RIP Spaces

Posted on October 13, 2010 by grantri

So it appears that live spaces has finally bit the dust.  I don’t really mind because I thought it was horrible idea in the first place.  I guess somebody at Microsoft figured out it was better to have people using Live Writer and posting to somebody else’s server…  I don’t know.  All this web and social media/networking stuff just seems overrated to me.  Although I do enjoy keeping track of far away friends in Facebook.  Of course it begs the question that if I’m just reading their lives and never posting anything of my own, can I still call them friends, or more importantly would they call me a friend?

Anyway this is enough of a random rambling to make sure I got everything setup and transferred correctly to my new blog.  But I guess I’m not done yet because I’m still typing…

I am cautiously optimistic about so many things coming out soon.  Windows Phone 7 does look nice.  I’ve seen the demos and I’ve seen enough to be excited about all the problems that they’ve fixed.  I’ve also seen enough to know that they haven’t fixed everything.

I do like live messenger.  I also like the outlook connector (or whatever it’s called, I guess this is another case of MS Marketing failure) that allows me to drop Xobni and integrate Facebook, blogs, LinkedIn right into my inbox.  My wife loves going and visiting blogs and following them around, clicking on links.  Me I just want to read (and yes I hate podcasts because they’re too slow to ‘consume).  Mesh is also pretty cool and for pre-WP7 devices the beta was the best way of getting pictures and documents on/off of the device.  Way better than MyPhone (not enough storage) or ActiveSync (only works for email, contacts, etc.) or “Windows Mobile Device Center” (again a *very* bad name, but the worst is it requires a connection, it doesn’t work over the air, which is the whole point of a data plan).

I’ve got IE9 on one of my computers at work.  It does seem a lot faster.  Most of the other features mean nothing to me (except maybe the jump lists).

If you made it this far you’re probably more bored than me.  Thanks for reading I guess.

–Grant

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My Awesome Wife

Posted on March 22, 2010 by grantri
Rachel despite her worst fears is slowly recovering.  At least once a week lately she has cooked dinner all by herself.  I have explained several times that a hot dinner is very low on my wish, but she still feels it is part of her ‘job description’.  She has also drastically cut back on her pain medications.  She definitely still has her bad days, and some of those attack her with a vengance.  But I still want to celebrate some of these small victories!
 
–Grant
Posted in Family | 8 Comments

Bucking the trend

Posted on December 31, 2009 by grantri
I a news story yesterday that mentioned how many people signed into facebook during the holidays. I was not one of them. Between 12/23 and 12/29 I used email, messenger, texting, read blogs, searched, got directions, read news, but I never signed into facebook. Maybe it was just because I was lucky enough to have my brother in town, but I had 2 brothers and 3 sisters out of town…
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I Hate April Fools

Posted on April 1, 2009 by grantri
I disagree with Rachel’s notion that April Fools Day is a valid excuse to be deceitful.  Thus I am spoiling her ‘joke’.
She is NOTpregnant.  The surgery is still on, and I still love her, but I will not participate in this kind of farce.
 
–Grant
Posted in Family | 2 Comments

Mark Practices for Old Age

Posted on January 25, 2009 by grantri
Alex is getting to be a pretty good walker.  He really like carrying stuff.  He’s almost good enough to walk while holding his bottle up so he can walk and eat at the same time!
 
At church he love’s playing with a friend’s walking cane.  At first it was just enjoying the thumping sound he could make when he smacked the rubber foot agains the hardwood gym floor.  Then he walked off with it:

Of course he spoiled the fun by realizing that the other end made a much louder sound when he hit it against the floor.  So the cane went back to it’s rightful owner.

–Grant

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Weather Wimps

Posted on December 17, 2008 by grantri

The only people I trust less than politicians are weathermen. Around here they can barely tell you the current weather. Part of that is our terrain which means the weather changes every quarter mile. However, when it comes to predictions, a magic 8 ball would be more accurate! Basically all summer they hedge their bets by saying, "chance of scattered showers". If it rains they were right, but if it doesn’t they can claim it rained someplace else and just missed the place you were During the winter they replace rain with "rain, snow, ice, or slush depending on your area." Eventually they’re right…

Well they predicted lots of bad weather last night that would get worse today. Surprisingly the roads are clear and dry and reasonably warm when we woke up. So I figured life would go on as normal. Unfortunately, I guess our teachers must have wanted the day off, so they cancelled school!?!?!? Well our nanny will earn her wages today!

When I get on the bus to go to work, they have chains on! Somebody else believes the weathermen more than their own two eyes! Of course their excuse was that it’s supposed to get worse later today. Hurray for wasting money to put on the chains. Hurray for wearing out our roads early. Hurray for busses running behind schedule because of the chains. Hurray for hearing loss because of the noisy chains.

–Grant

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Gingerbread House

Posted on December 8, 2008 by grantri
For the first time in a long time I joined the family as we made and decorated a gingerbread house.  We did use a kit.  It was SOOOOOO much nicer with bigger kids that went a little slower and calmer.  Here’s a few pics of the finished product.
–Grant
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I’ve got Zobni

Posted on February 21, 2008 by grantri
Well now I’ve got Xobni and 5 invites.  It seems to be tied to specific email addresses.  If you want an invite to try it yourself, let me know which email address to send it to.  Otherwise in a while I’ll let you know how much I like it (or not)
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Xobni looks interesting

Posted on January 9, 2008 by grantri
Check this out. It looks really interesting and if enough people click on this they might even let me try it. Xobni outlook add-in for your inbox
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Alex is 8!

Posted on November 6, 2007 by grantri
Wow what a crazy weekend!  This week Alex turned 8 years old.  On Friday Grandma & Grandpa Z flew in with Aunt Annie.  Uncle Sam was already in town after finishing another fishing season in Alaska.  Then came Grandma & Grandpa Richins.  Saturday was packed with a family brunch, party setup, Alex’s baptism, and then his party.  The baptism was perfect.  The talks were great.  The only mistake was mine.  I had to dunk poor Alex twice because I forgot to say, "Amen" the first time.  The second time he forgot to plug his nose, so got got a little bit of water.  Several people commented on how good the program was.  Kudos go to both grandmas for the great talks and Rachel for planning such a nice program to go with the ceremony.
 
The party was great.  Thanks to everybody that helped or contributed stuff.  I don’t think we could have packed even one more person into our house.  Good food, good company, good visiting.  My only regret was that it was so crowded that I didn’t get to talk to as many people as I would have liked.  This is proof that Alex is way more popular than I ever was!
 
Thanks to all the family in town, we managed to get it all cleaned up and put away that very same night!  That’s got to be some sort of record.  And we even had enough energy to stay up late playing cards with family & friend.
 
Lots more happened, but I don’t fell like writing any more.
 
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