I’ve spent a good amount of time over the last month cleaning up my various contacts lists. I use several different programs to track contacts (not intentionally) and wanted to centralize down to a single system of record. Almost a decade after I started tracking contacts electronically I found that I had many disparate lists spread over Plaxo, LinkedIn, Outlook, GMail, and on two phones. It was time to bite the bullet and reconcile them to a single list.
After some fairly comprehensive research and a good amount of thinking I decided that GMail was to be the central system of record. I like the contact manager that it offers, find the interface to be simple and intuitive and like that it will automatically sync with my phone (I have the G1 from T-Mobile although I’m thinking of switching to Verizon for the Droid X or the Incredible). I’ve made a somewhat conscious effort to move much of my organizational data over to Google over the last few years and this felt like a logical and consistent move within that strategy.
All told it took about ten hours to get all of the lists synchronized, check all of the data for consistency, and update metadata such as photographs, employers, titles, and the all important notes. I don’t remember everything about many of the business contacts that I meet, however I am fairly conscientious about taking down notes for reference later.
I’m hoping that this effort will carry me through for another couple of years. I’ll try to keep on top of the management tasks between now and then but to be honest it’s just not something that I see happening. It’s likely that I’ll use the momentum of this cleanup to propel me until the next time I need to get the records straightened out again. For now it is really nice to not have to scour five different places when looking for a phone number I just know I have.
Meaghan and I went to see Eric Church at the Crystal Ballroom tonight. Despite being very hot in the concert hall the show was great. For those not familiar with his music, here are a few YouTube links to give you a taste.
YouTube: Love Your Love The Most
YouTube: Guys Like Me
YouTube: Hell On The Heart
Next month we’re going to see Toby Keith and Trace Adkins at the Clark County Amphitheatre, and then in September we have tickets to see Brad Paisley. It’s going to be a fun summer!
We’ve had a great week, but it’s been yet another busy one. My new project at work is going really well but I’m putting in some long hours to get a good start and I’ve noticed a greater need for sleep on the weekends as a result.
Wednesday night we spent a night with our friends playing board games. Thursday night we spent at the Home Depot getting some equipment for my new truck, specifically a new hand cart, some rope, a pair of cam tie-downs, and a tarp.
Friday I worked a little later and then got home just in time to kill Nefarian in Blackwing Lair with our guild Relentless.
This evening we get the opportunity to host our friends Brian and Ellen for dinner. Following a nice long sleep this morning we’ve spent some time this afternoon cleaning the house and preparing for guests. The weather outside is absolutely gorgeous, which makes it all a lot easier of course. Summer is coming and we’re already getting into the swing of things. Tomorrow I’m hoping the weather will hold long enough to make it out to a park and play with my camera a little.
There are many ingredients and many ways to combine them that go into making a good night. However, when you start with friends, add board games, and then a selection of top-quality beers it’s hard to find a combination or permutation that doesn’t lead to success. Last night we experimented with that exact set of components as we joined our friends Matt, Kevin, and Dan for a game of Agricola accompanied by an IPA tasting.
Meaghan baked delicious chocolate-chip cookies to take with us that were the perfect compliment to the beer and the pizza Matt and Holly had already prepared for us. As I tasted each of the IPAs in turn and then in turn again, carefully ranking them as to their awesomeness I remembered that life gets much harder than beers and gaming with friends.
Ultimately I ranked the beers as follows (right to left in the picture)
- Stone: Ruination IPA
- Lagunitas: Hop Stoopid Ale
- Laurelwood: Workhorse IPA
- Bear Republic: Racer 5 IPA
Kevin won our game of Agricola but we all had a fun night playing. It’s a deep game and definitely one that I look forward to playing again soon. I was also reminded that I need to buy and play Puerto Rico. It’s not the first time I have heard it recommended as the “greatest board game of all time.”
Tonight our company hosted a fun poker tournament as a team-building social event. We were invited to Cheryl’s House of Cards (our Director of Finance has a great setup for poker!) at 4pm to compete against our peers in a free roll no-limit Texas Hold’Em tournament. There were prizes offered for the top three finishing positions as well as several bounties for knocking out certain people.
Without the burdens of either knowledge or skill I set about playing hands in the best way I knew how and within about fifteen minutes had claimed two bounties; one from last year’s champion and another from our host. My chip stack was now high enough to stay making people pay to see cards and within another thirty minutes or so had grown sufficiently as to afford me a few mistakes.
I made it to the “final table” of five and was blessed once more with superb luck. Throughout the night I had been dealt some nice pocket cards, however I’d also been finding a lot of luck on flops. Out of about thirty hands I flopped two full houses and then saw another full house on the river. It was this final card that saw me taking the grand prize. In a rather enigmatic final hand my heads-up opponent had started made an all-in call right after the flop. Calling would put me in for less than 30% of my chips, however I’d already made two-pair and felt that his move was based more upon running out of big blinds than on holding a solid hand. After we turned our cards I found that I was beating by a higher two pair. Things got worse on the turn as my opponent now had full house. However, I then made my fifth full house of the night when the river card was dealt. It was a higher full house and to my fortune gave me the victory hand.
I graciously accepted the prizes as recognition of the hands and bets I placed that night. However, a greater victory was won in the statement that Texas Hold’Em poker could indeed be dominated by a great deal of good luck, guts, and glory. While I recognize the skill of those who truly know how to play I also appreciated the chance to bask in the glory of a moment created for one who most assuredly does not. All in all a great night was had by one; a feeling a hope was shared by all who attended.
In the words of Flavor Flav…”that’s just how we roll”…
This Saturday Meaghan and I went out and bought a new truck! I’d be thinking for a while that I’d like to trade in the Mazda for something new and after reviewing the available options I returned to a vehicle I’d driven over seven years ago. I first test drove a Toyota Tacoma in 2003 and absolutely loved it. At the time I wasn’t really in a position to purchase it though. When I bought my Mazda I was looking for something comfortable on the long commutes I was doing between Wilsonville and Hillsboro. The Mazda 3 served me extremely well and in the five years I owned it never gave me any trouble at all. The only work that was done in the 43,000 miles I logged were oil changes, a new set of tires at 25,000 miles and a fuel filter replacement ($12). It was a fabulous car and a purchase that owes me nothing. We were also able to get a good amount of cash from it as part of the trade-in.
We actually first went looking at the Tacoma last weekend after returning home from Seattle. At the time though we were pretty tired from our weekend away and decided to wait a week before making any decisions. I spent that time doing research and checking out all of the specs and options as well as the expected price and trade-in value of my Mazda. This left us much more prepared to strike a good deal. After reviewing several models we decided that the Toyota Tacoma 4×4 Access Cab was the way to go. Fortunately Wilsonville Toyota had one in red that was loaded with options.
A couple of hours later we were driving away with our brand new truck. We got a great price with an exceptionally low interest rate on financing and a good trade-in value for the Mazda; a winning situation all around.
I keep finding excuses to drive places and even seem to discover reasons I need to “just pop out to the truck” to grab a jacket or a coffee mug. I’m rather proud. The following day we took the truck out to a local park to get some pictures.
I’m really happy with the choice we made. I love everything from the red paint to the integrated backup camera (it shows a camera picture of what’s behind you in the rear-view mirror to help with parking and reversing). I wanted the access cab specifically to have room in the back seat for my backpack or some groceries, and the optional four-wheel drive means I’ll be able to get around in the winter without any trouble.
I’m looking forward to enjoying this truck for a long time to come. I waited seven years from that first test drive and I’m hoping to get at least twenty years from it, if not a lot more. I’m sure more pictures will be posted in the coming weeks as the new owner of this shiny red truck finds excuses to write more about it.
The weather was not as nice today as it was yesterday. However, we still took the chance for a small walk around Amberwood park. A few frisbee golfers were also enduring the light showers and lower temperature and we even saw a couple of people on mountain bikes taking their huskies for a walk.
The weather this year has been really nice. It’s great to be able to get outside this early in the year. I’m hopeful we will have a really nice summer this year and looking forward to getting out and enjoying it.
March 21st, 2010 in
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The weather was gorgeous today. After a nice long lie-in, Meaghan and I went for a short bike ride around the neighborhood. We had to do a little maintenance first though as we hadn’t ridden them since the end of the summer. My rear brakes weren’t working properly and our tires needed to be inflated.
After our ride and a quick shower we drove down to Wilsonville to enjoy some Thai food at Thai Village. The service is a little slow but they have a really diverse menu and we don’t get to go very often. It was a favorite of mine when I lived in Wilsonville and it was nice to be pay it a return visit.
I spent most of the rest of the afternoon tagging faces in Picasa. The kitties were enjoying the sunshine but after our bike ride and a big Thai meal I just needed a rest. Picasaweb has had the ability to tag the faces of people in your photographs and Google finally got around to including the feature in their desktop version. I’m a metadata whore so I took on the challenge of tagging the people in our ~8,000 photographs. Took about three hours but now when someone asks “Hey, do you have a photo of person” I can quickly look through and pull out all of the photographs that person is in. My Google contacts list now has a picture associated with almost every person as well, which is nice for when I receive phone calls from people I don’t speak with very often.
Now I’m going to move on to updating our gallery at SmugMug. They’ve included the ability to share pictures between galleries so I can finally create aggregation albums such as Family, Waterfalls etc.. without having to move the original picture from it’s event album. Sweet! I’ve got a bunch of pictures I’ve been meaning to process and upload as well. I’ll take this opportunity to get caught up.
