We Love Christmas Commercials

Why I Have Problems With Microsoft

While I truly respect folks for using Twitter, I just never understood the buzz. I would read people’s tweets, but could not keep them in any kind of order. And what if I wanted to read responses to my tweets? Then I discovered Plurk. Plurk just speaks to me. I add a plurk, and people can respond directly to it. I can go back a few hours later, use the notifications, and I can see new plurks and responses to existing plurks. I can go back to my plurks and read comments. And it’s all on a horizontal timeline. Definitely allows me to visualize my day and scan through plurks to find what I need. I use it both personally and professionally, allowing for many good educational relationships to be formed, having many questions answered, and many resources shared.
Imagine my surprise, when I read the following blog post from Plurk: (http://blog.plurk.com/2009/12/14/microsoft-rips-plurk/). You really do not even need to read the blog, you get the gist of the sentiment in the URL. Seems that Microsoft stole the entire codebase, including UI, from Plurk for their Asian microblogging tool Club MSN (http://club.msn.cn/). You can view the Plurk blog page to see that not only does the user interface look very familiar, but they copied it right down to the code, substituting the names of the variables for their own names. WHAT? Microsoft, the company, much in the vein of the RIAA or MPAA, that will pretty much hunt you down and throw you to the wolves for neglecting one step in their marathon registration process. The company that charges you over $100.00 (US) for highly overrated software that did not even work with their older versions (*coughOfficecough*). Now they not only used portions of another tool, but they took the ENTIRE code base. Really, I guess this does not surprise me much, but it just frustrates me so much. We in the open source movement work so hard to make sure there are free and open standards, while entities such as Microsoft push money around so they can come out with their own proprietary formats. We work tirelessly to make sure things such as Creative Commons work better than Copyright (thank you, Mr. Lessig), then to have Microsoft swoop in without any fear of retribution. Grrrrr!

All Done

Yup...I squeaked by just enough on Wednesday to be a certified technician! Now I guess I'll start working toward my Linux+. No rest for the wicked!
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Fun weekend. I have a long 8 mile run, and then we'll drop the girls off for an overnight at Grammie and Grandpa's. Should be fun for all!

100th Of the Year...

Yup, my 100th post of 2009. I just wish I had something to say for it.

A Good Sign???

One A+ Down, One To Go

Passed the 602 exam on Wednesday. That, hopefully, is the more difficult one. That is one of the 'elective' tests that must be passed in additional to the Essentials exam. They recommend taking them in the opposite direction, but as always, I would rather finish the difficult things first!
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The test was not too difficult. I only saw a few things that totally stumped me (honeypot???), but for most I could reason out which were not answers, so I could find the answers. Again, I am confident going into Wednesday, but I will go ahead and study some more!

Here I Come, Pittsburgh Marathon...

Well, I registered. Early Registration ended last month, and I made the call to go ahead and sign up. So May 2nd I will run the streets of Pittsburgh for my 3rd marathon. Already have a bunch of folks up there ready to come out and support me with Krispy Kremes and Coke! Training will officially begin December 24th with an 8 miler. I will probably try to run an 8 miler tomorrow too...the Durant Park loop.

Thanksgiving Eve

Decided to take the day off on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and glad I did. With my pending certification tests next week and the week after, this gave me some ample time to study. I'm pretty confident going into it, but extra studying never hurts!
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We also decided to take the girls to Lake Lynn. Kerry and I, when living at The Loft, used Lake Lynn as a great running trail. The trail goes two miles around Lake Lynn, features a wooded pavement trail, and some really long wooden bridges over the Lake. Of course, with all the ducks and geese, the girls Loved it! They both also pretty much ran the entire way around it. I think we have some more runners in the family!

And of Course, What's a Parade Without Hockey??

More of the Parade

The girls were pretty excited, waiting in 'parade mode' for Grammie and Grandpa to arrive...

Christmas Season Starts Officially With Parade!

Ok, so now I can get hard core--the Raleigh Christmas Parade was yesterday. Not as cool as last year, but with the wind, still a bit nipply. As you can see, my girls spent a lot of the time snacking! We had decent seats, but next year I think we'll camp out. Darth Vader and the Stormtroopers made a repeat appearance, along with Stormy. We had three balloons this year, and Glen Wesley was our Grand Marshall. Fun times!

My Thanksgiving Guests...

So your run of the mill question going around the internets--which literary figures would you want to share your Thanksgiving Meal with? Mine is quite telling. Telling, in that maybe I need to schedule that psych eval...

Lawrence Lessig, Roland Deschain (Stephen King’s Dark Tower Series), Snape, Daisy Miller (Henry James), and of course, The Mad Hatter.

Another Obvious One...

Your Christmas is Most Like: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Christmas is a big, boisterous event at your place. And no matter what, something hilarious usually happens.

What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?

Blogthings: Discover the Parts of Your Personality that Have Been Hiding

The Sun Returns!

So after our week of overcast and rainy conditions, yesterday and today the rain made a reappearance. So definitely a lot of time will be spent outside!

Busy Weekend--Holidays Are Coming!

Yup, you can tell the Holidays approach when we, yes we, go out shopping Saturday night. We actually dropped the girls off at their school for two hours (Parents' Night Out) and went to a dinner, Yummy Panera!, Kohls, and Walmart. Really nice to just spend some time together, looking casually at the stores, and not chasing two girls around!
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Hard to believe the Raleigh Christmas parade is next Saturday. Looking forward to that with the Flanigans. Hopefully it will not be quite as chilly as last year!
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Looking more and more like I will begin training for the Pittsburgh Marathon in May, 2010. I need to decide by next month, and after a 6 miler yesterday, I think I will be back to normal by next month. Kinda excited to do another marathon...but I really want to spend more time on 'off running' training like hill repeats, biking, and strength training.

Rain Rain, Go Away...

Seriously, how much will we end up receiving? It has been raining nonstop for over 24 hours. There goes our drought, with the 6+ inches we received. Figures, on a day off for us too! Girls showed some signs of cabin fever, so we ended up going out for awhile, but not too bad of a day. I worked on the computer awhile, setting up a new harddrive.
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Kerry tracks out, so she'll be spending some good time with the girls for the next couple weeks. Saturday we actually have a date night. The girls' school is doing a parents' night out, so we will drop them off. Fun!

Oink, Oink...

Not Swine Flu, but another (or the same??) sinus infection. More meds, and a weekend to recover. Kerry tracked out for three weeks today, and it looks like she may head to the doctor Monday as well. It's definitely going to be a rough winter!
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Fun weekend--long run tomorrow, then Kerry's school will hold a winter fund-raiser event. Looking forward to taking the girls to that!

Halloween Customes for Next Year

 We decided to venture out to WalMart today in search of clearance candy and costumes. No candy, but you can see the girls got a Tinkerbell and High School Musical to play dress up with.

So Our Pumpkin Was to Look Like This...

 

Halloween...Check! Christmas Music...Ready!

Yup, we survived Halloween! Actually was a pretty good day. We went to Falls Lake for awhile, both girls rode their bikes, although Myra rode hers about 10 feet and then ran the rest of the way. Probably ran about a mile when all was said and done. Then we went trick or treating. Lucy (Cinderella) and Myra (Marie from the Aristocats) enjoyed some trick or treating at a few houses, but really wanted to go back home to pass out candy to trick or treaters. Mommy and Daddy agreed! We actually did see about 10 trick or treaters, a big year for us!
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Today, you know we began the Christmas music! Christmas is next month! It rained pretty much all day, so we did not go to the farm liked planned. We did enjoy some fun today, and the girls picked up two more dress up outfits at Wal Mart today.
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Busy week and month coming up. Myra's first conference, and I will attend that. Kerry and the girls track out after this week. Then the Raleigh Christmas parade comes at the end of the month. Woohoo!!