Jefflog

In case you’re wondering about the lack of updates, it’s been because I’ve been in China these past two-and-a-half weeks visiting my in-laws and showing off Maggie to the country at large. We returned on Sunday night, and things have been hectic since returning. Trying to catch up with two weeks of mail, both snail and electronic, various chores, and just catching up on sleep have all been tiring.

I’ll have more to report in the coming days as things get more settled in the Seifert household, but in the meantime, you can check out some pictures from the trip.

Hong started working from home today, and I realized that there may be times that we both needed to be on the phone. Rather than get another phone line installed (which would be totally 20th Century of me), I opted to get a SkypeIn account, which gives me a phone number to reach me via Skype for about $4.50/month. I also signed up for SkypeOut so I can make phone calls out via the same interface for about 2 cents/minute in the U.S.

My impressions so far are mixed. Even though I’ve got a high-speed Internet connection with 384Kbps upload speed, conversations still hiss and pop at times much like a bad cell phone connection. Also, because I’m using the built-in microphone in my laptop, I always sound like I’m on a speakerphone. But hey, what do I expect for a $4.50/month phone number! No FCC taxes to boot.