ALBj.net > Journal

In which I share opinion of Taco Bell’s limited time sauce, Omar Apollo’s Disha Hot hot sauce.

A third installment of describing a dream of which I distinctly recall the details.

In which I describe the first dream in 13 years where I remember all the details.

I just learned a new word today, and I absolutely love it.

In which I explain why I have never in my life needed to purchase a calculator.

In which I describe what I expect to be my very last experience at Moe’s restaurant.

Careful. Here comes my train of thought on restaurant subscription programs. Don’t get stuck on the tracks!

In which I attempt to wax eloquent about a dear woman who fell asleep on 2/2/22.

There are some communication venues where certain kinds of information patently do not belong.

In which I choose to not let an entire calendar year pass without a single post.

In which I add my two cents to the nebulous discussion on the actual definition of “irony.”

In celebration of ALBj.net’s 10th anniversary, I summarize my 20-year history of maintaining various personal web sites.

The story written, but never used, for the Big Fat Geek Podcast about my experience with participating in a 35th anniversary viewing of Star Trek II, transformed into this blog post.

In which I tell the tale of moving to a new job after 25 years.

Last April, I rolled out a whole new theme for this web site as part of its eighth anniversary. Today, although I’m just a bit less than two months away from the ninth anniversary, I’ve implemented some considerable retooling of the menus. Amazing how quickly this can be done thanks to WordPress’s customization tools. It’s […]

Before I get into the meat of this blog post, I wish to firmly establish something. I do not believe it makes any difference whether someone pronounces “GIF” with a hard or soft G. Everyone knows what you’re talking about, regardless which pronunciation you use. Thus, henceforth, I shall always endeavor to not give anyone […]

I’m celebrating ALBj.net’s eighth anniversary by rolling out a complete facelift of the site—something of an ALBj.net v2.0. Turns out I liked the theme I used for my new custom photo album site so much, I decided to also use it for my main site which was well past due for a visual refresh. I […]

Today’s the 13th anniversary of my having maintained a blog site. Although I retired the original DTPbyLee site, started and retired SecondInitial, and am now using ALBj.net for blog posts only sporadically, this blog is still active, so I’m still marking anniversaries. There are a couple topics that I’ve actually been meaning to write about […]

Having upgraded to an iPhone 6s and selling my 5s to Gazelle, I have a two-year-old (Product)RED-colored Mophie Juice Pack Plus that I no longer need. Fair disclosure—there’s a fair bit of cosmetic wear on the case, particularly parts of the rubber ring that have worn away. But the case is still very usable and […]

Many of you who read this post will look at the title and not realize its significance. You probably eat olives all the time and are thinking, “So you ate an olive—big deal.” And then there’s the handful of you who have known me long enough to realize the statement is, in fact, a very big […]

It didn’t happen when I turned 18. It didn’t happen when I turned 21. It wasn’t when I reached age 30, or even 40. Nope. It happened this week. This very week, leading up to my actual birthday, today. I feel old. No, not old as in elderly. I realize I’m not 80 or 70. […]

Let me describe a phenomenon I experience sporadically. I’m an avid user of Tweetbot on my iOS devices, although I heartily recommend Twitterrific to most of my friends and colleagues for its splendid interface. Even the aging Mac desktop app which I still use is better than nearly everything else out there. Tweetbot, however, avails […]

This past weekend, I attended the 60th anniversary reunion for staff who have worked at Camp Kulaqua in High Springs (I worked one summer in 1989). With the help of my wife, I was more or less designated the official photographer. In the process of occasionally using some photos taken with my office’s Nikon D90 […]

I realized something this week. The frequency at which I composed blog entries reduced rather significantly when I bought my first iPhone, and it reduced even more dramatically when I bought my iPad. The only reasons I can fathom is that social media became such a huge part of my online activity, I felt satisfied […]

One can hardly go more than a few days without seeing someone post about doing this or that to protect your privacy online, or about some supposedly gross abuse of privacy. From my point of view, the authors of every single one of these posts have failed to grasp one very simple concept. Facebook, Twitter, […]

Since a few people have already inquired (assumed?) as to whether I’d be upgrading to the iPhone 5, I’m composing this boilerplate reply. No, I’m not planning on it, considering I don’t really have the money for it and, even if I did, I’d instead by a replacement for my misplaced iPad 3 (that was […]

I have reached what I consider to be a rather significant milestone, especially when you consider the gauntlet through which the American economy has been. Today, I celebrate 20 years of working at the same company. Okay, two caveats: July 1 is listed on my service record as my first day. Back in 1992, that […]

I’m breaking from a few months of silence on my blog to set my cannon sights on a few Social Media services and blasting them. Specifically, Gowalla, MySpace, and LinkedIn. I simply do not use these services any more. Although I’m not necessarily planning to completely delete the accounts, I am removing external links that […]

Some time last year, my wife’s two daughters observed me retrieving a can of walnuts from a kitchen shelf. About 15-20 minutes later, I was presented with a piece of paper with drawings by the eldest. The drawings depicted me taking the can and eating some of the contents. I was branded as a walnut […]

If you’re one to glance at cutesy sayings that float around social media, you’ve probably seen this one: All generalizations are false, including this one. It’s actually a very insightful statement. Each of us—myself included—would be well advised to keep ourselves in check about making too many generalizations. And while we’re at it, consider a […]

This morning, my wife texted a picture to me of her youngest daughter. It was adorable. I went to text back “awwww,” but the autocorrect feature on my iPhone wanted to change it to “sweeter.” Odd replacement suggestion. For some bizarre reason, I don’t generally tap the suggestion to clear it. Various forms of retyping […]

I’ll get asked this plenty of times, so I’ll just answer pre-emptively. I’m not saying I would turn it down if someone handed me one and said, “This is for you.” But for myself, no, I’m not planning on picking up an iPad 2. There, I said it. Unlike the iPhone 4 which brought significantly […]

I don’t commonly have dreams that are vivid enough for me to remember when I wake up, so I’m thinking from now on, when I do remember them, I want to describe them for future giggles. I’m entering Disney’s Magic Kingdom park, except it’s different. For some reason, the entire front section (Main Street USA […]

Bright House HD cable boxes have a button that toggles three viewing modes. Normal, zoom, and stretch. Zoom mode is helpful when a station broadcasting 4:3 shows widescreen content in letterboxed format. I can zoom it to fill my 16:9 screen. Stretch mode, however, is stupid. Its purpose would be to make widescreen content squeezed […]

I have a theory and wonder if anyone knows anything about this. I’m sensing that gift card vendors are doing an end-run around the rules, and unfortunately what I think they’re doing is probably entirely legal. In case you didn’t know, the State of Florida invoked legislation that requires no expiration on gift cards, and […]

You’ve heard the phrase, “buy one, get one free.” Or maybe you’ve heard the shorter version, “buy one, get one,” or just BOGO. The full version makes sense, but the short version? If I buy one, I certainly hope I’d get one! After all, that’s why I’m buying one. If someone is giving me an […]

While at Subway for lunch yesterday, I noticed that there was a new flavor of Sun Chips: Monterey Jack and Sundried Tomato. I can’t help but to find this newcomer to be a bag full of fail. For starters, of all the past packages of Sun Chips, the color of this bag is the least […]

an article by Lori Glase One of our intimate times together while dating provoked me to ask Lee one evening, “Can you imagine being monotonous—after all, this is ME we’re talking about?” What I meant to ask was: Can you imagine being in a monogamous relationship? I wanted to be sure he could see himself […]

This blog thing is quite the intriguing beast. I look at the prolificacy of posts on my two prior blogs (D.T.P. by Lee and Second Initial) and, in some ways, kind of miss doing that. Yet I know I am not likely to have the spare time for that sort of thing, at least not […]

I’m sitting in a McDonald’s Playplace watching Meagan and Adrienne on their little adventures, and was informed that the Playplace is The Agency. The purpose of The Agency is to guard against fighting, and anyone who climbs up the slide instead of sliding down is a criminal who must be apprehended. LOL

Earlier this year, the Nikon D90 owned by my office took a tumble off a shelf and traversed nearly three feet of air before greeting the floor. The only significant casualty appears to have been the lens which now exhibits what I would describe as a back focus issue. Before the fall, the lens behaved […]

Originally I was going to let it slip quietly by, and I’m certainly not going to make this notation every year—perhaps every five. But this past Sunday marked two years of the existence of this site, ALBj.net. Of course it’s been my favorite of all the sites I’ve operated. Not just in terms of design, […]

Sometimes, you really just need to bite the bullet and admit the truth. Unfortunately, AppZapper isn’t going to do that. For many years, my practice has been to create a unique e-mail alias for every company with which I e-mail regularly or need an address for a registration. Presently, there are nearly 150 address aliases […]

Dear Subway restaurants: you sell a product that is 99.999999% profit. You take a few pennies worth of herb leaves and sugar, dump them into several gallons of hot water, and sell this elixir by the cup for a buck and a half a pop. And yet employees say they’re only allowed to make one […]

Today marks seven years since I posted my very first blog entry on dtpbylee.com. Even though I used and phased out both that blog and secondinitial.com, and I don’t frequently post here, the fact I still maintain a blog engine here at ALBj.net still validated the anniversary. And given how mobile I am these days […]

On 9/11/01, I was in Washington State visiting my brother, his wife, and nephew who had been born just five days earlier. My cell phone rang about 7:00am Pacific Time (more than an hour after the WTC crashes) with a call from the secretary at my office who (rightfully) decided I’d want to know about […]

Vowels by Christian Bök loveless vessels we vow solo love we see love solve loss else we see love sow woe selves we woo we lose losses we levee we owe we sell loose vows so we love less well so low so level wolves evolve

I’ve just learned the heavy price we’re paying for the new functionality in the Snow Leopard variant of QuickTime. For all that was added, a lot was removed. Before I get into it, I’ll acknowledge that for those of us who’d previously paid the Apple Tax for QuickTime Pro luckily still have the previous QuickTime […]

WordPress’ auto-upgrade didn’t even require me to think. Once click and I’m now up to version 2.8. Sweet. Not entirely sure what all is new, though. Guess I ought to head over to the web site and check out the release notes.

The other day, I sent the following e-mail to support about Twitterrific 2.0 for iPhone: I seem to recall this bug in Twitterrific 1.x for iPhone, and then it was fixed, and now it’s back in 2.0. When I post a photo to TwitPic, the accompanying tweet text needs to become the caption, and it currently does not. […]

Someone is probably gonna try to rip me for having published this blog entry. Before you do, let me affirm solidly that this is an opinion and I’m not setting out on a crusade. I’m allowed my opinion. The opinion to which I refer is: I loathe the fact that formatting e-mail in HTML (a.k.a. Rich […]

My photo albums at http://photos.dtpbylee.com/ have been running under the aging Gallery version 1 web engine for several years, and I’m very much ready to make a change. A few weeks ago, I purchased a new Mac Pro which will run the new web server, finally putting the 450MHz G4 Power Mac tower to pasture. […]

I’m having a bit of cognitive dissonances about text messaging. I’m not adding anything the debate which has already been dragged through the coals. Just hammering out some thoughts, and ultimately explaining the facts of a decision I’m pondering. Let’s define a text message, shall we? From here on out, I’m going to assume we […]

This is something to think about when negative people are doing their best to rain on your parade. So remember this story the next time someone who knows nothing, and cares less, tries to make your life miserable. A woman was at her hairdresser’s getting her hair styled for a trip to Rome with her […]

I meant to type this post much earlier today, but it was a busy day at work and I simply never got around to it. Today marked my 6th anniversary of blogging. Okay, you may have some cognitive dissonance over the fact that I don’t reliably blog any more ever since getting into Twitter, but the fact […]

http://www.zuca.com/zuca_pro/ Before I start talking about the case itself, I’ll share a brief tale. I ordered a ZÜCA Pro bag via Amazon.com in mid-December. Ace Photo Digital was to fulfill the order and the estimated range for delivery was between December 17 and 22. The shipment did not arrive on the 22nd and I had to […]

As I type this entry, I’m sitting in the official media room for Macworld, located in Moscone South. Yes, that means that I was approved for a media registration and will be admitted to the keynote address tomorrow. I’m certainly bummed that it won’t be His Steveness delivering the address, but I’m predicting I’ll enjoy […]

ATPM friends Chris and Eric and I were discussing which is worse, the fact that someone wrote the app, or the fact that someone wrote a full-blown press release. Believe me, this is hilarious! Portable Arts releases Grossinator 1.0 for iPhone/iPod Touch – Published on 01/05/09 IMMEDIATE RELEASE Portable Arts has released version 1.0 of […]

I have old (and I mean OLD) software on Mac floppy that’s destined for the trash unless someone can recommend a good home. Seven disks that comprise Aldus (yes Aldus, not Adobe) Pagemaker 5.0 with a serial number. A complete set of install discs for Mac OS 7.0.1. LaCie Silverlining version 5.5.3/20. There are two disks each […]

Bright House Networks has been performing firmware updates on all digital navigator cable boxes. The update happened to my box last Thursday. The only bits of good news I’ve discovered are: 1) settings that we were informed might be lost weren’t, and 2) there’s now a percentage indicator of how full the hard drive is. Let […]

I welcome input on this. I have a photo caption (edited slightly to remove people’s names from this public post) that currently reads: John Doe participates in the latest health screening which includes measuring blood pressure and weight, and a comprehensive blood draw to measure blood sugar, cholesterol, triglycerides, and other parameters. A proofreader was […]

One of my friends sent this to me. Even though I am truly not in the habit of throwing around stories through e-mail and blog posts, I liked the message in this. Even if you don’t care to pay attention to the spirituality of the message, it’s still a life lesson that more people could […]

Just what is it, anyway, with the times when you have to get a logic board in a computer replaced? Is it only an Apple Macintosh thing? Every single encounter I’ve had with the procedure has resulted in some sort of complication. Never mind the fact that after mine was done recently, I had to […]

Back in late May, I wrote to Delicious Monster the following: Good job with DL2. Two comments: *Please* consider putting the information pane back on the right side, or give the option to do so. HTML export needs to ignore articles (A, An, The) and such when sorting. Today, they replied, not that I really expected […]

The horror! Somehow, as I realized yesterday, neither my iTunes library nor my CD collection contains a single track of Chicago. Admittedly, I was never a huge follower, but there are many songs they produced that I like. So now, I’m trying to make up my mind whether to go for a big list of […]

For someone who is usually happy with the status quo and resistant to change, it sure seems like I’ve migrated to new web sites and e-mail addresses a lot. Okay, maybe not as much as some people I know, but it feels like a lot to me. But here’s the scoop. Second Initial was created […]