Is this thing on?

Yes, I know it’s been awhile since I’ve updated. I’m going to be redesigning the site soon and I plan on making a more concerted effort to blog after that. So you’ll need to wait just a little longer before you can be fully up in my business again.

BTW, finally upgraded to Wordpress 2.5.x without a snag….phew.

What American accent do you have?

This one was pretty accurate for me. Here’s what it said:

Result: Inland North

You may think you speak “Standard English straight out of the dictionary” but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like “Are you from Wisconsin?” or “Are you from Chicago?” Chances are you call carbonated drinks “pop.”

Living in a city like Lakewood, there’s always something progressive going on where the citizens are empowered to make positive change. One example is the Lakewood Earth and Food Community, LEAF.

LEAF does a number of interesting things from soil building to community gardening to nutrition education. They also sponsor local CSA’s, Community Supported Agriculture, programs in Lakewood. These programs bring fresh produce weekly from local farms right to the city.

Adam and I are participating in one this season and we’re pretty excited about it. Not only will it help us eat better, but we’ll get the thrill of trying out vegetables and fruit we may not have had before.

Step one of my online simplification is complete, I deleted my MySpace profile. Not really a sad moment since I barely used MySpace and although I had a few friends that did, I can get ahold of them other ways.

I will continue to keep my Facebook account for the time being. While Facebook is starting to get annoying with all their stupid apps, it pales in comparison to the train wreck that was MySpace.

There are certain things that are important when designing a website that is easily used and navigated by its users. Apparently the genius designers at MySpace haven’t figured out what those are yet.

Mid-January is always a good time to be a Mac user. The annual Macworld trade show is like winning the lottery on Christmas to all the Apple faithful. Every year in San Francisco, a dizzying array of Apple software and hardware developers gather to show off their latest ideas and products. Apple of course is there, headlined by a keynote from Steve Jobs who announces the newest shiny toys and software from the company.

I’m lucky this year as I get to attend Macworld. For years now, for those of you who don’t know, I’ve been an admin for Mac-Forums.com and this year, our parent company, iNET Interactive is flying me out to attend the show and blog about what I experience. Jeremiah and Arthur are flying up from Los Angeles for a few days so I’m also excited to be able to hang out with them.

I’m not really sure what to expect since I’ve never gone, but I know there are some vendors I really want to see, some pretty cool user conferences to attend, and of course I get to be at the Keynote on Tuesday.

There have been lots of predictions but, to be honest, what I want most from Apple are probably two things that won’t be announced at the show:

• AppleTV with a cable TV tuner so it can actually behave as a DVR. Being able to rent movies from the device would also be cool.
• An iPhone without the iPod. When my T-Mobile contract is up later this year I’m going to switch to AT&T so I can get an iPhone. But I really don’t need an iPhone with a music player, I have an iPod. I’d like a cheaper iPhone.

In the end, I’m bound to have a great time. I’ve never been to Macworld and never been to California; should be a lot to see and experience. Now, where’s the stewardess with my breakfast?

While in Virginia over the holidays, Adam and I were driving back to his Dad’s house. We were passing a house with a few horses and I wanted to get out and take a picture or two.

As soon as I got out of the car, the horses came running over to the fence. I think they were hungry, but they were very friendly. It did make taking pictures difficult because they kept following me.

It’s that time of year when people make all sorts of pronouncements of how they’re going to improve their lives. And while desire is sincere, often we fall short. With that being said, I unveil my 2008 resolutions:

• De-Clutter, Live Simply
  We all have just too much stuff in our lives. My goal will be to not only de-clutter what I already have, but avoid the temptation to bring more things into my home. This applies not only to physical things but also to services such as cable TV.
• De-Clutter my online world
  I participate in way too many social networking sites: Facebook, Linked-in, MySpace, Twitter, Pownce. I also get too much e-mail, read too many RSS feeds, visit too many websites. My goal will be to dump at least two of the social networking sites (probably MySpace and Twitter) and unsubscribe from all e-mails and feeds I really don’t need. My bookmarks will also get a cleaning
• Save money
  Look for ways to cut monthly bills for non-essentials. Don’t buy things I really don’t need. My goal is to double my savings from where it is now by the end of 2008.
• Re-engage the real world
  Spend more time offline reading, biking, and taking photos. I need to disengage from the information overload I experience by being connected 24/7. Spend more time with friends and family.

The overall theme seems to be simplification.

This past week, Adam’s Dad and his brother Eric stayed with us for Thanksgiving. We spent the time enjoying good food, conversation, winery tours, and other frivolities. We also stopped by the Cleveland Museum of Art which just reinforced my angst at the fact the construction is still no where near being finished.

I really enjoyed having them both here to visit, we don’t get to see them enough.

As is tradition, we began our Christmas decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving. While we’re almost done with the inside, I still feel like we need something for the front porch outside. Of course owning a home puts all sorts of competing interests into play for your limited budget. Maybe next year.

Somehow my phone knew it was Adam’s birthday today…