July 2002 archives
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Wednesday, July 31, 2002
live from Gainesville!
Guess who's finally back!
And finally got an Internet connection again. Okay, I'm fudging a little bit. I did have my AT&T account still, but I wanted to make the first post in Florida special because it's the first one from my Ethernet connection! Woo-hoo! I've finally reached the world of broadband!
It took a couple of days and a different network card to get that set up, but it's worth it just to see ESPN.com load up in less than a second. :)
So what's been up with me? Well, as you might guess, moving, unpacking, and arranging things, mostly. I've gotten my phone line turned on, and check this...I've actually made it to the 20th century (now that we're in the 21st) and gotten a cell phone! I'm just upgrading all over.
Everything's not in place yet, although I'm a lot farther along than I thought I'd be at this point. Right now, all I have to do left is hang a couple more things and arrange my empty storage bins a little better. After that, I'll probably look into getting a couple more pictures to go on the walls; except for the requisite "Alabama room", most of the walls look pretty barren. Pictures to come when I get the entire place set up like I want it.
So, let's see...the move. The experience was exhausting, let me tell you. I haven't been that tired over a three-day span in a long time. It took me until Tuesday to really recover, and we finished the physical moving on Sunday. I slept very soundly on Monday night; going off of caffeine (again) may have something to do with that.
When I haven't been moving, cleaning, or unpacking stuff, I've made my way outside a couple of times to look around the town. I still haven't made it to the campus yet except to get to the other side. But now that the final piece here at the apartment (the Internet connection) is in place, I'm going to try to get there and have a look around and meet some people in my department. Hopefully, I can get a head start on the orientation thing. I'm looking forward to getting my ID card so I can ride the buses for free. It'll save me gas and give me an easy way of looking around the city...
Well, that's all for now. But I'm alive, well, and complete with a fast Net connection, so all is well. I'm off to eat a late dinner.
Thursday, July 25, 2002
from Birmingham...signing off
This is the last entry I'll make here before next week, because come tomorrow, it's time for the big move.
I can't believe that it's finally here. It's amazing to me what has happened in the past 14 months. When I got out of the MBA program, I was fully convinced that I wouldn't be staying long here; a job was just around the corner.
I will fully admit to the fact that there were times that I really felt that I was never going to go on with my life. Ding letters, failed interviews, and job listing after listing with "x years of experience required" saw to that. But then I decided once and for all to go back to school one more time, and things have started to pick up again. They have led to this moment, the moment that I finally take the next step in my life's journey.
I am looking forward to it. As I've said before, I don't regret the time I've spent here. I've been able to be closer to my grandparents in many ways, keep in touch with friends from Ozark and college, and even make a random road trip or two. But it is time for me to move on. I've had a long enough vacation.
This move will be a first for me in that it will be the first time I have moved someplace where I will be entirely by myself. For an introvert like myself, that is somewhat daunting. Nevertheless, I believe that I will be up to the challenge of meeting new people again. I know that there are people in Alabama who like me...hopefully, Florida people aren't too much different. :)
Anyway, I'll see all of you on the other side of the move, sometime next week, once I get stuff into place, groceries into the refrigerator, and the computer hooked up to the new sweet Ethernet goodness.
Tuesday, July 23, 2002
keeping it cool
My car has air conditioning again. Huzzah!
a day to get things done
My car is in the shop today to get its air conditioner repaired and the brake pads and rotors replaced. It's supposed to be done by five this afternoon; digits are crossing.
I've started the packing process today. All of my "winter" clothes that I have here in Birmingham have been stowed away. I've kept everything else out so far, mainly because it should all fit nicely into the two suitcases, clothes basket, and wicker basket I still have here. I haven't gone through all of the papers I've accumulated since I've been here, but at least my junk piles have been consolidated. :)
Monday, July 22, 2002
we didn't have a holy hand grenade
Death awaited us all, with nasty, big, pointy teeth. (opens in a new window)
Friday, July 19, 2002
we now return you...
I realize that the previous entry held absolutely no interest for what I would consider my site's "core" audience: family and friends. After making the bookmarklets, though, I reasoned that other web designers might be interested in them as well, and it was simplest to just add an entry in the blog. My thanks to Mr. Zeldman for spreading the word; the result was the most traffic in one day in my site's history. But then, one would expect that from a site that measures daily hits in the tens of thousands. :)
That being said, life does indeed go on. I have one week left in Birmingham before the big move, and I'm getting excited about it. I have a decent amount of packing to do here, but that's something that can wait for next week.
Thursday, July 18, 2002
accessibility check bookmarklets
If you are interested in designing accessible web sites, you might find these bookmarklets helpful. They use Bobby to check your browser's current page for accessibility issues.
Just click on the link(s) that you're interested in and drag it to your bookmarks or links toolbar and it should be added automatically. I've tested these with NN4/Win, IE5/Win and Mozilla - they should work in all three. Please let me know if something doesn't seem to work correctly or if you test them on a different OS/browser combination.
Monday, July 15, 2002
please tell me I'm not the only one
When you were young, did any of you drop candy into Coke to see what it would taste like, and more importantly, if it would fizz?
I used to love to do that. My favorite effect was with a cinnamon flavored Certs.
Thursday, July 11, 2002
Better than Websters
This is a really useful bookmarklet that I just found. It's called Highlight word. Just follow the directions on the page for how to add it to your browser.
What does it do? Highlight a word in a web page, and then click that bookmark, and dictionary.com automatically opens up to the definition of that word. Very handy.
drive
I now know how to drive a stick shift.
At the request of a friend of my grandparents', I took a little trip down to Florida to pick up a car for her. Never mind the fact that I didn't know how to drive a stick shift at the time. Oh, no. My mouth made a promise that my left foot couldn't cash. At least not yet.
After a little bit of practice, I went down there and got the car and drove it all the way back up here. I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that I stalled out a few times, especially starting up hills, but I made it back in one piece. And that's the important thing.
It was actually kind of fun to drive it. I could get used to it. But I'd want a lot more practice before I could really feel proficient at it.
Friday, July 5, 2002
Ricky and Brandon's Day of Fun!
Ricky took the day off today, so I went over to his and Tammy's apartment today. We ate at Zoe's Kitchen, a Greek place in Birmingham. I ate there a couple of times when I was working at Stonebridge. It was as good as I remembered. If you ever happen to be near the Galleria, give it a shot. And the pasta salad is the best I've ever had.
Afterwards, there was the requisite playing of Playstation. Many foes were vanquished, etc., etc.
Ricky and Tammy had a date tonight (all together now...awwwww...), so I came on back home. It was probably a good thing. I was going on about an hour and a half of sleep. So I basically came home and collapsed for a couple of hours. Then I got up to find that my grandparents had cooked steak. I rewarmed it in the microwave (which I know is a travesty of sorts, but I only used medium-low heat, so it didn't reach nuked status) . Mm-wah. I ate well today.