Out of my mind...: Category Personal

Powell's Endorsement of Obama

fred@fredjean.net (Frederic Jean) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:36:13 +0000

I find this year's election very interesting as a Canadian living in Colorado. I am merely a spectator since I have yet to become an American citizen. Still, I do see this as a pivotal moment in the history of this nation. Americans get to decide what direction they want this country to take.

This morning, Colin Powell publicly endorsed Barack Obama. This in itself is an event in itself. He took time to explain the rationale behind his decision to vote for Obama on Meet the Press on MSNBC.com. Take a few moments to listen through the interview if you haven't already.

His explanation mirrors in many ways my impression of the campaign run by both candidates. It is a thought through, mindful exposition of why Obama is the better choice for President of the United States of America. Powell's rationale is very powerful and in many confirmed why I would vote for Obama if I could.

Powell's Endorsement of Obama

fred@fredjean.net (Frederic Jean) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:36:13 +0000

Powell's Endorsement of Obama

fred@fredjean.net (Frederic Jean) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:36:13 +0000

The Me Meme

fred@fredjean.net (Frederic Jean) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:49:23 +0000

Why not...

Take a picture of yourself right now.
Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture. (should be super-easy with Photobooth)
Post that picture with NO editing.
Post these instructions with your picture.

blog.obiefernandez.com/content/2008/10/the-me-meme.html

What I Publish

fred@fredjean.net (Frederic Jean) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:44:50 +0000

Here is what I publish through this blog's RSS feed. It's not bound to what I actually write...
This was created using Wordle and is licensed under a Creative Commons By Attribution License.

What Peeks My Interest

fred@fredjean.net (Frederic Jean) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:41:39 +0000

Generated by Wordle and published under a Creative Common "By Attribution" license.

What Peeks My Interest

fred@fredjean.net (Frederic Jean) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:41:39 +0000

Generated by Wordle and published under a Creative Common "By Attribution" license.

New Countertops and Sink

fred@fredjean.net (Frederic Jean) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 19:02:13 +0000

Our old countertops where in really bad shape, and it was driving my wife to insanity (or so she claims). We had done everything we could think of to extend their life. We painted them, we glued the old formica in place. But the paint started to chip and the formica didn't stay glued on very long. So we decided that we had to address the countertop situation.

We remembered passing by a booth at the Flatiron Mall advertising an engineered granite solution by Granite Transformations. It happens that I occasionally drive by their local franchise. We stopped by on a Saturday afternoon, got some information and scheduled an estimate. We did have a little sticker shock at first so we decided to compare other options before going ahead. It turns out that they were competitive with other options from Lowes and Home Depots.

I had to take out the sink before the installation could occur, so we decided to upgrade the sink at the same time.

The installation itself is a two step process. First, a template is built to facilitate the fabrication process. The team showed up right on time for the appointment and created the template. Three days later, they showed up for the installation proper. There was very little demolition involved. The old countertops didn't need to be ripped out since this is an overlay product. They were done right on time for lunch.

I decided to install the sink myself. It did turn into a bit of a saga, like any home improvement projects that I take on. It was promptly resolved once I found the right feed lines for the sink. Within a few hours the sink and new faucets were installed and tested.

My lovely wife is simply in love with the new kitchen and raves about it. I love it too and feel a lot of pride in having installed the sink myself. We are already compiling a list of projects to do next. It never really stops...

Creating a Remote Mercurial Repository

fred@fredjean.net (Frederic Jean) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 07:04:06 +0000

I wanted to play with the metaprogramming abilities of Groovy. So I started a new project in NetBeans and created a Mercurial repository to version it. I had a few files committed eventually.

I am really nervous about keeping code in a single location. This is why I do Time Machine backups on my mac. This is also why I keep a clone of Mercurial repositories on my workstation at work. Well, except for my personal projects. I keep a clone on the same server that is hosting this blog. I decided that this new project was worth cloning remotely.

It turns out that you can clone a repository to a remote system just as easily that you can clone a repository from a remote system. The syntax is simply:

hg clone [local-repo] [remote-repo]

This even works over ssh. It also leads to a little more peace of mind on my part.

Creating a Remote Mercurial Repository

fred@fredjean.net (Frederic Jean) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 07:04:06 +0000

I wanted to play with the metaprogramming abilities of Groovy. So I started a new project in NetBeans and created a Mercurial repository to version it. I had a few files committed eventually.

It turns out that you can clone a repository to a remote system just as easily that you can clone a repository from a remote system. The syntax is simply:

hg clone [local-repo] [remote-repo]

This even works over ssh. It also leads to a little more peace of mind on my part.