Categories
Life

A couple box packing tips

When a release is finished at Microsoft people pull their heads out of their current product and frequently move around between teams (and that means packing up your office to head to a new location). Watching professional movers pack my house for the move to and from Ireland did teach me a little about moving. There are two biggie tips, however, that stood out.

Tape your boxes the wrong way first

Going from flat cardboard to a box can be awkward with one person. It’s not tremendously hard to assemble a box, but if you want it to be nice and square you can speed the process by running the first piece of tape perpendicular to the seam.

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Align the bottom flaps and run a piece of tape across the bottom of the box and it will be held closed and aligned while you tape the seam.

Pack your boxes on top of other boxes

The first tip will save you a little time, but this second tip will save your back. No matter how careful you are, moving is tiring and often hard on your back.

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Once you have a box or two packed, put your next empty box on top of your packed boxes. Loading this top box will be much easier as you won’t be bending down to put items in the bottom of the box. You should, of course, protect your back from the beginning and start your first box on a chair.

Combo bonus!

I recommend combining the two tips and build your new boxes on top of the other boxes (see first picture). Constructing your fresh box on a raised pedestal will preserving your back even when you’re straining to lift your collection of dolls action figures.

Watch what you eat

Not really a packing tip per se, but the logo on the bottom of the packing boxes did make me worry that if I’m not careful I might die of dysentery.

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Categories
Home

Resource Furniture: the Q of interior design

This furniture is just way too cool. I just need an excuse to move into a 200 square foot New York loft.

You expect me to talk? No Mr. Bond, I expect you to sleep.

 

I want this Bed/Desk combo for my office:

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via: core77

Categories
Life

Take a trip, you’ll be happier

The New York Times published an interesting article this weekend about money and happiness. Sure, it’s filled with the usual “money can’t buy happiness” stories and tales of self discovery. I think it’s stuff we all know deep down inside but are good at repressing (Gizmodo hasn’t made me happy yet… but it’s my Ike Turner).

But wait, what’s this? If you dig deep enough you’ll find this little gem:

Thomas DeLeire, an associate professor of public affairs, population, health and economics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, recently published research examining nine major categories of consumption. He discovered that the only category to be positively related to happiness was leisure: vacations, entertainment, sports and equipment like golf clubs and fishing poles.

Now there’s some useful investment advice. It’s time to re-order my priorities.

Sure, a new computer sounds great… but schnitzel in Austria sounds wonderful right now.

Categories
TV

QI, c’mon BBC, share a little

imageWhile I miss my coworkers from Dublin, Irish breakfasts, and the Dropping Well… what I miss most from Ireland is getting the full breadth for BBC programming. Sure, as with US programming, there are plenty of duds, but I miss being able to watch Top Gear without a several month delay and the best quiz show ever:  the ridiculously funny (and, of course, Interesting) QI.

The premise of QI is: create a quiz show filled with impossibly hard questions, stock the contestant chairs with comedians & celebrities and then don’t worry about having the answers be right or even on topic. By rewarding the guests for answers which are "interesting" and allowing the conversation to wander far from the original question you are bound to get amusing stories and random facts which are, of course, quite interesting.

imageLast week I was reminded of how much I miss Stephen Fry when Paula happened across re-runs of Stephen Fry in America running on PBS. Here’s the thing: Mr. Fry’s father was offered a job at Princeton University but, since he turned it down, Stephen feels he was almost an American. But all of this is beside the point because BBC America is an anemic substitute for the BBC and is holding back the best content: specifically QI.

All of this has, however, made me realize why it’s actually interesting for me to be able to watch YouTube on my TiVo: episodes of Qi. A generous YouTuber (YouTubista?) has kindly squirreled away episodes (all the way back to the pilot).

Thank goodness the BBC hasn’t figured out how to advertise to the US in their web videos (they block non-UK viewers) because otherwise I might feel guilty not giving revenue where it’s due.

Also I couldn’t watch the videos on my TV. And, as has already been widely recognized, it is all about me.

Categories
Overseen

I always love a volume discount

Though I’m not sure if I get the math here.

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Categories
Weird

Swan Dive!

Isaiah Mustafa is back to make the ladies swoon and, without a doubt, make men want to smell like him (which I can only assume is a heady mixture of Old Spice and awesome).

Hello ladies…

This whole campaign does have me concerned, however, to much more of this and Old Spice will ruin my marriage. Either Paula will come to her senses and see I’m not as dreamy as Isaiah… or I’m going to leave her, move to wherever Isaiah Mustafa lives and build the First Universal Church of Isaiah the Dreamy in his front yard. It will be a non-profit, of course. Donations of cash, food and Old Spice are always welcome.

I’ll probably need a good lawyer too.

Categories
Life

I’m not sure I can keep eating this way

Paula and I met Dick for some drinks and snacks tonight and headed over to Lot no. 3 in downtown Bellevue. We had some Salumi cured meats, a PB & J (peanut butter, BACON and jelly) and, of course, a Plate O’ Bacon.

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What the hell, this body’s just on loan anyway, right?

Categories
Overseen

I think my heart just stopped…

Sundays are a great time to visit John Howie Steak in Bellevue: happy hour in the bar lasts from 3pm to 10pm. For $40 Paula and I had two glasses of wine, a soda, mac & cheese, steak sliders, crab salad and, my new favorite food, tempura fried bacon with maple ponzu dip.

Categories
Overseen

Mommy, where do hippos come from?

Mexico, dear, just like watermelons and Taco Bell.

Categories
Blog

Migrated from dasBlog to WordPress

After many good years of publishing via dasBlog I made the decision to jump ship and start using WordPress. dasBlog has been speedy, stable and very easy to style. It’s a great power user tool but I’m now at the point where I want the simplicity of a more mainstream product.

Following the lead of Shan and Mike I opted for WordPress and set about installing it this weekend. A quick web search turned up more than a few helpful pages on migrating content (Kavinda’s post is a good one stop shop). The key components to my migration from dasBlog v1.9 to WordPress v2.9.2 were:

  1. Getting the content out of DasBlog – DasBlog to BlogML exporter
  2. Getting the content into WordPress – BlogML import plug-in (Kavinda Munasinghe’s Version)
  3. Providing a permanent redirect from old links to new – Redirection Plug-in

I would not call the migration painless, but after a bit of tech-turbulence it all came together. I’m now up and running on WordPress and everything is running smoothly.

To share the love I’ve created a page with my tips for migrating from dasBlog to WordPress.