I was doing errands around the house when I glanced out the window and saw some amazing colours in the sky. I decided that I HAD to get a photo or two and ran out to the car to get the “big camera” (which is becoming increasingly outdated by the minute) and snapped a couple of shots.
I found the colours of tonight’s sunset to be absolutely stunning.
Will autumn beginning to make an appearance in our area you’d think that my energy would be ramping back a bit, but I’m finding just the opposite to be true. With the cooler breezes and the very beginnings of the rustling of the leaves I’m finding myself wanting to be outdoors more doing things. Last night I jumped on the bike for a 15 mile ride after work. I pushed myself pretty hard on the ride, only stopping once to catch my breath. The ride was pleasant, I even did most of it on the road as opposed to riding the trails.
Last night I decided to run some errands around 8:30 p.m., heading to the mall to pick up some stuff at GNC and just driving around a little bit with the windows and sunroof open. It was a great way to cool off after my ride.
This morning I set my alarm 30 minutes earlier so I could workout with the Wii Fit again. It’s been a while since I used it; we bought a couple of new Wii accessories so Earl and Jamie have been playing quite a bit at night and I thought I should jump in on the fun as well. So instead of lying in bed with my eyes shut until the last possible moment this morning I was up and working out. I feel really good.
It’s funny that I’m feeling this now instead of in May or June but I don’t care, I’m not going to a couch potato this fall or winter.
I find Central Park to be one of the most amazing things about the Big Apple. It is a beautiful thing to find such an expansive retreat in the midst of such hustle and bustle; a place where families, friends, strangers or even those seeking solitude can come to relax and take some time to unwind.
Central Park is such a beautiful place.
Earl, Jamie and I spent some time in Central Park today, just relaxing and enjoying the last weekend of summer. I snapped a few photos to share.
Since we were not armed with a blanket or lawn chairs, we opted to sit on a rock in the Sheep Meadow. Nearby, two men played guitar and sang. I didn’t recognize any of the songs but nonetheless they were pretty good.
I liked that they were doing that.
In front of us, an older gentleman picked out his spot, kicked back and read a book. With all the texting that was going on around us, it was refreshing to see someone taking time away from the technological to find some enjoyment.
There was a beautiful slice of society enjoying the weather today and I found the experience to join them to be quite grounding.
I look forward to more visits to Central Park. I seem to find things there that I don’t find in similar (and larger) spaces closer to home.
I was going to put my thoughts on Snow Leopard, the latest version of the OS X operating system from Apple for the Mac, on my geek blog. It was then that I realised that I had blown up that blog when I was moving servers a month or so ago. Instead of taking time to rebuild that blog before writing my experiences with Snow Leopard, I thought I would just include it here on my personal blog, since I have a lot of Mac users that read along. I also thought it might interesting for those that visit via their Windows based computer. But then again, all this geek talk could be boring altogether, so I guess I’ll just jump right into it.
We have four Macs in The Manor that have the chops to be upgraded to Snow Leopard. This is due to the fact that Snow Leopard is for Intel-based Macs only. All Macs have been Intel based (basically using the same processors as their Windows-based counterparts) for the past three or four years. Two of the Macs use have G4 PowerPC processors, one straggler is older with a G3. These will have to stay on the older Tiger operating system. The Macs that I upgraded included my MacBook Pro (the last of the previous generation with a 2.5 gHz processor), Earl’s MacBook Pro (same generation as mine, but with a 2.4 gHz processor), the studio Mac Mini (the first generation of the Intel Mac Minis with a single core Solo processor) and Jamie’s MacBook (the latest incarnation of the Macbook, I am remiss in knowing what processor it has).
The installation process on all four machines was relatively painless. Both my and Earl’s MacBook Pro went flawlessly, completing in about 45 minutes. My Mac Mini was the same experience, though it took about an hour. The fly in the ointment was Jamie’s MacBook, which I find ironic since it’s the newest computer in the house. When I started the install on his computer it froze about 10 minutes in. I had to force the computer off and start over, luckily, no files had been overwritten or moved prior to this and I was able to boot into Leopard before starting over with the upgrade. On each of the machines software upgrade immediately downloaded and installed an additional upgrade. I don’t recall what this upgrade was but it went painlessly.
Once the upgrade was in place I was ready to rock and roll. My MacBook Pro is my primary machine and I do a lot of different things on it: I edited video, I manage all my photos, I do all of my online interacting and I manage my finances. None of my applications have complained about the upgrade, everything seems to be working fine. I have even been successful with using Skype, which I had read on Twitter folks were having an issue with. I don’t know why I am lucky in that regard.
The primary thing I look for when upgrading an operating system is improvements in the user experience. A quick glance at the screen of a Mac will not clue you in as to whether it has Leopard or Snow Leopard on it. Both look pretty much identical in that regard. One little improvement that I enjoyed was an animation of the wi-fi icon that tells me when my computer is looking for a signal. Speaking of which, that area is a _big_ improvement since the upgrade; my MacBook Pro now finds my home wireless network in about a second when I open the lid versus the five seconds it took under Leopard. That delay used to irk me because I did not experience the same delay under Windows Vista or Windows 7 on the same computer; I’m happy that Apple fixed that.
Other UI (user interface) improvements that I am enjoying include the improvements to stacks on the dock. The scrollbars are a much needed improvement and quick look works flawlessly.
One thing not included in Snow Leopard that I wish had been included was a little bit of “glass”. While I think Microsoft uses this a little too much in Windows Vista and Windows 7 with their Aero interface, I think that a little bit here are there adds a touch of class to the UI. While there are some cool visual effects on the dock with both Leopard and Snow Leopard and the file bar across the top has a glassy appearance (if you want it), I think if Apple had included a touch more glass in Snow Leopard users would have had something to look to assist with the the feeling that they upgraded their operating system. Granted, Apple has said all along that they were focusing on the mechanics of the operating system with this upgraded by making it leaner; I still think a little bit of something in the UI would have made people are little more excited about the upgrade.
My MacBook Pro and my Mac Mini both feel decidedly snappier with the upgrade. Things are purring along beautifully and with the exception of one glitch when the computer went into sleep mode (the screen got stuck in dim mode when I was typing this blog entry), everything has been working great.
Because of Apple’s rock bottom price of this upgrade ($29 for a single computer, $49 for a family pack, good for five computers), I recommend the upgrade to everyone that has a Mac with the specs for it. I believe the speed improvements and the interface tweaks are used to it.
It’s around 4:30 a.m. and I just woke up with a start. Feeling wide awake, I looked outside and saw that the full moon was shining brilliantly. I decided to see if I could snap a photo of the last full moon of summer and this is what I came up with. It’s my first attempt at playing with the manual settings on the “big” camera.
I don’t think it’s too bad for my first attempt.
If you click on the photo to get to it’s page in Flickr, you’ll be able to see my camera settings on there.
Now I’m going back to bed.
I am a very happy geek tonight. I found Super Breakout from Atari for my iPhone. Atari games are the coolest.
My supervisor was out of the office today so I took the opportunity to move to a new cubicle. This new space is in the same quad as my original cube and is 180 degrees around the maypole from where I used to sit. The difference with this cube is that it’s in the corner of the room, whereas my old cube was out in the middle of the floor. Being the old guy of the group I was having a hard time hearing telephone conversations; this can be a problem when you work a tech support position on the telephone. The new cubicle is a much quieter space and was previously occupied by the former old guy of the group. He was part of the lay-offs in April. Now I wonder if I have moved into the last seat before final departure.
Since the cube is identical to my original spot (aside from the walls), I set it up identically to my old space. I even took the lightbulbs out of the overhead light fixture; I strive for a cave like feel to my workspace.
Earl is out of town on business (Knoxville, Tenn. to be exact) so that left Jamie and me alone at the Manor looking for some grub. So I took the doors off the Jeep and we headed to a local BBQ place. Jamie hadn’t ridden in the Jeep without the doors and since it’s September and all, it got a bit chilly on the ride home. The food was good though.
Jamie took his own picture during the ride.
He looks like he is having fun.
I was slightly off kilter today; not in a bad way, mind you, but just a little bit off my game. The after work diversion was a good diversion. Er, that’s what I said.
It was very early in our relationship when Earl discovered that I had a habit of sleepwalking once in a while. We still lived in the apartment and he found me standing in the walk-in closet of our bedroom. I was just standing there, seemingly asleep. He gently guided me back to bed, made sure I was tucked in and then went to back to bed. The next morning he asked if I remembered standing in the closet; I had no recollection of any of the event, but I told him that I have been known to sleepwalk once in a while. My mom tells of another favourite pasttime I had as a kid; I would shout out but be completely asleep. She’d check on me and I’d be making fighting motions in the air and be yelling about spiders or something. I wouldn’t let her turn off the light.
I still sleepwalk from time to time. Earl usually finds me in front of the window looking at the sky. Like before, he guides me to bed and I don’t remember a thing.
Apparently last night I added a new twist to my occasional nighttime activity for this morning my friend Greg alerted me to an e-mail I sent him shortly after midnight last night. The contents of the were a bit babbly and somewhat corresponded to a dream that I remembered having. I noticed that there were a lot of typos (something I try to avoid) and a strong element of incoherence in my dreamy prose, but apparently I was aware enough to compose the e-mail and hit send.
It would seem that having a computer near the bed is a dangerous thing.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
Weird? Eccentric!
