I finished Neal Stephenson's The Big U. Like the other Stephenson books I've read, it was very good. The story moved along and there were plenty of interesting characters.

This picture displays all of my current belongings except for some clothes hanging in the closet and my bed (which is really just a futon mattress). It's surprisingly not very much stuff, although I have quite a bit more in storage in my parent's basement.

When I first arrived in Fairbanks I had two decent sized boxes, a two duffel bags and a computer (which was pretty big). Now I've got all this extra stuff. Some of it hasn't left it's box from the last time I moved (1 year ago).

As of about 3 p.m. today I am officially out of my apartment (High Five!) It's amazing how much stuff I got rid of. A lot of the furniture I brought to the reuse area of the transfer site, and before my friend and I had a chance to put it on the ground, someone claimed it. If I had had more time, I probably could have sold some of it, but for me it's worth getting rid of just so I don't have to move it again in four months.

My new place (see previous entry) has Cable TV. I watched Iron Chef for the first time ever. It was awesome. Cheesy, but awesome. Other than a few choice programs, though, having more channels just means having more channels of crap to cycle through when I'm bored.

There are things greater than cable TV, though: in-house washer and dryer and dishwasher. No more saving quarters to wash clothes. Awesome.

This weekend I moved out of my apartment and into a house with some friends. It's nice to have the move completed, but it's been a little awkward moving into a house with people who have been living together for a while now.

Kyle and I were very communal. Sometimes I'd buy groceries, sometimes he would, but we didn't worry much about about who ate what. The system in the new place is a little different so I'm trying to figure out how to integrate myself into the new community. Everyone's pretty cool, so i don't expect any problems, but it's an interesting process.

Are all the machines in your office still named "Macintosh HD"? Or do they all have completely unrelated names that no one can make sense of? Have no more worries, help is on the way with a few simple guidelines and ideas for naming all those machines.

Guideline #1: Choose a theme that is reasonably limited. If you have five machines, don't pick "superheroes" because there are too many to choose from. Narrow down the category with a related modifier. For instance, if you work at publication, you can choose "superhero reporters." That list is more limited, but allows for some room to grow.

Guideline #2: Choose a theme that is somewhat related to your business. If you work in a music environment and have a few machines, you could name them after members of Wu-Tang Clan (or some other relatively large music group).

Examples

Comic Book Reporters

• Peter Parker
• Ben Ulrich
• Lois Lane
• Clark Kent
• Jimmy Olsen
• J. Jonah Jameson
• Spider Jerusalem

Gibson warning: ultra geeky

• Zer0 Cool
• Crash Override
• Acid Burn
• Lord Nikon
• Phantom Phreak
• Cerial Killer
• Joey
• Razor
• Blade

SETEC Astronomy warning: somewhat geeky

• Bish
• Crease
• Mother
• Whistler
• Carl
• Liz
• Cozmo

A friend of mine is learning about computers. He's taking a course titled Mutlimedia for Educators. He's learning how to use iMovie and other cool stuff. As a graduate student, he's able to get a one-time loan (per academic year or once only, i'm not sure) for a computer for himself. Tonight I helped him set up a machine within his budget. Are you ready for this?

Seriously, Are you ready?

He can spend $11,000.

That's not a typo: eleven thousand dollars.

Anyway, after talking to him we got him hooked up with a Dual 2GHz G5 with 2GB of RAM, two 250G harddrives and twenty-effing-three inch cinema display. That didn't set him back to far, so we threw in a Epson 2200 printer, Adobe CS, Keynote, Final Cut Express, a 15GB iPod with all kinds of accessories, a Canon Powershot G5 with two 256MB and two 512MB compact flash cards (he plans on getting a Canon 10D relatively soon), and probably some other stuff that I can't remember now.

I've spent plenty of time at the Apple Store building a kickin' system, but never have I imagined actually being able to purchase it. I can't wait for him to submit the proposal and order all that cool stuff. He'll probably need a new keyboard after I salivate while oogling the 23" display.

Three days ago it was 45 degrees below zero. One day later it was 1 degree above. The temperature increased by 46 degrees in 24 hours. For most areas a temperature change of that magnitude would be crazy. Imagine the temperature rising from 40 to 86 degrees.

In Fairbanks, though, it just means that you can spend a few more minutes outside before your face freezes off. But you want to know what's really strange? On Tuesday, when it was 1 degree. I wouldn't have thought of walking home (1.25 miles) as an option. Yesterday, though, at 8 degrees, I walked home with only mild discomfort. That means that a change of 7 degrees was more significant than a change of 46 degrees.

This weekend was great. The campus shuttle dropped us off at the bar (well, technically, we got dropped off at the campus office next door) and we got to see a band play (pictured). I had my first flaming pumpkin, which is an impressive sight. After a few drinks and some good tunes, we went back to campus and watched the end of a movie on TV then passed out. Woke up and read some comics, then caught the bus home. It was great. I didn't think about school or work or any responsibility.

I don't have anything against Organic Foods, but I do enjoy it when Warren Ellis rants.

Today was the first day of classes. High Five! All my classes are going to be interesting, as well as keeping me busy throughout the semester. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of any of my classes, but I'll work on it.

After spending several hours in front of my computer today, I finally got the Penny Press site completed (high five!). Now we just need to get some good content up there.

This ad was on the wall at the bus stop. I'd like to think this is one of those things that you'd only see in Alaska, but somehow I doubt that's true.

iLife: I was expecting updates to the iLife apps, but a whole new one was quite a surprise, especially one as cool as GarageBand. I'm not really feeling the name, but it makes sense. I am, however, very much into what it does. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on it and mixing up some loops (I don't play piano or guitar) to use in video projects.

iPod mini: I like the smaller size and choice of colors, but I don't like the math. Steve's main point was that for $50 more than a Rio with 256 MB of flash memory, you get 4 GB of storage and Apple's sweet user interface. That puts the iPod mini at $250. Well, for $50 more dollars you can get 15 GB of storage from the regular-sized iPod. If I'm wiling to shell out $250 for an MP3 player, I'm sure I'd be willing to shell out another $50 to get the extra 11 GB of storage. I'll just go without a couple pizza deliveries next month. It's still early, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. (conversely: shrinking costs money)

xServe: Only in my wildest dreams would I need one of these, so any announcements are going in one ear and out the other. I'm sure it's great for those people that need them.

MS Office: MS Office '04 looks pretty legit. I'm glad there are some people at Microsoft actually doing something constructive.

20th Anniversary: Apple should get into the 20th anniversary thing. Their only new ad is just an addition to their previous set if iPod ads. I really wanted another awesome Superbowl ad.

Looking good with my first haircut of 2004 (high five!). The last time I got my haircut was way back in '03 and I was long overdue. According to the barber, most cowlicks go away by age 23, but since mine's still around, it's around for good. He also said 75% of people inherit qualities of hair from their mothers. Interesting.

After spending several hours with MovableType, Transmit and SubEthaEdit, cmerrill.com is now (almost) complete.

At left you'll see Latest Entries, which shows the latest five entries to the main blog, which you're reading now. At right, you'll see the monthly archive from the main blog, including entries that have been moved from Urbanhonking and Blogger before that.

Also on the left is Recent Photos. As you'd expect, it contains the five most recently posted photos, followed by a link to the main photos section.

Below Recent photos is Recent Firsts. Recent Firsts is a new section keeping track of each First of 2004. There's only one posted right now, but before the week is out, I'll get caught up.

Below the Firsts are Resume and Press, neither of which are active right now. Resume will be a link to my resume in three formats (PDF, HTML and TXT) and Press will be a collection of press clippings about me or related projects.

As with any redesign, it will be a little bit of time before the kinks are worked out. There are subtle formatting changes that I plan to make in the near future, and if anyone has any suggestions for improvements, please let me know by e-mailing MT at c merrill dot com.

Not much to say about my first day at work of 2004 (regular five). I spent some time excavating my desk from the piles of paperwork and even accomplished some stuff. There's a lot to do before school starts next week... sigh.

My roommate got me the first season of Aqua Teen Hunger Force on DVD (high five!). It doesn't get much better than the shenannigans of Master Shake, Frylock and Meatwad.

This is a cool photo. I like how the top half is a reflection of me in window and the bottom is the tarmac of SeaTac. This was taken during a layover on my first flight of 2004 (high five!). After spending 13 hours completing a trip that should have only taken seven or eight I was back in my home. Coming home after a trip is always nice. Oh yeah, click the photo for a larger version.

I saw Return of the King. It was good, and we got to see our friend's name in the credits (High Five!).

This is the receipt from my first credit card transaction of 2004 (High Five!). I bought a roll of christmas wrapping paper from the Nob Hill Pharmacy for my brother. It was 50% off.

At the New Year's Party, one of the popper's contained a red crown made of tissue paper. I forgot it was in my shirt pocket when I did laundry and ended up with a ruined white shirt. Unfortunate (no high five).

This was the first photo I took of 2004. Taken from the terrace (or porch or veranda or balcony) of the Governor Hotel in Portland, OR. High Five!