What is an SUV?

Yesterday I borrowed my dad's Ford Explorer to pick up our screen door that was getting repaired and getting a doggie door. I had never driven his vehicle before and boy was I in for a shock. I drive my Toyota Highlander or my wife's Honda CRV, both of which are considered SUVs. Neither of these cars (I'll call them cars as they are built on car bodies or so I'm told) rides anything like the Explorer. The Explorer had a hard truck ride that was quite uncomfortable. I guess if you're used to a truck, you don't realize how bad it is. The next time I look for a vehicle, I definitely want it to ride as well as the cars I drive, but have the space I have now (even a little more as long as the ride doesn't suffer).

(The Explorer is just enough longer and wider to get the screen door in; it just wouldn't fit in my Highlander.)

Computer missed its flight

Right after the new MacBook Pros got announced last week, I placed my order with a custom configuration (2.8 GHz and 320 GB 7200 RPM drive). I received a notice that it shipped on October 18. Now UPS tells me that my computer missed its flight "THE SCHEDULED FLIGHT WAS CANCELED DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND UPS CONTROL". Then later it said that it caught another flight and was in Japan. I just checked and apparently that information was wrong as my computer is still stuck in China. Maybe it wanted democracy or didn't like all the human rights violations so China kept it. Hopefully the machine will get here next week as the suspense is killing me.

Shorting out my keyboard with drool

Like a good geek, I kept refreshing the live blogging of today's Apple event. Based on the rumors I read, nothing was really shocking. Right after the store became available, I went ahead and used my developer discount (basically the select developer program cost is offset by the discount of the machine), selected a 2.8 GHz MacBook Pro (15"), with a 320 GB 7200 RPM drive (this has me quite excited) and got the DVI and VGA display adapters (sucks that they aren't included, but Apple is making more and more things add-ons). I hope to have my new machine next week; I've been waiting a long time (in computer years) for this. My current MacBook Pro is 2.5 years old and is a Core Duo based machine (first generation Intel based MacBook Pro). I wouldn't say it is on its last legs, but it will be nice to have a zippy machine with all the bells and whistles. It should be state of the art for at least a week!

Oh and the new Cinema display looks nice; I like that it has speakers and the 3 cables that goto the MacBook Pro make it almost like a dock (right now I plug in 7 cables into my MacBook Pro when it is on my desk).

Longer commute

This summer was one of the slowest times I've had in the 5.5 years that I've been self employed. While there have been ups and downs, I actually considered taking a job in an office. I went through the whole interview process and was offered a position, but ultimately realized that I couldn't give up the flexibility I have being self-employed and working from home. While it is possible to be employed by someone else and have flexibility, this job didn't afford it.

Seeing how hard things were on me and that working from home was getting tough for me with my son around a lot, my wife offered up our guest room for my office. This room is about 315 square feet and in the very back of the house. For the most part, we have been using it for storage over the last 4 years. I gladly took her up on the offer, had a little work done to remove some cabinets and a sink, had some tile put in where the cabinets were (to match the rest of the floor), painted it, ran some Cat6 to 2 walls for Ethernet, moved in my furniture and presto, a new office!

I've been in here about 1.5 weeks and really enjoy it. It's pretty quiet and easier for me to work. The main downside to it is that there is no insulation in the ceiling, so it is a bit toasty now and will be cold in the winter. However, I positioned my desk right under the fan and there is a room A/C unit that I can use. Another downside (and hence the title for this article) is that my commute is now a bit longer; I think it takes me about 45 seconds to get to work.

Pictures for your viewing pleasure: