Goodbye Pixelworks, Hello Focus

As I said at the end of November, my tenure at Pixelworks was coming to an end. That is now here with my final day on the 31st. On that day I will get my final check with all of my vacation cashed out, then soon my severance check. It's a good thing too, as I'll have to survive on that money for two days.

Yes. Two days. I know it will be tough, but with conservation, I hope to pull through. E-mail me for directions on how to contribute to my disaster relief fund.

The light at the end of that oh-so-long tunnel is that on February fifth, I start with Focus Enhancement. They make chips that give video out to products like the Xbox game console and Zune personal media player. They are also leading the effort into wireless HD video streaming. It should be a lot of fun.

Full Time Resident

Meg, now on full time at 9731

Officially "my home" has become "our home" as Meg is fully moved in. That means we are currently in box-land trying to get everything put away. Honestly, the move went very smooth. I'm very happy to be able to say "Honey, I'm home!" when walking in the door!

A Chance?

Last February I was having fits of nostalgia about wanting to fly a Pan-Am Clipper across the Pacific. Well, it may be possible to do so. I just need to become one of the "worlds top surfers". Does anyone know a really good surf school?

Dos Años

I missed it by a couple days (the 19th) but I've been blogging for two years now. So, this last year saw me meeting the Lovely Meg, getting a new car, going to Costa Rica, a family reunion, and finding out that I'm losing my job. Personally, I think it was a fantastic year. Did I miss anything last year or should I change something in the next? Let me know in the comments.

Family Tree

Thankfully not part of my family tree

While cruising the Lifehacker blog today, I came across a cool new web app called Geni. My Aunt Janet is the self appointed family historian, and has done amazing work piecing our family tree together. All of this data is in a massive Word document. While it is a treasure trove of family information, reading a family tree in a "flat" format is difficult. Also, getting updates is hard, and it forces my Aunt to do all of the work. Enter Geni. Now, when someone is added to the tree in Geni, they can view it by mousing around in a very Google Maps like interface, and also add to it. They can enter new people, more information on themselves, photos, and more. I can go off and add to my Mom's side where my Aunt (my father's sister) isn't going to go. Very cool use of Web 2.0. Any family members reading this want to see it? Let me know.

Snow Day!

Meg walking into a snow day

The Portland area got hit with a very unusual blanket of snow. While we usually get a freezing rain event yearly, getting four of five inches of relatively dry snow is very rare. Well, that gave Meg and I a snow day, so we donned our hats, jackets and gloves and walked to Starbucks. Fun morning to go out!

Video:


Photos!
Meg's take

Bachelor Weekend

Jess sucking on Mark's thing

Over the Martin Luther King Day weekend, I headed out to Mt. Bachelor with Mark and Jess from Eugene and Michael and Jennifer from Boise. The snow was interesting. Very nice snow on top of a literal layer of ice. Not just icy snow, but ice. You could break off a piece and see it was a sheet about a quarter inch thick covering the mountain.

Meg stayed back in Portland due to illness, but she was a packing machine. We'll both be back at Bachelor in February.

Photos!

The Christmas Letter

Tucked in many a Christmas card this season was a copy of the yearly form letter. While I would prefer they all switch to blogs so I could keep tabs on them year round, some just aren't ready for that. For those, they should check out the free web-based Letterpop. It's a neat service that will make cool looking family newsletters a snap.

Happy New Year!

Along the road

Meg and I are back safe in Portland. It was weird being completely out of touch last night. No internet. No cell phone reception. Nice, however. A nice breakfast from Phil and Nancy coupled with a leisurely drive home with Meg was the perfect way to start the new year.

Meggie's Christmas Photos