techno.blog("Dion")

I bet most of you have gone through the experiencing of losing all, or part, of a document that you have spent a lot of time on. Having to rewrite this is a painful feeling, much worse than having to write new content (even though in theory it is easier as you already know what to write).

This week someone broke into our car and nabbed our TomTom. It was hidden in a glove compartment, in a gated condo area. They had been watching, and they broke the rear window in broad daylight to get their prize. I hope they feel proud.

Having to purchase another system is a pain. You plot down your credit card and back comes….. what you already just had!

The whole gated community thing irritates me too. It is trivial to get in, and one door is always just open. Get rid of the gates and put in some video recorders.

Welcome to California.

I have been feeling like Keanu in Speed recently.

When I have been driving, I have had to keep above 30 miles an hour. A bomb wasn’t going to off if I dipped below of course, but my son may wake up.

~30 miles an hour seems to be the magic speed that knocks my son out if he is tired.

Of course, you have to disconnect from the speed issue to drive safely with Baby on Board, but I still couldn’t help feeling like I was driving a bus.

I now have an urge to learn kung fu.

It is a little comical that the English cricket team could win in the one day tournamant in Australia.

Only “we” could lose ~15 games, and then somehow win a couple in a row to end up victorious.

I have heard ads for tv shows saying “8/7 Central” for a long time.

When I have lived on the east coast I always wished that shows were on earlier.

The Daily Show at 10pm is a lot nicer than 11pm.

Now I am on the west coast I assumed that it would at least be earlier. I know they aren’t going to put it on 3 hours earlier, but I thought that at least 10pm should work. I was wrong. I guess the TV guys know best, and work out that “we should put it on at 10pm Central as those middle country people go to bed early”.

The only upside is that we have time to get Sam to bed and most shows are still far from starting. I think that we will also be watching even more TV time shifted the next day, or on the Motherload.

We have finally gotten out west to the bay area. We are settling in, and work starts on Monday. I have been told to “bring your signing hand” for a fun day of HR ;)

We have overheard a couple of conversations from people moving themselves (on the plane, at Pete’s Coffee, etc):

• Us: The bad news is that the weather isn’t great here. The good news is that it has been good enough for me to be in a t-shirt, which is a touch nicer than 20 degree weather back in Wisconsin. We are looking to a sun upgrade.
• Rain Sucks: “Now I remember why I moved to Arizona. The weather here is terrible”
• Midwest: “We get all four seasons in the midwest, so I moved there from California”

Everyone has their own opinions. I am looking forward to exploring the red woods, pt reyes, wine country, head up to Oregan, down the coast to more sun, etc.

If you know of some hidden gems, let us know!

I guess if Becks makes the effort to move down the road I wil have to head down to LA to watch one of his first games for the Galaxy.

This will be a huge deal for the MLS. I would love to see the stats pre/post Beckham.

Maybe more adults will be bending it like Beckham over here, instead of playing until they are twelve and then moving on to more lucrative sports.

Who could argue with this? If only he would listen.

Wisconsin Public Radio has put together a great mini-series called Electrons to Enlightenment where they explore the relationship, or lack of, between science and religion:

• Science vs. Religion: Can Science ever be reconciled with Religion?
• The Cosmos: How did the Universe begin?
• The Brain and Belief: Can Science prove there is a biology of belief?
• Debating Darwin: Can you believe in God if you accept Evolution?
• Awe and Wonder: Where can you touch the fabric of mystery?

This is a great series, and is something we should be exploring all the time. It isn’t taboo. They got views from all sides, and some that seem to bridge them in interesting ways.

Kudos to WPR. Hopefully we will move closer together to explore these questions, instead of getting more polarized.

There are only a few shows I miss from England. Just like everywhere, most content on TV in the UK is crap just like it is here.

There are some gems though. One that has come up a lot in the last couple of weeks is a classic: Top Gear.

I am not even an autophile yet still find it a great show, and would think that the US public would really enjoy it too, since they seem to be easily as into cars.

It is good to make fun of yourself. When cleaning up shop, in the digital sense, I ran across some of my original .sig files. Wow, I can’t believe I was that geeky, or that into ASCII art.

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