trisweb.com

Ansel Adams took one just like this, so I tried my best to duplicate it.

I finally got invited to Gmail. I had asked a friend to give me an invite if they ever had one available, so I got one today, and I hurried through the signup, filling in the blank fields and somehow forgetting to change my address name. So, I give you my new gmail address:

[address removed]

It’s easy to remember and makes sense at least. And sounds very official. But I don’t like the dot. Whatever—I’m not planning on using it much anyway. But, if you ever feel like sending me very large files, please send them there. Also feel free to send random crap, spam, ads, sign me up for lists, and throw the address around the internet with abandon.

But I swear to God, if you so much as utter my other official address anywhere on the internet, you will be my enemy for the rest of time. I have never recieved any spam at the address, and I’ve had it for two years. My secret? It’s not posted anywhere publicly. Ever. I intend to keep it that way.

So, for a recap, send junk to my gmail account, or my hotmail account (trisweb@hotmail.com), but send real mail to my real address which you will have to know me well to get. This system has worked for many years.

Yep, another photo. This is next door to my house, and has similar (but nicer) architecture. It’s very old, and was one of the only buildings in Berkeley, along with my house, that survived a fire in the 1910’s. I caught this when the light was perfect.

I’m sure I’ve titled a post that before, but what can I say, it’s true. It’s not so bad leaving my parents anymore, but I know it still is for them; just another reminder that I’ll soon be out of the house forever. I await the day with carefully worded anticipation.

But this marks the start of a new year; new people, new responsibilities, and new possibilities. I sound very dramatic, but I’m serious, this is where my calendar starts over. Coming back to Berkeley is like jumping in to it. It feels good.

I’m two weeks early, for work and Cal Band FTP, which is an incredible amount of fun if you’re not a newman (new to the band). The newmen get stressed out and worried about learning how to march and play, but once you’ve already done it, it’s a breeze.

So that’s what’s in store for the next two weeks. I’ll also be working on a web site for my old high school band, so you may see that page change soon. I also hope to continue work on trisweb.com, on all those pages people see better-than-under-construction messages. That should be fun.

For now, I’m settling in. I’ll keep you updated.

Just realized it’s Friday the 13th. Not that I’m superstitious or anything; but I did think I’d try my luck at today’s very cool Woot, and also take this chance to say a few words on this very interesting business model.

Woot is one thing on sale per day until it’s sold out. It’s an ingenious idea—I’d bet they usually sell it all, just because it’s cool stuff for way low prices—but the real genius is in the marketing. It’s not like a normal store, where you can browse around about a thousand products, deciding whether or not to buy each one. It’s one decision. No information overload there. It’s also not like a normal store because you only have a limited time to nab it. Hours, at best. Talk about your impulse buy. Last, it’s not like a normal store because you have to keep coming back, every day ideally, to find something you might want. Genius. It’s on my daily list, that’s for sure.

Something about the design puts me off though. It’s nice, but there are weird edges sticking out. I hope they fix that. It would really make it look more professional.

Not that it’s trying to be.

I’ve been running SP2 for a day or so now [ torrent ], and I’ve had no problems, except for the whole fiasco with replacing uxtheme.dll, the file which, when hacked, allows for custom XP themes. I use Binary’s Watercolor theme; it was the original Windows “Whistler” style, which is much cleaner and nicer than Luna, the default theme.

In any case, just wanted to say that the changes are mostly trivial and won’t break your computer. Neil has a much better review, which goes into much detail on just about everything. The main changes are for security; IE’s behavior for downloading ActiveX controls and .exe files has changed, and it also comes with a nice pop-up blocker. Gee, it’s looking more and more like Firefox. You also get a new “security center” window that tells you things you should already know, like “Your firewall is off.” Yeah. I know. I turned it off. But it should be helpful for a lot of people.

And my favorite change of all: the little throbber bar on the startup screen has turned blue! Oh, and, for some reason, SP2 has removed “Home” (and/or “Professional”) from the startup screen. It now just says “Windows XP.” Yeah, I have Home edition. It’s the same thing, honestly. I struggle to find why anyone would pay twice as much for Pro for about 3 extra features.

Went to a great concert last night, some guys called the “Rincon Ramblers,” which I know sounds like it’s just the root-tootinest thing since the washboard to most people, but it was a great concert. I swear my friends and I were the only ones our age in the place; everyone else was either fifteen years older or fifteen years younger. People my age just don’t listen to the good old music anymore; fortunately (or unfortunately if you want) I grew up with it, and like politics (which I’ll lay off for a while), music sticks with you from your childhood. My father always used to play great folk albums in our house; just a guy and a guitar, just singing poetry and playing poetry, and that music is still my favorite. I do love every kind of music, and I have been enjoying Jay-Z and Jimmy Eat World for a while—college broadened my musical taste almost instantly—but I always come back to folk music. It’s real music to me. That and Jazz. Jazz is the same way. Straight from the soul.

Back to the concert, The Rincon Ramblers are a very diverse group. They played everything from Irish fiddle tunes to straight out blues and bluegrass, so it was fun. The Irish tunes were my favorite, such a beat and energy and life. I feel like buying a tin whistle. But everything was good; just four great musicians having a good time. Thanks for inviting me Cindy; I had a great time, and I owe you a visit in Davis!