The Rain... It's Magnificent

Oh man, the weather is beautiful out today. It's in the 70s, cloudy overcast, and rainy. It's magnificent. What a cool and refreshing, misty bike ride to work.



In other news, my coworker Kevin is a big wimp, and called in a ride to work. Boo hoo, it's raining, I don't want to get wet out there. Bah :P

Actually it's been rainy and cool all weekend, and I've been loving every minute of it. Sure enough, right after I write a post about it being hot out, the weather starts to cool... wait a minute, why didn't I post about that earlier?! Gah. Oh well, lookin forward to the 70s we're supposed to get this week.

Come on Fall, here we come... (please)

A Little Update in This Heat

You know its hot out when you turn the shower on, and the water goes from warm, to cold, and then back to warm water again. It doesn't feel as hot out as last year, but maybe thats cause I'm not walking outside as much as I bike to work now. Then again, all this energy saving by raising the temp on the A/C isn't helping either... but hey, thats reality. I just try not to think about the heat as much, and generally have a fan or A/C pointed my way at all times of the day.

Anyways, a few weeks back the stars aligned and it just so happened that a bunch of people from the Japanee Student Association (JSA) from back at the U were in/around the Tokyo area, so we got together for a... reunion of sorts. I suggested maybe we could do a picnic in a park, and subsequently got nominated as the organizer... oh well. It was loads of fun, and most of all, so nice to see familiar faces again, people I have some history with, especially the common ground of good ol Minnesota.



In other news, my company is going public! Thats pretty cool, especially since I get to be around since the beginning. In fact, on that note, I'm closing in on my 3rd year at Proto Labs. I can't believe I've been working for 2 years now. Boy time flies (when you're having fun, right?). Actually, I gotta say I've been quite enjoying my job. With time spent on both softare development and IT administration, the variety keeps things interesting. I'm learing a lot that way too, whew. Anyways, I wonder if I'll get any stock options. I'd certainly not mind that, especially since we're at over 400 employees worldwide now, and looking to raise $100 million in IPO. I think we were at 300 employees when I started, and we don't plan on slowing down anytime soon either. :D

M.U.L.E.

Just found this. Must share.

Behold... M.U.L.E.

Best game (and soundtrack) on NES, yes!

Wait... I need to get to bed... crap.

Still Still Shaking

Got another aftershock last night a little before midnight. It was an M6.1 about 20km underground off the coast of Shizuoka, 90 miles or so from where I live. We only felt a intensity 3, but it shook pretty well. Shortly after the quake I got a text message from a co-worker of mine who's visiting to help for a few months from HQ.

"What the hell was that?!"

Congrats Kevin, you just experienced a descent sized quake, as well as the freaky early alert system that makes it sound like the apocalypse is coming. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) my phone doesn't make that whoop whoop noise since it's a smart phone, but I do have an app for that. I just disabled that too, as there were so many false positives those few months after the quake. I should tweak the settings, but then again I don't need yet another app to drain the battery even faster.

Anyways, I was watching TV at the time, and it went a little something like this...



I wasn't watching NHK, but basically the same thing. The crazy part though - I didn't even budge. I just sat on my couch the whole time, and rode it out like a boss.