American Apparel Grand Opening in Second Life July 29, 2006
Posted by David in Business, Technology.add a comment
On the eLIfe side of things, I decided to attend the American Apparel store Grand Opening in Second Life. It was featured in
Business Week and various other periodicals, so I figured it was worth a look. The grand opening was last night at 7:00 PDT.
I have to say that the grand opening seemed to be a success. It was a beautiful virtual build that really captured the feel of a brick and mortar store. It was built by a Second Life resident that goes by the name of Aimee Weber. I really thought it was a nice vision of the way that virtual worlds might start to bridge the gap between them and the internet. As of yet, you can only by virtual clothes there and not actual clothes, but if you did purchase something there, you would get a coupon for 10% in the real world.
While I was there, I did manage to win a gift certificate to their internet store to by some real clothing, so that was a nice bonus. Now, I just have to see if they have anything that I would wear. I’m sure I’ll buy something though. It’s free, right?
Pond Set Up July 29, 2006
Posted by David in Garden/Pond, Nature.add a comment
Well, I finally set the pond up again. I’d been too busy to set it up after the disaster that happened a few weeks ago where all the fish perished. I just hadn’t wanted to spend the last few hours of time working on cleaning the crates and the plants and prepping them for the pond. Yesterday, I finally buckled down and did it though. It’s great to have that done. Now, I just have to treat the water that I added yesterday and add fish. As for when we’ll add the fish, I’m not sure. Sometime during the next few days, depending on how Talli and I feel and our schedule. I’m looking forward to having the fish again. It’s nice to eat lunch by the pond while the fish swim by…
Think Nose Picking is a Problem? July 25, 2006
Posted by David in Environment, Nature.add a comment
How about nose licking? Yes, Hunter being a dog and having no fingers opts for licking his nose. I don’t think I’ll be able to get him to stop. So, I’ll just keep him away from my face after that type of display.
Well, it’s still very hot here today, but it looks like it’s about 5 degrees cooler than yesterday. The house is about 8-10 degrees cooler than the other day as well. That I can attribute to the slight cooling off we had last night. By 2:00 am, it was already down to 70 degrees outside. That allowed us to start the day off on a cooler note.
Today Talli and I hit the gym. We decided to do it during the hottest part of the day. At least then we were getting some exercise while we were sweating. We’ll probably be at my parents’ gym tomorrow, since Club Sport is having a 15th anniversary celebration and guests are free. At least, we’ll be going if their A/C is working. It was broken yesterday according to my dad.
Well, I’d better get back to work. It’s a good thing I work from home or I wouldn’t be able to take breaks like this. Of course, I would also have A/C. Those are the tradeoffs.
Crazy Heat – Global Warming? July 24, 2006
Posted by David in Environment, Nature.add a comment
The last few days the weather around here has been insane. It’s been in the upper 90s or even just over 100 for almost a week now. I can hardly stand it. I couldn’t even motivate myself to blog.
The high temperatures weren’t the biggest problem though. The big problem is that the nightly cool down that we’re used to here by the San Francisco Bay, just never came. So, late at night, the house would still be in the high eighties or nineties. I’m not talking about at 10:00 either. I’m talking about at 3 or 4 in the morning.
So, yesterday I motivated myself to get up on the roof in the early morning and cover the skylights in the kitchen as you can see in the picture. This made the kitchen slightly more bearable for most of the day and the house maybe a degree or two cooler overall. I have to say it was well worth it. Tonight seems to be the coolest night yet, so I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that we start to get a drop in temperatures. The weather report keeps promising one, but they are continuosly wrong…
My Haircut: It Was Time July 21, 2006
Posted by David in Personal, Podcasts.add a comment
Yes, it was finally time to get my haircut today. Earlier this week I trimmed my beard and this morning I got the hair trimmed. I’d feel cooler if it wasn’t actually hotter here today than yesterday. According to my thermometer outside, it reached about 94 degrees today. It was oppressively hot. It still is in most rooms of the house.
We have all the windows open and even had the doors open for a while, but it hasn’t made a large difference. At least it isn’t getting any warmer right now.
Now for the weekend plans. I plan to relax this weekend and do things I enjoy like read and probably go on the internet. On Sunday, we’ll be going to my Oma’s (Dutch for grandmother) house for my Uncle Michael’s birthday party. That should be fun. I wonder what my uncle will be cooking up for us…
Well, I’d better go. My computer is laboring in this heat. There is a reason that computer rooms tend to have AC. Unfortunately, we do not. It’s healthier for us this way, but not for our computers. Until next time, take care of yourselves. Oh, and listen to our podcasts Millionaire or Bust and Being Healthy with Talli. Talli and I posted the new shows early this morning.
Hair Issues July 17, 2006
Posted by David in Editorial, Personal.add a comment
Well, my beard and my hair had gotten a little larger than I would like. This picture shows it yesterday. I’m, planning to get a haircut a little later this week, probably on Saturday. Today, though, I trimmed the beard on the side of my face a little shorter. I left the front long for now though. I don’t want to go into shock from losing too much hair too quickly after all.
Maybe I’ll trim some more later this week. I haven’t decided yet. I started reading the novel Snow Crash that I mentioned the other day. So far, I have to say it’s a great book. It’s been about 36 hours since I started reading it and I’m around 2/3 of the way through it. I can’t imagine that I won’t finish it tomorrow. I’ll give you all my review after I’ve finished it.
Unfortunately, I still have some work to get too, so I’ve got to go. Last update. It is so freakin hot over here. I don’t know if I could go to sleep now if I wanted too.
Pond Cleaning Completed July 16, 2006
Posted by David in Garden/Pond.add a comment
I know that everyone has been wondering what has kept me too busy to post. Don’t worry, I’ve just spent two days cleaning out our pond after the death of all our fish. When I was almost done, I found out where the missing fish was. He was dead, hidden in a corner fold of the liner.
So, that’s done. Now I’m just going to wait for the pond to finish drying. That will be done by the end of today. I have all the plants in water filled tubs. The only thing left to do is finish scrubbing the milk crates I used to hold the plants.
So, I’ll get around to that later this week. I have a lot of things I need to get finished first. It will be better for the pond if I wait, since it will give time for whatever bacteria might be left to die off. We’ll be starting fresh. Nothing like a clean start!
Updates on Blogs/Podcasts July 13, 2006
Posted by David in Blogs, Podcasts, Technology.add a comment
Well, the new episodes of Talli’s podcast Being Healthy with Talli and our podcast Millionaire or Bust will be up and live tomorrow in the morning sometime. So, you can click the links here or in the sidebar to check them out. If you haven’t listened to them yet, please do.
I don’t know if any of you have noticed, but I moved Renaissance Man once again. I now have it hosted on wordpress.com rather than on the podcast’s website. That’s mainly so that the two don’t interfere with each other. The RSS feeds were interfering with each other. So, that had to stop.
Today, we went to Borders because I’d been meaning to pick up a copy of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, since I’ve heard so much about it in my research on the metaverse. I’d read the Otherland series by Tad Williams several years ago though. I guess I just started from the most recent books on the metaverse and I’m now working my way back.
I really think that we’ll be moving in the direction that these authors envisioned. Even if they don’t get it quite right, I think it shows us some possible visions of the future and prepares us for what we might expect.
While we were at Borders, I also picked up a nice coffee table book on the Universe which features many nice astronomical photographs. I got it on a recommendation from my cousin Robert, who picked one up a few days ago. I saw it when I was at his house for my cousin Paul’s birthday.
So, I have some more books to read and I’ll definitely continue to be very, very busy…as always. More research, more experimentation, more time attempting to be a futurist and above all, more fun. I really enjoy this stuff. The future is technology and I intend to get there first. It’s not as good to be #1,919 scaling Everest, as it is to be one of the first…
Police Action July 11, 2006
Posted by David in Family/Friends, Garden/Pond, Nature, Podcasts.add a comment
Yesterday, I didn’t have a chance to post. I was just too busy watching the rest of the fish in our pond die. I think the melafix actually sped up their deaths. I can’t prove it, but it definitely seemed to make things worse rather quickly. Now we’ll just be cleaning up the pond and treating the pump and filters to kill off anything that might be infesting them. Then, we’ll dry it out. A week or so later, we’ll refill it and put the plants back in. Then a few days later, we’ll introduce a couple small goldfish. I think we’ll be avoiding koi for now, at least for this pond.
Today, we were treated to some police action in our neighborhood. Talli heard some screaming, so she called me over to the front window. There were two police cars parked in front of our neighbors house. They had a woman in a white SUV pulled over. They gave her a ticket and the lady was cursing them out and screaming at them. The officer actually warned her against something that she said she would do and told her to stop before she ended up in jail. After a while it quieted down and they let her drive off. The one policeman told the other that the incident had been one of the most satisfying ones he’d had in a while. I wish I could have heard more of what was said. I’m sure that was a very interesting exchange.
So, I’ve covered yesterday and today. Now for tomorrow. I have to finish a few things for the RSS feed of Talli’s podcast, Being Healthy with Talli. Talli did some nice things with the look of her podcast’s website, so my piece is the last thing before her podcast goes up tomorrow. So, tune on in and learn a few things about health.
R.I.P. July 9, 2006
Posted by David in Family/Friends, Garden/Pond, Nature.add a comment
Here’s the update on the pond situation. As you can guess, we’ve had some fatalities. We lost Butterfly, Alexander, Ghost, Tiny, Blue, and two of the orange goldfish which have changed appearance so much lately that I can’t be sure which they were. So, we’ve lost seven of the sixteen that we still had. I fished five of them out this morning. Then we went to the farmer’s market. I came home and fished out one more that had been near death when we left. Then Talli and I did a 10% water change. A few minutes ago I fished out Ghost, who was our latest fatality. Most of the dead were feeder fish that we had rescued, so at least they had longer, happier lives than they might have had otherwise. Of course, two of my Japanese koi were also victims. 
It’s been a sad day. I know they’re just fish, but Talli and I enjoyed eating lunch by the pond so much. Now it’s just a dying ground. Well, I’m going to soldier on with my treatment regimen. We’re going to medicate the pond and do a 10% water change every day for a week or until all the fish are dead. There’s not too much more we can do. I know at least a couple more will die. Hopefully, some will survive. Oh well, if all else fails, I’ll empty the pond, scrub it down really well, let it sit for a while and then try again with less fish. I just hope it doesn’t come to that.
