Tuesday, December 23, 2003

Friday Harbor is beautiful this time of year. And fortunately, there are lots of webcams pointed at the waterfront. Like this and this. And one pointed at the ferry lanes.   10:14:42 PM    ; comment [];  Spending time in Friday Harbor, you get used to seeing all sorts of different boats in the harbor. Small cruise ships, fishing boats, lots of luxury yachts of course, zodiacs, sailboats... and obviously the ferries. Today was a new one. This afternoon, a Coast Guard cutter came in and pulled right up to the fueling dock. A lot of the crew got of the boat and were roaming around town. It left just before sunset. I assume that the "level orange" terrorist threat has something to do with their presence. It's good to see them, though. Good people working hard to serve their country. It was cold and windy in town today -- I can only imagine what it was like out on the open water. 9:57:20 PM    ; comment [];  Rangers Defiantly Say Rodriguez Isn't Leaving. The continuing trade proposal that would put Alex Rodriguez in Fenway Park and send Manny Ramirez to Texas may have finally suffered a fatal hit on Tuesday. By Jack Curry. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] Look, I have no idea why this deal ever should have been considered in the first place. As Joe Sheehan explains, A-Rod wasn't the problem for the Rangers -- it's all the other players they stupidly signed for way too much money. He is absolutely worth every cent they are paying for him (we may think it's an outrageous amount of money, but in the business of baseball, he's really worth that much in contribution to the Rangers franchise). What I really can't understand is why the Rangers want Manny Ramirez. He's much older and much more frail. And he also has a long-term contract that will cost them tons of money. Now, maybe they will all just move on. 9:40:33 PM    ; comment [];  I'm up in Friday Harbor, resting. Mostly sleeping. With a full time job and two kids, my days are nonstop. My stress level has been very high lately, which throws me into a vicious circle of sleeping badly, which stresses me out more... One of the things I do to compensate is bake bread. Tonight: bagels. First batch just came out of the oven. For anyone who has ever tried to make bagels, you are well aware that it takes a long, long time to learn how to make bagels that actually look like bagels -- you know, with that nice smooth, shiny top, and the right size and shape. I remember about 5 years ago when I first tried, and they came out all deformed. One of the first tricks you have to learn is how to actually shape the dough into a bagel. It sounds easy, but... if you just take a lump of dough and poke a hole in the middle, then you don't get a smooth top to your bagel and it comes out all lumpy and coarse. On the other hand, if cyou roll out the dough into a smake and then bring the ends together, you get a smooth shape, but you run the risk that when it rises the ends are going to come apart again (it happens to the best of us). So, I haven't made bagels in about a year, and I was worried that I was going to screw this up. In fact, this was all very spontaneous today. I didn't even have a bagel recipe handy, so I had to go up to the street to the used bookstore and find a bread book. Then I had to make sure I had all the ingredients (I didn't -- needed malt barley syrup). But with the first batch out, I can safely say that they are warm and yummy and for the most part can be recognized as bagels. 9:03:42 PM    ; comment [];  OK, a bit of prerequisite background on me. I grew up in a bunch of different places around the US. You've heard of "army brats"... well, I was an accountant brat. My dad the CPA did a pretty spectacular job of working his way up the management ladder by hopping from company to company. from New Jersey to Tacoma to Modesto, and finally landing in the Napa Valley where I spent the latter half of my childhood. I have a bachelor's degree in computer science from Dartmouth College (class of 1988). I took at job at Microsoft straight out of college, and have been there ever since. One of the nice things about Microsoft is that they encourage people to try different jobs ad work in different product teams to stay intellectually egnaged. I've certainly exercised that privilege, having worked in both development and program management on a variety of different products. About 8 years ago I moved over to Microsoft Research, and I've never looked back. I love my job (the details of which are rather complicated, and will be the source of many blog entries, so I shouldn't get ahead of myself). You shouldn't read into this, however, that I have no criticisms of Microsoft. On the whole, I think the company has gotten a raw deal, but it's a hyper-competitive company in a hyper-competitive industry and running a business in that environment is extremely difficult. No company, and no person, is above criticism. Other important things to know about me: - I split my time between Bellevue, Washington, and Friday Harbor, Washington.  People always ask me "How often to you get to Friday Harbor?" And my stock answer is "Not nearly often enough." - I am a single parent of twin girls. - I am part owner of a ballroom dance studio, Danceworks, in Redmond, Washington. Okay, they teach more than just ballroom. Swing, salsa, etc. - I'm a voracious reader. Currently working on The DaVinci Code. (isn't everyone?) I'll blog about it when I'm done -- I alreay have lots of comments. - I'm a recovering Catholic. As George Carlin says, it's like alcoholism: you never fully recover, you just spend the rest of your life in recovery. I think my recovery is going well; I haven't fallen off the wagon in a long time. - My politics are way to the left of center. Bush nauseates me. OK, that's enough of an introduction, I think. 8:53:05 PM    ; comment [];  I've been beating myself up for a while to start blogging. And now it's a couple of days before Christmas and I have some spare time and no more excuses. Spent a good part of the afternoon surfing the net, trying to find a good hosting site and good blogging software. Radio certainly comes highly recommended. I realize that I'm still using one of the default themes and that labels me as "lame". I'll fix that very soon. 7:38:44 PM    ; comment [];

© Copyright 2004 Kevin Schofield. Last update: 8/23/2004; 10:07:27 PM. This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.

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