Category: geek

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Misc.

I finally get to blog over at Vox. Somehow, I feel like I’ve won something. (I could have felt this way a few days ago if Joe would have looked at his account a little sooner….*cough)

Completely tasteless-but-made-me-laugh cartoons at the Perry Bible Fellowship like this one and this one and this one. This one is my favorite. The art is really great in some of them.

A rather large bug hit my windshield the other day which resulted in about a two inch, slightly transparent, green gut smear to the right of my eye-line. I reached for the wipers and fluid to swish-swish him away but instead put my hand back down on my leg and had a moment of silence for him. I wonder why I did that.

Yesterday I kept smelling tuna sandwiches with green onions on soft, crustless, white bread. I realized I missed my dad.

Being authentic is one of the hardest things I do. Everyday I remember that it is completely worthwhile.

Feeling lonely and having a great life are not mutually exclusive.

Can we just all agree to leave Britney Spears alone now? Please?

I really miss having a digital camera. More on that later this week.

This game was featured on a few sites a couple of weeks ago. It is addicting. I’ve beaten it twice.

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Thoughts and Links – Two Great Tastes that go Great Together

Yellow-jackets in the house = not as fun as I’ve been led to believe.

Barcamp meetup last night was good. Dev seemed to really enjoy it.

This is a discussion that doesn’t really need my input. I’m oddly compelled and disgusted at the same time.

Why we gotta hate?

When I went to create my first Smartpox (via Heather) I found KristyK. I like her. See also: photos!

I am enjoying Vox. I like to read and comment. I would also like to post.

I’m also playing with a 4-lens Lomo similar to this one. I’m happy about that.

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"Dear Leah,

Your participle is dangling.”

Well, that explains a lot.

Tonight, Joe and I are going to the Geek Dinner. Anyone else going?

Also, I added the new front page for Project Cathartic. I’m still working on the religious survey questions, but they are SO going to get done before the end of my lifetime, I swear.

Today is one of those days that I could spend only crying and wiping my nose. Instead, I may do laundry and shower. It’s a toss up.

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Weekend in Food

Friday
Left a little later than we wanted. Dropped off a painting donation to The Museum School. The poor guy has to come back to get it since it’s now 7:30 pm. As he gets out of his truck, we realize he is our across-the-street neighbor from when we lived on 21st street 2 years ago. Odd moment. Cool. Late Dinner with Matt and Margot. Instead of our usual, Turf Supper Club, we went to BJ’s so we could get giant potatoes the size of footballs to share. Sleep with Sparky and Baxter, the two best dogs evah. Baxter licks my toes THROUGH my shoes. That is how doggie his tongue is. Good times.

Saturday
Matt made taco salad for brunch. He has a secret ingredient. Awesome! He also makes the best tuna melts on the face of the planet. Went to Vons to get fish and salad for the BBQ at Jenn‘s house. Bought sushi from the deli for a quick protein punch. Bad idea and did not eat due to bad fishy smell. Had a great time with some old friends and some new ones at the BBQ. Tried not to eat roommate’s dog, Chico. Hard because he is that cute. Party games make me feel dumb. I don’t like to dance for you. I am not your monkey. Or, I am a party-pooper. Or both. Everyone else is having a great time. What is wrong with me?

Sunday
Late brunch with Mickele. Yay! Looks great as always. Smells like lavender. Yumm. Eat a pancake with bananas and whole grain. Very good. No syrup. Go to BBQ at Greg’s home. House infested with reptiles. Oh, wait. Those are pets. Also, ferrets and Skeeter, the best dog evah. We talk about channeling and quantum physics and existentialism. Greg also has a kazzillion cameras in his collection and LENDS ME A ROLLEI for a few weeks!! I get reacquainted with how a film camera works. My brain fizzes. *Pop* We leave late because I can’t stop watching the ferrets trying to hide the toilet brush up under the cabinets. Susan and Doug wait and wait and wait and then finally start dinner at Aqua Blu without us. (They have no choice. It was about survival at that point. Either eat calamari or each other.) Funny story – Aqua Blu is not The Oceanaire. Still good, but not the same. Note to Self – next time, when you make reservations for you and some friends, you might want to make sure you are making them for THE RIGHT PLACE. After a great dinner with S&D, Joe and I drive home in 2.5 hours. Awesome. I sidestep a woman that tries to hit me up for money and a ride at the gas station. We see a huge, freeway closing accident on the south side of the freeway and are so glad we are not going that way. As an after thought, we feel bad for the people in the accident thereby proving we are good people and only 78% dead inside.

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Link Dump

Tom Coates plays with Odeo. We don’t actually get to hear HIS voice, but we do hear some great questions like what his last meal would be. Nat Torkington asks him about his blogroll (he doesn’t have one). (Odeo)

Amalah talks about losing it around your kid. What do you do when they just keep screaming and there is no way to get them to stop? Walk away, my friend. But just the thoughts that race through your head, like throwing them against the wall, freak you the crap out. Sure is nice to find out that it is NORMAL.

Amanda speaks with Prevention magazine. Not only does she have intuition, but a pretty bad potty mouth. (Rock on!)

Camping with Jes. Ummmm, no. Part I and Part II.

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Ask Leahpeah

Hello Leah Peah,

I don’t get your new headline picture. I liked the other ones that I have seen. I liked the one with the trees. And the one with the hands. But this one? It looks like a calculator. What happened to telling everyone you are Leah the Peah?

A faithful Readher,

Shane

Dear Shane,

Well, I can see why you would be confused. It does look like a calculator. But, can I tell you what it really is? It’s a calculator. I KNOW! Can you believe it?

If you are a geek, and I’m guessing by the way you said ‘calculator’ that you aren’t one (because all of us geeks LOOOOOOOOVE to say calculator and pronounce it Cal-Cue-Lay-T-Her) you would have recognized that Leahpeah was spelled on the display, but upside down. My friends and I in 7th grade Lov-Huv-Huvved to spell words to each other during math on our calculators. Words like 7734 and 5318008 and 0.8537. (not that there’s anything wrong with that). You’re right, there’s not really a number to represent the letter P but I improvised with the number 5, since back in the day, we didn’t have the possibility of just adding in a P on a whim. Not like they do today with their leetspeak. We did it Old School, baby! And the dirtier the words, the better. But, although I appreciate the vote of confidence that goes along with a new title, I can’t say I’m comfortable with a ‘the’ in the middle of my name. And really, what is a the Peah, anyway?

Thanks for reading. Thanks for caring.
xo

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Good. Night!

Via Kottke: Bed Books. Oh, how many sad nights have I spent kinking up my neck because I just wanted to read ONE. MORE. CHAPTER. ‘Too Many!’ my out-of-alignment back screams. Now look what they have:

“The patent pending sideways text layout of Bed Books affords total comfort and eliminates the back and neck strain associated with the contorted body positions normally required for reading conventional books while lying down, and usually propped up, in bed.”

Sadly, the current selection for sale which includes Dracula, Pride and Prejudice and Tarzan is really not enough to keep me happy for long. But, I have every hope that more are on the way…..please?

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Basecamp by 37signals

There have been lots of times when I’ve wished for an easy application to take care of what ever ailed me. A few years ago I once spent a whole week of evenings trying to find just the right online calendar to sign up with so that I could view it anywhere, log in and change things from anywhere and integrate appointments from a handheld. There was none to be had that I could find. A few months ago when I tried to find one that would let both Mac and Windows users log in and view the same appointments and let both/all users add/edit/delete, I think I even heard the Internet laughing at me.

So when Joe and I started doing Crawberts fulltime and it became obvious that if we didn’t find a solution, one of us (me) was going to yank out all their (my) hair due to not being able to keep on top of what was going on with all our projects, we found Basecamp created by 37signals. I guess I had been living under a rock because I had no idea that it existed and how this was so, I’ll never know. Because I have to tell you that it has completely made my life worth living.

When Joe initially pointed out their website and told me I might like it, I was plenty skeptical. I’ve been burned after the initial blush of new-to-me techy love. There was a part of me that thought, after reading through all the material and realizing that it could actually be really cool if it actually worked like it actually said it did, that laughed and mocked my quickness to return to folly. But, once I read that these were the same people that created Ruby on Rails, I was ready to give it a try. That, and they offer a free plan with great functionality which I initially signed up for. I think it was about 15 minutes between that and upgrading to the next level up and about 3 months before upgrading again. And as if that weren’t enough, remember when the ‘yellow fade’ first came out? Them.

Since then, Jason Fried has become one of my heroes. The more I learn about him and read things he’s (co)written, I’m thankful that there is an example out there of how to do it right.

My favorite Basecamp features:

1. It actually works like it says it will.
2. You can import writeboards from one project to another as well as view the last and current versions of any writeboard you are editing.
3. All milestones for all projects are viewable from one page or per project.
4. Auto-emailers for new messages for the entire crew with one tick box.
5. So freakin’ easy to learn and navigate that you forget you never knew how to use it.
6. It actually WORKS like it says it will!
7. They are still making improvements like the new time log for hours worked by employees. Huzzah!
8. From the client’s perspective, they don’t ever leave our site.

Things I wish it had or that I could customize:

1. Color-coding the projects in the milestone calendar on the main page view
2. As the main Admin, I wish I received an email no matter who posts a message and no matter where they post it instead of them having to add me to the list. When I’m juggling so many clients/programmers and there are lots of new messages coming in, I don’t always remember to check where I might have missed one. When a client or programmer forgets to include me in the message thread, I sometimes miss the message for a few hours/days and that is potentially sad. There may be something I’ve been unable to find that would make this possible.

All in all, a 5 star product that I’m proud to recommend. And just using it every day reminds me that my plans to create a new division of the company and have it work really, really right might not be so far fetched.