I have been in a work funk lately. I have been on a committee that has been consuming most of my time working with topics I am not even interested in. The past few months have not been all that great and I feel like it is starting to affect my personal life. I have not had a lot of motivation and I dread coming into work sometimes. Maybe it's time to shake things up a little.

I know some think that Google is evil. However, I would be more then happy to run whatever Google has to offer. I have nothing to hide. Google Voice is a good product that I am slowing easing into. Mail has been default since I was able to get an invite etc. etc. I also love Picasa very much for managing my pictures. I even prefer it over iPhoto. This year I purchased the extra online storage $20 for 10 GB which would allow me to post more pictures online for friends and family to see. Today I got this in my inbox:
[box]
We wanted to let you know about some exciting changes to your Google paid storage plan. While storage costs have dropped naturally in the past few years, we've also been working hard to improve our infrastructure to reduce your costs even further. On Tuesday, November 10th, we increased the size of each of our tiers to make storage even more affordable and accessible. For the same $20.00 per year, you'll now get 80 GB, 8 times as much storage as before. Your current plan will be automatically upgraded and your new quota will automatically show up in your account in the next 24 hours.

We hope you'll like the extra space, but if it's more than you need you can always change your storage plan or renewal preferences for next year in your Google account settings: www.google.com/accounts/purchasestorage. Feel free to visit our Help Center for more information.[/box]


Who does this???? Google!

Last night my wife and I were driving to Batavia for a birthday party when we ran into stopped traffic. There was not a concert at Darien Lake so I knew it had to be an accident. Sure enough we were about to pass the scene and we saw it was a motorcycle. The cycle was underneath the guard rail and my first reaction was this is not good. About 20 feet from the cycle was what looked to be a body wrapped up in whatever they had available. I did not get a great look at it but it was the right shape and size. It was a little horrifying to say the least. I was a little concerned that they did not pull a car up next to it or they do not carry those privacy tents. I saw them on a UK site one time. The police on the scene would just pop up the tent and that way rubber necking would be minimal. I am not sure of protocol in a situation like that. Perhaps they could not move the body before the coroner arrived. Maybe they needed to do further investigation at the scene.

I felt a rush of sadness from when I was younger having gone through something similar with my brother. He died in a car accident on a normal night without any warning. Just knowing that someone was going to get a phone call. Someone was going through their normal day to day and boom it changed in an instant. I feel sorry for them.

We went to our last wedding of the summer. They are fun however we usually have so many each year. This year I think we only had four totaly but that is enough for me.

Now I can focus on doing some things around the house on the weekend. I have come to the realization I need to keep the house in shape enough to sell. If I keep to that mind set then I think I will get more done.

I guess I never thought about it but it's true. I found this article posted to Engadget today.



The article has some advanced viewpoints for a 14 year old. Here are some of the highlights:

--When I wore it walking down the street or going into shops, I got strange looks, a mixture of surprise and curiosity, that made me a little embarrassed.

--It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.

--I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down "rewind" and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured.

--When playing, it is clearly evident that the music sounds significantly different than when played on an MP3 player, mainly because of the hissy backtrack and odd warbly noises on the Walkman.