The View from 31E

Closing up shop

2008-03-27T06:46:00.003-06:00

I think I've run the course of this blog. The randomness of it which I initially thought freeing, is causing me to be reluctant to post items. I want blogs with more of a focus if I am to continue blogging. So I'm taking this one down in favor of more specialized blogs. I like to think I've outgrown my initial motivation which prompted a string of complaining posts. I want to move past

Lunch Jan 15

2008-01-14T23:50:00.001-06:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Lunch Jan 15, originally uploaded by stacy_ar. Im trying out a few new things. (One is blogging again)I'm set up on flickr now, so you might see more photos from me there... here. Somewhere.Lastly, inspired by Angela I've

Flickr

2008-01-14T23:44:00.001-06:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Snow

2007-12-06T11:54:00.000-06:00

Snow falls at the University of Nebraska. I used my new little digital camera to take these photos and video:

New gadget

2007-10-13T13:31:00.000-06:00

I just got a new digital Camera, a Canon PowerShot A570IS. I've been reading the documentation and playing/experimenting with the different features. So far I love it. I put in the 16MB SD card to start with, and realized how very glad I am I got the 2GB card when I bought the camera. 8 pictures was all I could store. I have so far experimented with creating videos, closeup shots, different

Microsoft frustration

2007-10-11T22:51:00.000-06:00

I sat down to get some work done on a document, thinking I would open one of the programs in the suite of Microsoft Office applications installed on my computer to do it.The program started, but things looked funny. I remembered I had originally had some trial software of Office that would have been re-installed when I had to restore my hard drive earlier this year from an old startup disk.

Power Tools

2007-08-11T12:53:00.000-06:00

Nope, not talking about the sander, buzz saw or the leaf blower with enough amps to send those errant lawn coverings into the next state. Software power tools. Okay - they're for Windows. So you Mac people will be laughing now and going off to update your iTunes or something else constructive because you either already HAVE these things in your OS, or you frankly won't need them. Maybe

Cleared for takeoff

2007-07-31T15:46:00.000-06:00

So I mentioned that my brother had one of those accidents that seems silly when you have to tell it later. Falling off a golf-cart just seems a little laughable. I talked to him last night for nearly an hour while he was driving a vehicle for work a long distance. It was late and he was trying to stay awake. Not because of concussion though, the flight surgeon already cleared him on that one

When to worry

2007-07-24T06:53:00.000-06:00

Lately I had decided that maybe I should be more socially active. Well more active than I usually am at least. So this past weekend I was at a dinner party Friday, a belated graduation party until late Saturday, visiting an open house (yes, I'm looking at houses now - isn't it cute?) Sunday and going out with friends to celebrate a birthday on Sunday until late.The gist of this is, I missed a

Dance Charlie Brown, Dance!

2007-07-11T11:48:00.000-06:00

Decided to copy Angela's idea and try it out for myself. I have no original ideas you know, only borrowed concepts that I carefully rephrase into something almost unrecognizable and incomprehensible.... I swear he had a head and not just floating facial features when I created it!Anyway, this is from PICTAPS .... I should have done the dancing Snoopy - that would have been fun.

A wedding and a funeral

2007-04-30T11:10:00.000-06:00

March was horribly busy at work because I was trying to meet a lot of project deadlines and get things done before I took a week off at the beginning of April.April was the reverse. While I still had a lot of work to do, the busiest time was outside of work.I volunteered to work on a newsletter for the Ms. Wheelchair Nebraska, INC organization. Due to my computer crash earlier in the year I had

My favorite blog

2007-03-07T20:00:00.000-06:00

So far out in front: Glark.orgNot too pretentious, nothing controversial. And just in case by the time you read this, the blog has changed from that, here's a snapshot of what it looked like.

Swiss accidentally invade Liechtenstein

2007-03-02T17:57:00.000-06:00

Swiss accidentally invade LiechtensteinSo much for Swiss neutrality...Interior ministry spokesman Markus Amman said nobody in Liechtenstein had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault rifles but no ammunition. "It's not like they stormed over here with attack helicopters or something," he said.

Ice Cream

2007-01-04T15:27:00.000-06:00

I'm celebrating the new year with a new look to the blog, and the first batch of ice cream I made in an ice cream maker a friend got me for Christmas.I was a little.... impatient, and so I went with what I had on hand, which was a little skim milk and some iced coffee mix. I followed the rest of the instructions and sorta got an ice milk concoction. I added some toffee syrup and chocolate

Happy New Year!

2007-01-03T11:02:00.000-06:00

So it's not the actual first day of the year, but I'm getting to it at least before the month switches over.Had a good Christmas break - my brothers were visiting from Florida, and got to spend time with them and my parents for a good portion of the break. Had some time with friends, and a little to spare for myself, so all in all a good time. New Year's resolutions:Complain less. Budget time

Tag - I'm it... finally

2006-12-17T20:26:00.000-06:00

Rules: Write a journal entry for this meme with six random facts about yourself. Then pick six of your friends list and tag them – no tag-backs! These rules should be included in your entry.When I was very young, I wore leg braces. They had little white boots attached to them, and ugly metal rods that ran up the sides to my hip. I hated them, and wanted to hide them whenever I could.Between

Blogrot

2006-12-17T14:47:00.000-06:00

Okay, so the last time I updated this was in September. Way past blog-rot or whatever the term is. More like blog-rotted-away-into-nothing.Why? I think I bore myself. I either have too much to say or nothing at all. Apparently I haven't even committed to whether this should be a strict programmer's blog, or more random things. I favor the randomness. It's so random-y. And much more like

Trees

2006-09-21T18:54:00.000-06:00

Tonight's latest storm is strong enough here that it is ripping branches off the tree in the front yard of my duplex. I found one on the front sidewalk when I was on my way out at about 10 til 7. A branch that would require cutting apart for garbage. I moved that to the side of the house until I could deal with it over the weekend.I came home around 45 minutes later to find a rather large limb

When browers collide

2006-09-07T20:02:00.000-06:00

Nothing major - just had a hangup trying to load a flash game and I got a interesting view of firefox and IE together - You think they're crazy with toolbars now!

Radio Nostalgia Network podcasts

2006-07-05T21:21:00.000-06:00

Radio Memories Network (If the link above takes you to something that doesn't look like a listing of channels such as Radio Nostalgia, yesterday usa, sci-fi, etc..) try this one :radiomemories.libsyn.com)After mentioning old time radio podcasts in an earlier post, and chatting with a friend at work about them, I thought I might briefly mention my favorite old time radio site here.There are

Two co-workers bite the big one

2006-06-29T10:59:00.000-06:00

Today, I was witness to an event that.... well, I'll be shaking it off for a long time.Two of my co-workers downed the new quad stacker from Burger King. Yes folks - 4 patties of meat alternating with cheese topped with bacon, and just to, I don't know - 'tone down' the meat, topped with a dollop of special sauce. Mmmmm mmmm. Just makes your arteries clog thinking about it. They had taken a

Moving the parents - what day is it??

2006-06-23T22:02:00.000-06:00

Friday. I told them this was my last day here really. Having to go back to work on Monday, I'd like to be home on Saturday so I have Sunday to take care of things at home. That's ok with them I think. There's still a lot of stuff in cupboards, nightstands, closets that had to be brought over. I pondered really how much longer this might take. I think my dad is overdoing it - trying to do too

Moving the parents - the big move

2006-06-22T22:02:00.000-06:00

Moved a few boxes in the morning - main push was to get stuff ready for the moving guys in the afternoon. My parents wanted me to come eat downtown again with their friends, but I told them I'd feel more useful boxing up stuff. So with no one to glare at me, I threw out a lot of stuff in the process of packing up several boxes. I got a lot more done by myself. Later in the afternoon, the guys

Moving the parents - day 3

2006-06-20T21:58:00.000-06:00

Unfortunately my parents are getting older, and couldn't do much in the way of moving, especially in the heat. My mom needs to rest a lot from some surgery she's had, and I was itching to just throw stuff in boxes and get it all moved. They were running the show though and I found the slow going frustrating. They wanted me to eat lunch with them and their friends downtown, and I hated the loss of

Moving the parents -sizing things up

2006-06-19T23:44:00.000-06:00

When I was making plans to help my parents move out of their apartment into a new duplex apartment, I thought we might be cleaning out my grandmother's house some too - and store anything they felt they absolutely had to keep in the basement of their new place. When I called the week before to confirm my vacation and availability to help, I was informed my brother had already come and was helping

Insanity doesn't run in my family...

2006-06-18T22:21:00.000-06:00

... but it might be slowly limping along. I will drive myself insane trying to help out and make everybody happy.My parents are moving from a small apartment they had while they were helping my Grandmother when she got unable to care for herself. They didn't want to dump her in a nursing home, so they moved to her town - about 2 hours away from where they own a house.They got an apartment for

FIFA Fever

2006-06-16T17:44:00.000-06:00

These days I seem to be easily swayed into becoming a fan of something that I never would have given the time of day to previously. Lately, I've been flitting from one phase to another faster than the moon. Just jumping on the bandwagon, or passing fancies maybe. Most recent acquisitions: The 4400 on USA - recently got caught up in a marathon that explained the whole thing. I got absorbed

BBQ Bonanza

2006-05-29T20:14:00.000-06:00

So I decide to have two BBQ 'get-togethers' at my place over the Memorial Day weekend. I was so afraid of running out of food and room because I wanted to invite a bunch of people from work, and some friends of mine from church. I decided to split them up and have people from work over Sunday afternoon, and the other group Monday. That seemed to work out fine, except about half the people I

Wired News: Your Thoughts Are Your Password

2006-05-25T09:17:00.000-06:00

Wired News: Your Thoughts Are Your PasswordThe possibility is intriguing, but I'm trying to imagine logging on to my computer in the morning before I've had my coffee. And what if you're interrupted by the phone or someone in the process? I can see locking myself out of an account on a regular basis. "Your password has been changed to 'Who the heck is calling me NOW, when I'm right in the

tabbed browsing in IE 6

2006-05-10T22:19:00.000-06:00

While I'd been perusing Yahoo for some other things, I'd decided to try setting up "My Web 2.0" Beta from Yahoo. I updated my yahoo toolbar that I'd had turned off for ages so I could add stuff to the "My Web" pages. Once I did that I discovered a new feature included in IE - tabbed browsing. So far it looks and acts a lot like firefox's tabs, down to the scroll button opening a link in new tab.

Addictive video games

2006-05-08T21:24:00.000-06:00

I've always enjoyed playing video games, going through phases where I'd play one game nearly non-stop for a week to a month and then tire of it.Among these are PC Games:Neverwinter NightsElder Scrolls III (Morrowind) not OblivionKnights of the Old RepublicGame Cube:Star Wars LegoPikmin (someday I'll remember to return that to Angela)Zelda (any and all)I'm sensing a trend that sorta shocks me. I

Blak is....

2006-04-26T20:10:00.000-06:00

I'll avoid the obvious "Blak is blech" here . I don't think it really is blech anyway. I was convinced to try it on the premise that it was something to be experienced.I don't think I need to experience it again.It's supposed to be a fusion of coffee and cola - a blend of two favorites. It's not terrible, it's just not good. I can't envision myself wanting a 'cool, refreshing blak.' It pains me

Can Programmers Party?

2006-03-27T19:16:00.000-06:00

Are programmers too geeky and anti-social to party? That's a question that I had to ask myself as I hosted some of my co-workers at a party at my duplex. I think about 12 people got invited. Three would be a large number for a true introverted programmer, so this was.... huge. I like my duplex as a single person dwelling. As party central - well, it might need some work. Mainly because it

firefox extensions and version 1.5

2006-03-16T22:12:00.000-06:00

Just to be in keeping with the rest of the programmers, etc.. who are posting their favorite extensions:Thanks to MR Tech Local Install, here is a quick list of some of my enabled extensionsColorZilla 0.8.2Gmail Notifier 0.5.5.2Html Validator 0.7.9IE Tab 1.0.8MeasureIt 0.3.5MR Tech Local Install 4.2.6SearchPluginHacks 0.1.3UrlParams 2.01.00View formatted source 0.9.4.4Web Developer 1.0.2My

Discovery Channel :: News :: Computer Senses User's Frustration

2006-03-13T15:09:00.000-06:00

Discovery Channel :: News :: Computer Senses User's Frustration"if a computer senses that its user is agitated, it might tone down the background color of the screen, turn down background music, enlarge or reduce graphics, adjust the flow of information being presented to the user or simply apologize"I'm wondering what the computer would do when I get frustrated by another last minute request to

Automated Capture of Thumbnails and Thumbshots for Use by Metadata Aggregation Services

2006-03-13T15:08:00.000-06:00

Automated Capture of Thumbnails and Thumbshots for Use by Metadata Aggregation ServicesMy clients have been saying they wanted more visual results in their search pages. This seems to back them up. I had issues with hundreds of results taking up a lot of real estate, and therefore a lot of time to navigate to find what you wanted. The load time could have been problematic too with wait time on

'Vintage' TV

2006-03-06T19:07:00.000-06:00

As the current news on the AOL Beta site states:"With the AOL® In2TV™ Beta, hundreds of episodes from some of the most popular television series of all time are available online, exclusively on AOL®Video. The In2TV™ service will allow you, at any time, to stream full-length episodes from your favorite series, all free on-demand. Try AOL® In2TV™ today!"You'll need an AIM screen name to access the

Holy Code Search Batman!

2006-02-17T09:20:00.000-06:00

krugleExcellent code search engine. No more hopping from script site to open source site, etc... looking for some project that might have what I need. This search engine proposes to show me the code right off the bat, so I can see if it is indeed what I want. THEN I can download the project/code. The tagging will be extremely helpful in cases where a project team is researching something (say,

Happens every time

2006-02-14T07:54:00.000-06:00

I swear it must be some law of programming. If you create a project, do whatever testing you can, place it up for your client to use/TEST in advance of their big presentation deadline, your client will proceed to ignore it. For months. Then this law states that one month before their deadline, they will suddenly begin using it, and a flurry of reports about things not working right will come

Virtual scream

2006-02-13T08:11:00.000-06:00

I think I will figure out a way to add a virtual scream to every project I have out there, embedded within the link "Click to report a bug". Not like that would stop anyone, but it might make me feel better.I should also add something that redirects them if they report something as a 'bug' that is really 'something they thought should be built into the design but wasn't and now they expect it to

First post

2006-02-09T21:34:00.000-06:00

This is my first post on my new blogger site. A quick introduction is probably in order. I'm a Programmer. I use a capital P, because with the craziness I sometimes deal with I think it deserves a capital P. My job is programming web and other database applications for a University library. I really do enjoy my work - it's challenging, although stressful at times. I'm the only programmer on