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good times
Dec 23 2004 1:42 PM
Dustin Kirk says:
rubber tires, silk dress, a barbie doll
Dan Ziober says:
What are the three things I would use to describe my prom night? |
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furniture!
Dec 16 2004 9:21 PM
So when I went to pick up the computer desk I took another look at it and decided against it. It wasn't perfect... and for the price, it should have been. I can't believe I haven't found anything similar to the one I got my sophomore year of college. It was so perfect. Anyways, I'm still using my folding tables I bought when I was in Boston last summer.
I'm still lacking chairs in the apartment but I one of my coworkers sold me some of her husband's bachelor pad furniture. I think she should have paid me. But I got some good sheleves, a mirror, a couple end tables, a coffee table, and some lamps. It's coming together. Fortunately everything is coming together well.
The screen on my server laptop died so I'm on the lookout for a cheapo/free monitor for that. I have some cool plans for it when I get one. |
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quote of the day
Dec 16 2004 8:15 AM
"An image is worth a thousand strings."
-Anon
While gazing through Thinkgeek fortunes, this one touched my heart. *sigh* |
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Slowly coming back online.
Dec 14 2004 2:27 PM
I'll be picking up a computer desk after work today. I also finally got some good ideas of what to do with my apartment. It should be an interesting mix of house and some creative playground/studio. :-)
Things are going well. I'm enjoying my internet, learning the guitar, and for the most part staying out of trouble. Tonight I'm startingwork on my holiday cards. If you have any ideas of what I should include, let me know. |
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*grin*
Dec 11 2004 4:02 PM
This morning I got internet installed in my apartment. I still need to mess with some stuff to get the wireless up and running, in any case I have internet!!! I found a good desk at Office Depot so I'll pick that up tuesday and then I'll set everything up. I'm running at minimum burn at the moment. Yeah, so I'm psyched and just thought I'd tell the world. :-) |
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70s
Dec 10 2004 4:10 PM
It's been in the 70's this week. Mmmmm I love this! |
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Post from the closet
Dec 05 2004 11:12 PM
My internet doesn't get installed until next Saturday so meanwhile I have been sweating it out, taking what I can get before and after work. This weekend was rough, but had a large painting project and choir.
Tonight when I took a look at my Outlook calendar on my laptop, I noticed that my inbox was full of email... meaning at some point in time it must have connected to someones wireless. It wasn't working, but after wandering around the house some more and testing things out, I noticed a very faint signal and here I am. Sitting in my closet ONLINE!!!! :-) Happy happy joy joy. :-)
So... Last thrusday was the company Holiday Party which was way cool. Each of the departments awarded one or two employees in the company for something. Generally it was in a joking manner. I took home an award for best political platform from the e-billing department. On friday we had a Christmas ornament making contest and I won 1 of 3 prizes. So I'm feeling pretty good.
Sarah and Julia helped me paint the apartment. It looks sooooooo nice. The living room area is a nice tan clay color and the sun room is a "royal red". I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The rooms are still empty. I really need some shelves and a chair or two. |
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Home Sweet Home
Dec 02 2004 8:51 AM
Yesterday after work I moved into my new place. A bunch of people I work with helped out. We filled 4 cars with my stuff and convoyed over to the new pad (name still pending). The whole move took about 45 minutes. At some point this next week Sarah and Julia are going to help me paint. It's pretty schweet having a place of my own for the first time. And actually today was the first time I've ever dirven to work.
Benefitfocus Holiday Party tonight! |
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Moving
Nov 30 2004 11:14 PM
Tomorrow (Wednesday), I will be moving to my new apartment. w00t! Unfortunately I won't have internet access there for a while. It's amazing how much my mind tries to come up with alternative ways to get on the internet. Including thoughts of building a complete parallel internet out of tin cans and rubber bands. So... I've been packing and delaying this moment far too long. The moment I disconnect from the internet. Please call me, as I already feel the sense of disconnectedness. *sigh* Seriously, give me a call, tell me you are on google and speak 1337 to me. =) |
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California Pictures
Nov 30 2004 11:05 PM
Check out the photos from my trip to California. They include pics from Huntington Beach, my friend Wendy, the company IDEO, and my trip to San Francisco. HERE |
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I'm Back!
Nov 28 2004 7:46 PM
California was excellent. I will definitly have to make a trip back sometime. I got to spend a few days at Huntington Beach, and toured around San Francisco. Mas fun. I'll post more when I put pics up. :-) |
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LG L1400 Infared Transfer
Nov 28 2004 7:00 PM
I lot of people have emailed me regarding how I was able to transfer my contacts from my computer to my cell phone via infared. Info can be found on this fourm. The software download is here. |
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Off to California
Nov 19 2004 11:59 PM
Hills, that is. Swimmin' pools. Movie stars.
It's been a great week. I did some more ice skating, had some awesome Indian food and got all my projects done I needed to take next week off of work. I've been thinking of switching hobbies. I think I've taken ice skating to the level I care to, and it's more difficult to get tennis partners in the winter. I think I want to take up a music instrument. We'll see, I have a while to consider other possiblities as well. Maybe my little brother would be able to teach me something.
Cheers! |
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frequency modulated microwave
Nov 16 2004 11:43 PM
I'm moving into my new apartment in two weeks and when I do, I'll need to get a microwave. After some searching online I came across this Sunbeam Microwave. It has a built in FM tuner and voice recorder. With my FM transmitter pumping mp3s from my computer, I'll be sure not to miss a lick while I'm zapping another CD coster pretending I work for Industrial Light and Magic. |
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How To: Marvin the Martian
Nov 15 2004 12:17 PM
Tonight I wrote up the story behind my Marvin the Martian Halloween Costume I made. Check it out here. |
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word of the day: supine
Nov 14 2004 9:47 AM
supine adj. Lying on the back or having the face upward.
I had just saw that word on a webpage just now and thought it described me fairly well when I woke up this morning. :-)
Anyways, this week was good. I got back from New York on Tuesday night, which made for a three day work week. At work I've been revamping a currently very ugly process for managing a subscriber's dependents on their benefits. It's really amazing how much simpler the solution I've engineered is. :-) Currently its the largest usability issue in the Large Group HR/Member app so I hope it gets approved and developed fairly quickly.
On Friday I recieved my driving record from NY which means I can now be paired with a little brother from Big Brothers Big Sisters. I'm pretty stoked about that.
Yesterday I went down to the beach and took a walk. It's still very surreal living only a couple minutes from the ocean here. Later I went ice skating which was a lot of fun.
Tonight I'll be going to a Sara Groves concert.
Next Saturday I go to California!!!! w00t! |
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w00t! from RPI
Nov 08 2004 10:01 PM
Weeeeeeee |
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props out to Nana B
Nov 03 2004 7:37 AM
Will miss ya much. |
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Happy Halloween
Oct 31 2004 12:49 PM
It's been another good week. We finished testing... finally! I have a couple screens to do tomorrow morning, but things are on track. I'm feeling very energized today, so hopefully that will cary through the next few days. I've been redesigning one of the current elements of the software and it is looking really good! On Friday we graded our Product Certification Exams and I passed with a 90%. Every 6 months we need to get recertified, but being that I design most aspects that get put into the software, I should do very well. :-)
This Friday I went ice skating. I'm getting very comfortable skating backwards and doing quick turns. On Saturday I built a halloween costume out of 3 rolls of duct tape, 6 feet of foam, 1 pair of nylons, 3 sprite bottles, some old socks, a few paper plates, and an Illudium Pew-36 Explosive Space Modulator.
Pics of costume
pics from party |
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pictures posted
Oct 25 2004 12:07 PM
New pictures added to my site!
1) Apartment
2) Charleston
3) DC - August
4) Italy
Check them out |
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I heart huckabees
Oct 24 2004 10:15 PM
This evening I went to the movie I Heart Huckabees. That is a twisted movie. If you enjoyed Magnolia, you'll probably like it. In any case, hold onto your seat and prepare to be confused for the longest time while the plot weaves around several stories and finally concludes at the end giving the viewer a tremendous sense of relief. |
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Work, Goals, Weekend Part 1
Oct 22 2004 11:02 PM
Today I took my exam on the product manual at work. I feel I did really good... probably around a 95%. We'll be grading the exams next week.
I've been studying the GRE cab hardcore thanks to my awesome flash cards. I need to get back to the math review and step it up so I can take the GRE soon. Also, I need to ask around and research universities that offer distance grad courses in HCI. Georgia Tech is where I would really like to get my Masters from, but they don't offer distance courses. I'm curious what the status of RPI's HCI degree is. I'll be contacting some of my professors about that. They might be able to refer me to some more information.
As far as my real-estate license goes, it doesn't look to good after Finally finding the requirements for South Carolina. Here is the process to get a sales license... 1) Take a 60 hour course that is accredited by the South Carolina Real Estate Commission. 2) Apply to take the exam 3) Take the Certification Exam 4) Within 1 year get sponsored by Broker 5) Complete 30 more hours of Commission-approved post licensing education.
As far as the 60 hour course goes, I have only found one school in SC that offers the course, and that is in Columbia, SC and it doesn't appear it is a distance course. I'll keep looking, but I might have to look for something else I can accomplish while I'm here in SC. There is a community college here in Charleston, so I might just look through their courses and see if anything is of interest. Maybe some culinary arts? =)
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Work, Goals, Weekend part 2
Oct 22 2004 11:01 PM
This week I tried out two places that offer Ballroom Dance lessons. The one I went to tonight (Creative Spark) was much better than the one I went to last night (Arthur Murray), but the people there seemed too serious. A saw some Hip Hop classes in the area not far from here, so I'm going to check them out next Thursday.
Tomorrow morning I'm going to tour some condos nearby. They are a little expensive, but I love the area and all. I have time, but thought I'd get to it and check out some places in person. In the afternoon I'm going to try my hands at slow grilling a large slab of ribs with a tasty rub recipie and special BBQ sauce (Scott Alveraz Secret Recipie) In the evening it will be off to some ice skating with Sarah. On Sunday a bunch of friends from work and whoever else will be going to see I Heart Hucklebees. It looks like a fun movie.
And that's that. One month till my trip to Cali! |
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Shake it
Oct 19 2004 10:23 AM
This weekend Sarah and I went the move "Dance With me" and it brought back lots of memories. Now that I can afford lessons I decided to call and set up my free lesson for Thursday so I'm really looking forward to that! =) |
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Grillin' with Diesel
Oct 18 2004 11:19 PM
Mmmmm, I grilled up some awesome hamburgers for lunch. =D |
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Monkey Trucker
Oct 16 2004 9:43 PM
Today was cool, this morning I ventured to North Charleston and scoped out the Mall there. The mall really wasn’t that great, but along the way I saw a Lay-Z-Boy store. Since my sophomore year of college I have been planning on getting a recliner for myself as a graduation gift. I had customized the chair online picking the style and specific leather to be used. I'm now one step closer. I checked the place out and tried out a couple styles. Unfortunately they didn't have any with embedded plasma displays, but I think I might be able to customize the chair when I get one. Once I move into my new place, I'll pick one up.
Tonight I went to the movie "Shall We Dance" and I've never seen so many old people in one place. It was worse than Wimbledon. The movie was great and it kills me I haven't done any ballroom since I've been here. I'll schedule a lesson for this week if they have any times available.
I've been itching to BBQ ever since I moved to Charleston and the little George Forman just doesn't quite do it. I'm sorry, but a nice rack of baby back ribs just doesn't fit, none the less slow cook for 8 hours smothered with the best rub and dripping BBQ sauce. With tension at it's busting point, I headed out to Wal-Mart and picked up a starter grill which should hold me over while the chef masters his craft. The initiation/grilling ceremony is scheduled for tomorrow; at which point many fine vegetables and prime cuts of meat will be toasted to perfection while marinating in a choice selection of spices and herbs, only to be served with a mouth watering specialty sauce cooked up by the Diesel himself. :-)
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Salt Shaker
Oct 15 2004 12:50 PM
This was a fun read. It gives examples of many brain teasers and puzzles used in interviews now days. The weirdest question I ever recieved was... "If an alien space ship landed in your back yard, and the aliens invited you to leave earth with them, would you go?" I think the salt shaker test is an awesome one from a usability perspective.
Cheers! |
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1161 Words
Oct 13 2004 12:16 PM
Tonight I created online GRE Vocab Flashcards for myself. I find it extremely addictive and fun. Try your hand at them. There are 1161 Words and Definitions. |
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Contacts
Oct 08 2004 12:32 PM
Today I got my new phone in the mail. It's an LG L1400. I was really dreading punching in all of my contact's names and phone numbers. After a little digging seeing what kind of tools existed online I found a neat program that lets you sync contacts from the computer to the phone. Which is one step closer... It at least let me type in the names and numbers on the computer. I then noticed you could import .csv files. I pulled up MS Access which contains a database from my Contact Management System and exported the database as a .csv file. I had to tweak it a bit by adding column headers, but it imported into the tool perfectally. I then transfered nearly 200 contacts onto my phone over infrared. :-) |
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Big Bro Big Sis training
Oct 07 2004 6:07 PM
This Saturday I have Big Brother Big Sister training. It should be pretty cool... it goes from 9am - 1pm so apparently there is a lot of material. I curious how many people will be there. Anyways, it's been a good week. I think I'm a bit addicted to tennis. I've been playing daily now either practicing or playing with people. This weekend there is a taste of Charleston which I will also be attending. There you are able to sample foods from various restaurants in Charleston. That's the plan thus far. Cheers. |
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Haiti
Oct 03 2004 10:53 PM
Props out to my sister who's in Haiti this week at Dr. Ford's Orphanage! |
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moving an imac
Oct 02 2004 10:46 PM
THIS is an funny FAQ from the Apple website. Apparently the new iMac has confused users on how they can move their computer. This is what usability folks have to deal with. It really is a challenging job to design interfaces between people and technology! |
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chair
Sept 29 2004 10:02 PM
Today I went to Staples and picked up a good desk chair for work. I figure I'm now spending more time there than at home, I should probably be sitting in something much more supportive and comfortable than what they gave me. The chair was actually really cheap and feels awesome to sit in. I don't see it listed on the staples website or I'd post a link. Anyways, I'm actually a bit excited to go to work tomorrow just to sit in the chair again. :-) Work is going great, and I'm having a lot of fun.
Today they had a patio meeting. They consist of the CEO standing in front of everyone giving a breif update and typically do something fun. So he found out that one of the employees was the president of his High School class. He had him stand in front of everyone and tell them what his platform was. Then he wanted someone else to get in the race and present another platform so everyone could vote. Well, I happened to get picked. :-) In true Napoleon Dynamite style my platform was "Vote for me and all of your wildest dreams will come true.".... The people spoke, and I won. =D It was really funny. |
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beat up
Sept 28 2004 2:39 PM
Last night I realized how bad I got beat up this past weekend. I bruised my knees and scraped up my hands from sailing, got sunburned on my face and arms, got a big knot on my head form hitting my head on the ceiling, and burned two of my fingers while cooking (not bad enough to keep me from typing). I've never had so many bad things happen to me in a weekend like that. I'll be watching my step this weekend. :-) |
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Resume House Cleaning
Sept 27 2004 11:12 PM
Tonight I updated my resume and ported it to text, word, pdf, and html. I also updated the "about me" section of my website. w00 h00! |
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cornbread
Sept 26 2004 10:11 PM
I burned two of my fingers cooking cornbread today. Not crazy bad, but it definitely a good burn. Lesson learned I suppose. |
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Sailing / Beach Party
Sept 26 2004 4:31 PM
This weekend was absolutely awesome! On Friday one of my co-workers Tom invited me to be crew on a 26ft sail boat for a race on Saturday. It was soooo much fun. The wind was crazy 10-15 knots and the swells were huge. It was nothing like sailing on the Hudson River which I was used to. This was my first time sailing with a spinnaker so that was neat to learn. The race was very intense. Between haning on for life and sliding accross the deck to grab lines and manage sails my adrenaline was really going. We took first place in the first race and decided not to race in the second due to the rough conditions. There were 6 people manning a boat that two people could normally mangage pretty well. I came out of it with a sunburn, some bruied knees, and some unforgettable memories.
To top off the day I went down to a beach bonfire party hosted my a couple other people form work. They have a house on Sullivans Island. There were probably 50 people or so. Good times! |
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tennis/breakfast
Sept 22 2004 11:22 PM
Today I played tennis with Mark from work. Neither of us are that good, but he still beat me pretty good. It was a lot of fun anyways. Tomorrow morning Benefitfocus is providing breakfast for those who are new hires and those who were hired in September. I think they are serving Chicken Biscuits from Chick-fil-a. Mmmm yum :-) |
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Sky Captain
Sept 19 2004 10:29 AM
"All I ask is a tall ship and a star to sail her by"
Yesterday I saw the movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. That was an AWESOME movie! Highly recomended to all. The movie takes place in the 1930s and is loaded with a great PLOT, and great special effects. The futuristic technologies are all period based and are integrated very well. It is so different than anything I've seen before (as a 22 year old) it blew my mind. It will definitely spur the imagination.
link to movie site
link to movie trailer |
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Mapping coorinates
Sept 18 2004 4:28 PM
Well, I've at least got something accurate enough to be amusing and ummm spacially informative. ;-) It's pretty cool to put together, I have yet to tie it into my Contact program, but I'll do that on a rainy day. It's just too nice out to stay inside.
See the map, and plots of all Albany (or whatever I've been messing with last) counties in the United States: HERE
Cheers. |
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Beach
Sept 18 2004 1:59 PM
Wow, the weather today is absolutely perfect. I went out and played tennis this morning and then headed over to the beach for a couple hours. :-) It's the first really nice weekend I've had since I've moved to Charleston, so I'm pretty psyched to get out to the beach again.
Surfs up! |
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Zipcodes, Distances, Maps...
Sept 17 2004 1:37 AM
Tonight I discovered the fun of zipcode calculations. I was able to get a zipcode database from here. I've been playing around with it and was able to use the info to grab maps off of the Microsoft Terraserver. There may be some really fun applications. I'm thinking of ways I might integrate this into my contact management system. One thing I would really like to do is to be able to plot everyone in my contact database on a map. Kind of like those maps in visitor centers with pins in them. Anyways, I'm tired now, so more fun in the morning! :-)
Play with my testing page here. |
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BBBS / Prototyping / Wings
Sept 15 2004 10:33 PM
Today I had my interview to be a Big Brother. It went well. There are a lot of forms to fill out. The background checks should come back in a couple weeks and then I'll attend an orientation. It would be about two weeks after the orientation that I get paired up with a Little. I'm pretty excited about that.
I've been doing lots of prototyping this week at work. It's so much fun, I'm having a blast. It will be really busy Thursday and Friday as I wrap up UIs for the next product release.
Tonight I went to Wild Wings. I first picked two flavors. They were good but didn't bring tears to my eyes which I really wanted and was looking forward to. I then got an order of their hottest wings "The Bravehart". After 3 wings I got the tears I so much desired. :-) |
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Visualizing Email
Sept 15 2004 08:49 PM
The other day I posted about displaying emails. Today I recieved an email from Ben Shneiderman about a seminar to be given at their HCIL lab. The topic: Visualizing Email...
Details Here
I wish I could go. |
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Mini adds cameras.
Sept 13 2004 11:25 PM
Check out this story. Mini is adding front and rear cameras to their cars as options. Ummmm I'm going to guess that this was just a mechanical engineer's cool idea and that there are no usability people working at Mini. Wow, it's been a while since I've done a rant. That felt good. :-) |
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Email Displays
Sept 13 2004 4:00 PM
Today I was pondering and was thinking about how software should typically incorporate people's mental models... So when building an application in which items are displayed in chronological order, it would be good to first understand how people think of time and then construct an interface that does not break that mental model. With that, the notion of email came to mind in which communications are perceived to be sent and received on a linear time line. Early software designers used the notion of a "queue" to display the order in which communications have occurred. The interesting part is that people don't seem to resist this model. It seems odd that something to be displayed in conjunction to the time of it's occurrence is not shown in a circular or linear horizontal manner. Google's new gMail service groups related emails together, but still use the same vertical queue display as all other email programs. It may be a fun challenge to redesign an email display or even a display that would incorporate multiple communication technologies. It gets more interesting when you consider the fact that phone conversations have a duration, and that Instant Messaging allows one have multiple conversations at the same time. |
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work / apartments
Sept 09 2004 12:02 PM
Work is going great, today I worked on prototyping one of the new features to be implemented in the next release. They use Dreamweaver so I've been picking that up on the fly. It's a little odd in that things seem to bump around the page like MS Word, but I'm sure I'll have it down after a couple more days of tooling on it. Tomorrow I'm going to lunch with my boss. I don't think we've said more than two sentences to eachother since I started work. She is super busy and I only end up seeing her as she's walking from location to location passing by. I've been checking out apartment possiblities and met up with Troy, one of the database engineers at Benefitfocus. He's looking to switch apartments so we might get a two bedroom apt down the road. He's a fellow techie so I think we'll get along cool. Ummm I guess that wraps things up. I'm wearing one of my Hawiian shirts tomorrow. :-) |
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Yay, an update!
Sept 08 2004 7:25 AM
It looks like Hurricane Frances learned of my presence and stayed clear of Charleston. Good thing too! Grrr. We are now keeping an eye on Hurricane Ivan which will be this far north sometime around mid next week.
Yesterday I signed up to be a Big Brother in the Big Brother Big Sister program here. In the interviewing process, they actually come visit your house and check it out. I'm sure they will think I'm a freak once they see my computers. Anyways, I'm looking forward to being a big and inspiring a kid to embrace their geekieness, erm, overcome their challenges. ;-) Next week my company is sponsoring some employees to help out at the food bank so I volunteered. Very reminiscent of APO's Food Bank work. I'll have to get everyone to go to Friendlys, err, Wafflehouse afterwards! :-)
Also yesterday I met up with Paul Midghall, an RPI Alum who lives here in Mt. Pleasant. He could have been my grandpa, but he was way cool. He played hockey at RPI (He's in the Hockey Hall of Fame), was GM, and all sorts of stuff. It was a lot of fun and we'll be getting together again to play some golf or something next weekend. He also gave me a few other contacts in the area, so I'll check them out.
Thus far I'm failing to get into dancing down here. Mostly because I'm still waiting for my first paycheck, but watch out, I'll be a dancing machine. I've been practicing Fat Joe's "Lean Back"
The beach is way cool. With the hurricane and all down south, waves were about 6ft high which was the biggest I've ever seen.
I've made it a point to charge the battery in my camera and keep it on me so I will have pictures to share soon.
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Server updates
Aug 30 2004 7:44 PM
I've noticed quite a few problems with the server since I got it online. This weekend I reconfigured a bunch of settings and things should run much much more smoothly now. Thus far I haven't had any of the same problems. :-) |
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Address update
Aug 24 2004 7:39 PM
Please note the address update on the main page:
637 Baytree Ct.
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464 |
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Server up and running 2
Aug 23 2004 9:24 PM
This evening I got my computers online and have finally gotten my server online. Now Dress-A-Geek, Troy Restaurant Search, and my CMS system is up and running once again.
w00t!
Today I also started my first day of work. It went well. I have a lot to catch up on including getting a good understanding of their current software, and how the Health Insurance industry works. Tomorrow is my orientation at the company where I'll be paired with a current employee to be shown around and have my picture taken. Wednesday and Thursday I'll be attending a leadership program.
That’s the news tonight. :-)
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The Move
Aug 22 2004 9:57 AM
On Thursday I packed up all my computers, and clothes. I've done this enough the past couple years I'm getting pretty efficient at it. My sister came over and we packed up the cars. We were planning on leaving DC at 5:30am Friday but decided that night to drive down to Richmond that night. On Thursday we completed the drive to Charleston, SC... a total of 9 hours.
It's been a great weekend so far checking out the area. We walked around downtown, picked up a bed for my room, and saw I, Robot at a local theater. That was a great movie!
I start work on Monday at 9am. It is literally a 1-minute walk to work. You can't see the building from the house, but it is really close.
Right now I still have everything in boxes. This afternoon I will be unpacking it all and will set up my command center. |
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Golf / Screen on the Green
Aug 17 2004 5:39 PM
This weekend was great! On Saturday I went to a driving range for the first time with Dawn, Ben, Justin, and Rhesa. It was more fun than I expected, and something I'll have to do again. Afterwards we met Ruth for lunch. Dawn and I then went shopping and picked up some clothes for work. On Friday I found out that I will be moving to Charleston, South Carolina this coming weekend. On Sunday I played Ultimate Frisbee and afterwards visited my Aunt and Uncle.
Last night they showed Mr. Smith goes to Washington on the mall between the Capitol building and the Washington Monument. It was really neat watching the movie and having a great view of the capitol building just to the left of the movie screen. It will be an image I remember for a long time.
Tonight I'm going to dance class, it is beginners Swing and Foxtrot. It should be a lot of fun.
Cheers.
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The Weekend
Aug 09 2004 3:56 PM
This weekend was a lot of fun. On Sunday I played ultimate frisbee in Arlington. It was an agressive game but lots of fun nonetheless. Also the X Games started Thursday and went through this weekend. The best event was the new Skateboarding Big Air Competition. Some of the runs were unbelievable. Umm, what else... Oh, the cooking project for this weekend was Pecan Pie. It turned out excellent. :-) |
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Networking the HCI Industry
Aug 06 2004 1:23 AM
Over the past many months while job searching, I have been very selective about the type of positions and the comany I would like to work with. Although this means I am currently still looking, I have become incredibly knowledgable about the HCI industry. I have met and spoken with many highly regarded people in the field of HCI as well as researched and catalouged hundreds of companies who deal with various aspects of HCI, Usability, and Visualization. Both private and public companies, and companies ranging from small to large. I have also become knowledgable in the services, methods, and the structures various companies/organizations offer/use. If anything this job search has allowed me to become incredibly knowledgable, create hundreds of contacts, and form a network and base from which I will be able to further the field of HCI. The idea of using this knowledge to help others make connections and solve problems is very appealing. I certainly expect to maintain the relationships I have formed and grow my network throughout my life. So... if you need to make a contact or a company that offers a particular service in the area of HCI, I can help you out 100%. :-) |
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Macroeconomics, Ice, Cooking
Aug 05 2004 09:40 PM
Yesterday I picked up a book on macroeconomics and began reading. It's pretty cool. For the most part I have only been exposed to microeconomics from what I remember from high school and entrepenurship courses in college. I'm finding it very interesting and am eager to read more between studying for the GRE and my other activities.
Ice Skating last night was great. There were about 26 people which seemed to be a few more than normal. I only fell once, but I'm really catching on to skating backwards and building confidence taking tight corners.
This afternoon I plan on working a bit on my CMS prog. I'm always excited when I get working on it and start making changes to the layout and getting the system working more effectively.
Yesteday I made some cornbread. I think the baking powder was old so it vas extremly dense, but it was tasty nonetheless. Tonight I'm going to try my hand at meatloaf. |
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Real Estate
Aug 02 2004 9:29 PM
For a while now I've been considering the idea of taking a real-estate certification course and this winter I plan to go for it. I don't want to be a real-estate agent, but it seems like a worth while background to have as I plan to buy and sell properties as investments. 2 week real-estate courses are generally available at community colleges and cost around $400 according to my friend Marina who recently recieved her's in NY. |
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Studying for GRE
Aug 02 2004 6:26 PM
Today's been a trip down memory lane. I started work on the quantitative section of the GRE using some online review material.
GRE Math Practice (.pdf) |
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States & Capitals
Aug 02 2004 7:39 AM
This weekend I realized it had been a very long time since I tried to name all of the states and their capitals... I got all but 3 capitals, but just tested my self againa nd got them all.
test here |
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GRE
Aug 01 2004 08:42 PM
For a long time I've debated Graduate School and although it is something I don't want to do at the moment (preferably take grad courses while working), I have decided to take the GRE (Graduate Record Exam) in October. Although exams aren't my favorite things in the world, my friend Lan has been studying the past few months for her exam and over that period of time has bounced much of her practice material to me for review. I feel pretty confident now and want to pursue the exam. I think I'll do very well and am kind of excited about it. The next exam date is October 23rd.
GRE |
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JS Auto-Complete
July 30 2004 4:21 PM
Today I was curious if a autocomplete script existed... where you start typing in a text field and it completes the typing using pre-existing data. So I discovered this script. It's like a hole in my life is now filled... or completed.. automatically :-) How 'bout that. Anyways, I'm a happy kid thinking of all the places I can use it. The main reason I started looking for the script was to use in my CMS prog. When users created new contacts I wanted to eliminate repitition in typing data, but still needed a flexible input field. Mission accomplished! :-) |
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Soccer
July 30 2004 09:48 PM
I've been practicing soccer for 30-40min/day and I've gotten the rainbow kick down really well. Probably at 95% consistancy from a standstill and 70% at a jog/run. It looks awesome. I'd like to get a bit more control of how far ahead of me it lands. Ideally I would like from a stand still to drop near by knees so I can start juggling in place. When I'm running and do the kick it seems to land at a very good distance in front from which I can then dribble with it. I've also been trying out a new technique of starting a juggle by rolling the ball perpendicular towards my body and then flicking the ball up with the side of my foot... as opposed to pulling back on the ball, flicking it up and having the ball hit my knee in the process. |
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new CMS UI Composite
July 30 2004 09:41 PM
Here is a new UI Comp displaying the upgraded individual contact information along with the rest of the display. Also in this comp are some ideas for the Contact Notes which incorporate icons to better visualize particular notes as well as the ability to filter the notes so one could easily select to view only phone numbers, websites, calendar events, etc... click to see ui
Everytime I make these updates I think it becomes easier to see the power of this program and how other address books seem pathetic. There is a LOT of information to be displayed and accounted for. I belive this UI has been designed in such a way it is very intuitive to the user, has a lot of flexibility, is modular, and is incredibly dynamic.
I have been using this program on a daily basis and currently manage 162 contacts & groups. There are about 25 groups at the moment since I just implemented them a couple weeks ago. I haven't yet put my family contacts in the system. |
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CMS update - contact info
July 29 2004 7:36 PM
Today I did some UI mods to the interface used to view individual contact info on my CMS program. A while back I did a bunch of modifications to the database and backend, so now the UI implements those updates such as multiple phone numbers, email addresses, larger mailing addresses, and multiple screen names. See the comp here: click here |
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Charleston Trip
July 23 2004 5:08 PM
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Open Source Usability
July 18 2004 12:28 PM
I saw this interesting article about Usability in Open Source projects. It certainly is an issue that gets thrown under the rug and overlooked for the sake of moving projects forward quickly. The author is correct that in the area of Open Source it would help most if programmers applied simple problem-solving skills to better software. I believe if anything they should simply ask a non-programming friend if it makes sense. I did find it amusing that the author takes note that all anyone does in regards to the area of Open Source usability discussions is to rant. And generally this article is a rant in its self. |
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Nokia's Life Blog
July 15 2004 9:19 PM
Nokia's Life Blog is pretty interesting. It introduces the idea of bringing experiences together in a quasi digital notebook. I wish I could beta test this. Unfortunately it's not in the states yet. In any case, it has me thinking. :-) |
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Think
July 13 2004 5:02 PM
"Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!"
~Ted Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! |
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updated CMS Search UI
July 11 2004 8:10 PM
Today I implemented some of the UI changes to take advantage of the ability to add groups/organizations/businesses to the system. The new user interface for the search results can be seen here. [CMS search UI] |
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Catching up on the blog.
July 08 2004 9:50 AM
Fourth of July weekend was great. My Aunt & Uncle had a BBQ on the 4th so I cooked an apple pie and headed on over. We went swimming, played some tennis with the cousins, and got to see the fireworks. On Monday, Scott made some awesome pork BBQ. I don't think that could ever get old. Anyways, I've now completed a major overhaul on the backend of my Contact Managment System. That paved the way for a bunch of updates such as enabling business & groups to be added. I will also be adding more address, email & phone number fields. I am considering adding ranking systems, one which is automatic and will count how many times a particular contact/group is viewed, and user determined star system that affects how high someone would rank on the search results. I'm also contemplating ways of implementing a backup function so one could save all of their contacts to their own computer and also upload their contacts should anything happen to them. It would also tie in with importing contacts from MS Outlook, so I need to learn a bunch to get this working.
Yesterday after stopping at the post office I decided to try and find a park that I had once drove by when I was lost once and play some soccer. I didn't find the one I had seen before, but I did however stumble upon the Wheaton Ice Arena. I played some soccer around there and stopped by and got some info about it... so last night my sister and I went skating. It was sooo much fun. I hadn't been ice skating since probably middle school. That was a most unexpected and excellent activity to break up my week. :-) |
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30-inch Cinema HD Display
June 28 2004 8:11 PM
30-inch Cinema HD Display. YUM! |
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CMS site created
June 14 2004 2:48 PM
Today I finished the CMS information site. A page explaining the benifits of my system. Take a look. |
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CMS plans
June 13 2004 10:07 PM
So the Contact Management System is coming along nicely. Ideas are still plentiful on how to improve it. My next big task is an addition to the group managment, basically enabling someone to not only specify what groups contacts are in, and linking people in groups, but also maintain information about a group as a whole. This would include for example, a bunch of people you know who work at the same company. This also enables you to enter information regarding a business where you might not know anyone specific at the company, restaurant, etc, but want to keep their number, address, et al. for future reference. It really shouldn't be too hard to implement. I'm workikng on a couple other things at the moment, but should get to it soon. |
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CMS screenshot
June 07 2004 3:38 PM
Yesterday I worked on the group management aspect of the program and was able to get that running. Also I added pictures to the contacts.
Check out a current screen shot here. |
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new CMS colleagues comp
June 06 2004 1:05 PM
The past week I have been pounding away at ideas for the group management aspect of my Contact Management System. I just finished a comp and have posted it [here]
The primary change is the addition of folders. People can belong to multiple groups. When viewing a person's detail information, a drop down box displays all of the groups they have been assigned to. Other additions include the icons. Pictures or "buddy icons" can be used to help identify a particular person. Also added is an icon to get driving directions from whoever's contact details is currently being viewed, and the colleague. Additionally you can reach a user's edit screen to modify their group memberships as well as all other database information. Umm, I suppose I could go into more detail about this comp, but I'm going to move on. |
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Memorial Day Weekend
June 01 2004 9:56 PM
I had a great weekend. Saturday my sister and I played some tennis in the morning and then visited my aunt, uncle, and cousins. We all went to a pool near by which was really nice. It was a lot of fun. Afterwards we had some yummy BBQ pork and put together a puzzle.
Sunday as mentioned I got broadband access :-) My friend Jared who moved down to DC last summer invited me over. His housemate and several other people in the apartment complex all graduated from RPI and came down to hang out. We then went to dinner and saw the movie The Day After Tomorrow. It was entertaining, but very easy to pick apart the technical aspects of the movie. There |
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