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October 31, 2005
Al Franken: He Sounds Taller on the Radio
Or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the American political system.
Al Franken made a stop in the office today as part of his book tour promoting his latest book. I managed to slip into the room for the last 20 minutes of his talk.
Now, between the origins of the company (point of trivia: RealNetworks used to be called Progressive Networks - and the "Progressive" was a political statement) and the fact that we're in Seattle, which is pretty liberal leaning city - he was mostly preaching to the choir.
Which brings me to my not-completely-related point.
Continue reading "Al Franken: He Sounds Taller on the Radio"
Posted by dberger at 3:04 PM | Comments (4)
October 29, 2005
Interviewing
I guess I sorta let a cat out of a bag in my last post. And I discovered that a couple of my colleagues have found and read this blog - and the mention of interviewing caused them to ask me to explain...
Since moving to WA, I've gotten a steady trickle (to call it a stream would be over stating the fact) of contacts from head-hunters and recruiters. I'm a new data point in their search - someone in WA they hadn't seen before. (I keep my resume online, and while it's not current, it's pretty close.) Until October 11th (my 1 year anniversary of hire) I had a simple response - "I'm under a relocation agreement until the middle of October, so I'm not looking to leave my position, thanks."
A few days after the 11th I got one of these calls from a local company. They had been given my name by someone who I had worked with briefly and now worked for them. My patent excuse was half out of my mouth before my brain kicked in and I realized I wasn't under any such agreement.
So I agreed to a phone conversation with the hiring manager, which turned into several aborted attempts to get together for lunch and finally settling on meeting for a chat over drinks one evening after work.
Continue reading "Interviewing"
Posted by dberger at 4:58 PM | Comments (1)
October 28, 2005
When the best part of your day are the dark chocolate M&Ms...
This morning started on the wrong foot. I tripped over something that was left in a darkened doorway on my way out of the house. I had no idea that would set the trend for the day...
I got to work, and from 9:30 to 3:30 was in crisis mode. A crisis, I might add, largely of our own making.
That pattern pretty much continued all day, 'till I got home around 8:30 this evening. I had planned to hop out at lunch and do some anniversary gift shopping. That wasn't to be.
If this day had happened a few weeks back, well, let's just say I might have moved forward with one or both of the interviews I had.
Continue reading "When the best part of your day are the dark chocolate M&Ms..."
Posted by dberger at 9:23 PM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2005
Double-Hippie Coffee
For the last several weeks, my morning coffee-buddy and I have been drinking what I've come to call "double-hippie coffee."
Starbucks calls it Organic Shade Grown Mexico Coffee, but I like my name better.
It's not great coffee (Caffe Verona, which I've mentioned before, is better), but for the extra couple of bucks a pound, you get to delude yourself into thinking you're doing global good while getting your morning caffeine. Saving the world one cup at a time, or some such bullshit. Come to think of it, it's the closest I've ever come to feeling Catholic.
Sitting here with a steaming mug of indulgence now, trying to decide which of the several things I'm trying to avoid doing I'll do this morning...
Posted by dberger at 9:16 AM | Comments (1)
October 26, 2005
The Life of the World to Come
Just finished the latest Company novel by Kage Baker. It was good, though not as good as the previous ones. It got a bit weird at the end, and it didn't really end as much as stop - clearly leading into a next book.
I'd recommend reading her short story collections first. One of the characters was "born" there.
It also seems the next one in the series is out, or very nearly so.
I haven't been reading as much as I'd like. I keep making a deal with myself that I'll read on the ferry ride home, and then I end up leaving work in the middle of something and using the ferry ride to finish that something. This morning I cracked the book open during breakfast and only had a chapter left when I had to leave. So I left the computer in the bag and finished the book on the way in.
Next on the list is Woken Furies - on loan from the local library and sitting, untouched, as it's due date draws ever closer.
Posted by dberger at 8:25 AM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2005
Creepy Gorram Crawlies
Found a spider downstairs. We think it was one of these.
It was probably 3" including legs.
And fast.
Damn was it fast. Like Guinness Book of World Records fast (I shit you not - check out the data sheet.)
Seriously creepifying.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't a hobo - they seem to be smaller.
But it was enough to get us both sorta jumpy.
Yuck.
Posted by dberger at 9:55 PM | Comments (3)
October 21, 2005
Treo 650: A Status Report
I've lived with my Treo for about two weeks.
It's far from the best phone I've ever had.
I explained it to a colleague today like this - it needs to reboot far more often than a phone should, but less often than your average windows box. (Speaking of Windows, Dawnise's notebook has this really annoying habit of not coming back from resume. Factory Windows install, no funky drivers or applications, just a flakey as a bowl of breakfast cereal. If anyone has the magic incantation to fix it; aside from "install linux"; I'm all ears.)
I bought a 1GB SD card for it at Costco last weekend - so my phone now has more storage than my first several computers...
Continue reading "Treo 650: A Status Report"
Posted by dberger at 8:48 PM | Comments (0)
Friends are Good, but Sometimes, so is silence...
It's been busy around the house lately. We've had house-guests for four of the lasts five weekends. First Tony was in town, which was great, then we had a weekend off before Titus & Victoria came up (also great). The following weekend my sister was here (it was, er, great... I gotta find a different word), and last weekend Vince and Donna dropped in on us (a, hell with it, I've come this far - that was great too).
Which brings us to this weekend...
Today I met Scott for lunch at Uwajimaya - we had lunch in the store (good Chinese food) and spent a bit of time roaming the Asian cookie aisle before parting ways. I walked out with about $11 worth of unreadable stuff, (well, some Pocky, but the rest of it I had no idea what it was).
Then Steve was in Seattle on business (visiting my office, no less) and after our meeting we grabbed a quick dinner at Casuelitas before he hopped in a cab for the airport. I got back to work, finished up a few things, and caught the 7:20 boat home.
Continue reading "Friends are Good, but Sometimes, so is silence..."
Posted by dberger at 8:41 PM | Comments (0)
October 14, 2005
Drew Carey and the Improv Allstars
Caught the 6pm show at The Paramount Theater last night with Brad and Kat.
The show was hilarious - gut-wrenching, cheek-cramping, can't-breathe-'cause-I'm-laughing-so-hard hilarious. It was the same basic format as Who's Line is it Anyway, but with all the stops removed - no worries about the TV censors, or the Disney funding. Perhaps the most disturbing is the barefoot-and-blindfolded-improv-on-a-bed-of-live-mousetraps they did at the end. We'd seen it on the show once, but it's even funnier live. And all the while I was doubled over laughing, I'm feeling guilty for laughing at watching someone in pain.
After the show we went to Johnny Rockets for dinner (I really have to remember that while it tastes good, it's like eating a container of Crisco, greeeasy) and continued the laugh fest.
After wandering around Barnes & Noble long enough to let dinner congeal, we headed up the hill to Tango and shared an El Diablo (scroll down).
A good time was had by all.
Posted by dberger at 5:48 PM | Comments (1)
October 13, 2005
Time to Laugh a little...
Got tickets for the Improv All-Stars tonight.
We used to regularly go into LA and watch Who's Line being taped - it was a great way to spend an afternoon/evening, especially before it got popular and you could show up an hour before taping and reasonably expect to get in. (Toward the end you had to get there insanely early.)
Looking forward to it.
Posted by dberger at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)
Creepy Crawlies
We live in a new place, which (among other things) means were finding new bugs.
In the old house, the problem was ants. I used to joke that the hill Chino Hills was built on was, in fact, an ant hill. They'd find their way into the house looking for water, or cat food, or maybe just a good time.
In the new house, we haven't had ants yet (knock on wood), but we've found three centipedes.
Now, I don't know that I'd ever seen a centipede up close and personal - and lemme tell you, they look nothing like the video game. They look like spawn from a lower plane of hell, and they move fast.
They're downright creepy. Fortunately, two of the three we've found have been DOA, and the third was easy enough to toss out the back door. I'm mildly concerned as some varieties can be poisonous, and while Dawnise and I are unlikely to feel more than a stinging bite, the cats could be less resilient.
Then, yesterday, Dawnise brought in a T-shirt from the laundry hamper with what looked like a small crab crawling on it - complete with claws. We're not sure what it was, it might have been a wood tick (not the Patrick Warburton variety) which would be un-good. It doesn't look like a tick to me, but I'm working off memory, which isn't always reliable.
Posted by dberger at 9:07 AM | Comments (1)
October 6, 2005
The ongoing saga of the Treo 650
Had an email exchange today something like this:
From: Dan Berger
To: Todd Schmitt (Cingular Rep)
Subject: AT&T Sim w/ a Cingular Receipt, Plan, and Bill.
Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 09:05:51 -0700
Hi Todd;
About a year ago, when I started working @ XXX, I visited a Cingular store, signed up for a Cingular rate plan and purchased two Nokia 3200 phones (one for me, one for my wife).
Yesterday I purchased a Cingular Treo 650 from a colleague who had decided it was too much phone for him.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the SIM in my current Nokia phone is an AT&T SIM and won't work in the new phone.
I'm writing to find out how to go about getting the new phone unlocked to accept my current AT&T labeled (but sold as Cingular) SIM. Please understand - when I say "sold as Cingular" I mean to the last detail - the receipt says Cingular, the bill has always said Cingular, I had no idea that my GSM service would have any tie to AT&T.
Porting my number to a new SIM is not acceptable, as I both lose my phonebook as well as lose my backup Nokia phone - something I expect I'll need given the less than stellar reliability of the Treos.
You can reach me via email at this address, or by phone at XXX-XXX-XXXX (W) or XXX-XXX-XXXX (C).
The courtesy of a prompt reply is appreciated.
Thanks.
--
...Dan Berger
Continue reading "The ongoing saga of the Treo 650"
Posted by dberger at 8:24 PM | Comments (2)
October 2, 2005
Treo 650, Take 2
Bought another one - new, no box, tied to Cingular (I have an AT&T SIM). Since we have a corporate deal with AT&T-cum-Cingular, I'm going to play dumb and see if I can get them to either unlock the phone or replace my SIM for me for free. If not, I'll fork over the $25 to get it unlocked (which I may do anyway - just on principal).
It ended up costing me about $100 more than the $250 I initially wanted to spend, but if it helps me solve my CRS problem, it'll be worth it. If it doesn't, well, then I'll definitely get it unlocked, and you'll be seeing it re-appear on Ebay soon :)
Posted by dberger at 1:03 PM | Comments (0)