Why I liked Chris Myers Nissan on Facebook

Recently I "liked"  Chris Myers Buick GMC on Facebook. While I've never actually shopped there in person, and their used car prices seem quite high compared to KBB, they said they'd donate $1 to earthquake relief in Japan (through the Red Cross disaster relief, I think) for each person who likes them on Facebook. Which is, I suppose, a good enough reason to like them. (As an aside, why do companies limit their donations with these silly gimmicks? I know, it's advertising, but still.)

A few years back I was in the nuclear plant in Fukushima for several days that is all over the news now. Coincidentally, one day while there we felt an earthquake... obviously not of the same magnitude as this one. It's quite interesting the construction techniques, though. Seems as if everything that might have issues with the shaking in earthquakes is built on a floating, rather than rigid, platform (for example, the data room we were in at the time was on the third floor, and the building was designed to sway with the shaking rather than rigidly withstand the shaking, and the bathroom of the hotel was on a floating, raised floor, so that the piping could freely move, I assume).

Anyway, that's my story or two related to earthquakes and Chris Myers automobile franchise. Unimportant compared to the disaster, of course; just doing my little part to help by liking Chris Myers, and a bigger part by praying for those affected.

New Post! New Desk Configuration!

Wow, Jan 23 was my last post? Sorry about that.

So, today I started "officially" working from home. (Well, technically I guess it's tomorrow that I start officially working from home, but whatever.) Granted, I've been working mainly from home for the last month or two (or four), but I still had a cube at the office, with some tech goodies there (monitor, USB docking station for my laptop, etc.). Today is officially my last day in that particular office, and instead I'm now officially

working from home. This is really nice, as it saves me about 60 minutes and 60 miles of travel each day (and with gas over $3/gallon, that really adds up: even in my BMW, which averages about 26 mpg, that's about 2.3 gallons per day, or roughly 11.5 gallons a week - that is, about $35/week or about $140/month saved by not travelling to/from the office across the bay).

However, the really nice part is the fact that I brought all those "goodies" from the office home, which allowed me to do this:

Yeah, that's right: I have three displays. (OK, Mr. Tech Nerd with a whole wall of displays, you have me beat, but hey, I've been living with just the laptop and one display - both at home and at the office - for, well, since I started working here.) Granted, the laptop is sitting a little higher than the other two displays, and it's still a pretty small resolution (and far, far away), but that's OK; I can just put my e-mail over there and keep it up and visible but out of the way of my main working space, and now I can lay out my code and form designers side-by-side, or various other things, which should make me twice as productive (so it's a win for the company, too!).

OK, kids need the office for bedtime (we have multiple guests that are occupying their bedrooms, so they got booted). So, I gotta scoot...