Being used has its privileges.

I was in court midmornng for an hour. After I was done I called into my office and was given the good news. I had the rest of the afternoon off. My reaction: Woohoo, I'm headed to the BEACH!

So here I am, having just finished a wonderful dinner by the water, enjoying the start of my weekend.

Tammi, this is for all the times I read your Florida beachside posts wishing it was me living life!

For full envy effect pictures will be provided later!

Posted by: Michele at 06:58 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Michele found one sure way to get out of Jury duty even after being placed on a case. She was dismissed earlier today because she became so ill she nearly had to go to hospital. Running a high fever and what seemed to me in a somewhat incoherent state (she kept referring to me as John), she told me that a court officer had helped her get into a taxi to get to her doctor's. Afterwards I learned she had a fever of 104 and had been diagnosed with Strep throat. Apparently there was a bit of a fracas w/her doctor because she wouldn't bend over and let him give her a shot in her butt. Sorry Michele but that was an interesting imagery.

So instead she opted to swallow pills which to me sounds a bit more painful. Poor thing can barely talk. So I'll do the writing for her tonight and will only note nice things about her. Like for instance her calling me to see how I was doing after the fright of this past weekend.

Which brings me to the Email portion of this post. It seems we have received quite a bit of email in which some of you are concerned that there might be friction or a rift between Michele and I. Not so.

We are still the same co-bloggers / work collegues we were before. I was just very spooked by that psychic episode but that's because nothing like that had ever happened to me before. I'm relieved to know that Michele can't read my mind and therefore no charges of sexual harassment can be brought against me for my thoughts.

Michele assures me that she isn't psychic, if she were she'd "be a rich lady living on easy street, because then [she'd] know which stocks to buy and which to dump." What a relief it was to hear that. But then I thought, imagine that, as sick as she was she wanted to make sure I was okay.

In 3 other emails I'm both asked, and offered if I'm interested in blogging, at my own site. Nope, not at all. Michele knows me too well and knows I cannot have expectations placed on me, and I cannot commit to anything, not even blogging. In fact, I will be leaving in the next few weeks as I've got a business trip that will begin in London where I'll be for 2 weeks, then I'll continue for 2 weeks in Germany, followed by 3 weeks in Russia (one of which will be vacation where I'll take time to savor slavic delights). I'll then continue on to Beijing for 1 week before returning to Wash DC, in time for some interesting meetings and some social engagements.

Too bad Michele refuses to do some of these DC social things. I rather enjoy them, but then again I'm a social animal. She on the other hand, tells me she hates them because she's a homebody. If it's not quality time with people she likes she refuses to do it. Her usual answer to all my invites is: "Thanks, but I really want to spend more time with my son." Although I find her approach to parenting highly commendable, it is one of the reasons I don't ever want to have children of my own, they consume too much of your life and time.

As one of my female co-workers puts it: "At first you're excited that you have this divine force growing within you. Then it comes out and there's no time for you as it's all about them. And they continue sucking the life/blood out of you for 18 more years and even then it doesn't stop because then there's grad school and unemployment after grad school. The only time you stop giving is when you're dead, and buried 6' under." That's pretty much my take on it.

Anyway, so as you see, though I'm enjoying this inmensely, I'm one of those kind of guys that's here today and gone tomorrow. Although in this particular case I'm having so much fun with the blog and Michele that I have to say I will be back. I still have a few weeks here yet so I'll see what interesting things I can come up with as parting gifts for you to read. Any suggestions?

Posted by: 1Colin at 11:59 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Mobile blogging is the current trend from Europe to Asia! With camera/video phones becoming a permanent accessory in US phones (though it's been available in Asia for the past 6), real time multimedia blogging is here to stay. Case in point is this post, being written and submitted via my Treo 650.

Earlier today, on my Live Journal blog (for my family), I posted my son's birthday party pics & video clips. My family is scattered worlwide and we truly stay connected via our mobile phones.

In Asia, there is no excuse for not reaching anyone, because cell phone coverage there is ubiquitous. The cost of PC's is still very high for the working class and the electric grid so unreliable, that it's useless to invest in a desktop. Seeing a golden opportunity, Telco's capitalized on cell phone solutions, and used them to fill all their customers needs.

Today, in many countries around the world, the primary device for user connectivity is wireless internet connectivity - mainly through cell phones. The main reason has always been lack of a reliable infrastructure (for both land lines & electricity) and high cost of existing wired solutions.

In a report I read recently I learned there are over a trillion (yes, that's right) a trillion cell users in Asia w/online capability. That number is expected to double by 2010. Just to give you an idea of how advanced their mobile infrasturcture is, when I lived in the Philippines a 5 years ago, I was able to pay ALL my utilities via my cell. That's right: my elec, gas, tel, cell, pvt postal service, cable,...and even my rent (through a wireless bank transfer between accounts)!

In the last 3 months my most consistent medium for commuinication has been my cell. I'm currently not able to access close to half of my Bad Example Family from most, if not all, public internet places due to their content. As a result, I've been forced to either read them on my PDA or not read them at all.

A great example of this situation is my adoptive blog dad Harvey, of Bad Example. Due to content safe software and word filters the only place I can read him is at home. While my pc is being repaired I can't read him anywhere and so I tried on my pda. Unfortunately, I failed because his 3 column site is so complex & link rich, it's too large & slow to load. As a result, I've been forced to miss his naughty & very wity humor.
more...

Posted by: Michele at 11:17 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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With the help of our illustrious Pixy, Paul, Ogre and Phin, I was able to get my sidebar up (when youÂ’re viewing my site in a maximized screen). THIS WAS EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED! WOOHOO! ALL HAIL THE MUNUVIAN GENIUSES WHO VANQUISHED THE EVIL MERCURIAN FORCES!

Can you tell IÂ’m happy? Well, heck yeah. Now I will boldly go forth, defying once again the Mercurian forces, to finish:
- adding my category archives (which eventually will be in a drop down list)
- creating a PDA format of my site (so I can check up on ColinÂ’s posts)
- creating an Atom RSS feed format (so I can be read as easily and widely as the Instapundit!)
- fixing color schemes for active and visited links
- fixing all font sizes (Now it's the date header that's driving me nuts!)
- creating drop down lists for some of my link sections (like News Briefs & On the Left)

ThereÂ’s more, but that should take care of my idle time till the end of August. In the interim I'll try to find time to do some sports blogging:
- Larry Brown coming to coach the NY Knicks (yes, good for us!),
- Hockey season (finally!) resuming and Gretzky coaching the Phoenix ___?
- Bertuzzi returning to the NHL
- The NJ Devils loosing 2 of its top players, causing it's post season chances to look bleak at best!

Update: I'll be playing host to a couple of upcoming carnivals so I won't have much time to do sports blogging. But just wait till hockey and basketball season begins, you won't be able to shut me up.

Posted by: Michele at 08:59 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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As you might have noticed, I've been trying to use that "computer high geek" knowledge to finish the vision I had for the site a while ago.

Unfortunately, every time I implement a new phase of my changes my carpel tunnel acts up, so this will be slow going. I'm currently working on getting my sidebar back up on the right side of the screen again (right now it's at the bottom). What I had intended to do was to adjust the Index Template so that I could easily set up both, an Atom RSS feed and PDA version of my site, to make it more accessible for readers to view my site in different formats.

So, till I get everything fixed up and/or Mercury retrograde cycle ends and begins to move forward again (8/15), we'll have to live with my bar being at the bottom.

If you ask me, it's karmic retribution for my hubris of posting my "high geekiness" score. This post will remain at the top until things are fixed

Posted by: Michele at 03:10 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Blog Daddy, Harvey of Bad Example broke the news about blogger supporting photos (with some major limitations) in this post. Now I'll break the news about Blogger's Mobile Photo/Blogging feature, which I've been using for the past few weeks now, since my computer has been out of commission. [I'm currently visiting with my mom's and I'm using my sister's computer to post this.]

Anyway, being that I had a camera phone w/video capability I decided to test both my camera-phone and their hosting capabilities out. So I decided to resurrect my old blogspot spite temporarily to engage in an experiment of sorts. Well, after only a few tries I loved it. Espeically since my pc accessibility at the moment is limited as Colin explains in this post

So far I love it. I just snap, email or mms with a subject line (which is the post's title), then write as long or short a text message (which is the body of the post) as I want to and then send it to blogger... they do the rest. Later I can go in and edit what I've written or delet the picture from the HTML code. Now the question that's not addressed in their info is size capacity of photos and/or total photo storage capacity. Hmmm, must explore!

To view my first efforts please visit: lettersfromnyc.blogspot.com. Feel free to leave a comment there.

Posted by: Michele at 09:57 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Thought I'd share this item from the London Times with you:

"Over the past fortnight Israeli intelligence agents have noticed something distinctly odd happening on the internet. One by one, Al-QaedaÂ’s affiliated websites have vanished until only a handful remain..." more...

Posted by: 1Colin at 01:32 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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