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iSight

I got an iSight camera last weekend when I was home in CA. I wanted it to improve my connections to my family -- and it is wonderful. So i was iChating + video with my sister -- she could see me and we could talk but I couldn't see her. That was a bummer -- so she made a movie on her camera, converted it in iMovie and then sent it to me. Pretty Cool -- Check out the video. LINK. (to be added see update below)

Update: I didn't realize that (a) I can't upload video to blogger (b) i can't upload video to flickr and (c) i can't upload video in .mov format to smugmug. As a result i have enrolled in Google Video (a surprisingly useful app, as is all free storage) but now i have to WAIT for them to approve the video. Interesting, I wonder, do they actually watch the videos?Once I get approved I will add the link.

P.S. Yes, I know the lighting is really bad...afterall I was iChating with my sister.

weekend in CA

Family picture - Me, Mum, Sheils + Brizzie.

So i tried to sneak back home for the weekend to visit with my family and the resident mongrels (aka our cat tuvi and the dog brizzie)... but i have learned that it is impossible to do since, well, silicon valley is a small town and i know a few people. :)

Even though my trip was last minute, I had a pretty full weekend:

Friday:
Facial with my esthetician, Fawn @ SkinSpirit. They always find a way to fit me in - which given my last minute scheduling is very very cool. Lunch at Tamarine with Inna, my financial advisor. She's awesome. Picked up conditioner, walked the doggie, and then met the girls (Dulcy, Alexia, and Pat) for drinks at my bar (aka La Bodeguita). It was a fabulous night. I had my first drink in 3 months (i gave up alchohol for my diet) -- an O Cosmo -- and it was not only delicious but i was buzzed after three sips. We also saw Lisa, she just had her 30th B-day (Happy B-day Lisa) Also ran into an ex-boyfriend (just because i moved doesn't mean he can start frequenting my bar!)

Saturday:
Woke up and went for a run with the pup. Stopped by JB's mum's tag sale - so many fun things, including a copy of MicroSerfs - which I bought for $1. Then I went to Noe Valley, to hang with my friend Amy (we went to college together) and her two lovely kids and husband Ben. Ben's considering spending more time at this incredible start-up that does Fantasy Sports. It's perfect for him :) he's running statistical models on who the #1 NBA draft pick should be (sorry i can't say!) -- very interesting stuff. Then I met up with my sister, we got manicure-pedicure's at my favorite salon in menlo park - Natalie's. I think they have a great deal - an excellent mani/pedi + a neck massage (10 min) = $55. My manicure lasts a week - which you just can't get from the average corner shop. Now starving, sheila and I went to dinner (good mexican YEAH, but i ate too much) then back to mum's to hang out. JB came over for a bit and it was fun to chat with mum, sheils and Jeeves. Just like old times with JB and mum ganging up on me.

Sunday:
Slept in -- woohoo. Brunch @ st michael's alley with Mum and sheila. Shopped at restoration hardware w/mum. Tried out sheila's B&B therapy #4 on my hair -- it is hydrating and works quite well. Then over to Dulcy's BBQ, then a quick drink @ Gordon Biersch with BK, Nico and Chris Bates - bates' band is going on tour this summer / fall - very exciting. JB stopped in for a final goodbye, and then i headed out to meet my Dad. We hung out till 11, lost his car, found his car and eventually got home in one piece.

Monday:
Overslept and missed my 6 am flight which landed me in Alaska Airlines HELL. I guess they cut the pilot's pay by 25% and they are retaliating with "turtle service" -- basically everything is delayed because they find "mechanical errors" that could cause a flight to be unsafe. Net-Net I spent 8 hours in the San Jose airport before i *boarded* my flight home to SeaTac. Not cool. Avoid alaska until they figure this one out.

Outside of learning that I can't sneak back home, I did pick up a few tid-bits on the technology front. TechTalk is probably the #1 thing I miss since I moved to Seattle -- back in the Bay Area everyone talks tech ALL the time. Yes, it can be annoying, but as a native, that's my language. Below are some of the things i noted:
- Yahoo! is everywhere. i think i saw 3 SBC Yahoo vans -- more prevelent than the here, there, everywhere Channel 7 news vans (a locals only reference). Rumour has it that Yahoo! 360 will see some major revamps, and there was lots of talk about Yahoo moving people to LA.
- Even so, people are still ga-ga for google.
- The buzz is around the economy picking up, apple switching chips (and when will the ipod bubble burst? maybe never...but what if Steve dies??) and everyone finding a new start-up.
- Entrpreneurs are running wild and there's an energy in the air that had been dead for a while.

All in all, my weekend back in california was as it should be: wonderful, relaxing and fun. I did miss rainy, peaceful seattle, but it was also nice to be home, enjoy the sunshine and spend time with everyone.

OH! and for those of you I missed (and there are many - BPD, Minnie, Sara, Amit, Elise etc.) I will be back in town in August. I'll be back for SES- coming in a few days early then, after the conference, heading up to Tahoe for a family reunion. I plan to see all of you then -- so put a placeholder on your calendars. On another note, I'll be in New Orleans for the Web Master World conference -- if you plan to be there let me know.

memorial weekend + more

ok, so i had a rockin' memorial weekend that i've been meaning to blog about:

Friday: awesome workout with my trainer followed by long walk with my temporary pet, Kinsey. Kinsey visited with me for the whole week while her daddies (Bo & Derek) were living it up in Maui.



Saturday: Sasquatch! All day concert at the gorge sponsored by KEXP with Morgan and Sean. It was awesome because (1) the gorge literally overlooks the columbia river -- an amazing setting for a concert; (2) it was really, really sunny (i got a tan!); and (3) the music was great. The main stage had Bloc Party, Jem, The Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse -- and the evenings highlight: a purple & white suit clad Kanye West. OMG was he awesome, and hot, and lavender... -- but the real fun was to be heard on the side (Yeti and Wookie) stages where Blue Scholars (i think i'm addicted to them now) and the Dears played, as well as Bobby Bare Jr. and my new faves the Frames.

Sunday: Ran errands, looked at 25 different grill options, and then went over to Jenn & John's for an evening of entertainment. It was nice to hang out, catch up with friends and visit their new media room -- really a small theatre. We watched Kill Bill Vol. I ... amazing.

Monday: Went kayaking on Lake Washington with Smuga to celebrate his birthday (happy birthday smuga!) and enjoy the water. Afterwards we went to my favorite neighborhood, Ballard, for lunch. yummm.

The rest of the week has sort of whizzed by, and now I am on more vacation -- I'm back home in CA for the weekend. 1st time back in 6 months! My doggie literally *cried* he was so excited to see me. awwww.

two more shout outs:
Happy Birthday Maya!
Happy Birthday Vignetta!

i heart oxi magic!

On Saturday night I had a few of my new girlfriends over for a slumber party. The plan was to watch cheesy john hughes movies, trade make-up tricks, play truth or dare and crank call boys....but we didn't get to any of that because we ended up drinking and chatting outside the entire evening enjoying the warmish weather and my new patio furniture. It was awesome....until, at about 3 am when we headed in to sleep, I, being particularly gracious, *kicked* over a full glass of red wine spraying red wine all over my new carpet and white bedding. i was horrified then in shock and then, with the aid of my dear friends, leaped to action. Here's what we did:

(1) I poured an entire container of salt over the stain on the carpet. The salt absorbs the wine so it doesn't go into the carpet - this really works!
(2) We then vacuumed up the salt, but the wine was still there. the situation looked dire.
(3) I remembered that a friend who works in the wine industry had recommended oxi magic to me last time i saw her and so i had bought a bottle and kept it in the basement near the laundry. I ran down the stairs and found it and then proceeded to spray it over every red thing in sight.
(4) Put the sheets and bedding into the washer on the Hot/Cold cycle, leaving out softner just in case.

IT WORKED. Every single drop of wine -- including the wine that was on my white bedding -- is gone. I can't believe it. I am honestly shocked. and sooooooo very happy.

Oxi magic is amazing. Go buy some. Go!

browsers

How many browsers does one person need? Well, lately i'm not quite sure that the answer is One...Right now i have four on my mac, three on my pc for a total of 5 brands:



Firefox:
Tagline: Take back the web. or Rediscover the web.

I downloaded firefox last spring and fell in love with tabbed browsing. I swear tabs changed my internet experience. I then got my mac, and realized that safari had been doing tabbed browsing for awhile...I also have to admit that I loved the speed of firefox and the logo. The logo is hot. I'm currently using the pimpzilla skin to liven things up.


Camino:
Tagline: Mozilla power, Mac style. Could it get any better? or
Simplicity is something of infinite beauty.

This is my newest browser (downloaded today) so i have yet to mess with it much. It promises to be just like Firefox, but primed for my mac. This is exciting since I use the blogger interface on Mozilla (better tools via this browser format) over Safari (i typically blog from home on mac) but have found firefox to run slightly slower on my mac.



Safari
Tagline: A superior Web experience with outstanding performance. or
Your desktop is the new doorstop.

Ok, i love this browser. It works seamlessly on my mac and is generally speedy.

Opera:
Tagline: Simply the best web experience.

I'm testing this one out purely for the ads (screenshot) they build into the browser. I think this is an interesting idea. Right now I think I look too much at the ads because i'm curious, otherwise, I would find them annoying and a waste of space. I get enough ads via the pages i'm looking at.


Internet Explorer:
Tagline: ?

I'm not quite sure that there is an IE tagline, but the value prop for v7 appears to be "security"... and apparently the beta will be available this summer. They really need a value prop here. Update: I just spent some time looking at the pages to figure out how to download the current version, and uhm, I can't find it. I see patches and updates -- but what if I didn't have IE pre-loaded on my computer? There's no easy download...I guess I can go to Download.com. But everything seems to be targeted at the Service Pack download and not the actual app itself. That just seems weird. But then, who's really downloading IE?

For the nitty-gritty comparisons check out these links:
Use your Brain - Browser Comparison
Wikipedia - Browser Comparison Chart
Lois.Co.UK - Comparison shows what a single web page looks like in different browsers.
Browser Speed Comparison

At the end of the day, I'm using IE + Firefox/Safari (Firefox on my PC, Safari on my Mac). I use Firefox at work for all my personal stuff -- i open firefox and then immediately open up a tab for Gmail, my stock portfolio, bloglines, flickr and then i open up web pages from what i read in bloglines. Sometimes I open up a tab for news (usually cnn.com or news.google.com). I do all of my work stuff on IE -- it promotes the idea to me that there is a "work" space and an "explore" space -- and that there's a seperation between the two...

Which browser are you using? why? I'd love to hear comments/thoughts on this. I know tons of people who've switched to Firefox because of the speed and their anti-evil sentiments, but really, i switched primarily for tabs. and then speed. Generally I don't use any of their special functionality (like RSS) -- although i do find the built in search box very handy.

so my mum does read my blog...

i got this e-mail from my mum today:

To: natala
From: mom
Date: 4/11/05
Subject: hmm...

Tala: exactly what does this mean? You don't want me to come up any more? You do want me to come but...

"I love LOVE having guests (my mum was just here and it was great, except for when i brought up my feelings around "persistent vegitative states") ... but it will be nice to have an empty house for a little while."--Natala's blog

do you mean the persistent vegitative state of your refridgerator?

------
i sometimes forget how funny mum can be. i called her tonight and we had a nice, brief chat where she updated me on the going's on of her favorite son (aka the dog, Brizzie). I swear i've been completely replaced by this pet.

updates / things i've been thinking about:
- i'm dealing OK with Arizona's loss in the Elite Eight. I'm truly happy that UNC won it all. I can't stand a team who wears orange and has a mascot called the "fighting illini" -- please that is almost as bad as the tree.
- How did i forget that Patrick Dempsey was soo cute? he's the new carter! and the show (gray's anatomy) is good too. i never knew you could donate your eyeballs and your skin. neat stuff.
- my taxes are being sent out tomorrow. wow, i've never been done in advance! woohoo for accountants.
- the pope died. it is sad, i liked the pope (even though i disagree with him on many things, esp. contraception-- afterall didn't the catholics invent the rhythm method?).
- my diet is going well, but i've got an infection (unrelated to diet) this week and the meds have turned me into an insomniac. this does not make me more productive unfortunately.
- i really enjoyed this article on Man Dates by the NYT.
- i've been a wee-bit homesick this week. i'm debating if this means i need to take a trip home to CA or suffer a bit longer to see what the homesickness matures into. Moving is interesting, i've been really challenged to go outside my comfort zone on a more regular basis -- meeting new people, trying things out that i probably wouldn't do...etc. Finding good friends in a new place is much, much harder than i expected. I'm a pretty friendly person (and i like to think i'm personable and interesting...ha!), but it seems to me that seattle folks are more closed-off than San Francisco folks and keep to relatively tight circles. As a result, I've noticed that i'm taking an intellectual (i.e. i'm overanalyzing things) approach to social situations. I'm more interested in the dynamics of how people interact with each other than I am in actually joining in the interactions. Perhaps this is because, feeling out of my comfort zone, i'm being a bit more reclusive? hmmm. I definitely find that i miss intimacy, that connection you have with people who know you, and appreciate your quirky neurosis. thank god for cell phones and e-mail. these are two critical links that keep me connected to friends and family.