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Happy 2006 Winter Solstice!
- To: robert-friends
- Subject: Happy 2006 Winter Solstice!
- From: http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert (Robert)
- Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2006 21:38:54 -0800
Happy Winter Solstice!
Here is my latest contact information:
Robert
.
where-I-live
my-Oakland-voicemail-number (voicemail)
our-San-Jose-phone-number
our-Oakland-cell-phone-number (cell)
http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert
My solstice update is below.
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News
Lifestyle
* Careers
* That was short-lived. After 8 months of full-time employment,
So_ny restructured my group out of existence -- only my
second lay-off ever (I expect there to be many more).
* Plop down into another position. Within days of finding out that So_ny
was laying me off, a recruiter contacted me about a software engineering
position at Tell_me. As some of you may know, I have always been
interested in speech recognition technology and been keen about Tell_me.
I enthusiastically interviewed there and got the position -- I was
unemployed for just 5 days.
* Home
* You're warmer. We had our house-warming in May, several months
after moving to where-I-live. It was actually a BBQ. It wasn't that
hot and all had a good time.
* It was never this hard. The water, that is. Slowly, over several
months, the dishwasher left more and more detritus on the glasses
and plates, leaving a white glaze. It's pretty annoying. The
hardness of the water also explains the white splotches on the
ground in the backyard.
* Renters not immune. In April, we discovered that the toilet was
leaking and managed to destroy the bathroom floor. It had to be
completely ripped out and rebuilt. We were without a bathroom for
several weeks. We were "lucky" because our manager was out of town
during this period and we could use his bathroom. It was a real
drag, especially when your bladder filled in the middle of the
night. It made us realize how inconvenient life will be after a
major earthquake.
* Transportation
* Commuting
* No views of mountains. My new commute takes me to Mountain View
and is a much longer commute. I commute either via light rail,
which in total is a little over 1 hour, or via Caltrain, which in
total is a little under 1 hour. (I must ride my bicycle when
taking Caltrain, so I get some exercise as well.) The upside of
my longer commute is that my magazine collection has actually been
shrinking because I finally have time to read!
* Bicycle
* Had just about enough. I was getting sick to death of having to
repair the tires on Noelle's old Peugeot bicycle, which I was
using on my commute, and invested in a new bicycle. I bought a
Trek 7300 "commuter" bicycle, women's frame. It's definitely the
best bicycle I've owned thus far. It's comfortable and a pleasure
to ride. It also seems to be more robust than the Peugeot -- the
tire rim has not yet dented despite encountering several obstacles.
* Critical mass still not yet reached. where-I-live does now have a
Critical Mass bicycle ride, but, unless I take some time off from
work, it's so far from my workplace that it's unlikely that I'll
ever make it.
* Like the energizer bunny. My old 1990 Trek mountain bike
continues to live. I had bought a chain for this bicycle a few
years ago, but only got to installing it at the end of summer. It
will now a happy bike and, amazingly, the click has finally gone
away! Unlike my PCs (see Technology section below), I'm loathe to
get this of this bike because of all the customizations I've made
to it over the years and the unreplaceability of many of the
accessories.
* There's strength in a union. I attended a Silicon Valley Bicycle
Coalition meeting. I wanted to attend this particular meeting
because a lawyer made a presentation covering bicycling and the
law. It's sort of a drag to go there because the only way to get
back is via Caltrain. But, the regular meetings are only about 3
miles from my work. I may go again some time.
* Buses
* Travel
* A small town visit. Compared with where-I-live, Portland is a tiny
city. But, it does have the advantage of density. Noelle and I
visited Portland in late April; we stayed at a hotel convenient to
downtown cafes, shops, stores, and culture. We mostly hung out with
Noelle's friend. One day, we rented bicycles and biked all over the
place. It was great fun. There are a lot of vegetarian places
there; yum! Portland is a great city.
* A water-filled desert. Mono Lake is basically a dessert to the east
of Yosemite. We signed up for a tour of the Mono Lake area lead by
a naturalist/botanist (http://www.footlooseforays.com). (See
clothing section below.) It was challenging. I was always out of
breath and the thinner high-altitude air didn't help. The hikes
were always in morning and we got the afternoons off. The pattern
was
eat an oatmeal breakfast at a local diner
hike there
eat a light
lunch hike
back go to the motel
collapse and take a nap
eat dinner somewhere
The "dinner" part was also challenging. There were few places with
vegan options; I brought my own food, but that was probably
unnecessary since there were a couple of markets where I could've
picked something up. If you want to see photos of the trip, surf
over to http://photos.yahoo.com/noelle .
* I'll have Morro that. On the way back from Christmas vacation last
year, we rented a hottub at Sycamore Hot Springs in Avila Beach.
After that, we stayed in Morro Bay. It was mostly cloudy and
frequently cool in Morro Bay, but was fun. We had brought our
bicycles down and we biked to Morro Rock from our motel. We saw an
otter floating around, eating fish. It was a nice little town.
Although we didn't get to try it, they had a bus system where you
dial a number and ask to be picked up. I don't understand why even
big cities don't have a system like that.
* Food
* Acquaintances, mostly. We've been going to more and more
southbayveggies events and they finally recognize me and Noelle and
we them. Friendships haven't yet arrived, 'though.
* More small donkeys. Noelle and I have reviewed many burrito places
(under the name "robertb") on http://burritophile.com this year.
* Too old for the floor. Noelle and I held a dinner party in fall.
Because we still don't have enough table space nor chairs, everyone
sat on the floor. I was sore after this and I think others were,
too. I believe we're getting too old for the floor. We'll probably
invest in some folding tables and chairs. In any case, we offered
Thai and Indian vegetarian food. At least, the food was unique and
came out well.
* People
* Missing persons. Last solstice message, some messages bounced. I no
longer have email addresses for these people:
Louis Dunne
Michael Teixeira
Marc Berkowitz
Clayton Glad
Mike Hamrick
Jin Young
Dave Parker
Louise Zivnuska
If you're in contact with any of these people, please tell them that
I am missing their email addresses.
* Health
* RSI
* Exercise
* Sorta ended with a wimper. The bi-weekly Bhangra dance classes
that a guy at So_ny was sponsoring never became very popular. In
the end, it just was me and the sponsoring person. Oh, well. So
much for my "dance career"...
* Never broke the chain. I was commuting to my gym via bus for a
while, but happily Bally Fitness expanded to a location in
downtown where-I-live, about 1.25 miles away. Very convenient.
* Clothing
* Birks won't cut it. I had to give in and buy leather shoes for the
first time in years. I had to buy hiking boots for our Mono Lake
trip, and I refused to buy another pair of uncomfortable boots. (My
leatherless Doc Martens kill my feet each time I wear them.
Unfortunately, my selection of rain-protective shoes are limited.)
I decided to buy some Birkenstock hiking boots. Despite their
excessive cost (don't ask), they are quite comfortable and had no
problem wearing them all day. I was very relieved.
Entertainment
* Movies
* Moving to Web 2.0, or maybe Web part deux? I put up movies which
are not in MovieLens (http://movielens.umn.edu) on
http://wikilens.org/wiki.php/robertb/MovieRatings?show_rated_by_active=0
My Movielens ratings of recent movies continue to be at
http://tinyurl.com/3xxea .
* Cinequest. There are just a few movie theaters in where-I-live and
only 1 downtown. So, when we found out about Cinequest 2006, we
leaped at the opportunity to see a few movies. It was hard to
determine what might be good and what wouldn't (I tried looking on
http://imdb.com for reviews), but I think our selections were good.
* Even better than MST3K. Noelle and I have been trying
http://rifftrax.com . It's the same guys from Mystery Science
Theater 3000 commenting on movies, but instead of the commentary
coming with the film, you download an MP3 file and play it
synchronously with the movie. (We rent the movies from Netflix.)
Because they can make fun of mainstream movies, it can be very
humorous. If you'd like to keep track of the Rifftraxs we've tried,
check out http://wikilens.org/wiki.php/Rifftrax .
* Music
* Taiko means drum. Noelle enrolled me in a Japanese Taiko drumming
workshop for my birthday. (The distance in time between my birthday
and the workshop, however, was great. The workshop was in early
December and my birthday is early in the year.) It was very
interesting and fun, but it takes a toll on one's body -- my
shoulders and hands were sore. Unfortunately, all the classes have
waiting lists (this workshop did, hence the late date). I may or
may not take a Sunday morning class, I haven't decided.
* Television
* Can't break the Netflix dependency. Because the TV stations here
are so weak (in all senses) and we do not desire cable, we still
depend upon Netflix to view TV programs. Which is isn't so bad --
it's like a very slow TiVo. We're completely caught up on all
Mystery Science Theater 3000s released. We'll soon be caught up on
Scrubs. We're waiting for the next season of Foyle's War and
(sadly) the last season Monk. You can always see my Netflix queue at
http://tinyurl.com/qu8lj . If you'd like to be a Netflix Friend,
drop me a line.
* Radio
* Not quite becoming a pod. We've been subscribing to a number of
podcasts via iTunes on Noelle's computer. It's really great. It's
radio listening in overdrive time-shifting. (I also listen to
technology podcasts at work; or, at least, I try to. It's been busy
at work these last 2 months and it's hard to find any free time to
immerse myself. I also managed to pipe text blogs into
http://feed2podcast.com and listen to that. I can "read" blogs
while I'm doing other things.)
* Spoken word
* The only loud mimes. We saw the SF Mime Troupe's "Godfellas" in
Mitchell Park in Palo Alto with Noelle's dad. We drank wine and ate
an afternoon supper. It was fun and interesting. I guess even the
south bay has culture.
Politics/Society
* Ecology/Environment
* Overpopulation
* Good exercise, besides. Noelle and I volunteered for Mar Monte
Planned Parenthood (our local south bay chapter) to pamphlet
against proposition 85 (teen parental notification) in a where-I-live
neighborhood. We figured that we walked 4.5 miles. We were
exhausted after that. And, unfortunately, a lot of people in San
just didn't bother to vote, so it ultimately probably made
only a tiny difference. (Proposition 85 thankfully failed, BTW.)
* Voting/Elections
* The good guys lost early. Whether it was the where-I-live mayoral
election or our city council, the ones I voted for were well off the
map. We were left with a bunch of lesser-of-two-evils. Very sad.
Technology
* Software
* PC
* Linux
* Valley geek. I've been starting to go to the Silicon Valley
Linux Users Group. It's monthly, but I only go occassionally
since my job keeps me busy these days.
* Sarge. I upgraded from Debian Woody to Sarge on my main 233Mhz
machine. It was a pain because I had made many customizations
over the years and my symbolic link in the /lib directory caused
me much grief. I hope I will not have to go through that
nonsense again, and future upgrades will go smoothly as long as
this PC continues to live...
* Windows
* Cute as a fox. I finally made to move to Firefox from Internet
Explorer. I figured since Microsoft is no longer supporting my
Windows 98, it would be safer to use Firefox. It seems like PCs
just won't die, but I'll have to keep using my old technology.
Oh, well.
* Mac
* Freaking out. We played CDs in Noelle's Mac at one of our dinner
parties. At one point, Noelle stuck in a CD and it refused to
play nor eject. I hard-reset the Mac and after that it couldn't
boot. All the standard Apple utilities to repair the hard drive
did nothing. I ended up having to buy Diskwarrior and it fixed it
right up. I was afraid I'd have to bring the machine back to
Fry's and have them reformat the machine and I'd have to reinstall
all the software. I was busy at work at the time and just
couldn't afford the time. I'm glad it was resolved.
* Our main printing machine. I configured the Mac to be our main
printing machine, but it only works marginally. The problem is
that Apple decided not to provide full support for this HP
printer. So, we sometimes have to wait 15 minutes before a page
pops out. It's a conspiracy.