February 27, 2005
February 25, 2005
February 23, 2005
Tucson Trip
Back from Tucson trip.
Tucson rocks btw. Cheap houses, nice people, sane policies. I figure if I commute from Tucson to San Jose every day, it'd be THIRTY ONE YEARS before the $120/day flight would cost more than the difference between what a house like mine costs in SJ and what it costs in Tucson. The total 4 hour flight time would only be slightly more than my current 1.5 hour commute.
Tucson rocks.
February 18, 2005
Feelin' the Warmth
Ocean, Arctic Studies Show Global Warming Is Real
For the dumbasses, Tim Barnett, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography:
"The debate over whether or not there is a global warming signal is now over, at least for rational people"
Hear that, Bush? Wanna wait for more studies?
February 16, 2005
Passing the 40 hour mark
I hate to count hours, but the days when I could pull 80 hour weeks for months on end are long gone. I spent about 5 minutes with my kids today, which is intolerable. Life is short.
Sigh.
February 13, 2005
February 10, 2005
February 09, 2005
February 03, 2005
Neatimage Rocks
The original version of this picture was a noisy, grainy mess - I had to take it in ISO3200 to counteract dog-induced handshaking.
Then I found NeatImage. It was like having a whole new(er) camera. The image is still soft (noise, even after cleaning, introduces some softness, and even at 3200, the shutter speed was still slow), but the image is usable.
There is some chroma noise (the red splotches, just barely visible) - even these I should be able to clean using this nifty software, once I learn how to.
February 01, 2005
Mmmmm, beachy
It is done.
Just over a year ago, my wife and I took a crazy gamble and bought a 1/4 acre lot near our favorite beach in Rincon, Puerto Rico. Crazy because we live 9 hours away, by jet. Crazy because I knew nothing about house construction, or contracting, or PR zoning law, or PR permitting, or anything.
It took us a few months to settle on a design for a beachhouse. We spoke with architects, bought design books extolling the virtues of exotically expensive architecture, spoke to numerous architects, and adjusted our expectations. We wanted fancy minimalist, settled for practical. Life is about compromise :)
After reaching our decision, I flew down to PR, and in 3 days found an excellent general contractor, excellent engineer, met with lawyers, salesmen, lined up the construction permits, bought the materials, everything.
We enlisted our family's help too - they drove by frequently, keeping an eye on things. My father-in-law took lots of pics; I looked forward to his envelopes stuffed with pictures like a kid waits for christmas.
Over the months, I made frequent calls, smoothing out supply problems, calling attention to minor issues I noted in the pictures, lining up side issues (like getting the A/C in place).
And now, eight months after construction started, it has finally all come together. The house is done.
There is still a lot of work left to do (landscaping, driveway and sidewalk, fences, furniture, appliances... we're even planning to buy a car), but that all seems trivial relative to what has come before.
I'd like to thank all those who helped us pull this off: Fernando, Vanessa, Jose, Cuca, Tony Aviles (the contractor), Nelson Bonet (the engineer), Freddie, Chere, Reggie (for dicking with *ewww* windows to get me pictures) and the fine people at Casas Miliangie's Client Services, which put up with a guy from CA trying to pick tiles over the phone.
Yay!