Tony talks to Scoble about RescueTime, and uses my computer to show it off. Oh he mentions my work habits too (ha!). It was filmed at the old Jobster offices in Pioneer Square.



http://www.fastcompany.tv/video/see-how-much-tme-you-are-wasting-with-rescuetime

I don't have much time to blog these days, but I just had to post this:

Those who claimed a Mac as their primary computer were found to be "more liberal, less modest, and more assured of their superiority than the population at large."

from here

I recently got hooked up with a slightly-used-but-still-good blackberry pearl. This is the first phone I've had that I could set mp3 ringtones on.

Here's one that I just made:

All Glory to the Hypnotoad

Just got back from a great walk today with Jean. It was looking nice out so at about noon-ish we walked down the hill into Ballard - a good 2 miles or so into the town center area. We walked in and out of a few shops, then to the fabric store so Jean could get some beading things (and a zipper repair kit for my jacket). We then walked to Ben and Jerry's and split a smoothie. Then we walked to the Ballard open air Farmer's Market that was going on today, then to the Bay theater to see Pan's Labyrinth (which I recommend for its beauty but beware of its brutality). Then we hopped a quick bus ride back up the hill back home. All told, about a 5 or 6 hour adventure. Fun!

I've lived in the suburbs most of my life and all of that in such a short time would be pretty impossible without a lot of driving. It really makes you feel close to your community and attached to your surroundings when you can enjoy it all while you walk around town. Not being a slave to where you parked the car is very freeing, too. I really, really like living here.

I just ran around it.

Total distance: 4.8 miles (includes the portion I walked on the way back)
Total running distance: 3.9 miles (includes the run from the house to the lake, and all the way around)

Such a great run. If the weather had been a bit nicer, it would've been even more amazing. Whole bunches of swimming ducks, great foliage, some amazing houses (drool). Much better overall than the run around Stone Mountain park in Georgia (partly because it's basically flat around the lake).

Got back from a short trip to San Francisco yesterday. Well, actually it was a trip through San Jose, Palo Alto, and San Francisco. It was fun. Here are the few pictures I took.

SF is a nice enough town. I've wanted to go there for a while. I like Seattle so much more, though. Maybe I'm just not a California person.

Heading down to San Jose, Palo Alto, and San Francisco tomorrow on a business trip. I've never been to northern California before, so I'm looking forward to it.

On an unrelated note, I found this article awesome. The mind boggles at all the amazingly complex and mischievous "viruses" you could come up with...

Although I did get uncharacteristically sick rather recently, studies show that being in a good mood prevents colds.

"Those who displayed generally positive outlooks, including feelings of liveliness, cheerfulness, and being at ease, were least likely to develop cold symptoms. Unlike the negatively inclined participants, they reported fewer cold symptoms than were detected in medical exams."

This combined with my tendency to only remember good things probably explains why I perceive that I rarely get sick anymore.

I never got this involved in World of Warcraft, but I know people who have come close. I also know people whose lives were changed by games like this - some for the better, some for the worse. It's one of the reasons I'm somewhat afraid of going back to Uru Live.

This one is tough, though.

A few years ago, I spent a rather huge proportion of my day behind the wheel of a car moving at a snails pace mile-by-screaming-at-the-car-in-front-of-me-mile though my 40ish mile (one way) commute to and from work. I eventually decided that had to change, or I was going to have a heart attack at 30. Since then, I've either driven traffic-free for as short of a distance as possible, or ridden public transportation. My stress levels are much better because of it.

Well, they were, but now my stress comes in the form of reading daily news feeds like digg and reddit. Here is a brief scan of the headlines today:

"Fox News mislabels Democrat/Republican AGAIN; this time makes it look like R's are winning a race that they're actually losing," "Montana state lawmaker calls governor "bigot" for believing Earth is hundreds of millions of years old," "For security purposes, known and wanted actual terrorists are EXCLUDED from TSA list," "Rumsfeld Sat On The Board of The Company That Sold Nuclear Reactors to North Korea," "The question that stumped Bush: "Do you believe the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism are signs of the Apocalypse?,"" "Lawyer Must Leave Navy after successful Supreme Court challenge of the Bush's military tribunals," "Congress Needs Tutorial on the U.S. Constitution"

So the question is, do I stop reading the news? If I let it get me upset enough it might drive me to try to *do* something about it, which is every American's duty when they disagree with their government. However, at this point in my life I'd like the luxury of a little less daily stress - and becoming an activist isn't probably the best route for that. Turning a blind eye doesn't seem right either, though. Maybe I should read other news sources instead? But, isn't that the actual problem? Isn't that what got us here? Too many people turning a blind eye and watching news that makes them feel better because they don't need the stress? Maybe FOX news has it right. If the facts are upsetting, change them!

I guess I'll just have to "go about my business," which according to an exact quote by President Bush is my job as an American.

Work updates:

Moved to the new office (from Pioneer Square to Belltown). Here's the view from the deck near my desk.

Home updates:

OMG Birthdays! Cake is good.

Other updates:

Uru Live's return is getting a lot of great press.

This is for friedfly

Simulated natural selection and evolution using self-rewriting programs.

This is something I always wanted to play with but just never had the time or energy. These programs spawned viruses and hybrids of themselves. Amazing.

Overheard at MY office:

Person1: Ooh, these are curiously strong.
Person2: Yeah.
Person1: Are they altoids?
Person2: mm-hmm!

I should submit it here.

Wow, it was right!

You Are Likely a First Born

At your darkest moments, you feel guilty. At work and school, you do best when you're researching. When you love someone, you tend to agree with them often. In friendship, you are considerate and compromising. Your ideal careers are: business, research, counseling, promotion, and speaking. You will leave your mark on the world with discoveries, new information, and teaching people to dream.

On Thursday, I wrote an article on my WASP site about switching to PHP from Java.

Friday, I posted it to digg.com just to see what would happen.

Nothing much did. My friend said it was because the site wasn't flashy enough. So I sat down and redesigned it. As soon as I re-themed the site my article immediately got promoted to the digg.com front page!

It'd be cool if WASP started to take off. I'm done promoting it for now. I've done enough to get it noticed, if it's worth while people will start using it.

(I'll still write that ONLamp article, though)