Date:	2009-07-08 15:28
Subject:	If not one thing...
Security:	Public
Mood:	thoughtful

Tonight I embark upon the quest to put together recipes that:
a) are generally low in saturated fats
b) contain vegetables
c) most people will eat

I can generally get two out of three, "b" being pretty easy to achieve. However, I'm feeling that most of what I make Ben won't be thrilled with eating. So it looks like two meal dinners on some nights, but that's extra work I don't normally mind so long as I get to finally enjoy nicer meals.

And I think I'll be making more fish and grilled meats on the weekend, which will be nice!

Date:	2009-07-03 07:10
Subject:	More flight fun
Security:	Public
Mood:	nervous

Somewhere after starting at my current job and after my trip to Sweden, I developed problems with flying. Stress-related, I'm sure, and not some sort of terrorist attack fear. Hell, those sorts of things had been going on since the 80's, so nothing was really new there. Anyway, my fears are more of the mechanical failure variety and - interestingly enough - kick in around when cruising altitude is reached.

Which means I'm in some sort of strongly elevated stress level through the majority of the flight, especially tough for flights lasting a few hours (oh, the fun I will have traveling across the Atlantic again). I can sleep, sometimes, if I'm really tired and the flight's at night. Mercifully, the flight to Beijing left LAX at midnightish and got in at 7:30am the next day, so I nodded off pretty much right when we got on the plane then woke up during our final approach to the runway. These trips out to the Midwest are brutal because they're in the middle of the day, when I'm totally awake, and last 4 hours or so. I've taken to trying meditation on the flight and drinking chamomile tea before getting on. Sometimes that works, usually only a little. Last flight up to Portland I had two panic attacks due to a very noisy landing gear; so I was totally wiped when we got in.

I hear that most people's fears of flying kick in during take-off and landing; naturally the most dangerous (in an otherwise very safe method of transportation) part of the flying experience. That makes sense, rationally, and I only wish that was the case with me. You guys get the shortest part of the flight! Well, usually. Unless you're flying from Chicago to Detriot. All of this is, of course, worse since post-staph infection in my leg which adds discomfort and general nagging fear of a blood clot from all the altitude and pressure change.

So I'm not as big of a fan of flying anymore, even though it's a necessity for my love of travel; I've got to get over it sometime, and hopefully that sometime is soon. In the meantime, though, I hope for an uneventful flight, an early arrival, and understanding relatives as I arrive late to my destination.

Date:	2009-06-29 15:05
Subject:	is now signing
Security:	Public
Mood:	blah

And while I wait, a few words:

Annoyingly, the family reunion event this year will be taking place on Sunday - not Saturday (the 4th). So I just had to change my flight from Sunday evening to Monday evening, costing an additional $70 and requiring a long 6 hour flight instead of a less aggravating 4.5 hours (due to stop-over somewhere). Grr.

I'm also splitting here a bit early to get my IR reader and catch up on all the reading I should have done over the last week. I'm bad. :(

Finally got the go-head on several projects which has cleared out the logjam of purchasing. At this point, only one project has yet to be fully realized, but we'll get to that when we get to it. DS3, here we come!

Taken from the quote "Pop-Tarts are safe and do not cause fires".

This weekend was another shot at learning a crafting skill, but this time one that required much less large muscle control and more fine dexterity; to which, I should not be surprised, I did much better than my previous attempt at blacksmithing.

All in all, it was a 100% (and then some) success! I was smiling and happy the entire time I was there because I finally *got it*, which made paying $300+ for the class not feel like a unreasonable burden. I picked up arc welding in a snap, made some great welds, and got back into practice with an oxyacetlyene torch! First we practiced making simple weld lines with 6011 sticks with the arc welder, then simple 90 degree joins with two small pieces of steel. Then, some practice cutting with the oxyacetlyene torch, and welding plates together just using the flame. It was like picking up a bicycle after having not rode for a year; took a moment to get back into the swing of things, but then easy.

So the first day I spent absorbing all the information, then rummaging through the scrap bins to find the raw materials. My project: to build a metal stand for my big, 45 lb. cast iron bell. I found a nice circular piece of steel, cut some semi-circles out to make it look more interesting (and to shed some weight), then headed home. That was 8 hours of work. The next day, it was back in to find the supports - which was really tough, since most of the students had already picked through the good pieces. Luckily, inspiration struck and I found just the right piece to use. The morning was dedicated to cutting those pieces up into triangles tall enough to give the bell hanging room. At first I wasn't having much luck with the cutting torch, as the metal beaded up behind as I was making a cut line. The instructor noticed I was using too small of a tip, so we swapped it out and *bam!* in 10 minutes I was done cutting. So much for the 30 minutes I'd wasted beforehand with the other tip.

Cutting accomplished, it was time to grind grind grind, which I then spent another 2 hours doing getting all the rust off the places where I'd weld the arms to the base. I also had to clear off the beads of metal that had clung to the bottom of the legs so they could actually sit flat - that took a while. I can see how sculpture fabricators can spend most of their work-time grinding; it really takes a lot of the production time, like about 1/2 of it or more!

Anyway, spot grinding done, it was off to weld the arms to the base. A few false starts and trying to get a comfortable spot to hold the welder, I realized welding in tight confines is a bitch; getting the stick "struck" is a pain in the ass if you don't have a good amount of room to move! With the help of the seasoned pros (thanks Rob!) who tacked the arms on, I completed the weld without too much difficulty. The trouble was getting the damn things to stand upright, but thanks to the hammer wedge, all went well. That done, it was back to the grinding room to notch the top of the arms. I'd grabbed a plain steel pole with two bendy bits at the end to serve as the hanging rod for the bell, and I gave it a quick de-rusting as well as some basic grindage to get sludge off and get things more symmetrical-looking.

I've got some more ideas about what I want to do with it: adding more design elements, for one, removing more rust and in general giving it a good polishing. The great part was that I was able to produce a fully functional item within the two days and... make it look good!

So now to save a bit of money and transportation time, I'm thinking of setting up a little table & bench in the garage - probably a small work table I can shuffle around - and get an air compressor and die grinder / hand-held grinder to do my cleanup grinding at home. During the day and on the weekends, of course. And probably in our RV driveway as not to dirty up the garage any further. That way I can just get studio hours for the torch use. Woot!

Date:	2009-06-15 17:53
Subject:	Wrapping up Portland...
Security:	Public
Mood:	tired

in a giant spinach wrap.

This weekend was much fun as we, the intrepid Californians following all the other Californians visiting Oregon, departed Oakland at 6:50am! Much annoying time was had on the plane, as I had two small panic attacks and in general a miserable time - I always have Not A Good Time on flights these days due to stress (only on take-off and cruising, though). Once at the hotel after said panic attacks, we just chilled out and napped into the afternoon, content to spend our time downtown walking around. We ate at McCormic which had recently moved to a different part of town, and while the food wasn't as good as it could have been the drinks were excellent.

Three drinks, however, seems to be my absolute limit for which after I become ill.

Taking the MAX back to the hotel, we had another fun surprise in store. A group of teenage basketball players were in town for a few games and were staying at our hotel. In our wing of the hotel. To make matters worse, our room's window was directly facing the metal stairs from the garage which people ran up, hung out, and in general made annoying noise until 4:00am. Lucky for me, I managed to fall alseep around 2:00ish and only woke up about three times. Not so lucky for my sweetie; intelligently, she'd asked the staff to put us in another room which they did the next day.

The teenagers were still there on Saturday, but the noise of the stairs was gone (thank gods).

Saturday we took ourselves up to the Zoo in the morning, and had a great time there. I am, apparently, a Friend of Lorikeets, as I had a hard time getting them off of me. Maybe I'm a bird person? Some train-riding later, we'd also checked out the rose garden which was most excellent. Weary from all the walking, we'd relaxed the rest of the afternoon and - when feeling better - headed out to Saucebox in the late evening. Now, at least I had no idea that the Pride Parade was going on this weekend, so when we saw people walk by (as we ate outside) in rather unusual clothing, we'd wondered if there was some sort of 70's party going on. There might have been, but who knows. Many other drinks were enjoyed, some endured (I had a dragon martini which I could not finish - too hot!) Stumbling back into the hotel, there was much better sleep that time around.

Sunday was another day of venturing out, as we went to the east side to have breakfast at Bread & Ink. Most fantastic! Salmon cakes and blintzes were enjoyed, and then more bus riding back for an afternoon appointment; which, sadly, was cancelled. So we went over the bridge one more time to get Terra's ears pierced at Black Hole, during which we walked around the Laurelwood district and decided it was very nice indeed. Also, that we totally didn't need to wait the 15 minutes for the 19 bus and could have just walked there. Then, we visited the Saturday/Sunday (too) market for gifts, general asking around and enjoyment! Later in the afternoon, we scooted over to the Chinese gardens to view the very pretty garden and enjoy a spot of tea. Last, we headed to the Pride fairgrounds to find out that they were closing (so we only got to gawk around then head out) and took the MAX out to find an Indian place to eat. Sadly, the Indian place was only so-so. Oh well.

Somewhere in there, we also visited REI (for a new bag and some rowing gloves) and an art supply store to buy notebooks. I think I got a lot of that out of order. Oh well.

This morning (Monday), both of us were still sore from all the walking about, but I less than Terra - so I was still able to go kayaking. Grabbing a quick bite at the hotel breakfast room, I headed out much earlier than I really needed to, so I got off the streetcar (well) ahead of my stop to walk the rest of the distance. On purpose. Really! Walking down to the harbor, I found the gate locked and had to holler for the tour guide. Introductions were made (he was from Vermont and moved here a year or so back - and knew a few people from my old highschool!) and off we went out into the water. This boat was long enough to support my legs, but it took me a good 20 minutes to get my feet comfortable within the shell. We paddled along the river down to Ross Island and took in the sights. I have yet to master the right amount of force and paddling technique to get the boat to go straight - now I veer to the left a lot and have to constantly over-paddle to get back.

Wrapping things up, we went out to the Flying Elephant for lunch (which was tasty, as always), to Dr. Martens for poor customer service, Cacao for drinking chocolate, then back to the hotel to grab our stuff and back to the airport.

Which is where we are now, and of course: our plane is delayed. We were scheduled to depart at 6:45. It's now 6:16pm and the plane isn't here yet. Good times.

I wish I had made this up, because it's sad to think this argument is actually being made.

In short: Vatican adopts policy to disallow adoption of children to non-heterosexual couples. Board of Supervisors issues statement saying the policy was discriminatory rhetoric, urged local Catholic agencies to ignore it. Law group sues, likening the Board of Supervisor's tactics to the Nazi's vilifying the Jews to repress them, leading up to the "final solution".

The comparison:
Nazis - vilified Jews as, first, suspicious (and to blame for a variety of problems), then sub-(or non) human, forced into ghettos, labor camps, and then systematically killed.

SF Board of Supes - responds to policy with statement. Um. And that's it. Is anyone expecting the Board of Supervisors to start carving out neighborhoods where Catholics will be - literally, by the police - forced into? Have city-created propaganda films been created depicting Catholics as hungry rats?

Ugh.

I was recently inspired to write this account of my blacksmithing experience after my fiancé had attended a glassworking class at the Crucible earlier this month. BTW, the Crucible offers "tasting" classes - only a few hours long - in September with a variety of different subjects. I recommend anyone who'd like to be a bit "crafty" give one or two of them a shot! It's about $70ish dollars, and you'll get a try and see if you'd like to continue learning how to make stuff (glass work, sand casting, etc. - I'm going to try my hand at sand casting).

Anyhow, what inspired me was what I think many of us experience when trying out a craft in a classroom environment: everyone else seems to pick it up quickly and easily, and you're left behind and feeling just a bit inept; which is really annoying, because you've spent money, time, and gave it a solid go just like everyone else.

My experience was this:

I took 7 years of private instruction in metalworking - mostly jewelry and small item fabrication (pins, rings, a pipe bowl, a copper puzzle pyramid, etc.) - and grasped the basics really well and could probably jump right back in with only a short bit of catch-up instruction. *Because* of this training, and some rudimentary ceramics class I took when I was 8, I was pretty handy at a pottery wheel and life drawing in college. Other crafts that involved fine motor control and feedback I was good at, because of both my fine dexterity and - more importantly - my many years of practice.

I, however, sucked at blacksmithing. Not to sell it short, but the concepts of beginning blacksmithing are easy. Easy easy easy. You heat the metal until it's a certain color, you pull it out, get it to the anvil, whack it the correct way (you get a "feel" for when the hammer hits just the right spot), mold the metal in this fashion - kind of like shaping clay, return to heat. Sometimes, when you don't want to shape a certain part, you'll cool it in the water barrel. And you can curve stuff with the horn, twist things with a clamp and twister, shape things with a peen hammer etc. etc. The basic techniques are easy. Everyone was getting into the swing of things right away, some people even using spare time between the coat-hook and knife instruction to make their own things. *Everyone*, but me.

I was stuck still toiling out my coat hook trying to get it thin enough to bend, then just the right lip size to punch, etc. I wasn't using the right amount of torque on the hammer (not lifting it up high enough), or hitting it at the right angle or at the right spot for better efficiency. I had no experience with larger tools, using more strength and more manual dexterity in working with metal. I'd exhausted myself without much to show for it.

However, I also realized that had I spent another 3 hours or so just screwing around with the coat hook, I could have better mastered the basic techniques, felt more confident I'd learned the foundations, and thus saved a lot more time, energy and trouble on the other few projects.

I also think that, like linguists, if you have a history with crafting things (especially if they're related to what you're trying) you'll be able to get right into it faster. All of those people I worked with were new to blacksmithing, but most of them had been doing other crafts with similar physical demands (like woodworking) - a few were just really good with their hands and could pick up that stuff naturally fast.

So, if you're looking to try a craft out like metal working, glass blowing, ceramics, whatever, don't get too discouraged if you're the one lagging behind while everyone else shoots ahead. If possible, spend some extra time working on the foundation steps before moving on. If you can't get them down after more practice, then re-evaluate; also, try it in a non-class environment so you're not feeling the pressure of others around you. That's what killed me, too, knowing that I only had a few hours to get something right before we moved to the next item. If you enjoy it, you should keep trying. Personally, as I could take or leave blacksmithing (an expensive education, I'll tell ya) so I'm going to give something else a try.

Date:	2009-05-20 22:39
Subject:	(post-)Modern discrimination
Security:	Public
Mood:	blah

I've just finished reading two articles from our journalism buddies across the pond:

Why bosses are right to distrust women who don't want children here

and...

Equality? You must be joking here

Now, I don't read the Mail because I haven't had much of a chance to before, but I'm always interested in what modern thinkers think. The first article was a bit of "yay moms!" and "women who don't want kids are cold and mean" at the same time, not really advocating discrimination against women without children - she does put out the kudos to those with children - but doing a pretty good job of saying that they're motivations are suspect.

Just what we need, more reasons to distrust women because of their offspring producing capacities/choices.

The second article was going along fine on a topic that's come up a few times (about treating men like domestic idiots on the whole in adverts), but then went on a rather counter-attack style defensive essay regarding the tyranny of the minority (my choice of phrase there). Yes, the ultra-PC police have come out and raised heck, while the good - and surprised - Christians out there feel like they're being thrown under a truck. I grok the want for equal respect and understand where they're, and pretty much everyone, is coming from; but I also wonder if all this reactionary posturing is getting them where they want to be. More over, with the inflammatory tone, aren't people like this author simply producing grist for further conflicts and communication breakdowns?

Now, off to fold laundry 'cause I'm not a dolt who can't do laundry or clean an oven.

Date:	2009-05-18 15:21
Subject:	An internet users required reading
Security:	Public
Mood:	aggravated

Good F-ing gods, I think there should be a manual for the internet printed in every written language and handed out to people with their birth certificate.

In 2007 there was a hoax e-mail generated regarding a Sony-Ericsson laptop that said, basically, "we're trying a new approach to marketing our laptop, so if you send this e-mail to 8 people you'll get this laptop for free. If you send it to 20 people, you'll get this other laptop for free! And CC this e-mail address below"

So you guessed it, someone at our office thought this message "might" be legit, and forwarded it on to 20 people - 6 of whom were in our office. And they'd also CC'ed the person it said to CC.

I immediately sent out an e-mail message saying, in effect: if an offer sounds too good to be true, it's not "probably" too good to be true, it *IS* too good to be true. And then I had to have a chat with them in person to tell them the news (and tell them to stop using their work e-mail for personal use).

I hope that one day no one will offer anything for free via e-mail. Unfortunately that's not the case now. I want to send a message around saying: "Nothing is EVER free in e-mail. If it's free, it's a scam and they'll come to your house and beat you to death with a fax machine".

Alas.

I'm doing various and sundry proposals this week as I start to kick our projects into gear. Some of these tech offerings are pretty cool:

Verdiem offers a remote power management tool for desktops called Surveyor, which I'm also checking out head-to-head with Faronic's Power Save. Both remotely establish power saving features on desktop systems, plus control over systems through shutting down/starting up, etc. but it appears Verdiem goes a little further beyond with a list of other things it can optimize for sensitivity to user input. Handy if you have picky users who really just don't want to be bothered.

I'm also looking at centralized backup, which is the Next Big Thing - well, that with host-based deduplication.

So yeah, being geeky today. But also managementy too, which I'm not hugely fond of. In a few minutes, though, I dive back into the server closet to do some wiring work and documentation - now thems good times.

Date:	2009-05-07 22:48
Subject:	Helpdesk panda at work
Security:	Public
Mood:	chipper

Oh ho, here is I in magical Portland-land, working late into the night and early in the morning. Woohooo!

The good news: things have gone generally well. Got here early, which is always nice, arrived to some cool rain. The first day's worth of work was boring, but easy, and I was able to sample the fine fare of Portland's restaurants. Also, everything generally worked out well.

The not so great news: worked two 13 hour days. So tired! Today was a bit more stressful with people freaking out about one thing or another at other offices. And, a bit of miscommunication (not on my end this time!) caused the missing of a lunch meeting with our local techs. Instead we went out for a "beer" around 5ish to talk shop.

I had a drink with St. Germain, gin and lime juice this evening. The lime was a bit tart for the flowery taste of the St. Germain, but it was worthwhile. I also was flirted with by the local male population, which isn't uncommon for me. I also wasn't quite able to get up the gumption to go to a (not to mention a few) strip clubs this evening. Alas, that'll have to wait for my next trip or the trip thereafter. A little lack of courage (which I now have liquid stores of, but alas no time) prevented me - alas.

So it's up at 6:00am tomorrow to brave the wild wooly world of firewall configuration, testing, and a few more Adobe application patches, then followed up by a storage solution webcast demo (thing), and a conference call with our ISP who's been charging us monthly fees for a service we never had installed.

I would like to go home and sleep now, I'm feeling just a bit lonely.

Oh, and Saturday I'll be going out with Mom for a mother's day brunch thing at Flora; then Sunday possibly the Star Trek movie - fantastico.

So off to bed with my tired self. Good night all!

Date:	2009-05-04 16:30
Subject:	An excuse
Security:	Public
Mood:	tired

I'm soooo tired today, partially from the rain, partially from getting weird and short sleep, and partially 'cause it's pretty boring here today.

Meh.

But I do have a new icon!

Date:	2009-04-28 21:31
Subject:	Waterboarding for charity?
Security:	Public
Mood:	aggravated

Okay, do we really have to make a horrible torture technique into a endurance challenge for raising money? What a slap in the face to the victims of such designs.

What the hell am I doing? That's what I asked myself when the terror of living on Valle Vista finally ended. I'm working IT, and while I'm good at it, it's not something I get joy out of doing. I get happy seeing projects to fruition, solving problems, working with people, expanding my knowledge - I just happen to be doing these things with something I know and am very familiar with. I have the rare comfort of being self-confident in my IT skills and being able to verify that through my work.

But it's not something I really want to do for the rest of my life. I'm sure IT will be involved in whatever I do wind up doing; I've mulled over teaching computer skills in Indonesia as a summer intern class thing, and... Well, it kind of works like this. I look at my brain as a kitchen. I've got all the tools I need to prepare a menu of items - some of them I can make really well, but I won't enjoy making. Others are unknowns, and I'd need to go out to the store to pick up some additional items. Still others seem like a great challenge, and I could see myself doing well - or at least doing well enough to enjoy it.

I don't fear being not-so-great at doing something, I am happy not being excellent at what I do. I fear giving it a shot and not being able to get a position doing what I love.

For example, I'd put together the pieces to what I'd like to do with my job-life (which is different than my non-job life). I want to travel/live overseas - maybe not all the time, but I love seeing new places and doing new things. I want to work with people; I enjoy interacting with people and working toward a common ground. I'd also like to help - for which there's never a shortage of places/people who could use it.

Some things I'm not willing to do: I'm not willing to risk getting shot (having a high risk of, that is), I'm not willing to work in a place where disease is rampant, and I cannot work in crushingly depressing/desperate situations - I just don't have the willpower for that, but I wish I did.

So that's a lot of options open! That's sort of my problem, but there's a lot of professionals/experts out there to help with narrowing down my focus so I don't wind up sifting through a hell of a lot of websites, journals, etc.

As for the paper explosion, I'm looking into buying a house. Well, we are, but I'm getting the show on the road so to speak. There's so much to it, I think I might just go out and buy a "Dummies" book on it. I'm glad to have the help of NACA, but I think there's some more to it that'll help - like HUD grants and the like. Exciting times!

So deciding to tax my memory of country names, in response to the question rarely asked "how many countries can you name that begin with the letter U", I'm giving it a shot. For my edification, I link below. The second cut will be the ones I'd forgotten or didn't know about!

Edit: a bunch of these are Commonwealth realms, so my counting is off.

( Starting with A... 124 total )

( Ones I missed - 60, plus a ton of islands )

Feel free to take your own self quiz, you geek you. All together, I didn't do too bad.

In the meantime I'm freaking out that I forgot to reset the alarm at home to 7:00am. Hopefully all is well and I did remember, but I can't remember!!

It's going to be a mad, mad crazy Spring and ... well, part of Summer as I get myself in gear for lots of travel and classes.

* Tomorrow I fly to San Diego on a business server-install/wiring/computer maintenance trip - sadly only one night there.

* I've got a financial health meeting with NACA in regards to seeing where we stand on buying a house next weekend.

* Then I've got my blacksmithing class starting up.

* I fly out to Portland the first week of May to do workstation maintenance, HVAC estimates and general work. Plus visit a friend from High School who lives up there with his wife and two kids.

* Shortly thereafter I have a geography class at Berkeley City College starting twice a week in the evenings.

* Then I fly back to Portland in early June for a getaway with my sweetie...

* And out to Wisconsin in July for my family reunion.

At some point in time, I'm sure I'll run out of money - which is too bad, 'cause I want to see "Wicked" in San Francisco in August - $175/seat - and I also *sorta* want to see Spamalot - probably also in the $100's. in May/June.

It's lotto time! ;)

Date:	2009-04-08 20:54
Subject:	So now we have two versions...
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

Schick's Mow the Lawn and...

... and Phillip's Body Groomer

But if you're going to YouTube, you might ask "Why is the Rum Gone?"

Okay, maybe not, but that's what I would have said given more time and thought:

Prove that gay people are different enough to exclude them from heterosexual institutions, or GTFO.

Not speculation, not based on , not based on "tradition". Proof, damn it.

Date:	2009-04-07 06:53
Subject:	My cat...
Security:	Public
Mood:	groggy

My cat has found my seat cushion and now refuses to leave its wonderful cushioniness.

Damn cats.