Ultranormal

  • Ireland: Newgrange, Monasterboice and Mellifont Abby

    Here are the pictures I took at Newgrange today. Newgrange is amazing. It’s a neolithic passage tomb built over five thousand years ago. It sits on top of a large hill and is surrounded by thirty-seven smaller passage tombs. The structure is a amazing. It’s made with huge flat stones laid with each layer slightly overlapping until there’s room for just one stone, the capstone, to be laid on top it. The entire structure has been watertight for over five thousand years, which just amazes me.\
    During the winter solstice, the sunrise shines through the “sunbox” a small hole above the door, which shoots a beam of sunlight down a passageway to light the small chamber inside. If you’re ever in Ireland, I highly recommend it.\
    We went to two other places today, Monasterboice and Mellifont Abby. I’ll post those pictures in a little bit. The highlight of the day, though, was definitely Newgrange.

  • The Travel Cough

    I’ve caught something. I think it’s a mix of my asthma coupled with cold and very wet air (93% humidity, 33-40 degrees). My chest is full of… stuff, and I can’t breathe, which makes me tired, irritable and vulgar. I went to the “chemist” today after work, and picked up some mucolytic agent, vaporub (for colds, or so it says), and am planning an evening in. I’ll probably soak in a super hot shower after I eat dinner (I ordered soup from room service, they just happened to have my favorite sick soup – green pea and ham), take some craptacular medicine and watch Carnivale in bed (thank you, BitTorrent).\
    I’ve discovered something on this trip, or at least remembered it from last time. I love Ireland. Even though I feel pretty crap, I love the people here. They’re so much fun, even at work, where no one is supposed to have any fun at all. I saw some of the guys I worked with last time, and they greeted me like an old friend. People on the street look you in the eye and smile. The lady at the pharmacy (ooops, “chemist”) was helpful, friendly and showed genuine sympathy. It’s touching. I’m not sure where it comes from, but I love it.\
    I don’t like the weather. Hate it. Could totally live without it. If it’s going to be cold, it should be dry as a bone. It should be so dry, there’s no frost on your windshield in the morning. It should be Utah dry, where your ears feel like they’re going to fall off. No one gets pneumonia in Utah (well, that’s because they’re all got the Speeerit, but you get the picture). This wet and cold stuff is murderous.\
    Oh, and I could live without European TV too. Trying to watch the finale of a reality show you’ve never seen before, with one cast member you can’t understand a damn thing he says is a real crappy way to spend an hour (I watched the finale of Celebrity Big Brother, and the winner is from Manchester, and a mumbler, so I was totally lost).\
    That’s it from here. No new pictures, because I’ve been in the car, on the most unscenic route in Ireland. We pass the Irish version of the car mall several times over, and something called “MEGAMart” that promises “American Style Shopping”. I shudder to think what that means…

  • Dublin: (Real) Day One

    We got in yesterday and I spent the afternoon trying to stay awake. We went to a wonderful little restaurant for dinner called Ouzo’s, then wandered over to Spar to pick up snacks. I managed to stay awake until 8pm, took two Tylenol PM’s and then slept like a log until 5:30 this morning.\
    I ate a lovely Irish breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then went wandering. I made a big circle around the hotel, and ran into the Irish National Print Museum. They weren’t open, but they had a workshop going on and let me wander around and take pictures anyway.\
    Just a note if you come to Dublin… don’t go out early on Sunday. Nothing opens till at least noon (except the grocery store and select coffeehouses/cafes), and some places never open. It makes being a tourist difficult.\
    Anyway, we’re going to go out to dinner soon, but I wanted to post the pictures from today before I forgot.

  • Brian Gets a Haircut!

    Brian Gets a Haircut!

    We gave Brian his first haircut yesterday (right before getting on a plane to Dublin). I love how it turned out, although it makes him look older. The boy is cute, is he not?

  • The Big Thing With Results

    So, AOL Search relaunched today for members (will launch for everyone else soon) with a ton of new features, a totally redesigned and rebuilt UI, and lots of “me” in it. The powers that be have given me the OK to link to the “in-client” view, which means that some stuff won’t work for you like it would for an AOL Member, especially Recent Searches. When it launches on the outside view next week, everything should work.\
    It’s probably the last major search product I’ll work on, since I’m moving to a new role (they say I’ll have a bigger soapbox, but I’m hoping for a bigger stick) after I get back from Dublin (or maybe while I’m in Dublin… who knows?). So far, the reviews for AOL Search have been really great, better than any review I’ve seen in the five years I’ve been working on the product (yes, five years).\
    Here’s a selection:

    • CNet
    • SearchEngineWatch
    • John Battelle
    • Financial Times
    • Charlene Li\
      What am I most proud of? It’s really, really accessible. I made a special effort with this version to make sure that I did everything I could to make it a good example of accessibility on the web. There is unique alt text for all elements that need it, semantic markup (each result is a list item, and there are h3’s for each result type heading, making it easy to navigate with a screen reader), and some really interesting “tricks” with the CSS to make things accessible in IE without hamstringing me in “good” browsers.\
      So, check it out. If you have suggestions for improving its accessibility, please post a comment. I can’t promise all will be implemented, but I’ll make sure they get to the right people (because after tomorrow, I won’t be the right people anymore).

  • Start The Day With A Good Cry

    I swear, this almost never happens to me. This morning, before work, I cried uncontrollably. It was like floodgates opened, and all the liquid in my body left through my eye holes. Did I have an emotional breakdown because of all the things I can’t tell you about? Nope, it was those damn boiler onions. I was throwing a roast in the crockpot, and for some reason, those little onions hit me wrong. I couldn’t open my eyes for almost five minutes, the sting was so bad. That almost never happens to me, especially with those little onions (now, white onions are a whole different story).\
    It wasn’t all bad… now my eyes feel great, perfectly refreshed and ready for a long day of staring at a monitor.

  • So Much, And Yet Nothing

    There’s so much I want to ask you, Internet Pals, but absolutely nothing I can write here. Why? It would definitely break the rules. But, I just have to say, I’ve never wanted to break the rules more than I do right now. Pretty much everything going on in my life at the moment would require me to break those rules (no embarrassing family stories, nothing that would get me fired, etc), and well, I don’t want to make anything worse than it already is.\
    Things aren’t bad. In a lot of ways, things are very very good. Things are just complicated. The more complicated things get, the more I want to write about them, which would just further complicate them.\
    I can tell you that I’m going to Dublin in the very near future, Boston after that (to hang out with my fellow standards nerds at the W3C), and then to Austin for Geek Summer Camp (you know, SXSW. Frequent flier miles are mine, all mine, baby.\
    And maybe while I’m in dark, cold and super-friendly Dublin, I’ll tell you a little about all the fun stuff happening at Church, because I know you’re dying to know. You all are, I just know it.

  • Nerd Jokes

    I spent too much time yesterday at OMG Clothing perusing and rating t-shirt slogans. Then, I found the “Submit your slogan” button, and had to throw in some of my own.\
    My favorites, which they didn’t accept (probably because of all the funny characters), were extremely nerdy. They were so nerdy that when I sent them to my nerd friends, they called me a nerd. They were so nerdy that only nerds who are nerdy about CSS would get them. So, for your nerding pleasure, I give you my first two CSS jokes:

    <code>#me + #you { margin:0; }</code>

<code>#town { color:#f00; background:#f00; }</code>

    Oh, but the nerdiness didn’t stop there! I also submitted some search nerd slogans:

    • Google told me you suck.
    • Your PageRank blows.\
      I know… I’m hopeless. I am now hopelessly nerdy. I don’t think there’s any going back. I used to be just geeky, and proud of it. I’m afraid I breached nerd a while ago and didn’t notice until it was too late. I apologize to my family and friends… I didn’t mean to be a nerd. It just kind of happened.

  • Ireland, Here I Come

    I’m goin’ to Dublin! I’m goin’ to Dublin! I’m goin’ to Dublin! I’m goin’ to Dublin! I’m goin’ to Dublin! I’m goin’ to Dublin! I’m goin’ to Dublin! I’m goin’ to Dublin! I’m goin’ to Dublin! I’m goin’ to Dublin! I’m goin’ to Dublin!\
    Did you hear? I’m goin’ to Dublin!

  • Brian Rolls Over, Doesn’t Know What To Do When He Gets There

    Brian, Getting A Little Desperate

    Brian likes to roll from his back to his stomach. Unfortunately, once he gets there, he has a little trouble reversing the operation. That’s where we come in. We lay on the floor and take his picture while he struggles against his own little body in a futile attempt to reverse his fate. Then, we laugh at him, pick him up, kiss him and feed him mushed up carrots.