redkanga

Well, I just upgraded a couple of my favorite plugins…

I upgraded my anti-spam plugin - Spam Karma 2 to version 2.1 from the 2.1 beta version. Got to keep myself protected from those evil spammers!

I also upgraded my photo gallery plugin - FAlbum from version 0.5.3 to version 0.6.3. Since flickr is where I like to store my photos, and I want to have them on my website too, this is what I use.

Let me know if ya see any problems…

I noticed tonight that when I look at my site with my google deskbar in sidebar mode, I lose my left hand side site navigation. I wonder whether I should make the site work for screens smaller than 1024×768, or whether I should leave it alone.

Thoughts? Comments?

I’ve been sent to San Francisco for work. More accurately, a training class for CA Brightstor ARCserve (mouthful, isn’t it?). The arrangements were made by one of the departments executive assistants. Flight on United, rental car with Budget, and a room at the Homewood Suites by Hilton.

So this is how the trip up went. The ticketing lines at LAX for United were insane. It took me almost 30 minutes to get from curb through the line. I got my E-Ticket (funny… at Disneyland, an E-Ticket used to be fun), and headed for the gate. I made it through the security checkpoint with minimal hassle - I had to take my belt off because the screener was sure that it was causing the metal detector to go off. I made it easily through security at Salt Lake City with a similar belt. I was pretty sure it was my watch that I forgot to take off. Oh well… I made it to the gate as they were calling my name to trade my E-Ticket for a boarding pass. Moments later, they started boarding.

I got on the plane and found that I was seated between two gentlemen that were about my size. Very comfortable in the smaller than normal seats that United has. I wonder if there is a website out there with seat widths for Economy class on various major airlines. Anyhow… we all got seated, and the plane taxied out to the runway. We sat on the runway for a few minutes past our scheduled departure time of 4pm. Then the pilot announced that we had to return to the terminal to check out some mechanical problems. OK… good thinking… check that out before we leave.

So, back at the terminal the flight crew calls a passenger to speak with “United Airlines personnel”. Sounds menacing. Turns out that a guy in the row in front of me popped up on one of those “watch lists” that the DHS has. After he made it back to his seat, he made a comment about how he had been trying for 3 years to get of that list and that he was only on it since he was a civilian pilot. Hmmm… or maybe he is an Air Marshall, or maybe he is really a terrorist and not a middle-aged white guy. My uncle is a civilian pilot and my aunt says that he has never come up on a watch list.

I landed very close to 6:30 pm. I left the terminal, waited for my baggage and headed to the rental car terminal. For a larger airport, SFO is laid out pretty well. Add to that it’s awesome transportation system (much, much better than LAX) and I was quite happy to be leaving the rental car terminal at around 7:00 pm. My hotel is only a short drive from the airport and I finally got to my room, uneventfully at around 7:30 pm.

I made my “I’ve arrived safely at my destination” calls, then called my aunt and uncle’s to see if they would they would still be up if I came up. They said come on up and they had food for me!!! I made the drive to Vacaville and visited with my aunt and uncle, my grandmother (who lives with them) and my aunt who is down visiting from Vancouver, B.C. I had good time visiting with them and plan to go back up there tomorrow night (Tuesday) to visit more.

Tonight, after my class, I drove in to San Francisco and wandered around China Town and Union Square. San Francisco is an amazing city and it is nice to see people walking around a city center. In Long Beach, I don’t always feel safe walking around in the same kind of places that I was walking around here in San Francisco tonight. I wish that Long Beach and Los Angeles had a friendlier feeling.

I got my iPod. I bought it just before we left for Utah. I bought it thanks to the efforts of Katie, who prodded all my friends to buy me BestBuy gift cards for my birthday.

I decided to purchase the 30gb iPod. I thought the 60gb iPod would be overkill since I have about 25gb of music and I only really listed to about 1/3 of that on a consistent basis.

I’ve got to say… I love it! Its the best music player that I’ve used. I’m sure that this is not news to anyone, especially considering Apple’s consistently brisk sales of iPods/ But I still say that it rocks.

We listened to my iPod for almost 14 hours on the drive from Long Beach, CA to Smithfield, UT. It was nice to be able to listen to good music without having to change a CD every 30 minutes. I’ve got a fairly diverse collection of music and it kept me, Katie and Ron happy.

A belated thanks to everyone who contributed to my gift.

I’ve just upgraded to WordPress 2.0 and I’ve got to say… I love the new admin section. It is totally awesome. Looks a whole lot better and I didn’t any trouble upgrading. Going to see how this runs for a bit before I make anymore comments…

I recently registered legbandt.org and I haven’t decided what to do with it. Do I move my blog to my family domain? Do I put up a private family website? Anyone have any ideas?

Last night, Katie and I went out to dinner at a new restaurant in Long Beach - Tokyo Wako. Located at the Pike, Tokyo Wako is a Japanese style steakhouse. We found the food to be excellent. I had the Ni Ban Teppan - Shrimp, Scallops and New York steak cooked teppan style at the table, Katie had the Ichi Ban Teppan - A generous lobster tail and Filet Mignon. The show should be good when the teppan is cooked in front of you and Angel-san, our chef, gave us a great show. We found the service to be excellent, our drink glasses never reached the half-empty mark, and they have nice little touches like warm towels to clean your hands with. We enjoyed our sushi appetizers tremendously and found the taste and quality to be on par with our favorite local sushi house.

All in all, I would rate the food and service above average.

Well, a short time ago I interviewed for a position that beautifully lined up with my skills and knowledge. I sat on pins and needles waiting for a response to the interview (OK, three interviews in one day) that I thought had gone tremendously well.

Yesterday I got a response. The response was in the form of an offer letter! Very excited, I signed the offer letter and sent it back. My new employer graciously allowed me to take some unpaid time off for the vacation that I had already planned for Christmastime.

I’m starting my new job on Monday. I’m a bit excited about the whole thing still. There’s more to the story but it will have to wait a few more days…

While I don’t find this surprising, NEWS.com.au (that’s in Australia mind you) has a story about an official from the Vatican defending Darwin’s theory of evolution and stating that it is perfectly compatible with the creation of the Universe as depicted in the Bible. Wired has a slightly different take in an AP story that they posted. I’m waiting for the full text to be posted to the Vatican’s STOQ Project website.

Saw this link on Slashdot, Air Force testing new transparent armor, and thought of a novel application for it. Homes. Windows are the least protective part of your house. You can easily break one by throwing a small rock, or as my dog, Java, has recently proven by repeatedly butting your head into it. I thought of replacing my glass with Lexan, but cost and the materials flexibility in readily available sheets makes it a poor choice. An ALON window would be perfect! I don’t need a window that will stop a bullet, just a weimaraner.