Happy Father's Day We planned to spend the day biking. However... we woke to the sound of rain, loads of rain. So instead I am up surfing the net a bit. What we're going to do with three kids (our own and one loaner kid) is beyond me. Maybe bowling? I thought about buying a new phone, but decided my current phone is fine for now. Instead my gift to myself will be a new pair of mountain bike shoes. I destroyed my last pair when I hammered my foot into a root and tore the things nearly in half. Happy the shoe took that abuse, not my foot.

I can take it or leave it Wonderful phrase this morning which sums up so much of life. Posso is a hard word for me. It means "I can" but for some reason the fact that it sounds like "possible" meant that often I would use it that way when in Italy. I know the Italians humored me on this point although I am sure being asked "e posso" when I intended "is it possible" but was really saying something like "is I can" made for humorous moments when I'd leave the store or restaurant.

Like many people I used Google's search engine and a few other services. Some of the services are wonderful (GMail), some are pretty sad (Froogle). Some are just downright terrible. I've decided to keep track of these moments. Full disclosure that I once interviewed for a job with Google. For reasons I am still trying to digest they decided to pass. I won't get into any of the details of that process as a)I'm a good guy and who really wants to sling arrows, cast stones, etc. and b)I signed an NDA. This morning then let's tackle Google's Java based GMail application for phones. If you navigate to GMail on your mobile device Google will kindly suggest "faster GMail on your phone". That link takes you to a Java applet. And indeed the Java applet downloaded to my Windows Smartphone quite nicely. Of course it wasn't obvious at all how to run the thing. You need to understand that this download was a MIDlet and run the MIDlet manager and select GMail from there. Not easy. You cannot completely blame Google for a bad Java experience; at least on the Windows device it's something of a given. However you can blame them for some of the following glitches: 1. There is no offline storage. Each time you log on you get to essentially download the messages all over again. 2. The default setting for the body of the email is the numeric keypad. In other words to type "hello" you get to enter 4433555[pause]555666. leaving out for a moment that this ends up with the number of the beast, why not make the default setting for the body by T9? 3. They use small fonts. I am not that old yet, but those tiny fonts are unreadable. Sure, I can hear you say, just change the preference from "young hip cool person with good eyesight" to "old person who will soon need a walker and a guide dog" setting. This brings us to: 3a. Where are the Preferences? I am a long-time Windows user (full disclosure: I have recently started using Ubuntu and it is just wonderful how nice an OS this is. Someday soon I will write something about this transition to Ubuntu, but I digress in a parenthetical remark no less) so I expect Tools::Options. Nope. Okay, maybe sort of like the Mac it's under... um... Apple::Preferences? Nope. It must be somewhere though right? In fact it is. Select the Menu key (obvious) and then select Go to (really, Go to? Won't that take me somewhere?) and Settings! Ah ha! I am so stupid, of course it would be under Go to::Settings. On balance I use this application from my phone because GMail's POP support is broken in multi-device usage (something I mentioned during the interviews, oops, there goes that disclosure but since I disclosed this in a GMail forum months ago I guess that isn't a big deal, right?) and it is, on balance, better than using the micro-browser. Although to be fair they did a really nice job with the micro-browser version; clean, bright, relatively quick. Even works in the Java Opera browser midlet. --- Side note: I applied for another AdSense account for this site and was turned down again. As the other post noted my site does in fact meet all the criteria, so why do they keep saying it doesn't? I think it's because they are scared. Yes, scared that I will attempt to write slightly humorous posts about them and they will.... well... continue to rule the Internet and reap huge financial profits. But I will show them, I will continue wrote posts with attempts at humor and they will continue to rule the Internet and make a ton of cash. --- I fiori sono quasi in fioritura The flowers are almost in bloom. Which isn't true. The flowers and trees bloomed two weeks ago when the weather turned sunny and warm. Since then we've had torrential rain. Stupid flowers.

He is both charming and handsome What could this bode for the day?

Don't worry, I'll be fine Well that phrase sure fits today! My love/hate relationship continues today. I was fairly sure what I received yesterday was a rejection letter. I told my brother about it* and we commiserated for a while. Then I sent him the actual text of the email and he pointed out there was ambiguity there. Maybe it wasn't a rejection letter, maybe it was just a bargaining chip, a way of opening the bidding so to speak? I don't think so and have really accepted that this phase is over. I had some moments of sadness especially given the amount of work I had put in. But at the moment I am looking to the future and figuring out what next. * I didn't really tell him. Many of our conversations are now via instant messenger or via email. I intensely dislike speaking on the phone so IM is very handy.

They dance well together Apparently not. Maybe it's opposite day. The odyssey is over or at least this particular odyssey is. This started in November. It has moved forward in fits and starts. The toughest part of course was taking the time to go to Zurich;excitement was high, I thought I had a 90% chance since the time went so well. Then of course the delays started. If it was going well, shouldn't all parties want to tango? With every passing day I mentally dropped the odds until recently I was more-or-less resigned. But the final word was still like checking your lottery ticket; you know you aren't going to win but there is disappointment anyway as you now need to return to your regular life. I learned this morning that the dance card was filled. I don't know any details as yet, I suspect it was a borderline case and that old college career wound up hurting me. Can you believe it? All those years they said it would go on your permanent record and lo and behold it did! So now I am back to taking stock. What next? One thing that became clear throughout the dance was that I was thinking again for the first time in a long time. I was thinking about how to make things better, how to solve problems. I like that. --- 7:20 update: how ironic is this headline in the Seattle Times this morning

Don't forget your umbrella Good advice indeed. After setting a record high temperature yesterday today it is grey and rainy. Spring weather that is. Thankfully I got in a nice long ride yesterday. I rode almost 75 miles, most of it with Dave. If that doesn't count as a great day then I don't know what does.

I love this time of year I love the phrase "mi piace" which I think is literally "it is pleasing to me". It's less self-focused somehow, less "I like..." and it's all about I, I the moving force in the decision. More "that thing which is pleasing is the agent, the actor". Softer somehow. I do love this time of the year. Spring is lovely in Seattle. This morning it's 47 degrees and overcast. Yesterday it was in the mid 60's and sunny. I love it. Of course I could love it more without the tree pollen but thankfully we have modern medicine to combat that. What a bizarre affliction is hay fever. How did that ever evolve?

It's time to plant the bulbs Ah, spring. Lovely spring. Of course the thermometer says 34 degrees and there is frost on the ground. But spring... I suspect the odyssey is finally winding up. With yesterday's "stop here, please" and today's indicator that we need to do some planting the phrase of the day calendar seems to indicate the outcome. I mentioned to S the other day I might re-start the New Zealand immigration paperwork and she nearly flipped out. Apparently I have used up my budget.

Stop here, please