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| Wednesday, November 1st, 2006 | | 10:15 pm |
Fives
In a blatant rip-off of Merlin Mann's excellent website 5ives, I give you: Five things I though were super cool as a kid, but not so sure about now: 1. Calculator Watches 2. Andy from WKRP 3. Walking with a limp 4. Post-apocalyptic Survival 5. Staying up all night And 5 things I thought were super cool as a kid, which are still super cool: 1. Ben Saari 2. Wheelies 3. Neuromancer 4. Jonny Fever from WKRP 5. Breakdancing Current Mood:  stressedCurrent Music: Beethoven's 9th | | Wednesday, October 11th, 2006 | | 2:10 pm |
Screw this. I'm going plyboo.
Email from today: M: Let's do something Differnt. let's become bohemian furniture designers and build things out of this: http://www.plyboo.com/neo.htmlMe: Dude. Totally. Can I grow odd shaped facial hair, like a goatee in the shape of a question mark? M: well of course you can. and we can say...we work in plyboo...primarily in plyboo. and then you can cock your eyebrow and stroke your goatee and i can nod. And that, my friends, is why I love her. | | 10:03 am |
On Monday I picked up my VFR, it's a lovely '98 with a Remus CF pipe. The PO took immaculate care of it, and while it has 28k, it still looks brand new (there are still paint daubs on all the banjo bolts!). I haven't had a decent street bike in almost a decade and riding the VFR home on Monday gave me a sense of how different modern street bikes are from my tired, beat-up transalp. Not to slag the TA, but they are very different machines. My riding technique does not translate well to the new bike, so I've been looking forward to spending some quality time in the saddle and relearning how to ride. I woke up at 5:30 this morning. Not that I wanted too, but I figured if I was up I could take the long way to work, and get to know the VFR a little better. My plan was head west from Santa Rosa to Occidental, then south via Freestone and Valley Ford to Petaluma. It was cold (44 deg), foggy, and dark. Sorry it's a fuzzy shot, but it was very very dark and I couldn't even see through the viewfinder.  Head out west along Sebastopol Road, letting the bike warm up and the cold air blowing out the last of my sleepiness. It's dark and these roads are pretty empty with everyone using bigger arterials to get to work. Turn onto Occidental Road and start wicking up the pace. A few miles west of Santa Rosa and the fog decends. Thankfully I know these roads well, but I drop my speed and fall in behind a car heading my way. Occidental Road is pretty torn up in places (something I didn't really notice on the TA ) and the bobbing up/down of the car's taillights give me enough warning to pull back from the tank a little. The fog is staying pretty low this morning, so the visbility is much better up on the ridge above Occidental.  The bike is responding well too. It's fully warmed up now, and the bark from the can, and solid handling bring a smile to my face.  October in Sonoma County is a transition month. The leaves are just starting to turn colors, and the mornings are often cool and foggy, but temperatures can easily get into the mid 70's during the day. Early October doesn't have the bite of November or December. Wood smoke is still a rare smell so far.  Traffic is almost non-existent at this time, but I keep my pace slow. I'm still learning the bike, and the roads are damp. The VFRs headlights are a damn sight better than my TA's Acerbis 'light.' I had pretty much stopped riding at night because I couldn't see anything. This ride brings me back to my early days riding (@ 15 on a Vespa) when I would wake up before dawn so I could ride in a big 25 mile loop before going to school or work. It was rides like that, that turned me into a life-long devotee. I think the VFR is going to rekindle a lot of what I loved about motorcycles. I'll save the TA for fireroads and trails.  I come down off the ridge and into Occidental. As I'm coasting through town, I see that the Union Hotel Cafe is open, so of course I need to whip in for some coffee. The sun is really starting to light up the sky now, and by the time I get out of Occidental I don't need my headlights to see the road anymore.  Unfortunately, by the time I make it to Bohemian Highway, the coastal fog has settled in for good and I spend the next 30 minutes looking at this:  the only variation come from the dark shapes that coalesce as Eucalyptus or Monterey Pines as I pass under them. I'm very glad I know this road, the visibility is atrocious, and few of the corners are marked. Traffic has started to pick up and I'm repeatedly passed by Hay and Manure trucks going the other way. The smell of cattle and manure is powerful in the fog. Valley Ford in the fog:  I cruise along Bodega Highway wiping my visor about every 10 seconds. I'm getting cold now, but mainly in my extremities. The last 10 miles seem long as my hands and shins get to the cold-burny-throb stage. In order to think about something other than my fingers, I start listing off my first impressions and going over what I need to change: I wish I could angle the clutch/brake levers further down as the stock position aggrevates my pre-carpal/rsi issues in my wrist. I may have to go after the tabs on the master cylinders and get bar risers. At freeway speeds the wind noise in my helmet is much worse than on my essentially naked TA. If I sit up as straight as possible I can lift my helmet out of the noise, but then my arms are locked and I can't maintain that position for long. New windscreen then. A new seat is probably in order too, if I ever plan to do serious mileage. The stocker is actually better than any other stock seat I've had (bar my old VF500), but it's a bit hard after an hour or so and too grippy. I find I have to recalibrate my throttle hand. The VFR's FI and response is much faster and more sensitive than the TA's carbs. Of course the V-4 also responds much faster to revs than the TA's twin. At low-medium speeds (up to about 50 mph) the TA is easier and a tad comfortable (especially in the tight stuff) but the VFR is not bad. And it makes up for any shortcomings at lower speeds with it's awesome sound. Anything above 50, though and it's all VFR, all the time. The way it can cruise at 70-80 is one of the major reasons I bought it. Simply brilliant. After seemingly endless fog and murk, I was hoping that Petaluma would be clear so I could at last see (and feel) some sun before heading into my windowless office for the day. Sadly this is as close as I got:  And less than a minute later I was back in a fog bank again. But 5 minutes after that I was at work. I will have to start getting up early more often. | | Thursday, September 21st, 2006 | | 9:13 am |
I can't believe it.
Last night I'm watching some tv with meredith, it's late and we decide to turn it off and go to bed. As we are lying down, we keep thinking we hear a strange noise outside, so I get up and slip outside to investigate. It's coming from just outside our fence and it's an odd noise, like a shuffling sound and something keeps moving the branches of our wisteria right in front of my car. Naturally I sneak up to the fence and peak over and what do I find? Two people having sex on the front of my car! Well, in front of my car anyway. The woman has her hands on my hood to steady herself. I blurt out "What the fuck are you doing?!" though it's really pretty clear exactly what the fuck they are doing. Before I've even finished my sentence they are...disengaged and running down the street. Come on people. Let's show a little respect. Use the bushes next time. Of course this whole thing left M and I to wonder: Hooker? Strange public-sex-on-someone-else's-car fetish? Simply poor judgement? | | Monday, August 14th, 2006 | | 2:41 pm |
Birthday party!
Hey (to the 4 people that read this), We're having a birthday party for Sylvan and myself on Sat 8/26. 3pm-ish, bbq. Please come! | | Wednesday, July 26th, 2006 | | 2:12 pm |
Home hunt part...um something..2? yeah. part 2.
Meredith and I have become the archetypical house hunter characters that you often meet at parties. You know the type, the ones who are always prattling on about house prices, neighborhoods, and completely facinated by anyone else's house buying stories. And the transformation happened so quickly. Just two Sunday afternoons driving around looking for open houses. Sigh. Yesterday we rose to the next level. I spoke to a realtor. Clark Rosen. He's my friend's dad, and in one conversation I knew he was the guy I'd like to work with. Not even to mention the past history we share, and the general 'good, honest, stand up guy' qualities I know he has in spades, but his friendly, knowledgable, cheerful demenor. I never felt like he was applying to be my realtor (which was a first from all the other realtors I've met over the past two Sundays). Today we actually made an appointment to see a house. Luckily it was not *the one*. It was one of the first three bedrooms in our price range that wasn't a condo. On the other hand it was a bit too much of a fixer upper. It had all the classic styling faux pas. Astroturf on the front steps, wood paneling, and that lovely 70's two-layer shag carpet. The yard was red lava rock in the front, and dead and sunbaked in the back. It had originally been a 1920's cute bungalow with a full width porch, but the late 60's remodel had undone most of the great details you normally find in such a place. In order to update it to something I'd like to come home to would require a complete, stem-to-stern interior remodeling. And all that for only $500,000. Ah Bay Area real estate. Now the realtor who was showing us the 'diamond in the rough' knew of another house being sold by it's owner nearby that was the same price but was 'ready to go' in his words. And, almost unbelievably, he was exactly right. It was perfect. 3 bedrooms, hard wood floors (freshly refinished!), new paint all around (good colors), nice, if unedible landscaping, fire place, great kitchen with a classic wedgewood stove, garage with painted/sealed concrete floors, the list goes on and on. Meredith was practically beside herself with house-desire. If we had been in a position to make an offer she would've signed any paper necessary. It would've been a done deal. Double-sigh. By the time we get our collective financial house in order, I'm willing to bet that this particular gem will be gone. Anybody who's looking in that price range will immediately see what a good buy this place is. Which, in true house-buying-twit fasion, is why I won't tell anybody where it is. Just in case. | | 2:11 pm |
Homes and Gardens
I want to buy a house. It's been a vague want for a loooong time. Like finishing college, and getting a 'real' job. Now that those two things are checked off, house buying is presumably next. Note, this comes from a different list than my other vague wants, such as driving a rocket-car, the ability to sing opera and breakdance (albeit not necessarily at the same time). The thing of it is, that I know very little about buying a house, other than there's a lot to know. Many of my friends now own houses (even Chairmen Ben!) and their advice is all over the map, from "if I'd known how easy it was, I would've bought much sooner" to "it's the most nerve-wracking thing ever." Now there are some hurdles to get over, not limited to house prices in the North Bay, to my credit not being as stellar as I could hope. But I think it's possible, and with the market cooling down a bit, probably a good time to start looking. Of course the problem with looking is finding something that you love before you are in a position to buy. But that's bound to happen. Ideally we'd like to find a house in our current neighborhood (cheap and cheerful!) with a decent sized lot. But frankly almost anything with a decent roof and a good foundation and garden potential will have our interest. I keep dreaming of landscaping and a garage with a concrete floor (something I've not had the pleasure of since I was 18). The house in the above link, already has us envisioning how we'd remodel it, and what we'd do with the yard. But that's putting the cart before the horse. In reality I'd like to buy into something in the next two years. That would give me some time to clean up my credit, get together some semblence of a down payment and school myself on all the ins and outs of real estate. Stay tuned! | | 2:10 pm |
Email Encryption. It's easy and important.
Email, as you may know, is a completely insecure form of communication. It has been likened to a postcard, in that anybody who wants to read it can without almost any effort. The analogy is good, but it would be more accurate to say it's a postcard that is delivered not by the postal service but by randomly handing it to a guy on the street and asking them to pass it to the next person they see heading east (and on and on it goes from one random person to the next until it arrives at it's intended destination). And as my life is increasingly involved on-line (calendars, to-do lists, reference materials, shopping, etc) I've started doing some serious thinking about how vulnerable much of that data is. Granted, with most things I have little control over 'my' data held in banking computers, or goverment laptops (SSU comprimised thousands of it's students SSNs last year), I do have some control over some things. My email is one of them, and it's probably the least secure method of communication I have. Encryption is a toddle, and on a philisophical level I feel it's critical that everyone becomes aware of the issue, and starts using encryption. It's not that I feel that my forwarded funny cat videos from youtube are critical to keep secret, and I'm smarter than to put anything important like SSNs or credit card numbers in an email, but with my email unsecure, there is no way to be sure that email you recieve from is actually from me. It doesn't take much to 'spoof' someones email account, and then the cracker is able to siphon all my emails without my knowledge. So the easy thing to do is encrypt my mail (and thus move away from gmail). Encrypting email is really quite easy (especially after you set it up). I use a combination of free tools on my mac that integrates nicely into Apple's default Mail app. It's the open-source variant of PGP, called GnuPG. It's a very good, respected, encryption scheme that relies on "public-key cryptography." Here's how it works: I make two different keys, one public, and one private. I put the public one where anyone can get it, and keep the private one...well..private. Then if you want to send me a message you use my public key and encrypt the message. When I get it, I can decrypt it with my private key. Think of it like your voicemail: your phone number is your public key. I can leave you a message using your phone number (public key). When you call in to your voicemail system, you enter a number that allows you to hear your messages (the private key). I can't hear your messages, but anyone can leave one. Got it? If not, let me know or google PGP, or public-key encryption. There's volumes on the 'net about it. These encryption tools also allow you to encrypt files on your hard-drive (or your whole hard-drive!) and 'watermark' any message so that anyone who receives your message can verify it really came from you. So, any message you recieve from me should start containing something that looks like: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The message would be in here. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.4 (Darwin) iD8DBQFEuInWLqp9mdnoHyYRAujJAJ9ETIx1a5qT EZ8VdaZNEW/TMq0gcwCeOfhb ZWyMlkRIQot6SatadhD3Zfes= =Mrjy -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- If you install GnuPG (or PGP), and download my public key, it will instantly verify if that message really came from me, and then if you reply you can use the same key to encrypt it to me. Really this stuff is easier to setup than a home network, and it's a basic precaution all of us who use email should take. As an aside: All the 'data losses' that keep showing up in the news (laptops with 65,000 SSNs, or credit card numbers, etc.) wouldn't be nearly so catastrophic if these people used some decent form of encryption. Frankly I'm surprised no one has sued these various companies/agencies into mandating encryption. *There is some version of GnuPG/PGP for every OS and almost every mail client out there. If you want some help setting one up, let me know I'd be happy to help. | | Friday, July 21st, 2006 | | 8:13 pm |
Whoohoo! Friday Night!
And we just made up two..that's right TWO! new tongue twisters. Ok ready? ok. Try to say "Theme Song" more than twice in a row correctly. Alternately do the same thing with "People Blaster" The People Blaster one is from Zelia. | | Monday, July 10th, 2006 | | 5:24 pm |
Townie
On the two block walk to my favorite work coffee shop I was thinking over the layers of personal history that surround me in this town. For example, I buy my coffee from a guy I've been buying coffee from for almost half my life. The business he works at is run by friends of my parents. The woman behind the counter is the sister of a long time friend of mine. The building the shop resides in used to house a printing company that my friend's dad worked at. And that's only the coffee shop. Along the walk I pass by a large building that used to be a lumber yard (and it's many fond memories of Saturday morning visits with my dad). Now it houses a bike builder I've known for years, a kayak shop with a pair of blue heelers that I've played with on several occasions, and a textile company that several friends have worked at over the years. I walk by the spot I spent countless hours studying while in college, the space that until recently was my regular cafe, which was run by a friend from high school and staffed by my doppelganger. And this all takes place in a neighborhood I spent many hours in as a teenager taking pictures of decrepit warehouses. During my early to mid twenties I felt stifled by all those associations, but I've settled in, begun to enjoy them. They are what connect me to the world, they add depth to my landscape. I think that's why I don't enjoy traveling as much as I feel I should. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing new things, and visiting new places, but without any connections, I grow bored really fast. I am a townie. Ironically, I don't even live here anymore. | | Friday, May 5th, 2006 | | 8:51 am |
Off the road, and back to the grind
Well, my rambling is over for a couple of weeks. Mammoth was a good trip. It was a very pretty drive and there was still enough snow on the ground to suit my purposes. I flew down and back to LA on Wednesday, which was a 'good' trip in the sense that I got to hash out some stuff at our LA office that probably wouldn't have ever come up if I hadn't been there in person, but it was a looooong day of airports, buses and rental car agencies. Now I need to save all my money for our family trip down to Long Beach at the end of this month. Money has been pretty tight lately, and I'm nervous about all the costs associated with driving to LB and staying for 4 days. | | Sunday, April 16th, 2006 | | 5:19 pm |
I'm a rambling man....
It looks like the next few weeks will be lots of traveling (at least compared to my usual schedule). I'm off to Mammoth for work on the 19th, with hopes to return within 48 hours, then off to LA for another overnight trip during the first week in May, and then back to LA towards the end of may to watch Sarah graduate from Long Beach. Hopefully I'll get good photos. | | Thursday, April 6th, 2006 | | 9:51 am |
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