You won’t believe what I almost did tonight. Excited by a few products that are Windows-only, as well as the ability to update the firmware and have more fun with some of my gadgets, I decided tonight would be a good time to pick up a copy of Windows and run it with Boot Camp. Plus I would get to see what this Vista thing is all about.
But then I did about 30 seconds of research and learned that:
Vista has about 18 different versions.
They’re all expensive.
Not something I feel like dealing with on the first day back from a long weekend. I may give in and buy Windows someday, but not tonight.
Jason suggested that I install Linux instead if I’m looking to play around with another OS. Some quick searches have suggested that the time I would have to invest into installing it would probably be even worse than the cost of Windows. I don’t want the OS to be something I have to think about, even if it would give me major geek cred.
I’m sticking with good old OS X for now. Not everything is compatible with Mac, but at least I’m comfortable with it.
I recently uninstalled Gallery, a free online photo organizer. When I launched my gallery, called “Imagery,” back in February, I explained that I was only doing this so I could host the photos on my own domain, and questioned whether this was worth the trouble when services like Flickr and Picasa Web Albums required much less work.
I did like having the photos hosted on my own domain, and I really appreciated the absolute control and customization options, but I never really added any photos after the initial launch. I also got lazy about upgrades and had to worry if that would lead to hacking. This is just my personal site, so I don’t want to invest a significant amount of my time into maintaining it. I may decide to give it another shot in the future, but for now I feel much better leaving the technical bits to the experts.
I still really like Flickr, and have put a lot of time into organizing my photos there, but my current photo sharing solution is my Picasa Web Albums gallery, offered by Google. I’m free to use whatever products I want, but I think that eating Google’s dogfood, even for personal stuff, is an important part of the development process and should help to improve the product’s experience for everyone. Plus, starting today, there are two killer features of Picasa that make it the right solution for me: Face recognition and synchronization.
Face recognition
I once tried to go through my iPhoto library and tag all of my thousands of photos based on who was in them. I’m glad I gave up on that, because now Google does most of the work.
Synchronization with a desktop client One-way uploads from iPhoto are a nice start, but what if I later add more information about my photos on the web or on my desktop? Picasa Web Albums synchronizes with the (Windows-only) Picasa desktop client, and for that reason alone (okay, there’s another reason) I’m buying Windows tonight to take advantage of this.
Update:The Picasa team has a blog post about their latest offerings, including a couple of videos showing off the new features.
I’m preparing to leave California and move back to the East Coast. I don’t know if this will happen in a five months or five years, but considering I had multiple dreams last night about being back, I’m hoping the move will occur sooner rather than later.
Before I continue, let me make two things clear:
I fully intend to remain employed at Google.
I like California.
I am moving because I miss the East Coast, and I know I want to live there eventually. I’ve organized my thoughts into a few sections. Let’s start with the most important:
Location:
California is isolated. I’m close to everything in Silicon Valley, but far from everything else. If I were on the East Coast, I’d feel closer to the rest of the world, where I actually can drop into a different major city for a day or weekend without booking a flight. Since my family is for the most part all on the East Coast, this is important to me. Sure, I’ll fly in from California for Christmas or a college graduation, but if I lived on the East Coast I could be around for impromptu family dinners or the birthday parties of my cousin’s kids.
I do not regret spending time here. I’ve had two years to take advantage of living in the heart of Silicon Valley. I work at Google’s headquarters, I’ve had lunch at Caffé Macs, and I’ve watched Woz play Segway polo. I live close to my friends. There are at least three international airports less than an hour away from me. I can get In-N-Out anytime I want. There are plenty of things this area has that I will miss, but I miss being home more.
Weather:
I’m not saying that the East Coast has better weather, but at least the East Coast has weather. Last year, it did not feel like Christmas was approaching until I stepped outside at the Philadelphia airport. This year, summer came and went without me noticing at all. Yes, in California it is incredibly convenient to not have to worry about rain, and to be able to eat outside nearly any time of the year. But there’s no flourish of flowers in the spring, no colorful leaves in the fall, and no amazingly spectacular sights of snowfall in the woods. Everything is just shades of green and brown.
Let’s take a break from the text and look at some pictures that I’ve taken on the East Coast:
These are flowers. They arrive in the spring. They're kind of like the flowers you see in California, but are generally soft and not attached to a cactus or other dry thorny plant.The leaves on those trees are usually green, but as you can see in this picture, they have changed. And see the grass? Acres of that stuff just grows on the ground without the aid of a sprinkler system.This is snow. For those of you from California, allow me to explain: It falls from the sky like rain, but is frozen. Rain is like that stuff that comes out of sprinklers, but it falls from the clouds. Clouds are like the fog in San Francisco, but much higher.
Timing:
Now is an excellent time for me to make the big change of moving across the country again. Last night, after a quick assessment of my living situation, someone asked me if I am lonely. I prefer to say that I’m independent, and this will make the move a lot easier for me than it would be for less independent people.
I have no significant attachments to my current location other than my job. I’ve always known that I am going to leave the area, so whether it’s been at the front of my mind or not, I’ve always seen everything here as temporary. Moving would be a simple matter of packing up the stuff in my apartment and shipping it east. I will miss some people that I now get to see every day, but I used to see my family every day and I was still able to move to California.
When I’m living on the East Coast, I hope I can finally feel comfortable enough to start settling in and progressing things in my personal life. One thing I’d like to do is own a house. I don’t see that ever happening here. On the East Coast, I’ll actually have realistic options within a few years, and have choices other than stucco for the exterior.
Exactly where I end up living will be determined by a combination of where I find a job and where I can afford to live. Google’s New York City office looks promising for a job. Those of you who know me know that I don’t want to live in a city, and as I just mentioned, I’d like to own a house, so it’s likely I’ll end up somewhere within commuting distance of Manhattan. I’ll miss my current 10 minute commute, but it’s something I’m willing to give up.
I have no other details to announce at this time, but California, consider this your fair warning that I’m looking to get out. It’s been fun.
Dear Wysz
Trader Joe’s gyoza: Chicken, pork, or shrimp?
I used to buy both pork and chicken, but recently I’ve been going chicken-only for no good reason. Both taste good to me in potstickers, but in general I prefer chicken over pork. I never buy shrimp. I do eat shrimp occasionally if it comes with something else at a restaurant, but I’ve never sought it out. I have enjoyed many potstickers containing shrimp however, as Nelson made a bunch, and they also serve them on Thursdays at work.
Here’s the part where I try to salvage the post and turn it into relationship advice, even though most people are using the form to ask random questions. This is my fault, because other than the debut post, I never really made it clear what the form is for, and it doesn’t say so anywhere on the form.
Everyone knows it’s romantic to cook dinner for someone. So yeah, you can do that. But here’s something that may be a little more fun: Cook something together. If you know something advanced and your date wants to know how to do it, you can teach. Or, try cooking something that’s new and challenge for both of you.
I really haven’t been able to eat much since last Wednesday due to a sore throat. I’m not getting better yet, but I’m already making a list of things I want to eat when can. Here’s what I’m thinking:
I’ve had a sore throat since Wednesday night and it hasn’t gotten any better, so I’m seeing a doctor about it in a couple of hours. Since I cannot speak, Beah offered to call and make an appointment for me. She got transferred to an “advice nurse,” who asked me several questions, including: “Any white or yellow patches in the mouth?”
I told Beah to wait a second while I checked. I went to the nearest mirror and pointed a flashlight into my mouth.
Oh no. My tongue was completely white.
I ran my tongue under my teeth as I got a closer look. The whiteness drained away. I’m such an idiot. I was drinking milk.
Someone recently asked me if it would be strange for her to join a class which may consist of students who are all younger than she is. I think she was worried about feeling embarrassed or out of place.
I said that one of the coolest things about being an adult is that you can do whatever you want, and that since she wanted to try the class, she should at least go once. XKCD illustrates this point well:
If you’re an adult and you have an idea for something you want to do, but think it may be too silly, follow these two steps:
My family is visiting today so I’ve been cleaning off my desk at work. I found a pack of M&Ms in the process and started eating them. Check out what I found inside the bag. I wonder if it’s worth anything.
