JohnHrvatin.com

A Reminder of Why I’m Proud to be American

Finding problems in this country isn’t difficult.  Some would even point to the process trying to make the country better as the primary problem.  But watching the World Cup reminded me why I’m proud to be American.

While the US team’s hard-working, don’t-quit attitude and resulting success made me proud, I’m thinking of something different: their names.

Brad Guzan
Marcus Hahnemann
Tim Howard
Carlos Bocanegra
Jonathan Bornstein
Steve Cherundolo
Jay DeMerit
Clarence Goodson
Oguchi Onyewu
Jonathan Spector
DaMarcus Beasley
Michael Bradley
Ricardo Clark
Clint Dempsey
Maurice Edu
Benny Feilhaber
Stuart Holden
José Torres
Jozy Altidore
Edson Buddle
Landon Donovan
Robbie Findley
Herculez Gomez

Unlike most national teams, you can’t look at a player’s name and know the team he plays for.  It’s only in the lack of a common origin when looking at the entire group do you realize it’s the US.  From Donovan to Gomez, Hahnemann to Onyewu, I’m reminded that this country is a mix of people from all across the world.  And as a first-generation American, and someone who believe it’s the spirit of the people who come here from around the world that make this country great, I’m proud. 

Happy Fourth of July!

NT konference in Portoroz, Slovenia

Hello from Portoroz!

I’m at NT konferenca, a Microsoft conference in Slovenia, speaking on Internet Explorer 9.  So far the trip has been great.  The event isn’t the size of Microsoft MIX or TechEd, but there’s an amazing energy.  Partner booths are everywhere and people are excited about the sessions. 

It’s also great to see the momentum behind Internet Explorer 8.  Here are a few examples…

And my favorite:

This is my first trip to Slovenia and what I’ve seen is simply beautiful.  This morning I woke up to this view from my room’s balcony:

You can see all my pictures from the conference as I upload them here.

It’s just fun to say – Buble. See? (It’s okay, you can say it again)

I’ve listened to Michael Buble for a while – as a jazz fan I like the music and he simply has an amazing voice.  So when I had the opportunity to see him in person, I jumped on the chance.  The show was last Saturday at Key Arena and he did not disappoint.

He sounds just as good live as he does in recordings.  A 13-piece big band backs him up, which I love hearing, and they even got to solo.

He surprised me with his humor.  For example, one woman in the front row would not stop screaming, even when he was just talking.  He addressed her several times, the first time saying, “wow, you’re crazy.  you love me now, but one day in my career you’ll probably kill me.”

Here are a few shots:

Pacific Northwest Tour: Whidbey Island

In my five years living in Seattle, I’ve visited many parts of the Pacific Northwest, but still haven’t made it to some of the most talked-about areas.  Last weekend I decided to day trip to one of those places – Whidbey Island – and I wasn’t disappointed.

I drove north of Whidbey Island on I-5 and came down onto the island across Deception Pass.  When I first arrived, heavy fog blanketed the area.  I couldn’t see one end of the bridge from the other or anywhere close to the water below me.  By the time I hiked a couple hours through Deception Pass State Park, though, the fog had lifted.  These two shots capture the change pretty well:

The area is simply beautiful.  The water was blue and clear and the islands make an excellent backdrop.

I drove south from Deception Pass to Ebey’s Landing, the start of another hike I’d like to take in the future.  By now the weather was perfect and the Olympic peninsula and mountain range made for a great backdrop.  I didn’t see any whales surfacing but hopefully will on another trip.

I kept driving south through the island and took the ferry from Clinton to Mukilteo and back to Seattle to finish a great day (with a stop at Albertson’s for my favorite summer beer: Kona Brewery Longboard.  Kona also makes my favorite winter beer: Pipeline Porter).

Check out the rest of my photos here.

Photo Touch-Ups

I’ve started using Lightroom to manage my photos and tweaked a few from my hike on Mt. Pilchuk.  I’m not sophisticated about it at all, but I’m learning.  I think they look pretty good.  Here’s a favorite:

Bing it!

Bing has received some great press recently, and I thought I’d share this one from TechCrunch. 

If you haven’t tried Bing yet, you should.  They do a great job for all queries and an excellent job for certain types.  For example, try ‘american airlines’ or ‘bmw’.  You’ll find categories of results to help you find exactly what you need.

Bing Travel is my favorite, though.  Search for a flight and it’ll tell you whether to buy or wait based on its prediction of how prices will change.  You can then subscribe to email alerts for that search so you know when to buy.  It’s incredibly helpful.

And the homepage pictures are simply beautiful.  I love seeing the image each day and learning a few new things.  Here’s a recent one…

IE8 Developer Tools Resources

I created a new page on the IE8 developer tools.  I plan to use it as a quick landing page for finding all the different resources out there, from demo videos and MSDN documentation to user tips and tricks.

If you know of good resources or have tips and tricks to share, let me know and I’ll add them!

Download IE8!

Today we launched IE8 at MIX!  It’s been an amazing cycle and I think it’s an excellent product.

Try it now: www.microsoft.com/ie8. 

Speaking at MIX09 on Web Performance

Next week Microsoft hosts MIX09 in Las Vegas. As Pete wrote about on the IE Blog, IE will have a big presence, including a presentation I’m giving:

For anyone who’ll be there, stop by and say hi. For those of you who can’t, I’ll post afterward and link to a recording.

BREAKING NEWS: Catholics and Atheists disagree!!!

Shocking!

Not really.

While the title of this article tries to make it seem controversial, it’s not surprising that Christians – who by definition believe Christ is God – don’t agree with atheists who don’t believe any deities exist.

The part of the article I like is that the Cardinal is clear that science, and particularly evolution, is not at odds with Catholicism.  The only part he called “absurd” is the idea that evolution proves there is no God which says nothing about the validity of the theory of evolution.  And I agree with his statement, if only because proving there is no God is just as absurd as proving there is a God.

It’s where that pesky “faith” thing comes in.