I love to dabble with cutting-edge, cool and hip web technologies, and am always keeping an eye out for the latest tech books out there to improve my skills. So if you are feeling generous this holiday season, here’s my Amazon wishlist of Tech Books that I’d love to have.
Archive for October 2006
I just want to say that I love this new custom search engine tool that Google has released. The concept isn’t new, and I can think of Rollyo as one of the first companies that I’ve seen and tried using their customized search tool, but with Google, it seems simpler to implement. So far I’ve found custom searches being created by the Ruby Community, as well as the Symbian Community. I’m pretty inclined to play around with it and create my own search tool.
I’ve been waiting for this day for the past month. Actually I was more interested in the MacBooks, but this is good too. Now I don’t know if I should wait for the new MacBooks, or get the 15″ MBP. Looks tempting. See for yourself.
Cingular launched its redesigned website today, with clear distinction between personal and business customers, as well as a direct and obvious link to your account. Very neat and well thought out. Good job. Check out cingular.com.
How? you ask. Here’s the deal - Yahoo! is hosting a Talent Show, aptly named “Yahoo! Talent Show”, and you can visit the site at http://talentshow.yahoo.com/. Shoot some video, upload it, and stand a chance to win 50 grand. I’m pretty sure they got the idea from that talent show, aka America’s Got Talent, mashed with trying to promote their Yahoo! Videos section to compete with the new stronger and tougher opponent “Goo-Tube”. Don’t go down without a fight! That’s the spirit!
Ok I’m in. 19 days left, baby.
I love IKEA, and last weekend we took Rebecca there for some shopping. Though this wasn’t her first time there, it was her first time “shopping” in a stroller. We used to carry her in the Baby Bjorn carrier, but now as she gets older, I think she appreciates the freedom to move around and explore the things around her.
Well, slap on an Aerodynamic package and its gonna look like an Audi RS6, well, from a distance. I’ve always looked at Passats as those driven by boring people, but with the new model coming up, I’m beginning to change my view - this one looks pretty sweet, too bad its only for the Europe market, but I’m sure the aftermarket auto guys will come up with something similar for the US market.
Seems like almost every car manufacturer these days are going hard - hard top that is. I love this trend, coz I just changed the top of my Miata, and it ain’t something I’d want to do again. First it was the Mazda Miata PRHT, then the VW Eos (on my want list), the Volvo C70, and now BMW’s latest 3-series model is going hard top as well. I wouldn’t say that its an Eos killer - different price point, but I’m interested to see how the pricing of this is going to be. Check out pictures from Jalopnik’s flickr set.
I’m starting to get Rebecca to eat a variety of foods, and some she will like and some she shows her displeasure by gagging. Like today, during lunch I gave her chicken mixed with mashed potato and milk, and she hated it. Boiled her some pasta and she wasn’t happy either, so what do I do with the uneaten food? Charlotte and Cayenne of course! This had me thinking, I’m sure with all the trial and error, there will be a lot of opportunities for leftovers, and my dogs might get gain weight … Yep, they are definitely on the way to fat!
We got Rebecca a booster seat so that when we eat out she can sit in her own seat rather than lounge in her car seat. So today I tried to let her get used to this new idea and placed her in it during lunchtime. I wasn’t expecting her to take to it so well, but she did. Whew!
It’s always exciting to see a site redesign, and today I discovered that my very own city’s website, the City of Mountain View, has a new design! It now has a much neater, modern look, with the information more organized and easier to find. Good job! Also, I’m not sure if this is a new URL or not, but you can also go to the city’s website with this address - http://www.mountainview.gov/, as well as http://www.ci.mtnview.ca.us/.
I haven’t been updating my blog, and I apologize. I have been pretty busy lately, having started to work from home. That does take getting used to, but I DID survive 1 week with this new schedule, so I think I’m doing ok (knock on wood).
Ok now that I have time to think about it, I do love working from home - I get to spend quality time with Rebecca, more importantly, I am there to experience life with her, and that’s priceless. Of course, when I’m “working”, anything about work that comes up will take first priority, that is, after I put Rebecca in or on a safe place so I can concentrate on my work.
That brings us to the “safe places”. I have three - her bed, the high chair, and the playpen, affectionately called “the cage”. The first one is self-explanatory. She takes like two major naps during the day - one after breakfast, and one in the late afternoon, so these are the times when I get a breather. I put her on the high chair for mealtime, and sometimes she is agreeable to hanging out on the chair for more than the time it takes for her to finish her food. The “cage” is more of a wildcard, any other time when I need her to stay put I’ll put her in the cage. Sometimes she resists, sometimes she doesn’t. If she kicks a fuss (literally!), last resort is to put her on my lap. Now with that there is a danger that she’ll hit some obscure key and either delete my files, or add unwanted gibberish to the content, both of which do not produce good outcomes, so we try to minimize putting her on lap during Mommy work time.
I do have one issue with working from home, and that is, you are isolated from the world around you, and I hate that. First, I love to drive, and that is virtually not necessary now, and second, I like to visit shops, discover new places to eat, etc, and I can’t do that now. The only break I do get to go back in touch with civilization is by taking Rebecca and the doggies to the park, that’s it. Which is why everytime Doug comes home, I’m like a caged animal that’s just been let loose - I’m just bursting with energy to go out for dinner, or drive somewhere, anywhere. hehe. That doesn’t work too well, because Doug’s home from a whole day out, so he’s usually not as enthusiastic about it as me. We try to come to a compromise, for example, we eat out twice a week.
Being a person who is always open to new experiences, I welcome this change in schedule. More later.
As you might have read from my previous blog post that I was thinking of getting the Nokia E62, well, here it is! We dropped by Cingular Friday evening and bought it. Well, actually it was a belated birthday gift from Doug, so THANKS HONEY!
I tell ya, I’m loving this phone - the built-in IM, the sharp 3-inch screen, the ease of use of the Nokia interface (boo to Windows Mobile and Palm, Yay Symbian!), the QWERTY keyboard, the list goes on. One gripe I have is no Mac support, but I just saw a plugin for it for iSync, so I might try to download that.
I’ll fill you in with more juicy details as I play around with it. In the meantime, I’m getting lots of helpful info from these sites:
E-series.org
e61life
All About Symbian
After a couple months of trying to put her hands together and us singing “If you’re happy and you know it …”, Eureka! This morning, Rebecca looked at me, put both her hands together, palm to palm (no knuckles, mind you!), and did a series of claps, while she smiled at me as if to say “look Ma! I got it!” She proceeded to spend the day clapping. Good thing her claps aren’t the loud kind. I’m a proud Mom.
This is a blog about a Mom and her life with her husband, toddler daughter, two rat terriers, one green-cheeked conure, and one leopard gecko. Web developer by day, gamer by night.
