Archive for October, 2008
Y Combinator says “No Dice”
October 29th, 2008 GeneralTags: hacker news, paul graham, pg, startup, ycombinator
After hours of waiting…and waiting…and waiting, the Y Combinator team finally sent out acceptance/rejection emails for their latest start-up camp. Unfortunately, we were not accepted. The news is a little discouraging, but we press on. Some things just aren't in the cards.
Windows on a MacBook Pro
October 29th, 2008 GeneralTags: apple, mac, mac windows xp sp2, parallels, tech, windows on mac, xp on os x
Six years ago I turned my back on Windows Me (Microsoft's worst product release ever) and dived head-first into Macintosh world and I bought my first Apple, a 12" PowerBook. It had an 876Mhz Motorola processor and a 40 GB hard drive. Great machine.
Since 2002, I've owned a 12 inch PowerBook, a white MacBook, a MacBook Air, and now a screaming fast MacBook Pro — not the new build.
For years I've enjoyed a stable, easy-to-use OS that worked like a dream. Unfortunately I had to install Windows XP on my Mac and I almost cried. If finding Apple was seeing the light; installing Windows was like a dog returning to its vomit. Catch my drift?
The only redeeming factor of working on XP was Google Chrome. Google released their new browser a couple weeks ago and forgot to develop a Mac build. Chrome is cool. Because of all the great extensions, Firefox is still my browser of choice. If you're still on IE, God help you…
Halloween and Pumpkins
October 22nd, 2008 GeneralTags: fall, halloween, jackolantern, oktoberfest, pumpkin, pumpkin carving
This weekend was all about Fall festivities at the house. Squash casserole, pumpkin carving, Oktoberfest biers, and all things that commemorate the changing of the seasons.
Above is a picture of Alfred the Pumpkin, the newest resident to 133 West and Rachel, who is a lil pumpkin herself. Look at that irresistable, goofy face. (Video of Rachel and Alfred)
Gordon Ramsay’s Scrambled Eggs Breakfast
October 17th, 2008 GeneralTags: food
I saw this video a couple weeks ago and since then, this has been my breakfast every single morning. It's healthy. It takes 10 minutes. It's really, really tasty. Try it and let me know what you think.
New Apple Laptops Make My Teeth Sweat
October 14th, 2008 ProductivityTags: apple, jony ives, Macintosh, new macbook
Fiction Reading and the Nashville Library
October 2nd, 2008 Productivity, ThoughtProvokingTags: fiction, library, nashville, nashville library, reading
I haven't been sleeping lately. It's not uncommon for me to stay up all the way through the night. Over the past two or three weeks, I've seen the sun come up 4 or 5 times. I've tried Ambien, reading, noisemakers, hypnotic sleep podcasts, a glass of wine (or three), everything… Or nearly everything.
In perfect timing, this post on '5 Effective Ways to Improve Your Sleep' appeared in my RSS reader yesterday. The two biggest takeaways for me are: ditch the computer an hour or so before bed and read fiction.
I've been reading nonfiction at night and it stimulates my brain. I start thinking of ideas and I can't sleep because all I do think. The solution is not to stop reading; but to stop reading nonfiction. I go back and forth on the value of reading fiction. On one side it helps creative thinking, exposes you to a different style of writing, and it provides some escape from reality. On the other hand, reading is time consuming. And if I'm using hours in my day to read, then I want to read something productive and applicable like nonfiction.
Months ago, I discovered that Nashville's library system is top notch. Ever since I got my library card, I haven't purchased one book. There is a downside though: the wait. If a book is currently checked out, my request goes into a hold system queue. Like Netflix in a way, though at the library you can check out up to 25 books at a time. Today, and by that I mean early this morning at 3:38am, I started adding fiction books to my library reading list. I was AMAZED at how long some of the waits are on these books. 286 holds?! Insane. And the library doesn't have just one copy, they have 30. I postulate:
- lots of people in Nashville are trying to escape from reality (probably true)
- people in Nashville like fiction better than nonfiction
- people in Nashville can't sleep (like me)
