A Family day!

I spent the entire day doing family stuff. Went over to Mega Coney Island for breakfast... Then came home to finish wrapping gifts. Scott came over around 2:30 or 3pm... Susie and Mike showed up shortly after. Sally and Bernie came over with Steven and Lillian... and Sheila came over by herself. I guess Even and Nathe had a very bad fever so they couldn't come today, but I'll still see them on Monday.

We all gathered for dinner and to exchange gifts. Sheila gave everyone a bead. Sally and Bernie gave me a gift card. I opened the rain gear I wrapped for myself, some socks, and a copy of the Simpson's movie.

I was pleased that everyone seemed happy to get USB memory sticks. 2GB for everyone! and it went over great! Steven got a RC car from me that he loved. Lillian got a movie from me... and Datura got a Dora the Explorer toy/doll thing. they all liked it. Its nice to see all the kids happy. I

I finished the day by sitting down with a glass of Glogg and the spinach salad from Cost Co I love so much.

Tomorrow is picture day, and the Courtois family party. It will be good to see everyone else.

Later,
SteveO

most expensive star bucks drink...

I'll have a 13 shot venti soy hazelnut vanilla cinnamon white mocha with extra white mocha and caramel. Here is your $13.76... now give me my drink (which apparently isn't that bad.

I just read that on the Seattlest blog... and I had to share.

Later,
SteveO

Goodbye Seattle!

and hello Detroit!

My plane landed smoothly last night/this morning at 4:45AM EST (1:45AM PST). I slept in the green room, and enjoyed the bed. I just woke up a little bit ago, and I had a small snack from the fridge.

I miss Jaani a bit. Somehow Tori just isn't the same as him... actually in a number of ways, but she is getting old.

Anyway, there is somewhere around a foot of snow on the ground, The lake is frozen, and I haven't figured out if there is an extra car yet. I'm sure I'll get that streightened out pretty quick... or something. So, I am here, I am safe, and I'll be back in Seattle next Thursday. Until then however, it is good to be back in MI. (even if I can't really stand going outside.

Later,
SteveO

goodbye seattle...

and hello detroit!  I am on my way!

Goodbye Seattle... See you soon!

I took this picture on my way home from work today. It is facing North from the bus while we were getting onto south bound I5 from 4th ave just south of Qwest field (which you can kind of see on the left,) Safeco Field, and Union Station.
I guess I've tried a bunch of times to get this picture at night, but today it was bright enough because we got out of work at 4 instead of 5:30. I will miss Jaani while I'm gone. I think he can tell that something is up because I'm packing, and he does not seem happy about it. I sometimes worry about if Ev will take good care of him, but I guess Mani will be here.

Well, speaking of Ev, she is making nice and easy for me to leave without feeling like I want to be here. She started b****ing hard core today after I got mad that she is canceling the Internet connection at the end of the month. I can't believe that she has such a problem paying some sort of bill around the house. Mani pays her share of rent and the phone bill. I pay the electric bill and drive her around... yet she is this ungrateful little B****! It will be really nice when I can move out of here, and into somewhere by myself. Where I don't have someone to annoy me constantly and tell me how she lives here too when she is blasting music at 2AM (and I have to get up at 7...) and decides that she doesn't like the movie, so she is going to sit down and start complaining while you are in the middle of watching a movie when she comes home. bla bla bla... I just can't wait until I can move out of here.

Ahh, the joy of room mates. Well, I guess if we had noting to annoy us we would all just be happy. I guess we can't have that. So, soon I will get out of here, and then I won't really have anything annoying me anymore.

I can't believe she is canceling the Internet access. It just goes to show how horrible of a person she is. I asked her for half of the money for the electric bill and she said that I was the one who used all the electricity. As if she doesn't leave her (sorry, it's mine whenever it is a disadvantage for it to be her laptop,) and she doesn't use hot water, and she doesn't turn the heat up to 90 all the f***ing time, and she doesn't turn every light in the house on constantly... it's all my laptop that generates the entire electric bill. I guess I have had my desktop running a lot lately, but that does not use much power. The electric bill was $80 last month, and she is complaining about having to pay for her own cell phone and a $30 Internet bill. It's not my fault she racks up a $90 phone bill every month... she doesn't call me.

Ok, sorry... that was quite a rant. I just hope that poor little Jaani can put up with her for a whole week without me... hopefully Mani will keep him safe, or take him on the truck for a road trip. Mani loves Jaani... all guys do a guess... well, most I suppose... all my friends do. He is a cool dog, what can I say. Anyway.

I need to wash up for work in the morning... then I have a flight to catch.

Good night every body!

Later,
SteveO

I just had to post it...

I found this at the Free Software Foundation website

A Relaxing day.

another day out here in Seattle. The rain was heavy and soft... for a little bit it even kinda stopped... sorta... but it was a nice day. I relaxed. Did a little bit of packing for Tuesday. Took apart an old laptop which I found. It was very much broken, but it had 256 megs of ram for my laptop. that was nice. plus now I have an extra internal wireless adapter, wide screen laptop display, CD RW/DVD ROM, and a 60 GB HDD.

I might be able to sell the drive, and I found some instructions on how to turn the display into a desktop PC monitor. I guess I'll be breaking out the soldering iron... I'll also need to swing by RE-PC for an old monitor cable and a 3.3V power adapter... which I may just have to build that too. That will be a bit of a challenge though... so I might have to give James a call and take care of that after New Years.

My plan is to take a picture frame, put this really nice screen in it, and have it hanging on a wall. Then, I can take an ultra small form factor PC, and screw it to the bottom of a table so that the CD drive and USB ports are accessible from the front. Then I can put a wireless keyboard and mouse on the table, and you have a sleek and stylish looking PC station. With one of those Ikea keyboard trays, then you have a desktop with nothing on it, but it instantly turns into a workstation. I have a similar idea for a standing height workstation in my bookshelf.

I actually almost wish the laptop still worked, so that I could use that as the computer, and just extend the current cables. oh well. I guess it was Evelyn's laptop that she left to Maninther to watch over when she moved out of her aunt and uncle's house. I guess he got in a fight with her and threw the thing... now it is scrap parts.

Over all, I have to say that Evelyn and Maninther both have anger management problems. I kinda think Maninther's problems are almost all caused by Evelyn too... and I mean all of his problems, not just anger management. but I guess that's another story. In a way, I kinda wish that I could kick Evelyn out, and just have Maninther around. He is a much better room mate than her... oh well. (besides, he pays her rent for her anyway...)

so... another day. Just relaxing, and I guess I got a couple things done.

I started working on this embedded OS that Google created for cell phones. Verizon has announced that they will start using it in their phones starting this February... when they join the Open Handset Alliance! It's an exciting time in the world of cell phones, and I want to be part of it. I compiled my first test phone, and ran it in an emulation system. Now I'm working on tools to integrate the phone with Google services. Using Google Mobile. basically the idea is that Google wants everyone to use their site on their phone. so they created this OS that everyone can use.

The new evil empire is taking control. Google is now not only the most valuable company in silicon valley, but now it's the second most profitable technology company in the world. Microsoft is the only company that is more profitable than Google in the technology industry. It's amazing. If I bought just one share of Google stock this past may, I would have made almost 300 dollars.

Google is going up right now... and the only thing that could change that is for people to stop using the internet. Google has the most successful methodology for advertising on the internet, and scheduling commercial times for TV and radio. Once they get the cell phone OS out the door, that will increase their exposure by 47%! That means that 20 million more people will have access to Google, whom do not have access now. All because African and Asian countries with government-owned subscription-based home internet connections are more expensive than rent, but cell phone access is dirt cheap (for them, not Americans.) So they all connect to the internet on their cell phones. In total this comes out to be about a third of all the people on the internet, or a little more than the number of people on the internet who speak English as a primary language (basically just the USA and England combined).

Big news for Google. Another move that should make their stock soar!

Anyway, it's getting late, and I'm tired. so, goodnight.

Later,
SteveO

Money Money Money!

Google Adsence is giving me money! 5 cents so far... this time around, but last time it gave me $100 over the summer! All just from having ads on my blog, homepage, and youtube account page.

Other than that, I just subscribed to Google webmaster tools... it will continue to log statistics about my Geocities, Google, and Blogger pages...

It will give me information about that the people who click on my site usually will click on (as far as Google ads go...) and it will also give me statistics about how many people visit the site, and how many return visitors I have to the site. nothing that I can specifically link to any given person, but just general stats that will keep me informed...

I just compiled my first Android OS, and started emulating it on a virtual Razor phone, which one day Verizon will let you do. So, I plan on buying one of those off-brand Chinese phones that I can load with all kinds of software to do cool stuff I like.

Oh the beautiful future of Cell phone technology combined with the open source revolution. I will take over the world with my cell phone one day. just you wait and see.

but for now, I'm just working on turning my phone into a word processor with speech recognition for text messaging and email. but soon I will be able to do anything with my phone, like use Google map's newly released feature to locate myself on a map based on which tower my cell phone is using to establish a connection to the internet. oh the glory of technology the phone companies claim they don't have... but Google can use it! and you can too! so just ignore the cell phone company telling you they can't tell where you are, because they can, and will claim they can't. After all, they can tell Google (or the police) where you are, why can't they tell you?

anyway... talk later, work now...

Later,
SteveO

I updated my home page!

So, I decided to start down the long road to try and make my homepage somewhat useful. I admit now it's just a dumb place where you can read the titles of my blog postings, look at the pictures I take, see my local weather map, look at a map of the places I go, look at my work schedule, and see when I'm coming home for Christmas... but one day it will have some content that people really want to see!

I've always had a home page for as far back as I could remember... first it was geocities... then myspace... then my own little web server... then myspace became popular... and now it's google pages.

I added a gadget that lists my blog postings, and I also added my google calendar's "public" events. or in other words anything a stalker would need to follow me around all day. (j/k but not really...)

I guess it's just something I want to try playing with. I'm also working on my orkut site. just because it's a Google service really, but also because it is one of the pilot programs for Open Social. Which one day aims to be a service to unite all sites. It is working wonders for LinkedIn (which I also have a site with) and my current employer has plans to use it once it comes out of beta (in an undefined amount of time.)

I guess it's a way I can play with gadgets and yet another wonderful API (Advanced Programming Interface) by Google. I have to say on a side note, Google has done a great deal to help me in my quest to learn the fine art of computer programming. They give me all these free tools and APIs that I can work with, and most of what a programmer does is learn new APIs these days.

That being said... go to My homepage

The end of another day in Seattle.

The evening ferry came in as the sun went down. This is supposed to be one the last glimpses of the sun we get for a while.
So I thought I would commemorate it in a picture on my blog. I had to actually close the blinds at my desk today because the sun was blinding me, but I poked my camera through the blinds to get this shot of the fleeting sun.

The day is coming to an end, and in an hour I will go home. so that's it for now.

Later,
SteveO

I'm leaving on a jet plane.

Even though most people reading this probably don't use Google Calendar... I do!
so here are a couple links. (anyone with a phone can use these links as well with Google mobile! (that's for your cell phone...)

This is a link to add my flight to Detroit to your Google calendar.

This is the link to add my flight to Seattle to your Google calendar.


However... for the rest of you... or more likely all of you... I have the following time table.


Arriving in Detroit at 5:04AM on December 19th.

I leave Detroit at 7:46PM on December 26th.

or you can also reference my calendar here:


so... that's my update.

Later,
SteveO

It's Rainy around these parts...

I really do think that the day I took that panoramic shot from my office window, was the last nice day we had around here. The past couple of days, I've had a hard time seeing even the buildings in that picture through the rain.

All the mountain passes are closed, and I5 is closed about 62 miles south of my home. There is all sorts of flooding in Redmond (good thing I didn't take that job in Bothell...).

The only view I have is the view I have as my computer background picture. it really is crazy. but it's home. and it isn't that cold. even though I had rain falling up on my face when I went to get lunch today. I guess it really wasn't falling at that point... but that's kinda how it gets in the city when it's raining... and the wind is blowing at about 30ish MPH... and the road is covered with an inch of water... and what used to be Pike street kinda looks more like a river...

It sure is an exciting time of the year... and I do kinda have a soft spot for foul weather. Although I really do need rain gear.... I mean, my gortex coat is really nice... and my pants are good too, but they have heavy insulation. I need something thin, waterproof, and breathable. that won't cook me when I'm sitting in a heated environment. plus I will have a sweatshirt on under it anyway... multiple thin layers. that is what I need.

Anyway. I love it here.

Later,
SteveO

Winter in Seattle

The rain falls cold this time of year,
it gets hard to distinguish if that is smoke I'm exhaling,
at times like this it is easy to remember why they call this the rainy city.

As a jet goes by I even remember why they call this jet city,
and looking out at the evergreen landscape,
I see why they call this the emerald city.
The names fit in every way that I can see.

I sip my warm glogg mixed with blue sky vodka,
the name is enough for my imagination to picture the blue skies,
even though the sun went down hours ago...
the rain started days ago...
and cloudy for weeks...

Tomorrow I will be reminded of where the roots of this city came from.
I'll ride the bus past Boeing field, up past the train station and into down town.
I'll ride past the Bank of America tower...
the Washington Mutual tower...
and to the corner where they big Christmas tree is lit.

I'll walk to my building,
in which I'll ride the elevator to the tenth floor
there I will sit at my desk.
I will watch the rain.

I'll know there are mountains in the distance.
I will know the sun is somewhere up there.
I will be happy just knowing this.

Later,
SteveO

Snow in Seattle!!!

This is the second time I've actually seen snow in Seattle. I'm pretty sure it is only falling up in the hills (like where I am) but it is still so cool!

This means the snow line is currently under 400ft! (or something like that...)


Anyway. I'm enjoying the day off. It's nice not to work on the weekends. I'm going to go get some coffee.

Later,
SteveO