Ben and I are at the Draught House. We are going to work on the Weasel site and drink a few beers. I am drinking a Live Oak Hefe Weizen it’s very tasty. The free Wi-Fi is provided by Less Networks. We can’t seem to find any outlets so I think when the batteries run low we are going to head over to Mozart’s which is a coffee shop that also has free wireless access.
– Jeremy
I am a huge fan of Celtic Rock. It’s a pretty small genre of music and I am always looking for new bands to listen to. Yesterday I found this site paddyrock.com it’s basically a celtic rock internet radio station. So far I think I have a list of about 20 new bands I want to check out.
– Jeremy
So it looks like it’s going to rain the whole time I am in Austin….
Isn’t Texas suppose to be hot and dry…?
– Jeremy
So I have been in Austin for about 2 hours. Ben picked me up at the airport, we grabbed some lunch and now I am at the office.
The flights were decent. I really can’t complain. They were both very full so boarding and getting off the plane was a bit slow. Also on the flight from Long Island to Atlanta I had a window seat… which sucks when you have wide shoulders like me, but that’s my fault for picking a window seat. I am not sure if it was an error on my part or if it was the best option available when I booked the flight.
Anyway time to see if I can actually accomplish something today!
– Jeremy
Yesterday Nicole and I went out to Riverhead were there is an aquarium called Atlantis. They offer nature boat tours of the Peconic River and Bay. It was pretty cool, but their were a lot of families. The kids don’t bother me as much as the over bearing parents. I like kids… well most kids. 
The tour boat:
I don’t know who owns this wind turbine, but I am a big fan of renewable energy so I snapped a photo.
An Osprey taking off from it’s nest:
At the midway point of the tour they beached the boat on this little “island” so we could see some of the sea life up close:
My chubby self cooling off in the water.
After the boat ride we had dinner and then drove over to Flanders to get a picture of the “Big Duck”.
– Jeremy
This evening Nicole and I went to Borders. Nicole wanted to pick up the next book in the series she was reading (No it’s not Harry Potter.). I glanced through the Trade Paperback section, but I didn’t see any books I particularly wanted. So I slipped over to the Science Fiction aisle. I am admittedly not a very prolific reader, but when I drove from Michigan to Texas solo, the last time we moved to Austin, I rented some books on tape. One of the books I rented was from Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Novels. I am not sure which one I rented, but I remember enjoying it very much.
So while we were at Borders I picked up “Prelude to Foundation” which is technically the first book in the series even though it was written 20-30 years after the original trilogy. I am hoping I can work my way through the series. There are a total of seven books in the series. It will take me a while since I am not a fast reader.
– Jeremy
I was surfing around the web looking for information on commuting to work by motorcycle and I happened upon this page. Where a guy is crunching the numbers to try and justify the expense of buying a motorcycle with the intentions of using for commuting. In the end he seems disheartened when the savings in gas alone won’t cover the bike payment., but I have a couple other things he should consider:
First unlike the gas he put in his car at the end of 3 years when the bike is paid off it’s actually worth something. Maybe not a lot, but if you keep the bike maintained he should be able to get $1,500 – $2,000 by selling it. (I am just guessing it could be more or it could be less) Now I don’t think anyone should consider a motorcycle an investment, but it’s a much better investment than gas that you are just going to burn.
Second he estimates $340 a year in wear and tear on his car. I am going to assume he means maintenance to the car. However I would say that saving 15,000 + miles on your car is worth more than $340 a year. I have a 2001 Hyundai Elantra which is paid for and I know if I can keep that thing running for another 3-5 years by commuting by motorcycle that’s worth more than $340 a year to me. I mean if I use the IRS’s $0.48 a mile for 25 miles (about what my car gets per gallon) that’s $12 a mile – $3 a gallon (we aren’t concerned with the paying for gas) = $9 a mile. Even at a quarter of that for depreciation and maintenance you are looking at $30,000 a year. While I will admit this math is far stretched, but I am not sure how else to quantify it.
Anyway… Mr. Whoever you are… I wish you the best of luck talking you wife in to letting you buy a motorcycle and ride safe.
– Jeremy
and so do most Americans. According to a Nielson Study on average Americans watched 4 hours and 35 mins a day watching TV. No wonder we never have time to do anything huh? Now I am guessing, especially since I have been working from home, that I watch more than the national average. I am going to say 6 hours a day. A couple hours in the morning, an hour or so at lunch, and 2-3 hours at night. I am sure some days it’s more and others it’s less.
So if we do the math using 6 hours of TV watching a day. That’s 42 hours a week in front of the TV. In a year that works out to be 91 days (2184 hours) or approx 25% of a year. So I spend about 3 months, solid, a year watching TV. What a waste of time. No wonder all these “great” ideas I come up with never see the light of day. I have a full time job being planted in front of the TV during my free time.
I think it’s time to give up the majority of my TV watching. I think an hour is an acceptable amount of TV time. Since I have a Tivo I can easily watch 7 hour long shows a week and stay with in that limitation.
If you are a TV-aholic like me I encourage you to join me!
– Jeremy
err.. I mean cats. Yesterday morning when I was making the bed our older cat, Sasha, was laying on the bed. I pulled up the sheet and blanket so she moved, but before I could pull up the comforter she laid back down again. So I covered her up with comforter thinking she would just crawl out. When I had finished making the bed she was still under there. I was a little worried so I pulled back the comforter a bit to see her just laying there. She kind of looked up at me like “What? I was sleeping.”. So I grabbed the camera to get a couple of pictures.
It wasn’t long before little sister, Zoe, came along to see what all the fuss was about:
Later on in the day I realized I had seen either of them in a while so I checked the bedroom. I found them nice and cozy right were I left them (more or less)….
Ahh the life of a spoiled cat is a tough one… how do they ever manage.
– Jeremy
Microblogging…
Monday, July 30th, 2007I am going to assume since you’ve made your way to my blog that you in fact know what a blog is. If not… well then look around because this is pretty much a typical blog. A slightly newer phenomenon is Micro-blogging. So if blogging involves writing paragraphs then micro-blogging is more along the lines of words or sentences. There are several micro-blogging sites out: Twitter, Jaiku, and Pownce.
I am now using Jaiku… you can check out my latest Jaiku entry in the sidebar. It also links to all my posts on the Jaiku site.
– Jeremy
Posted in Austin Trips, Comments on Technology, Letters from Austin | No Comments »