Video of our drive through the White Mountains New Hampshire with great fall foliage.
The Red Front
Last week on the way into work I noticed a front moving in from the north. It spread from one end of the horizon to the other and was bright orange. Unfortunately the skyline of Rochester limits visibility quite a bit. As soon as I got to work I headed to the First Federal building. It’s the highest building in Rochester and I figured It would be a great vantage point. I was able to get to the 19th floor easy enough, however once I was there both ends of the elevator hallway were key coded and I could go no further. It’s too bad the restaurant at the top is closed, it would have been a perfect place to take the picture from.
I was able to get this shot over the river. For those of you who don’t know the First Federal building is the tall one on the left with the circular top (which used to be a rotating restaurant).
Ryan's Wake
Friday we went to Ryan’s Wake. No no Ryan is fine, This isn’t some sadistic planning session. It’s just the name of a bar in Troy. On our way to New Hampshire we stopped over in Troy to visit my good friend Emily. As it turns out some of Emily’s other friends were visiting this weekend too so we got to meet them as well. We had a great night and we were glad for the place to stay for the night. Thanks Emily!
The Amazing Maize Maze
You can always tell its fall again when my department organizes the annual Maize Maze team building exercise. This year is no different and Friday my team (consisting of myself, Mike and Matt) came in 3rd overall and 2nd among those obtaining all pieces to the map.
While we were at the Farm we had to give the coops something to do and we arrive at the ‘Cool Bus’ Ryan and Matt are up front with our coops, Anne, Andrew and Matt taking the backseats.
Definitely beats working for a few hours!
Happy 80th Grandpa Heath!
Saturday we went to Grandpa Heath’s 80th Birthday surprise party. It was awesome because he has relatives all over the country who were able to make it, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Massachusetts and even Hawaii. It’s very rare that they all get together in one place and its even more rare that he doesn’t know its happening. You could see the joy on his face as he entered the door and saw all these family members from distance places. I’ve met most of the immediate family (Rachel’s uncles and aunts) but there were several that I hadn’t and lots of cousins that I had not met before.
I had the chance to meet Rachel’s uncle Brian, for the first time, who lives in Texas with his wife Carolyn and daughter Kristin. I’m very glad I did, They’re neat people and we got to spend even more time with them on Sunday. Brian owns a paint contracting business near Dallas/Ft Worth. I offered to let him stay busy painting our dining room while they were in town but he declined. C’mon man we’re family now!
I had the pleasure of meeting two more distant relatives, Rachel’s father’s nephews, Matt and Dan. Matt has a house in Hawaii and offered to let us stay (although he assured us he would not guide us around, he draws the line there) the next time we go. That’s fine Matt, we’ll be happy to hire a tour guide with the money we saved staying with you! As it turns out Dan is very much into Genealogy and we got talking about Rachel’s family tree. Apparently he has traced their tree back to a revolutionary war soldier. That means Rachel can join the daughters of the revolution! Not quite sure what that gets her besides a plaque and probably a lot of junk mail though… We traded E-mail addresses and Dan agreed to send us the tree, I agreed to get it into Geni which I’m trying to get all our family to use and I strongly recommend it for those of you who haven’t yet.
I was also able to see some relatives whom I’d met before but hadn’t seen in a while. Among these was Rachel’s cousin Becky, who was pregnant with her second child, Cheyenne, the last time I had met her. This time around she had the third child, Desmond, with her. They were very energetic which meant they probably slept like a log that night and I’m sure Becky is thankful for that.
Towards the end of the day Grandpa Heath opened all of his wonderful gifts and Matt, whom I had met earlier, presented Him with an American Flag which had been ceremoniously flown over the USS Arizona memorial in his name on September 11, 2007. It also came with a plaque with a military seal providing documentation that it was indeed flown over the memorial in his name at the time and date noted. It was all very moving because Grandpa Heath long ago served in the Navy during World War II until his responsibilities at home had called him back. The USS Arizona memorial had always held a special place in his heart but he hasn’t yet had the chance to visit it. I’m sure the flag and plaque will be long remembered by him as well as the rest of his family who was there to witness the gift.
A great event and I wish there were more like it.
28 Weeks of Intensity
Wow! Rachel and I watched 28 weeks later last night rented from redbox with a free promotion code. This movie was absolutely great! I liked 28 days later but the intense fast paced parts of the first were my favorite. In 28 weeks later that’s all you get. there’s about 20-30 minutes of slower lead in, but after that it’s none stop action, fast paced evasion and of course you get to see first hand the transformation of normal to infected in detail this time! If you liked the first one you’ll definitely like this one. I give it a 10/10.
If you’re interested check out the trailer.
Want to buy a Fish tank?
Want to buy a fish tank? How about a cat? The fish tank is for sale, the cat not so much.
Ask the winner
A few days ago I was watching Webb Alert when she mentioned the search result differences between Google and Ask. It was clear that Ask is the winner. I couldn’t believe the difference. Take a Google search for the San Fransisco 49ers for example. The top Google search results are mostly sponsored links and ticket sales. Do the same search for the San Fransisco 49ers on Ask.com and you get much more meaningful results. In fact as you’re typing ask even suggests searches for you. Google has had Google Suggest for a long time but for some reason they’ve never pushed it into their main search.
Now that Ask has turned around, will Google see them as a threat and make some changes?
Consolidate Your PCs
There are many reasons to have and use multiple PCs. Until recently I, like many of my friends, had several computers to accomplish the simple tasks I do with them. I had a web server, a file server, a laptop and my PC. However, I had lots of reasons to consolidate my PCs.
- My PC has grown to old to be useful for gaming, which was its original intention.
- I switched from hosting my own sites to using powweb.
- Upgrading to Media Player 11 allows me to stream to my PS3 eliminating the need to use a separate file server running a media server.
- Running only one PC costs less money than running three PCs 24 hours a day.
- All my files were being stored on a Raid 1 array by the file server. This was easily transferred to my PC since it was just two SATA drives.
- When working on my PC I would often transfer files locally to do work and then move them back to the file server. Now I can always work locally and still have the data being duplicated.
- Running on a standard installation instead of a server configuration allows me to use services like Mozy for off site backup.
- My printer is now directly connected to my PC instead of shared through my server.
So Consolidate your PCs today and simplify your network and your life!
Brian Regan – The Me Monster
Friday Rachel and I went with a bunch of our friends to a comedy show from one of my favorite comics of all time. This is the 3rd time I’ve seen him live and every time he has great new material. One of my favorite new bits was The Me Monster (I walked on the moon). Watch it below.
Randy Aldrich 