Author: spierzchala

Merlin at 43Folders links to a great post by Robert Daeley. [here]
This post is extremely relevant to me, as I just spent 9 hours lugging my laptop backpack (still waiting for my Waterfield Cargo bag to arrive from a dedicated reader — Large please) around SeaTac, Denver International and Logan.
It would have been even worse if I had been allowed to go to Europe this Sunday…but I digress.
What is in there?
Well, the contents are pretty much detailed here. Now, I can take out the European adapters — need for those went way down all of a sudden. But, in a nutshell, my bag is substantially cleaner now than it has been in years.
The Moleskine Accordian Folder definitely helps, as I have a place to store all of my important documents, receipts and pieces of paper.
And the MEC backpack buddy helps keep the wires and cables and other odds and ends from rattling around.
But I still carry way too much. The 9 pound Inspiron doesn’t help.
In my pockets, bare minimum, and always in the front pockets. A business card holder thing to hold the cards I need, and my car keys in one pocket; my very light Samsung R225M in the other.
Still, there is too much crap in our lives. Too much in mine.
If only I could capture it all and put it in my inbox…

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Technorati: GTD, Moleskine, zen pockets, whats in my bag

Ok, I don’t have the most amazing traffic in the world, but here are the Search Engine results for the past 1100 visitors.

Technorati is still out front!
Graph courtesy of StatCounter.

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Technorati: SEO, Technorati, Google, StatCounter

On the plane between Seattle and Denver right now. Had one of those airport experiences this morning that started out poorly and, by a twist of fate, worked out fine.
Arrived at SeaTac at 4:30AM. United Easy Check-In barfed on my reservation, so I had to deal with a counter person. Turns out that United had moved me to a later flight, without noticing that this would force me to miss my connection in Denver. The agent placed on the list for the oversold 6:00AM flight and off I went…
…to promptly get the full baggage search/body cavity search security line.
When things go bad…
Get to the gate. They have oversold the TWO flights out of Seattle to Denver which leave simultaneously. Angry, frustrated people everywhere.
Then, I get a break. I get a seat; 9B. For those of you who fly 737s, you know this seat. It is the dream seat: the exit row. And I get to talk to the woman who gave up this seat to take her well-earned upgrade to business class.
So, I am halfway to Denver, feeling very relaxed, and glad to be on the way home.

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Technorati: United, SeaTac

I survived giving my first all-day training class in 2.5 years today. Man! I forgot how giving a class drains you! I feel like I have lost 10 pounds!
The group was interesting. It is always fun to watch the group dynamic when people from different divisions in a large company, all with different agendas and needs get together in the same room, and try to learn a new product together.
I think I was able to share some of the knowledge I have gained, but short of a mind-meld, you can’t learn everything there is about Web performance in 6 hours.
And then their cafeteria tried to kill me some raw chicken disguised as chicken strips. If I keel over from salmonella, at least I will know the cause!
Also, I was able to quickly respond to this groups needs. They weren’t going to get anything from the “prepared” Powerpoint; immediately spun off into interactively using the application.
Time to re-design and re-implement my company’s training initiative. Beyond Bullet Points, here I come!

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Technorati: web performance, training, learning, powerpoint

Just got word that due to an unexpected opportunity, my company has decided to send someone “better suited to handle the situation” to Europe next week.
Anyone need an underemployed Web performance analyst?

I am in my hotel in Seattle.
I am exhausted.
I am in bed.
Good night

WiFi — 54Mbps

Cost — $7.95/day

Location — Gate C17

Weather — Gorgeous, clear, warm

Destination — Denver, en route to Seattle

Looks like a great day for flying. Seattle weather looks great.

Will be up at RedWest between 15:00-17:00 today. Then back to my hotel at Sea-Tac.

Rambling entry here at the airport. Wondering if this trip will help clear the writer’s block I have been suffering with for the last few days. Ok, not really a block, just more of a distraction. Other things, like the boys and the yard.

ZenWife is digging out a patio; at the rate she is going, it will be done by the time I get back from Europe.

See you all on the other side.

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Technorati: Seattle, SeaTac, Microsoft Campus

There will be light blogging for the next couple of days as I fly out to Seattle to meet with some folks at MSN and a training for a new customer.
I will check-in and make some comments when I can.
Talk amongst yourselves.

Just spent 20 minutes cleaning my backpack of all the extraneous detritus that I collect moving through my life, adding inportant numbers to my paper address book and being ready to have long periods of time offline during the next couple of weeks, as the World Tour kicks off.
But, it seems that I am moving in the opposite direction to everyone else. Gnomedex, JavaONE: all on the West Coast.
Oh well, it will be fun to be out and about.

Tim Bray writes about Mukhtaran Bibi, a Pakistani woman who was sentenced by her tribal council to be gang-raped as punishment for a crime of honour. [here]
NPR had a great story on her on All Things Considered yesterday (audio here).
The US government continues to covet Pakistan as an ally. I agree that religious freedom is a must for any country; however, religious freedom is outweighed by the need to preserve the equality, dignity, and freedom of all individuals.
Update: Tom Watson has a great commentary on this.

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Technorati: Pakistan, foreign affairs, diplomacy, Tim Bray, Mukhtaran Bibi