tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69948222912895184192009-07-15T05:04:08.585-07:00Sally, Mo (the cat) and I did a 3 day road trip to move from Portland OR to Phoenix AZ. According to Google Maps thats a trip of 1,337 miles. We had movers for all our furniture, but we still had to drive our 2 cars down there, and start a new life...Rossnoreply@blogger.comBlogger231125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-14659688325277987642009-07-12T22:12:00.002-07:002009-07-12T22:21:04.115-07:00

http://www.wired.com/medtech/genetics/magazine/17-07/ff_originofspeciesFantastic story from Wired. 68 million years ago a T.Rex died. In 2000 a paleontologist dug up its femur. In 2003 scientists started analyzing it, and by 2007 we had machines powerful enough to track 7 samples of protein in the ancient fossilized femur. 5 of those samples closely matched bone collagen of an animal alive today.

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-86682843575252145992009-07-11T21:26:00.002-07:002009-07-14T21:35:14.602-07:00

We just spent a great weekend in San Diego, CA. Checking out OldTown, Gaslamp, Coronado, The Embarcadero, Balboa Park, Mission Beach & La Jolla was all tons of fun. We can't wait to go back again... or get rich enough to move there!The weather was great, in the mid 70's although with the humidity it felt like the 90's. The mexican food was incredible, as were the drinks. We almost tried absinthe

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-85279463697336283272009-07-08T20:14:00.003-07:002009-07-08T20:18:03.350-07:00

Sally pointed me towards this fun YouTube video about a guy who watched his beloved Taylor guitar get smashed to bits by the United Airlines baggage handlers. They refused to take responsibility for it or buy him a new one, so he's started writing songs about it, and pretty good ones too... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/08/united-breaks-guitars-pas_n_228062.html

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-56713781133948450172009-07-08T16:45:00.002-07:002009-07-08T20:00:32.560-07:00

Just realized today is the 15th anniversary of my arrival in the states! Kinda funny considering I originally only intended to be here for 6 months. Guess I liked the place huh?

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-48998583238008951922009-07-05T21:55:00.003-07:002009-07-05T22:00:00.907-07:00

from NaturalNews.com..."They found a 100 tablets of 20 mg Prozac runs the consumer about $247.47, while the active ingredients only cost $0.11. Yes, that's right. Eleven cents for all one hundred tablets. It's a 224,973 percent mark-up, a profit margin most business owners dream of - but could never get away with.
Even more profitable, Xanax customers regularly pay $136.79 for a hundred 1 mg

Rossnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-84418658197050073222009-06-18T14:21:00.008-07:002009-06-18T19:57:04.927-07:00

I went to PDX last weekend to see peoples. I went shopping all day on Friday with my friend Lisa. We found the coolest store on N Dekum and N Interstate called Alex Sandra's. It is women's vintage clothes. I got two really cool dresses. You need to check it out. The owner is a blast. We had so much fun trying on stuff. On Friday night I met up with a bunch of folks for Happy Hour at Kell's and

Sallynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-87575702929131426132009-06-14T12:49:00.004-07:002009-06-14T14:12:43.507-07:00

Two highlights of the day so far. First I was in an Apple store way out east in Santan Village, looking at headphones when suddenly a giant light brown spider comes crawling out from under the display racks. It was a good 4" around with it's legs all curled up! I resisted the urge to scream like a little girl, and pointed it out to a nearby staff member, who promptly did scream like a little girl

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-71028596646974450122009-06-09T22:26:00.003-07:002009-06-09T22:35:57.777-07:00

Just signed up for a long, intensive series of sessions with a local chiropractor. I've had a lot of neck pain lately which a couple of X-Rays revealed to be some nasty shenanigans from the vertebrae in my neck. Basically my once straight neck is now a pretzel thanks to years of staring at computer screens... with some possible help from some bad snowboarding tumbles I took a decade back. So the

Rossnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-57281668260886573852009-04-23T19:56:00.003-07:002009-06-09T22:01:49.934-07:00

We're currently stuck with no option but Qwest for our home phone/cable/internet needs, and unfortunately qwest just decided they were going to switch off their current service and change everything around. At first we were bummed out, but its actually turned into a revelation!First problem was no more cable, only satellite TV, which our HOA is kind of against because dishes everywhere look ugly.

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-36833653112574586592009-04-22T19:00:00.004-07:002009-06-09T22:04:37.846-07:00

One of the perks of my new job is we get to do something fun one afternoon a month. This month we hired 3 Hummers and went off-roading in the desert thanks to the guys at Desert Storm Hummer Tours. They could fit 11 people in each Hummer, luckily we were all seat-belted in because these things bounced all over the place as we drove over rocks, up impossibly steep hills, and did 40+mph

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-48411560498675766462009-04-01T14:17:00.003-07:002009-04-01T14:22:22.787-07:00

Driving home from Frys today I notice a car coming in the opposite direction with a little tower sticking out the roof with a ring of cameras around the top. My first thought was "Google Street View!" and sure enough as it drove by I notice a Google sticker in the back window. I made sure I had my best slack-jawed gawp going on as it passed me ;-) I was on 24th somewhere around Van Buren, I'll

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-89523782464702910442009-03-30T16:00:00.003-07:002009-04-01T06:16:23.283-07:00

Ever since we moved to Phoenix (almost 3 years ago now) I have been intending to find a full time job here, but various opportunities kept getting in the way. First contracting for my old Portland based company Monsoon, then contracting for some of their clients, then my own little startup writing iPhone apps. But finally I was getting bored of only talking to Boo the cat every day, and decided

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-10404546839500722742009-03-29T20:26:00.003-07:002009-04-01T05:49:54.268-07:00

We had more friends in town this weekend. It's become a regular trip the last few years for Lane, Tawni, Julie & Gary to all be out here in March to catch a few spring training baseball games, and a welcome sun break from the cold & rain of dear old Oregon & Washington. Luckily Tawni has a house out here too, because our compact & bijou condo definitely wouldn't hold them all!Saturday we hooked

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-27704247412035158172009-03-05T14:23:00.003-07:002009-03-05T14:28:22.777-07:00

As some of you know I took the Arizona High School Math test at the end of January. I found out I passed the end of February. Just before I got my scores I went to the job fair for Phoenix Union High School District. I was offered a job, IF I passed my test. I knew I would.Well, it took a couple of weeks of phone calls and running around but today (3/5/9) I received a letter of intent. That is

Sallynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-28488981367642265802009-03-02T13:51:00.002-07:002009-03-02T13:59:08.709-07:00

A lovely weekend in the mid 80's had us hiking in Dreamy Draw again, and this time I remembered the camera. Photos are here.They allow hiking, biking and horse back riding up here on many of the trails, and the park is huge so you only run into people occasionally. Several times though, we ran into one group of people on horse back who had lost their dog after it got startled by a car backfiring.

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-34185876458279858472009-02-26T12:38:00.003-07:002009-02-26T12:46:45.314-07:00

In another sign of the current sucky economy, crime rates are starting to go up. I experienced this first hand last night when a loud constant knocking at our front door at 1.30am turned out to be a policeman telling me my truck had been broken into. Grrr.Luckily for me, one of my neighbors was returning home from his night shift, noticed a guy on a bicycle loitering, and a second guy inside my

Rossnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-19451385447578676362009-02-24T07:48:00.004-07:002009-02-24T07:56:48.669-07:00

Monster Commute hits the iTunes App Store... and it's FREE! Based on the Kapow comic book reader engine, this FREE app shows only my favorite comic strip of all time: Monster Commute, and has icons, splash screen etc all designed by Monster Commute's creator Daniel M. Davis - thanks Daniel! :-) The app works on iPhone or iPod Touch, so go get it today and give it a juicy 5 star review...And don't

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-85705820598035278962009-02-18T10:49:00.003-07:002009-02-18T10:55:54.311-07:00

My third iPhone app just hit the iTunes app store! It's called "Kapow" and it's an online comic reader for iPhone. Basically there are lots of comics out there on the web, and if their website provides an RSS feed I can grab it and show it in Kapow. There's currently about 15 comics in the app, and more to come.I'm also working with my friend Daniel Davis on a free version of Kapow that just has

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-53913811138365952032009-02-16T20:00:00.002-07:002009-02-18T10:46:20.319-07:00

It's that time of year again when we travel out to the Superstition Mountain area to see the Renaissance Festival. It's like being transported back in time to medieval England, and it's a lot of fun :-) We spent all afternoon there, and I got ridiculously sunburned!Having just watched Terry Jones (Monty Python) hilarious/educational "Medieval Lives" series though, I realized how wrong our view of

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-82433763652203030792009-02-10T17:36:00.005-07:002009-02-18T10:57:17.196-07:00

So a co-worker of mine asked me and some of the other teachers at school to model T-shirts for her husbands comic strip. It is called Monster Commute and it is about two monsters stuck in a commute that lasts forever. It's pretty funny. Check me out at www.monstercommute.com , you need to click on the shop tab then the t-shirt tab. I'm the one in the dark orange shirt that has three weird monster

Sallynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-18576706822682858402009-01-29T22:34:00.004-07:002009-01-29T22:44:28.392-07:00

A clip of Sally driving normally on the streets of Phoenix ;-)...not really, but it shows you can still pull some stunts in these high mpg little cars.

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-63371541902962330902009-01-20T15:34:00.002-07:002009-01-20T15:35:36.364-07:00

Rossnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-85457098477505017682009-01-17T23:05:00.005-07:002009-01-17T23:26:16.628-07:00

Tonight was the final night of Glendale's several months long xmas celebrations, and they finished it in style by adding lots of hot-air balloons to the party already going on in the streets & parks of their historic downtown.We hung out there for a couple of hours, along with half of Phoenix judging by the parking situation. Luckily we saw a tiny sliver of a space on a side-street a few blocks

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-80226295182121578392009-01-12T19:27:00.003-07:002009-01-12T19:35:43.001-07:00

Version 1.2 of my iPhone app "Chordbook" went live on the iTunes App Store today. You can find it in iTunes here or read more about it on my website here.In a related fun story, I got my buddy Jim Titus to write a press release for this new version, and it just got posted on one of the internet's main music websites, Harmony Central! You can find the press release here. Yay, it's like a tiny

Rossnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6994822291289518419.post-26348051057387235952008-12-27T18:55:00.004-07:002008-12-27T19:07:52.735-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zvCUmeoHpwClick the link above to see an amazing youtube video of a large asteroid striking the Earth! Make sure you watch it in HD for every gruesome detail :-)

Rossnoreply@blogger.com0