• work

    • Snow and Precipitation Reports

    One of my projects from work has been moved into the real world and is ready for use. I work at a climate center that has climate data for the Western US. The most popular data is precipitation and snow water equivalent (how much water is in the snow).
    My program is replacing a static report that shows the precipitation and snow water equivalent for certain areas in the country. One of the problems was the data could change and the static reports would then become out of date. The new program gets the most current data instead. There are six different reports now, instead of the original one. You can compare the current snow levels to the average, the peak average or to another year. I think it's pretty nifty, especially if you're into winter sports and want to know the current snow levels. There is a special report you can run that is tailored to skiing - "Ski West Report" (it will take around 10 seconds).
    Here is the entry page to the reporting program.
  • geek

    • Calling Customer Service

    Whenever I call customer service I hate having to deal with "press 8 to...." or whatever. I'd rather just talk to a person. Here is a cheat sheet that you can use to get to a human on the phone quickly.
  • fun

    • Running

    I've been thinking that it'd be cool to have a thing to map my runs and maybe keep a log of them. So I ran across mapmyrun.com from lifehacker. It's really cool, you use googlemaps to plot you runs and it tells you your distance and calories (with your height/weight info.)
    My runs are here
  • geek

    • Geek TV

    I was waiting for a compile to finish (like my excuse?) and came across this article/blog entry about geek tv. It's about online distribution and consumption of TV content. Very interesting stuff.
  • fun

    • Halloween with May and Aimee

    Fittingly as yesterday was halloween, on my run with May I got bit by a vampire dog. (It looks much cooler in person.)
    After wiping the foam from my mouth I went out with May and Aimee to the Clinton Street Pub where they were having a corn dog eating contest. May thought she'd take me down, but we both lost to some dude at the end of the bar. I was in second, but it's not horseshoes.
    I'll have better pictures up when May throws a few my way, until then here is The Great Pumpkin and Daisy Duke in the dark.
  • fun

    • Halloween: Beer, Axe Fights, Flying Spaghetti Monster, Women in my bed

    I had a Halloween Costume Party at my house on Friday. I was Paul Bunyan and was pretty psyched about walking around with an axe all night. But after my tally got past 5 on the beer cup, I left the axe alone.

    We had such guests as the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Jesus and his old man God. Also had another Paul Bunyan (we had an axe fight after I chopped down an Ent.) Daisy Duke and May West were there. Along with a Salmon, a Ninja, some Pirates, Romans, Middle Age Zorro, Tooth Fairy and others. It got hazy pretty early.

    The Flying Spaghetti Monster and God had a duel. I think it's obvious who won. The loser had to eat Kitty Litter Cake.

    I was told I had the Tooth Fairy, May West and the Mermaid taking special pictures in my bedroom. I wasn't around for that but I'm supposed to be getting them for Christmas. Maybe sooner?

    I even had the Viking drive over my beautiful potato and onion garden. Apparently when Paul Buynan threw potatos at the Mermaid it was time to show what's what. My neighbors must love me with trucks driving on my yard, axe fights and a Religous War happening inside.
  • babble

    • Popcorn Genius

    I saw a guy cut out the top of his popcorn bag a few weeks ago and finally tried it out.
  • fun

    • Japanese Gardens

    Aimee had some friends visiting this weekend and let me tag along and we made it up to the Japanese Gardens this Sunday. It was no comparison for my weed infested back yard, but it was pretty cool.

    Photos