Remember when MTV and VH-1 played actual music?
I know that this is a worn out trope and that there are any number of folks who have written (and even created videos) responding to it, but in this case it’s more of an entrée on to the topic of what has been playing on my second monitor all week.
Once upon a time, before I was a manager in GoDaddy’s (now sadly defunct) Advanced Hosting Support department, I was a Lead and then a Supervisor for the entirety of its third shift — the graveyard/overnight shift. It was a pretty great job. Third shift was significantly less formal than any other, and it was populated with workers who had either just joined the department or those who for whatever reason refused to face a typical daytime shift (the extra couple of bucks an hour in shift differential no doubt served as a motivator in many cases)!
Like most, I too had started my career in AHS on graveyards, but had bounced around the department while climbing the ranks. Once my chance at leadership came, I ended up back on third and it was like coming home. I could tell all sorts of stories about my time on third shift (and some of those stories are already on this very blog). Despite the stereotype of overnight shifts being the social rejects, a huge portion of my philosophy about customer service comes from my time with those fine folk.
But the point to this post is not about that. Instead, it’s to share with you a video.
I have a new special someone in my life. She’s wonderful. Amazing. She’s just absolutely gorgeous.
I think I love her.
Deeply, though of course cautiously.
(I have been burned before, after all!)
But there is a passion here. A passion that only a photographer can feel for his ridiculously expensive new camera . . . that happened to arrive just in time for a trip to one of his favourite cities, no less.
Internet, I’d like you to meet Bessie II, or B2 for short.
NOTE: I’m going to be talking about a cross-platform privacy app in the following post. I have very strong feelings related to government and ISP/Telecom surveillance, however that topic is far too large to address in this post (maybe some time in the future?). As will soon be obvious, I believe that privacy is a personal right but that protecting it is your responsibility and should be taken seriously.
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I’ve always had a certain interest in security, privacy, and encryption. Sadly, my brain doesn’t work in such a way that allows me to get involved in the intricacies of actual security development, so instead I sit on the sidelines and watch with bated breath for each new development in this grand international chess game of laws and hacks (or real life version of Person of Interest).
This past weekend I had the opportunity to participate and volunteer at the Inaugural WordCamp US in Philadelphia, which is a nation-wide conference for developers of, professionals who work with, and major fans of the software which runs 25% of the Internet . . . WordPress.
It was by no means my first WordCamp, which are held regularly all over the world, but it was my first national-level WC. Before WCUS, the main national WordCamp in the United States has been held in San Francisco each of the previous 9 years and I had never managed to make it, much to my regret. I was so excited to finally get to attend this gathering of people who make WordPress such a huge part of their lives . . . and it didn’t disappoint in the slightest!
But who cares, right? Everyone knows that Green Apple skittles are way better.
That was a TEST!! If you didn’t just have a violent reaction of shock and horror bordering on the physical and nearly throw whatever device that you are reading these words off of out of the nearest window, then we are no longer friends and I invite you to discontinue following this blog.
Good day, sir and/or madam.
I SAID GOOD DAY.
As has been discussed ad nauseam, I’ve been ridiculously in to little projects lately. I don’t know why I’ve gotten such a thrill out of making shit, but if anyone’s been suffering from it, it’s been my poor wife.
Well I no longer feel sorry for her.
While she has been in Seattle these past couple of weeks, she indulged in her own favourite hobby, hitting up the Thrift Shop (props to Macklemore, another Seattle native) and she found me the most outrageous gift ever.
As I discovered with my cool little Superman Phone Case adventure (TM), projects can be fun.
I’m guessing they’re even more fun when alcohol is fundamental to the entire thing, however.
Kendra and I have a party to go to this weekend, and the theme for most of our friends’ parties is almost always “booze.” Now I approve of that theme, but we figured rather than just buy an ordinary old bottle of something from the local grocery store (and since we’re cheap and not going to buy something NICE), we figured we would do something interesting instead.
Ikea introduced a line of inductive chargers recently and during a completely unrelated pilgrimage to that mecca of Scandinavian flatpack decor this week, my wife and I ran across their display case and ended up tripling our register bill (despite the chargers themselves being relatively inexpensive at just under $30 each).
The chargers work just as advertised. If you have a Qi-enabled device (such as Kendra’s Nexus 5), just plug in one of their six-inch diameter platters (in white or wood finish . . . or assemble a table or lamp which has the charger built in . . . we went with a couple of the stand-alones for now) and then put your phone in the center of the little plus/X. Voila. It’s charging. And fast. Kendra’s phone went from 50% to fully charged in less than an hour.
Doctor . . . Who . . . ?
I realize that the actual anniversary was a few days ago but you know me, I’m always late to the party.
In any case, when Doctor Who was first resurrected (regenerated?) 10 years ago, I was living in Scotland, finishing up work on my ^^incredibly useful^^ History degree. Naturally, the BBC ran a huge selection of previous seasons on the run up to the premier. I had never seen a single episode and so anyone who has watched that grand tradition of camp you will know that I was . . . well, I wasn’t as excited about meeting the new Doctor as everyone else was.
Ash Rhodes.com 