The Omaha area is currently experiencing a Thundersnow storm. Note quite rare, but not common, Thundersnow is an interesting experience. It's currently sleeting and snowing at the same time as lightening is flashing across the sky and thunder is rumbling in the distance.
Thundersnow usually causes heavier amounts of snow. The forecast calls for 4-6 inches of snow, possibly more. Oh. Goodie.
I'm saying Goodbye to an old friend tomorrow: I've sold my old PowerBook G3/400 Pismo. It's actually a little sad to see it go.
I bought that computer new in 2000. It was my first "real" laptop (I had previously owned a used PowerBook 1400/166 for about a year). It blew away my desktop computer of the time (a PowerMac G3/266) in terms of performance.
It was my first foray into the world of WiFi. I remember sitting out on the deck of my apartment of the time one summer evening browsing different websites for whatever information I could find about the then just announced Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. All without wires. It was truly astounding to me.
It became, over time, my primary computer as I learned the convenience of being able to compute anywhere without any wires. It was the first computer that I ever installed the released Mac OS X on (I installed the Mac OS X Preview on my desktop G3). I still mostly used Mac OS 8.6/9, but more and more I began to use Mac OS X, especially once Mac OS X 10.1 came out.
I've since owned two other laptops (a PowerBook G4/1.2 GHz and my current 1st Gen black MacBook 2.0 GHz). But the Pismo still found uses. When my wife used it for the final time--just today in fact--to connect to an LCD projector to show a PowerPoint presentation at work, it was running Mac OS X 10.4.11 and Office 2004. Sure, it has a few scratches, the battery barely holds a charge and the screen has long since developed the slightly pinkish hue that was endemic of that model PowerBook, but it still runs reliably and reasonably fast for what we asked of it.
However, the last few years did find it sitting in a closet more and more. It seemed a waste to have this perfectly good computer sitting around not doing anything most of the time. Surely, someone else could get something out of it. An acquaintance of mine approached me a few weeks ago asking if I knew where she could get a cheap laptop that she could run Word on so she could write a novel she's working on without having to sit at a desk. I immediately thought of the Pismo.
I hand it over to her tomorrow. It's currently packed up (in the original packaging!) and sitting there waiting for me to take it to her. As I said, it's slightly sad to see it go, but I'm glad it will still get used.
It was a great computer and I hope it will continue to be for at least a few more years to come!
I'm still undecided as to whether or not this Star Trek prequel is a good thing, especially with J.J. Abrams at the helm...uh...so to speak. They claim it takes place in established Star Trek continuity, but just from what I've seen so far, it's hard for me to accept that. I guess I'll know for sure come May, 2009.
And yes, even though I've seen the trailer online, I still want to see it in the theatre.
I just got back from the Sing Around Nebraska concert at the Lied Center for Performing Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska. I had a niece performing in the concert as part of the Children's Honor Choir and my wife and I decided to go to the concert to support the family.
To be honest, I didn't really want to go to the concert, but I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed some of the pieces by the uNL University Singers and the Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir. The York College Concert Choir did a decent job (although none of their pieces were anything that really appealed to me) and the UNL Varsity Men's Chorus sang a song that I sang back in my college days as part of a Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia concert.
Good job to everyone that participated in the concert!
I'd like to go see the new Bond film, but probably won't be seeing it this weekend. It'll probably have to wait until next weekend. I have too much stuff going on this weekend.
Of course, although I enjoyed the previous film, the real reason I want to go see the new one is because I want to see the new Star Trek trailer. Does that make me sad or what?
You know...I normally try to steer clear of being too political. I try to take people for who they really are, not political rhetoric.
But in this case, I have to say something about last night's election results:
Uh-oh.
I really applaud Amazon for doing this! Not only are they trying to eliminate that hard plastic packaging that just about everyone and their brother and their cousin's dog hates, but they're trying to do it in a very environmentally-friendly way. Although Amazon is not without its problems, this is a good example of a corporation trying to do the right thing for itself, its customers and the environment.
Bravo!
What is up with eBay?
They have implemented, over the last year, several changes that make me wonder they are sniffing in their corporate offices. It really seems that they are making changes that will not help the eBay community.
The first of these was the ill-advised change in policy that no longer allows sellers to leave negative feedback on buyers. I understand their point about being worried about retaliatory negative feedback from sellers, but what are sellers who get legitimately screwed supposed to do? For example, I recently had an item bid on and won. The "buyer" never paid for the item. Repeated attempts to contact the buyer were ignored. I relisted (and sold) the item, but this buyer, for whatever reason, didn't pay and no consequences occurred.
Second, the mandatory requirement to include shipping charges in the auction. Okay...sounds good, right? Well, the problem is, their automatic calculation tools only work for USPS and UPS. For a variety of reasons (the biggest being, I've had BAD, BAD experiences with UPS), I'd prefer to ship via FedEx. eBay offers no option to automatically calculate FedEx shipping, so I need to pre-calculate shipping costs to include it in the auction. The problem with that is, I have no way of knowing exactly what shipping costs will be until I know who the winner will be. Therefore, because eBay requires that shipping costs be included in the auction, I'm required to use to services that I really don't want to use because of the bad experiences I've had before. This just smells of both those services putting pressure on eBay to force their services to be used, rather than the competition.
Now, eBay is going to mandate PayPal payments (or credit cards if the seller has a merchant account), rather than allow mailed payments. Granted, most payments sent to me were via PayPal, but I've had buyers who absolutely REFUSED to use PayPal and wanted to mail a money order or cashier's check. Plus, consider that PayPal is OWNED by eBay. That doesn't smell at all...
eBay seems bent on making sure that they do what they can to alienate their sellers, and in some ways, their buyers. I understand wanting to try to eliminate fraud and whatnot, but they have gone way overboard and many of their decisions seem more directed at lining eBay's pockets rather than keeping their user's best interest in mind.
eBay is still the number one auction site, but will this continue?
Can I truly describe just how happy I am that the Yankees are pretty much looking like a team that won't make it into the playoffs?
Can I truly describe just how happy I am that the Cubs are pretty much looking like a team that will win their division (even though the last three games haven't looked that great).
September this year looks as though it's going to be very, very exciting! I can't wait for October!
So, a few months ago, I finally got the promotion that I've been working for at work for at least a year. I'd interviewed for two other promotion opportunities over the last year, was a finalist for one and wasn't considered for the other. Needless to say, I'm very happy that I've finally gotten what I consider to be "my due".
Although it's been a mixed bag so far, it's been an overall positive experience. I say it's been a mixed bag because there have been aspects of my new position that have been frustrating. But, in reality, they are nothing that I hadn't been expecting when I applied for my new position.
I'm not allowed to talk about where I work in a forum such as this, so I can't be very specific, but I can say that I'm now the manager of a staff of fourteen people, all of whom are very good at their jobs. There have been some frustrations for them, however, over the past several years, so they have been going through some major burnout. My number one priority so far has been to make their working experiences much more positive and showing them that their new manager does care about them and wants the best for them. So far, I think I'm being successful, but not as successful as I would like. But, again, I knew that would happen.
It's involved some very long hours (again, something I knew would happen) and being very tired at the end of the day (something that has actually ended up being worse than I thought it would be). But at the same time, I've seen some of my team's attitudes begin to get better. I've seen laughter and camaraderie become much more obvious in the few months I've been with them. And, that makes it all worth it.
I'm in a position now that I wanted. I have been experiencing some challenges, but I'm hopeful that things will continue to get better and that I'll be able to slow down a little here sometime soon.
I'm glad I went after this opportunity.
Subscribe