I've got a new job (soon)!  The beginning of next year I'll be joining the Sharepoint team in Redmond, Washington.  I'm super-excited about this new position.  I'll be moving into the greater Office organization and getting a chance once again, to work with friends from the past. 

While Paula and I are both really excited to be moving to Redmond we're still a little bit stressed and sad.  We're facing down our second international move in less than two years (can you say "gluttons for punishment"?) and are a little disappointed to be leaving Ireland. We love the Irish people, the country and especially the convenient travel.

We will, however, be over the hump soon and are working hard to distract ourselves (went to Waterford last weekend, going to Spain this weekend, going to western Ireland in early December and to New York for Christmas with my sister <phew>). 

January 14th is my first day... so I'm sure the time will fly.

... because this may take a while.

If you're like me and like to adjust the look and feel of your SmugMug site then you'll love this: a visual reference for the SmugMug Class and DIV IDs.

I was poking around Chris MacAskill's SmugMug galleries and came across this wicked cool reference.  I'm now going to load the printer up with 8x10 photo paper and print this beauty for my wall.

... Fight Like Apes!

With an EP title like "David Carradine Is A Bounty Hunter Whos Robotic Arm Hates Your Crotch", how can you not love these folks?

The quirky title might grab your attention but the Dublin quartet will definitely please with great tracks and a style described as "synth-grunge".  Check out their My Space page and have a listen.

Note: I realize "Whos" is not "good English"... but that is the album title.  They are, after all, quirky.

I've made no secret of how much I love SmugMug.  Great price, straight-forward UI, unlimited photo storage, open APIs... blah, blah, blah.  You want loyal customers?  Simple: make a great product and support it well.

Well, here's another tip for loyal customers: give 'em free stuff for no reason whatsoever.

I logged into SmugMug tonight to check the stats on my pictures and guess what?  They're going to send me stickers and a camera strap...  just 'cause.

I'm feeling the love.

Why not join us?

Earlier this week we launched a microsite for our team here in Dublin.  The new site is chock full of informational goodness.

The new site was built under the watchful eye of Dan and the end result is quite slick.  It even makes me want to re-apply for a job.

So, if you like the sound of great benefits like 31 days of paid vacation (yep, 6 weeks) and being within spitting distance of anywhere in Europe... review the job list then click one of the "e-mail your CV" links on the site to submit a resume.

Now, that you've applied, it's time for a little hide-and-seek... can you find the picture of me on the site?

Paula's using my old laptop and Pa really needs to take it out back behind the barn with a shotgun.  It's slow, it won't dock properly and I really don't like the way it's been looking at the toaster.

This past weekend we finally bit the bullet and placed an order for a new laptop for Paula, the ThinkPad X61s.  Paula's top desire is small and light and this unit fit the bill (as well as came with a ton of awards to ease our minds).  Sony and Toshiba have some very sexy laptops... but the price of the ThinkPad sold us (although we were both tempted by the pretty hardware).  The total with shipping and tax: $1,989.93, a full $1000 less than the Sony.

We were very pleased with the results.  Paula really wanted the Sony TZ, but once we added a dock, shipping and tax the price jumped up to $3,158.07.  Lenovo had a sale on ThinkPads through October 1st making the price hard to beat.  But it gets better...

Our order was delayed because I didn't have my alternate shipping address (Leslie's house) on record with my credit card.  As part of the process I went back to the web site and what should I find?  Lenovo started a new sale.  Bad news normally, but good news for me since my order was still pending.  I canceled the order and put in a new one.  Ding!  Saved $100! 

But wait, there's more.  While I was admiring my new, lower total I noticed a blank line: "eCoupon".  I'm already getting a great price on this laptop (in my opinion)... they're not going to allow me to apply a coupon to their sale price, are they?  Only one way to find out... I type "lenovo ecoupon" into Live search and first result is for a coupon listing on Dealigg.com.  I hop back over to my order and sure enough, my good deal just got better!

End result: the laptop I was pleased to get for $1,989.93 is being shipped to me for $1,527.22. 

Oh, by the way, out of curiosity I went back and tried the same search on Google... the money saving coupon was seven links down.  Thanks Live Search!