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Really? I disagree.
“Dallas is looking a lot like Seattle these days,” says Ed Stoddard of Reuters in this evening’s story about the flooding happening in Texas.
In Marble Falls near the state capital, Austin, several people were rescued from the tops of their vehicles and even from trees after nearly 20 inches of rain came down in a matter of hours in the latest downpour.
Yeah, so it doesn’t do that here. If Seattle gets a heavy downpour like I was used to in the South people completely freak out. In fact, according to the Seattle Mayor’s Office, 20 inches of rain is more than half of our annual rainfall (36.2 inches). Chicago, Washington D.C., and NYC all get more annual rain than we do here.
Sure, we probably have more rainy days, but most of those are a gentle shower or heavy mist, and they sunny in the afternoon.
But if people keep thinking it rains all the time in Seattle, that’s fine with me. They can stay away we those of us intrepid worshipers of the rain can enjoy our beautify views of the mountains on cloudless sunny afternoons!
Oh so lucky
It seems like nearly every day I’m reminded of how lucky Alicea and I are to have a normal, healthy daughter. There’s a dad at work who I was speaking with on Friday who’s daughter is repeatedly in the hospital with heart complications. He was telling me of another family who’s 3 year old child’s longest stint outside a hospital has been 1 month.
I just came across a little article from The Seattle PI about a 13 year old who died today of a heart attack … complications from progeria, or accelerated aging. There is a story (with a number of pictures) profiling Seth in 2004. See http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/specials/seth/
So sad.
Why I don’t use MySpace
I don’t use Facebook either at this time, but I have to say this post from Download Squad definitely nails the reason I don’t use MySpace. Most of the content on there is CRAP. And the navigation is horrible.
It makes sense. Facebook started as a college and university only platform, which right off the bat adds a significant gap between the haves and have-nots. Add a pinch of irritation that users with an IQ above 80 feel when confronted with abhorent Myspace layouts and you have a recipe for the great unwashed to rally around Myspace, leaving the rest of us who can string a few words together as Facebook planted refugees from the ills and distaste of Myspace.
Don’t want an iPhone
Here’s a screen-grab from one of the iPhone ads, and it exemplifies why I don’t think Apple got it right. Here in Western cultures we read left-right. So WHY would you put the hang up button on the left – when a call comes in? That’s the first button your eye sees, and EVERY OTHER PHONE OUT THERE puts the answer and disconnect buttons on the left and right, respectively.
And how are you supposed to type on a screen with your finger when there’s no responsiveness to tell whether you’ve pressed a key? The tactile response of where you are on the keyboard is important.
This should be interesting.
The lows … and the highs
Yesterday was a very … long … day.
I woke up at 4:30a to the sound of Kaitlyn calling for “maaameeeeeeee” over the monitor. I’m usually pretty bad about not waking up when Kaitlyn calls out or cries, so I got up and took my turn. [Thanks Alicea for being such a great mom!]
I go into her room and she’s standing up in her crib. I ask her if she needs a diaper change … “yesssssss”. We get that done and I set her back in her crib and make my way out of the door. Kaitlyn is content.
15 seconds later she’s at a full roar cry. I know where this is headed so I go downstairs, fill a sippy cup with milk, microwave it for 20 seconds, head back upstairs and go into her room. I retrieve the mumbling ball of tears and give her a big hug. “I’ve got some milk for a very special little girl.” BIG SMILE.
So we sit in the glider/recliner and she starts drinking. And then stops and just sits there. It’s then I realize she’s very awake. Great .. I sure ain’t!
I sit for a second and pondering my options. Do I want to go downstairs and do a full breakfast with her? Do I want to put on a movie? Do we play for a while?
“Kaitlyn, do you want to go lie down in a big bed with daddy?”
“YESSSSS!”
So across the hall to the guest room. I’m SO glad we’ve got a new mattress on the futon … it’s actually comfortable to sleep on now. [Thanks Alicea for being such a great wife!] Amazingly Kaitlyn seems pretty content to lie down beside me. She fidgets and turns and tosses for about 30+ minutes and then finally falls back asleep. So do I.
About an hour later Alicea comes it and gives us a big hug. I feel like I just pulled an all-nighter. I never recover from that feeling all day. It’s not a good day.
In the evening we get home (I drifted off to sleep a couple times as Alicea drove home) and Kaitlyn is filthy from a hard day’s play at daycare. Off to take a shower with mom, but as we were getting ready Kaitlyn announces that she wants to use the “big potty”.
Now you need to know that Kaitlyn has been deathly afraid of a regular sized toilet up to now. Alicea asked Kaitlyn about 5 times “are you sure?” Oh yeah … here we go.
And she does. And the look of pride and joy on her face as she looked at Alicea and I made me forget for a moment how tired I was. What a moment.
And then I fell asleep.
Virtual ‘kumbaya’
VMware and Microsoft both said they’re working behind the scenes to make it easier for virtualization users to migrate across their differing virtualization environments and run each other’s virtualized files.
But so far, it’s only virtual kumbaya. Neither one is saying how they’re going to do it.
I am a staunch believer that virtualization is the next big frontier in enterprise IT (and probably computing as a whole, all the way down to the consumer level). I can’t wait too see what my datacenters and services are going to look like in 5-10 years.
I think it’s going to be a long and painful road to get there, as evidenced by Microsoft’s continuing delays and feature cuts of their Veridian hypervisor.
All that being said, I’m glad to see the major players in virtualization at least starting to talk. I’m not going to hold my breath on the outcome – I’ve been burned by false hopes in the past. But at least it’s a start.
Credibility and investment advice
Trust me, this post by Scott Adams is NOT about what you think it is based on the title I just gave you. 🙂
Enjoy!
I forget the details, but I think the first mouse that got the concentrated resveratrol lived 30% longer and started having an affair with Maria Shriver. One of the dogs with resveratrol got a bone and dug a hole so far into the earth he now lives with a family in Sumatra. And he’s so strong he can lick any balls he wants. No one dares stop him.
Private public area
I saw this at the Factoria Mall in Bellevue, WA last December. Oh the irony.
Nathan's Occasional Blog 