It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything about AppleTV. Or Boxee. When Boxee came out for OS X, it took the desire (or need) out of wanting to get a dedicated AppleTV for the purpose of using Boxee. And, to be honest, while the form-factor is intriguing, I can’t see it in my entertainment center and I have little desire to purchase a Boxee Box. We’ve settled into a comfortable routine with our Netflix queue and Netflix instant watch offerings for watching movies that we didn’t want to wait for in the queue and especially to catch up on past episodes of Lost or 24 without commercial interruption (which is essential when you’re trying to catch up on multiple seasons before series finales). Hulu and Boxee apps for OS X, or even surprisingly, the network sites like FOX and ABC, have been sufficient to watch any current season episodes of anything. Of course, now that Lost and 24 are finished, there’s only an occasional Lie To Me or Kitchen Nightmares that I care to watch. And if we really like something, like BBC’s Elizabeth Gaskell Collection box set (don’t look at me like that), we’ll invest in the DVDs. As for gaming, we’re still using our almost 10-year old GameCube! So, admittedly, we are not the ideal demographic in this space—or, are we? Now, with all the new rumors surrounding AppleTV’s change back to iTV and being brought over to the iOS platform with the promise of apps similar to iPad and iPhone—will the game be changed? Will we finally take the plunge? That all depends…

Of course, one of the things that it really depends on is us taking the plunge on a real HDTV set. We have a 24″ monitor that suits our purposes but its not the ideal. We’re still as committed (even more so) to keeping our family time not focused on entertainment but quality time spent together with games (of the board or card variety) or reading good and edifying books or just plain old, good conversations. So its always a battle to not let the “ooh, shiny” side of technology get the better of my judgement. Of course, financial verities are a good way to keep things in check too.

Another thing that it would depend on, is if Apple is able to offer a subscription model that is compelling enough to replace our Netflix subscription or at least low enough to augment it. And what might make that whole point moot is if, by virtue of embracing the iOS platform, that Netflix and/or Hulu iPad apps will be able to be easily modified to run on iTV similar to Wii, PS3 and Xbox if they chose. I’d much rather buy a device at the rumored $99 price point than $199 or $299-$399. Of all the rumored specs, thats the one I’m hoping is most accurate.

And as I’ve already mentioned, the gaming aspect is not as big of an incentive as it would be to many, but I can definitely see the logic and appeal now that Apple has some serious gaming momentum going for them for the first time in a long time. It only makes sense to capitalize on the lower cost of iOS games and I think iTV has the serious potential to break out of the hobby stage and into the same stratosphere currently enjoyed by the iPad and iPhone 4.

And the big fuss over 1080p being downgraded to 720p is in reality, not a big deal. However, I do think Apple is going to have a challenge overcoming the market perception after so much has been invested by BestBuy and other retailers to “educate” customers to the “benefits” of buying the best 55″ LED 240MHz 1080p behemoth that money can buy. Of course the biggest benefit is more money in their pockets.

Well, until Apple makes any announcement, I’m perfectly content with our current Netflix arrangement. To be honest, I’d be more excited if Apple announced the iPhone was available on T-Mobile—but alas, it looks like I will be having to choose whether to switch over to AT&T (which I’ve successfully resisted for three years) or Verizon (another rumor). Until then, back to werk!

In the ongoing saga of trying to keep my MacBook Pro alive long enough to replace it, I just had to bake the logic board again. For those of you that are keeping score or just curious about how many times a MacBook Pro motherboard can be yanked out and baked and put back in and still work again—so far, we’re at three now. The bad news is, where the first bake lasted three months, this last re-bake (or re-fry or whatever) has lasted only one month and four days. So, replacement time is coming on quicker than I was hoping! For details of the logic board baking process I used, read about my first Cooking the Books article or the second, Twice-Baked Motherboard. For the differences I did this time, read on…

One major difference with this time was that I found myself wondering if the actual need to bake the motherboard might not be really necessary and I mused that if maybe the process of breaking it down and putting it back together might be sufficient to restore the system to a working state. This time, I tried an experiment where I just did the tear-down all the way to removing the logic board, and then, rather than baking the board, I just re-assembled the system (just enough screws to hold it in while I tried to boot rather than all of them) and tried to boot. No go. Same initial drive spin-up noise, then momentary flashing white lights on the sleep light indicator near the magnetic latch and no boot.

I was then committed to firing up the oven once again and baking at 375° for 7 min 30 sec. I popped everything back together (after cooling, of course) and to my thankful relief, was greeted with my last open screen in sleep state, from which it restored itself perfectly again. Which reinforces my suspicion that something in the sleep mode is triggering this issue and that I’m still not 100% positive that the issue is just a faulty logic board—its just that baking the board seems to fix it. I am definitely open to anybody’s ideas and I can’t wait until the Apple Store in Spokane finally opens. In the meantime, I’m looking for an excuse to truck over to Seattle.

I guess one good thing out of all this is that I am becoming terribly efficient and quick in being able to tear-down my MBP and put it back together with no lost screws or parts. I can do the whole process in less than an hour now (tear-down, bake, assemble). Hmm, maybe I should think about applying at the Apple Store…

P.S. Feel free to contact me if you want to know how you can help contribute to my MacBook Pro replacement fund.

This isn’t meant to be an authoritative review—for that, you can go to Ken Rockwell’s review of the Tokina 11-16mm lens, or any of the other myriad articles that come up in Google (or Bing). I’m just posting some explorations and my own experience with the new lens (new to me that is).

I reluctantly returned the lens back to LensRentals.com last week after using the lens over a two-week period to shoot a few quick jobs that had fallen into my lap. It wasn’t all work as I also got a chance to just play around with the lens too. Overall, I was very pleased with the results. It gives you perhaps the widest angle without fish-eye distortion of  any DX lens—which is exactly what I was needing for the architectural shots I was working on. These images were shot with a Nikon D80. The first four shots are comparisons between a Nikkor 18-200 VR at 18mm and the Tokina. These four were all shot on different days, so they’re not a comparison of the same exact lighting conditions and a swapping between two lenses, but basically the same shot from the same physical location within 6-12 inches. The second Coeur d’Alene Cellars shot is higher because I was also using a relatively new tripod (purchased after the first shot was taken) and because I could—but same position on the front sidewalk.

CDA Cellars with Nikkor 18-200 VR

And with the Tokina…

CDA Cellars with Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8

Here are some interior shots that were shot just a couple days apart under similar lighting conditions.

Kitchen with Nikkor 18-200mm VR

And the Tokina…

Kitchen with Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8

As you can see in the second kitchen shot, while the lens allowed us to get the refrigerator in too, which we were looking for, it had the unfortunate effect of elongating the room to where the fireplace seemed to be half a football field away.

Here are some more shots with the Tokina 11-16mm…

Example of Tokina’s green lens flare below. It became bothersome in many of the shots with direct sunlight.

Overall, room elongation and lens flares aside, I was impressed with the lens and heartily recommend it for the serious prosumer with a Nikon DX mount (I know, its also available for Canon weenies too).

I also want to heartily recommend LensRentals.com for providing a great lens and a flawless rental experience before making the final purchase decision. I don’t receive anything from LensRentals.com and they don’t even offer an affiliate program, so you know the endorsement is genuine. I look forward to making it a core component of our ongoing arsenal acquisitions as well as using LensRentals.com to play around with even bigger toys before I buy. Hmm, that D700 is looking nice. I may even find a job to justify a D3x.

Wondering what pairs best with a refried MacBookPro logic board? Well, just in case you were, my suggestion would be a 2008 Viognier from Coeur d’Alene Cellars (full-disclosure: they are a client of mine and they keep me supplied). I would also recommend as an après-bake maybe a Merlot. I happened to have the remains of a 2007 Hogue Genesis Merlot that filled in quite nicely. I needed it as I was In the process of baking my MBP logic board for the second time.

This is a follow-up article to my 4/27/10 Cooking The Books post for those who might be wondering how long a baked mother board lasts…

As it turns out, almost exactly three months. Three months and one day to be exact for my case. The system first went down on March 27, 2010. I originally baked it and got the system back up on April 2, 2010 and it lasted until July 3, 2010.

After putting my system to sleep for the night by closing the lid and going to bed last Friday night (like I normally do), I discovered the next morning when I went to open the case, that my glowing/pulsing power light was off—just like the last time. I then proceeded to open the lid and nothing. After a quick press to see if I could wake the system up, I held the power key down to power-down the system. No sound, Nothing. I then pressed the power button again and, just like before, I heard a whirring of the optical drive and the glowing/pulsing power light came on, but nothing else. No start-up chime, no screen. Nothing. When I left the system on for a little while, it would heat up as if it were running, but there was never any hard drive spinning, whirring, clicking sounds indicating the hard drive was being accessed.

Rather than waste any more time trouble-shooting and after a quick-glance at Craigslist didn’t produce any incredible “I have to give away my perfectly good MBP because I’m stupid and switching back to Windows XP” offers, and the fact that I hadn’t yet secured the necessary funding to replace my system outright like I had hoped to do before this situation occurred again, I quickly committed myself to doing another bake-off in the evening after the family had gone to bed.

Since basically what I did was the same exact thing that I outlined in my earlier Cooking the Books article, I won’t bore you with the details again. Suffice it to say, that I did the entire process in easily half the time that it took me originally. I’ve gotten quite comfortable tearing apart my system and putting it back together. I also didn’t have to keep running back to my other desktop system to reread an article or re-watch a video—I knew what I was doing this time. I just went to my original article, double-checked the temperature and timing (375°F for 7 min and 30 sec). I did do something different this time in that I increased the heat slightly to 385°F just to see if it would soften the soldering joints more thoroughly this time. It would probably be helpful to have an accurate oven thermometer if you were going to do this on a regular basis—that and it comes in handy for baking real food too.

After cooling (er, resting), I re-assembled my MBP and then trepidously pressed the power button and viola: my system came to life without even rebooting—it restored the session from the sleep state that I put it in the night before (note to Apple engineers: there’s a clue there somewhere). This is after repeated powering down and up and then the removal of the battery and then the whole logic board! I didn’t try booting without the battery like I did last time—so that’s possibly a clue too.

I went ahead and shut all the apps down and rebooted the system just to clear all the cobwebs and was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t have to reset my passwords again like last time. Again, probably a result of not trying to power up without the battery or zapping PRAM and all the other keyboard/bootup sequences I tried the first time this happened.

The other good thing about this time around is that I recovered a broken USB port that I had lost with the last baking session. It had retained the ability to pass power to an item (so I used it for my cooling base) but no drives were recognized when plugged in. So, that is cool, because I have several drives and peripherals that I run off the USB ports and it had cramped my style on more than one occasion.

So, all that is to say that if you ever find yourself in the situation of having to bake your mother board and wonder how long is this going to last? In my case it was right around 3 months. The good news is that the system seems to be able to handle at least one repeat baking, but how many more is a big question and I’m not sure I really want to make more of a habit out of this—no matter how fast I get at doing it. So, I’m on an accelerated plan to replace my system as soon as I can. I’ll let you know so you can be sure to check Craigslist for a “not-so-perfectly good MBP because I’m stupid and didn’t get Apple’s 3-year extended warranty and now I have to sell it for a fraction of its normal resale value” deal. Now, where’s that Merlot?

Buna H.S. infringing on Penn State Nittany Lions logo on their helmets

Like many high schools with little budget and no clue as to what institutes true trademark infringement, Buna High School in Buna, Texas had been “assured” by a local sportswear vendor that using this cool cougar image would be perfect and different enough than Penn State’s Nittany Lion logo that they would be safe in using it. Not sure what alternate universe this sportswear vendor was in when they were viewing the Nittany Lions’ logo because it was a rip-off all the way to the same color, but I’m sure they felt some sense of protection in the relative obscurity of being a small high school in the middle of Texas (actually they’re closer to the coast, northeast of Houston) that no one would notice that they were using someone else’s registered trademark for their school mascot. But…someone did, and that someone notified The Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) in Atlanta, GA, who just happens to manage the licensing of trademarked merchandise for many high-profile NCAA schools and is also charged with enforcing the protection of the trademarked Nittany Lions logo of Penn State in particular. A curt Cease and Desist letter was promptly sent to the small high school with the requirement that they immediately remove the logo from all their uniforms, paint over walls with the logo and stop using the logo for any other printed material or clothing.

After recovering from the initial shock and revelation of being evil-doing lawbreakers without even realizing it, Buna H.S. staff was faced with a brief phase-out period and scrambled to find a replacement image for their cougar mascot logo in time to have decals printed for next seasons’ helmets as well as walls and field painted and new t-shirts. Not knowing where to turn or who to trust now, they searched for the term, “cougar logo design” and started calling design firms of the more promising designs that they could find contact links for. One of those calls was to Whitestone Design Werks, and while the Buna ISD staff were initially surprised at the typical cost of producing a custom-designed logo, Russell Heistuman, the owner, (that’s me) took pity on their situation and low budget requirements and with dreams of Friday Night Lights, and agreed to modify an existing design to become the new mascot logo for the Buna High School Cougars.

Well, once I got into the project, I couldn’t help but take it much further than just an adaptation of an existing design (I had my own clientele to protect as well). The final design was enthusiastically received by the Buna staff, but they were still cautious about whether or not they were in compliance with the original cease and desist letter regarding the venerable Penn State logo infringement. Once CLC had reviewed the new design and even submitted it to Penn State for their approval too, they were satisfied that the new design was different enough as to not cause any confusion as to whether they were using any derivative version of the original infringed version (in other words: It was OK!).

So now we’re in the process of applying the design to vehicle graphics, painting on walls and applying to custom designs for shirts, sweatshirts, jackets and other items using the awesome site of Prep Sportswear. And now, Buna Independent School District is the proud owner of a mascot logo that no other school has and they are free to register it as a trademark and have for their very own…and even serve up a Cease and Desist letter of their own someday if some other upstart high school team decides to hijack their Cougar logo.

I justified the purchase by telling myself that I could always keep my old Mach 3 handle and buy the cheaper replacement blades later and that if these 5-blades were all they were cracked up to be, then maybe I would be sold and suckered into the age-old “give away the handles and charge through the nose for the razors” scheme. Well, here I am a week later with a very smoothly shaved face (when I shave of course) and enjoying the luxurious closeness of new, smooth blades. But I have to say, that every time I shave with these blades, I keep thinking that they have finally maxed-out on what gimmicky advancement they can offer that would entice men to upgrade their choice of razors. I let my mind spin with the absurdity of adding blades similar to Intel doubling clock rates every 18 months (or whatever Moore’s law used to be) and came up with my 22-blade Gillette Infinitum concept.

I’m sold.

Well, it’s taken me a little while to get this post up—not to mention the fact that its taken me a long while to get any posts up—but I thought this one was worth it just as an encouragement for anyone else who might be dealing with a fried MacBook Pro logic board that is out of the AppleCare warranty coverage. I also needed to get this post up before I forgot most of the details.

As a little background, I put my MBP (17″ 2.5GHz-early 2008, Model A1261 to be exact for you that are searching) to sleep by closing it up for the night, which I’ve done for the past 2+ years with no problems. The next morning I noticed that the glowing power light on the latch release was off and thought it strange and then went to open and wake it and nothing happened. After futilely trying to wake it by varying degrees of banging on random keys and quickly pressing the power button I waited several minutes before I committed to powering it down. After powering it down, I tried to start it back up. While I could hear the hard drive spin up and the optical drive go through its start-up whirrings, there was no start-up chime and no effort to display anything on screen. I tried all the start-up key combinations to start in safe-mode, reset PRAM, start diagnosis—nothing worked. Tried to insert original system install disk and boot from that, all to no avail.

After going through the Apple Support boards, I could not determine a culprit and since there are no Apple Stores closer than the 330 miles to Seattle yet (soon in Spokane I hear), I resorted to taking my system to the only certified Apple Repair shop in Spokane. We were hoping that it would fall under the Nvidia Graphics chip issue so that Apple would cover the replacement (note to self: on future MacBook Pro purchases: Get the full three-year AppleCare coverage!). Since the system would not even get past the initial boot phases, there was no way to even diagnose any other problems. Which AppleCare concluded that it would not fall under the Nvidia replacement program. Which that meant it would be in the neighborhood of $1000-1200 to replace logic board ($800 logic board + labor)—which is not much less than the $1200-1400 my system in good condition was going for on ebay. I’ve since gathered the necessary courage (and tools) to do it myself, so I could save the labor charges in the future. I also found a resource that I might consider as well if I had to face the issue of replacing the logic board again; DT&T Service claims they can replace my model logic board with a refurb for $450. Maybe next time…

I was faced with trying to sell the dead MBP on Craigslist or ebay whole for $600 or try to recover more by dismantling it out and selling the parts on ebay and maybe be able to make up to $800. I determined that the time and effort involved in managing that many auctions wasn’t worth it and posted it on Craigslist. I got exactly two calls on it—one by one of the techs at the shop who diagnosed it originally to ask if I’d ruled-out the Nvidia issue (doh!) and the other by a guy who was tempted to buy it to try to fix it, but just didn’t have the time—he asked if I had considered “baking the logic board”. He quickly countered my skepticism with a plea to Google the term and that I’d find a plethora of advice on how to do it. (Update: when I wrote this, I couldn’t find the contact info for him but just recently found it. Here’s his link: http://www.spokanepcrepair.com/) So I did and he was right-there’s a bunch of crazy gamers out there resurrecting dead graphics cards, Xboxes and logic boards.

I’ve never been afraid to get under the hood and swap out RAM, replace a hard drive or optical drive, but removing the logic board from an expensive laptop (at least when it was bought), was a little beyond my comfort zone. Figuring I had nothing to lose if I messed up the logic board I found some helpful videos on YouTube that showed how to disassemble my MBP and remove the logic board. After running out to get a better selection of Torx screwdrivers, I found this video helpful (with the exception of the backing music):

After successfully removing the logic board, I then proceeded to prep it for inserting it into the oven. Now if getting into the guts of a $3K+ computer doesn’t make you nervous enough, then actually taking the most important and expensive element out and sticking it into an oven should do the trick. One of the things that nobody covered very carefully, was how much of the additional plastic parts should be removed before inserting into the oven. I was initially fearful after reading several posts where the user would actually remove ANYTHING that was plastic and re-solder it back on afterwards. I wasn’t really committed or prepared to do that. I was most nervous about the USB, DVI and Firewire ports because there was no way I was going to be able to remove those and put them back on. I concluded that they have to be made up of at least heat-resistant plastics, and I hadn’t read or seen anything that lamented melted ports and that I should be OK.

I was careful to remove a piece of foam cushioning that is attached to the board and placed it back on afterward.

Here it is after I removed the foam piece:

One thing (actually two) that I did not think to remove were the two sleeves for mounting screws that are located at the top of the board (see circled areas in image below). I thought they were metal, but they turned out to be not-so-heat-resistant plastic and I unfortunately learned that lesson the hard way. They are no longer the best part of the securing system of my logic board. I managed to recover one, but the other was toast.

The instructions I followed for baking came mostly from this post on Overclockers. I preheated my oven to 375° F (helpful marital tip: coordinate with spouse if attempting to do this anywhere close to dinner time—trust me on this). I placed the board on rolled-up balls of foil (not sure why—just doing what I saw in the other pics) on top of cookie sheet covered with foil (to catch the grease drippings, or melted plastics I suppose—thankfully there was neither).

Time to take a deep breath… At this point, it should be noted that we actually gathered the whole family around to pray for God’s mercy and that He might bless this endeavor in that it was affecting my ability to provide for the said whole family. It was time to start baking…

After reading through numerous posts (well over 20 or so) about different temperatures and times to bake for, I settled on 7m:30s at 375°F for these two reasons: one is that most of the realistic sounding posts hovered between 7 and 8 minutes so I thought 7:30 should do it. And the other was after reading several posts that 375° would be sufficient to soften the soldering joints to just barely the melting point allowing them to reseat better and where anything over 400°F would melt the soldering too much—along with all the other plastics and burn the stickers.

It’s not easy holding your breath for over 7 minutes, but with prayer, we persevered (it was a family event at this point). After letting the board cool for about 10 minutes (I think “rest” is the proper cooking terminology), it was now time to start on the process of putting the board back in the case.

One thing that helped immensely in the re-assembly process was that I took pictures with my digital camera of all the critical assembly points so that I could reconstruct it all back together to the original condition. With the exception of the oft-pointed out melting of the mounting screw sleeves, everything went back together smoothly and with all the family gathered around (actually they were out watching a movie because it was pretty boring watch me put the machine back together) to hear the delightful start-up chime and watch the screen flicker to life and post a question mark because I hadn’t put the original hard drive back in. But that question mark was a beautiful thing, because it meant that it was alive and looking for a suitable, bootable drive. I had removed the hard drive and placed it in an external enclosure so that I could access it from my older system to at least be able to get some work done and also to initially rule out that it was a hard drive issue. I wasn’t worried about losing my data, as I use Apple’s Time Machine and had my drive backed-up. Putting the hard drive back in was fairly quick to do, and after that was in, the system booted up beautifully.

Well, I don’t have any pics or video of it coming to life but suffice it to say, that I’m typing this post on it and have been working on it happily for the last (almost) 30 days and thankful to the Lord in showing His mercy. I’ve read that there are no long-term guarantees with this fix and to not expect it to last forever. How long that turns out to be, I’ll be sure to post in the future, but I’m taking the precaution of planning for its imminent replacement (hoping my system doesn’t take that last statement personally).

There does seem to be a casualty after the baking in that since I’ve made the fix, it looks like I lost one of my USB ports on the left side closest to the power plug. It provides power to the device, but the device (both input and disk) is not recognized. That and the fact that I had to re-enter all my passwords as once the board’s battery is disconnected, the OS X Password Keychain is wiped. So, that’s a bummer, but well worth the trade-off of having a working system back.

If I could recommend anything to anyone in the future of how to prepare before an event like this happens is, in addition to keeping your drives backed up (at least with Time Machine), is to have a good password manager with all your passwords stored—specially if you have multiple email accounts and website accounts in Dreamweaver that you manage.

And finally, be sure to give a hearty and heart-felt thanks to a gracious Lord who has shown us mercy indeed! Hallelujah!

Piggybacking on the “Busy is Good” post, I have continued to remain incredibly busy since the beginning of the year. I would have to say that I am not personally experiencing the downside of this recession yet and I hope that continues to hold true. I’m not one to “knock on wood” but I am also keenly aware that everything could melt-down tomorrow. But I have to say that I almost feel guilty when people ask “how’s business?” with a trepidatious tone and a hanky ready to wipe up the puddle of tears that is surely ready to pour forth as I confess all the horrors of dried-up business and clients gone belly-up and all I can say is, “I’ve never been busier.”

Now busy-ness is one of those blessings and curses kind of things. But even with the curses, its always one of those “good-to-have” kind of problems that you’d rather have than the lack thereof. One of the problems is outlined in the aforementioned “Busy is Good” post in that I just have not been able to make even quick posts to this blog. Some others are a disorganized desk and office evidenced in picture above (to be totally honest, I had to “straighten” piles before taking the shot ), playing catch-up with business issues like invoicing, bill-paying, collecting and so-on. Another frustration is not being able to work on your own marketing and self-promotion but the biggest frustration by far is, being too busy to spend quality time with my family. Being able to spend more time with my family is one of the reasons I am self-employed in the first place, so it goes without saying that when you are glued to a computer so much that your kids forget what the front of your face looks like, that you are frustrating your family even more than if you were working in an office or on the road all the time. At least that way they may be frustrated, but I daresay its a bit easier to deal with it, but when you’re there so close physically, but so far away mentally, that’s just provoking frustration. I have to say that I have a great family and they are very patient and very appreciative of the fact that my busy-ness will pay the bills (eventually), but I have greatly enjoyed this past week of breathing a little easier and while I’ve continued to neglect things like updating this blog and invoicing in a more timely manner, I’ve been able to relax and recharge with my family over a beautiful spring weekend at home and spend some quality and quantitative time with my girls (we even watched BBC’s Wives and Daughters together—now if that isn’t love…).

This week, begins a fresh round of deadlines and renewed busy-ness, but I am hoping and making plans to keep it from becoming as much of a trial as it was the past couple of months. I will be training my daughter in basic web-design and the ways of WordPress in order to take care of “two birds with one stone” so to speak as well as I will also be looking at sub-contracting out more work if the busy-ness persists through the next couple of quarters. In addition, I will probably look at bringing my daughter on full-time as her skills get up to speed and I am looking forward to that.

So, at least, I have a new post up, even if it is only about the tired excuse of being too busy to post—at least I have that excuse and for that I’m thankful.

It also seems ironic that the busier I am and not able to finish blog posts, I seem to get more ideas of potential good ones. For example, I’m just itching to write another post about AppleTV with all the news out the last week and a half about it. The only problem is that if you don’t sit down and start writing right away, specially if it involves breaking news regarding technology or politics, your final post–when you get around to finishing it–won’t be as fresh and relevant, not to mention, other news can break that might render your unfinished ideas and points moot anyways. So, the pressure is on to strike while the iron is hot and get that post finished.

In the meantime, back to werk!

I do have to say that the saving grace in this storm is that it was cold and the snow was light and fluffy. So, while shoveling light, fluffy snow can be a challenge in itself (think eating peas with a butter knife), it is not as hard as shoveling wet snow. And I have to give a big shout out to my neighbors who pitched in shovels, backs, snow-blowers and plow-equipped ATV’s to help everyone shovel out each other’s driveways. Even with all the help, I pretty much missed a whole day of work shoveling. And I work from home!

So, I’m enjoying the effects of Advil now and resting up for another storm supposed to hit on Sunday that they say will bring possibly another 4-6″ of snow. Bring it on. What’s 6″? Heck, I’ll take 12″! I just hope I don’t have to shovel 30″ of snow in my lifetime again!