Just a few things this morning Metro. When will you ever get things right? I tried to add money to my smarttrip card for the last few days from my Smartbenefits account and it just kept saying ‘transaction canceled’ no warning, just left me hanging there. So today I try again in the crowded Vienna station, it would have been a much more frustrating experience had it not been for the other people who had already waited for the kiosk to just sit there and do nothing. So nobody is adding Smartbenefits at Vienna today, because everybody wants to… Sounds like a good plan.

Next is a little thing but it always annoys me. I know you’re trying to appear safer by having the train stop at the end if the station. But when the driver has to start the train again and move forward 3 feet it gets really annoying.

‘train will move forward’

no shit

New Hotness

I thought since Wade is getting some traffic blogging about DC and Food Trends that his blog shouldn’t have an ordinary blog theme that anybody could use. So I made a new one for him! Gotta look out for the Swalrus Network. The header image is from his trip to Lake Tahoe I modified it so that I can swap out the lake and mountains in when he gets tired of that image. Then ‘Little Wade’ can be taking a picture of anything.

Comparison picture after the break.

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So yesterday the Netflix app came out for the iPhone and iPod touch. What a red letter day in the history of science this was. As if my life with an iPhone 3G and iOS4 isn’t a fucking pit of despair already, now I have this taunting me on my phone. You’re supposed to be able to use Netflix Watch Instantly ( the greatest thing in the history of entertainment) on the phone over 3G or WiFi.

Oh please can I Mr. Jobs, can I haz entertainments?

So I download the app, start it up. It responds in the same sluggish way that everything does not on my iCrapped 4 device. I get to the gleaming red Netflix log-in screen, enter my email address, enter my password. then watch the spinning wheel of sloth for a few seconds. Then a dialog pops up…

Sorry Login Timed out, Try Again!

What a happy cheerful message that was, I’d really like to try again… But then the screen refreshes and I have to enter my email and password again. Which is annoying when I have to type it on a regular keyboard, when it’s on a tiny touchscreen it’s more that maddening. So after 4 or 5 tries I give up.

I understand that this may be a first day problem with everyone trying to reach the servers all at once. But I tried it again later on my WiFi and it still didn’t work.  This morning too and NOTHING.  This should be the number one rule of web form design…

DON’T MAKE THE USER RE-ENTER THE INFORMATION WHEN THEY HAVE TO RESUBMIT THE FORM.

Actually that should be just about the only rule of web form design. I would like to use the Netflix App… I REALLY REALLY would.

*UPDATE*

So it turns out that I wasn’t entering the right password into Netflix… So my frustration was partially self inflicted. The message that came back says “Login Timeout, please check your user name and password and try again.”  Last time I checked that wasn’t called a login timeout, that was called “Password incorrect” or “Username/Password combination not recognized” I think Netflix has a serious problem with UI design. I can’t figure out why they never seem to address the problems that are on various platforms. Maybe they are designed by different teams that do not communicate with each other.

So my impressions of the actual service are pretty good.  I was able to stream a movie over WiFi without it stopping, buffered for about 30 seconds in the beginning and then smooth sailing after that. On 3G it was a little slower, but after pausing it for about 2 minutes to let it buffer I was able to stream Monsters Inc almost completely through in the car.  But for no apparent reason you can’t add movies to the physical media que… why? I have another application on the Iphone (phoneflix) that will manage my queues on the  device. It looks like they just forgot it. For a company that is trying to have its service on as many devices as possible I’d think that they’d have someone to make sure that all the features are included on all devices.

and while we’re at it can I have a search for all streaming movies? Not just show me the top 50 in each category.

Somehow I’ve convinced myself that all my projects are easy. That I can just run to Home Depot at 8:45 and somehow have them completed by the morning.  It’s coming down to crunch time for wedding projects, so I really need to start working on them instead of all the other projects that keep popping up in my head! I’m still keen on the idea of having a photo booth at the wedding.  I slacked off some when I tested the software and camera setup and got everything working about 2 months ago.  I just needed to find a printer that would work, I freecycled an epson 840 which should be able to print on the 4×6 photo paper. I’m at the step now where I can pretty much see it completed, which is usually the point where I lose motivation.

I need to keep moving so I can get these things done!

Here is a list of projects that I have going on right now. They are in various stages of completion.

• Skull door knockers
• Paper Lantern style Photo Booth
• Fantasy Football Trophy
• FJM website and logo
• Box office Contest website
• Hannah and Opie Wedding art gift
• Micah and Renee wedding art gift
• Bachelor Party/Draft this weekend

There’s probably more… but I’ve forgotten about them.

We needed dinner. We needed to use up some things in the fridge. We were hungry.

Laurel and I created these egg and cheese based turkey lined ‘cupcake’ like things. It was really easy actually. If you’re looking for a quick easy breakfast-for-dinner thing, this is the way to go. Besides the cheese they seem to be semi-healthy too.

Line a muffin tin with 3 pieces of sliced turkey, then add diced onions, shredded (mozzarella) cheese, mushrooms, spinach and more cheese. We added a dusting of garlic powder because we love it so much. Fill with liquid egg whites to keep everything together. We’re not sure about the timing but 350 degrees for about 15 minutes seems about right. Keep an eye on it to be safe. They should come out of the pan with a little coaxing from a spoon.

Then enjoy!

process pictures after the break…

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