Sunday, October 30, 2005


My friend Rob, whose Nikon D70 dSLR I envy, took this great photo with our mutual friend Ola. Ola is a portrait photographer at Yuen Lui and does freelance work as well. She was the "photo booth" photographer at our wedding. :-)

My cousin Sally is 19 weeks pregnant with a little girl. This is her second child, but her son Andrew is 7. Claire was nice enough to give 3 bags of baby stuff to me for Sally.

Monday, October 24, 2005

WSDOT - 511 Travel Information

I just found out you can dial 511 on your mobile phone and get free traffic info from WSDOT. Check it out - http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/511/

Sunday, October 23, 2005


Today we went to my in-laws' house to celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday. We ended up staying for a long time, and then went to Davonna's house so Benjamin could help move out there old dryer and the new one in. On the way home Benjamin got his hair cut, we went to two pet stores, and picked up dinner at Pomodoro.

Last night was Piper's annual costume birthday party. It was also her mom's birthday. I took them each a bouquet of dahlias. This is me and one of Piper's sister's, Reszi. We both dressed as naughty bunnies. I even put Reszi in my handcuffs. ;-) More photos.

On the way home from Pike Place Market I made a few stops to pick up coffee and takeout from two different places. Then while we were eating our dinners, Maple peed on the couch and on me. It was clearly intentional. The only thing I can figure is that she was mad because I made her wait in the car while I ran errands on the way home from Pike Place. I was not pleased, especially considering our recent couch cleaning struggles.


Saturday I slept late and bummed around the house until after 4 o'clock. Then I took Maple down to Pike Place Market. I bought a bunch of the cheap avocados and three bouquets of dahlias to give as gifts. This was the sunset from the park right there next to Pike Place.

Friday night was Six Feet Under night again. Jimmy made a casserole for dinner and I only made a salad. It was so great not to have to rush to make the entree when I got home! We had 9 people altogether with 4 watching SFU and the others playing in the gaming den in the basement.


Friday after the workshop I went to Pike Place Market and bought a bouquet of dahlias and some fresh veggies. They were so amazingly cheap!

Friday I attended another seminar, this one by Steve Krug, author of Don't Make Me Think! Unfortunately it wasn't as good as the Rosenfeld seminar, at least not for me. Steve directed attendees to read his book prior to the class and that was the seed of the problem. The class didn't offer much more than the book. However, I do recommend reading the book. It is quite good. At the end of the class Steve gave away books through a random drawing. I won a copy of Jeffrey Zeldman's book Designing with Web Standards. After thumbing through the books I'd been hoping to get a copy of Dan Cederholm's new book Bulletproof Web Design. I requested that the library buy a copy, but I may buy a copy of my own.


Thursday evening after the IA seminar I went to an IA Happy Hour at the Pike Pub & Brewery in Pike Place Market. The food was provided by a local web design company Avenue A/Razorfish. I bought a couple of beers (that's right, I drank beer). They were berry-flavored beers that didn't taste like beers.


On Thursday I attended an Information Architecture seminar downtown by Lou Rosenfeld. It was a good and useful seminar. I was surprised that I managed to stay interested the entire day, even though it was basically a lecture the whole day. The seminar was in the Bell Harbor International Conference Center and there was a beautiful view. The lunch was quite good, too.


As I have mentioned, the sunsets have been gorgeous of late. I kind of wish I could get rig of this big tree that blocks most of it. And as Benjamin could point out, the new second story on the house across the street would need to go as well.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Puppy in the glove box

Tee he he. A concept Honda from the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show Preview.

Sunday, October 16, 2005


I bought Maple several things at Mud Bay including this cute new bed (she killed the last one) and more Greenies. She was thrilled. No really. Thrilled.


After we left the vet we ran several errands including the QFC, Starbucks, Whole Foods and Bagel Oasis. I ran into Leanne at Whole Foods! We went home after that for lunch and a rest. Then around 2:30 I left for Capitol Hill for a hair appointment and more errands. I got my hair cut and colored and then went to Mud Bay, QFC (another one), and Vivace. Then I got takeout for dinner. I got sushi for me from Aoki and spicy chicken terriyaki for Benjamin from Jo Jo (pictured here). We were supposed to go to a movie tonight but just weren't up for it after all that.

I forgot to mention that over the course of the week I got Maple to start sleeping in her "big girl" crate, rather than the little carrier. She was getting a bit big for the carrier. This morning we took her to the vet to have a pre-spaying checkup (she's 5 1/2 months old already!). They weighed her and she is at 16 pounds. The vet said she's a bit chubby. :-| But, she's cleared for surgery (her puppy heart murmur seems to be gone) and scheduled to be spayed on November 3rd.


Brice & Emilio are in Mexico so Benjamin and I drove in together and picked Pete up at Montlake. This is the view from 520 on Friday morning.


Thursday night after work I went to a panel discussion on color calibration in digital photography at the Henry Art Gallery on the UW Campus. The talk was good, though pretty technical and focused on preparing photos for print. I also have been unsuccessful in applying the advice so far (in some ways I am more confused). But after the discussion a classmate from the UW design programmed stopped me to talk. It was great to see him. He was one of the few people in that program I was sort of friends with. He works at a local design firm, Fitch.


Wednesday evening I was trying to cut a DentaBone in half for Maple, since it was the last one I had and I wanted to make it last longer. Unfortunately I sliced my finger in the process. I also recently went back to using some old headphones with decrepit covers, since the ones I was using stopped working on one side. Pretty impressive, huh?


This week, Corry's re-cleaned our couch for the third time. This time they took the entire couch in to their shop to clean it. I understand that the couch is linen, light-colored, and has many old stains, but we're still dissapointed. And despite their initial incompetence, I have to admit they've worked hard to satisfy us. But what I don't get is how they just kee[ messing it up. Check out the stripes on the couch. They're all over the place. I can understand not being able to get it clean, given the material and condition, but how do professionals end up leaving stripes of cleanliness on otherwise dirty upholstery? I give up. I'm just going to pay them and hope that new dirt will mask the stripes.

Saturday, October 15, 2005


Have I mentioned that the mornings and evenings have been beautiful recently, despite the shorter daylight?


Maple likes to attack her beds. She recently broke through the outside layer of the bed into the stuffing, so I had to take it away from her. This blanket was in Maple's pen over the crate, and during the day she pulled it down and made a new "bed" out of it. What a cutie.


Sad. Just sad. $43.20 for my ~14 Gallon tank. I know we have it better than most other countries in terms of gas prices, but the current price increase seems so senseless when oil companies are making as much money as ever. It hasn't made a huge difference in my life, but I feel bad for people with tighter budgets than me.


Maple had no problem going through the dog door flap at my mom's house, so I decided it was high time for her to do it at home. It took a few days and several instances of leaving her outside, but now she's doing it on her own regularly, and pretty voluntarily. ;-) But really pugs don't like them because of their little pressed-in noses; they don't want to push on them with their faces. Instead, Maple uses her paw to get it started and then pushes with the top of her head.


Last Saturday, Benjamin and I went down to Tacoma to visit my mom, Rich and Carol (the pug). My Grandma and her dog Joy came over too. We hung out for the afternoon and had dinner there. The dogs played, especially Maple and Carol. We stayed very late and then strangely got caught in stopped traffic for 25 minutes in the middle of the night. It turned out there was a bad accident. We eventually got home and listened to a good bit of Harry Potter in the mean time.


Last Friday was the second Six Feet Under (SFU) night, but there was no SFU involved. We thought we were only going to have a turnout of 3, but in the last 12 hours before the gathering another 3 people decided to attend. I made a chicken pot pie and cous cous, Nathan made a salad, and Sylvia made chocolate-peanut butter chip cookies. I thought we were going to end up playing games since none of the attendees were SFU-ites, but instead we watched a couple episodes of Firefly. I didn't get into it, but I wasn't paying a lot of attention and I was quite tired.


The Giving Campaign at Microsoft is underway. It's the time of year where they measure the amount we give to charity and there are special incentives to reach participation goals. I don't know why they don't count the giving from all year, but it's good that they put so much into corporate and employee giving. Last week our admin hosted a little morning thing with espresso and donuts for the campaign. I ate a sugar coated donut.

Monday, October 10, 2005


Here's Maple chillin' with Benjamin while he plays his new PS2 game.


This is where I do my feldenkrais.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Daylight saving time extended

I don't know about you, but last month when the new Energy Policy passed I didn't realize that it included a provision to extend daylight saving time. In discussing it this morning in my carpool, we wondered whether it really does save enrgy. Here's some info about that.
The Change The Energy Policy Act of 2005 amends the Uniform Time Act of 1966 by changing the start and end dates of daylight saving time starting in 2007. Clocks will be set ahead one hour on the second Sunday of March instead of the current first Sunday of April. Clocks will be set back one hour on the first Sunday in November, rather than the last Sunday of October. This will affect accuracy of electronic clocks that had pre-programmed dates for adjusting to daylight saving time. The date for the end of daylight savings time has the effect of increasing evening light on Halloween (October 31). The first Sunday in November sometimes occurs as little as two days before election day. From Wikipedia (Energy Policy Act of 2005) Energy savings Starting March 11, 2007, daylight saving time will be extended another four to five weeks… Proponents claimed that the extension would save "the equivalent of" 10,000 barrels of oil per day, but this figure was based on U.S. Department of Energy information from the 1970s, the accuracy and relevance of which the DoE no longer stands by. There is very little recent research on what the actual positive effects, if any, might be. [3] From Wikipedia (Daylight saving time) The state of California's energy commission, however, studied the effects of daylight saving time on energy costs during California's 2001 energy crisis… overall electricity use would only decline about one half of a percent. You're basically shifting noncritical energy use to later in the day," Chandler said… "I don't know how it might work in states that don't have the same kind of weather-driven [usage] peaks as California." From National Geographic News Studies done by the U.S. Department of Transportation show that we trim the entire country's electricity usage by about one percent EACH DAY with Daylight Saving Time. Daylight Saving Time "makes" the sun "set" one hour later and therefore reduces the period between sunset and bedtime by one hour. This means that less electricity would be used for lighting and appliances late in the day. We also use less electricity because we are home fewer hours during the "longer" days of spring and summer… Daylight Saving Time also saves a small amount of energy in the morning when we rise. Studies show that 70 percent of all Americans rise prior to 7 a.m. during the work week. During the summer months, sunrise is very early in the morning, so most people will wake after the sun rises… From The National Institute of Science and Technology History of DST Daylight saving time was reinstated in the United States on February 9, 1942, again as a wartime measure to conserve resources. This remained in effect until World War II began winding down and the requirement was removed on September 30, 1945. From 1945 to 1966, U.S. federal law did not address daylight saving time. States and localities were free to observe daylight saving time or not… The U.S. federal Uniform Time Act of 1966 mandated that daylight saving time begin nationwide on the last Sunday of April and end on the last Sunday of October. In response to the 1973 energy crisis, daylight saving in the United States was begun earlier in both 1974 and 1975, commencing on the first Sunday in January (January 6) in the former year and the last Sunday in February (February 23) in the latter. From Wikipedia (Daylight saving time) Non-energy objections to the change The airline industry is adamantly against a change of the daylight saving calendar, which officials say will severely affect scheduling. "When Europe and the U.S. are on different times, connections become less convenient. Right now there is one week of discord between the U.S. and Europe so it's sort of at a manageable level," Concil said… The nonprofit Calendaring and Scheduling Consortium, which includes leading universities, software giants like Oracle, and even NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has prepared an advisory document for Congress. The statement warns that the current bill does not allow for enough time to prepare the United States' computer-based scheduling systems. Several Jewish groups have lodged formal complaints. They say that a later sunrise during the extension periods would hinder observant Jews' ability to pray at sunup and still make it to work by 9 a.m. The Chicago-based National PTA and other education groups have raised child-safety concerns… about the potential safety issues the extension into March may cause due to the increased danger of traveling to school in dark hours." From National Geographic News

Wednesday, October 05, 2005


After over five hours I put the battery back into my camera... and it works! W00t!


A guy just came and installed full spectrum bulbs in my office overhead lights. It is so much nicer! I was supposed to have these all along but they didn't get moved last time I moved offices. I hadn't noticed until it started being so dark out lately. Then I was getting headaches and felt like my monitor refresh rate was too low even though my display is an LCD (they don't have refresh rates). So I figured out that the lighting was wrong and now they fixed it. Yea!

Love is in the air!

It's engagements galore around here. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that my brother just got engaged and that same week one of my co-workers did as well. Now I just found out that my friend Pete asked his girlfriend Amy to marry him on their trip to Europe these last two weeks. I am so happy for them! Oh yea, and my friend Simon is also engaged, though it has been a little longer since he asked his girlfriend. Go love go!

My little camera appears to be dead. I picked it up this morning to take a picture and the LCD screen was completely gray. I tried camera mode, playback mode, menu, display, to no avail. I took out the battery and the SD card but there was no change. I looked in the manual online to find out how to reset it, but it involved the menu so that was out. Ditto a firmware upgrade since I couldn't see what the current version is. Finally I gave in and called Casio support. They said that in order to reset it I have to take out the battery and let it sit for 5 hours. Crazy. So that's what I am doing. But they said it will probably have to be mailed in and repaired, which usually takes 2-3 weeks. My coworker thinks the CCD is dead. On the bright side, it will be covered under the warranty. I didn't expect this because I'd read that the Casio warranty is only 90 days, but it turns out it is really a year. Silver lining...

I know I mentioned this back in March, but a former co-worker of mine is sailing around the world (perhaps not literally, but she's getting around). I just got an email from her telling me of an update to their blog and this was one of the amazing photos they posted. It is from the top of Mt. Pahia in Bora Bora. Wow. Thier site, and their boat, is called Mico Verde.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005


In addition to our little city view (through the power lines) from the living room, we also get this peek-a-book view of the sunsets, which have been beautiful recently. There must be some upside to fall, right?


My house is one giant dog pen. And yes, Maple does have her own Elmo.

Sunday was another sleep-late day. I think I slept from 2 AM to 2 PM. Maple came and slept in the bed with me part of that time. :-) After that I snacked, played in Photoshop, showered, took a short walk with the dog, watched TV, and generally did little until I finally dragged my ass to bed. Despite my long sleep the night before, Sunday night's short sleep made me miserable on Monday.

After the couch guy left Benjamin didn't want to go back to sleep so we both stayed up with the intention of napping in a couple hours. We didn't nap until mid-afternoon and then when we woke up it was after 4. Steph finally got ahold of us and came over to help clean up and prepare the rentals for pickup. It turned out she had been calling but our phone was down. (We'll discuss our trials and tribulations getting our new VoIP service another time.) The three of us cleaned and then Steph hung out for a while watching a ridiculous video she got Benjamin as a gag birthday gift - Ringers. It is a documentary about hard core Lord of the Rings fans. After that I played with the digital photos from Friday night, experimenting with Photoshop CS2 features I hadn't yet used. Very cool. It is a good release.

Saturday morning at 9 AM a guy from Corry's showed up to re-clean the couch (third time is the charm?). I forgot he was coming so we were dead asleep. I talked to him and he said he couldn't do any more with the couch in situ but he could come back Monday and take the couch back to the shop, returning it Tuesday. He still hasn't come to get it.


Ola took this photo of Maple and I with Rob's camera. The party disbanded a little before 1 AM. I cleaned up a little while Maple and Benjamin napped on the couch and then we finally got to sleep around 2 AM.


Friday night Steph hosted a surprise dinner party for Rob's 30th birthday at our house. It was a raging success. Rob was completely surprised and everyone had a fabulous time. Steph hired the chef from Mistral, Rob's favorite, to create a formal dinner for 14 of us. It was five delicious courses with a different wine for each course. The courses were lobster, sea scallops, Japanese Hamachi (fish), fois gras (guinea hen for the squeamish), lamb, cheese, and dessert. Mmmm. The wines were some of the best I've had. While Rob celebrated and dined, I snagged his Nikon D70 camera and took hundreds of photos. So, once I get them all processed (a long but mostly enjoyable process) there will be many photos in the gallery.

Monday, October 03, 2005

Legalizing abortion has reduced crime

You may have heard Bill Bennett's recent, shocking quote about aborting black babies to reduce crime. It's a pretty disturbing quote, but the media has really taken it out of context. His comment is a supposition stemming from a theory posed by Steve Levitt and Stephen Dubner in their book Freakanomics. The theory is essentially that reducing the number of unwanted children reduces the crime rate since unwanted children are at high risk of committing crimes when they reach their teens and adulthood. The book discusses the statistical correlation and how it can be shown to be a causal relationship. Levitt, one of the authors of Freakanomics, addresses Bennett's comments in a recent blog post.