Amy Sorokas' Weblog

Seven Minute Sopranos

Amy Sorokas — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 22:49:00 GMT

If you watch the Sopranos and need a refresher as the new season gets ready to start - THIS is the way to do it. It takes seven minutes instead of 70 hours. Thanks to the NYT and Jason for finding it. It is really an awesome feat of both dedication and love of the show...good work guys!

Mars

Amy Sorokas — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 05:22:00 GMT

I am moving to Mars - thank goodness for the shuttle and the easy commute!

24 Drinking Game

Amy Sorokas — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 02:58:00 GMT

So, over the last few weeks I have had the opportunity to watch 24 and basically I discovered (accidently) that it is perfectly set up for a classic Star Trek style drinking game - like this one. Here are the simple rules (season 6).

1. Each time someone says "Gredenko" the last person with their hand raised has to drink. No excuses are acceptable for not raising your hand like "I was already drinking the last Gredenko!"

2. If you falsely raise your hand and there is no "Gredenko" uttered - you drink.

3. Each time the words "Chinese prison" are said - everyone drinks.

Simple and effective. I am a pro though and got to laugh as others were Gredenko'd in my midst. It is on Monday night. Enjoy!

Shutdown Day

Amy Sorokas — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:06:00 GMT

A very interesting experiment. Can you do it? March 24, 2007 - Shutdown Day.

Addicted to Heros

Amy Sorokas — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 13:41:00 GMT

So, I admit it - I am addicted to Heros. Yes, the television show. It is the best mix of sci-fi and mystery adventure that has been around in awhile. It has a superpower for everyone and I still can't decide which one I would want! I am thinking about the ability to stop objects with a stare but then again being able to completely heal yourself after terrible falls or walking into fires would be pretty cool to.

The question this week is - who gets shot next week. Now I just want to say for the record that they seem to be hinting that someone gets shot but not that any of the characters necessarily die. My vote is that Parkman has to shoot Claire.

Searching for Jim Gray

Amy Sorokas — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 18:05:00 GMT

I just saw this via TechCrunch and I have already taken a few minutes of my lunch time to look at some of the satellite images. I had the pleasure of meeting and listening to Jim last year at an event we put on here in Redmond. If you can spare a few minutes even go help with scanning the images for the search. It is amazing to see how technology can ignite a community to help in an instance like this.

Will it Blend?

Amy Sorokas — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:47:00 GMT

So, I thought to myself - what?! Then I went to www.willitblend.com and all I can say is "I want one!" I didn't even know I had any desire for a blender, but Blendtec has me now. Very cute viral marketing campaign.

Visual Studio Keyboard Shortcuts

Amy Sorokas — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:05:00 GMT

A great new set of reference posters is now available to download on MSDN. They contain all the helpful keyboard shortcuts you could ever imagine on one pretty poster!

Visual Basic 2005

Visual C# 2005

Visual C++ 2005

A Great Wine for under 8 bucks!

Amy Sorokas — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 03:36:00 GMT

I am going to start to blog about some of the nice wine that is around. We have a bit of a hobby of wine and nothing wrong with sharing good finds, right?! So, every once and awhile we find a good one! This one is a champ for under 8 dollars a bottle. A little Chilean number with a lot of spirit - Root:1, Cabernet Sauvignon, Colchagua Valley, Chile 2005. I do enjoy something that doesn't have a dry after taste and instead has some fruit left to it.This one actually still has some sugary taste left to it and was great with lamb. Pick some up and enjoy!

I have 1.6 G left!

Amy Sorokas — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:31:00 GMT

Yes, not only did we finally digitize the 500+ CD's in the house but they now all live on my Zune, rocketroll. It is really amazing to me that I could stuff all that music onto my little brown (of course) Zune. First, the digitizing process, all I can say is be patient. It was so exciting though to rediscover some of the old stuff, but it took a lot time over the course of a couple weeks to get it all done. I am sure that if you had time to sit and feed CD's to the computer all day long it could have been done quite quickly. Then, synchronizing to rocketroll was pretty quick and I am still amazed that it found most of the album art. I have some very random stuff. Or at least I thought it was before this!

All my Josh Joplin, Modest Mouse and Ghostland Observatory are there - for those of you that have found my blog from searches on those bands. Plus, the complete Pixies library and lots of Robyn Hitchcock. And of course the full U2 collection (thanks to Jason's additions to the home collection).

Next challenge is to manage stuff off of rocketroll as I get new music and as I find those lost CD's (there were about 20 - a perfect small carrier worth) missing.

Tagged - Why Me!

Amy Sorokas — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 20:54:00 GMT

So, I innocently stumbled upon this today and now I guess I have to give it up. Thanks Eileen for tagging me. And thanks to all those previously in the chain. 5 things you probably didn't know about me:

1. In my travels, the one thing that will always make me pull out my camera is graffiti.

2. I hope to one day go to Antarctica.

3. My new favorite band is Ghostland Observatory. Not only are their albums great, but they are fantastic live! See them if you get the chance.

4. My favorite place on Earth is the Redhook Brewery (especially in the summer). Take the tour!

5. My favorite movie is still Gattaca...nothing has beaten it yet.

In the spirit of this tagging thing, I tag Trisha (which seems to mean she has now been tagged a bunch of times), the girly geek - Sarah Blow, Doug, Korby, and Damir!

A Fantasy Update

Amy Sorokas — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:09:00 GMT

So, it is the last week of regular season play and things are looking good in one legaue and mediocre in the other. The Crushers are the team on the preverbial bubble! The anxiety is rising already as I try to make the best possible line-up decisions. This article did make me feel better, well at least not alone in the obsession!

Look out world!

Amy Sorokas — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 00:21:00 GMT

Eileen has a blog!

Cool New Stuff - Microsoft Expression Web, Photosynth and more!

Amy Sorokas — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 19:36:00 GMT

I have been itching to blog about the new stuff coming and then I experienced some technical difficulties, but now it is time.

The demo of the awesome tool Photosynth is now available to play with by downloading it from here. I have been following this one and let me tell you - it rocks. For a photographer (pro or hobby), Photosynth is something that will make showing off your photos and finding out what you missed when you were shooting a scene pretty interesting. The demo looks hot on my new HP nc8430 too.

Coming soon to a computer near you... Microsoft Expression Web. I am particularly interested in the new line of Expressions products and will be playing with this one soon.

Oh and of course, Zune! I guess I have been a late comer to the world of portable media and no, I don't own an IPod. I am excited about the new Zune and an upgrade from 1GB to 30GB sounds great to me. It looks cool, they are highlighting bands I like and a 3 inch screen is great for long plane rides with bad movie selections. Plus, I have to say, I like the brown!

"Tagspace" Beta Available!

Amy Sorokas — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 19:01:00 GMT

The Microsoft.com team released a beta of Tagspace a new tagging and social bookmarking tool. You can read more about it from Dave here. Check it out and tell him what you think.