All this talk of bananas has made me crave a Rocket Fuel Smoothie from Fresh by Juice for Life. One of my favourite restaurants in the T-dot, since it is vegetarian, but I always leave feeling stuffed. Since I can't get downtown, I looked up their on-line menu, and it looks like it includes espresso, banana, maple syrup and cinnamon, and your choice of milk. Hmmmm, my choice is Silk Vanilla Light soy milk, which just happens to be in my fridge right now. Gotta go get fueled!!
Man, I'm blogging about my mid-morning snack, what am I avoiding???
How are you celebrating the 4th of July?
By wishing all of the Stateside Voxers a most excellent long weekend. Happy 4th of July!!
Last night was the first night that ReRe went right into his crib after stories without needing an extra cuddle or rocking to help him fall asleep. The reason he was eager to get into bed was because Red Teddy, a little red teddy bear that was a Valentine's gift from his grandmother, was in his crib, and ReRe wanted to cuddle with him. He's shown little interest in cuddling with toys, even though I have actively encouraged it as a way for him to fall asleep without myself or his father. The reason that Red Teddy made an appearance was because yesterdat was Teddy Bear Picnic Day at preschool, and he randomly picked him as his +1. I'm glad, because I'm awaiting the delivery of the mattress for his big boy bed, and the more comforts he will have for the transition, the better. I'm just so surprised how the order of his stages of sleep are so different than any book I read, and doing what was right for us, rather than what was prescribed, has always been the best decision. Yes, it has made it difficult for anyone other than us to put him to bed, but we've worked so hard at getting a predictable (and peaceful) bedtime routine together, that I don't want it compromised.
According to ReRe, ambulances pick up people with big boo-boos and take them to work.
While falling asleep the other night, ReRe spontaneously said, "Simon Says, tickle your ears!"
While I'm very happy to hear his speech coming along, I'm also just a little sad at hearing the end of some of his own words for things. For the longest time, he called bananas daddle-la's, watermelon was watermetton, and oatmeal was o-o-oatmeal.
That's it for this week!
I've dated [too many] Microsofties. They are brilliant, but truly do not have a clue how to deal with anything beyond the scope of their code. When you fill your company with brilliant, yet socially inept folks, your product becomes reflective of that. I'm sure someone else could put it in better words, but I know what I've lived. And the fact that Bill is subjected to it makes me giggle like a school girl. :)
Transcript:
---- Original Message ----
From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame
I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don't drive usability issues.
Let me give you my experience from yesterday.
I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack ... so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.
The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.
This site is so slow it is unusable.
It wasn't in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45.
These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.
They are not filtered by the system ... and so many of the things are strange.
I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.
So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?
So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.
They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).
I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.
I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.
In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.
This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere else and do a scan to download moviemaker?
So I went to Windows update. Windows Update decides I need to download a bunch of controls. (Not) just once but multiple times where I get to see weird dialog boxes.
Doesn't Windows update know some key to talk to Windows?
Then I did the scan. This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff.
This is after I was told we were doing delta patches to things but instead just to get 6 things that are labeled in the SCARIEST possible way I had to download 17meg.
So I did the download. That part was fast. Then it wanted to do an install. This took 6 minutes and the machine was so slow I couldn't use it for anything else during this time.
What the heck is going on during those 6 minutes? That is crazy. This is after the download was finished.
Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night -- why should I reboot at that time?
So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant completely getting rid of all my Outlook state.
So I got back up and running and went to Windows Update again. I forgot why I was in Windows Update at all since all I wanted was to get Moviemaker.
So I went back to Microsoft.com and looked at the instructions. I have to click on a folder called WindowsXP. Why should I do that? Windows Update knows I am on Windows XP.
What does it mean to have to click on that folder? So I get a bunch of confusing stuff but sure enough one of them is Moviemaker.
So I do the download. The download is fast but the Install takes many minutes. Amazing how slow this thing is.
At some point I get told I need to go get Windows Media Series 9 to download.
So I decide I will go do that. This time I get dialogs saying things like "Open" or "Save". No guidance in the instructions which to do. I have no clue which to do.
The download is fast and the install takes 7 minutes for this thing.
So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove programs place to make sure it is there.
It is not there.
What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, Microsoft Autoupdate testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, Microsoft Autoupdate Test package3.
Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.
But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.
What an absolute mess.
Moviemaker is just not there at all.
So I give up on Moviemaker and decide to download the Digital Plus Package.
I get told I need to go enter a bunch of information about myself.
I enter it all in and because it decides I have mistyped something I have to try again. Of course it has cleared out most of what I typed.
I try (typing) the right stuff in 5 times and it just keeps clearing things out for me to type them in again.
So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven't run Moviemaker and I haven't got the plus package.
The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11. (don't you just love that root certificate message?)
When I really get to use the stuff I am sure I will have more feedback.
Personally, whenever someone does this bumping of fists thing, it doesn't make me think of anything but the Wonder Twins ("Wonder Twin powers ACTIVATE!")
From Chuck, the local paper guy:
How long do you take in the shower?
Submitted by Strive2Be.
As long as I feel like taking...
Today I had to take a half day from work as Daycare Provider decided she needed a break and took today, tomorrow, and all of next week off. While next week has been taken care of, today Mike and I had to share the duty of switching off to watch Nate.
This wasn't a good day to do that.
My promotion comes with the idea that someday I won't have to do much HR stuff. However, as there are things happening like a new payroll system, a maternity leave in the near future (my friend who lost the bebe is pregnant again ::cross your fingers::), and tons of other projects, it seems I'm still going to be doing lots of HR stuff for the time being.
Like the company picnic. Today we had our first meeting and I must say I feel horribly behind. We need to do a lot of stuff and with a Lean Event, Lean initiative program rollout, and a few other things on my plate, I'm starting to freak out.
I came home to a mess of a house, a crank husband who wanted to get to work, and the bad news that we'll both be driving seperatly out 45 miles to "the farm" tonight to help out with pizza night. It's just too much gas and money to take two cars, yet it never works out where we can only take one because Mike has to be out there so late. It's supposed to be a really busy night. I think I'm going to take Nathan early so we can get a pizza fast and just play for a while.
Another crazy thing is my lia sophia business. It's taken off so fast that I'm having trouble keeping up. With working full time and selling jewelry at night the house is a mess and I'm even starting to forget things I have to do. It's awesome because of the extra money but I never thought it would take off like this! It's a good thing but I'll need to adjust some things.
Hopefully a day of rest tomorrow will work out. I plan on just leaving everything from both jobs on the back burners and paying attention to me and the family. Again, cross those fingers!
Shamefully, I didn't even think of capturing this for the Failblog on one of my many trips driving past it.
I'm serious people, if you like reading and blogging about it, then Lex has free books for you at http://www.minibookexpo.com/. The rules are simple: Claim it, Read it, Blog it. This year, in addition to books picked up at the Toronto Book Expo, Lex has publisher-direct books from dozens of publishers, mailed directly to you, both in Canada and the US. There are also RRS and Twitter link-ups, for those of you who connect in digital real-time. And while I'm at it, if you eat in Toronto or Ottawa, you must purchase a copy of CheapEats Toronto or CheapEats Ottawa, the definitive guides for good food at low prices in these two cities. These guides are written, directed and produced by Lex, with whom I had the pleasure of sharing a burgoir (fancy burger) yesterday at Craft Burger on King Street. You know you are part of the digital age when you start a lunch conversation with, "Now pretend I'm not caught up on your blog...."
