The ins and outs of Yvo’s life.
May 31st, 2005 Yvo
I used to have this big habit for a while naming my entries for days of the week. Well so I found out. Earlier this week I completed merging my livejournals in with my current blog entries. Reading them over, I like to think that I matured a lot in the last 2 and half years. However writing in my blog has become part of my weekly ritual (with a major break occurring between Feb 04 - June 04). It really is the best form of communication for those that I only seem to talk to every now and then. At least this way they can voluntarily read my bitching instead of me forcing it down their throat. There is a big difference.
Ok so my blog is starting to look a lot better. I booted up my Windows computer and it even looks decent in Internet Explorer. The colors are slightly different as the Mac screen has a more grayish tint to it due to all the gray & white that is included with OS X by default. Also the buttons on the side are more artsy then ever as (see below) I am getting more accustomed to Photoshop.
Enough about that. This shall be the last week that I will have so much free time. I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to going back to work. Sure unemployment is here but there is nothing worse then being bored around the house. I don’t know why I didn’t try harder at talking to friends I haven’t talked to in awhile (Sarice would be the first name to come to my mind) and I simply have no excuse for it. Thankfully my weekend was a pretty good one. On Saturday I hung out with Josh for a bit as my brother had some people over and the plan was to have some of Josh’s friends over as well but as plans would have it, there was suddenly wind of another party (sort of like the ones I had in 2003) and I just hung around with Cam. On Sunday we just sort of relaxed and on Monday are original plans were to hike at Mt. Rainier for the day (around the Carbon River area) but that ended up being put on hold due to the weather going crappy on us from Saturday to Monday (yes I know, Sunday was a sign of things to come). However an overall successful weekend.
Welp other then that. Summer is about to begin and I know that by next fall I can say that things will be much different. Hopefully I wont have to experience as much as last summer because I honestly couldn’t go through one of those summers again. Only time will tell. Surely I am not going to predict, I did that last year but I was way off. In July I predicted to go back to Holland in the fall, yet I am still in the United States. However I am here with good reason.
That is it for now…
Yvo
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May 31st, 2005 Yvo
Yup it is finally online again. Hopefully I’ll keep at it and get better at taking pictures. Cam doesn’t like the pictures I take because it lacks balance. Hopefully it is a skill I can develop.
Alright that is all for now…
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May 29th, 2005 Yvo
Yup, call me crazy but doesn’t it look nice and pretty?
I personally love the font. I’m starting to get more and more acquainted with photoshop. Photoshop for Windows always seemed complicated but for Mac it is very enjoyable.
Weekend has been okay so far, looks like the weather turned for the worst today. I have been looking at gray skies all day, compared to the hot day yesterday. Well I suppose it will be easier to fall asleep tonight.
Cam got a phone call yesterday from the Apple Store in Southcenter and she has an interview next week. I think it is awesome that they are considering her. She seems excited as well but she is remaining very careful about it, maybe that is for the best.
That is all for now…
Yvo
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May 28th, 2005 Yvo
The other night I had thoughts flying through my head and one was, is my career choice the right one.
Since then Cam has told me that I shouldn’t that far into the future but I can’t resist the thought on what will happen in the next 20 years.
Bare with me here… but it will make sense in a moment.
If you told anyone 20 years ago, May 28th 1985 that some day most of the world’s work will be done via a computer at everyone’s desk or that information is available almost instantly on a network called the internet they would just laugh at you. Yes the first .com internet domain was registered on 03/15/1985 but it wasn’t like it was world news back then. Maybe an article in the popular science, but that is about it. Alright so lets speed up back to the present…
Having said that, is it really that hard to imagine what computers or technology will do for us in general 20 years from now. Considering I’ll only be 40, I will still be working at a job. It isn’t like I am close to retiring. The field I pursuing is a risky one. How is it risky? Sure computers will be around and are here to stay but don’t forget that these same things we call computers once took an entire floor of a moderately sized building to function correctly. But considering computers are getting more and more complex concurrently they are getting easier and easier to fix due to the current generation being so computer savvy. Currently the console gaming industry are designing next gen consoles for the gaming crowd. Gamers now expect so much from their consoles that they want more power, better graphics, etc etc etc. It is even getting to the point where gaming consoles will be better and more computer then your computer in the family room. A word processor doesn’t require a quadruple core 3.2 GHz processor, but a game that has to be realistic sure does due to the complex code & graphics that has to be processed by the GPU / CPU. So what does this mean you ask? When the playstation 3 is released early next year or the Xbox 360, the computing power in the console will be about as powerful as 1% of a human brain. Yes believe it or not, human brains are still more powerful then a computer processor. Sure that Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon can do an equation faster then a human brain but we have a lot more going on. Ever factor in vision, hearing, touch, speech or thought? A computer is good for looking up information but that is it, for now.
If we factor in Moore’s law, which states that technology doubles in performance every 18 months, that 1% might not seem like a lot but lets put it into perspective..
January 2006 (estimated and easier for math) - Xbox 360 is released, 1% the processing power of a human brain
July 2007 - 2% processing power
Jan 2009 - 4%
Jul 2011 - 8%
Jan 2013 - 16%
Jul 2015 - 32%
Jan 2017 - 64%
Nov 2017 - ~100%
Jul 2019 - 128%
Basically after November 2017, the computer as a system will be smarter then us humans. Sure this is all a theory or it might never happen, but they probably said that 20 years ago or 50 years ago when we decided to go to the moon. However if you put it into perspective this is more possible then you think. Our generation and every generation hereafter is going to have the greatest challenge to humans to date. We will be the creators of a superior machine / being then that to a human being. Considering a lot of humans have a tendancy to stick with the old ways you can already imagine the amount of laws, discussions, activist groups, etc etc that will come from all this. So I know I am speculating but getting back at to what I originally was worried about. Will there even be a job for IT people 15-20 years from now or is it a job that will just fade away, especially once a computer starts to figure out how to clean it self up or knows how to block an internet attack from a punk kid in a suburb of (insert city here). I guess time will tell….
Alright thats enough futurecasting for me tonight,
Yvo
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May 27th, 2005 Yvo
Seattle weather is funny. Last week it rained and it looked like summer was going to suck. Then suddenly the weather turns to ultra hot. Difficult adjustment for the body but its trying hard. Last night it stayed hot all night long. The average night temp was 74F, bleh too hot. I like sleeping in 68-70, not 80 (when I went to bed). Oh well the days are nice. This weekend I want to do something fun. With the parents not being home, this should be considerably easier.
Welp… off the computer for me…
Yvo
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May 23rd, 2005 Yvo
Today I went to the theater with my Cammy Cam and we saw Star Wars Episode III. We just didn’t go to any theater, we went to the Cinerama, a huge theater in Downtown Seattle. Episode 3 finally completes the story to a very long saga. Episode 7 - 9 will never make it to the screen so this is it for everyone. No more Star Wars ever. So the story was good, acting however by the actors needed some work. There were a lot of pauses in the dialogues and unnatural conversations. Plus the character of Anakin is just messed up to begin with. I guess Lucas expected us to know him more but the character just didn’t develop well, and the reason he went to the dark side is confusing to begin with. Oh well you will just have to watch the movie yourself to see what I mean.
After Star Wars Cammy and I went to our sushi place in Queen Anne. Sure its not our sushi place but its our favorite and we both love the food there. I think I have put close to $800 into that place by now, but I am not going to start counting. After some good sushi we went home but made a stop by the Southcenter mall. Cam has applied for a job at the Apple store and she just wanted to show her face since the process is online, but she wanted to put a picture on that resume so they know who Cam is. It would be pretty awesome if she got a job there. But we can’t jinx her, but lets just all hope.
Other then that I realized that I need to get more involved in fixing my social life. It doesn’t look I have much left of it, so in the coming months I hope to make that my biggest accomplishment to achieve. I hope I’ll be successful at that task.
Adios,
Yvo
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May 22nd, 2005 Yvo
I have this program called Earthdesk for my Mac. It is terrific. It basically shows you the planet on your desktop as a background with current weather conditions (cloud cover) and where its night and dag.
Here I have screenshot of it. Click to make it big.
I’ll do an actual blog entry later.
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May 20th, 2005 Yvo
This would mark day three that we are having Lightning & Thunder (L&T). My poor dog, she gets so damn scared of it. It is weird though, in the 9 years I have lived in WA I have never seen L&T this much. In europe we got it all the time, especially when we were on vacation in France one summer. We are in a valley with huge cliffs and mountainsides around us and the thunder was almost concurrent with the lightning. The lightning would hit all around us and it was quite awesome. I have never been scared of it before and actually I was always (still am) quite fascinated by L&T.
Anywho the weekend has approached on me and I don’t know what I am doing what so ever. Tomorrow I may head down to Fry’s and buy my dad’s bday gift. It is funny that I am earning almost as much as working while sitting at home. Unemployment rocks because of the fact that it is based off of my pay from 04 when I worked at Fry’s. So I can get him something nice. Plus I have to buy my mom’s present for him as well since she doesn’t know what to get him. Other then that… Cammy has off so I will probably spend the day with her as well. I look forward to that.
For those going to SW EP 3 this weekend, have fun and don’t spoil it for those that are going to wait a week. I’ll probably end up going midweek next week during the day as it won’t be as busy and schools are still in session. I can’t believe its the end of the year almost for all college students and K-12 students.
Oh and I don’t want no weatherman bitching about a drought this summer. We’ve had inches of rain in the last 3 days. Yesterday Seattle accumulated 1.07″ thats a lot for just one day.
Out like a trout…
Yvo
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May 18th, 2005 Yvo
Well I have another new job to add to my resume. Crap my resume is getting pretty long and I am only 20. Hopefully (being less optimistic) this will be a job I’ll be at for a while. I will be working at Speakeasy at Help Desk Support in the NOC (Network Operations Center). Speakeasy is a young company so they don’t frown upon young people expressing their opinion, unlike my previous job. This glamorous position doesn’t start until June 6th though so until then I’ll be on unemployment.
Cleaned up my room some more. It really is starting to look nice and spacious. Plus my Mac is really fitting into the environment. Looking back, it amazes me how fast I adopted to the mac. It really only took me days to find out all the ins and outs. Must be the previous Linux experience or just computer experience in general. I feel confident to do most things now. The last remaining issue is the printer sharing. I got the file sharing to work but my Mac isn’t very friendly at letting Windows computers actually print their documents. The printers show up in Windows but even with the correct drivers, they just wont print. I’ll probably have to get a printer server for my hub in the next few weeks. There are little things that just make me happy about my new computer. When I plug in both printers and a scanner, the operating system immediately recognizes it, installs drivers without me noticing at all (They have been trying to accomplish this on Windows for years). When I use each device, say a printer it has a little image on the dock of the actual printer, not some standard graphic. Nope an actual representation of the printer. I think that is awesome to say the least.
Today Cammy is out job hunting. Poor Cammy, her new boss has been cutting everyone’s hours except for herself (the boss) and the new girl. So Cammy is out looking for something better. I have confidence that she will. I mean who wouldn’t want to hire a skinny, pretty looking asian girl. Personally I hope she works at Starbucks, think of all the coffee!!
Last thing… today I called into Dish to upgrade our boxes. Were getting the Dishplayer DVR 510 now in 2 rooms. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me!
That is all for now…
Yvo
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May 16th, 2005 Yvo
Using the Mac has been great. However with anything good, there is some bad and the Mac is no exception. Microsoft Word 2004 is DOG slow compared to the Windows counterpart yet its a requirement in today’s world as everyone and their mom uses Word. I prefer Nisus Writer Express but the DOC format is king. Too bad as Mac OS X is fundamentally based off of the PDF format and its the ONLY OS I know of that actually has the PDF driver inside the kernel instead of it just being a separate application on the computer (like with Windows) it is part of the OS. Once I find that replacement, life will be easier.
Quirk #2 is that I have 1GB of memory installed in my Mac. One would think this is enough. While I can have 12-13 applications open at once on a Windows, I can only really use two and then the computer just slows down. On a Mac I don’t but it sucks up my memory. My IM client for example uses 90MB realtime memory opposed to say 14-16MB on a Windows box. Also each widget with Tiger holds up memory. I have a feeling that me purchasing 1GB sticks isn’t too far away in the future. Wow a computer with 2GB of memory… what will the world come to next.
Enough about computers. It seems my work found out that I have a new job (starting June 6th) with Speakeasy as an IT guy. Speakeasy is a nationwide provider of DSL and its HQ is in Seattle, WA. So what does EDI do… they fire me. Yup thats right… I’m gone. Kind of annoying to say the least but what can I do… nothing really. So I signed up for unemployment for the next few weeks so that I have some moolah. I should be able to get it without any problems because of the reason that I was fired. Attendance is a non issue here as every single time I called in sick I can get a doctor’s note for it. The guy who fired me didn’t even do it in person. I emailed him and he normally responds within in a hour, well it has been 4 hours and no response. He probably didn’t know that I had doctor’s notes for each occasion and that EDI has to pay for unemployment. He really wasn’t planning that. Serves him right.
Anywho.. I felt horrible at first because being fired just plainly sucks but Cam was there over the phone to make me feel better. I am really a lucky guy for having a girl like that. She really is always there for me. I came close to blowing it last Friday with the way I acted. She thankfully understood and she didn’t even get super angry at me. Gosh if I were in her position I would have just thrown everything down and gone into a separate room. She really loves me a lot and I really love her a lot. Were slowly approaching our 8 month anniversary. Gosh and to me they have flown by. I have experienced a lot with this girl and I will continue to experience a lot. She is going through troubles of her own right now with her work and I hope she can work that out, as long as she realizes that I will be there for her along the way.
Apartment wise, I need to look for a new dining set or get in contact (somehow) with that guy from Boeing. Unfortunately everything was on my workstation at work which is probably being reformatted very soon. So who knows at what I can do about that at this point. We shall see. We still have plenty of time. Too bad Alice had to bail out on us like that because she has faith that her dad is coming back. But then again Cam has told me some stories that kind of made me glad that it happened.
I shall continue the ramblings some other time…
Yvo
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