The house is ours. 80% of our stuff (by weight) is over there now, with furniture and whatnot waiting until tomorrow. I’m a mixture of exhausted and relieved, and the unpacking hasn’t even started. Ugh.
We’ll crank the operation back up tomorrow morning and try to finish up before 1 or so… there’s a chance of rain.
This would be unpleasant in the summer.
Filed under: Household |
In 12 short hours, if all goes well, we shall be homeowners once more.
Filed under: Uncategorized |
By this time next week, our move will be done and we’ll have spent our first night in our new house.
The closing is all set for Monday morning at 8:30am, so by 9:15 or so we’ll be homeowners once more. We’ve received the final HUD-1 — approved by our lender — and will venture to the Bank of America tomorrow for a large-ish bank check.
None of it seems real, since it’s been six-and-a-half months since we made our offer. We haven’t packed the first thing, though I’ve been responsible enough to arrange for electricity, cable, and Internet at the new place, plus a truck to move there with. It’s not quite as large a move as our last one. When we moved from Pennsylvania, we were condensing four bedroom plus a cluttered basement into a 3 bedroom plus garage. This time we’re going from 3 bedroom to 3 bedroom (but with 400 more square feet), and since we’re not using a van line, we can be sloppier about how we pack. For example, on Monday we can throw a bunch of kitchen stuff in the car and take it right over there. It’s only ~7 houses away, after all, so this may be the easiest moves I’ve done.
Some pictures:
How much time do you spend every day walking your PC through the steps necessary to turn your intentions into actions?
Let me give you an example. I want to copy a file from my PC to a remote UNIX server. I know where the file is on my PC and the server name & directory I want to copy it to. There are a few ways to do this, and faster ways if I’m willing to do it via the command line and have my auth keys all squared away, but hear me out:
Done! It’s taken 10 steps to copy a file from one machine to another. Your brain knew immediately what needed to be done as soon as you decided you wanted to copy a file, but it then took… what… 30 seconds or so to turn that intent (”Copy blah.txt from here to there”) into the action (file is copied). There are countless other examples of how we have to slow ourselves down so that the computer can keep up, and so far none of the user interface motifs I’ve seen make the problem any better. Keyboard/mouse, multi-touch, gestures, and so on all seem to be strafing the problem instead of attacking it.
Interestingly, I had one of my best human-computer interaction (HCI) experiences two weeks ago at Disney. The wife and I have annual passes for Epcot, so we headed over there after work one day and poked around the Innoventions pavilions. There we stumbled across an attraction that let you ride a Segway. Granted, it’s in a very controlled environment, but it’s still a decent intro to the Segway. What makes it a terrific HCI experience is that there’s not a lot of translation between intent and action. You want to go forward, you lean forward; backwards, lean back. Given the interface, I could envision a time in the future where, if I owned a Segway and rode it a lot, it would become almost an extension of my body. It wouldn’t occur to me that I’m riding on some sort of conveyance… intent and action would become one.
Admittedly, a Segway is a complex device with a simple function, and computers are complex devices with complex functions, so comparing them apples-to-apples isn’t really appropriate. But it does give us a sense of what’s possible… the ideal we should be striving for. The year is 2010: what’s needed for truly brilliant human-computer interaction moving forward?
Filed under: Uncategorized |
This is a draft I wrote on June 18, 2009, that I never got around to finishing and publishing.
I’m an uncle again! My brother’s family added a beautiful baby girl, Blythe Emerson, Wednesday afternoon. By 6pm she had already been on TV! This is the third child for hermano and his wife. They’re old pros at this child rearin’ thing now.
And then there’s me. My wife has a natural level of comfort around little people. Me, not so much. I’ve met a few — I’ve even been one — but I have no idea how to relate to them, what their needs are, etc. But I’m going to learn in a hurry, aren’t I. Baby stuff keeps appearing at the house: stroller, play-and-pack thing, a bunch of clothes… and we even walked over a few blocks to check out a Pottery Barn crib for sale.
We start Childbirth 101 classes next month, with the last one (breastfeeding) mere days before the anticipated due date. Cutting it a little close, sure, but we’re old… too soon and we’ll forget everything.
Everyone says you can never really plan how your life will change once the first one comes. This has a calming effect on me… no need working myself up for nothing.
Yep, life has changed! One thing that strikes me is that our strategy for learning about having a child was all wrong. We spent a LOT of time with the child birth process, and very little time with everything that happens AFTER that. It’s silly, since the nurses and doctors walk you through most everything, anyway. Four weeks of childbirth, and an hour to show you how to swaddle, change diapers, give baths, and so on. *shrug*
Filed under: Uncategorized |
Had a great day today (for a few hours anyway), just the wife and me. Sherri has some relatives who “snowbird” (yes, I’m making it a verb) in Zephyrhills, FL, about an hour from here. They graciously offered to watch Rowan for a few hours so we could have some “sane time”.
What did we do on our mid-day date? Japanese lunch at Seito in Celebration, followed by an amazing hour of just sitting in a rocking chair and doing jack squat. It was heaven. We love our little boy more than I ever thought it was possible, but we both desperately needed to recharge our batteries by having time on our own, and soaking up some Florida sun.
The little guy did swell with his great-aunt Eunice and great-uncle Ian, and Sher and I even had a little time left over for some Celebration geocaching (50% success rate).
They’ve offered to babysit for us every week, but that was before they did the chore today. We’re awaiting their phone call, but we’ll see how it goes.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Filed under: Pictures |
I’ve been taking tennis lessons at least once a week for the past 7 weeks or so. Fortunately, the lessons are working: it’s time to improve my equipment. I ordered tennis shoes, a nice beginner/mid racket, and some more suitable attire. I also expressed an interest in going to twice-a-week lessons.
Now, I know I have a LONG way to go before I feel comfortable playing a real match with somebody else, but I’m happy to see noticable improvement in my game every week. Tennis appeals to me in a way other activities don’t. Golf isn’t cardio, and doesn’t require the same quick act/react reflexes as tennis. Jogging bores me. Bike riding is better but still isn’t challenging to the reflexes like tennis. There’s no racquetball place near here, and that’s (usually) indoors, besides.
My next tennis challenge will be finding partners to play with. Anyone wanting to whip up on a slow-footed beginner, send me an email.
Filed under: Uncategorized |
Happy Thanksgiving from me and the Airwolf team.
Filed under: Uncategorized |
Horrible service. Just horrible. But it’s done with a smile. It took 46 minutes for me to order and receive two hot dogs and two fries. I know because I timed it.
Posted via email from Brian’s posterous
Filed under: Uncategorized |
