Rough day

In a nutshell, I was injured in a car accident tonight while taking an alternate route home due to the I-90 construction, and after a harrowing cab ride home from the hospital, I found out my mom has had another heart attack (three small ones in the last two weeks.)

I am a sore from the accident, though my little Ford Ranger seems to have gotten through with a minor scrape or two on the rear fender. The other driver's Accura had a mashed up hood from rear-ending me. What pisses me is that the three guys in the other car were laughing after the accident, that is until the State Trooper showed up. I don't know what was scarier, the accident or the cab ride home. I didn't have anyone to take me home, so I had to take a cab, and it was like an E Ticket ride at Disneyland.

When I got home there were a couple of calls from family stating that my mom was back in the hospital. She has had three minor heart attacks in the last two weeks, and it doesn't look good. I have to arrange some sort of care for her which is hard since she lives far away from me.

Not to sound selfish, but I am worried about how this all will impact my new job, since I am on a 90 day probation as a new employee. What's scary is that I have to deal with all this on my own. That kind of hit me when I was laying in the ER and wondering how I got home, and then it really hit me after I got home at 10:00 PM and talked to my relatives. I am hoping things will turn around, but I won't be blogging for a few days until the dust settles.

Friday Fun: Steve Jobs Prank Calls Starbucks

Here's a little somethign for all you Mac geeks and Starbuckers out there:



Have a great weekend ~ Jim

Friday Fun: Obama the Nerd President

I love this video of humorist John Hodgman roasting President Obama, and referring to him as the “Nerd President”. While it's true that President Obama doesn't know the three different types of Hobbits (neither do I), he did collect comics, knows the Vulcan "salute", and he loves tech. It's a long video, but it's worth a watch.



Have a great weekend ~ Jim

Friday Fun: Want a new PC? Just add water

Here's another creative way to get a new PC.



Have a great weekend ~ Jim

Friday Fun: A couple of laughs for the end of the week

As these two clips show some tools that shouldn't be allowed at work.





Have a great weekend ~ Jim

Friday Fun: Funny Computer Cats

I don't know what it is about this video, but I love it!



Have a great weekend ~ Jim

Friday Fun: Loituma - Leva's Polka

Today I found out I have a new job, so in celebration of my being un-unemployed I decided to post a "happy" song for today's Friday Fun. The two songs that instantly came to mind were "Leva's Polka" by Loituma, or the Renn and Stimpy classic "Happy Happy Joy Joy". I decided on "Leva's Polka" because I have alway found it an up beat and cheery song.



If you are currently unemployed then try listening to this song when ever you're a feeling down. Hopefully it will cheer you up, and remember to keep on plugging on. I'll post more about my new job in a later post. Take care, and have a great weekend ~ Jim

SF Weekly.com: Funemployment

While trundling around Digg.com today I came across an entry for "Funemployment" from SF Weekly.com, and I have to say that I found the article very engrossing.

Recently I've been dealing with a lot of "inertia" due to the extended length time that I have been unemployed, and reading this article helped me refocus my view of the situation.

The article is primarily focused on Twenty and Thirty Somethings in the San Francisco area, and how they are coping with their extended unemployment, and while the title of the article does imply these Twenty and Thirty Somethings are having fun while being unemployed there is more to the it than that. Many of those interviewed in the article are using their free time to rediscover their goals and the paths that they really want to follow, or at least that is the impression I got from the article.

One line from the article that really hit home for me was this "More psychologically significant than the income loss, she says, is the morbid condition of "feeling ineffectual in the world."

Without a doubt that has been the biggest hit for me, and reading this article helped me recognize that the feeling of being ineffectual in the world has led to inertia that I have been struggling with. While the feeling of inertia is still there, I now have clearer view of the situation and I believe I can get past it and move forward.

If you are in a situation similar then I strongly suggest you give this article a read. Also be sure to check out the blogs Funemployment Blog and Unemploymentality for more interesting reading on the subject..

Cheers ~ Jim

Friday Fun: Max Headroom - Paranoimia

Here's a little blast from the past that those of us who remember the 80's might enjoy:



Have a great weekend ~ Jim

Friday Fun: Keep It Simple

Some times it's just best to keep it simple and consider the obvious solution:



Have a great weekend ~ Jim

Friday Fun: The Internet Is Down!

Given recent events this is so appropriate.



Have a great weekend ~ Jim

Problems accessing Google via Qwest DSL

UPDATE TO THE ORIGINAL POST @ 6:30 PM PST 05/14/09: Computerworld - Google suffers major failure Well it does look like there was an issue with Google today, though not everyone affected in the same way. My plan now is to develop a protocol for dealing with such outages by taking such steps as "Don't panic", take a deep breath, do a little more research before calling tech support, and wait it out if all practical. I still believe though that ISPs should have a better way of alerting their staff when such acute outages occur so that they can change the way they deal with end users who call in.


ORIGINAL POST:

Sorry for throwing this entry up here, but I have been dealing with an ongoing problem, and I am trying to connect with others who have also been dealing with this same problem in the hope of getting to the root cause. I have been having problems with temporary outages to all Google services (search, GMail, Blogspot, etc.) via my DSL connection from Qwest. I am still able to access other sites when this problem occurs, it is only Google services that are affected.

So far the outages have occurred on the following days:

• Tuesday, May 12, 2009 from Noon to 1:00 PM PST
• Thursday, May 14, 2009 from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM PST
• Note: My location is in Seattle, WA. and because I am expecting more outages I will update this list as they occur.

For the first two outages I went through the steps of calling Qwest customer service and went along with the standard triage of my DSL router/modem. Of course checking the DSL router/modem didn't fix the problem, and only after a lengthy conversation with Qwest was I told that there seems to be a problem with accessing Google. In each case prior to calling Qwest I checked with friends via chat to see if they could access Google and they could. Some of the friends were in the Seattle area while others were out of state, but in all instances they were using ISPs other than Qwest for Internet access.

If you live in the Seattle area and are a Qwest customer, and you have been having trouble accessing Google, please leave a comment or send me an email. I have been trying to find out what has been going on, but Qwest hasn't been very helpful. One manager even went so far as to tell me to call Google at 650-253-0000 which was useless, since Google doesn't offer tech support. By the way, if you work for either Qwest or Google, and you know what is going on feel free to leave an anonymous comment.

Thanks ~ Jim

Bits and blurbs for May 14, 2009

Here are few articles that I have come across recently that I found interesting and worth sharing:

• First off is Leo Babauta's article on Zen Habits - 6 Small Things You Can Do When You Lack Discipline. Whether you are a job seeker struggling with your job search, or still at your job and trying to stay motivated, or you just keep beating your self up because you feel you are lacking discipline in general, then give Leo's article a read because he gives some really excellent advice.
• OK I admit it, I am a geek and I am proud of it, so I have gone ahead and added GeekAdvancement.com to links lists on three of my blogs (this blog, Geeks Who Care, and 8-Bit Retro). There is a great little video on the site featuring The Woz, Will Wheaton, LeVar Burton, and many other famous geeks. Give it a view, but be forewarned that it can be a little chuggy at at times. If you want to find out more about GeekAdvancement.com then check out the About page.
• Over at Shore Street Software you will find Beware Programming Language Requirements On Job Postings which brings up some good points for employers and recruiters about how to compose job postings so as to bring in the best qualified people, in this case programmers.
• Apple's Woz Boosts Tech for Schools from PCWorld is about Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (aka The Woz) joining the Board of Directors of TechForEducators.com. TechForEducators.com sells software to educators, and partners with the Kids in Need Foundation to offer free school supplies to disadvantaged students here in the US.
• HotHardware.com has an interesting piece titled "iSuppli: SSD Energy Savings Could Power A Nation from" about the projected power savings that would occur if data centers were to switch from using Hard Drives to Solid State Drives. The author makes a good point of questioning the numbers, and how quickly this SSD technology will be adapted, but still the potential power savings of SSD technology is something to consider.

That's it for now. I am still trying to think of something for this upcoming Friday Fun. If you have some suggestions, drop me a line. Cheers ~ Jim

Friday Fun: Who, what, huh?

Fans of Abbott and Costello should enjoy this computer spoof version of their famous "Who's on first?" routine:



Have a great weekend ~ Jim

Friday Fun: Just say yes to telemarketers

Today's Friday fun was inspired by my previous post "Job seeker beware!", and is dedicated to Angela at Employment Select :)

Remember to just say "yes" to telemarketers:



I don't know how this guy keeps a straight face, but he deserves a banana for this one:



Have a great weekend ~ Jim