Irene has been aquasizing for a couple of months now as part of the recovery process from her hip replacement operation. She’s going an amazing five or six times a week, and it really has been helping her: she’s walking better and better, and has even been able to go on some quiet rides on her horse Spirit.
It’s really not news that Bill Gates is stepping down from his role at Microsoft. I recall him saying pretty clearly five or six years ago that he planned on removing himself from his position within the company before he was 55, and spending an increasing amount of time in his philanthropist role within the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Irene and I met my friend Chris, his girlfriend Billie, his Mom, his brother Rick, and two of his Mom’s friends for a walk through VanDusen Gardens.
Cats are creatures that usually have egos that extend significantly beyond their usually diminutive size. But they are also generally equipped with a strong sense of self-preservation that comes from being a predator that often ends up on the wrong side of the food chain (I.E.: on someone else’s dinner plate). We have one cat in our house who possesses more than the usual helping of cattitude…Rommel is his name. (more…)
I was reading one of my news feeds the other day and came across this gem about a woman who beat a dog breeder with a dead chihuahua. Apparently, the dog breeder sold the puppy when it was too young. The purchaser took the puppy to a vet who told her it needed to be returned to its mother, but the puppy died while in transit. The puppy’s purchaser then proceeded to assault the dog breeder using the dead chihuahua as a weapon.
I generally am very happy with my work. My job includes a mix of techno-geeky tasks, all related to the delivery of “rich media” (streaming, podcasting) content. The group I’m in has less than 20 people, and within that group my immediate team consists of four or five folks who design and build applications. But the group I belong to is part of a very, very large company…the best of both worlds, I guess. Some days I am writing server or application monitoring programs to keep track of the state of our streaming infrastructure, other days I’m working on a data model for the next generation of our webcast delivery interface. I never feel like I’m stuck in a rut, the work challenges me mentally, and I am surrounded by people who give a damn- that’s saying a lot.
I was over on Ensellitis’ blog today catching up on what he’s said during the past few weeks. He posted a collection “Stupid Links” a week or so ago, and I hate to say it but one of the links wasn’t so stupid 🙂
Microsoft is giving clearer and clearer signs that they really “get” the frustration and pain their complex and sometimes buggy software causes. Their error reporting features within Windows XP have allowed Microsoft to reduce system problems significantly. But what’s next?
I was browsing through my blog feeds today and came across a reference to Mary Carey, a well known porn star, who has decided she’d like to earn more for screwing people. Yes, that’s right, she’s decided to become a politician. She’s gathering signatures so that she can be listed on the next election for governor of California. I must say I like her campaign photo…
I enjoy…perhaps that’s the wrong word, but I’ll use it for now…catching vendors in obvious disconnects between words and action. Here is one I just found: