Dad is doing great so we are heading back to SF this week. Whew what a crazy two weeks. Thanks again to everyone who helped with Winston and Mercury while we were gone.

Created 30 weeks, 4 days ago

So, for those of you left reading this blog. I had to make an emergency trip to TX to be with my father who had to undergo an emergency heart bypass surgery. He did great. He was so brave and confident throughout the whole pre-op. Now he is out of surgery and doing well in the ICU post-op. We have a hard week of healing in front of us and I am sure it will go well. Thanks to everyone for coming together to help us leave SF and be in TX in less than 8 hours. Our dog Winston and cat Mercury are ever so grateful!!

Created 31 weeks, 6 days ago

Created 34 weeks, 4 days ago

Caught this while fishing with Deano up at Tahoe. Ashley, Me, Deano and Shyer stayed over the long-weekend in Tahoe doing all kinds of fun stuff.

Deano and I were in the Truckee River fishing in freezing cold water to catch this.




Created 43 weeks, 1 day ago

Good Foxing morning. It's 6 IN THE MORNING.




Created 44 weeks, 23 hours ago

Yea, I took a break from software development and blog updates. I burned myself out a bit with my nearly-record blog/software development effort back in July. After my mother reminded me I needed to blog more while talking to her on the phone I figure I better get back to updating this little slice of heaven.

Last weekend Ashley and I spent 2 days at the first ever San Francisco Outside Lands festival in Golden Gate park. We were *very* close to the Radiohead stage and the show rocked. I love seeing these guys live. Before Radiohead, we saw Steel Pulse and Manu Chao. Google them.

The second day we saw Cake and Regina Spektor, plus we spent lots of time checking out the vendors and food/beverages. Ashley actually bought something from the dress vendor. Something hippy Not Sandalwood.

At the polo field, Microsoft had a huge main-tent there setup for the Crowdfire concept. They had setup the tent over grass and the grass had started to rot which meant the tent smelled strongly of rotten vegitation on the second day. I could have powered through it, but Ashley is scent-sensitive and we had to bail on all the Microsoft stuff. Too bad, I heard there were some cool things in there.

Sunday, we skipped the last day of the festival, and instead enjoyed our new backyard grass on a sunny Sunday. I also refactored the garage contents. In the morning, we went to see our friends at Kookez for what might amount to the last brunch. :(

So, thats what's up. This weekend I'm off to Tahoe, and I am bringing my personal computer so I can work on some fun stuff when I get inspired. Plus, I am taking some fishing poles to catch some damn fish.




Created 44 weeks, 4 days ago

Put some pictures up of the Jamaica vacation we took 6 months ago. I didn't want to share the photos until I had fully enjoyed them myself

Now, go enjoy!



Created 54 weeks, 14 hours ago

Here are some pics from Ario's Her Majesty the Pig party that we went to. Of course, I should have posted them a month ago when this happened





Created 54 weeks, 18 hours ago

It has been a while since I have subjected myself to the levels of bass at a show like I experienced last night at the Skream and Benga show at Club Mighty.



Skream and Benga are dubstep DJ/producers, and last night their duo (tag-team) show was amazing. Ario, omniscient music oracle, pointed out some of the source material when they played it, but because these guys are like, first-source producers, lots of the stuff they play has never been heard outside of their turntables.

An-ten-ae played a set too. He started with some of his latest "Dark side of the dub", got a little dancy, then returned to the evil beat just before the main act hit the stage.

Of course, like all things Club Mighty, it didn't start until late into the night. No regrets for staying out that late during the week, it was well worth it. I will remember this next time I decide to go to a show at Mighty.


Some dubstep mixes to enjoy from Kid Kameleon:

a dubstep mix:
http://www.xlr8r.com/podcast/2006/10/...

a dub mix:
http://www.xlr8r.com/podcast/2008/03/...




Created 54 weeks, 1 day ago

Yup, it was great. Go see it. Ten dollars, only. Plus, they pick Keanu out of the audience each night (as they say, for a more realisitc Keanu performance).

Ashley wrote some stuff about our show on her blog.



This is your wake-up call.



Created 57 weeks, 3 days ago

Saw M83 last night with Ario, Rick, Shilla and Ashley at Great American Music Hall. Wow what a show! Ario has the better write up so I am just going to link you over to him to read about the show.

I was pretty intrigued by the Lexan, light up control box that was on stage and had mondo presence the entire show. At some points it seemed like Anthony would actually be real-time modifying some digital output, but at other times I think he was just faking us out by pretending to be generating real-time effects that were actually pre-recorded. Either way, the box was cool looking and inspiring.


Created 58 weeks, 1 day ago

Took Ario's suggestion to make the Stars of the Lid show last night at The Independent. I had to miss Christopher Willits, but I caught the full SOTL set.

I had kinda wished I was seated to enjoy it properly. Standing was okay, but the songs would sometimes nearly tip me over with the long-drawn-out chords. You see, a proper ambient sway needs a chord shift in order to bring you back the other way. I was just swaying one direction with no chord shifts in sight .

Another interesting observation was the first few songs sounded like the background "futuristic" music that theme parks and museums usually use for space exhibits and the like. The hiss of the man-made-fog machines going off every few minutes in the crowded, yet silent room only added to this effect. I won't deny that if I close my eyes, I felt like I was *in* the Disney Epcot Spaceship Earth attraction.


Created 63 weeks, 2 days ago

Thanks to my sister's unrelenting need to send me news which bodes of huge natural disasters in Cali, I received this little gem in my inbox today:

"California faces an almost certain risk of being rocked by a strong earthquake by 2037, according to the first statewide temblor forecast, released today. New calculations reveal there is a 99.7 percent chance a magnitude 6.7 quake or larger will strike in the next 30 years."

Well, yeah. I think I have felt two or three small magnitude 4.0 quakes since I moved here two years ago. The good news is that Ashley and I have a great quake/natural disaster survival kit and have a plan should something happen while we are separated or together. Some things are worth the risk!








Created 63 weeks, 2 days ago

Ash, Ario and I made it to Yuri's Night 2008 - A World Space Party hosted at NASA down in Mountain View. Nearly 10 hours of standing, sitting whilst listening to great electronic, dance and pop music and watching some talks relating to space in general certainly amounted to a full day. Go check out the amazing line up.

The acrobatic planes were an amazing bonus and Buzz Aldrin was present but I never got a chance to meet him. At some point, Ashley and Ario got to see some of the Astronauts teleconfrence in to say 'hello' from space! Of course, I was off checking out the hydrogen-generating flowers and the subsequent hydrogen explosions when that happened.

I got to hear Tycho play his new song The Daydream; still hoping he is working on the new album. The beer from Drake's Brewery and Bison Brewery was most excellent, however the lines were probably some of the worst I have ever experienced. I ended the night with $20 of unused beer tix, mostly because the lines were so slow. I also was really pleased with the raw, organic vittles from BARF one of the food vendors on site, the Kale chips they sold were very good.


I got some photos and will put them online when I get the opportunity, so stay tuned to that channel. Ario has his online already. Ashley is probably still working on her photos same as me.






Created 63 weeks, 4 days ago

Angela introduced me to these tasties from Lucca Ravioli San Francisco. What is a popper? A small green pepper stuffed with prosciutto and some sort of hard cheese, soaked in olive oil.

I am so addicted.

technorati: Lucca, San Francisco, Poppers

Created 65 weeks, 1 day ago

Ash and I are up in Tahoe again for the extended weekend with some friends from SF.



Created 65 weeks, 5 days ago

We had a birthday party for Ashley at the house way back at the beginning of the month. Someone made the margaritas too strong (Ashley) and we ended up pretty blitzed that weekend. I think Ash and I were already sloshed by the time everyone arrived. The last of the friends finally left around 4 AM. Ario took some photos which was cool. Thanks for showing up everyone, even Ed.





Created 67 weeks, 2 days ago

Just finished the first part of a hands-on secret project with some friends tonight. It is totally not software or coding related which might be a small shock to some of you. Although I did totally restore that bench with Ashley last summer and I have tinkered with some fun woodworking projects since.

I think I have already said too much. You eat it.


Created 67 weeks, 2 days ago

To scoop Joe (but since I have the pictures): while we were skiing last weekend he smashed into an Elk with his rental car around 4 AM while driving up to Red River from Albuquerque.


He left a pretty big ding on it don't you think? It was an interesting way to start the weekend. To give him credit, he still managed to somehow ski with us the next day starting at 8 AM! Bad ass Joe.



Created 70 weeks, 1 day ago

Created 70 weeks, 4 days ago

I'll let one of the ladies explain it in more detail, but the MOMA was awesome this weekend.

The Olafur Eliasson LED 360° room for all colours was awesome. It lists debut in 2002, but I don't remember LED and diffuser screen technology being that awesome back then so it might be using some newer materials these days.


Thanks for dragging me out guys, lots of fun!


Created 71 weeks, 6 days ago

The family that picks you up from the airport after their bedtime is awesome

I got in at midnight and my sister and brother-in-law were there to greet me and help with the luggage (golf clubs ).

I am staying at their new home and it is so immaculate and pristine. I felt like I should, like,  take my shoes off or something (if you know me you know I find that a preposterous requirement of guests). There is so much positive energy here, it makes me happy to see them accomplishing so much.

Since we are on the topic of the airport, I couldn't believe that the airport in San Antonio is an hour away from their home. Even at this late hour with no traffic on the tollways highways. I used to live on the same side of town as them and I don't remember the airport trip taking so long. I think it is time the West side got an airport of its own.




Created 73 weeks, 5 hours ago

Tonight my company Cisco/Ironport threw a black tie party down in the Mission at Foriegn Cinema. I rented a tux and Ashley bought a really nice dress and we took a limo to the event. Aaron and Shannon met us there and we had a really great time. The afterparty was a live band playing karaoke. I hope no video ever surfaces of that. More pictures on Flickr.






Created 74 weeks, 6 days ago

The gang went to see the Bodyworlds 2 exhibit down at The Tech in San Jose last night. It was insightful, amazing and gruesome. Therefore I definitely recommend it.

Give yourself about two hours to take it in. If you want to know more about each of the specimens they have on display, you will need to take the audio-tour as the plaques only give basic information about them.




Created 74 weeks, 6 days ago

Aaron was fully motivated today (I know... disgusting) and he setup a blog/site where we can talk about homebrew, and brewed beer and maybe some other things. So now you will find me blogging over there too!

I will probably be expected to help him build a design for the site and a somewhat successful business venture around this too. Fine, fine. If I must.

So if you like beer, or not, go visit. And click on the damn ads (when they go up).



*I added the craft. Clever right?


technorati: homebrew, beer, drinking, wort, blog, naked

Created 75 weeks, 2 days ago

Aaron made the 2 o'clock meeting today, bringing his first batch of homebrew Irish Red Ale that he had been cultivating for the past month and a half.

All of that time spent watching it ferment was well spent my friend. Well spent.



The beer had a mysterious nutty, fruity flavor, with a hoppy aftertaste. Foam was perfect, as was carbonation. I was totally blown away that it worked out so well for him. His success makes me excited to do a batch of my own.


technorati: homebrew, beer, Aaron Murray

Created 75 weeks, 3 days ago

Ario gave me the heads up on a gallery opening showcasing artwork in ANSI right here in San Francisco. We went over on Saturday night and checked it out. Awesome artwork, some gadget widgetry to scroll the ANSI pics on the LCDs to check out, and some good music.

Plus Ken Steele and another guy from Chumby were present and they brought 4 little chumbies setup to showcase some of the ANSI with them. What a cool surprise. We chatted for a bit, but unfortunately Ken wasn't familiar with any of the widgets I had created for the Chumby developer channel. Oh well


Ario's pictures on Flickr

technorati: ANSI, art, San+Francisco, 20goto10, twentygoto10, chumby




Created 76 weeks, 4 days ago

While in San Antonio for the holidays we had a chance to check out Transfers. Transfers is the latest band that Jon Stovall plays drums for.


So hop off your arse and go check them out at their next gig. By the way, Jon likes it when you dance like an clawing cat near the front of the stage.




Created 78 weeks, 2 days ago

Ash and I are driving to Texas for Christmas to see our family. 1700 miles each direction. At least this gives me a chance to catch up on some audio books during the drive. I just bought a fresh batch of Ringworld books from audible.com too, so this will be a very humorous trip.

I will also make sure Ashley does some blogging from the road. Her blog is sadly lacking in recent posts. If she doesn't start covering some of her own news, I am not responsible for "scooping" all of her content if I post about it. Plus she has like 2 or 3 gigs of images to upload to flickr.

See all of yall either after the holidays for New Years, or in Texas over Christmas.

Peace.








Created 80 weeks, 1 day ago

So, some of you have asked me for a "what we did on our vacation" post. This is a list of the most notable things we did while there.

• Ashley and I laid in the hot Jamaican sun on our beach and forgot about everything.
  
  
• We tipped over a kayak and I lost my sunglasses in the ocean.
  
  
• I had to buy new sunglasses.

Created 81 weeks, 15 hours ago

I had started dieting 44 days ago in order to loose some weight before our Jamaica trip at the end of this week. The diet started the moment I bought the tickets for Ashley and I in September. I took stock in my current health and weight and I must admit that I was actually shocked to find that I had gained so much weight over the last year. I think it has something to do with my previous job being so ... lackluster ... and my motivation for staying healthy wasn't there. A true failing on my part.

I started by just making up a goal of 30 pounds in 44 days when I first drew up my weight loss plan. 30 pounds would put me at 187; which I historically consider an ideal weight for my body. I tend to be a little more muscle-built than the average person of my height and any lighter leaves me feeling weak. 30 pounds is about 120 sticks-of-butter in fat volume equivalence. Gah!

There would be 3 things that stood in the way of me reaching this goal:

1. 30 pounds in 44 days is most likely an unhealthy rapid weight loss
2. My birthday fell between these 44 days
3. Thanksgiving week with my family was also in this same stretch

Therefore I considered these obstacles and I moved my goal back to 25 pounds in 44 days. I figured I would easily gain 3 or 4 pounds over Thanksgiving week and about a pound or two over my birthday (from drinking; less if I puked it up ).

With my goal set, I sat down and figured out what it would take to reach it. 25 pounds in 44 days equates to loosing about 1/2 a pound a day, or something like 4 pounds every 7 days. Whew!

So I drew up some exercise and food rules:

Food:
#1. Only low carb, low sugar, low fat foods (veggies only!?)
#2. Reduce my portions of everything, to the max
#3. Find meals that I could look forward to every single day and repeat weekly

Exercise:
#1. Go to the gym six days a week for at least 60 minutes of exercise
#2. Do at least 60 minutes of cardio every single day
#3. Work towards 60 minutes of jogging
#3. Incorporate some weight training after the 60 minutes of cardio

Limiting my food options and portions I was able to cut my daily caloric intake to an average of about 1600 calories. I found some meals that I could repeat every day for breakfast and lunch. A surprise to me was that I found myself getting really creative with dinners when it was my turn to cook food. A favorite of mine is veggie fajitas, another is baked tilapia with sauteed brussel sprouts.

At the gym, according to the cardio machines, I was burning about 600 calories in 60 minutes on the treadmill for the first 20 days. Over the last 20 days I was able to up it to about 750 calories in 60 minutes. My average gym session is now about 2 hours, with the second hour involving machine weight-training and in during last few minutes, another cardio workout on the orbital machines. I usually stop the orbitals at 220 calories burned (enough for 2 lite beers if I felt like it). Including my weight lifting, I estimated I burned about 1100-1200 calories over the 2 hours at the gym.

Looking back today, to measure my weight loss, I calculated my resting caloric burn to be about 2100 calories and, combining this with my workout, I was burning about 3200 calories a day.

If I only took in 1600 calories a day from food, this was a deficit of 1600 calories a day I was having to pull out of my bodies energy stores to make up for.

1600 calories times 44 days is about 70400 calories. If a pound of fat is contains 3500 calories than I should have lost somewhere around 20.1 pounds over the 44 days. Leaving me only 5 pounds shy of my arbitrary goal of 25 pounds.

I'm happy to say that today, just 3 days before leaving for Jamaica, that is exactly where I am at. I have lost the 20 pounds and I still have 3 days to go!

I figure that I probably lost a good amount of fat but actually built some muscle back since I have been weight-training. I know I need to loose about 10 more pounds to reach that ideal 187, but I am really excited and surprised to see that my calculations, and dedication to them, have worked out.

The only drawbacks are the constant sore muscles and the cravings that I have to fight with constantly. I must admit that I have less of them as of late, but in the beginning they were killer cravings. Bad brain!

Here's to keeping off the weight while on vacation and me reaching my weight loss goal before the end of the year. Salut!




technorati: weight loss, weight, diet

Created 83 weeks, 3 days ago

A Thatsa bowl is the codename for a 32-cup burping-bowl from Tupperware that is a necessary tool in making the poppyseed Kolaches that I love so dearly.



It's the smaller one in the above photo. The red bowl with the flour in it.





Created 83 weeks, 4 days ago

I can't believe it is just one week until we will be in Jamaica. Woot!


Created 84 weeks, 21 hours ago

The first version introduced the basic wireframe, and this alphaV2 version introduces working e-mail support and comments.

http://www.stufftohuff.com/splhndlr/sbook/sbook.htm

enjoy!

technorati: dnd, spell, book, spellbook, rpg

Created 85 weeks, 3 days ago

Just an update to let you know that Mercury still kicks some ass for a cat.


Created 85 weeks, 4 days ago

Today marks 21 days of dieting.

Week 1 archived results
(lost 6 pounds)

Week 2 archived results
(lost 5 pounds)


Week 3 calorie intake and results

---

Wed (31st)
1156

Thu (1st)
2615

Fri (2nd)
2020

Sat (3rd)
670

Sun (4th)
1085

Mon (5th)
1400

Tue (6th)
1265


It was my birthday on Friday, and on Thursday my company threw a holiday party at the Exploratorium so I had two back to back indulgent days. I was able to ride the calorie rush and had a really good energy day on Saturday with just 600 calories.

I lost only 3 pounds this week, for a total of 14 pounds lost over 21 days. I know my body fat index dropped by about 3% points over the week though, which hopefully means my fat weight was replaced by muscle weight gain.

My cardio and weight lifting continues however I would like to incorporate some swimming over the next week. I found a new gym that has a pool but it is expensive. There is a public pool north and south of me but they cost about 5 dollars a day to swim.

technorati: weight loss, dieting, diet, exercise



Created 86 weeks, 2 days ago

Wow. Ashley totally organized a surprise birthday with my best friends. Thanks Ash, Deano, Shy, Aaron and Shannon. You all rock. Your ROCKSTARS.


Created 87 weeks, 6 hours ago

So Ash posted that she is going to be vacationing in Jamaica this month. Not to be outdone, I would like to announce that I too will be vacationing in Jamaica and, funny enough, at the exact same resort as her.

The vacation is the reason for this series of posts.

And also the reason why I will be missing the Google holiday party :(. Cisco it seems doesn't have a holiday party as such and we will be having instead, a party tonight (at the Exploratorium) to celebrate a recent software release and a party in January to celebrate the new year. I don't understand it, but I will at least try it out.

At least I will have Jamaica.


Created 87 weeks, 1 day ago

I have 14 days of dieting under my belt now (ba-dum).

Week 1 archived results
(lost 6 pounds)



Week 2 calorie intake and results

---

Wed (24th)
920

Thu (25th)
1095

Fri (26th)
2005

Sat (27th)
1400

Sun (28th)
1445

Mon (29th)
1115

Tue (30th)
952


Overall, a good starvation week :/. That Friday I took on added calories from beers at a Halloween party, but I am okay with that.

I lost a total of 5 pounds this week, for a total of 11 pounds lost in 2 weeks. So what does 11 pounds equate to? Well if I have lost pure fat, than it would look something like 44 sticks of butter smeared all over me (imagine it).

I have been exercising more than normal as well. I have ramped up to about 1 hour of intense aerobics and weight lifting every day. I even rode my bicycle to work one day. I am feeling stronger and leaner that is for certain, but waking up in the morning is harder and harder (sore and tired). Once I get going at 7:30 AM, I seem to recover my stamina by 10 AM.

technorati: weight loss, dieting, diet, exercise



Created 87 weeks, 2 days ago

We just finished a great dinner at Kookez and we are heading out for a night on the town. C yall later!



Created 88 weeks, 9 hours ago

I was playing a rousing game of classic Balderdash with some friend the other night when we came upon the word Flapdragon. It turns out it is an antiquated game played with burning brandy and raisins. Naturally, this got me curious.

After doing a little research, I am now contemplating starting a Flapdragon game night. Anyone interested?


Created 89 weeks, 1 day ago

Huge congratulations to Joe Dyer who is leaving USAA to join Travelocity. I worked with Joe at USAA to design several USAA Bank application for the usaa.com web site as well as the CRM portal. I hope this means that Joe and I will be skiing together in exotic location as his Travelocity travel discount covers us >;)


Created 90 weeks, 19 hours ago

Some of your might know Aaron from when I worked with him back at USAA in Texas. He has moved out to San Francisco to work at Ironport/Cisco (with me!).

This is Aaron's first week on the new job and its great to see his smiling face as I walk around the office! I hope that we can team up on Guitar Hero to beat the other departments if they challenge us to an axe-off.





Created 93 weeks, 2 days ago

Unless I am wrong, and I am never wrong, Aaron and Shannon are headed dead into the fire swamp out to San Francisco today via I-10 to LA then I-5 to San Francisco.

They are planning on making it a 4-day trip. A 1700-mile trip that I have personally driven in just over 1 day before. I am guessing they are going to stop and smell the roses all the way here. Of course, they are transporting a dog, a rabbit, a bird and who knows what other kind of pets. I am also hoping that they are transporting some authentic San Antonio Tex-Mex food with that cargo. Those of you who know what the difference between regional Mexican cuisines will understand.

The only bummer is that I was hoping for some travelblogging Aaron. I don't see any posts yet. Ahem.


Created 94 weeks, 5 days ago

It's lame0 when dumb-ass things get you avoiding all kinds of things that bring you joy. Such as blogging, or e-mailing friends, or even calling home.

Let's blame it on Brad and the fact that I got busted by the police on the day before he came to visit me back in July. I took care of the registration, licence, fees etc. immediately. However, non-California registration related tickets cannot be 'fixed' over the Web or phone, so you have to go down to the City Court and take care of this stuff in person especially when you are 2 months behind in getting this stuff done.

Imagine what visiting City Court is like in San Francisco. Go ahead. Ill give you some hints. Imagine... inch-thick bullet-proof glass between everyone you talk to, person after person. Now dream up some of the people that caused them to install that glass. Now stand in line with them for a few hours. Oh boy!

So now my tickets are resolved, work has calmed down a bit and I can finally find some time to say 'Hello' again.





Created 95 weeks, 1 day ago

If you know of any great 2 bedroom apartments in San Francisco that may not listed on Craigslist or Google real estate send us the info. It should be dog friendly, and be somewhat close to a Bart station.


Created 97 weeks, 6 days ago

Ooh boi, Aaron is joining Cisco so he will be moving to San Francisco!

This is the only picture I had handy. It is from the photoboof at Laughing Squid Paradise Lost . He's the guy on the right doing the "it's what I do to you" in the first pic.

Created 99 weeks, 3 days ago

If you are in San Antonio or Austin area, go see my friend Jon Stovall and his band Transfers at Limelight on July 28th. And also, if you can see a Starchild show that same weekend, you will then have seen two of the hottest acts southern Texas has to offer.





Created 103 weeks, 16 hours ago

If you have 2 million dollars that you would like to donate towards a good great inflammable cause, please consider helping out Survival Research Labs and their need for a new home base.

Created 103 weeks, 1 day ago

Brad and Lenora have been visiting with us since last Wednesday when they arrived for the 4th of July to stay with us for just about a week. Today I have to take them down to the airport to see them off (sniff).

Lenora has a offer from Berkley but she will probably end up at Johns Hopkins. We had to at least try and convince her to come out here before she signs on the dotted line and heads off to Baltimore.

They did lots of adventuring while here, including a climbing trip at Mt. Diablo and a finding a climbing area just up the street from the house where a HUGE natural climbing wall is located right in the middle of the city (Beaver St.). I dragged them through Chinatown and Muir Woods as well as a July 4th at the Franciscan where we had front window views of the fireworks from our dinner table (Thanks Ashley!).





Created 103 weeks, 4 days ago

I went to Fred's house on Saturday night when I was in Texas. He has so many dogs now that the barking was overwhelming. That is one well protected house Fred.




technorati: dogs, barking, night, fence, vicious

Created 112 weeks, 2 days ago

Ash and I spent the weekend down in Cupertino this weekend. She had some busy projects which required her to be in the office to take care of her work. She also has a doctors examination this week so we are both off Tuesday, leaving us both with short weeks.

Instead of making the 2 hour round trip drive both days we just stayed in the Kimpton Cypress Hotel in Cupertino; a mere 10 minutes from either of our offices. We weren't able to reserve a room through the week or we would have; which means we are back in San Francisco tomorrow after work. I must admit that living close to work is super nice.

The trouble is that these cities down here feel just like any other modern suburbia. They have the same restaurants, "modern art" and city works as any of the others. I exhuberantly admit that I like the charm of our village in San Francisco. If only work was closer . Anyhow I digress.

Please keep Ashley in your thoughts this week as this is an important examination and we want good news. These are difficult checkups as you can imagine.

Created 114 weeks, 5 days ago

Whew. Deep breath. Hold it. Now let it out.

I am not sure how this happened, but some very important photographs turned up missing yesterday. Ash had mentioned on Sunday that she wanted to get these old photos digitized since we don't own a scanner. She had even attempted to take them to a service but had not had time for the past two weeks. She had some time this week and wanted to make it happen.

And here is where the disaster begins; they were missing. Vanished. No trace of them.

I helped her search for a manila folder full of photos and slides (which I had never seen before) for a very intense hour on Sunday night. We couldn't find them and had to go to sleep knowing they were still missing. I reassured her that they were on her desk at Google. She didn't think so. I reasoned with her that it was the last logical place for them to be.

First thing she did this morning was check her desk for the folder. She even had her coworkers search with her, to add eyes. Nothing. Nada. We each then tried the security desk at our offices and asked coworkers if they had seen them.

The photos were bumped up to "really lost" status and the rest of the day was spent thinking about where these photos were. We left work early in order to take advantage of the sunlight and look for them at home.

After another fruitless hour of looking through everything we own it was decided they were now "very lost" and we would have to start calling places we had visited, the people who had been over to the house recently, oh and put an advertisement in craigslist and the newspapers.

We also had no idea how long they had been lost. Had it been hours, days or perhaps even the full two weeks? Ash had no recollection of when the last time she saw them was, and I, as I stated before, had never seen the folder.

I decided there was one more place to look. It was a long-shot; but I felt that if we didn't look we might always wonder.

So I went out to the refuse bin, grabbed the bag inside and brought it upstairs. The refuse and recycling is collected on Tuesday. It would be a handful of hours before the collectors came to haul it off to the city dump.

I untied the cords holding closed the bag and started taking items out. I noticed there were some papers in the bag that we hadn't put in the recycling bin. That was strange. Digging in these discarded papers I saw something a dull orange in color; or was it manila.

Ashley had just peeked over my shoulder looking into the bag when she saw it and went in after it. Sure enough it was the photos, just slightly crumpled and largely undamaged.

She cried more finding them than when she thought they were lost.

We celebrated the discovery by breaking our diet for one meal down at the Thai restaurant. I rewarded myself extra with a Thai iced tea and a light beer. It isn't every day that you rescue something that precious from total disaster.

How they got into the bag is a mystery. I always double check our refuse (living with a mischievous cat makes you this way), and I was certain that there was no possibility a folder full of photos had been tossed. So much for certainty. At least there is a happy ending to this crisis.

Created 115 weeks, 4 days ago

After a great trip to SXSWi and four days visiting with friends and family down in San Antonio, Ash and I head back to San Francisco tomorrow.

We all managed to get at least a few hours to play some DnD together at Brad's parents house on Saturday night. Sadly our backup electronic campaign file was corrupted with some HTML notes from the last time we played and we weren't able to import the file when we tried to play. We managed to extract all the important info from the XML within the campaign file, get it into some character sheets and play with paper, dice and d20SRD.org.



We fly out early tomorrow. See you in San Francisco.

technorati: dnd, gaming, travel

Created 119 weeks, 6 days ago

Ashley and some of her Google coworkers created a SXSWi 07 schedule for Google Calendar. It is far easier to manage than the SXSW version.

technorati: SXSW, SXSWi, interactive, calendar, panels

Created 121 weeks, 1 day ago

We started listening to some Audible books while on the trip; currently we are on The Cell by Stephen King. Since I have an additional 10 minute commute after I drop off Ash at Google I love that I can threaten to listen to more of the book than her. Don't think I won't.

Created 122 weeks, 1 day ago

I bought some flowers through 1-800-SendFTD for my sweethearts this year. I thought it very funny when I saw the charge reflected in my Bank of America account summary. Take a look for yourself:

Happy Valentines day everyone. Hope you enjoy the downers I sent you!


technorati: valentines, day, flowers, funny, 1-800-sendftd

Created 124 weeks, 2 days ago

So Google is taking Ashley and her coworkers skiing during the middle of the week. How about them apples. She is packing all of her snow gear, board games and booze while I pack my chump laptop and paperwork for work. @#$**!


technorati: Google, skiing

Created 125 weeks, 3 days ago

So you know Ashley has been sick. It had been a week of coughing and the last few days she couldn't shake a 99-100 degree temperature. Her cough had turned from dry to productive (I love that term) so it was time to seek out a health care professional.  We went to the urgent care center on Sunday to find out what kind of infection she has. Turns out it is the lovable respiratory system infection: Bronchitis. I had warned her not to get any of that spa water in her lungs from the resort in Tahoe.

Add to this drama the dog just had his ear-stitches taken out today. You might remember that he had his ears canals reconstructed about a week and a half ago. I was under the impression that there would be a smaller, lower ear canal created in order to clean the ears but it turns out that the stitches were to close up the entire thing. The doctor assures us that this is the best way to treat his chronic ear infections. I know Winston can still hear us, I just have not yet determined if he can hear us as well.

And poor Mercury hasn't had to endure days of people at home in a very long time. Cats supposedly get about 17 hours of sleep a day, so I think this can explain his recent cat-crankiness. With Ashley working from home all day watching Soap operas, he is being denied his beauty sleep.

I think I am going to stay at the office as late as I can before I head back home.

Created 128 weeks, 4 days ago

Winston is back after the surgery to fix his ears. He is in for a long recovery. I particularly like the bald head they gave him at the vet . Thanks everyone who stopped by to wish him good luck and good health.



technorati: Winston, dog, surgery

Created 130 weeks, 13 hours ago

Winston had to go to the ER vet last night because his weird ear tumor decided to go into necrosis. We have been putting him through several medicinal regiments to treat his ear conditions such as infections and a tumor/wart that had been growing on his outer ear; and we were having some small success with the medicine until last nights discovery. The thing "outgrew its blood supply" and is now a source of a major infection.

He is at the vet now waiting for his turn with the surgeon at SFVS to have some reconstructive surgery performed on his ear and ear canal to remove the damaged and infected tissue. We should be able to pick him up tomorrow morning if everything goes well. The surgery is around $2,500 per ear and luckily for everyone we only need to get one ear taken care of at this point.

According to ThePetCenter.com: 'Through years of breeding, the Cocker has evolved an ear canal that is rather long and often even folds upon itself before reaching the ear drum'. What a suck that these breeds are born into ear problems. If you want to see something neat, ThePetcenter.com has a great walkthrough on the reconstructive surgery he is about to receive.

Good luck Winston, we are thinking about you.




technorati: dog, surgery, winston

Created 130 weeks, 1 day ago

My parents live in a rural community in the Texas hill country with Internet access only through a dial-up modem over the POTS. They don't have access to any of the traditional high-speed connections with easy entry (read: no long-term contracts) such as DSL or Broadband Cable.

At work they do have access to high-speed connections which has made them interested in getting something a little faster than the aforementioned 32kbps modem at home. I did some research to help them with some of the options they have for a faster Internet connection even without DSL or Terrestrial Cable.

Here are some of the options I found. My suggested option is after the list.


1. ISDN Connection

Provider: SBC ISDN Business Services
Speed: "Two 64 kilobit per second (Kbps) Bearer (B) channels each carry user information (voice and data), while one 16Kbps Data (D) channel carries call set-up and signaling information, giving you a maximum capability of 144Kbps."
Equipment: Network Terminator (ISDN to PC) + Terminal Adapters (1 per non-data phone)
Pricing: Equipment Lease or Purchase (~ $200), ISDN Setup/Installation, ISDN monthly line fee (~ $50), ISDN monthly internet access fee (~ $50)
Length of Term: Leasing the equipment and the line requires a 5 year contract

Pros: Setup at the home should not require any additional installations. Service will work with most weather. No latency, digital connection.

Cons: Slow compared to other options, installation will take a very long time.

2. Digital Satellite Broadband

Provider: Earthlink DIRECWAY or WildBlue
Speed:  "WildBlue's always-on broadband Internet connection provides a user experience similar to most DSL services. We offer download speeds of up to 1.5 Mbps - more than 30 times faster than today's dial-up speeds. We offer upload speeds up to 256 Kbps."
Equipment: Satellite Dish, Satellite Modem
Pricing: Equipment Purchase (~ $400 *see below), Setup Fees, Monthly Usage (~ $70)
Length of Term: 12 months for non equipment charge and special pricing plans

Pros: High speed download is great. Service will work during most weather.

Cons: "... there is a delay of about a half second as the signal travels up to the satellite, back down to the gateway, up to the satellite and back down to your modem. For most applications this latency does not affect performance, however, there are some applications like Voice over IP, or real-time interactive gaming, where latency will have a noticeable effect on performance over the WildBlue network, as it would on any satellite-delivered service."


3. RF Line-of-Sight Broadband

Provider: Local Internet Service Provider
Speed: ~400kbps down, ~ 128k up
Equipment: RF Antenna, RF Modem, Possibly install a tower to get line-of-sight over the trees and hills
Pricing: Basic Equipment (~ $400), Monthly Usage Fee (~ $40 for basic speeds)
Length of Term: month to month, with contracts for discounts on equipment

Pros: Works like a wireless router, works during most weather.

Cons: Requires Line-of-Sight to a service provider Access Point (in the Texas Hill Country, this can be difficult), A somewhat laggy signal (like satellite)


4. Sprint Power Vision Network

Provider: Sprint via EV-DO
Speed: "Sprint Mobile Broadband devices operate at average download speed ranges from 400-700 Kbps with peak rates up to 2 Mbps, and at average upload speeds of 40-70 Kbps with peak rates up to 144 Kbps in Mobile Broadband (EVDO Rev 0) coverage areas. Sprint Mobile Broadband devices that are EVDO Rev A will operate at average download speed ranges from 450-800 Kbps with peak rates up to 3.1 Mbps, and at average upload speeds of 300-400 Kbps with peak rates up to 1.8 Mbps in Mobile Broadband (EVDO Rev A) coverage areas. "
Equipment: EV-DO phone or Laptop adapter, Wireless router optional
Pricing: Equipment Cost, Monthly Usage Fee (~$60)
Length of Term:  Sprint requires a 2 year contract to get any modem-only plan

Pros: If you use a cellphone already, this might be as simple as docking your phone and using it as a modem. Good speed, low latency.

Cons: Coverage is varied (they do have this service in their location), cell services do experience some connectivity issues with weather.

5. Cingular 3G / BroadbandConnect network

Provider: Cingular via HSDPA
Speed: "Average downlink data speeds of 400 to 700 kilobits per second." - "HSDPA can also potentially handle upload speeds of 384 Kbps, more than double the 153 Kbps of EV-DO (Rev 0)."
Equipment: HSDPA phone or Laptop adapter, Wireless router optional
Pricing: Equipment Cost, Monthly Usage Fee (~ $80)
Length of Term: Cingular will do month-to-month if you own equipment, or discounted equipment if you want a contract

Pros: If you use a cellphone already, this might be as simple as docking your phone and using it as a modem. Good speed, low latency.

Cons: Coverage is varied (no coverage in their location yet, although close), cell services do experience some connectivity issues with weather.

---

My recommendation:

Aside from some pretty exotic setups like T1 lines or Laser Line-of-Sight secure services, these options are what is available.

I am recommending they go with the Sprint EV-DO network as Sprint is the only cell carrier to cover their home with Broadband-like coverage and they seem to be interested in expanding options in the area. The only drawback is the 2-year contract to get the $60/month unlimited bandwidth rate.

Sprint Coverage Map (orange is Power Vision Coverage):




Cingular Coverage Map (blue is BroadbandConnect coverage):



If Cingular would improve their coverage area I would suggest they use them as my parents already use Cingular as their cellphone voice provider. When it comes to cellphone monthly usage fees, it is far cheaper to add data support to a voice plan than to sign up for a dedicated data-only plan.

Sprint offers several EV-DO PCMCIA cards that work with their service. You can also buy, make or buy a PCMCIA EV-DO / 802.11g wireless router for sharing your EV-DO data coverage with all the computers in your house. They should pick up one of these too for ~ $200.

Now maybe I can share all those great YouTube clips and crazy MySpace profiles with my parents. I bet they will love 'em.


technorati: broadband, high-speed, sprint, cingular, RF, line-of-sight, satellite

Created 131 weeks, 1 day ago

A slice of conversation between John and Lee:

John:

did u get a xmas card from me?
im hoping i got your address right.

Lee:

You sent a scout card!
Dammit!
We fell for it.


John:

perfect. just perfect.
expect the reinforcements soon.

Lee:

I should have known from the:

    Dear You Guys,
    
        Happy Holidays!
    
    Your Friends from The West.


John:

This reminds me of Empire Strikes Back and the probe and the tontons.

Lee:

tawn tawns....
    
I think.

Can't remember the spelling.

But they're all gooey and warm inside.


John:

That would make a great cake - "Tauntaun Suprise"

Lee:
    
Nice.

John:

or...even better:

it would be an Italian dinner dish.

cut it open and it is filled with some spaghetti.

Lee:

Yeah.
     
Macaroni.

John:

a pastry filled with noodles and sauce.

Lee:

And the joke is that few people will understand why it's called Tauntaun Surprise.
    
"Mmm, this is good!", they will say.
     
And they won't get why there's a Luke - Star Wars action figure hidden in it.


John:

awesome


Lee:
     
I think if you posted that idea on some Star Wars geek forum, you'd be instantly thrust into some Grand Pubaa status.


John:

eventually Tauntaun Suprise will loose its connection from the movies though...
    
Yet, years from now people will still enjoy it much like we enjoy Shepherds Pie today.

Lee:

And there will be trivia question in Trivial Pursuit... and peoples' minds will be blown when they learn the origin of this traditional american dish.

Lee:

"I always wondered, but never thought there was a real connection..."

and, "Wow! My grandmother used to make Tawntawn Surprise all the time!"

Lee: 

The Luke action figure will be swapped out for a hidden carrot stick for practical purposes and the origin will, of course, be forgotten.

John:

Im sure other vegetables will work too.

Lee:

Right... the carrot stick will be sort of a midwest modification.

In the east, it will be an asparagus.



technorati: tauntaun, star wars, food

Created 132 weeks, 1 day ago

Out of all my friends, I don't know why Jon seems to get the most birthday attention on my site. Maybe it is because his birthdays seem to be so over-the-top and planned out way ahead of time. I am sorry I missed this years bash, I bet it was great.

Happy three-ooh to you my friend and welcome to the club [from a 1 month member]. Also, check out his sweet "I am not a DJ" t-shirt you can buy from cafepress.

technorati: t-shirt, Jon Stovall

Created 134 weeks, 3 days ago

This year, we met my fathers side of the family at Disney world. One night at Disney World Magic Kingdom Park, I asked my cousin how fast she could eat cotton candy.

This is what happened:



How fast can you eat cotton candy on Vimeo



Created 135 weeks, 9 hours ago

Its a strange thing, 30. It kinda sneaked up on me, which is suprising seeing as how it has been at the back of my mind all year. After an introspective sappy 'what does all of this mean' kinda evening I am happy to say that I find myself astonished at all the stuff I have seen and done in the last 9 or 10 years (since reaching full self-awareness of course).

Most importantly I have my parents to thank for installing within me the drive to live life fully (in 1976 prices, I am sure that cost a bundle), my sister who is my original and best friend, and to all my friends and lovers for giving me the opportunity to learn, and in turn, live my life with compassion, love and companionship. Without you I wouldn't be who I am today.

Created 139 weeks, 1 day ago

So, its a very extravagant Halloween costume. Oh and it involves more than one person to operate, but it is interactive, responsive and pretty neat.



Check out HugeCamera.com to see some of the pictures it takes tonight (if everything works as planned).


Tonight, GooglePlex party and Castro Street.

And the future.... maybe we will take it to the park or the beach, who knows?

technorati: halloween,, costume,, camera

Created 139 weeks, 3 days ago

Some of yall probably known my sister Colleen from her comments on my blog. Her and my brother-in-law Jeff flew into San Francisco this weekend to visit. My sister had planned out some places to visit while they were here. After this weekend, I can now say with authority that she is the top adventure planner in the family and circle of friends.

On the first day we had not only explored Alcatraz and Fisherman's Wharf, but also had visited a few places in Chinatown (and had some great beers in that bar) and managed to watch part of a movie that night (Mirrormask - BLEH!). They got a chance to ride the MUNI to the wharf and back too.



On Sunday we had a big breakfast at Kookez, drove across the Golden Gate to Sonoma, tasted wine at two wineries and did a full tour of Benziger. We then followed that up with shopping in Sonoma and return side-trip through Downtown San Francisco (including Lombard street drive - no parrots to be seen). We finished up the day with mojitos and peruvian cuisine down in Noe Valley.



Monday was a walking breakfast down 24th, sight seeing up at Twin Peaks, down to Ocean Beach and over to Height-Ashbury. Then we zoomed down to San Jose to checkout the Winchester Mystery House. What a strange place that is. We all ate dinner together at our house on Monday night; we finally gave in to exhaustion. They left this morning after a nice breakfast at Pontes.



Plus, Jeff had a cold the whole time. Colleen, you sure can vacation!

technorati: Vacation, Sonoma, Winchester Mystery House

Created 141 weeks, 3 days ago

I don't know why but I up and fixed the old [LM] faction dossier tonight. Using the power of asp.net request handlers and regex I was able to get an old hard-coded flash movie to work (original code by Lee Fastenau) after I migrated everything to a new codebase and new site architecture. All without having to edit the flash movie.

The LM Faction site takes me back. Makes me want to fire up UT again and play some instaGib with everyone. Oh and put on the shirts we had made for the team back in the day.



technorati: LM Faction, Unreal Tournament, Flash

Created 142 weeks, 3 days ago

I went to a great party last night at Yahoo! building C for the del.icio.us 3rd birthday party. There were some famous faces there, and we met 1/2 the support staff of Flickr before we left. Thanks for the really great BBQ (it really WAS good) and beers and free t-shirts. I liked Joshua Schachter's 'thanks for coming speech'. It pretty much went: "Thanks...for coming and celebrating with us." Then everyone got back to mingling and drinking. To the point man!

Pics of the event:
http://flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/260373790/in/photostream/

technorati: del.icio.us, party, Yahoo

Created 143 weeks, 2 days ago

I flew into town in time for the party Jon hosted for Lee's new job change (Frog, in Austin).

This pretty much sums it up. I am sure someone will post pictures soon.

Created 144 weeks, 5 days ago

Someone who has a huge crush on Mighty Girl : Maggie Mason received her book No One Cares What You Had for Lunch from UPS about a week ago. It is full of tips and other blahish stuff about how to write more interesting posts on your blog. Then again, maybe it isn't, I haven't read it.

It has been sitting on the coffee table mocking me for a while now. Deep inside its binding I can feel the critical remarks about my grammer and spelling. What?! No body is interested in what bands I saw last week? Pshaw, I say! Down to Maggie Mason's Infernal Machine!

Maybe people do care what I had for lunch. Lets see.
If I am wrong (...) I pledge to read it, but if not, its business as usual lady!

If you are interested in what I had for lunch, make a comment and guess what it was that I had (no cheating, no excessive guessing). If you win.... maybe... Ill... spring for lunch for you or something (airfare not included, but a beer is, naturally).

technorati: Maggie Mason, Mighty Girl, Books, Lunch, Guess

Created 145 weeks, 2 days ago

Congrats to my long time and close friend Lee Fastenau on his new job in Austin working for Frog Design. He has accepted a position as a Senior Design Technologist and I couldn't think of a better fit for him.

He is so high level now! Where Lee uses magic and talent, I use brute strength and a fox-like wit. When we work together again, we will be unstoppable!

Here are some inspirational illustrations illustrating how I feel for him!

Created 147 weeks, 2 days ago

Well, at least one of them so far. Feast your eyes on this magnificent drawing by Jon Stovall.

view the entire set

Created 165 weeks, 3 days ago

They had a new baby boy this week.

I can't wait to see some of the pictures!

First online pic:

Created 174 weeks, 6 days ago

At 30,000 feet that I finally got to level 2 on Lee's Reflex Atari Game.

I am pretty sure all the other passengers around me on the plane were wondering where the heck to pick up a copy of this awesome new game.

Actually, Lee when you read this, could you add some difficulty settings into that game. Dang, when the reflexion gets flying around bouncing off all the reflaxinoids, even 2 paddles isn't enough.

 

Created 190 weeks, 6 days ago