Pebble Watchface - til Friday - my first watchface experimenting with the sdk

My first simple watchface for the pebble watch, i call it 'til Friday'.  It was a pretty simple app, but I hit a few gotcha's on the learning curve and getting the sdk / development environment up and running before developing this simple watchface.

[pbw] watchface download

[src] source code

Matthew Joseph Amante

7lbs, 11oz - 20.5"

Welcome Matthew!

good news of a long-awaited event will arrive soon

My sister received this fortune, and shared it with me--

Which could mean one of two things, 1) My wife of 8+ months pregnancy could soon be going into labor and we would welcome our new son into the world.  2)  My Pebble watch would soon arrive, I had received notification that it would be shipped within a few weeks.

When I got home, guess what was in my mailbox...

Which meant that the watch has arrived, but could it also mean its time to go to the hospital?

That night, my wife woke me up...  after the initial charge, it was go time.  3:03 am, March 29th. 
We headed to the hospital.

 

the Melrose chapter

We moved out of our Gloucester place and a bit closer to the city.  We found a nice old Victorian home in the Wyoming Hill area of Melrose, and are starting to get settled.   We'll surely miss Gloucester and all of its natural beauty, but then again we'll probably still go up to the beach about as often as we want to.   Melrose will be closer to Boston for our daily grind, and in the end it should mean more time at home and less time commuting.

Miike Snow - Animal

Checking out Miike Snow next week at the Orpheum!

Iron & Wine - Love Vigilantes

SVG conversion with Vector Magic

The power of scalable vector graphics, is the image is represented with math instead of pixels, which allows the image to be resized without losing quality.

Today I came across this site, Vector Magic, which can be useful for converting versions of pixel images into SVG, it works best with a logo or something drawn versus an image like a  photograph.

http://vectormagic.com/home

Coconut Records - West Coast

MTB - mountain bike research

Thinking about picking up a new or used bike to hit the local trails(Dogtown/Ravenswood primarily) this year-- My trusty old Giant Yukon ('96) has been a great bike, but its probably time for a major overhaul.   Some things have changed over the last decade in the world of mtn bikes, and i'm coming up to speed with the latest and greatest -- while trying to also keep costs under control. 

Disc brakes -- similar to motorcycle and car brakes, pad brakes are hard to find on intermediate+ bikes today...  stopping power seems to be good, but it does feel a bit different....

Suspension -- front suspensions are pretty popular, you get some extra shock absorbancy for downhills, but they are actually wasteful when you are on flat pavement or climbing uphill as some energy is lost.  some front suspensions have a 'lock-out' feature which allows you to lock your front fork solid.  rear suspension seems like a bit overkill for what I need, and it also adds costs and similar energy waste in most of the cases.  Front and rear suspension seems to be most important for big jumps/drops, or mountainous downhill which I'm not really into (yet?).

Wheels - the 29er... the standard 26" wheel is being seriously challenged by a larger wheel, the 29" aka 29er.....  It makes the ride feel a bit different, and I think deserves some consideration as I make my choice...
Gears--  some folks are jumping on an old school single-gear 1-speed bandwagon, personally I'm not seeing the appeal here -- i'll stick to my 18 or 24 speeds and rapid fire shifting...

thoughts?  I haven't decided yet if the 29er or front suspension is something I would enjoy-

Here are some that are in the running....

I ended up with a 19" aluminum frame 29er created by Motobecane, it includes a front suspension fork by Suntour (XCT V3 29) with 100mm of travel.  The front fork is considerend entry level, but it does have 'lockout' which allows it to be locked and perform similar to a fixed front suspension althoug it is most likely heavier.  The rear derailler is Shimano Deore, front Shimano Alivio -- it has Shimano Alivio rapid fire trigger shifting and a 27 speed Shimano cassette.  The wheels are 29" with quick release hubs, and it comes with Tektro Novela disc brakes.  Looking forward to giving it a spin! Some more detailed pics.

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Gloucester MA last frost date

With an exceptionally warm spring so far, everyone is thinking about gardening a bit earlier than usual. The above map source shows Gloucester probably in the clear in early May for the last freeze of the year. Historically it looks like the record for the last 32 degree low is May 7th. I typically plant around memorial day, but am considering some earlier planting this year with some lettuce seeds already in the ground, and some peas/beans right behind.

Indoors, I'm starting up Tomatoes(Cherry and Big Boy), Basil(Italian leaf and Thai), Cilantro, Sage, Parsley and Peppers. Chives, Thyme and Sage from last years garden seem to have come back and are already growing!

Hubway Hotspots

North Station and Gov't Center are the stations I use most frequently -- but I imagine cambridge street and the northend stations may see some visits this year.  This screenshot is taken from they iphone app called Spotcycle which gives you realtime updates to how many bikes are available and how many empty dock slots are available.

Angus and Julia Stone - Silver Coin

market demand for your major

while the ideals of doing what you truly love may make the workday more enjoyable -- the problem is the market needs you.


Top 50 Occupations with the Most Openings


Top 50 Occupations with the Most Openings w/ College degree


Top 50 Highest-Paying Occupations by Median Hourly Wages

maybe you would love to do something like this?



Courtesy of National Data Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment Statistics Survey and CareerOneStop is sponsored by the U. S. Department of Labor,
Employment and Training Administration

The Challenge of the Sea

We can't control the winds or weather ahead- we can learn about the forecast, currents and tides, but the variables are too many to understand them completely-- you need to be ready to change the plan.

I was not born at sea, and spending many years of my life on land and on calmer rivers and ponds, a degree of intimidation exists whenever I cast off from shore. Your preparation and initial judgement only take you up to the decision point, and once you set off -- there are only two options: turning around and giving up, or pushing forward and succeeding.

The sea has challenged me, and built my strength in a way which no course or classroom could. While some focus on their strengths and continue on with their weaknesses, I prefer to squash my fears, using all my strengths to do so. The fundamental driver of success is determination and knowing you can do it. You won't do it right the first time, but you did it. Next time you'll do it better, building upon each experience-- adjusting your course.

So what are you afraid of? Yourself.

do something great today

Today, not anytime this week, but today -- do something awesome.

I don't care what it is, I don't care if its for work, or for play, but just get out there and do it. Do something great!

After you do, find the biggest piece of paper you can find. Write it down. Celebrate, because today, was, a good day.

Copper Mountain, Colorado

Smarty Pig, Mint.com, Saltmoney.org

Dedicate a savings account to your goal, and even better -- auto deduct from your checking account so you are forced to meet it. Smarty Pig.com piggy banks.

Aggregate your accounts within your own banks website, or check out Mint.com

Learn about your student loan debt, and your repayment options from Saltmoney.org

If you have personal finance tools that you use regularly and speak highly of, I'd like to hear about them.

iPhone and iPads, moving beyond apps

While app development will continue to bring new fun and useful applications to the market -- this will be an important year for Apple in another way. Hardware paired with applications will further spur advancements in using the mobile phone and tablet as a user interface for control. Picture anything that today has a mediocre display screen and simplified horrible user interface -- now you can use your device to control instead. A truly universal remote -- not just for TV and AV equipment, but really anything that can be remotely controlled or interfaced.
Syma Copter
What have you seen already out there? What is coming next?

digital cash

it is the next big thing.

I want to be able to give you cash, as easily as it is to take a 20$ bill out of my wallet and hand it to you.

We are there, the technology allows for it. Who is going to do it?

Occupy First Chair

source: tetonat.com

Jobs

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Thanks Steve

Santorini, Greece

We explored the whole island, by walking, 4x4, taxi, bus, boat, plane...

What an amazing trip.

09-17-2011

and every day after :)



quonniewedding.com

'02 Nissan Pathfinder

It was time to retire my '96 Pathfinder, she was a great vehicle and we had a lot of great trips up to the mountains together.



I replaced her with a 6 year 'newer' vehicle, a 2002 Nissan Pathfinder w/98k miles, pretty much the same core truck with 6 years less rust. The added perk of working AC and a sunroof is great, although going from standard transmission to automatic was a bit of a transition. New front brakes, rotors, exhaust, evap canister+valve --

I had considered an older 4Runner too this time around, and hoped to have been able to find one that spent some time in southern states -- but after test driving several vehicles this one seemed to fit the bill right.

Now to plan my preventative maintainance--