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I've been using Change detection for quite some time now, I wanted to make sure that they don't send out spam. They really do respect my privacy, and it is rather accurate as to when
it sends me email updates. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. AND, you can monitor ANY webpage for changes, so it is great for more sites than just mine!
here is an example of the changelog for my page: http://www.changedetection.com/log/blogspot/dskye/index_log.html
PLEASE WAIT FOR THIS PAGE TO LOAD, it can take a minute, but it's WORTH IT :)
20080717
Coolerado Cool School
Coolerado Cool School So, the Coolerado is estimated to be a 40 SEER Cooling device [66 SEER if you opt for the ultra-efficient motor that uses 1/5th the amount of electricty of a "standard" AC 1250 watt electricity usage for "normal" fan, 750 watt MAX on the high efficiency fan], potential yearly savings over a traditional AC COULD be as much as $600-$1000 per year (but being as my new AC will only cost, APPROXIMATELY $243/year to run, then that is the best savings I could hope for, the "Standard" R600 [ie NOT w/high-efficiency motor] Coolerado, PLUS installation is about $2,000 more than what I am paying for my AC, so for me it would take a MINIMUM of 8 years 3 months to recover the additional costs (that 8 years assumes that I use my AC once a year for 10 minutes, per YEAR), So, for once, I couldn't get the "MOST EFFICIENT" of something. Speaking of which, my new AC will be paired with one of the most efficient Gas Furnaces in production today, the Amana 95 IIQ, which is 95.5% efficient [95.5 AFUE], the most efficient is 96.6% efficient. Am I bragging? Well I hope I'm not, but I'm trying to be an example, I'm hoping that more and more people will focus on efficiency/energy usage, and try to cut back a little, or find the products that are more efficient because the savings in energy are going to pay off, in the long run, 10 years from now I will have saved $2,970 over an 8 SEER AC, if the 8 SEER costs $2,000 less, then I've saved $970 over 10 years, it may not seem like that is worth it, but that is the equivalent of 12,125 Killawatts of electricity, (which I know means nothing to most of you), I use on average anywhere from 19-24 KWh per day, so that is 505 days worth of electricy. Meaning, in 10 years, I'm saving enough money to buy electricity to power FIVE-HUNDRED HOMES for a day! (or 1 home for 505 days :P ) Enough of my energy efficiency ranting for today. Be good to yourself, be good to your environment ;)
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AA Battery Test - - PopPhotoJune 2008 Are the more expensive batteries, really the cheapest? (fine, they are; but now you can see independant proof).
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At Amy's request ["You should post a similar picture of her sisters so that we can see the similarities"], here are the 3 girls (and a picture of the 4 girls together):
I'm not one to really act like a movie critic or anything, but after watching about 1,000 movies over the past year-and-a-half or so (no exaggeration, the other week the clerk looked at the computer and remarked that I was 30 away from 1,000 since joining Hollywood MVP), anyway, after seeing about 1,000 movies, I feel I can speak a little bit about a great movie I just saw: "Partition"
(click the link to see who's in it, and what it is about). Anyway, there are some people that don't like the movie, and a lot that do. But I can say it is certainly one of the more moving and well shot movies I've seen in quite a while. I really enjoyed it, and yes, I am slightly biased (it does have Kristin Kreuk), but nonetheless I thought it was a great movie. If I see anymore that move me enough to post about, I might actually post about them too (most movies are "shallow" entertainment, and I like to be entertained, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend them to a friend, this is a movie worth a recommendation) let's call this four-and-a-half stars (not 5, because judging against the best movie ever [no hints as to what I consider that to be], this one rates 4.5)
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So, I've had a Treo for almost 3.5 years now, my first was the Treo 650, I got that on my Birthday (Feb 9th) 2005, it was a great little phone, and wonderful Palm. I "upgraded" to the Treo 755p almost a year ago (July 04th, to be exact), and switched providers from Cingular/AT&T/New AT&T/whatever their name is, to Sprint, because of 2 things, #1, Sprint has the EDGE network (downloads are about 3 times faster on Sprint), and #2 because Sprint's UNLIMITED DATA plan is about $15 (All the others are around $40, or at least they were in July of 2007). I realize that for some people, the BIG news right now is the $199 8-gig, 3G Apple iPhone (or $299 for the 16-gig), with a $30 dataplan.... But, the only thing I like about the iPhone is the Palm Emulator software (Thus I could run all my existing Palm apps on an iPhone), other than that, it's no big news to me.
So, I just finished writing a review about the Palm Treo 755p, and thought, I might as well post it to my blog as well...
This phone is simply the best. I use it to sync my corporate email, contacts, calendar, and tasks. It syncs every 5 minutes, and I ALWAYS have enough batterylife to get through the day. It's a LiOn battery which has no memory effect, thus I plug it in every night, and have seen no degradation in performance over the last year (in theory it should cycle 300-500 times: http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm) I've been a Palm fan since Palm II and sometimes I wish for the graffiti back, but I've downloaded a program called Graffiti Anywhere, and that helps for those times I'd rather write than type. The greatest thing about Palms, is the amount of FREE software available: http://freewarepalm.com/ as an example I could never get this much software for a Blackberry, or even an iPhone, without being nickeled and dimed for every little app (maybe the iPhone will get more free software over the next 5 years). Sprints data network is SOLID, I can easily DL 1 meg of data in UNDER a minute. I have an external Bluetooth GPS device that works great with Telenav--I bought a 3-5 year subscription via Telenav which makes it about $5/month instead of $10 thru Sprint. Although, hopefully Google Maps will work with a GPS on Palm sometime in the future. There are a lot of things that probably could be quicker, but when you think of everything this phone can do, waiting 1 or 2 seconds isn't a big deal, my first cellphone would pick up, hang up, and dial, that's it, no calendar, no calculator, nothing. I used to carry around 3 devices, a typical geek, but with the invention of the Treo, I have consolidated, it is a computer, internet browser, day planner, telephone, alpha-numeric pager, 2-way communicator (pinger.com), and many more things (a newspaper, a flashlight, an MP3 player, a TV, a video player, a camera/camcorder, a scratchpaper/notepad, a book/ebook reader, language translator/dictionary, "gameboy"/entertainer, graphing calculator, scientific calculator, mortgage calculator, navigator, memo recorder, password keeper, and assistant). I'm not sure I would want to live without my Palm Treo; I could, but it would be like losing my sight, or my hearing, the world just wouldn't be as easy to get around in.
If you are a Blackberry person, or an iPhone person, then go ahead and be one, the Palm Treo probably isn't for you, in fact you might even like the WinCE version better, but if you really want to get to the guts of life, and enjoy every flower (ie free application written for Palm devices), then the Treo is, Simply The Best.
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So, apparently I have a very distinctive writing style (or so I was informed during a presentation the other day) (wait, is it the parentheses that give me away??), anyway, there was a "Mystery Spotlight" (and 30 people being spotlighted), and somehow this little paragraph gave me away:
Interest or hobby that others don't know about you:
I took 1st place in an archery tournament statewide in my division (I don't do archery anymore, but that's the only hobby/interest that people MIGHT not know)
to which my boss responded, "That seems like quite the SKye-esque prose to me", I asked my boss, Kenny, later, "I didn't know that I had such a distinctive writing style", he responded that indeed, my writing style is VERY distinctive and unique (is that a good thing, or a bad thing, and why am I writing in parenthetical thought again, hey, what can I say... I guess it's just my style) :)
So for fun I have included the Interest or hobbies of OTHER people in the mystery spotlights for comparative purposes (Please note, these are NOT my hobbies or interests, but simply "stuff" to compare my writing style to):
[Michael] sculpture (Goal to Make Halloween Masks)
[Doug] playing the guitar
[Kim] I collect arrowheads
[Alex] I love looking at the stars
[Cinda] The only real magazine that I subscribe to is "Popular Science"
[David] Chippendale dancer [He later told us he was just making this up-LOL]
[Ashley] Fishing
[Christian] I am a Games Workshop collector and big fan of: Space Hulk, won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Board game of 1989. Its first expansion, Deathwing, won Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Board game of 1990. *Space Hulk is an out of print board game by Games Workshop. The game was set in their Warhammer 40,000 universe and draws a certain degree of inspiration from the Alien movies.
[Brenda] I love to read recipe books but never bake or cook anything out of them. I love broadway musicals.
[Charles]I like to cook large breakfasts. The largest one that I've cooked was at my college apartment. It included eggs, hashbrowns, pancakes, waffles, link sausage, bacon, polish sausage, OJ, milk, and toast. Enough food for about 20 people.
[Travis] -karaoke -Volleyball
[Scott I]I like wood carving and gardening
[Kenny] Carpentry -Build Cabinets -Furniture
[Edith] Skiing
[Mark]-Love Music -Love Classic Films and just Older Movies -Love to cook and eat food -Favorite Hobby: New baby, and my Wife
[Carrie] I LOVE Dance-Dance Revolution for the WII.
[Ralph] [pictures of: mowing, hiking, running, guitar, and wrestling cows]
[Sean] Creating CGI/Digital Art
Hmm... I guess my writing style does stand out, to some extent. Thanks everyone for listening to my babbling :)
23 SEER Air Conditioners by Westinghouse Heating and Cooling.
23 SEER Air Conditioners by Westinghouse Heating and Cooling. My "Dream" AC. I can't find a dealer in SLC that sells/installs them (yet?).. One day maybe... This page has a breakdown on costs for various "SEER" ACs (based upon 36,000 BTU unit 1500 cooling load hours and 0.08/kwh: 8 SEER : $540 annual 10 SEER: $432 annual 13 SEER: $332 annual 16 SEER: $270 annual 20 SEER: $216 annual 23 SEER: $188 annual --ie $352/year savings (over 10 years, that's $3,520 savings, but not just good for the pocketbook, but for the environment as well!)
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Comments:
Well, I ended up going with an Amana High-Efficiency Air Conditioner. It is 18.5 SEER, costs about the same amount to have installed, and it has a 10 year warranty for parts/labor, and lifetime forklift replace on the compressor. 18 SEER will, in theory, cost $243 ANNUALLY to run (a savings of $297 per year over an 8 SEER AC, so in 10 years that will be $2,970 savings), I will run it for a month to see what impact it has on the electric bill and decide whether to run it full time or possibly be running my swamp cooler until it gets to the point where humidity won't let my swamp run efficiently, then switch to AC. I did find something interesting in my research of High-efficiency cooling, I'll create a new post about the "Coolerado".
World of Warcraft-Sidescroll game If you have time to kill (I sure don't), then this is a silly little funny (sick? but still humorous?) little flash game that takes at least an hour or so to really enjoy, so... enjoy!
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I was searching for my favorite quote on the web and I only found it on two websites, so to add one more site to the Google search, here it is:
Julius Caesar's First Law of Aerodynamics of Hurled Objects: Sic pilum iactum est. (Literal translation: That's the way the spear is thrown. Free translation: How come I always get the shaft?)
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A few people have asked or remarked about the girl's names, and I've told the story enough times, sometimes the short version, sometimes the long, but I thought I'd post it down so if anyone cared to get the long version (then I can just tell people the short version and point them to my blog).
Anyway, the inspiration for the names in general comes from a Japanese influence (not in terms of having the names sound Japanese, or even that the sounds are Japanese, but in terms of having "Kana" or "Kanji", which my [bad?] definition is a symbol that represents something or someone, which can be combined to create an idea/word/thought/being/etc.) I like how, for example, my friend Hiromi, her name is made up of 2 kanji, "Hiro" meaning "big, large" and "Mi" meaning "beauty", although in Japanese, there over 50 ways of writing the name 'Hiromi' (all with very subtle different meanings), anyway, I liked that, so when we named our first daughter: KyeLee Ann it was made up of different parts (it would be like 3 Kanas Kye and Lee and Ann)...
All the girls names are derivatives of family names, the girls are:
KyeLee Ann KyeAnne NataLee KyeLin ChristiAnne
The "Kye" is from SKye (sometimes I think of my name as S'Kye, because it's fun to think of that way-LOL) the Ann and Anne comes from my wife: Anniche, and her mom Ann (I added the 'e' on KyeAnne and ChristiAnne because it looks better, but no significance) The "Lee" comes from my family, specifically my great-grandpa Lee, and others in the family like my great-aunt LyndaLee "NataLee" is after my wife's sister Anette Natalie (and the Lee again) the "Lin" is after other people in my family, my step-mother Linda, my great-aunt again Lynda. "ChristiAnne" the Anne as mentioned earlier, and my wife's maiden name is Christiansen.
So basically all the children are named after people in their family (immediate family like my wife and me, my wife's maiden family-name, and extended family names like grandmothers, great grandparents, an aunt, and a great-aunt)
and the names are made up of the basic parts like this: Kye Lee Ann or Anne Nata Lin Christi
I think that that is the longest long version that anyone cares to read, hope you enjoyed it.
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KyeLin ChristiAnne, born Tuesday May 27th at 8:06 (despite the rumors of 8:05), she weighed 7 lbs 14 oz (3,582 gr), and was 19.5 inches long (49.5 cm). Anniche had minor complications with the c-section (lost more blood than normal, no transfusion was necessary), and baby and momma are doing GREAT today.
KyeLee and KyeAnne are very happy about their new sister KyeLin
Thanks everyone for your love and support (Especially my Momma, and my sister Brenda for watching the girls) --thanks so much!
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Comments:
Congratulations Skye! Best of luck and my prayers of a happy and heathy life for your family :o )
Robin
posted by Robin : 30 May, 2008 18:14
Thanks Robin! I hope that you and your family are doing well. Take care,
we ARE done with the Kye names :) (but it sure makes it easy to say "C'mon you Kye's" LOL) KyeLin is actually our last child (unless the doctor messed up the tubal ligation, if so, and if it were to be a boy it would be: KyeEel Christian Jacob --but we'd call him CJ because I have in my family/extended-family a DJ and a TJ, if it were to be a girl then we'd have to name her something like KyeMai RoseLee or KyeMay RosaLee--let's just hope, for the sake of the poor childre, that the doctor took care of everything) :) Thanks. Thanks everyone for your comments as well.
Congrats you guys. She is so cute. Just like the other girls. I love her name but it is a tongue twister to say. I love you all and I am glad that everyone is home safe.
Thanks Everyone, you guys are awesome. One of the funniest comments I've received was from a friend at work Todd A., his comment was: "congrats to you and your wife. She's very cute...but probably too young to be eating cookies..." That's funny, because I TRIED not to get the cookie in the picture, but that was the only one that really turned out, so there it is, two of the greatest loves of my life (among others), my daughter, and chocolate chip cookies---LOL. Thanks again everyone.
wow.. [I still don't like Macs, but this is a cool video, and the song is really enchanting/haunting and slightly OCD]
OH, and to be fair to WinXP users (yes, like me), here's the XP version, it's ALMOST as good as the Mac version, only because the XP version is MORE realistic!!!
This is a great video about food (like what kind of foods to eat), I thought of all of you (and your quest about eating "healthy" (or healthier)), this guy [Michael Pollan] has a lot of great things to say, and if nothing else, it makes you think a little bit.
One of his statements was about CSAs, I had never heard of this, but you can find a list of them in Utah at:
Anyway, hopefully you have the time to see the video, it is very enlightening (in a good way).
---Do I follow this guy's advice? No; HOWEVER, I do take a little more consideration every day and do to some extent TRY to eat better foods. Maybe you will too? Nonetheless, I LOVE how Michael debunks a lot of the "Food Myths" (like eat no fat, or eat no carbs, or eat no sugars, or eat no proteins, etc)
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EERE Consumer's Guide: Your Home A guide to energy efficiency in your home (a non-biased GOVERNMENT website, explaining some of the options and alternatives to making your home more energy efficient)
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Next Big Future Articles so advanced they probably go over your head ;) Nah, just kidding; This webpage has some great topics/articles on technology, solar power, physics, nanotech, energy, environment, etc, all future based or technologies in the works---stuff that will make you glad that you are alive, and asking the question: "When can I/we get this, I/we needed it YESTERDAY!!!" Hope you enjoy.
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Incentive plans always go awry Wise Bread Part of my "how to build a better team" series of posts. I like this article because it emphasizes not pitting your team against a "prize" (ie making them work AGAINST eachother, but instead help then work together). I'll have to add the original article that got me thinking about teamwork (and Peer evals) here (maybe I blogged this one already?):
I've been trying to "Crack the code" of peer ratings since I came to Novell (even though they don't seem to do them anymore), one of the biggest flaws in the old peer rating system is that you could rate everyone on your team as a 5 (on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being best), and if most people rate everyone else on the team as a 7, then your average points go up quite a bit. I noticed this because my first peer review that I did I rated everyone as a 9 or 10, and I had the lowest peer rating on the team (because on average, other team members averaged others at a 5--some 6's, some 7's and 4's, but mostly 5's) Thus, I got penalized for feeling like I worked on the best team at Novell.
Anyway, I've done many spreadsheets to try to find a solution to this problem, and the best solution that I could ever come up with was a "ranking" system, you rank everyone on the team except for yourself from 1 to x, it will be plainly obvious to a manager who the "top" performer is, because a lot of people will rate that person with a 1 (1 being good). Anyway, this article is a fresher approach to team evaluations, one method for allowing an individual to "Self-Evaluate" and then comparing that evaluation to the team (and rewarding that individual the closer he rates himself to the team), or the other method, which uses a "Mean" rating, which means if you are rating 10 people from 1 to 10 then your scores must add up to be 50.... Anyway, here's a quote from the article, and a link, in case anyone is interested. I haven't seen any peer reviews at Novell for the last few years, but if they want to bring them back, hopefully someone will take a look at this article,
"One of the most difficult problems managers face is how to allocate bonuses to members of a team when there is scant information on the contribution of each member to the team's success. We'll look at a procedure whereby the members of a team assess the contributions of everybody, including themselves. It rewards honest self-assessments by motivating members to say what other members think they deserve. Members receive more or less what they request, avoiding disappointment and obviating recriminations."
Custom PC's by Puget; Mineral Oil Submerged Computer
Custom PC's by Puget; Mineral Oil Submerged Computer My friend Ross pointed me to this, It's a pretty cool computer (literally ) that looks like a fish aquarium, the purpose of it is to be awesome :) But at the same time, it actually lets the computer run at lower temperatures than it would if it was in the "air". Anyway, I hope you enjoy. (if you don't want to read about it, then I'll just post the video here):
