Web Performance, Branding, and Social Media
In: Life
20 Jun 2008My grandmother died a few months back, and while this was indeed a very sad day for all of us, she left on her own terms, and with her mind intact, facing the next adventure with grace and dignity.
What this sad event did is provide a focus for the entire Pierzchala clan to reconvene for [...]
Through 2007, the number of posts I made per day/week/month decreased steadily. I know post new items 2-3 items a month, or less. After 2 years of steady entries, I just didn’t have anything to add to the conversation.
Having been an A-list groupie for this entire period, I lost touch with the self-perpetuating scene. A [...]
In: Life
6 Apr 2008On Friday morning, my brother called to tell me that Grandma Isa had passed away overnight.
Isa was my father’s mother, and was one of the most amazing people in my life. In her life, she had survived poverty that few of us can imagine, seen 5 children die in infancy while raising 5 of the [...]
In: Life
3 Feb 2008I don’t often (ever) talk about my musical taste. It is unremarkable for the most part, with flights into madness and impulsiveness.
Lately, I have discovered Icelandic music. Mainly Sigur Ros, Mum, Apparat Organ Quartet, Aniima, and (of course) Bjork. Apparently Icelandic music is all the rage, with people trying to understand how such a small [...]
In: Life
29 Dec 2007So, on New Years Eve, due to the vagaries of modern air travel, the family will be spending seven hours at Sea-Tac waiting for the second leg of our trip home.
For me, this is usually not an issue, as I can huddle up in a corner with my wireless connection and while away the hours [...]
In: Immigration
17 Dec 2007Landed in the US on a one-day business trip today. The family is enjoying Christmas with the grandparents in Victoria, BC, and I need to work remotely to cover the time.
I flew into Seattle for a one-day trip, with my brand-new Advanced Parole documents. Figured it would be speedy.
90 minutes later, they let someone who [...]
In: GrabPERF| Web Performance
5 Nov 2007mon.itor.us, a service which also provides free Web performance measurement services, appears to be having a wee problem.
The most recent GrabPERF data on this site is available here. The issue may be corrected by the time you look at the data.
I don’t wish suffering like this on anyone. GrabPERF had it’s own 3-4 day outage [...]
In: Life
3 Nov 2007Part of the problem with making a lot of East to West trips across the US is that the flights back are a nightmare for timing. You either lose most of a day or have to take a red-eye.
Well, taking the red-eye has only one advantage: you get to camp in the airline lounge and [...]
In: GSM| RANTING| Software| Technology
31 Oct 2007We got Samantha a new T-Mobile cell a few weeks back. But it came with an unwanted and expensive feature: every morning at 11:00, she receives a weather update from Windows Live Alerts.
Apparently the previous owner of the number had these alerts programmed. And of course, there is no way to shut them off because [...]
Stephen Pierzchala is one of a cadre of crazy Canucks living in the United States. A 10-year veteran of the Web performance field, Stephen also writes on topics as diverse as branding and reputation, bipolar, and Web technologies.