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December 22, 2nd day of winter. I am wearing shorts. It is 75 degrees.

After a few months on the Hollywood Video “MVP” program, we took the plunge on Netflix last night. We haven’t gotten anything yet and I’m already in love. They said most first time subscribers end up with 6-7 items in their queue, when I went to bed I had 52.

The biggest thing I wanted, feature-wise, was adding movies that aren’t even out on DVD yet, like the handful of moves out right now that I know I won’t get to see. So fully half of my queue are DVDs that aren’t even out yet. But I no longer need to keep a list of stuff I want to see, and keep an eye out for DVD releases. Set it and forget it, like TiVo!

I’m finally mostly recovered (if not unpacked) from our most recent road trip. Tucson -> Anaheim -> Sacramento -> Tucson in 5 days. 2050 miles. Half of that in one shot, 18 hours.

We went to Disneyland one of the days, which was immensely fun but tiring. Their 50th anniversary fireworks were completely amazing. And I hadn’t been there since they added Indiana Jones, which was also ia great ride. Monday in the off season is definately a good time to go. We didn’t wait for more than 20 minutes for any ride. I have trouble imagining more throngs of people than were already there, though. I hate lines, I hate crowds, but I love Disneyland. Sucks to be me!

The Sacramento leg was to visit my grandmother, who we hadn’t seen in quite a few years. We drove from there to El Cerrito, took BART to San Francisco, and a street car over to Fisherman’s Wharf, where we took a Bay Cruise. It was a fun little adventure, and the kids were fantastic. Even though my Grandma had lived in Redwood City for 30 years before moving to Sacramento, she had never taken BART or taken a bay cruise. It’s not too often you can find something new for an 86 year old to do. :)

The drive back was 14 hours of solid driving, and a few of those hours were spent driving in thick fog with visibility I hadn’t seen my blizzard days. It’s a long haul, but maybe not long enough. I love San Francisco, and now that it’s just “a day away” I want to drive there more often. ;)

In California the interstate speed limit is 70. Apparently there is something in the driver’s manual or constititution that clarifies “limit” to mean “guideline” or maybe even “minimum”. Or maybe they randomly calibrate their speedometers. Technically it doesn’t even say “MPH”, so maybe it’s in some other scale entirely.

Isaac asks every 80 seconds if we’re in California yet. About every 5th time he mixes it up and asks if California is in the desert.

We have a DVD player with 2 screens, a gameboy, 3 ipods, and XM radio. I think we’re good to go!

I was just listening to a presentation on the role of early spy satellites. I knew there was satellite photography in the 60′s and 70′s, but I never gave it much thought. I probably thought it was all spy planes, actually.

Today we live in a digital age, that’s a given. And part of me assumes that the government has (or did have) access to new technology years before the public. But in the 60′s and 70′s, satellite photography was still analog. The satellite shot photos to film. When the government wanted the film they pushed a button, the satellite shot out the film in a canister towards an ocean, and a plane flew by and caught it. That’s just cool.

1) Pick a process that coincides with how often you want to clean your desk. In my case, it’s a montly report.
2) Tie that process to a specific username and password that you never use.
3) Pick a password that’s impossible to remember. Write it down on a random piece of paper.*
4) Put the paper on your desk.
5) In a month when you need that password, you have to clean your desk to find it.
6) Repeat step number 3.

* If you had put the password on a postit it’s too easy to cheat by looking for the postit. Although the odds are good that in a month you won’t remember if you wrote it on paper, a postit, the back of your pay stub, or your arm.

I Don’t Need The Government To Babysit My Children

It’s 4p on December 1st. I’m working from an open access point in the park, and it’s 80 degrees out.