Geek

I am writing this blog entry as Earl and I are in transit on our way home from Northern Virginia. Sometimes I’m amazed at how much technology has really changed our lives and changed society in general. For example, I was able to talk to my sister today while riding between Carlisle and Harrisburg, Pa. along Interstate 81. She was in Toronto at the time. The first time I rode that stretch of road, in the summer of 1976, that conversational feat would have been unheard of. Today it’s commonplace.

Further up the road, I received a call from our friend and fellow blogger Terry. He lives in Michigan. He called to tell us that he is going to be featured Wired magazine next month, reaching the desired übergeek status. Congratulations to Terry!

As I’m typing this blog entry on the PowerBook, I am making changes to our planned trip next month out west and tweaking our route. While doing that, I am tracking our progress along Interstate 81 via GPS. At this moment we are 1503 feet above sea level, with 169.6 miles to go until we reach home. Our expected time of arrival is 18:03 (6:03 p.m.). We are traveling at 70 MPH.

Isn’t technology grand?

You may have noticed that I’m sprucing up the graphics on the site. I just took a gander at the site here at work and see that Windows is rendering the new graphics way too dark. I guess it’s a Windows vs. Mac sort of thing. I’ll be working on it more tonight, please be patient.

I was looking for a desktop background to spruce up my work computer and went back to a site I hadn’t been to in a number of years. Take a look at Digital Blasphemy if you want to see some really creative work. They have a free gallery with quite a few scenes to choose from. My favorite is “The Grid”.

My blogger friend Thom posted a little bit about himself from A to Z today and I found it so interesting that I thought I would do the same.

Here we go.

Accent: I have a touch of Toronto, Ontario in the way I speak because I had a Canadian voice coach in college and when I was trying to neutralize my Central New York nasal sound when I was in radio, I paid very close attention to disc jockeys on Energy 108 from Toronto and the CBC’s “As It Happens”.
Booze of Choice: I’m not much of a drinker, but I do like beer or two from time to time. Or five.
Chore I Hate: Folding whites. Too many darn socks!
Dog or Cat: Cat. Tom is our son. I’ve only had one dog in my life; when I was growing up we had Sunshine, a German Shepherd/Husky mix. She liked to sleep in the snow.
Essential Electronics: If it beeps, bonks or flashes, I’m interested.
Favorite Cologne: Not a huge fan of cologne, I prefer to just smell like myself.
Gold or Silver: Gold. It works better with my skin coloring.
Hometown: Pulaski. I’ll let you guess the state.
Insomnia: Rarely. Earl is jealous of the fact that I can say I’m going to sleep and be asleep within three minutes, anywhere, at anytime.
Job Title: Officially I am a Network Operations Center Technician II at a local telephone company. I prefer “Mr. Telephone Man”.
Kids: Thought about it, never pursued it.
Living Arrangement: In a beautiful house with my partner of almost 10 years.
Most Admired Trait: I have no idea. I have been called “Mary Sunshine” at work but not in the last couple of months. Maybe I need to work on that.
Number of Sexual Partners: Not as many as you would think. I tend to add to the number in groups. Kidding.
Overnight Hospital Stays: It’s been a while, but quite a few when I was a kid. The last one was when I was 17. It was two nights. Bionics Upgrade.
Phobia: I used to have a huge fear of elevators but I got over that. I guess the only phobia I have is electric shock therapy; I can’t think about it and I can’t stand the sight of anyone getting it. I have to leave the room if I see it occurring on a television show or something.
Quote: “Life is such a sweet insanity.” Totally stolen from the theme song of “The Hogan Family”, as performed by Roberta Flack in the late 1980s.
Religion: Baptized Methodist, now I just focus on spirituality, but if it had to be nailed down I’m probably closest to Wiccan.
Siblings: A younger sister.
Time I Wake Up: 1 1/2 hours before the start of work (it varies). On the weekend, between 8 and 9.
Unusual Talent/Skill: I can roll a barrel across my folks’ back lawn without falling off.
Vegetable I Refuse To Eat: None. Bring ’em on baby.
Worst Habit: Venting my frustration. Loudly.
X-rays: Quite a few, the latest was in 1992 when I had to be tested for TB for a job. I’m allergic to the TB test stuff, so I always ended up getting an x-ray every year.
Yummy Foods I Make: Anything that you would find in a diner. I love to make french fries. Unfortunately, I don’t do that much anymore. My arteries were becoming too clogged.
Zodiac Sign: Cancer.

Ever since I entered the corporate world back in 1988, I’ve been hearing that we are eventually going to switch to a paperless office. No matter where I work, we’re going to do our part to save the trees and go electronic. I heard this back when I worked on dumb terminals connected to a mainframe and I’ve heard it as recently as yesterday.

Today I decided to do something about it.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m saddled with a Windows XP computer at work in all it’s unstable glory, complete with Office 2003 with all the bells and whistles. When taking trouble calls, I usually keep a pad and pen near me so I can jot down particulars before creating a trouble ticket. I’ve always found this process time consuming. So today I downloaded a trial version of Microsoft OneNote, which is specifically designed for taking notes.

OneNote is geared more towards college students and from what I understand really shines on a TabletPC, which allows you to save handwritten notes using an electronic stylus as a pen, much like a credit card signature pad found at the market or your favorite department or electronics store.

So now I’m poised at the computer electronically jotting notes into OneNote. I’m finding the software interface a little clunky as I retrain myself to click and type instead of just writing, but if I can save a tree or two in the process then it’s all worth it.

It’s a heck of a lot different than that Manpower gig I had back in 1988 where the manager I worked for (as an administrative assistant) asked me to print out all her e-mails for her!

I think I’ll hug a tree in celebration once the weather warms up.

I am a fan of web portals for my start page when I open my web browser. I’ve bounced around between a couple, Google, My Yahoo and My MSN being the three that I like the best. I also like the direction the new Windows Live portal is heading, though I’m still a Mac fanatic through and through.

Today I found a portal that I absolutely love. Take a gander at Netvibes. It has clean, simple to configure interface that works with the majority of popular browsers.

Way cool.

It was 130 years ago today that Alexander Graham Bell held the first telephone conversation known to man.

“The number you have reached is not in service. If you wish to make a call, please deposit 10 cents, 30 cents if you’re calling Alaska, Hawaii or Puerto Rico. This is a recording.”

How far we’ve come in telecommunications in 130 years. Where will we be 130 years from now? Heck, where will be 10 years from now?

Sign Geek.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

I mentioned a a month or so ago that I am an avid road geek. I love all things roadly, including maps and especially signs.

I maintain a road site about the roads in Upstate New York. While it’s an ad free site (and shall always remain that way), I was approached about advertising for a local road sign manufacturer. Not wanting to accept money, I traded a couple of signs for some premium space on my site. Here’s the last of the signs they sent me, a custom sign with our hometowns on it.

I’m a happy road geek today!

Latham Circle Diner.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Earl and I went to Albany this afternoon basically just to goof off. We stopped at Crossgates Mall while we were there and made a very necessary stop at the Apple store.

I’ve been thinking about getting my computer skills officially certified so that I would be more valuable as I follow my career path to employment nirvana. Because of this, I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a Windows based laptop to add to our stable of computers so that I’d have something to practice my PC skills on.

I’ve been looking around online for the past week or so and had a couple of ideas in mind. Earl and I went to Best Buy, CompUSA and Circuit City in search of this particular Gateway Tablet PC I had decided on.

I couldn’t bring myself to make the purchase.

I’m in love with my PowerBook G4. We’ve been through a lot together and I couldn’t stand the thought of casting it aside when it came to improving and enhancing my computer skills. So instead we quadrupled the memory in my PowerBook so that I could run Virtual PC if the need arises.

After a five minute install job, I’m now kickin’ the limit at 2GB of RAM. (That’s a really big chunk of memory for those not familiar with how this sort of thing works. It’s a good thing.)

My PowerBook and I have a solid relationship once again. Once you go Mac, you never go back.

Here I am pictured at the Latham Circle Diner, ready to have a Greek salad after enjoying a cup of French Onion Soup. Below is a picture of Earl enjoying his salad. We love the Latham Circle Diner. If you’re looking for it, take I-87 toward Montréal and get off at Exit 6 and head toward Latham. It’s on the circle about 3/4 mile east of the Northway (I-87), hence the name. It’s your basic diner, but oh so good.

At last! It has been announced that The Secrets of Isis will be out on DVD soon!

Oh Zephyr Winds which blow on high
Lift me now so I can fly!