Isn’t it funny how inanimate objects can ‘hear’ things? My desktop is getting a bit long in the tooth, considering I built it so I could play Half Life 2, which was released in November, 2004. Lately, I’ve been thinking about getting a nice shiny new multi (Probably Quad) core system that will eat Lightroom for dinner, and this morning I walked into the office to see my Desktop on the BIOS screen:

S.M.A.R.T. STATUS ALARM: DRIVE ERROR - BACKUP AND REPLACE

Hmm. The system won’t even boot without flipping back to the BIOS. Bad juju. The drive is no loss since its a 7 or 8 year old 120GB Seagate and most of the important stuff is off. Its rebuilt now but I think its time to go shopping!

Remember folks, backup early, backup OFTEN!

I really need to start seeing other continents.

Just got in from a Business/Pleasure trip to Sedona, Arizona and what a beautiful place. Sedona itself is a bit too touristy/kitschy for my tastes, a town overrun by gift shops, moderately upscale restaurants, tour schillers and man… the time shares. You get harrassed about time shares from the moment you walk in to the moment you leave. Once you accept that though, its not so bad.

Because of the destination I managed to book a few extra days and bring Daph along, which made for an interesting ‘business trip’. It was hard to get my head back into Medical PCR Software again after spending a few days wandering around the amazing vistas of Arizona. I’m very glad we got the chance, though. The biggest hilight was getting to hike the Grand Canyon, at least a little bit anyway. The Grand Canyon is one of those things thats been on that big mental ‘To Do’ list for a long time. We’ve been to Las Vegas twice but never made the trek. For one, its too long a drive from Vegas to do in one day and spend any real time there, and even if you do you end up on the North Rim which isn’t as scenic or covered by the National Parks Service. This time we definitely weren’t passing it up.

The weather wasn’t the best for views but it was perfect for hiking, a mild 8-10C most of the time we were there and overcast so we weren’t baked. We hiked down the Bright Angel trail to Mile and a Half house which is pretty much the tourist de-rigeur. Bright Angel is a switchback path that eventually goes all the way to the Canyon floor. Getting to the bottom and all the way back up again is not a recommended one-day trip though so we only did a mile and a half/1100ft elevation descent trip down. The views are simply spectacular. I spent a lot of time on the trails trying to make my eyes and brain agree on the scale of what they were seeing. I’d love to go back for days and do the entire trip to the bottom. Really you need at least three days for that, though.

Steg Blomquist came along, of course.

Arizona isn’t one of those places I think I’d want to live, its pleasant enough and the scenery is easily worth the trip. I can definitely say I came away from the trip feeling unfinished, however. I could definitely see going back with a more dedicated exploration mindset.

Full gallery here.

Two years ago today I was laid off from AOL. A good thing in the long run, really. I think my round of layoffs was the last one where people really made out okay, the ones since have progressively been worse and worse. I got news this morning that another local company where a number of my friends work is going through a purge today too. Popular firin’ day.

On a positive note our office is now moved! Painful, but its done!