AdventureMarriageJournal |
Wednesday, January 16, 2002
Time to update your bookmarks, friends. Check out what's at www.adventuremarriage.org, or at beansbeansthemagicalfruit.com for those of you averse to following links.
Tuesday, January 01, 2002
Fret not, loyal readers. I have not forsaken the cause. It's been a boring and busy couple weeks. Work has been slow and vacation time fast. Not much happening at the ol 'Soft with everybody but the mice on vacation for the last half of december. However, on those few days off afforded us of the orange badge (contractors) I managed to cram full of cooking. Perhaps so much cooking I shall never do that much again. At least, not until next year when I'm feeling ambitious again. (wait, it IS next year!). Christmas eve and Christmas day both saw much cooking. Thank god for Brian, who saved my hide by helping out bunches on Xmas day.
Today was the first paid holiday I've had since July 4th. I spent most of it putting together a replacement for blogger. Blogger's lovely, but I think I'm headed towards something less depended on somebody else's servers. Check out Noah Grey's site for an example of the software, and of his incredibly good photography. I got a lot of lovely christmas presents, including a hugely unexpected Mandoline (food chopper thing), a Stereolab CD (SoundDust, which I believe was mistakenly left off the KEXP top 90.3 list -- it's fantastic), and a whole mess of other goodies. Thanks to everybody! I also decided it was about time to sell my old Agfa 1680 and get a newer camera before the baby comes. So, I sold the Agfa (for a good price, no less) and bought a Canon G1. It's about as large and heavy as the Agfa, but produces images about 2-3 times better. So, bigger pictures of Jasper. Yay! Also, through the glory of the Micronews, I think I'll get a nice photo printer for quite cheap. Of course, it's not the printers that are expensive these days, it's the inks. So, we'll see. We (or should we say I) had quite a scare the other night after seeing the Royal Tannembaums (double + good). Marcie was obviously not feeling too well, and on the way out of the theatre she said she was having stomach cramps and needed some food. All I could think of was that this was the first sign of pre-term labor. Obviously Marcie knew a bit more about the situation than I did (it being her body and all), but I must say it really freaked me out. Fortunately, it turned out to be just what Marcie said it was, and some food cleared things up right away. Marcie's getting Jasper's room all set, and I put the crib together this weekend. We're reading up, watching videos, and doing everything we need to do to get ready for the big day(s). It all seems to be coming along well. Also, I'll be interviewing for a full time job at MS in the next week or so. Wish me luck! Wednesday, December 19, 2001
Happy aniversary to Marcie and Me. December 18th is the day that we got married in the ocean. Mellow evening, lovely meal at the Santa Fe Cafe, a cuddle, sleep. Unfortunately, my throat has been a bit sore, so I'm up at 4:00 AM and the drive on my linux machine is making noises it doesn't usually, so I'm just doing a bit of checking. Not really sleepy. But, hope to be back asleep soon. Work is fine, xmas is coming. We got our dishwasher this weekend. I also tuned up my table saw for the upcoming construction of cabinets.
Sunday, December 09, 2001
Many days later. Everything is fine, and proceeding a-pace. Not much to report, actually. We saw a movie or two, watched some TV (did you notice they swiped 24 last week? Argh!), worked some, and made some food. We had a lovely time at Sandy's Birthday Party some few days ago (a week? already?). Friday we saw new parents Brian and Tina for some yummy dinner at their house. Plus a Hanna-aria early in the evening (quite impressive) and a slide show. Sunday afternoon clean up post-walk to the light house, post lazing around in the AM. If you haven't heard me whining -- yes, my shoulder still hurts. Figured out I need new warm bike gloves this year. Bought a dishwasher last night. (Got a bosch, but cheap. Sears.com). Looked at some very fashionable and expensive tile to put on the counter top. We won't start work until after the holidays, at least until after Xmas... I think...
Shoutouts to Schoess, who sent me mail this week. Thanks Mike! Been a long time. Monday, November 26, 2001
Thanksgiving has come and gone, and we all have much to be thankful for (on this side of the keyboard at least). Trip down to Manzanita was good, we stopped overnight at Mom and dads cause the roads were too jammed up. (Thanks Mom and Dad!). They have cable. Cool. Breezed through portlandland and out to the coast. Saw G'Ma, G'Pa, Ma, Pa, Sis, Bro, and Cousin Dan. Very good T-day dinner. Bad nights sleep in a modly hotel room. The next morning Bro (Keith) hit an elk in their Golf. The seriously injured parties were the two linked above (Elk and Golf). Fortunately Keith survived with what looks like some serious difficulty shaving in the morning. See what I mean about having much to be thankful for! Hopefully a few small cuts to the hand and face are all that come of this.
We stopped and shopped a bit in Pdxland. And had lunch at Kornblatts. Oh, so good. We got a rocker/glider/recliner with an ottoman for cheap cheap cheap at ShityLiquidators -- saved us $60 in shipping, plus tested out the cargo capacity of the golf (ours, not Chris and keiths). It does great. Sunday, I cleaned the basement. Rather, I cleaned the fireplace ash clean out. The cover came off when I was vaccuming, and I was too intriguide by the wall of highly compacted ash to keep from digging. 1000 nails, a rainer beer bottle and 60 lbs of ashes later, I know. Ashes. And nails. But mostly ashes. Nick's officially living in portland, but may visit soon. Hope to see him then! Nate's getting all set up in Shanta Fe (where Shanta spends the winter) with a new house it sounds like. Must make a trip soon. Monday, November 19, 2001
Having difficulty posting. Thinking perhaps not much has happened. but, in truth, I saw the meteors Sunday morning and they were cool. Work is good. Home is good. It rained a lot today. What can I say?
Oh yeah. that's what. Wanna see what I want? I'm not stuck on buying things from amazon, but they do have this nifty service. Ok, Ok, it's mostly music I know. And it says Marcie, even though I don't think she wants any of that stuff. Hmmm. Hi Nate! Hi Nick, my soon to be gone friend! Friday, November 09, 2001
Not sure how this happened, actually, but apparently my blogger settings got changed about 3 weeks ago, preventing updates since then. Apologies for the long silence...
Monday, November 05, 2001
Is it wrong of me to find all things jasper cute?
Great weekend. Took the long ride to work on Friday, very satisfying. Rainy week, but the weather held out for a nice pedal up the hill. This week looks to be good, so maybe I'll take it more often. Saturday we made a giant breakfast, then headed off to a giant baby sale. Fortunately after finding a car seat, we decided we already had a baby and didn't need any more. We left in an hour. This leads me to reelect that parents (not all of them, mind you, and certainly not the ones reading this note) are some how self important, at least judging by their driving style. I mean, it makes perfect sense. With child in hand, you take on added importance in the world: protector of the young. Not just any young, your young. And so, you should be afforded special privileges. Such as cutting people off. You know, for safety's sake. I mean, what would have happened if they had obeyed normal traffic rules? It's hard to say, but we can assume it would not have been good. And, while you're at it, you might as well get a Very Large Car. Nice. Please file this post in the [Life Among the Breeders] category, soon to be a regular feature. Enough grousing. After baby shopping we went furniture shopping. I'll skip the first part to fulfill the no grousing rule. After that we went to Furniture Junkies, a store that Marcie knew about. After about 3 minutes of browsing and playing with Cora The Dog, we found a lovely antique, hand carved settee. We bought it. It isn't leather, it doesn't recline, but it does fit the space that our fireplace is in very well, so there you go. Pictures soon. Our curio dealer neighbor assures us it's really an antique, and places it in the 1890s. We also stopped at 1/2 price books. Way too long actually. I think I must have bought 6 or 7 cook books. Jane Brody's good seafood book, several books on chicken, and The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten, the former food writer for Vouge. Hilarious. Incredibly funny.I'd like to have his job. Here's an excerpt, not the funniest part I've read so far. Chris and Toni for a brief dinner Saturday evening, very good. Sunday we mostly puttered around the house, until 2:00 when I sprinted out the door to run errands before Brian and Tina showed up to help us transport the new Settee, take home the rest of the firewood, and make dinner with us. I made a new dish from one of the books I got: baked chicken and yams in a 3b sauce (Butter, Brown Sugar and Bourbon) with macadamia nuts. It was very good. Brian made Kashka Varnikas (sp?) (bow tie past with bulgar pilaf). Great dinner, very fun. Also, my Sis and Keith called with some news, but I'll let them tell you before I do.
Thursday, November 01, 2001
Well well well, it has been a while, now hasn't it. Here's the update.
For Halloween I had a fake bloody finger and bandage. Not a great costume, but subtly effective -- especially in the cafeteria. I got my carradice panniers for my bike. Took a long time to arrive, but they're great. I also took some time to clean my chain, lube all my lube-able greaseguard parts (hubs, headset, bottom bracket), and put a green flashing light on the front of el-bike-o. It's dark at night -- gotta stay seen. Work's been going good. I'm slowly emerging from the fog of confusion in to some semblance of technical knowledge about cellphones, and WAP provisioning in particular. I now know what PPG, SMS/C MAC, SEC, and WBXML all mean. This is very good news. I've ridden everyday except Wednesday this week. I'm taking the short bike ride most days, because it's rainy. But I'll take the longer ride at least once a week I think. Tomorrow is the longer ride day this week. Felt Jasper move for the first time earlier this week. Pretty damn cool. I lamed out on the Sterolab show. But I felt sick. Really. Made further progress in figuring out the kitchen, I think I decided not to build the cabinets myself and go w/ a builder. We got our gas stove (fireplace) installed, and have been running it every moment Marcie's been home. All in all, everything's fine and moving along well. Thursday, October 25, 2001
Oh yeah, 2nd siting of folks pissin and talking.
Also: got a good bottle of wine last night. Then, weird weird dreams all nite long. Maybe I'm not getting that wine again. Tuesday, October 23, 2001
On monday, I witnessed a guy at the urinal next to me leaving a voice mail from his cell phone while conducting, erm, other business.
Apparently I'm on the bleeding edge of cell phone culture here in the mobile devices department.
I got a pocket pc and a wireless network card at work, so I'm all set up to recieve mail while away from my desk now at work. wahoo. Toys are fun.
It's ben a good week. This morning I rode my bike in, at least part way. Caught the bus at 65th. Yesterday I rode in w/ a guy named joseph. He showed me a route through the streets of redmond & kirkland. Nice route, much better than the rainy ride in on friday. (car to Bothel, then the BGT to Marymoor park & up the 520 bike trail). The kirkland route is faster, but quite a bit steeper. Maybe I'll do it a few times a week. But even so I think I'll be riding my bike almost every day. I haven't even turned my car on in 2 weeks I think. Biking to the bus stop is easy, takes about 10 minutes.
Made a pound of chicken fat sunday night, along with a week's worth of chicken soup. Made the stock from scratch. Yummy. Saturday we saw Spearhead at the skychurch. Very, very good. First time in a long time I've seen folks actually moving at a concernt. The skychurch is an very nice venue, no smoke, excellent sound system. They seem to have tuned it well enough that I didn't actually come out feeling deaf. We got to sit in the special needs section since Marcie's got some needs these days. Very cool, off to the left side of the stage. M. Frante has a fanatastic voice and spirit. Artis the SpoonMan also seems to be able to get people moving pretty well, I was really impressed. We also saw Nate & Julie off on their road trip down to NM. Nate's got his house in the hands of a relator, and since Apex laid him off, he's got not much reason to hang out here. So Julie flew up and they're driving back. That's right, Apex laid off what seems to be most of the engineering department. Nick's out of work too. They all got severance packages and seem fairly happy about the whole thing. Unfortunately the 'goodbye apex' party and 'goodbye Nate and Julie' party happened at the same place and time, making it hard to tell one from the other. I fear we got a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing and didn't get a chance to wish N&J a propper well-wishing. Thursday, October 18, 2001
Monday, October 15, 2001
ladybug migration at my office today. Also, it's very, very warm in here.
This weekend: visited the folks and had a walk in the Nisqually Delta bird reserve. Very nice. Also good vietnamese food. Sunday: got my bike back to a ridable state with the help of the kitchen oven, the freezer, oven mits, a 10 lb sledge and a rubber mallet. Nate came by and pruned a bunch of stuff for us. I mean a BUNCH. Made lasagna for friends Derek and Michelle, stayed up way too late playing Kill Dr. Lucky. We tried to figure out Parts Unknown but the hefty rulebook proved too much for our lasagna addled minds. Saturday, October 13, 2001
Friday, October 12, 2001
For those that have been following the Bert in the bin Laden posters, this from yahoo. Apparently the image was real, and really accidental.
Sunday, October 07, 2001
Busy weekend, good weekend. Friday night we went over to Chris, Toni's and Dylans. We got to see the little Dyl-meister for a bit. Wonderful chicken and Salad from Chris. Home again home again lickety split. Saturday we made steel-cut oats (much better than rolled oats, or regular old oatmeat for my money), then I headed off to Home Despot to get an airless sprayer. The Hearts (the old home owners) were nice enough to leave a full gallon of exterior house paint in the basement, so I was able to use that with the sprayer to make short work of the side of the house. I left all the masking up so the windows didn't get wet if it rained. Thankfully it didn't. Today I removed the masking, applied more, and painted up the trim. We have an incredible amount of mildew growing on the house, I washed a bunch of it off last week, but did most of the rest of the back of the house today. Hopefully that'll improve the general household ecology a bit. So, Trim's done, siding's done. Paint's done. Yea!
Also tonite we had over a bunch of friends (Molly and Josh, Nick and Linda, and Nate) for a big sushi feast. We got waaaay too much fish at Uwajimaya, but it all turned out good in the end. Good to see everybody. Food turned out wonderful, thanks to Nate doing most of the sushi prep (and really, there's not much to sushi outside of prep, so Nate did it all pretty much). Miso soup and Edamame. A lovely weekend all in all. I was thinking today. Today we go to war... again. This is the 3rd or 4th time since I've been an adult that we've gone into this kind of war. Iraq, Kosovo, missle strikes on Afghanistan, and now air strikes on Afghanistan. Every time it feels like a new and different thing, but even with all the news coverage things seem strangely normal. Mariners playing as normal, ferries running as normal, paint drying as normal, soup cooking as normal. It's very hard to believe we're attacking another nation when things here seem so calm. But for the first time I think that it might not turn out that way in the long run. I sure hope not, but I don't doubt that there will be more attempted terror attacks in the coming weeks... if not sucessful ones. Friday, October 05, 2001
When I was younger I used to imagine working for a company that had a campus, and many buildings. Today, I work in one of 4 asymetrical stone, glass and chrome boxes that face eachother in a sea of concrete and glass. I have 2 indian office mates. I only have to go the cafeteria to hear a heated conversation in japanese. And while I'm not working for apple, I am working on things that will change the way people use computers.
I'm trying to figure out if that's good, or bad. Thursday, October 04, 2001
Everyday I wonder about the challenges to come with Jasper and how I'll meet them. I wonder more about those that are far off-ish than those that are most immediate, but I wonder about them all. I wonder how I'll deal with a teen age girl growing up, what'll happen when she goes through the too-cute stage, and everything from kid to college. People are very encouraging when they say I'll be a good dad... I buy it. But even so... parenting is a tough and often thankless job.
I wonder how I'll relate to her and the world she's growing up in. Already I've been thinking that we'll need many more phone lines, because, you know, girls talk on phones. But maybe that's me headed right into squares-ville. It might not be phones at all. I can't imagine my parents in highschool, and I can't (couldn't?) see what relevance their experience had to mine. Can I imagine what highschool will be like for Jasper? I really feel as if the world of the youth is (or seems at least) quite heavily insulated from those of the adult world... and I've never had to imagine myself as really completley on the other side... Also, the thought that my kid is growing up in this world makes me view it in a different light. I'm not yet worried about her personal safety, any more than I am about my own (I'm sure that'll change, just give me some time). But, having to explain what's happening seems like it could be a major challenge. Not that it's much different than what I grew up with (immanent nuclear destruction and a war overseas).
Another goodish day. Figured out more what I am to do. In the evening I managed to snag a carpool ride home from someone who turned out to be a friend of Kristens. Great ride, got home super fast. Unfortunately, I shut my finger right in the car door on the way out, cutting myself a nasty (wide, but not deep) gash right near the figernail of my right hand index finger. Ouch! What bad luck! Oh well.
Wednesday, October 03, 2001
So today was not quite as good as yesterday, but it was still good. Settling down into the PM role. Things are moving along pretty well. I got s pc up and running, contacted the beta group, read a bunch of training materials. All is coming along. The walk home is lovely as usual.
I don't know if I've mentioned how different it is working for The Man than it is for Mom and Pop. Really, it's stunning. The amount of planning and overhead at a large company is really, really large. I'm very impressed now (retrospect) by how quickly the smaller companies I've worked for have done their thing. Even the ones that were not clear about what they were doing were doing it quickly compared to how it's going at work. But the product is very complicated for something so physically small. I'm getting to learn more about it every day. Today I learned about OTA (over the air) XIP (execute in place) updates. Very cool, actually... Tuesday, October 02, 2001
So, as ice cube says, today was a good day. The ultrasound appointment was just like everybody said it would be (Thanks Chris, Brian and Nate) -- making it more real than it was before by a long shot. I was unprepared for just how real it makes it seem. I was guessing it wouldn't be as big a deal for me because I didn't have a lot of energy invested in the sex of Baby Jasper. Wrong. You find out a few really important things at the ultrasound... sex is one, but health of the baby is another, and that's a pretty damn big one. So here's the scoop.
When you go to get an ultrasound, they use the ultrasound scope to inspect the mother's womb and the baby itself. The Ultrasonographer (I shit you not) has a big list of features they have to see for the exam to be complete, including most of the major features of a human being (arms, legs, etc). One of the major findings of the exam is based on measurements they take of bone sizes (femur, skull diameter, etc). They use these measurements for determining the fetus's age (Jasper's age is approx 18.9 weeks according to the exam, right on schedule). They also examine the womb, cervix, placental, and umbilical cord. The scope basically shows you a 2 dimensional plane of most of the tissue straight down (out) from the head of the ultrasound device. So unlike a normal photograph you don't get a really good sense of depth of field. What you're actually seeing is the horizontal cross section of the plane, so you see a 'slice' of the whole works. The weird thing is that as they move the head, you can move through the plane bi-secting baby jasper -- so you might see the cross section of her ribs, or one leg and then the other. I was really amazed by how many different views they can generate just by moving the head of the ultrasound scope around. The scope is very sophisticated -- they can freeze the image and play back the last few seconds so they can get exactly the view they want. It's got all kinds of documentation features and measurement features. They print out images of the baby every so often (we got 5). As an option we got a video tape 'drive by' they did at the end to kind of show us the kid again. Ok, enough technical details. Here's the thing. You're seeing your baby. In real time. I mean, she's kicking, and moving around, and doing all kinds of stuff. And even though you're seeing this grainy black and white thing, it's really obvious that there's a little living creature hanging out 'in da womb'. Knowing that it's happening is not the same as seeing it happening, and seeing it happening is a Big Big deal. Also, there's the health thing. I sort of figured "well, we'll go in and get the sex figured out and that'll be great". But really, the exam has little to do with sexing the baby. They're checking for major birth defects. Marcie and I are fairly low risk, but this would have been the moment when we found out that Jasper has Downs, or a heart valve defect, or other major issues. Turns out I've got a lot of energy invested in the health of Baby J, so if there had been a major issue today I would have been a major mess. Afterwards I had to run off to work really quick, but the rest of the day I was pretty much floating around on a cloud. We have a healthy 18 week old Fetus Jasper. It's incredibly good news. I'm totally psyched. Also today: got my card key (this means I'm a real person at microsoft, I can enter buildings and what not, so it's a good thing). Goofy photo as always. I found out that there are large bike lockers (big enough to hold my whole bike I think) available at the greenlake park and ride. This is very cool because I can ride my bike down there and lock up the whole thing in a very secure weather tight box. Much better than leaving it just at the park and ride. This makes bike commuting a no brainer for most days of the week, with some longer rides thrown in every few days. The job is shaping up, I'm figuring out more and more of what I need to know. Today I managed to wrestle the ce pc to the floor, (meaning I got it to work) after a lot of false starts yesterday, which is fantastic. I drove today. Last time I hope to do that for a while. Even at 7:30 the traffic was very bad. But the weather was great. The skies were totally clear (except to the east) and I must have been able to see 10 planes or more in the air lining up for Sea-tac. It's really impressive to see them all stacked up one after another coming in for landings. As I hit I-5, I could see the moon off to the east poking through some clouds. The moon was visible but diffused by the clouds... it looked big, really big. Textured. Lovely. And, when I came home Marcie had already put together a beet salad! Yay!
So we had the Ultrasound today. 90% chance Baby Jasper is a girl. Everything looks normal, (10 fingers, 10 toes!) so that's good news. I really can't tell you how excited I am, but 'very very' goes at least part way there. I have the photos in my office and I'll post one or two when I get a chance to scan them. YAAY!
Monday, October 01, 2001
Ah, the bus. How quickly we forget how it is. Today I had to sit next to somebody on the way home. I encourage social behaviour on the bus, but as a spectator in this particular interaction, I found it rather vexing. Mr. who-I-sat-next-too spent the whole trip home flirting w/ the woman in the next seat. She was readily reciprocating, so I guess it was working out well for both of them. They discussed siblings, family relations, the home town, and then -- suddenly, without warning -- right into Ninjas and vegetarianism. The vegetarianism bit was promted by me pointing out the chickens traveling next to us in the non-carpool lane, so it was partly my fault. Was I smirking the whole trip? I think yes. But as if that weren't enough, the dudes across the isle were discussing Star Trek, The Next Generation. You know, like plot development and character detail. Wow. Riding the microsoft bus is going to be hard.
Of course, I was reading a cellphone spec, so who am I to complain. The bus ride is really only about 30 minutes. and the walk to the 65th st. Park and Ride is just about that long. Marcie drove me this morning, which was nice. It's a good walk home. This evening, as a cap to the bus events, I passed a man. He was wearing a suit, and a nice shirt. His tie was untied and disheveled. His head was shaved, and his face looked really weathered. Not as if he's spent many years in the sun working hard. Rather as if he'd spent several days in the open air, not moving. As he walked past he said 'Stella, where's Stella!?!". Was he an actor for streetcar? Hard to say. Saturday, September 29, 2001
Friday at work: good, but in the Large Organization Sense. Ryan came to get me, took me to the group admin who had a computer for me and an office (Ex-vice presiden'ts office, very large corner office, only shared w/ 1 guy). However, I have no card key, no email account, no phone. So, I spent all day harrasing folks to get my card keys and what not (You really can't do anything with out them), and reading specs on the phone. Ryan and I had a good meeting about expectation, it all sounds very good.
Today: I did more scraping on our problem wall, then washed the entire thing w/ a 30% bleach solution to get rid of the mildew, then TSP to de-gloss the paint. In the mean time, the wonderous Mr. Goldstien came over to finish off the porch work. He sanded down the 6x6 collum I cut and re-joined, making it appear as 1 single piece of wood. Shimmed the top and the joint. Toe-nailed the joint and top. Then he proceeded to re-attach the easy railing (easy as in there's only screwing to do) and the difficult railing. For the difficult railing he had to end up ripping a piece of lumber to size, which he used the table saw for. We all still have our fingers ( I have a minor bleach burn on my arm. ouch). And Even as we speak Dinner is being made. Good day. Bless the Goldstien-Ursos! Thursday, September 27, 2001
So, in the last week I've been busy. I've replaced 2 6x6 posts on the porch (badly rotton ones), including mitered cuts for the base, a 'lengthening joint", spackle, primer paint. The works. I've also scraped our water damaged wall to get it ready for washing priming and painting, which should happen next week with any luck (or this weekend). I managed to get some new cord for my bike seat. Got the bike tuned up, discovered a problem with the fork, and... get this, found a way to fix the problem with the fork. At least, I think I did.
My fork is kinda complicated. It's a suspension fork, so the steerer tube is connected to the fork via an external linkage. But you still need a tube to connect the fork to the steerer tube for stability. So, there's a tube I call the suspension tube coming out of the fork crown. It rides inside the steerer tube, and butts against the suspension spring. Wahoo. So the story is that it's press fit into the fork crown. This fitting eventually wears. Mine wore. Lightning says the fix is to send them the fork, they'll add material to the suspension tube and then machine it down to fit the fork crown again. Fair enough, only it'll take 3 weeks w/ shipping and all. Yeech. So, I found a place in seattle that will blow stainless steel onto the suspension tube and then grind it back down for me. Sound crazy? I think so. We find out tomorrow whether or not it will work. Also, I've built a prototype automotive horn for the bike. I was very worried that it'd draw so much current out of the battery as to make it useless for lighting, but after several loud tests I think I can safely say I can easily get 5-10 minutes of horn use w/o even causing the battery to show as needing recharing. Cool. Next up, making the connections permanent and water proof. Gutter cleaning and repair, what fun. Nuff said. Had a garage sale on Sunday. It was fun, but I didn't sell too much stuff. Tomorrow, I start work. Tonite, I need to cut my hair. Off to do that... see ya Friday, September 21, 2001
Aiieee! It has been a few days hasn't it?
Uh... gosh. Wednessday I went down to Oly-town with Nate to pick up his table saw. He's in town to sell his hoose, and will be here for a couple months probably. Also, dinner at Dad watsons Tuesday. Wed. evening he helped me pick up 1000 lbs of insulation plus the blowing machine and other accoutrements at Home depot. Thursday Ambrose came over in the morning and stayed until almost 4:00 getting all 1000 lbs blown into the attic. We now have R-38 to R-50 over the house, as opposed to R-25 to R-3 or so. Turns out that in 2 large areas the insulation was simply resting on planking over the rafters, meaning that in those areas the insulation was only about 2-3 inches deep at most. So, I nailed up some guides and strung up netting, then blew insulation to the appropriate depths in those area. Most of the back end of the house (bedrooms and what not) have about R-50, which is great. The unfortunate thing about insulation is that the only way you know it's working is by lower gas bills. Of course, it'd be hard for it not to work (it's not like it has to actually DO anything besides hang around), but it'd be nice if like new tires, you got an immediate sense that it was doing good. Also, I got new tires. I have never bothered to rotate the tires on the Saab, so the rear tires are in great shape, but the front tires have suffered from several punctures and slow leaks over the last 4 months or so. Since I've driven about 1000 miles during that time (or less... hardly driving it at all!), it hasn't been a big deal, but tuesday I went to go out and the front right was totally flat. So, new tires. They feel good. Also, I took down the rotting posts on the trellis. I did a lot of work to patch one of them up, and then realized that new posts would cost about $15 each and take much less time. I'm doing that instead. I'll still find a way to use the 6x6s I'm sure, but better to get stuff taken care of now. Also, I installed 4 more roof vents on the (wait for it... wait for it... ) roof to bring me up to adiquate roof ventilation. The current roof is about 10 years old, I'd like to get another 5 out of it if possible... that'd be nice. Also: (Ok, I am guilty of hiding the big news, I know). I got a job. Ryan has had me come in and interview a couple times over the last few weeks, and apparently I did OK. This week I spent researching contract houses and negotiating with the winner. I start some time early next week. Wahoo! The job is a Program Manager position working on MSFT's cellular products, mostly dealing with interfacing between the product group and the carriers who will eventually sell the phone. The position is contract, and should last 4-6 months or so. Friday, September 14, 2001
To Do Today:
Fix up bike (fenders, seat lacing, arrange for tuneup) Get Verba 1.4.1 up locally, file some bugs clean fridge exterior add some roof vents, insulation baffles get ready to insulate see TPL (aka Devil Bunny) for lunch Thursday, September 13, 2001
On another note, more and more people seem to be blindly targeting people from the same religious or ethnic groups as the terrorists. I must say, this makes me sick.
By attacking a U.S. Citizen you're almost certainly attacking somebody who's innocent. What do you think you're accomplishing? Do you suppose that by harassing the grocery store owner down the street you're averting racism? Do you think you're making the world a better place? I think I know what you're doing. You're doing your anger. Right out there on those people who you think need to hear it (they all look alike, don't they?). I hear ya. You're angry. You're angry for a lot of reasons. And you've got ever right to be angry. You do not have every right to attack innocent people though. So stop. You degrade our civilization by doing so. If you're so mad that you think you need to hurt some one to make it better it's time to get some help with your thinking and feelings. Find somebody who you can trust, who will listen to you without interrupting for a good long time, and who won't pass judgment (positive or negative) on what you're saying. Then spill it. Maybe it sounds hard. So, be brave. But do it.
It seems more and more probable (could it be more probable?) that we will engage in a sustained military campaign against either "those responsible" or "terrorism". It's not really clear what the mechanism will be -- will this be a war like the war on drugs? Like the war on poverty? Or will it be a war like the gulf war?
I think a lot of people are still thinking that this will me the intentional death (aka assasination) of Osama Bin Laden. Possibly, but I really don't think that will do much. One head of the hydra doesn't win you much. And certianly such a small strike can't satisfy the war machine that is rolling by now. I'm not really clear how I feel about it. War means innocent people die, and die as a knowing consequence of the effort. Dresden. Nagasaki. I think what war means (practically) is that one nation applies the pressure of actually harming the soliders and civilians of another in an attempt to pressure the leaders of it to do what they want. In this case, it's not so simple as putting pressure on the leadership -- perhaps the leadership doesn't influence the terrorists we're after? I guess ultimately the goal of the military effort will be to force the leaders of the world (politically or militarily if necessary) to acknowledge that harboring terrorists is against their better interests and to act against them when detected. Question set 1 for your homework: Anyway, the real question is how do I feel about this. Is it justifiable to endorse attacks that will undoubtably result in the deaths of innocent citizens (lots of innocent citizens) in the defense of our national security? I'm not sure it is, but I'm also not sure what else will do the trick. Question set 2 for your homework: How many armed forces casulties are you willing to suffer to ensure this does not happen again?
Things not much different today, with the notable exception of the occasional noise of plane flight overhead. I've spent much of the day cruising the news. Found a few incredible things, This report that they found the cockpit of one of the planes, and bodies in it. Also these photos taken by somebody escapaing the tower.
Interview at Msft yesterday, I think it went well. I don't expect to hear back until next week. Tuesday, September 11, 2001
So I woke up this morning. Checked MSNBC. I thought for sure it'd been hacked. That must have been just about the time the 2nd tower was collapsing, and I really don't recall the headlines well, but I'm sure it said both towers were in flames and perhaps that one had collapsed.
I have had vivid dreams before, vivid bad dreams, but nothing compares to the real thing. I didn't feel as if I was dreaming, but I didn't feel as if it could actually be happening. It really took a few minutes of looking around (mostly at metafilter) before I was convinced that the world trade center and pentagon were attacked and on fire. MSNBC was swamped, and metafilter was under pretty heavy load, but I managed to get a page up on what is now a 400+ comment page. Mefi was my main source of news.... time to donate... Anyway, I told Marcie what was happening when she got up. I used MSN Messenger to chat w/ Nate, Chris, Kristen, Jen and Nick. Everybody was freaked out by it. I had a lot of thoughts. Initially I thought for sure it was terrorism (probably influenced by the headlines on MSNBC), but after a while I started to think it was a much bigger attack than it turned out to be. I was imagining 10 or more suicide planes in the air, plus car bombs. I thought (and still have a niggling fear) about other kinds of weapons on the planes (bombs as well as jet fuel, chemical or biological weapons). I thought more targets would be hit (white house, the capital) and briefly flirted with the idea that more cities would be targeted. I still don't think I can capture the horror of the whole event in my mind at one time. Here they are one by one:
Who would suspect that if your plane was taken over by dudes w/ knives that you'd be in incredibly bad danger? I mean, airplane taken over is bad, yes. But, on a scale of bad, I'd think airplane taken over by bomb wearing maniac rates higher than knife wielding maniac. Apparently not so. This reminds me of a story by Larry Niven I think, "The Deadlier Weapon", in which a guy car jacks some other guy -- dude driving the car manages to scare the car jacker so badly that he hands over his wallet before exiting because dude driving is threatening to crash into cement poles. So, you're plane is taken over by 4 guys (my speculation) with knives. Do you roust the crowd and take them, or decide to wait for the delta team to board the plane with their fancy guns and take them out? Uh... wait? You probably don't know until the last few minutes, maybe never, that you're headed straight into one of the tallest buildings in the world. Ok. So this one is fairly obvious. Most passengers probably didn't know. How would they? I seem to recall this scene from a movie somewhere, but it's really happened now, hasn't it? I think you must just give up. Ok, so the building you're in is now on fire, and has just absorbed a giant airplane. This would freak me out. I mean, really freak me out. Probably the 19,999 other people in the building at the same time would also be freaked out. But I imagine I'd still think I was going to live. erp. One of the photographer summed it up nicely when the 1st tower collapsed "Holy Fucking Jesus". I'm starting to run out of words here. (loss for words) (did I mention loss for words?) (ditto) Can you even imagine having to make that decision? Who knows for sure if this is what happened, but the way I imagine it, hijackers stab the pilot, then get called back outside the cockpit to deal w/ the passengers or crew, and Ms. Pilot (left for dead), takes the plane off autopilot, throttles up and locks the plane into a dive. She must have had information about the hijackers and their intentions, enough to make her take drastic actions. Heroic and sacrificial. Maybe that's not what happened, perhaps the hijackers simply crashed the plane after being surrounded by military aircraft, guess we'll find out soon. Uh... did I get them all? It's completely disgusting. It's not quite terrifying, much more horrifying. We should call it horrorism. Many people were saying Perl Harbor, which says to me World War. It's hard to imagine being at war w/ an invisible opponent, but it doesn't seem unbelievable right now. Most of the morning I felt resigned and helpless. Not in immanent danger, but helpless in the sense of being unable to help. I sent out a note to Giganto asking folks to consider giving blood even though it won't help those in NYC right away. I also posted an anti-racism link on the front page of Metafilter. These things made me feel a bit better, but still, I'm quite shocked. We spent the whole day watching the TV, and making the most incredible desert (SvetchkenKnoodle, an Austrian treat). I can't even really contemplate what the "right" thing to do in this circumstance is. Sure, make it harder (MUCH harder) to hijack planes. But what else? I imagine military retaliation is inevitable, and maybe even right. (I do want the people who did this to know that it's not worth it. And I mean Really, REALLY not worth it. The kind of Not Worth It you get when you prod a sleeping bear with a stick). But what does this mean for the U.S. as a nation? Reduced freedoms? Increased racism? Nationalism? Isolationism? None of those seem unlikely. Could this really push us over into war? It's been a long peaceful spell. There's a chance that there are some major reforms in airline security and a major military effort, and not much else. Perhaps a new international alliance on terrorism. That sounds good. But there's also a chance that we descend into a much less free life style in the U.S. Or that we spark off a major conflict. Or that this deepens and worsens our already bad economy. Or that we nuke some mid-eastern country. I certainly hope not. Monday, September 10, 2001
Back from Molly and Josh's wedding, plus a few days in the great state of New Mexico w/ Nate and Julie, Chris and Toni and Dylan. Wedding was great, hanging was fun. Picksures soon
Tuesday, September 04, 2001
Well, many things to say.
Click2Learn -- looks like the deal is off. Too bad, I would have been a great asset there I think. However, looks like things are becoming more possible at microsoft. Not a sure deal yet, won't find out until this time next week, but at least I'm going back for a 2nd interview! Last weekend: trip to the coast to celebrate the anniversary of the wedding ceremony for me and The Pregnant Lady. Very nice. I-5 down, a stop at Kornblatts for lunch, then out to the beach. We met my folks there for the weekend. A lovely dinner at the BlueSky, then a hike the following day (just Dad and I) up Mt. Neahkanie. A bit of antiquing (I found an ancient and well used camp-fire powered egg-poacher for use in making thai deserts!), a nap or two, walks on the beach. A lovely time all in all. Trip back was up through Astoria, to a collection of towns in inner coastal Washington. Very nice driving, shorter than the I-5 trip (miles), but a bit more time consuming (hours). Well worth it. Stopped off at Chris and Toni's to scare Dylan with my deep voice (I didn't know it was quite so deep!). Saw Ryan, Sandy and Kristen. Then off to the Spaghetti Factory for a very cheap ending to our little date. Today: Interview at the Soft, seemed to go quickly. Not sure if that's good or bad. Tomorrow, off to see the bomb as well as Mosh and Jolly get married. The 7 of us (Me, TPL, Chris, Toni, Dylan, Nate and Julie) will be sharing living quarters for a few days. Should be interesting at the very least. With any luck, I should have some photos up for you in a few moments... Thursday, August 30, 2001
Started at 10:00 Am
Finished at 4:15 Pm. I think that means they link me. Also, got lunch out of the deal. Cool. The interview went well. And, I got compliments on the suit!
Showered: check
shaved: check dry cleaned clothes: check brushed up on interview techniques, automated testing, test management, anything else I can think of: check nervous: check Ok -- that's it. I'm off to interview. Wednesday, August 22, 2001
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