Reverse Traffic

I had to go downtown today at lunch to get something from my old workplace. I found a parking spot on a one way street that I wanted, so I pulled to the side with my blinker on, and put my truck into reverse. There was a car coming, but he was half a block away.

Some clueless pea brain then pulls right up on my bumper and waits for me move. Hmm. I know that when I drive, and I see someone with their reverse lights on, their blinker on, and they are next to an empty parking spot, I assume thay are going to park in that spot. Pea brain didn’t. It turned into a waiting game which I eventually won! Dim bulb backed up enough so that when I went to park, I had about 6 inches to spare on either side of my vehicle.

Of course I screwed up and bumped the curb. I paused for a bit for traffic to pass, but this numbskull was just sitting there. I waved him past me, and sloooowly he inched past. Aaargh.

Is it really that hard to be aware of what people are doing around you while you drive? Shouldn’t we all be trying to anticipate what people will and will not do? Is common sense and courtesy really dead? Just think while you are behind the wheel. It’s not that difficult.

Photography Frames

One geek photography topic I have been following for quite a long time is digital picture frames. I take a lot of pictures. Besides displaying them on my website(s), I’d like to see them at home. A perfect thing for this is a digital frame that cycles through a collection of pictures.

I have been keeping a collection of links to digital picture frames over on delicious. Here is my collection. I have felt that in the last few months there have been an increasing number of announcements of new frames. I finally feel that for the price of what you get, they are worth it. Some of the features are pretty cool too, but some are bad.

Watch out for the ones that require a subscription or an account on a server to download pictures from. Sadly these still exist and the problem lies with what happens to the company if they go under, or decide to exit the market? Also, you need to upload your pictures to their server, and for me there lies a problem with ownership of the file (forgetting that it takes time to upload somewhere then download to the frame).

K.I.S.S. I don’t want much in a frame, but I do want a good quality picture. The features I want in a frame are these:

  • AC or DC power
  • large and bright screen
  • internal memory
  • memory card capable

Not much there. Some of the other things cool features that I have seen:

  • wi-fi access to picture collections
  • rss reading of picture collections
  • video playback
  • remote control
  • motion sensor to disable the frame while noone is in the room

I hope to pick a digital picture frame up in the next few months. They have been a novelty for a while, but now I think I am at the point where I would find it useful.

Last First

My last day at NewHeights was on Friday. Although I was excited about my new job, I was still sad to leave such a fun group of people. A large group of us went for lunch as a going away thing, and it was a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone for the gifts and the card. Packing my stuff up was a weird feeling for me. Part of me was happy to be done, but a bigger part was sad that it was ending.

Today was my first day at Kodak. Starting at a new office is always hard because of the learning curve. As a new employee I am always eager to learn and to prove myself, but when shown the codebase it always seems a bit daunting. Still, I liked my first day, and hope that I can remember everyone’s names tomorrow. Kodak sure seems like a unique and fun place to work.

Critical Cards

At first the novelty was interesting but it has reached a critical mess now. The idea of store cards has to stop. The first one I saw was the Starbucks card. Interesting way for companies to make money. They get your money in advance and earn interest on it. You get … coffee. You lose the card you get … screwed.

Everywhere you go now you see a store card for sale. Canadian Tire, the Bay, Thrifty’s and on and on and on.

Today I saw one for Subway. Argh. Enough already. I have enough crap in my wallet I don’t need 10 more plastic cards in there. A debit card works just great. Now, if maybe they had a universal no-pin needed, load anywhere use anywhere kind of card I could get on board. That is essentially a debit card (without a pin) though.

Sigh.

Identity silos are a real pain. Brand lock-in is a real pain. Consumers want choice. This consumer wants choice.

Other random thoughts:
Granted store cards are nice for gifts, but whatever happened to the old fashioned Gift Certificate?

They can also be a good thing for budgeting (I am allowed $X per month at Starbucks).

How much waste is produced by these cards each year?

People returning merchandise without a receipt to stores with their own cards usually end up with a store card in the amount of their return. Not the worst thing in the world I suppose, but there is another card I need to dispose of.

Deck Individuals

Time for an update on the deck replacement progress. Last post we saw the deck was half demolished.

This post the new deck is half built. Last post was on September 9. This post November 12. This has been an ongoing process for over 2 months. Time to take some action and maybe get the individuals involved moving a little quicker. Not having a deck is a pain when you have a dog that wants to go outside to pee a few times a day.

These pics were actually taken Oct 28, but nothing has changed since then.

Official Destination

It’s officially official. I have given notice at NewHeights, and I am moving to a new company. I have found it to be a difficult decision to leave, but I am also very excited about my destination: Kodak.

No, my new job has nothing to do with photography. I will be coding still, but with some newer technology (in some ways) than what I work with now.

A fresh start in a new work environment. Liberating. My last day at NewHeights is November 17, and from now until then I am training someone on my job. My start date is the 22nd, so I have a couple extra days off which will be nice.

Drug Pocket

There is something about riding the bus that is just so … weird. There are strange people, or strange smells, or strange smelly people.

Today while riding the bus home I witnessed a drug deal. It was very odd. The bus was pulling up to a stop and there was a sketchy looking guy at the stop. He was acting very weird, and as the bus got close he almost jumped into the street in front of it. When the bus did stop he started walking past it very quickly.

I was standing by the rear doors and while they were open he was making a beeline for them. I thought that he was going to jump on the bus that way, but instead he saw a bus passenger he knew, and said “here you go” as he pushed a folded ziplock bag into the passengers hand.

The passenger took the bag and stuffed it into his pocket as he got off the bus, and then the two talked on the sidewalk as the bus left.

Weird.

Starbucks Adventures

What a way to start the day.

Today was a sleeping morning for Sox. After getting Sprout his breakfast I thought it would be nice to get Sox and myself some drinks from Starbucks. I also needed to buy some more coffee beans, so a “two birds with one stone” siutation was in play. I got Sprout ready to go, got him in the car, and got Yoshi in the back of the car so Sox could have a nice quiet house to sleep in.

Once at the store I got Sprout out, ordered the drinks and beans, and signed the credit card slip. Is it just me, or is it difficult to hold a baby and sign a tiny piece of paper? I ended up just putting him on the counter.

The drinks were ready, so I stuffed the beans into my hoody pocket, got a tray for the drinks and made my way back to the car. I placed the drinks on top of the car, and got Sprout strapped back in to his seat.

I grabbed the drinks off the roof and got into the car myself. I left the drinks in the holder and put them on the console between the seats and then headed home. I was going to take them out of the holder and put the cups into the drink holders but it was such a short drive I just thought I would be careful.

A couple blocks from home there was a red light. When the light went green, all hell broke loose. I had placed the cups in the holder side by side to aid in carrying them with one hand. This makes the holder very tippy. When I hit the gas the holder tipped over backwards! Crap. I couldn’t stop since there was traffic behind me, so I gunned it, and pulled over to the right, but couldn’t stop due to a bus stop. When I reached a clear portion of sidewalk I went to hit the brakes and put in the clutch. I should remind you that our Honda CRV doesn’t have a clutch. My left foot hit the brake, and hit the brake HARD! ABS kicked in since the roads were wet, but we all came to a stop. I reached behind me to grab the drinks, but could only find one of them. I jumped out of the car and opened the back door. Chai and my Americano had spilled all over the contents of the floor, but I still couldn’t find my Americano. Figuring I should just get home, pass off Sprout, then clean up the mess I went to get in the driver’s door, and found the Americano in the front.

sigh

What a debacle. Both drinks were half empty and I was pretty unhappy. I drove home, took Sprout and Yoshi in, and Sox got up. I told her what happened, and she suggested that I go back and tell them what happened. Opening the car all I could smell was Chai.

At the Starbucks I took in the two half empty cups that were covered in Chai and Americano, and asked if they could remake them because they fell over in the car. I whipped out the credit card, but they said not to worry about it. They replaced the drinks for me! I was very grateful for that.

At home I gave Sox her drink and tidied up the car. All in all pretty lucky, an umbrella and a blanket took the brunt of the mess. Sprout’s pack and LugABug carrier got a little on them, and some recycling materials seemed to sop up the rest.

My morning was salvaged and the day got better. Throughout the whole thing I couldn’t help but think of some of Michelle’s (mis) adventures as of late and couldn’t help but laugh.