So I’ve moved back down to Los Angeles to take a nonprofit technology job at Los Angeles Urban League. To coincide with this move, I bought a new domain: Alew.org.
Introducing the New Blog
I’ve started this new Blog (with posts and comments imported from a previous blog) to discuss and post pearls of wisdom I’ve found through out life, whether through reading online or offline. While some of the posts will be short links, others will be longer thought pieces. I hope you will have fun reading this as I will writing it.
“Ponderings on the way to being musings”
In case you didn’t know the title is a King of the Hill reference.
- I slowly started to realize I needed to get out more when my boss offered to take me to the NTEN nonprofit technology club. Sure they met at a bar and that’s always fun, but it’s a little disconcerting seeing your boss in social situations. I really need another set of friends (or go back to hang out with my other friends more often).
- I did hang out with my friends Justin and Norbert Wong though. Justin tells me his income forces him to pay a ridiculous amount in income taxes. That’s the price of not owning property, being married, or having kids.
- Is it bad for me to be craving a new Macbook when I have a fairly decent Sony Vaio laptop that I only got 2 years ago? And chances are I’ll use it, and then start complaining about it afterwards. Darn those folks at Macbreak make things seems so cool.
- I’m still looking for that great business idea. I wonder if it would be possible to work full time and on a side business at the same time. Who am I kidding of course it’s possible, but you just need to make time for it.
- I’ve been really loving Countdown with Keith Olbermann even more now that they have a better blog. Just wish they would let you embed their MSN videos in something other than an MSN space blog.
Protected: New Cell Number
Big Game 2006
Oh geez. This week just started badly. I was just incredibly out of it when it came to everything, so I was really looking forward to the weekend. Well, the week started turning around a little while earlier, as I had run into siobhan06 (who I hadn’t seen in a long time) in the line for free Chiptole which stretched around the block. She was gracious enough to allow me entrance into the line and I was able to secure the free food.
Little did I know how great a weekend this would be. First the big prize:
Alpha Delta Phi with the Stanford Axe
Thanks to current president for bringing the Stanford Axe to the Alpha Delta Phi Big Game Luncheon where I got to talk with a lot of the alumni about all sorts of things.
Drivels of a late night
I think I need more LJ friends. Most of the ones I had early on seem to have moved on to other things, which is fine. Maybe I should try posting in the communities or something.
We all know it get progressively harder to meet new people as we grow older. I don’t feel as though I need more friends, but it seems like it would be nice to meet some more people. I think I’ve been trying that more recently. Part of the problem with meeting people sometimes, though, is that you don’t feel like meeting people when you’re all by yourself and they are with other people.
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The Dems retook the House and the Senate. And Rumsfeld resigned. Hopefully, real change will have come from this election.
I personally had just hated the idea of voting for any incumbent this year or any body in a major party. So I voted for nothing but Green and Libertarian party candidates. I think I might start voting absentee, though, just because it would allow me to look up more about the candidates.
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Damn Arizona took away Cal’s chance at a National Championship. We have to beat USC now to get back our Rose Bowl shot and make sure we don’t lose to Stanford (who actually won’t got 0-12 this year).
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I like that one of the Linux LJ programs is called Drivel. It’s no Semagic, though.
Adjustments needed
Once again I love how people (myself included) like to blog only when it’s a distraction from what they actually need to be doing. But here we are.
Anyways, I’ve recently be reconnecting with a few old friends, namely people who lived in the dorms with me like David and his wife Jessica, Joey, and Shoshana and (of course Jesse from the frat). We’ve kicked back a few times and remembered old times (second year, when we all met was one that came back to us over and over). I finally did visit David’s apartment complex, which was really nice (though like most things in the Bay Area, expensive).
Also of note, I got a raise at my College Writing job. They asked me to stay aboard for part time until they feel ready to hire and for me to train someone else (though if I had any say in the hiring, I would definitely hire someone more qualified than myself). That being said I could force them to get someone else if I moved on to another job (and another place) sooner, which I really should be doing.
Alright, back to whatever else I need to get done.
Which metro lines have you been on?
I feel as though I’ve forgotten one or two, but whatever.
(via some random weblog)
Redesign, Part 2
So apparently OCF went through a bit a server upgrade, so my OCF site is a lot faster. Good news there.
Meanwhile, I not only redesigned a blog, I decided to try out a new operating system. Specifically, I installed Ubuntu Linux on my laptop. I didn’t permanently move away from Windows, though, as it is still in my system. For a free operating system, it works very well. The icons have greatly improved, so it looks a lot better than other versions I’ve tried. It also detected my wireless card right away, unlike other versions. It didn’t, however, let me connect to wireless points that had passwords at first, but somehow it started working (I still don’t know how). As everyone states in the blogs, MP3s and DVDs don’t play out of the box, so you have to install support for it. However, a program called EasyUbuntu adds that and a few other things, though I still haven’t figured out how to play DVDs. Also the alternative function keys on my laptop keyboard don’t work, and neither does the memory stick reader. Also, it’s still pretty hard to install programs, though it does have a net Add/Remove Programs feature that lists many of the apps that can be installed on the machine. It’s not a comprehensive list, but it’s pretty hand and sure bets searching Download.com and the rest of the web for a program (though I have yet to find a livejournal client I like as much as Semagic). What is best about Ubuntu though is that you can try it with a CD (that they will even ship to you for free with no shipping) and without affecting the current computer you are working on.
Wine tasting in Napa
So last Friday, August 4th, I went to the Napa Valley for the first time. Napa, in case you didn’t know, is know for its incredible wine vineyards. I went to three different wineries: Mumm, Copia (though it’s not really winery; it’s described as a discovery center), and Ceja. It was a work related event with the ESL Program at Berkeley. I’m finally old enough to go (despite what my outer appearance would suggest), though I never particularly cared for wine too much (or anything grape-flavored that wasn’t actually a grape). I must say it felt like one of the more “grown-up” things I’ve done. Nevertheless I had a lot of fun on this trip.
Mumm is a neat place, because it is one of the few wine tours that actually shows you how they make wine (at least that’s what the tour guide said).