NicholasYax.com

So, it was seven years ago tonight that I started my blog.  Since then, I have posted over 587 entries (I say over because some have been deleted, but the current number of entries, not including this one, is 587) containing just shy of 171,000 words.  Unfortunately, I seem to have lost interest over the past two years or so.  Some changes are coming, I am sure of that, but I don’t see an end.  Yes, few people blog anymore, (and I seem to be becoming one of them) but I was never one to follow the crowd.  I can certainly see a 10th anniversary celebration in three years.

In other news, April is now the second month to contain zero posts (Nov 2009 was the first).  May could well have suffered the same fate if not for the Blogversary.

In jobs news, I had an interview today that went rather well, have a phone interview Tuesday as well.  Still no response from the Sandusky or GR interviews last month.

In an attempt to improve my job chances, we decided to move closer to where they seem to be, and have been living in Grand Rapids (Comstock Park, to be exact) for nearly three weeks now.  We moved in on May 8, having gotten the keys on the 7th and signed on the 3rd.  It does seem to be helping, based on the two interviews I mentioned above.  It is also nice having so much more around to do and see than we had in Big Rapids.

Jenn and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary (of “going out”) on May 13 by going to Kobe, which we thought would be like Genji but wasn’t as good.  We also celebrated our 6 month anniversary (since the wedding) on April 10 by making a meal at home, of shrimp scampi and sautéed vegetables (note: the OS X spell checker put in that accent mark itself).

Apple’s  iPad is certainly making some noise.  I have played with one and though I was originally in the “what the hell is it?” camp, I have to say it is pretty awesome.  Yes, it has its flaws like no multitasking (until fall) and no user accessible file system, but it does 90% of even what I do on a computer.  I can see it covering everything a person needs for several people I know.

In other news…

Yeah, I lead a rather boring life.  I wish I could think of more but I can’t right now.

So, hopefully I will have some good news to post soon, but until then I am out.

Being that I have never really done anything Spring Break-like, and this is my last Spring Break, Jon and I are trying to come up with something.  We have no idea what, and it has to be decently cheap.  Will let you all know if it’s anything fun.

I called Apple and requested repair on my MacBook, since I can live without it for the next week.  The damn palmrest cracked again just after Christmas break, so need that repaired, again.  If I need to send it in a third time (very likely, probably about May) I am going to bitch that I want it FIXED, not just repaired, and if that means I get a new aluminum unibody MacBook, then so be it.  Apple has opened repair to all MacBooks, including those out of warranty, and though it is not publicly stated, they obviously recognize this as a know issue.  If they know it’s an issue, why should I have to send in my computer every 6 months for repairs?

Speaking of my computer, I added a new program/service last week.  It’s called DropBox, and it’s like a virtual thumb drive.  You sign up (name and email, thats it) and download the software.  It makes a folder on your computer and anything up put in it gets upladed to their servers.  You get 2GB for free (2.25 if you follow my referral link), and an additional 250MB for every person you refer, up to a total of 3GB.  You can also pay them money for more space but I’m cheap, and 2-3Gb is pretty good.  Note: you wont see your 250MB bonus until you actually download and install the software, it won’t appear when you first sign up.  It’s worth a try, right?

I cleaned the aquarium, holy crap was it dirty.  I mean, I do a water change and vacuum every week or 2, but I actually pulled and rinsed all the gravel and wow, there was a lot of crud in there.

Started watching more movies again.  Get Smart, Dead Like Me – Life After Death, Stranded with Les Stroudt (the prelude to Survivorman) in the last week, with a few more to go.  Trying to get them watched and free up space on the HD so it will be easier to do a Backup before sending computer off.

I also started reading The Watchmen.  I am through the first chapter and addicted already.  Have heard mixed reviews of movie, but hoping having read the book will help me enjoy the movie more.

Unfortunately no job yet.  Still looking though.  Market is not good, but all I can do is keep trying.  I graduate 2 months from Monday, is almost time to start freaking out, but not yet.

And that would be it for this post.  See you next time.

I have been meaning to post this for a while now.  Look at all that RAM.  Look at all that free RAM.  It’s a wonderful thing.

So, first week of class is over.  All went well, though I will have quite a bit of work this semester.  Automation, plant layout, and continuous improvement have some big projects, though homework should be limited.  Lean doesn’t seem like it will be too bad.

Jenn and I went to GR on Saturday, which was fun but nasty travel.  We passed quite a few accidents on the way there, and even more on the way back.  We had lunch at TGI Fridays, which I haven’t had in quite a while, and it was really good.  Need to go there more often.  Looked for shoes at Nordstrom Rack, but didn’t find anything I loved.

Cleaned on Friday, as Jenn’s parents came down.  We got most of it Friday, but got laundry and some more yesterday.  Still have a little mess on bedroom floor and the hell that is the office, but may actually get everything cleaned up.

I finally ordered my RAM.  MacBook now has 4GB, and Jenn has my 1GB.  If someone uses PC-5300 so-dimms, and needs 2 sticks of 256MB each, let me know.

That would be about it for now.  Going to enjoy the rest of my day off (no class MLK Day).

So, in the final Apple keynote of a MacWorld conference, Apple introduced iLife 09, iWork 09, and the 17″ Unibody MacBook Pro.  The only one I care about is iLife, particularly iPhoto (I don’t own a digital video camera, other than what phone or point-and-shoot can do, and have never really touched GarageBand).  So, part of iPhoto is now the ability to do facial detection, geo tag decoding, new slideshow themes, a new book, and the ability to sync with FaceBook and Flikr.

I use FaceBook, but seldom put pics on it, as when I started on FaceBook it required the person viewing to be a member as well, and made sharing a pain in the arse.  Instead, I put all my pics on Picasa, owned by Google, which I generally like except for very poor iPhoto syncing.

The idea of Flikr has crossed my mind several times in the past, and the new features of iPhoto make it even more appealing, except for one issue: Yahoo! owns Flikr.  Since about a 18 months ago, I have been rather anti Yahoo!, and am actually closing in very near deleting my Yahoo! account, as it currently is used only for a spam email box, which I can obviosly do without.

I understand why Apple made the choice of Flikr though, and it’s related to a release from the day earlier (Monday).  Picasa is a 2-part operation, the downloadable program as well as the web-albums.  On Monday, finally, Google released Picasa (the App) for Mac.  This program, for storing, sorting, categorizing, and sharing your pics to the web sounds incredibly similar to iPhoto, and is its newest competitor.

So, despite the fact that one of Google’s founders is on Apples board of directors, and that Apple uses Google maps and search as the default in over 20 apps on both Macs and the iPhone/iPod touch, there is no support in iPhoto for Picasa Web Albums, because it is a competing product.

So, I have 3 options:

1. Keep iPhoto and live with poor Picasa Web support.
2. Keep iPhoto and switch to Flikr
3. Switch to Picasa (the App) and keep Picasa Web Albums.

None of these are ideal, but I will most likely end up with #1.  I like iPhoto, and I generally like Picasa Web Albums.  Maybe I will give Flikr at least a try, before I end my Yahoo! account.

Anyway, moving along…

I went to Bay City today, was gone about 12 hours.  Nothing real big, visit  with Mom and Dad, fix Grandma’s computer, come home.  Roads weren’t bad, but other drivers seemed to think differently.  One guy was actually going 30 on the freeway at one point.

Watched several movies: “Zombie Strippers”, “HellBoy II”, “The Dark Knight”, as well as the entire series of “Clone High”.  All were pretty good.  I must recommend “The Dark Knight” to all, and “Clone High” as well.  ”Zombie Strippers” was pretty much just as fucked up of a movie as it sounds.

Bought my books for school yesterday, $208 and change for 3 books.  Good nes is, thats the last time I have to by text books (until grad school, 3 – 5 years maybe), yay!  School begins on Monday.

By my count, there were 45 posts in 2008, averaging to a post every 8 days or so, so not even once a week.  I think I can beat that this year, but who knows.  It is already the 8th, and I am only making my first post.

OK, thats enough for now.

nick

Well, I guess I should update.  I haven’t since November 16th, as the Christmas post was actually Jenn.

This past weekend we went to Bay City for Christmas.  We were going to leave Saturday, but was really foggy so we left Sunday afternoon and stayed through the evening.

Weekend before we went up to Alpena for christmas with Jenn’s family.  Drive home was really crappy as it was snowing faster than the plows were cleaning up.

Other than that, have done nothing for the last week and a half, and enjoyed the hell out of it.  It’s my last christmas break after all, I intend to enjoy it.

Exams were not bad, grades came out a 2 A’s, 2 A-’s, and a B-.  GPA is at 3.72, would like to get it up to a 3.75 for Magna Cum Laude.  Just need 3 out of 4 A’s over winter, with no less than A- in the fourth.

During late November, I made a site for my SME group.  I  also helped organize our Christmas Parade float, which their are pictures of on the SME site.  We were competing for $100 prizes for most festive, most participants, and most lights.  We had a good chance at most lights, but haven’t heard yet (which presumably means we lost).

Also have not heard from UniSolar.  I interviewed with them mid November and was told I would hear by the holiday.  I emailed them 2 weeks ago and was told they would get back to me.  I’m not giving up on them though, with this economy (especially in MI) I’m sure they are looking long and hard before making any decisions.

You would think I would have more after 6 weeks, huh?

I have been watching DiggNation rather regularly now.  I downloaded it to watch on my iPod and got into it.  I had watched a few about a year ago but stopped after 2 or 3 episodes.  I used to watch all of Kevin Rose’s “the Broken” episodes, but with the death of TechTV I lost trach of his whereabouts for a while, and didn’t even realize he was the guy that started Digg.com until about 2 years ago.

Next week is MacWorld Expo, and Steve Jobs is not doing the keynote.  Further, it is to be the last expo attended by Apple.  In the past, Apple’s priority was to keep their user base from migrating away, so attended user expos.  Now, Apple has a large enough base that they can just use their TV spots and stores to build a bigger base.  So, its sad news for lovers of the keynotes, but understandable.  Many of Apple’s major announcements over the last few years have been at special events outside the expo anyway, and there is still Apple’s own WWDC in May-ish.

Only 16 hours left in 2008 right now.  That is a little scary.  Amazing how the year can seem so short and so long at the same time.

My beer came out decent.  Guys liked it, Jenn and I rather enjoyed it, Jenn’s Dad and his friend didn’t, lol.  Its not for people who are set on drinking one beer, and especially if that is a lighter beer.  My “Creative Juices #1″ is rather heavy, and a bit bitter.

Fish are doing well.  We had a second Jack Dempsey (Buster), but he passed a few weeks ago.  Our unknown cichlid (Tiger) is doing well though.  Will need to get some pics.  I still really wat a bigger aquarium, and saw an awesome 65 gallon at PetSmart in Saginaw, but need to wait at least until after the move.

Finding a job is looking like it will be a royal pain.  most companies are laying off far more than hiring.  Still, I know they are out there.  Most of the layoffs are production workers while Manufacturing Engineers are exactly what they need to help trim inefficiency and reduce costs.

Went to Birch Run shopping with Jenn and her Mom and Sister a few weeks ago.  Was the first time I had been there in probably 5 years.  A lot of stores that have been there for as long as I can remember, and a few new ones.  I was excited to see a Merrill store, but Nordstrom’s Rack is still a better deal.

Other site work, other than SME listed above, is our wedding site.  Jenn made one up a few weeks ago, and I did a redo a few days ago.  I should have a final composite up within a couple weeks, as well as possibly its own domain.

I think, that is it.  I know there is more, especially after 6 weeks, but can’t think of it right now.  Will try and make my next most a little sooner.

nick

I was kind of waiting to post this entry until after I got WordPress 2.5 installed, which is supposed to be released today. Sadly, nothing has been heard yet, so may as well go ahead. I have done a little more work on the blog today while waiting though. I made some little theme changes, and removed the Wayback section from the sidebar (you know, the 1, 2, 3 years ago). I figure with the random button up top and the monthly archives in the sidebar, it’s good enough. Besides, it drops two plugins by removing the one thing. I also went back to tagging posts. I have tagged through the end of August 2003, so just 43 more months. I’m not saying its a little daunting, but this is the 529th post.

Anyway, the five second rule, what the hell? Does it really matter if food lays on the floor for 3, 5, 30 seconds? Even several minutes? If a gummy work falls on your kitchen floor, and lays there for 30 minutes, is it really any dirtier than it was the instant it contacted? As I see it, there are only 3 circumstances where time actually matters, and in at least 1, it still doesn’t.

1. The food/surface is wet or moist.
   In this scenario, wet ground will cause a soggyness in the food, or a wet food will increase dirt adhesion to the food. In theory, a wet surface, with time, could cause the food to become inedible due to becoming too soggy. To be honest though, if you drop your food in a puddle, does in matter how long it was in the puddle? No, not really.
2. The food becomes stale.
   If you drop a chip lets say, and don’t find it for at least an hour, and it has become stale, then the time did matter. To e honest though, who eats day old food off the floor?
3. Insects
   If you are out camping, and ants invade your food that was nicely nested on some grass, then time mattered. You have to beat those bugs to your food, or just forget about it.

As I see it, those are it. Granted, anything over about a minute is still a little weird. Although, there was this one time at Meijer in Saginaw, I ate a skittle off a cash register. It a have only been there 5 minutes, or a month, I don’t know. Jenn giggled ad her parents looked at us wondering why, but obviously we didn’t say.

Anyway, the past week…

Last Saturday my grandma was taken to Bay Med because she started coughing up blood. Apparently she has a lung and liver tumor. They are both inoperable so she is coming home today or tomorrow. They are starting her on chemo and hoping that will do the trick. She is my last grandparent, so losing her would be a major suck. Don’t think it has hit me yet though.

Thursday I spent 13+ hours at school. Left home 9 am, got home at 12 am. Class, McDonald’s (walked), class, Project X. Thank god we finished it. I actually spent until about 2 am doing finishing touches.

I am beginning to wonder if I should accept a weekly update schedule, but don’t really want to. It’s not like I am that busy, just forget mostly I think. Would help if someone other than Jenn read. May have a kind of fix for that soon though, more later.

Jenn worked last week, knee seems to be 99%. She spent the weekend in Traverse City with her mom, sister, and niece and nephew. Did some shopping and such. I had almost as much fun being alone. Not that I don’t like spending tie with her, but after 2 weeks of her always home kind of needed it.

Tomorrow Jenn and I go to Bay City for the day/evening. See family and friends and such. Will probably spend day tomorrow with family, then Hooligans at 8.

Hmm, what else…

This is why I can’t accept once a week, because I know I am forgetting stuff that I wanted to post. Need to just post it when I think of it.

Next blog, I will begin a new feature: Must see movies. I started thinking about for Jenn, but mind as well post them. I want to post 100, though it may be spread over 5 or more posts. Will shoot for at least 20 on the first 2 installments, then a little less as I run low.

I think, maybe, thats it.

Yeah, thank so.

Ooh, Qdoba brownies are AWESOME!

Blog was down for a few hours yesterday due to issues with the severs apparently. Not a problem of my hosts, but the building owners they lease from apparently. They went down just as I went to updater the time offsets for DST too, luckily I remembered to try again this morning so I don’t need to edit the time of several posts and comments like I did 2 years ago.

Uhm…

Yeah, later.

nick

So long as this post is 637 words long, I will reach 150,000 words in the blog on this post. Quite a milestone.

I am going to try and work on the theme for the site this weekend. I have some ideas I want to try and think I can get it more decent looking. I also downloaded a rather good looking theme I might try if I can’t get mine right. I really don’t like using pre-made themes though. I know I can do the coding, I just have issues with the little touches, and having no artistic ability. I can make it look good, I just don’t know what good looks like.

New MacBook is over a week old now. Along with being incredibly faster, it has Leopard, which is like a new computer all by itself. It doesn’t have the big features of some previous versions of OS X, but it did get a lot of little tweaks. Tabbed chats in iChat, better looking icons, key commands to sort icons in a folder, multiple desktops (that I haven’t really used yet), Quickview of documents without opening an application, preview icons of pretty much everything, and 294 more apparently. Plus, the computer is new, so its REALLY fast, and my battery is new and lasts longer.

School has been going fairly well. I was a little lost in stats, but he cleared that up this morning.

So, with all the words above, the post count comes up to 159,654, only halfway there. So, what else…

Superbowl was OK, but not great. I was unsure who to root for, since the Patriots were undefeated, but the Giants were the underdogs and I generally go for them. Unless Green Bay is in it, then they are always my choice. Commercials were so-so, some good ones but not as many as normal.

We rented Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. Pretty good so far, although the trampoline judging is way off. You can suck ass and get 1st, or have the best routine ever and land 7th, is just weird.

I cleaned most of the apartment Sunday afternoon, vacuumed and moved around the furniture in the front room. It needed to be done. Still need to do office and bedroom.

Current count is 149,793, just 207 more.

I didn’t realize it was this far away. I was kind of done with this back at 159,650, and it just seems like it is dragging on and on.

Ferris is having a job fair on the 14th, and supposedly Northrup Gumman will be there, you know, the largest defense contractor in the US, the guys that make battleships, destroyers, aircraft carriers, tanks, aircraft, satellites, and more. Will be fun to talk to them. I don’t know that I would want to move away for the summer, think I really don’t actually, but do want to keep my options open, and they would be interesting.

OK, up to 149,900 right now, so down to like 90 more words by now. So 90 words, just 90 more words to reach 150,000. What 90 words can I write… Hmmm. OK, thats not very productive.

Apparently WordPress 2.3.3 is out, I have a little reminder to update on my screen. I think 2.4 was supposed to be out las month, but was cancelled because of decreased development over Christmas break, so they are skipping over to 2.5 in March. It is supposed to have some cool features from what I have heard and seen.

OK, so the word count is now up to 150,012. Yay, done!

See you next time.

nick

First of all, I apologize for once again neglecting my blogging duties. I got obsessed with a few things online and suddenly it was a week since a post again. Truth be told, I should have posted my 150,000th word by now. Soon, it should be coming up soon, along with the 15,000th visitor. Maybe I will strike until I get the visitor? Stop at 149,999 words, until right after the 15,000th visit, then just post “word”. That could be sweet.

I was talking with Mom and Dad and Jenn and with my fin aid refund coming in tomorrow, I am getting a new computer tomorrow. My grandma is borrowing me some money and my Dad is buying my iBook from me. The problem I am having, is my refund is going to Catholic Federal, which is 100 miles away, and they limit my debit card to $1000 per 24 hours. Since my computer is more than that, I am stuck. The Apple Store accepts checks, but my checks have my old address and my drivers license my address here, so I don’t know if they will take it. I do have a credit card from Fifth Third, that they decided to give me after I got my car loan, that is totally open. That only has a credit limit of $1000 though, so I would need to split it across two cards. I also thought of the option of buying $600 or so of Apple Store gift cards tomorrow, then buying the computer Saturday, so that my debit card is not charged more than $1000, but I wouldn’t be able to buy until after whatever time of day I bought the gift cards. Since we are going to Grand Rapids after my class, it will already be later in the day, so wouldn’t be able to buy computer until 7 or so Saturday night, and need to stay in GR all day Friday and Saturday. Will figure something out.

In preparation for the new lappy, I bought the MacHeist II bundle. It comes out as $490 something in software for $49. It ended yesterday, but none of you use macs anyway. There were 3 apps I really wanted, and 2 of them were worth more than $49 anyway, so the other 11 were all gravy.

I need to do dishes, and make dinner, but a Hungry Man is sounding better. I need to do before we leave tomorrow either way though. It sucks when you neglect your dishes for a day because it doesn’t look like there are many there, then suddenly there is a giant pile.

OK, that’s all for today.

nick

First, my final class went well. As I said earlier, they all seem like will be interesting.

On to MacWorld though, as excited as I was, Apple crapped out again. They released the new MacBook Air, which is pretty cool, but is overpriced and underpowered for what I need. Looking back, last year was totally Mac-less, the year before was the introduction of the MacBook Pro and some iLife updates, 2005 was the MacMini and Pages, and 2004 was the iPod mini which turned out decent, and again iLife. What they all have in common, that I forget every year, is that they all kind of sucked. Maybe it’s just that I read the rumor sites and get higher expectations than I should.

As I said though, MacBook Air is decent, for the right person, just not for me. Sadly, the Dell XPS 1330 is closer, but is more expensive than a MacBook. Honestly, if Apple would release the MacBook in an aluminum case with an LED backlit screen, I would be happy, with no other changes form the current version. Of course, an upgrade to the new Penryn processors would be a nice additions, as well as maybe colored cases similar to the iPod nano. Probably wont see anything on the MacBook until April or so though.

Also released was a new wireless router with built in 500 GB or 1 TB hard disk for automatic backups (which I would like, but is out of my budget), and upgrades to the iPhone and Apple TV (free software updates), as well as iTunes movie rentals.

OK, enough boring you. Later.

nick