quite fun and much more mentally stimulating than I remembered puzzles to be. Weird but true.

That's it for today. Keep it real, or fake. It's all good to me.

Enjoy Your Monday, Mini Golf, Dentist, Sleepy, Beth, Birthday

Monday! Happy Birthday to my brother David!

Picture of the day!

Beth and Cinn, Halloween 2008.

I neglected to mention Beth's birthday last week (it was this weekend), so happy birthday to her as well!

I'm sleepy. Between staying up too late and a child who doesn't care for giving me a good night's sleep, I'm a bit on the underrested side. Alas, I think I'll be OK.

Heading to the dentist today, for what's hopefully the last procedure with this tooth - the crown placement. I hope I'm remembering right that the placement is a relatively simple process.

Mini-golfed this weekend for the first time in a LONG time, and had the best score in both rounds. We also had a skins tournament, but I came out down three dollars there. Either way, it was pretty awesome. Looking forward to bowling in a couple weeks.

That about wraps it up. Enjoy your Monday!

Awesome Week, iPod, Cooking at Home, Gym and Yoga, Happy Friday!

Happy Friday, my friends and readers!

Picture of the day!

Sunset on the way home from Vegas. Click though to see the neat "line of cars" effect. I wish I could have set up a longer exposure shot, the colors here don't do the view justice.

Got back to the gym today for the first time in way too long. I also did yoga with The Girlfriend last night for the first time in way too long. As as result, tonight might have some soreness involved. Totally worth it, though, 'cause I'm feelin' good.

Made homemade ice cream last night, and homemade lentil soup for tonight's dinner. We've done pretty well cooking and eating at home all week - The holidays seem to foster a sense of "too busy to cook", and it's nice to be past that.

I've been using my iPhone the last couple days for what many consider a major feature, but something I never even thought about when buying it - iPod. Extra points for me because I can quickly swap out the XM radio in my car for the iPhone. Now, to recover my digital music collection, which is spread out over a bunch of computers...

Except for not getting enough sleep, this has been a pretty awesome week. I hope yours has been equally or more awesome. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!

Busy, Hungry, QOTD, Cut, Thursday

Thursday!

Picture of the day!

Ceramic Ameriquest blimps at the Goodwill. I took a picture of the real thing in 2005.

I've got a tiny cut on the tip of my finger, making typing slightly painful.

Question of the day: what non-snack foodstuffs do you keep at work? I have a packet of ramen and a packet of heat-and-serve Indian food. I have no way to heat either, though. That's something worth considering.

Speaking of that, I'm hungry. I wouldn't say I'm "dieting", but I've re-established my better eating habits - less junk, more food at home, and more balanced meals. I think it's a good way to go.

Today has turned into a super busy day at work, and I haven't even gotten to my deadline stuff yet. Oh, Thursday - you so crazy. Have a great day!

Enjoy Life!, Breakfast, Time for Health, GPS Geeking, Not Dragging, Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!

Picture of the day!

Little Katie. This one was cute, but I like the one I have now that can hold a conversation too.

As much as it could have, this week isn't dragging yet. A good sign to be sure.

While it's been around much longer than iPhones, GPS scares me a little and thrills me a lot. Google Map's pulsating circles around you on the map really makes you feel sci-fi, in a good way. Sometime soon I'll stop geeking out over old news, but not yet.

Got my 1.4 miles in this morning, for the first time in a while. As I said to a friend yesterday, I've had colds or other illnesses (or been taking care of a kid with one) for almost all of the last 4 months. It's time for health!

Someone remind me to hook myself up with good breakfast stuff, because I keep running short on time, and grabbing burritos somewhere. I need to have either quick breakfasts at home, or to make my own damn burritos.

There is much to do today, so it's time to work. Enjoy life!

Haha!, iPhone Battery, Winning, Christmas Cards, Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!

Picture of the day!

Father and Daughter painting. We were covering up the blood-stained Halloween wall.

I just realized I asked some people for their addresses to send them Christmas cards, then they got back to me AFTER Christmas, and I forgot to send the cards. Is it weird to send/receive them in January?

It's been too long since I won stuff. I wanna win some cool stuff.

Question about the iPhone for those of you that have it - is the battery life really about a day if you're using it regularly? I've had to recharge it every day since I've had it.

Haha! It's now just after 5pm, and I was so busy I just realized I forgot to post this. Whoops. Oh well - happy Tuesday!

Have a Great Day, Sunday Dinners, Tire Fixed, Photos, Wiki, iPhone, Back to the Grind, 2010 and Birthday

Happy 2010! And happy birthday to my mom!

Picture of the day!

A beautiful room service breakfast at the Signature in Vegas.

Back to the grind today, and it's not all bad. Vacation is fantastic but messes up my routines - it's good to be back on track. That, and I like my job, so going back isn't too big of a deal.

It's 2010, and the new year celebration was low-key but very nice. The new year, so far, as been nice and geeky. Behold:

- I got myself an iPhone, finally. I debated between it and a couple phones with full QWERTY keyboards, but ended up liking the support and large user base of the iPhone. Having used it for 12 hours, I'm also liking it for all the reasons I'm supposed to - it's a nice little computer.

- Bored on Saturday night, I installed wiki software on our D&D site, so that our campaigns can keep track of things that a wiki is good for. If you're not into such things, it's probably hard to see why this is so awesome.

Last year, I decided to take a new photo every day. As such projects are want to do, it started becoming less important a few months in. That said, my records show that I only missed 15 days out of 365, and some of those days might still have pictures on other cameras. Not bad!

I finally got my flat tire fixed, and as usual, the folks at Tustin Ranch Tires did it for free, because they're awesome (I bought these tires from them 2 years ago, but they still fix flats). Great place to go for all your car servicing needs.

I'm not one for resolutions, but I'm hoping to do more dinners with friends this year. I'm thinking Sunday night potlucks, maybe 4-6 people at a time (though there will, of course, be larger parties). Chime in if you're interested.

I hope 2010 is treating you well - have a great day!