my thoughts, musings, rants and discoveries . . .

Banner by Emily

1. Stay in California.
2. Get your first pair of gloves.
3. Boot leg jeans, when wet from snow, will freeze into the shape of bells at the leg openings.
4. Don’t wear flip-flops in the snow, no matter if you think you can.
5. Rockport hiking boots are not snow boots.
6. Some may not approve of you wearing Uggs if you’re a dude. (And no I don’t have Uggs)
7. When driving in snow, give plenty of time to slow for turns and stops. And don’t accelerate quickly.
8. Screw the last tip when driving uphill in a driveway. Apparently you must “gun” it or get stuck. Don’t ask me how I know this.
9. Don’t ever get chickens or ducks. If you do, don’t leave them outside. If you must leave them outside, and a snow storm comes, rather than carry them one-by-one to a shed, remember: “it tastes just like chicken”.
10. If you’re stuck in the snow, don’t expect your two 17+ year old horses to pull you out. There’s not much “horsepower” there.
11. You know those really cute hat, glove, and scarf combos that chicks wear? That cashmere stuff? Well, it has occurred to me, based on my recent experiences, that those items must not be made for when it is actually snowing. Somehow the socks inside my boots kept getting soaked. My pants were soaked. My everything was soaked. Wet socks don’t feel so great. I couldn’t imagine having the same sensation on my hands, neck and head. Am I alone in this? Don’t get me wrong. I love the way the other stuff looks. But is it just impractical eye candy? Girls, you tell me.
12. Apparently those Pirelli Scorpion “All Terrain” tires I like to use aren’t made for the snow. Perhaps “all” means anything dry and smooth. I’m not sure. But I couldn’t believe how I could go 2mph only to skid around 10mph if I tried to stop. We should sell these tires to NASA. They actually gain speed when trying to slow in the snow. I just wonder if I can patent this discovery.
13. Oh yeah, ground clearance is just as important as 4WD when driving in the snow. This new found understanding of mine came with the other joys I’ve learned about driving in this stuff. The best part is being reminded how this is really nothing. “Wait until the spring when we have 5ft. of the stuff”, I am told. Yippee!!!

I make my living online. I think that’s fairly safe to say. Whether it’s exchanging ideas via email or download and uploading massive files to clients and partners, I rely heavily on my ability to use the Internet. And for the last couple of months, I’ve been living with fairly substandard access. There have been times my access would burst up to around 30 to 40KBytes/sec. But most of the time it has been around 2KBytes/sec or less.

So, for you not-so-technical folks, what does this mean? Since a decent resolution photo can be larger than 1MByte in size, my “high-speed” satellite would download such a file in approximately 8.5 minutes. Pretty impressive, huh? Let’s put this in a little perspective. A 56Kbit/sec dialup modem can download the same file in 2.5 minutes. Hmm… dial up faster than high-speed??? You see why I’ve been out of touch lately. Now, when you consider that I routinely download 1GByte per day or more. I’ve had to rely heavily on Starbucks and on McDonalds for my access. I have found the T-Mobile access at Starbucks to average around 130KBytes/sec whereas McDonalds tends to hover around  55KBytes/sec. Bear in mind there is a distinction between KBytes and Kbits. By way of explanation to those who aren’t savvy on the differences, there are 8 bits to a byte. So that’s why the dial-up modem is faster than the old Satellite connection here.

Where are things now? I am averaging more than 200KBytes/sec or 1.6Mbits/sec.  That means that same 1MByte photo that previously took over 8 minutes to download now takes merely 5 seconds to download. That, my friends, is high-speed.

I love the fact that I can get back to my regular routine finally. Sure, it’s not as fast as the cable connection I previously had, which was approximately 375KBytes/sec. But it’s plenty fast enough and I’m very happy with it. And to be honest, I never thought I could get this sort of performance off a Satellite connection.

And now for my commercial announcement. I highly recommend anyone looking for a high-speed solution for a difficult area that you take a look at Wildblue. Their fastest service is under $80 per month and the setup fees were more than reasonable. Basically, the equipment charges were $199 and the installation was free.

If you compare this to DSL or to Hughesnet, this is quite nice. Hughesnet charges $799 for their equipment and their monthly service is approximately $180/month for the equivalent service.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that I feel as if I’m finally back

Banner by Denise

This is a list of things bugging me lately. Now, in all fairness I’m really not losing any sleep over any of them. I hate poor customer service, but other than that, I’m jotting things down that I was over almost as soon as they occurred.

1. I was eating at Johnny Corino’s the other week, which was the second time I’d ever eaten at one of their restaurants. This particular time, I really enjoyed their food. It was quite good and left me really wanting desert. This is all good. Right? Well, it could have been if we had a little service. Apparently, we timed our meal in such a way that the bartender had to be our waitress. It started off great, but went downhill quickly as she was soon caught up filling drink orders. Then, at various times, other staff would stop by to make inquiries as to how things were, but no one felt an obligation to follow through since we really belonged to another server. Ugh! I eventually had to walk up to the bar to pay the bill. Anyone who knows me, knows I gave it every possible opportunity to rectify itself, as I hate to do things like that.
2. While heading to gymnastics the other night, I was cut off by some dump truck like vehicle. This was a small street, but with fairly heavy traffic at this particular time of night. This other driver simply felt the need to go from a complete stop along the side of the road to gassing it and pulling hard to the left as if he were swerving. But what is there to swerve and miss when you’re parked?
3. While trying to find a garter belt for Halloween, we were in a Victoria’s Secret. Unfortunately, they didn’t have anything in stock. When I inquired about it, the sales girl informed me that they don’t stock them in the stores because they sell out too quickly. Hmm…
4. All of the Christian frowns regarding the changes in government given the recent elections. I honestly don’t care a whole bunch. All you can do is be responsible for your own actions. And righteousness cannot be legislated, so what’s the problem?
5. I’ve been receiving some pretty hateful comments lately from someone who I’m sure has claimed to be a family friend and a good Christian. Anyway, he has finally caught on to the bandwagon of some gossip and decided to set me straight by reaming me on my blog. The best part is that he came back again a day later to rip me for deleting his comments from public view. Umm… hello! I have comment moderation turned on because of idiots like you, you self-righteous knucklehead. Please go peddle your preaching to someone who cares. And please get your facts straight. Oh yeah… be man, will ya? Anonymous comments and impersonating others isn’t really courageous. And if all you’re trying to do is insight some fighting, as you’ve done in the past, then I really feel sorry for you. You’re pretty pathetic.
6. Came across some picketers the other week. They were protesting an abortion clinic. But they were all over the place and on every corner, it seemed. Now, I am against abortion. I have written on this before. Having said that, you’ll never find me holding a sign and protesting. What will that solve? I find all that really does is alienate those who might otherwise be open to some help. But when you start protesting in hate, why should someone listen? Anyway…
7. Came across other sign holders this past weekend who were against same sex marriage. Apparently in CO it’s okay for same sex marriage. There are folks who were diligently trying to get this reversed. I guess this was getting rather ugly on TV and elsewhere. Well… I’m against it as well. I happen to like the way things have been designed in the past. But having said that, my standpoint isn’t because I’m against those desiring it. Once again, I believe that morality and righteousness cannot be legislated. And my basis for this is simple from a Christian perspective. My moral stance is derived from my faith. And my faith is a gift from God. So, while I can desire a certain outcome, I cannot expect those who do not subscribe to my faith to also have the same moral position as me just because I’m preachy. It doesn’t work that way and there are plenty of folks claiming to be Christian who are just self-righteous and hateful. I’ll let it go at that.
8. I currently work as a consultant. I really don’t like being a consultant because of my previous experiences with them. Having said that, when I strike an agreement with a company, typically at an executive level, I would expect that the accounting groups would support the decision. I hate, hate, hate being treated as a vendor and not as an employee. I take on such arrangements at the request and convenience of the company. But I also work for that company. And when I don’t get paid as expected, it really causes a lot of grief. Anyway, this happened this week and it took a lot of effort to get things fixed. I just hope it’s not a recurring theme.
9. Recently I spec’d out a product architecture based on some components that were supposed to be shipping by a particular vendor. Well… imagine my surprise when trying to assemble a product out of the parts, I found out that the parts weren’t what I had been designing in. Despite seeing the goods at their offices and being told, along with my client, that they were shipping, I found out a month later that the parts weren’t going to be available for some time. This was not a simple mistake. I was flat out lied to.
10. My hair’s too long and I need to get it cut. I’ve been so busy to do this and I don’t like it when it starts to grow over my ears.
11. For some unknown reason, my right side of my body is always much drier than my left. I cannot stand it and there are times I wish I could simply put lotion on just the one side. But that would look pretty funny to have one side shiny and the other not so much.
12. The housing market seems to be rather stalled right now, but not because of a lack of money or a lack of houses. It’s stalled because the lender criteria is still elevated and rates are as well. Seems to me that supply and demand would accommodate things a bit better. Don’t you think?
13. I hate Windows. I feel I have to keep troubleshooting Windows problems for folks. I wish I could simply stick everyone on either Mac OS X or on Linux. Then things would just work

Feeling much better now Thanks for listening.