On a whim I searched for “Firefox split browser” and found Hiroshi Shimoda’s Split Browser Extension. Using this extension I can see more than one page at a time, making it easier for me to write and reducing the cognitive load on my aging brain.

There are a number of helpful context and dropdown menu options to split the existing screen to the top, left, right, or bottom. Once split, the new area can have its own set of tabs. Tabs can be turned in to split screens, and vice versa.

My new link blogging methodology works as follows. First I open up tabs for the items in the post as part of my morning reading. Then I open up Wordpress in a split area, and link-blog away. There’s some kind of weird focus-stealing going on when Wordpress auto-saves, but I’ll figure out a way around that. Here’s what it looks like:

This fall my son Andy will move across Lake Washington so that he’s closer to the University of Washington. He’ll be living in a room of a rental house where my other son Stephen is already a tenant.

Andy is a very accomplished pianist and piano teacher and he decided that he needed a piano for his new place. We have a perfectly good upright piano at home, but Andy wanted to upgrade to a baby grand. After scouring Craigslist for several weeks he found a nice Kohler & Campbell at a home in nearby Bellevue:

We agreed to purchase it and Andy made the arrangements for the piano mover. He chose The Piano and Organ Moving Company, the ones with the imaginative slogan “We are our name.”

Pianos aren’t the easiest things to move. They are delicate, unbalanced, heavy, and valuable. This particular model weighs over 800 lbs. You need a lot of strength, balanced with a light touch, to move a piano. This particular piano was at the top of a 22-step cascade of steps.

Here’s how things transpired. First, they laid thick padding over the steps:

Next, they wrapped the piano in a form-fitting cloth:

Next, the largest of the movers lifted up his corner of the piano while one of his associates removed the leg. Then they gently set down one edge on the dolly, which of course tipped to one side. Then, in one incredible move, they lifted up the other end of the piano while slowly bringing the other end of the dolly back to the floor. So this 800 pound piano was moving on two axes at once, carefully managed and under the full control of the movers. Professionals can make the toughest jobs seem easy, routine, and risk-free!

The piano was then strapped down to the dolly and it was ready to go:

Next, they simply rolled the piano out the front door and slid it down the padding in a carefully managed fashion. The mover at the top had a strap around his shoulders, allowing him to lift the piano with his legs and his back. The one on the bottom did a lot of the heavy lifting, while the one in the middle made sure that everything was lining up as they went down the stairs.

It took less than 5 minutes for them to get the piano down the steps! After that they strapped it in with care, closed up the truck, and headed to Seattle:

My battery ran out at about that point, and I headed back to the office.

And that’s how you move an 800 pound piano!

First, there are some great farmer’s markets. We love these because the produce is bright and fresh, as are the flowers.

• The Redmond Saturday Market takes place adjacent to Redmond Town Center, May through October of each year.
• The Sammamish Farmer’s Market takes place on Wednesdays at the Sammamish Commons in the middle of the Sammamish Plateau, late May through early October. It just started this year but from what I hear it is going well.
• The Issaquah Farmer’s Market is held in the Pickering Barn near Costco. Runs mid-April through mid-October each year.
• The Kirkland Wednesday Market takes place on Wednesdays, April through October, in the middle of Kirkland.

Next, a few fun summer events:

• We went to our first Fremont Solstice Parade yesterday. This is the place to go in Seattle to see the fun, fringe part of our community, including the famous naked cyclists.
• The Movies at Marymoor are great. The movies are projected on a large, inflatable screen. Bring chairs and blankets; it gets cold when the sun goes down.
• Fourth of July at Gasworks Park is a lot of fun. The best plan is to take a blanket, get there early in the day, and take it easy. If you don’t want to go all the way to Seattle, the Family 4th in Bellevue is a worthwhile alternative.
• The Redmond Derby Days celebrates Redmond’s status as the bicycle capital of the country.
• SeaFair is the month-long water and sea celebration, topped off (at least for us) by the air show at the beginning of August, featuring the Blue Angels.
• Bumbershoot, our local music festival, takes place at the end of summer on the grounds of Seattle Center.

These are my personal favorites. What are yours?

In addition to holding down a full load of very tough classes, Andy found the time to teach piano to 15 students and to create an awesome music video. And he’s always smiling too!

He’ll be entering an honors program at the University of Washington this fall, rooming next-door to his big brother Stephen.

Needless to say, I am very proud of him!

I have a couple of bird feeders outside of my window. It is fun to watch the birds (and a squirrel or two) come and go. Some of the smaller birds appear to be insensitive to my presence behind the window. I can move my chair, get close to the window, and even snap pictures while they nibble on sunflower seeds.

Others, the blue jays, in particular, are a lot more skittish. When I hear the creak of the chain, I have to turn slowly and quietly in order to avoid scaring them away. This morning I managed to snap a nice picture of one:

First, the “Punk Rock Grand Old Flag” video created by my son Andy and his friends created made the final 4 and public voting is now underway here. His video is the third one on the list; if you like it the best, please vote for it! Based on the YouTube referral stats on the videos, I think he’s in first or second place right now; let’s see if we can make that a sure thing.

Second, the fund-raising effort for Serenity Burns is still underway and she now has her own site, Lifting Up Serenity. When the fund raising goal was $500 I committed to contributing an extra 15%. The goal is now $10,000. I don’t think I can swing 15% of that, so I will plan on contributing 15% of the first $5,000. I’ve got some other fund-raising efforts up my sleeves; stay tuned to this blog for details. If you can make a donation to help get to $5K, that would be most excellent.

PS - The new site thumbnails were generated by SnapCasa.

This is not the first time we’ve participated in this fair. The first event was quite successful. We met a number of good candidates and actually ended up making several hires. In fact, one of them, Simone Brunozzi, is now a member of my team. Simone took the time to write up his hiring story; you can read first-hand how it all worked out for him. This story was also picked up by New World Notes.

Despite what are (to me) the obvious benefits of conducting the first steps of the recruiting process in a virtual environment, there’s still plenty of skepticism out there.

It takes a lot of time and money to hire great people. With travel growing more expensive and less politically correct by the day, there’s plenty of room to make the process more efficient and more cost-effective. The people who show up at a virtual job fair are going to be interested in and comfortable with the newest forms of technology. They are going to be sufficiently self-motivated to get signed up for Second Life, get it installed and running, and to personalize their avatar.

If you are interested in attending the fair, you will need to register in advance.

I spent some time in-world yesterday with our recruiting team. Here are a few screen shots:

I’ll be at the fair for a good part of the day. Look for me in my spiffy Amazon.eu shirt, and say hello if you stop by.

Phil and his wife Adria are going to have their hands full. They have 8 kids, Phil’s in the middle of putting a startup together, and this is going to be a huge drain on their time and on their finances.

As a first step at helping Phil’s family handle what I can only guess will be a $100K+ bill for treatment, Phil’s one-time business partner Jesse Stay has started to collect some funds using a ChipIn widget, a copy of which I have posted at the top right hand corner of this blog. The goal is $500. I am feeling generous this morning and will happily augment the final amount by another 15%.

Update: The ChipIn widget isn’t updating for some reason. Jesse is investigating. As of 10:24 PM on May 25th, the total stands at $1,161.97 (click on the image to visit the ChipIn widget editor, which does show the real total):

This is just a drop in the bucket, and there’s going to be room to do a lot more. If you can help, just click on the widget. I’m sure they’d appreciate your positive thoughts and prayers as well.

Some might wonder how and why Phil and Adria have the time and the inclination to Twitter and to blog at a time like this. I am guessing that this is actually the easiest and most efficient way for them to keep their virtual community of family, friends, and well-wishers in the loop. Instead of fielding endless phone calls and email messages they can simply direct people to follow along on the blog.

I am happy to report that I have made a lot of progress:

As of this evening I am down to nine hundred and eighty six (986) messages. Every one of those messages have been dealt with as fully as possible. None have been converted into TODO list items (a sneaky GTD trick that I don’t understand and which seems like cheating or creating another problem of the same size as the first).

In addition to processing the dozens of new messages which come in each day, I have managed to handle another 18 existing messages. Not huge progress, but progress nonetheless. At the very least, I allocate sufficient time each day to make sure that I am not falling further behind. I may not make any progress, but I don’t regress either. Another 5 or 6 weeks (because things do slow down in the summer) and I’ll be at zero.

Tracking makes all the difference. Knowing where I stand everyday (even if it is in a half-drained swamp) is comforting, as is knowing that I have made even a tiny bit of progress. I wonder if a model like this could help me to lose some weight?

This whole exercise may seem trivial, but it is a huge psychological weight off of my shoulders. After I finish with this inbox, I will tackle my personal one along with my LinkedIn requests.

Andy and his friends worked really hard to come up with a unique concept for their video, ultimately settling on a punk rock theme. Here’s what they came up with:

You can also get the audio track here.

Here’s Andy and his bass:

They recorded, re-recorded, edited, mixed, overlaid video, and put together a really nice product, all from Andy’s studio bedroom floor:

If you like it, please leave your vote, comment, and rating, and pass it along!