2006 In Review

If you recall around here last year (don't bother looking for it -- it died in the great Blogger crap-out of '06 -- stoopid computers!), I did a year-in-review post at the end of the year. A summary of the year's events for everyone.

For 2006, expect no less! After all, you get what you pay for ;-)

Here we go...

In January, Blogger died on me and in early February I moved this site to .Mac and used iWeb to craft it, but it got too big and sluggish, so I switched back in July.

In February, I wrote a nice article on my favorite email application (and it's not Mail.app!), and found out that Apple doesn't want me anymore.

March brought a bought of the flu, and I brought some members of my extended family over to the Mac from Windows (my wife and her grandfather).

April found me working full-time again, and finding little time to blog about it all, because I was still working at Pier 1 part-time.

May was a month of hard work, hard play, and breaking away from Pier 1. The stress of working 7 days a week for 2 months was too much on me and my family. My anger and stress levels dropped precipitously.

June meant a triple vacation, and I started a new blog, Five Things.

July brought strange emails from stranger, umm, strangers, an article on Space Shuttle Discovery, new words in the dictionary, my 4th wedding anniversary, my triumphant return to Blogger, and the sad realization that my grandmother is not "coming back" any time soon.

In August, I won an online contest, my dad became "un-retired", and Blackberry the Cat left us for greener pastures... only to return the next day because my wife missed him so much. We said Peace Out to Pluto, and to the low gas prices we had in New Jersey.

In September, I got my new iMac, went to the movies with Mason, mourned the loss of Steve Irwin, complained about my favorite email program, complained about Windows XP, the late nights at work, all while remembering to have fun with Photo Booth and our new convertible.

October found me ruminating over Olive's (my favorite sandwich shop when I was working in SOHO, NYC), taking a drive near my wife's school, going through some old pictures, making some meatballs the way my grandma used to, and worrying about a consultant who came to see what all the fuss was at work.

In November, I rejoiced over Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld being shown the door, picking up stray kittens for adoption at the shelter, getting ready for Thanksgiving turkey with my parents, and putting up a "secret" collection of Apple's Desktop Pictures from OS 8 and 9.

December was the month where I found glass in my mouth after drinking a Snapple, getting upgraded to the "New" Blogger, watching Mason and Sarah perform at a recital, trying not to shoot my eye out, wearing all kinds of hats, being reflective at year's end. I was scolded by Santa Claus, I found fun things to do with Office 2004 for the Mac, sucked up all the sleep I could during my last week of vacation time, and got scolded by my wife for not being jolly enough.

We toughed it out as a family this year. Mason's not as sick as he used to be since the tonsillectomy (the week or so with pneumonia aside...), nor were there any emergency room visits necessary for my wife (other than the stomach virus she kindly gave me in the waiting room). Sonia got all A's in school, and Mason also kicked major butt in school. Hope your 2006 was just as good as ours was!

Well, 'Bah! Humbug!' to you, too!

Well, 'Bah! Humbug!' to you, too!, originally uploaded by macfixer.

My wife claims that I am not in the holiday spirit. I would like to disagree.

Please, Please, Please, Please....

Mere words cannot express the sorrow:

James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured ''Godfather of Soul,'' whose revolutionary rhythms, rough voice and flashing footwork influenced generations of musicians from rock to rap, died early Christmas morning. He was 73.

NY Times obituary here.

Rest In Peace.

Paw

Paw, originally uploaded by macfixer.

Treo's mighty paw

Rest

I love vacations!

One of the things that suck about bouncing from job to job was the lack of equity in that job for time off. For example, when you've spent 6 months looking for a job, and you get that job, the last thing you'd want to do is schedule time off, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, that lack-of-vacation thing snowballed, plus those same 6 months I'd spend looking for a job weren't exactly relaxing. Even though I was unemployed, 8 hours a day I was looking for work. As a result, it was years before I thought about taking a break from either working or looking for work. It was, in a word, amazing!

Fast forward to 2006, and I am now able to take two vacations! One was over the summer, to visit family in Pennsylvania and in Florida. The second is this last week of December. It's an awesome feeling to turn off the alarm and sleep late for once.

Today my wife even reminded me that I could take an hour-long nap. I took her up on it, and I'm glad I did. It's a deep down 'in your bones' relaxing feeling.

Microsoft Office 2004 Easter Egg

Not quite "Flight Simulator hidden in Excel 97", but "Asteroids hidden in Office 2004" can be mighty cool as well.

To reach it, navigate to ./Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Microsoft Office Notifications. Launch it.

Hold down control-option-Command and select "About Office Notifications".

See the image on the left? You'll notice the Asteroids icon. If you don't see it, try again -- making sure you're holding down all three buttons.

Click on it, and you're in (the image on the right). Click 'OK' or hit Enter to quit (or when the Boss is coming towards your desk).

Unnecessary

Unnecessary, originally uploaded by macfixer.

While chatting with Santa Claus (add northpole@live.com to your MSN Live Messenger), Santa stepped up, and got checked by yours truly.

My pimp hand is strong.

A Special Christmas Box (Uncensored)

Warning: Lower the volume when playing this at work, it contains "blue" language!

Don't Shoot Your Eye Out! (part II)

Don't Shoot Your Eye Out, originally uploaded by macfixer.

I'm getting much better at this game:
Bounces: 450
Accidents: 11 (what were you expecting?)
Final Score: 7076696

Try it for yourself: www.dontshootyoureyeout.com

Quiet Time

One of the things I've noticed while working at a college, is that there is an ebb and flow throughout the year. The frantic pace of September is gone, and as we wrap up for the year, and the students have all pretty much left for the holiday break, there's a certain peace throughout the campus.

Kinda quiet, kinda relaxing...

A Revelation

I am a geek, and that's okay with me

Happy Christmas (War Ain't Over)!

Angel, originally uploaded by macfixer.

Looks like a quiet, reflective Christmas for us at home this year, as Mason is battling pneumonia, and we don't want to get anybody sick. I felt bad about missing the holiday on Long Island with my folks, but then I found out my sister is sick, and my dad is catching whatever she has.

Now I'm kind of glad that we'll catch up in '07! Am I going to miss all the noise? Sure. Am I going to miss the holiday traffic trying to navigate through NYC? Heck no!

Make A (Virtual) Snowflake!

This is cool: all the fun of folding paper and cutting out paper snowflakes without the crooked angles, snippets of paper to clean up, screwed-up cuts and ripped artwork.

Loads of fun, and you can email them, too! Head to http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/

Here's one I made:

Flickr Easter Eggs!

Easter eggs? At Holiday time? Well...

Flickr Easter Eggs

Go to any Flickr photo and try posting a note on any of your photos using the following words

ho ho ho hat : you’ll get a Santa hat which you can drag around to put on anyone :).

ho ho ho beard : you’ll get a Santa beard

You have your orders, now roll out!

Don't Shoot Your Eye Out!

Have you played this game yet? It's called "Don't Shoot Your Eye Out" and it's based on the Christmas Classic, "A Christmas Story". It requires a pretty zippy computer to play, and may I recommend cranking up the audio?

Play it here

Sarah Blue

Sarah Blue, originally uploaded by macfixer.

My sister-in-law jamming on guitar. The flash never went off, and as a result came out sorta blue and underexposed.

Fully Beta-ized!

Just got word today that my blog has been chosen to upgrade to the new Blogspot beta! This means more stability, more features, and more stuff to add.

Love this technology stuff!

Snapple Surprise!

Iced Tea Surprise!
Originally uploaded by macfixer.

Drinking my Snapple Lemon Tea from the bottle the other day, I came across a nice, jagged surprise! It wasn't from my bottle. Where could it have come from?

The funny/scary thing is that this wasn't the first time this has happened to me -- I was sent to the emergency room one night when the Arizona Iced Tea bottle had shards of glass in it (apparently the bottle had shattered and was held intact by that asinine shrink wrap.

Luckily I wasn't hurt either time, but what a fright!

I ought to pour my Snapples into a cup next time.