June 2002
Summary: Patrick meets David Leavitt, our first time to orangeAge, Lodestar Quarterly releases its 2nd issue
Dates on this page
Sat Jun 1, 2002
Dim sum brunch with Pete Williams and Kim Vu at Yank Sing at One Rincon Center. Patrick and I had never been to Yank Sing before. Our favorite dim sum place has been Ton Kiang. However, we both agree after a meal at Yank Sing that the two restaurants are on equal par. After brunch, we meet up with Sam to see Star Wars II: The Attack of the Clones at the Van Ness Theatre. The film had plenty of plot holes, but it was entertaining nonetheless. Dinner at home with Patrick: lime seviche shrimp with marinara sauce and le rote pasta. Patrick beats me at chess.
Sun Jun 2, 2002
I stayed home and did housework and paid bills while Patrick went to Jumpin Java to write. Dinner at Paradise Pizza with Patrick: antipasto salad, Italian Paradise pizza. Watched the Crayon Brain episode of the Simpsons.
Mon Jun 3, 2002
Helped Chris print some files from his laptop. Met with Lisa Magargal to discuss the migration of the PSPG subsite. Created the first PSPG mockup. Ordered cardboard boxes and velcro One Wraps. Dinner at home with Patrick: baked chicken, asparagus, new red potatoes. Played Yahoo! Graffiti with Patrick.
Tue Jun 4, 2002
New computers from Dell arrived for James and Chris. I started setting up James's first because I want to get everything set up for him before he returns from vacation tomorrow. Dinner at home with Patrick: Asian fusion pasta: spinach bowties with black beans. We planned our forthcoming vacation.
Wed Jun 5, 2002
Moved James's old monitor to Chris's desk. Prepared staff for trickle-down of old computers. Set up Chris's proposed changes to the PharmD Contact Us Web page. Submitted my telecommuting arrangement proposal to Cindy. Patrick finished chapter 17. Dinner at KFC. I researched buying more RAM for our computers. I found PDF versions of old computer hardware manuals so that I could throw them out.
Thu Jun 6, 2002
Staff meeting, Chris brought bagels. Celebrated Melissa's birthday with the office staff. Dentist cleaning. Patrick had a phone interview today with the Philadelphia Gay Times. It went well. Dinner at home with Patrick: sushi appetizer, orzo with roasted chicken legs, walnut apple frisee salad. Watched K-Pax on DVD with Patrick.
Fri Jun 7, 2002
Prepared an old computer for donation. Met with Chris and Cindy about next year's computer requirements. Installed PharmAdMIT 2002 for Melissa, Ena, and Debrah. Reconfigured the remote control. Patrick and Sam went to Guerneville to celebrate Mitzi's parents' 40th anniversary. Using the rental car, Patrick bought groceries and brought home Pizza hut for dinner. We took a nap intending to get up later and hang with Brian and Kelly, but Patrick was very tired and slept right through, so I stayed up and worked on the journal.
Sat Jun 8, 2002
Did some Web work this morning between 1:30 am and I can't remember when. Woke up again around noon. Patrick went to Jumpin Java to work. I had oatmeal and did some house chores and filed paperwork and closed my Cal Fed bank account. It was the hottest day I can remember in a long time, but there was still a breeze here in the middle Sunset. Around 3 pm I had some mandarin oranges. Around 5:15 pm I left to meet Patrick at Jumpin Java and then we went to Brian and Kelly's for dinner at 6:00 pm. We met a friend of theirs named Jesse, who had just moved to San Francisco from Michigan. We all went grocery shopping and then cooked dinner in B & K's kitchen: a tasty Thai banquet of chicken satay, beef with basil stir fry, cucumber and red bell pepper salad, and steamed rice. During dinner some guy named Roger kept calling for Jesse, but somehow no one managed to talk to him. After dinner, Kelly and Jesse played a spy game on the Nintendo N64 while Patrick and I watched and Brian welcomed his friend Krista who had brought along some of her friends for a brief social visit. We were thinking of going along to the music DJ event they were planning to attend, but it was US$12 per person to get in, it was in SoMa, and Patrick had said that he'd heard this DJ's music and it was mediocre—so we didn't go. Instead, we watched Iron Chef (it was my first time) and then later we went to Detour (while Jesse stayed home). The music was sometimes really good and sometimes quite bad and the mixing was mostly awful the whole way through, so we had fun ridiculing the DJ from afar, laughing at his creative junk. We went back to their place to get our stuff, and although we watched the NextBus for the next L-Taraval train, we ended up missing the last train because we failed to also look at the clock—we got to the station at 1:05 am—too late. Brian was too kind in letting us take their silver Golf home by ourselves, since he had just had 2 drinks and Kelly was much too tired to drive us home.
Sun Jun 9, 2002
Returned Brian and Kelly's car, found a parking space on Landers with little problem. Brunch with Brian and Kelly at Grub. Patrick went to Jumpin Java. I worked on Lodestar's next issue, preparing new site structures and URL maps. I also added my own biography to the editors page, as Patrick recommended. I researched tailored clothing options.
Mon Jun 10, 2002
I dreamt last night that a train derailed 2 blocks away from the house up in which I grew. In the dream, the train jumped the track at Sycamore Street and drove its way down Sycamore for 3 blocks. (It wasn't explained how it made a 90-degree turn from the tracks onto Sycamore.) My brother was there, and we both saw it happen. At first I wanted to leave because I knew it would be mayhem, but curiousity pulled us both back to see what we could see. He had a camera, of course, and was taking photographs of the destruction. I don't remember much of what happened next, but I don't recall seeing anything violent or gory or sickening. In fact, I didn't see the train or any of its passengers, but I felt dazed wandering through as though I did see all of what remained. Met with Susie to review Web plans. We celebrated Debrah's birthday today; Kristina brought chips and made delicious salsa dip and guacamole dip and brought a brightly colored tablecloth and floating candles. I preconfigured software on Chris's new computer and reformatted James's old computer for Cindy to use at home. Dinner at home with Patrick: bowtie pasta with lima beans and chicken and basil sausage. Watched 2 South Park episodes on DVD (and checked out from the Hawk-Kusler Library): Merry Christmas Charlie Manson and Chinpoko Mon. Patrick is close to finishing chapter 18. He has 20 chapters total, so after this one there's just 2 more to go.
Tue Jun 11, 2002
Converted some draft schedules to tagged PDF files for Debrah and Chris. Continued setting up Cindy's new computer. Leftover bowties for lunch. Patrick met for lunch with Amy today at The Butler and the Chef. Dinner at home with Patrick: chicken and two-color bell pepper stir fry, steamed rice. I researched roadside assistance programs. Patrick wrote.
Wed Jun 12, 2002
Put class schedules for Fall 2002 on the Web for Cindy and Debrah to review. Put together paperwork to order Debrah's new computer. Lunch with Patrick at Hana. Dinner at Gordo. Paid bills, filed paperwork. Patrick went to David Leavitt's reading at the Commonwealth Club. The reading went well, he bought a book called "Florence, A Delicate Case," and he got that book as well as his copy of Gay Fiction Speaks signed. David had heard of him; he is known among some as "the other Patrick Ryan" because there is another man named Patrick Ryan who is friends with David Leavitt and Edmund White. Patrick and David exchanged contact information, and David wants to read his work.
Thu Jun 13, 2002
Patrick met with Prince Gomolvilas at Jumpin Java. Boxes arrived today from the Box Company. Went to bed early tonight.
Fri Jun 14, 2002
Met with Susie and Candy to discuss Candy's Ask the Pharmacist program with Blue Shield. Set up Chris's computer. Worked on computer requirements for fall. Checked out Nina's Web site at millenina.com. It's cool! Nina sent me e-mail today which made me laugh: "ps- I signed up with sonic today. yay! no more earthlink bastard!" I recommended sonic.net to her recently. Went to orangeAge tonight, meeting Brian, Kelly, and Nina there. It was a steep price to get in: US$20 each, but we hadn't gone dancing much and everything was great so we felt it was worth it. There wasn't a single problem I could find—these party organizers definitely had their shit together. I knew we were under special care when I saw a staffperson quickly mopping up a spilled drink from the dancefloor. Plenty of security. There weren't many queer people there, but we felt comfortable. Three different rooms: COSMOSIS, SURREAL, DUTCH v A.T.U.M. and DR SPOOK in the main room with SKYE, AMBER, SHANE, KUSH and I-ONEMAN in the ambient room. The room we liked the most had BAREFOOT, REID ODA, DRC, and JEFF RICHMOND. (Did J:MIAH play?) Patrick enjoyed watching Brian and Kelly dancing. In his words: "like they were the epitome of 'the lifestyle', like woodland fairies dancing in moonlight." Patrick and I left around 2:15 AM and got McDonald's takeout on the way home. We tried out the Dippin' Dots which we'd heard were the most amazing new thing for eating. The tagline for the new product is called "Ice Cream of the Future". Our tagline for it is "What a waste of money!" We paid US$2.29 for about 4 ounces of "ice cream," which was unusual only in its shape: tiny balls about 2 to 3 millimeters in diameter. We got the chocolate flavor, and it tasted exactly like the chocolate shake material. It was served in a short, shallow plastic bowl with a spoon. We recommend you don't bother with this tragedy of a dessert.
Sat Jun 15, 2002
Worked on Lodestar Issue 2.
Sun Jun 16, 2002
Worked on Lodestar Issue 2. Patrick is working on Chapter 19, anxious to get everything finished. We were thinking of going to the first Stern Grove Festival of free weekly summer concerts but Michelle Shocked and Quetzal were playing and these artists didn't excite us. Dinner at home with Patrick: shrimp in spinach linguine with marinara sauce, dinner rolls.
Mon Jun 17, 2002
Dropped the car off at BMW San Francisco. Jamison Cummings was my hunky service advisor. Friendly and very efficient service with a smile. There's a hot picture of him on the Web; if you're good with Google you can probably find him. Web Steering Committee meeting: Julie reviewed the survey she sent out in which we asked our audience what topics they'd like to see covered at future meetings. Lunch at my desk: leftovers. Picked up the car from BMW San Francisco. Dinner at home with Patrick: pork chops, asparagus, rice pilaf. I coded 13 new works for the forthcoming new issue of Lodestar Quarterly. The hardest one was a poem by Ragan Fox called "Into the Woods." Patrick has been tired this evening, mostly from working on Second Island and writing Lodestar decks for me.
Tue Jun 18, 2002
Meeting for the graduation organizers. Chatted with Chris briefly about computer requirements and worked up the pages. I gave him almost all of it to review. Lunch at my desk: leftovers. Pondered site structure for the Contracts and Grants migration. Chatted with Brian Warling on the way home—he rides the same Route 66 with me. Dinner at home with Patrick: chicken cacciatore, dinner rolls. Walked to 7-Eleven with Patrick to pick up beer and ice cream and a slurpee. Worked Lodestar: Powell's links to all the bios are in, all the works are out for review except one play.
Wed Jun 19, 2002
Met with Cindy and Debrah about database fields. Was late meeting Patrick for lunch at Pasta Pomodoro—my meeting ran over. Worked on the computer literacy requirements for fall. Dinner at Pirro's with Patrick: small Mediterannean pizza, root beer. Worked on Lodestar review updates. And the last work is finally in—Far From Springer. Put in a photo for Emanuel. What's left? I have to build the new home page (should be easy from the existing template), rework the navigation bars to allow access to Issue 1's home page, rework the Contributors page to allow access to Issue 1 contributors. Only one more day to do all this. Will Lodestar go live on time? Tune in tomorrow! (I need some sleep!)
Thu Jun 20, 2002
Meetings all day today. Conference call with Susie, Valerie, and Matt. Lunch at Panda Express. Met with Cindy and Debrah and Ena about database fields again. Met with Susie and Bob Day for Web usability testing. All the meetings went well, but I'm a little winded now at 5:42 PM. Time to go home, have some dinner, and spit out some kick-ass pages for Lodestar. Patrick had spent the day meeting Aaron, getting a haircut from Bao at Nice Cuts, buying shorts at Body Body Wear, and dodging guys on the street asking him to have sex (we think it's coz the Pride Festival is 2 weekends away, so the Pride pollen is in the air). Dinner at home with Patrick: gramigna with chicken-sage sausage in red pepper sauce. I got email today with news: my brother is moving to Salinas. My cousin Johnson got married 2 weeks ago. Slept from 8:30 PM to 2:00 AM. Got up to work on Lodestar.
Fri Jun 21, 2002
Issue 2 of Lodestar Quarterly went live at about 8:17 AM today. Got a weird error today while booting Cindy's old computer that she brought in from home. It's a Compaq Deskpro 4000. The error upon booting was "SMART hard drive detects imminent failure" and all I could think was, "How Star Trek, but where are the red room lights and the annoying beeping-buzzing sounds?" The Web indicated that this essentially means your hard drive has died, but I pressed F1 to boot and it appeared to start up Windows 98 after running Scandisk. It was the old style DOS-based Scandisk (or was this called chkdsk then?) with the map—kinda fun to see again after so many years. Chatted with David Powers—he needs a consultant for a Web site he's working on. I told him I'm swamped but I'd check around to see if anyone else I knew wanted to do it. Today I installed Mozilla 1.0 on recommendation from my pal Steve Miles who liked that you can turn off popup windows in it. While saving changed preferences in it, I got a weird error: "unable to convert stored data". I couldn't figure out what it meant—there was essentially nothing on the Web about this error except for a wallet properties source file which explained nothing. Oh, well. Worked on stylesheets and Mozilla 1.0 (aka Netscape 5.0). Dinner at home with Patrick: homemade chicken pho.
Sat Jun 22, 2002
Helped out with graduation ceremonies for the School. Tidied up some Lodestar code. I'm a bit worn out from Lodestar coding. Canned soup and crackers for dinner since we're both too tired to do anything more complicated.
Sun Jun 23, 2002
I have more energy today, so I go to the grocery and come home to make a beef and two bell pepper stir-fry for dinner.
Mon Jun 24, 2002
Met with Susie. Worked on rebus. Created and sent the annual LISTSERV change e-mail announcement and corresponding Web pages explaining e-mail usage after graduating. Leftover stir fry for lunch and dinner.
Tue Jun 25, 2002
Met with Christine Wong to discuss her experience with unions. We talked a long time and I discovered that she also went to UCSC—Kresge, entered in 1992. Trained Cindy to use the laptop. Uploaded some Web changes for her as well: minimum requirements for APPE participation and the "no fewer than 12 quarters" graduation requirement and the emergency absences policy. Ordered an internal PCI modem for the computer she uses at home. Helped Ena understand that the ENS Web site that she was using doesn't work in Netscape 6.2 but it does in IE 6.0 and that that's not her fault. I wrote up a message clarifying the problem we discovered so that she can pass it on to ENS. Sam dropped off some groceries. Dinner at home with Patrick: I made a 3-course Chinese dinner: a beef stir-fry, a mixed Chinese greens stir-fry, and fried rice. We watched The Simpsons (Hungry Hungry Homer Full Good).
Wed Jun 26, 2002
Finished the contracts and grants site migration proposal and sent it out for review. I'd been working on this since Friday and was glad to get it out for review. Talked with Jim Frazine about rebus woes. He was very helpful and burned me some Red Hat 7.3 CD-ROMs—what a pal! Sam dropped off some groceries.
Thu Jun 27, 2002
Worked on the Material Management Unit subsite. Attended a SIS meeting. This is mostly requirements specification that I don't need to be part of, so I later told Cindy I thought I could be spending my time better doing other things. Spoke with Teresa Regalia and Ellen Amsel about rebus. Took rebus off the network. Updated a tiny change for Debrah regarding the Year 1 Spring curriculum. Patrick and Sam went to the new 20-theater cineplex in Daly City that we'd been watching get built ever since we moved to Junipero Serra Blvd in November 2000. They saw "Scooby Doo" which they both thought was funny. Later, Patrick and I watched "The Others" on DVD. We both liked the movie. It reminded us of "The Sixth Sense" somewhat but it had a character of its own. Patrick thought that it was rare to find a movie like "The Others" in which there are no plot holes. I had decided that there were a few holes, but since the movie was about supernatural things, you could allow for that—part of the suspension of disbelief.
Fri Jun 28, 2002
Put together an order for Ena's new computer, but I can't deliver it until Monday because the fiscal year ends on June 30. Set up Debrah's new computer. Installed Red Hat 7.3 on Chris's old computer, wiping the hard drive clean in the process. Even though he has a workaround for rebus going down, we still want to get him on a box that works. Red Hat 7.3 was much, much nicer than my previous experience installing Red Hat 5.0 (I think it was 5.0) back in the luxurious but freezing Adobe server room in Seattle. The only part I got stuck was figuring out my "network address" and "broadcast address" which Windows doesn't use. I eventually found a resource on the Web that told me how to calculate these values from the IP address and subnet mask, both of which I knew.
Sat Jun 29, 2002
Woke up before Patrick and started organizing things into the new cardboard boxes we got from theboxcompany.com several weeks ago. Their boxes are very well-designed. We got file boxes (16" x 12" x 10") with attached lids—my favorite, and I would recommend them to anyone who needs boxes. We ordered 12 file boxes and 5 moving boxes to get the free shipping on orders over US$50, and they threw in 5 book boxes for free! Our big closet has been a mess for weeks, and I've been wanting to organize it to see if we can make room for my bicycle and bring it in from the outside, where it is slowly rusting. Last Wednesday I found a website called findyourlink.com. It asks you questions about what kind of living environment you like and after you give up your personal information it tells you the cities with which you are compatible. On my first run through, I got: 1. Ashland, OR; 2. Milwaukie, OR; 3. Paradise, CA; 4. Hot Springs-Hot Springs Village, AR; 5. Las Cruces, NM. I think my answers need tweaking tho. I sent the link to a bunch of friends and they started sending back their answers, too. It was rather fun. Bryan Cochran, who is currently residing in Seattle, wrote back: "How fun! My top 5: 1. Portland, OR; 2. Albuquerque, NM; 3. Baltimore, MD; 4. New Haven, CT; 5. Providence, RI. Probably not too far off for me..." Tina Luu, who is currently residing in Honolulu, wrote back: "Hey! That was FUN. You will laugh when you see my top spots... this is what the quiz revealed: Portland, OR; Honolulu, HI; Santa Cruz, CA; San Diego, CA; Seattle, WA; Boston, MA; Providence, RI; New Haven, CN; New Orleans, LA; Eugene, OR; Hartford, CN; Valencia, CA; Long Beach, CA; Washington, District of Columbia. I guess I live where I am true to what I like! That was a very cool site." Chris De Lay, who is currently residing in Honolulu, wrote back: "Ugh. They want all my personal contact info. Anyway, I got: 1. Honolulu; 2. Sacramento; 3. New Orleans; 4. San Diego; 5. Little Rock (ugh!); 6. Las Vegas (UGH!). Guess I already found my spot." Nate Dwyer, partner of Chris in Honolulu, wrote back: "<laugh> 1. Eugene, OR; 2. Corvallis, OR; 3. New Haven, CT; 4. Danbury, CT; 5. Baltimore, MD; 6. Providence, RI. Chris and I apparently need a summer home and a winter home. If I tweak the quiz to weight bigger cities more I get: 1. New Haven, CT; 2. Portland, OR; 3. Baltimore, MD; 4. Providence, RI; 5. Little Rock, AK; and 6. Hartford, CT (The Insurance Capitol). Eek." Kelly Hawk, currently residing in San Francisco, wrote back: "All my spots ended up in the MA/VT/WV areas except 1, probably because I said I like some snow and I don't care about skiing. 1. Shelburne Falls, MA; 2. Williamstown, MA; 3. Johnson, VT; 4. Hartford, CT; 5. Middlebury, VT; ... 16. Portland, OR." And Brian Kusler, partner of Kelly in San Francisco, wrote back: "i had baltimore, new haven, dc, boston, little rock. hmm. i didn't even scroll down far enuf to see anything below the top 5. it was the 'liking the snow' thing that pretty much ruled out any california cities from my results."—Chris De Lay sent us a link to the movie trailer for Star Trek Nemesis. Our first comments after viewing: Frank: "I thought it looked stupid." Patrick: "I have no idea what that movie is about." Frank: "They showed all the good parts!" Patrick: "Who was that running and jumping into space?" Frank: "We don't know, do we?" Patrick: "I'd see it."—Patrick had a dream about Katherine Forrest. He dreamt that she was a cop in New Orleans. That's all he remembers. He also dreamt about an airplane; he was chosen to learn how to pilot an airplane and he can't remember anything else. This reminded me that several weeks ago I had a dream about my former co-worker Mia Levine and her partner Katherine. They were sitting in a snack area of someplace like Target or Safeway (but Safeway doesn't have snack areas). It was around lunch time and they were eating sushi, I think. I said hello, but didn't stop to eat with them. That's all I remember. Watched "Minority Report" with Patrick and Sam at the Daly City Century 20. Victor had recommended this to me; he and Lindsay saw it the other weekend and said they liked it. We all enjoyed it very much, despite many flaws. I recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction. Outside, while going back to the car we saw a group of older Asian people walking to the garage and one of them had wore a windbreaker that still had the sale tag hanging visibly on his shoulder. We also saw some bubblegum on the sidewalk, which was noteworthy because the sidewalk was brand new. I wrote next to the gum "June 29, 2002" and told Patrick and Sam that I bet if we return 50 years from now the gum will still be there. I didn't use permanent marker, just a regular ballpoint pen, so my marking will probably wash away in the next rain. Patrick thought the sidewalk wouldn't still be there in 2052.
Sun Jun 30, 2002
Today is the gay pride parade in San Francisco. Patrick and I are not participating in any of the pride events for a variety of reasons: we both don't like crowds and just about everyone in the world agrees that the parade is completely boring and has lost its original meaning—that of making communities aware that gay people live in your community, too. Finding someone who lives in San Francisco and doesn't know that gay people live there is like finding a MUNI bus that's clean on the inside. There's a separatist group called Gay Shame that is publically boycotting the parade because of its commercialism. Their web site at gayshamesf.org proclaims, "We are committed to fighting the rabid assimilationist monster of corporate gay 'pride' with a devestating mobilization of queer brilliance." They have a direction—creating awareness—and they have a means of doing it—people dressed outlandishly and acting absurdly, and somehow although I agree with some of their logic and goals, I can't picture Patrick and myself taking part in their activities. It reminded me of trying to picture myself enduring the AOL-lovin, Mac-centric, corny-joke queeniness of Digital Queers enough to join their organization (which I didn't). We went to Land's End with Sam and walked a good way through. We walked past many trees, wildflowers, and overlooks with views of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. We got a few photos with Sam's camera. We had lunch at Cajun Pacific with (Patrick's words) the most awful waitress in existence. Her errors: she gave our order of fries to another table accidentally and never realized it until Patrick got up and asked them where our fries were; Sam ordered a half-shrimp, half-oyster po-boy but got an all-oyster po-boy (though this could have been the chef's error); Patrick ordered red beans and rice and never got them, and I had a glass of water that went dry. Patrick adds: "And, she never apologized for any of it." Consequently, Patrick swears we'll never go back, and I have no complaints about that. We don't forgive Sam for tipping her 10%. We then went to the Cliff House where we saw the Musee Mechanique and where we played the original Star Wars video game. We spurned the Camera Obscura tourist trap; it looked like a scam to me. We looked for sea lions, but all we saw were birds who loved to sit on a bird-shit-encrusted rock. We then went to Stonestown Mall because Patrick needed something air-conditioned and away from the sun. We bought drinks at Surf City. We bought a surprise gift for Tina's arrival in SF on July 9 when she comes to visit. Nap and dinner at home: chicken ravioli in alfredo sauce, fried bok choy in garlic, bread from Arizmendi. Today we visited http://www.serge.kirion.net/—I had Flash disabled, so nothing showed up on the screen at first. I enabled Flash, and then refreshed the page, and we were greeted with a Flash presentation of gray text on a black background that said, "WELCOME, 8 February 2001 - Page UNDER CONSTRUCTION. Please come back in 2 weeks." We watched Star Trek: TNG, "The Pegasus." Patrick and Sam both turned out a mild sunburn, despite my having warned them about using sunscreen earlier this morning.