What's New?

On March 28th, 2009, I asked Christy to marry me! Happily, she said yes. Our wedding is planned for October 23rd, 2010. More info can be found at the Ferlatte Hartshorne Wedding website. Yay!

So I took down the section on jobs I put up while working at Simply Hired. I've replaced it with a blog. I know, everybody's got one, but I found I had a few things to say that were more than I could fit in my twitter stream. Enjoy!

For a long time I was annoyed at the lack of software available for the mac. But it seems over the past 6 months, this has changed.

I recently downloaded and tried out the following applications:

• HoudahGeo: This is a photo tagging app that is $40 shareware. Previously, I had been using GPSPhotoLinker which did the job, but the interface was clunky and the thing took forever, requiring quite a bit of user interaction the whole time. HoudahGeo seems much more streamlined, plus can export to KML for Google Earth as well.
• I havn't had much reason to play with a specific geocaching application, but I downloaded MacCaching just to try it out. It seems decent, if you want an application to track what caches you've found and so on.
• Geocaching.com now lets you download geocaches directly to your device using the Garmin Connector (which it prompts you to install). I don't know when this started working on a mac, but it does now, which makes me happy.

So I got a GPS unit (Garmin 60CSx) and have been playing around with geotagging my photos. I wrote up my process but it's still pretty rough. In the mean time, I found a neat blog widget that puts a map of your recent photos on your web page. I filled in my username and this is what it gave me:

Unfortunately it is actually running off mapsack.com, isntead of locally... :(

My website now has a section on jobs. You too can post a job that all 10 people per month will get to see! Yeah, ok, maybe that's not such a hot idea. But the jobs site is up there because Simply Hired(where I work) has just released a new product - Jobamatic, adsense for jobs. The idea is that, since bloggers usually have a very targetted audience, employers looking for a specific audience have it preselected for them. Also, the bloggers get to make money. :) For example, John Battelle's Searchblog attracts an audience particularly interested in search. If you're trying to find someone to fill a search position, whether in marketing or engineering, someone who reads battellemedia.com probably has many of the qualifications you want. Neat, huh? (of course, I have no such targetted audience; I just put my jobs page up cuz i can... ;)

Lexi now has a companion. I bought a prius today! Amazingly enough, after putting out the word that I was looking via Yahoo Auto, I got an email from Toyota of Marin saying they had 4 cars on the floor. I took one of them. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the nav software, but that's ok. I've been able to use maps for a long time, and I still can. (now I have a car that gets as good mileage as my bike! :)

Sachin's elusive maneuvering is now complete; I have dropped my chemistry class and started working at SimplyHired full time. ::sigh:: It's stil the coolest place I've ever worked, and the company is going far!

Well, a year has come and gone, and I'm still totally hooked! Christy and I had our first date going to see the Death of Yazdgerd one year ago today.

Well, it's been an exciting few months, and what was in stealth mode has now launched its public beta! SimplyHired, the internet's largest search engine for jobs! Come one, come all, find a new job.

Somehow, Sachin has managed to rope me into coming down to this startup in stealth mode and work for them part time doing system administration. I'm also starting Chemistry next spring. We'll see how this goes...

Hooray! I'm home. Ooohh, jetlag... Well, the apartment hunt begins, the job hunt rolls on, and pictures are in my gallery (link above). I havn't put up paris or marseille yet, but they'll be there sooner or later.

Wow, what a week. I am super impressed by Cavilam. What they say about intensive language programs is true, at least so far as it applies to my experience so far. I only did one week at the school, but I feel like I learned so much; speaking french for hours at a time, with people that will correct you when you make mistakes is a tremendously effective method of learning, especially when combined with a few hours of book-studying mixed in every day.

At the end of the week, I hitched a ride from another student on his way back to Hamburg, Germany. He didn't speak any english and I don't speak any german, so we got some good practice with our french. Anyway, he dropped me off in Alsace on his way home, so I get to explore the Rue du Vin, really cool unique architecture, and forested mountains. Yay!

The two week conference at Les Marronniers (see photos in my gallery) is now over. I am getting on the train tomorrow to go to Vichy, to take a week of intensive french language at the Cavilam school.

Having helped clear out my grandma's house and attended a beautiful memorial at the Friends meeting house in Cambridge, MA, I am flying to Paris, France. I am attending a two week conference put on by the Institute of Ecotechnics, then travelling the country for three weeks. Wish me linguistic luck!

My grandmother died in July, and I am off to Boston for her memorial service. She lived 93 years, and died happily surrounded by her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

I just went on a week long trip up to Yosemite to raise awareness for the Prostate Cancer Awareness Foundation. See pictures in my Gallery.

List of things to do: Zachary's, Tilden, Tam, ride Lexi, visit peeps

Ahh, home again home again. The politics are still horrible, and little else has changed, but it feels good to be back where I can speak the language.

We're Here! We have crossed the great South Pacific, weathering great trials and adventuresome encounters and enormous Sea Monsters, and arrived in French Polynesia triumphant and victorious! The long days of sun and wind and happy watches are over; now we begin our studies and transition into island life. We are all warmer, livelier, and darker skinned than when we left, and happy about it.

I have completely revamped my website. What do you think? Let me know. Of course, you won't see this new website for another month or two since right now we're at Soccoro Island, a bit Southwest from the southern tip of Baja, California, Mexico. You can still see the old site, but I'm not sure everything will work quite right since there might be absolute links that are broken or CGIs that no longer exist. Enjoy!

Well, we're off into the wild blue yonder. The next time I'll hit this website is when we reach the Marquesas in two to three months. See you then!

After the long and ardous trip down the west coast of the US, we have finally made it to Mexico! We are all tremendously excited to be here.

Now, let the mayhem that is Drydock commence!

Well, I quit my job at Adax back on the 30th of June and have thrown in my lot with PCRF instead. I have spent the last few weeks revamping their webpage (it's not live yet but probably will be before anybody follows this link. ;) and leave on Thursday to go up to Seattle to get aboard the RV Heraclitus. I'd like to invite you, kind reader, to the Homecoming Event when the Heraclitus returns to the San Francisco Bay after 28 years on the open ocean. Mark your calendars! October 11th, 2003!