no longer a scumbag

as of today, my days of being a scumbag contractor have concluded. i am a full-time employee of scripps networks interactive (sni). and i should be sitting in orientation at the time this post goes live.

i’ve been working at sni for almost a year through premier staffing partners as a systems engineer. it has been a good year with plenty of challenges to keep me on my toes. i have enjoyed the work and the team i am on. i am excited to continue being a systems engineer. having a developer background definitely helps in this role.

i am very glad to be here!

samsung ssd

i installed this solid state hard drive into my laptop this weekend: Samsung Electronics Samsung 840 Series Solid State Drive (SSD) 500 GB.

so far, it’s great! boot time is about two seconds on average! two freakin’ seconds for a full boot! i expect an improvement in power consumption as well as the speedy read/writes.

the only drawback is that it’s 250gb less than my original hard drive. i am going to have to be diligent about my photographs (imported from my camera) and virtual machines. those two eat away at my space quickly. (but the VMs i do have should run much quicker now.)



added: this link is to a video of the improved boot up:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/110564541307000744618/posts/NP9mmt2NB3W

take this mug for a ride

last week, i decided to take a run for the first time in over two months. it was a little rougher than i imagined. although i was mindful of my knee, my body hadn’t had been through some aerobic exercise for too long.

since my doctor and (physical) therapists all recommended either swimming or bike riding for a safer, non-impact activity. and since i don’t have a pool, biking is my option.

because i think driving in knoxville is hazardous enough and refuse to be “that guy” who slows down traffic because i am biking in a lane, i decided on a recumbent bike for home.

the search on amazon took some time, but i decided on this one: xterra recumbent bike.



i like it. it did take a while to put together, not difficult, just time consuming. the convenience being able to roll out of bed and be riding quickly is extremely nice. plus i can ride in any weather.

this will get me back in shape for basketball. just how long it will take is yet to be discovered.

new thermos, yo!

i bought this thermos on amazon close to a month ago and am quite happy with it. it keeps the hot stuff hot and the cool stuff…well, i’ve not put anything cool in it yet.

i have been accumulating coffee in whole bean form from starbucks for a long time. i decided it was time to start brewing at home and bringing it in. this gives me quality coffee which stays hot all day. besides, the stainless steel construction makes the flux dispersal….

trying out digg reader

i signed up for the digg reader, another replacement to google reader. first impression: i like it.





the preset feeds per category are a little limited, but then again it is customizable. i need to find my backed up google reader links to import. there is an option for that when you first sign on, but my archive file wasn’t readily available. oh, and i am using my google account to connect. convenient.

right now, it’s a bit basic with only two modes of viewing. the look and feel reminds me of google reader. i think it’s in the early of stages of what it will eventually become. as long as they don’t start charging a fee for a pro version or interspersing ads, i’ll be good with it. i still have desire to write my own to avoid the trappings of bigger companies looking for revenue generating tactics.

i never thought i’d come back to digg. now i can sport those digg/diggnation t-shirts again with relevance rather than nostalgia.