CNET’s James Kim and family missing

We’ve received word that a respected member of our tech community, James Kim (whom many of you may know as CNET’s senior editor of digital audio), and his family have gone missing. As we understand it, last weekend James, his wife Kati (above right), and his very young girls Penelope (left) and Sabine (baby), drove from their home in the SF Bay Are

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young @ heart

on second thought, maybe i do have something to post.

found this via digg recently and thought it was beautiful.

the gentlman singing is from a group called young @ heart. i think this lends weight to my belief that a singer’s life experience can matter a lot more than their vocal ability.

bad blogger!

i have been a very bad blogger of late. i’ve been sick and busy. plus, nothing all that cool has happened.

i have been using del.icio.us though.

stranger than fiction

i just saw “stranger than fiction” with john, ashley and leah. it is undoubtedly the best movie i’ve seen this year (which was, up to this point, probably “little miss sunshine”.)

the screenplay was tightly written, it was well acted by all cast members, and was beautifully shot.

for the record, i thought that it was going to be lame when i saw the trailer, i would highly recommend it.

next on my viewing list: the prestige

that phone guy

go here.

sick, but i have ubuntu

i went home early from work today. i’ve been under the weather for the past few days, and i want to rest up and get better earlier rather than later.

my ubuntu discs came in the mail today. i installed it on my old dell machine, and i’m pleased. the process could not be any easier. you don’t have to be technically literate at all.

i now am completely windows free in my personal computing life (ubuntu linux on my desktop, os x on my macbook) and i couldn’t be happier.

if you have an old windows desktop that’s just sitting around and collecting dust, i would highly reccomenend installing ubuntu. it comes with all the software you need (web browsing, email, office apps, photo editing, music and video, chat, etc.) and all completely fro free. check out my earlier post on open source software and software libre.

getting things done

if you know me well, you know that i have a strong tendency to have what i call “kicks”. i’ll be strongly interested in one topic, and one topic alone, and talk about in contstantly (much to the chagrin of my friends). my mind will be completely apsorbed with it for months. some of my more notable kicks have been: italian cooking, comic books, vintage video games, podcasting/technology, abstract impressionist painting, action figures, harry potter, personal hygeine products (that was a weird one), and various movies/tv shows/books/fictional universes.

i think it all stems from my montresori preschool, where i understand that children are allowed to explore topics as they interest them. i also think this trait is pretty essential to being a geek (although most hardcore geeks have the ability to stick to one thing to obsess over. i go through two or three a year.) it hasn’t alway been a great thing (as my kicks genreally don’t line up well with my jobs or classes), but it can be pretty fun too (especially with useful ones like my tech kick, which i’m currently in.)

i say all of this to say that i think i’ve found my new kick: gtd. I have been marginally aware of this movement because of merlin mann’s involvement with the twit family of podcasts. merlin runs 43folders.com, which is a blog centered around the gtd ideas.

if you don’t feel like following the links above, gtd stands for “getting things done“, and its a personal productivity system. after reading about it, i found out that there were some things that i was already doing (maintaining an inbox, collecting thoughts on paper), but there’s a lot more to be taken from this.

i made my hipster pda (or hPDA) today, and i’m already loving the system. it really reinforces the direction i have been moving for awhile, but its so much more coherent. i’l post a little more later.

update: rat-watch 2006

up until a few minutes ago four rodents (2 rats, 2 mice/baby rats) had been killed in our apartment, bringing our house to a grand total of eight rodents killed.

then, while my roomate nathan and i were talking downstairs, we heard the familiar “SNAP!” of the kitchen rat trap, and what did we find?

2 dead rats in one trap.

i hate my house.

resignation

after spending the past few days reviewing my goals, my finances and my schedule, i’ve finally resigned myself to the fact that i’m going to be amazingly busy for the next two years.

between school, multiple jobs, personal development and valuable side-projecs i’m just going to be obsecenely busy. i’m going to maintain saturday as my sabbath, which should be a great release valve.

for the past few months i’ve been looking for ways to make more free time for myself, but i think that i may do better to think of this as a time for building personal stamina, character and a strong work ethic

i feel gross (WARNING! this post is supremely unpleasant)

i just had to bludgeon a rat to death.

i know it’s not pleasant, but it’s true.  it was no more than five minutes ago, in fact.

we became aware that our (seemingly) fair house was infested with rodents a few weeks ago.  our land lord (read: slum-lord-in-training) finally got around to sending out a real exterminator early last week.  he set traps (both the sticky and break-your-finger kind) out everywhere.  our neighbors had four vermin (rats and mice) show up in their traps.

the sticky traps are unpleasant.  i thought the break-your-finger kind were less so.  i was wrong.

a few minutes ago i heard a lout “SNAP!” followed by scratching sounds.  i went into the kitchen to see a rat caught in a trap.  but it wasn’t caught by its head, as the one my roomate found this morning was.  it was caught by its arm.  it was clearly suffering.  after a brief moment it sat still, and i thought it was dead.  unfortunately, i was wrong.  it began struggling to free its arm again.

i couldn’t bear to watch it suffer, so i took it outside and put an end to the whole ordeal.  it was very unsettling to take a life like that, but not as unsettling as watching (and hearing) an animal suffer.

side note: if you think your house feels dirty, picture your kitchen with dead rats in it.  i don’t know if i’ll ever be able to eat in this house again.