Microsoft Launches Zune

Microsoft is launching it’s own personal mp3 player. The player will allow music sharing between Zunes, with a limit of 3 plays per share, then the shared music disappears.

The Zune has a large screen, prepared to play movies, it seems. Will it use the Windows Media Player? Sounds like a definite Microsoft engineering practice… make new things that incorporate our current technology. This may not be a bad thing.

The part I find interesting is this:

As part of the Zune launch Microsoft flew some influential music bloggers to Seattle for a preview of the player and the service.

How do I get in on this sort of thing? I want to be flown to the Bahamas to review the Alantis Resort. I will become your biggest fan, I swear!

Happy Birthday to TLK

The Little Kid’s birthday was today. She is 6 now.

It is hard to believe that 6 years ago, I was in the labor room, going through induced labor in a ethereal sort of way. I had drugs. I had drugs before the epidural because my anesthesiolgist was eating dinner. Then I had the epidural.

When they said, “You need to push”, that was news to me.

So, at 7:07pm on 单亲妈妈4韩国在线观看 13th, there she was, 7 lbs, 7 oz and 21 inches long. Everything about her was divisible by 7. 🙂 Well, except for the 13th, which is still divisible by 7, but not evenly.

We celebrated today with pizza, cake and lots of presents, and of course, phone calls from the people far away, by the ocean (my parents).

My Six Month Review

Today was the day of my 6 month review at my “new job”. I was surprised. I got several “meets requirements”, but also a couple of “exceeds requirements”. Out of all the stories I’ve listened to about old employers and what happened there, my favorite was the one I heard today.

“My old boss said, ‘You should never trade employees. You should trade-up. I believe that’s what we did.'”

Not only that, but he noticed my lack of personal development, although my drive to do my job well was definitely there. He asked me why. I told him that I wasn’t sad about losing out on the database development thing, and that if he really wanted the truth, my ambition was web design.

He said, “Ok.. when do you want to start? You got FrontPage loaded on your PC?”

For the first time in 6 months, I feel like a motivated person again. I know it sounds silly, but it’s more than being recognized. It’s going from total unappreciation to appreciation.. in a matter of a day.

I Remember Lt. Andrew Desperito

Andy Desperito was a Lieutenant with the New York Fire Department, Ladder 1. Andy loved being a fireman; those close to him were not surprised that he ran into the World Trade Center to save lives. He never gave up and didn’t allow the people around him to give up, either.

Andy Desperito was 44 years old, with a wife named Laura and 3 children: Nicole, Anthony and David. He was an avid cook. He was a soccer coach for Anthony’s team, even though he had never played soccer himself, attending coaching seminars and training classes so that he could train children to be athletes. He lead Anthony’s team to a league victory.

On 单亲妈妈4韩国在线观看 11, 2001, Lt. Desperito was leading a woman in the North Tower to safety, having ordered his men out ahead of him. Just after stepping outside the building, the North Tower collapsed. Lt. Desperito was found in the rubble during the days following the WTC collapse.

Firefighters, to me, are the heros of 9/11; going into skyscrapers on fire when everyone else was going out, in order to rescue whoever they could.

Listing of all 911 victims. A link to the 2996 site.

I Remember David D. Alger

David D. Alger was 57 and the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Fred Alger Management. He had graduated from Harvard with a major in History and then from the University of Michigan with a Master’s in Business Administration.

He and his brother Fred Alger built a successful investment firm through a record of strong investment performance and excellent client service. For much of the last decade, David Alger led the firm, managing over $15 billion in assets.

David Alger seemed to be known for stories and the lessons contained within them about the business world, and about life. A connoisseur of cheeseburgers and apple pie, it was not unusual for David to sit at his lunch table with young business executives and tell his stories, often beginning with the same line, “That reminds me of something.”

“I can see him chewing apple pie and telling these stories,” said Rob Lyon, who worked for Mr. Alger at Fred Alger Management in the 1980’s and remained close. One of Mr. Alger’s lunch lessons was that big companies cannot possibly grow as fast as little ones, and that problems in a company ‹ or a life ‹ can never fully be solved in one three-month reporting period. You have to look to the horizon, he would tell the young Turks.”

Fred Alger investment offices were located on the 93rd floor of 1 World Trade Center. In addition to his wife and brother, Mr. Alger is survived by a sister, Suzette Howard of Aiken, S.C.; and daughters Cristina de Marigny Alger of Cambridge, Mass.; and Roxanna Geffen of Manhattan.

I would have liked to have attended one of Mr. Alger’s famous Wall Street lunches and listened to a story or two.

In Preparation for 单亲妈妈4韩国在线观看 11

We are watching footage from 单亲妈妈4韩国在线观看 11, 2001, and it is still shocking to watch, and always will be.

What amazes me the most is the firefighters going into the building, hoping to help people, but most of them knowing this may be the last thing that they do. After the buildings collapsed, the eerie repetition of the firefighter’s body alarms echoed in the rubble.

The families of the people looking for their friends and family are out one the street with pictures asking if anyone has seen their loved one. Of course, many of these people are dead, and that is the sadness surrounding what has happened.

I suppose you can kill someone for a cause or to make a point or to take revenge, but taking the life of an innocent person with children and families… there is no honor in that.

On 9/11/2001, people from 82 countries died in New York City. It is not just an American tragedy.

The Birthday Party


The Little Kid had her first official birthday party today. We went to Build-A-Bear Workshop. Ever tried shopping with 7 6-year-olds? Oddly enough, some of them were smart shoppers. The limit per girl was $25. If they stuck with a less expensive animal, then they could get really fancy clothes for it. A couple of them did that. Most of them went for the more expensive bear and a t-shirt.

I’ve priced parties all over the place. Build-a-Bear was right in line with everyone else, only no party favors were necessary. Each kid took home a bear.

After we left Build-a-Bear, it was off to the food court to have cupcakes and juice. We were done 1/2 hour earlier than expected, so it was just a matter of entertaining while we waited for parents to show up. We decided to sing Happy Birthday, open presents and take a few pictures.

My biggest fear was losing a kid, but that didn’t happen. Although, I did count the number of kids throughout the party, just to make sure.

All-in-all, I would recommend Build-A-Bear for any child’s birthday party. They do boy’s bears, too!

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

I happened to be in the library earlier this week, waiting for a meeting to end. So I paid up my library fines from last year, got a new card, and checked out some audio books. One of them was “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living“, by Dale Carnegie.

Audio books are handy things to have when you’re on the road. I’m only driving for about 20 minutes each way, but I can also listen over lunch, which is an hour.

I wondered, when I opened the audio CD case, what about worry could possibly fill 7 CD’s. The book does go through several different methods of dealing with stress, including finding something to take your mind off of it (like working or performing some hobby), writing down what you’re worrying about, what is the worst that could happen, and what you’re going to do about it (and when).

There are stories throughout, telling how people have eliminated worry from their lives, and how eliminating worry has helped them to live longer, happier, more successful lives.

If you’re a constant worrier like I am, pick it up at your local library. You won’t be sorry.

New Roof

Here is a picture of our roof, as it was being put on.

I’ll get a better picture soon, but it does look a lot better than the “before” picture shown below.

Some nice Mexican men laid the roof. The lead installer spoke very good English. They had a long day… almost 10 hours, but he was willing to stand around and answer questions as he cleaned up the mess of the old shingles from the driveway and grass. They deserved a lot of what we paid.

before

after

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