First day off

Jul 23, 2007 Author: Veronica | Filed under: babble, work

First of all, it’s Monday and I’m not at work. That’s weird enough. And I guess I’m on vacation right now, which is also strange for me. Usually when I took time off from CNET, it meant I was going somewhere. Now I’m just… home.

So far today I’ve cleaned the bathroom, tidied up the bedroom, emptied the dishwasher, organized my Adium contacts, mailed off some bills, thought about travel plans to Santa Monica, thought about travel plans to Connecticut, and got a much-needed coffee.

I really dont know what to do with myself. I’m sure with more time I’ll be dangerously close to driving Ryan insane just by being here (he has his daily routine down to a science), so I need to figure out something for the week. My main plan is to hit the gym a bunch, maybe take some yoga classes, and go climbing more. Get myself out of the house as much as possible.

I also find it weird to not be tethered to Outlook all day. I’m so used to reminders, and my folders, and just the constant influx of corporate mail. It’s very disconcerting to only rely on gmail. I’m trying to decide if I should start using Mail.app for my mail, or if I should stick to the web interface. Now that I don’t have two computers to worry about, should I move all my web based stuff to apps, like my RSS?

/sigh
Relaxing is hard work.

No related posts.

54 Responses for "First day off"

Gary H (NY, NY) July 23rd, 2007 at 11:56 am 1

I understand the hard transition to a week of nothingness between jobs. When I left my former position for my current one, I took a week off to just vegitate.

As with V, I also cleaned and did some bills, but then picked up a good book and read, caught up on my TiVO television and just relaxed

Went for a walk or two, hit a museum; played tourtist!

Enjoy the time off, the work life will be coming back soon!
James July 23rd, 2007 at 11:56 am 2

In reading your description of the dilemma that is your free time, I was reminded instantly of my last summer break during college. You start with whatever is immediately around you (cleaning the bathroom, etc), quickly zoom through any of the normally time-consuming chores, and quickly find that there is nothing to do. Hopefully, you’re better than I was at carrying out your plans for getting out of the house and all that jazz (I usually reverted to video games).

Anyhow, enjoy your time off.

Oh, and sorry, I can’t give much of any advice as far as moving web based stuff (like RSS) to apps. I’m currently hooked on Google Reader and a host of other web apps and don’t plan on changing.

Good on ya!
Kato July 23rd, 2007 at 12:02 pm 3

Geeze, girl, your day off should have included neither cleaning or tidying. I mean, sleeping in would have been on the top of my list and, for you, well, hellloooo, Warcraft! Also, I’m sure your Guitar Hero Hard career could probably use some attention.

I mean, that’s what days off are for!
Kevin C. July 23rd, 2007 at 12:10 pm 4

I still say you should take some dancing lessons…Salsa anyone?
Rick C July 23rd, 2007 at 12:15 pm 5

Well, you have no excuse to not finish HP7. The downside to nonstop WoW is that if your level gets too far past the rest of your guild, that might be a problem. My guild had that problem when two members were laid off and went on an orgy of DDO and LOTRO and got about 10 levels past the rest of us in a week. Your mileage may vary. All that said go do it somewhere else. When you work at home (as I assume Ryan does) distractions drive you nuts and just being in the space might be off putting to him. It was to me when my wife had to work from home for a week while they were doing construction in her office. Have mercy on the boy
Pierre July 23rd, 2007 at 12:15 pm 6

You can’t go wrong with going to a gig or two each week.
Ben July 23rd, 2007 at 12:26 pm 7

Organizing Adium contacts? I should try that sometime.

Gmail has always worked really strangely for me in the mail app, I personally like the web app better, and you’ll still have to use the web app because if something important gets stuck in your spam folder it won’t go to the mail app.
but if it works for you, you should use it
Moe July 23rd, 2007 at 12:31 pm 8

Oh poor dear LadyV,

May I recommend the following course fo action to help you with your employment hiatus.

Wake up late.
Eat pancakes with chocolate syrup (Waffles are better)
Turn on Cartoon Network
Shower and dress
Go to your car and pick a compass direction
Drive aimlessly and discover all the wonderfully weird and special places that may lie in your path for several hours.

Come home and eat ice cream
Kiss your boyfriend
Watch more cartoons
Sleep
Pete-NYC July 23rd, 2007 at 12:39 pm 9

Well try and enjoy the time off. As far as your mail. You have a Mac, what about an IMAP mail like .mac. this way you can use both a mail app or the web interface as well as your iPhone and not worry about where you downloaded what email like pop. You could also have you gmail forwarded to it so you will have everything when ever you need it. Just a thought
Hank July 23rd, 2007 at 12:46 pm 10

So what’s the deal? Can you talk about why you left CNET? Were you asked to leave because you swore on one of your podcasts? Did you butt heads with one of your co-hosts? Did they refuse to pay you equally as others? Or, what?
Jay B. July 23rd, 2007 at 12:57 pm 11

lolwut, conspiracy theorists in the comments ^?
NormanJ July 23rd, 2007 at 1:05 pm 12

Mail (on a PowerBook G4) works best for me, and syncs easily with iPhone. I agree with Pete on the IMAP server. Now, as to living a balanced life…
Vance July 23rd, 2007 at 1:17 pm 13

Hello V, glad you are having some “downtime”.

This is also time to reflect and plan and brainstorm for your upcoming gig. So, in that spirit, here is some advice from a fan’s perspective. Hope you find it helpful!

The great thing about BOL has always been the combination of:

1) an UNSCRIPTED dialogue between smart and funny people on topics I am interested in, and

2) an organized process for getting through those topics in a professional way.

Too many “news” broadcasts are scripted, prompted and rehearsed. This = boring.

Too many “talk” broadcasts don’t have enough structure and focus. This = tedious.

BOL has always balanced these two very well.

Now, a tip for you in your new venture. Your greatest talent IMHO is that combination of insight and charm when you are UNSCRIPTED and just chatting about stuff you know knows well. When you have a scripted piece for video, a bit of this gets lost, if you know what I mean. A bit more of a “performance” than just “you being you”. Yes, still a better performance than most and still very entertaining, but not as much, I don’t know, not as much “just V!”. Hard to say that without sounding critical, which is not what I want it to sound like at all! You are GREAT either way, but maybe I am just such a BOL fan that I know I will miss just hearing you chat about stuff in that way.

Is it possible to do an unscripted, spontaneous and “natural” daily video bit? I don’t know. But if you can capture THAT, you’ve got gold.”
Vance July 23rd, 2007 at 1:19 pm 14

hmm, sorry for the two “knows”, just a typo.
Ernesto July 23rd, 2007 at 1:20 pm 15

I miss you on bol. I searched Ma-halo and as I was mulling over the results they were hollow. Free time is for gloating. Life is short. Gloat often and enjoy doing nothing. Productivity is the aftertaste of a life not contemplated.
Jim H. Moreno July 23rd, 2007 at 1:40 pm 16

Well, there’s always WoW!
Leonard July 23rd, 2007 at 1:41 pm 17

Just saw a back episode of the buzz report where “veronica” played molly…very funny.

http://reviews.cnet.com/4660-12578_7-6555920.html?tag=vid.2 is the url of the video.

We’ll miss you at CNET. Check for me: LSLUTSKY, a PTG @ Mahalo.

Leonard
Shalin July 23rd, 2007 at 1:58 pm 18

Be thankful of your time off – I chose to have a whopping 17hrs between my old job in Houston and the new job in Dallas. I’m glad I took several days off before/after Memorial Day weekend – I needed it.

Looks like you’ve got some good ideas about gettin’ out’n'about. Have fun!

Best,
Shalin
Lazlo July 23rd, 2007 at 2:34 pm 19

RSS – That’s how I read your blog – all blogs actually. It’s my preferred way to read DIGG, delicious and the news. I like it for blogs because people don’t post everyday, and for the mass content like DIGG just because I can scan the headlines. And I love that the RSS does the work of going to the sites for me.
There are still a couple of sites I go to manually and don’t RSS, but those tend to be the daily stops.
As for staying out of Ryans hair – I recommend taking BART into town, and then the ferry up to Tiburon.
Alan July 23rd, 2007 at 4:53 pm 20

Veronica! You should be ashamed. A mac lover should never question the use of OS X apps. I am very disappointed.
Googleman81 July 23rd, 2007 at 5:16 pm 21

i have seen a shoplifting seagull!
http://13gb.com/videos/2938/
phototristan July 23rd, 2007 at 6:26 pm 22

Mail is a great app and fun to use but GMail is so darn convenient. It’s nice not to have to download your email to your local machine. Let it all be archived on Google’s servers. You won’t have the problem a few years down the road where your local mailboxes get so bloated and things slow way down until you archive thousands of emails out of the application.

I forward all my email to my Gmail account. I have my iPhone setup (using the ‘other’ section in the iPhone Mail settings, not the Gmail section) to check my GMail account for incoming email. I use my ISP for outgoing email. This enables me to have my tristan@mydomain.com (not my real email address) as the “from” address on my iPhone=nice! If you use the stock GMail section on the iPhone, you must have the Gmail address as your “from” address.

If you have Comcast (they don’t allow you to use their outgoing email servers except when you are connected to your cable modem with them), then you will have to use another outgoing email server such as the AT&T cwmx.com one as outlined at:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305634

You probably know all this already though. Mostly I’m posting this info. in case someone is doing a search or something.

Cheers and best wishes in your new endeavors Veronica!
Clee July 23rd, 2007 at 6:28 pm 23

First off, it has been really weird not hearing your voice on BOL, and enjoy your down time, it takes a little getting use to not having a daily routine any more. When you start your new job, getting settled in will keep you very busy, so enjoy you downtime, Ryan will have to adjust.

Mac OS X Mail.app is a great program, it takes some getting use to, but you can have multiple accounts POP Forwarded to it. While it is not Outlook, it is a great stand alone app, I ditched Outlook Express and Thunderbird after using OS X Mail.
Cads July 23rd, 2007 at 8:58 pm 24

here’s some stuff you can do:

drive to M5 and watch the Mythbusters at work

watch some old episodes of The Screensavers from the 90s and see them marvel at 128 meg of RAM!

hang around a populated area and see how many people recognize you

learn to play the gummi bears theme song on guitar

listen to some Miles Davis

bike from Sanfo to Sausalito, get coffee there and bike back
Parrotheader July 23rd, 2007 at 9:30 pm 25

How about seeing if you can outblog Scoble for an entire week? All posts must come from the iPhone and include at least 5 Facebook mentions per post. It’s not a task for the faint of heart. For something less daunting maybe go climb El Capitan.
Jon July 23rd, 2007 at 9:40 pm 26

Don’t feel bad. At least now you have more time to post as Fake Steve Jobs. LOL. Kidding.
Davor July 24th, 2007 at 12:49 am 27

Adium you say hmmm. I have it but I never use it until they provide A/V support. What other chatting services you are on besides Gizmo?
Woody56292 July 24th, 2007 at 1:15 am 28

Like someone said earlier, I recommend picking up HP7 and reading it. It is really good! Also, stop bugging Ryan while he is working. =P
Taylor C. July 24th, 2007 at 5:04 am 29

I highly recommend Apple’s Mail app. I use it with my gmail account (which is actually my domain’s e-mail routed through gmail) and the integration with other applications and ease-of-use is second to none. It’s a great client. It’s much more convenient to be able to have local archives of e-mail you need offline and fact that you don’t have to go to a web browser, log in, or use a third party application such as Google’s notifier. It’s all on your desktop.

Anyway, looking forward to see what you do at Mahalo.

- Taylor
eric f. July 24th, 2007 at 5:06 am 30

I recommend Dirt for the 360. It’s a good waste of time.

I also recommend Mail.app . i’m not a big fan of web-based email.
Mark Z from Australia July 24th, 2007 at 5:28 am 31

V, there’s always the Shopping Channel. You could also watch CNN for 4 hours straight, that’s what I did when I was bored. It was amusing, seeing headlines on the hour, every hour, welcome I’m so and so, and you’re watching CNN Today from London for the gazillionth time.
Christian July 24th, 2007 at 7:03 am 32

Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!
Nick July 24th, 2007 at 9:34 am 33

Are you using a Macbook or a Macbook Pro?
John B. July 24th, 2007 at 12:32 pm 34

If you do decide to go the Mail route, I have a neat trick to make Gmail act as an IMAP service in case you ever do use two computers again (I discovered this when trying to make something like this work on my iPhone):

1. Open an AOL mail account (they’re free, they’re 2GB and I don’t advertise this address).
2. Go to Gmail’s settings and set it to forward all messages to your supersecret AOL mail account.
3. Go to Mail.app, set up a new IMAP account using smtp.gmail.com as your outgoing mail server, and imap.aol.com as your incoming IMAP server.
4. Voila!

Make sure you set AOL to NOT use the spam filter – way too much stuff ends up in there that shouldn’t, and Gmail’s spam filter is (usually for most people) excellent.

This has worked brilliantly for me, and now I have a Gmail IMAP account on my computer AND iPhone!
Mike July 24th, 2007 at 2:11 pm 35

I know what it’s like to have nothing work-related to do… stinks.

BTW, what’s the name of the video show that you’re going to do at Mahalo?
Vidit Bhargava July 24th, 2007 at 2:35 pm 36

How about slllleeeeeeepppppiiiiinnnng zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz???
joits July 24th, 2007 at 2:47 pm 37

you should have called into buzz out loud!
Taylor C. July 24th, 2007 at 2:50 pm 38

@Nick: V’s got a MacBook Pro.
Todd July 24th, 2007 at 3:26 pm 39

It’s hard to break a busy routine but try hard and enjoy your time off. I kinda know what your talking about. I’m down with a herniated disc and have a lot of time on my hands. I enjoyed listening to you on BOL. I wish you well in your new job. Keep up the good work.
Matt July 24th, 2007 at 5:03 pm 40

Veronica

I just finished listening to your last day on BOL and mourning the fact that I would not be hearing you on there again…..and then I realized that through the magic of the web I would still be able to hear you again, just in another forum, and I see that many fellow fans had the same idea! Best of luck to you!! And I hope you find something cool to do on your time off….like sleep!
Adam July 24th, 2007 at 9:47 pm 41

Mail is pretty great now, but with Leopard on the way I think it’s really coming into it’s own. My main reason for using it is the integration with Address Book, iChat, iCal etc., but you’re using Adium so that may not be as big of a deal. Adium is great, but the lack of voice, video and total integration bums me out so I use jabber to hook up to whatever chat protocols I need (see: http://cavemonkey50.com/2006/08/add-gtalk-msn-and-yahoo-mutiple-accounts-to-ichat/). It’s somewhat involved workaround to make up for iChat’s lack of native support for gtalk and msn (among others) but it let’s me have one buddy list managed by address book -as well as allowing for voice and video chat. If you decide to try this jabber.freenet,de is working pretty well jaim.at seems to have gone off line, and follow the directions carefully
Sergey July 25th, 2007 at 2:50 am 42

Hi, I just wanted to recommend you a new tool from MS, I understand that Gmail is maybe better than MSN, but MS developed a new tool for their Live Mail service – Windows Live Mail Desktop. I’m using it since it became available as a beta and I should say that I like it very much. There are some bugs and strange things, but I think you should take a look. It can read RSS feeds, deliver mail from different sources, deliver newsfeeds and many other nice things.
Chris July 25th, 2007 at 11:11 am 43

Phone into BuzzOutLoud!
Bob July 25th, 2007 at 3:04 pm 44

Hi, I didn’t know you were leaving so soon. I accidently came across the video @cnet.com. I wanted to stop by and say bye but Lynn said you left Friday. I wish you the best of luck and will all miss you here. Best wishes Bob CNET DSS.
Taylor C. July 25th, 2007 at 5:49 pm 45

I second Adam’s comment. I make frequent use of iChat’s video and audio functionality, and the integration and ease-of-use is just wonderful. I’m really looking forward to iChat in Leopard.
Jay July 25th, 2007 at 7:53 pm 46

No more PRIZE FIGHTS thats wierd. You should add a video blog to your site and possibly do a review or do tech tips. You got to stay on top of your game, but I’m sure ideas are forming. Anyways, I just think you make TECH interesting and HIP.

Too bad for CNET cause their youthful target audience will probably continue to drop although CNET UK will probably retain if not gain more of an audience. Now the only youthful persona I can identify with is Rich Demuro, and hes just okay. I seriously believe if James Kim (GOD rest his soul) had not died. Your Crave show would have been a hit you two had a really good knack for making some technology look interesting and you guys had good chemistry. I would have been great to see you guys walking the streets of Japan checking out the cool gadgets and stuff. Oh well..
maxio July 25th, 2007 at 9:00 pm 47

sounds like someone is going through withdrawals!!!Must be nice to have a life again!!! If only I can be so lucky!! All that time, and so much internet to explore! Congrats on your new venture, and best wishes.
ian July 25th, 2007 at 9:30 pm 48

Hey Veronica

Congrats with the new job at Mahalo. i like the search engine. Waiting to check out your new podcast but still loyal to buzz out loud though….If you get bored and need a laugh download Mac beautiful from happy slip on You Tube. its funny for you mac lovers……
Googleman81 July 26th, 2007 at 4:27 am 49

“Now arrives a new 3rd party service called TwitterMSN, integrating Twitter into your Windows Live Messenger application. The TwitterMSN service allows you to update your Twitter account from your MSN account. To use the service, you just have to add msn@twittermsn.com to your Window Live Messenger friends list. Additionally, this third party service also lets you receive the friends’ updates, automatically converts URLs to TinyURL, sends tweets even when Twitter is down, and allows you to extend past Twitter’s built-in 140 character limit.”
Copied and pasted from Channel 10, written by Sarah Perez . Bacon chocolate sounds really nasty by the way…
Jorge (Immortalizer) July 26th, 2007 at 7:36 am 50

i have had a day off for the past two months now, currently looking for new work, i will miss your Prizefight videos at CNET Veronica.
ray July 26th, 2007 at 7:51 am 51

Ah the freedom of doing nothing and resting afterwards!!!!!

Suggestions to do while not working
-Learn a new skill ( you have to choose what interest you)
-Catch up on the tv series you missed (Can’t believe I watch all 7 seasons of Star Trek Voyager twice before I started work again) Suggest Battlestar Galactica. Just 3 seasons to watch, hehehe
-Exercise (I gained 25kg before I started work). We wouldn’t want you chubby when you start first video podcast in Mahalo. They don’t pay you by the pound. So lay of the bacon!!!!
Jordie July 26th, 2007 at 9:34 am 52

V,

I am Exited for you in your new Postion @ mahalo, i am upset for your left @ CNET guessi am gonna stick in a corner while listening To BOL anywhase you in your time off just go out and do stuff play Tourist around the Bay area like Gary did in his comment post here or come up to toronto Veronica i’ll might look around where you are around toronto (i live in The Vincity of Toronto) anywhase enjoy your break off that Mahalo Gaved you, DONT DRIVE YOUR B-FRIEND RYAN CRAZY

Keep on kepping on @ Mahalo i’ll Subscribe to your new podcast @ mahalo

Jordie From the Vincity of Toronto, Canada
adam July 26th, 2007 at 12:00 pm 53

did anyone in here mention NetNewsWire…I did not notice after a quick skim read. I love NNW for RSS feeds. Looks better than web-based solutions and as a mac user looks are everything. It syncs with newsgator online so you can use multiple machines and keep your news stories synced.

I hope Leopard has a much improved Mail.app. It is so basic in its current functionality. Thunderbird works great but I find it doesnt integrate with OSX as well as mail.app (obviously).

sorry if repeating what you already know…
rock on
Colin Theys July 26th, 2007 at 8:59 pm 54

I’m storyboarding a film right now and I keep having this compulsive desire to check buzz out loud on my computer at the studio. For the longest time I couldn’t figure out why… but I just realized it’s because the lead character’s name is Veronica, we’re shooting the whole movie in CT, and I don’t know any Veronica’s in real life. So every time I go to plan out a scene with Veronica in it, it makes me think of BOL. You did some great work while you were there. Enjoy your time off and good luck at mahalo!