April 2011

Summary: Prepared 10 tax returns; Andrew C's birthday dinner at Bisou; Kingdom of Dumpling with Mom, Dad, and the Honmas; Easter potluck; Nightlife at California Academy of Sciences with Will

Dates on this page

Fri Apr 1, 2011

Breakfast at home: organic plain yogurt with berry granola. Rode my bike to work. Calendar management. Management activities. Prepped the new unsubscribe process for the update from the dean. Completed for Cindy an hours estimate of time spent on the supp app: this took about 2 hours. More PID work for Shirin: set up the cancel info day link and modified the autoresponse email. Supp app followup regarding how to handle the money that comes in: this took about 1 hour. Edited announcement copy for Sue and Susie. Late lunch at Soi Gow: pad see yew with tofu, thai iced tea. Followup with Felicia S about the ubiquitous wireless project. Followup with student JO about the IRC. Routed a problem that Lucia reported to the CIT which then pointed the finger at ITS. Followup with email account enabling, got my tickets mixed up with Tran. Rode my bike home. Patrick came over to work on tax return preparations. He brought a hot pizza, which was our dinner. Afterwards, I did weight training: pull ups. Late meal: TJ's battered halibut, mineral water with sugar-free black cherry Torani.

Sat Apr 2, 2011

Breakfast at home: organic plain yogurt with berry granola. Spent the whole day—about 16 hours—working on tax return preparations. Lunch: leftover pizza. Snack: seaweed. Dinner: organic shells and white cheese with peas. Late meal: TJ's organic vegetarian chili, cherry italian soda.

Sun Apr 3, 2011

Yoga: standing warmup practice. Breakfast at home: my favorite breakfast, which now is 2 slices of toast with butter, 3 eggs scrambled, 2 hash browns. Today in the eggs I added Dorot cilantro; fresh, diced red onion, and mexican cheese blend. Continued tax return preparations, spent about 4 hours on it today. Patrick came over for a few minutes to help. Lunch: Joe's Os with fresh, diced red onion. (A bit too strong.) Collapsed on the couch from tax return filing exhaustion, moved to the bed after an hour and rested more. Cut my hair, showered. Dinner with Will at Chipotle Daly City followed by grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. It seems like almost all the produce came from Mexico.

Mon Apr 4, 2011

Weight training: pec crawl. Uploaded photos to Flickr. Breakfast at home: organic oatmeal with fresh, diced organic pink lady apple, cinnamon, nonfat milk. Rode the bus to work. Removed Yahoo! Messenger from my Trillian configuration due to too much spam and Trillian not seeming to honor my preference of "accept messages only from those on my contact list." Linkchecking, Flickr work, kiosk work. Web team meeting: web exploration meetings followup, S-924-to-S-953 office move followup, David J working furiously on pharm chem content, sharing widget discussion, news versus features discussion. Reopened a PID reg for Shirin. Sharing widget research. Google search results research for bts.ucsf.edu. Name display problem followup for student DY. Listserv management. Lunch from Palio Paninoteca: cous cous salad, fruit salad, limonata. WCWG work: page titles revisit in light of PSPG pages. Animated favicon research. Sharing widget stylesheet work. Listserv management. MCCA followup with Kurt G. Followup with UCSF address book and email questions from student RN. Followup with student AC about junk email and listservs. Followup with Lucas R and Rich T about the pharmacy news feed being dropped from m.ucsf.edu. Followup with Lei L about a distribution list setup. Followup with CPFM about my ceiling tiles request. Coded the web version of an html email announcement. Sent Susie my BTS Google rankings research. Rode the bus home. Dinner at home with Will: panko-encrusted rainbow trout, grilled organic asparagus with lightly buttered panko, organic mashed potatoes from instant. Dessert: cinnamon hot nonfat cocoa with mini marshmallows. Made TJ's guilt-reduced brownies and added 3 tablespoons of Sumatra decaf from Henry's House of Coffee. Uploaded and titled photos and video. Spent 3.5 more hours preparing tax returns for filing. I realized recently that due to recent federal tax law changes (IRS Office of Chief Counsel memorandum 201021050 of May 28, 2010) I'm preparing 10 returns: (1) 2007 amended federal for Frank via paper, (2) 2007 new federal for Patrick via paper, (3) 2008 amended federal for Frank via paper, (4) 2008 amended federal for Patrick via paper, (5) 2009 amended federal for Frank via paper, (6) 2009 amended federal for Patrick via paper, (7) 2010 new federal for Frank via paper, (8) 2010 new federal for Patrick via paper, (9) 2010 new federal joint which does not get filed but which we need to do to generate certain numbers for... (10) 2010 new California joint via electronic aka e-file. Late meal at home: double order of beef ramen with baby bok choy and spinach.

Tue Apr 5, 2011

Weight training: dirty dogs, experimenting with one-pawedness; wide grip advanced push ups. Breakfast at home: organic oatmeal with fresh, diced bartlett pear; cinnamon; nonfat milk. Linkchecking, Flickr work, kiosk work. ICRD work and troubleshooting for Rodney. Followup with Lei L about a distribution list setup. Followup with CPFM about my ceiling tiles request. Listserv management. Lots of work in /about/ for Susie regarding assistant deans and associate deans. Noticed today that Mark All Links As Unvisited in Chris Pederick's Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox doesn't seem to work properly anymore. Same for Mark All Links As Visited. Management activities. More followup with student AC about junk email and listservs, filed a request for AC with ITS. Mediated a request from Tran for Lisa about setting up Tetty with computer access. Lucia's last day is tomorrow before her medical leave. Notified our web hosting customers about planned maintenance from Servint. Lateish lunch at You See Sushi: yellowtail roll, tempura prawns and vegetables, California half roll, salad, miso soup, green tea. Picked up a DVI-to-mini-displayport adapter from Paris at the Tech Store. Followup with Felicia S about ubiquitous wireless. 802.11n is finally planned for UCSF—over 4 years after consumers have had it at home. 1-on-1 with Eric: homepage news video stylesheet work, chatted about video lightboxes, Jason Santa Maria, Fray. Dinner at home with Will: stir fry with mushrooms, asparagus, firm tofu, red onion, garlic, ginger, Dorot cilantro, soy sauce. Dessert: brownies from last night, hot cinnamon nonfat cocoa for Will, hot nonfat milk for me. Wasted about 90 minutes trying and failing to get iTunes DJ to accept Will's iPhone 4 as a guest song requester. Spent 2 more hours preparing tax returns for filing.

Wed Apr 6, 2011

Yoga: standing warmup practice. Weight training: beat your boots. Breakfast at home: my favorite breakfast. Rode the bus to work. Followup with La'Trece about receiving Servint billing notices automatically. Small web edit to the ECAP page for Cindy and Shirin. Linkchecking, kiosk work. ICRD access work (add Joe C). Answered listserv questions for a student MS in person. Met with Shirin about the PID registration process—we're almost set to push live the new changes I staged a week ago. PGP work on Lucia's computer. Set Tetty up with what she needed on Lucia's computer while Lucia is away from the office for a while. Lunch at Arizmendi Bakery: 2 slices of pizza (shiitake, portabella, and button mushrooms; sesame-ginger-garlic vinaigrette), 12-ounce chai tea latte, 1 ricciarelli. Coded the web version of an html email announcement from the dean. Began work on a new magazine-style layout for the website. Followup with Tran about a few issues. Followup with Eric about his new phone number. Pushed live the ECAP change. Rode the bus and train home. Dinner at home with Will: noodle soup with vegetables. Dessert: brownies, cold nonfat milk. After receiving an answer to my question from the California Franchise Tax Board I realized now that I was incorrect on April 4 about how many returns I had to file. I thought it was 10 but it's really 11, so I revised the journal entry for that day. Spent 30 more minutes preparing tax returns for filing.

Thu Apr 7, 2011

Yoga: standing warmup practice. Weight training: squats, Mark Lauren's sissy squats (which are different than sissy squats as I learned them), standing leg curls. Breakfast at home: nonfat organic yogurt with pecan praline granola and fresh, diced organic pink lady apple. I notice today that 6 days ago it was 80 degrees, 3 days ago it was 75 degrees, and yesterday it was 55 degrees. Rode my bike to work. The forecast today said there would be rain in the morning and rain in the evening but I looked outside in the morning and it was entirely clear. I rode anyway, and the weather report turned out to be completely wrong—no rain. HTML email announcement: Tina Brock, associate dean for teaching and learning. Followup with Joe and Sue and ITS about adding a @pharmacy.ucsf.edu alias for Joe's email account. Made a small fix to the robots.txt on the kidney project website. Edited Brock copy for Susie to review. Spotlight layout work all day when I wasn't doing other things. Small link update for Susie, troubleshot problems with the chancellor's website serving pages. Followup with stuend AC about display name update in AD. Didn't really have lunch today, though late in the afternoon I ate 2 organic oranges I had brought. Left work late: after 8 PM. Rode my bike home—no rain at all. Ian stopped by to borrow some milk. I gave them some coffee brownies; I can't eat them all quickly enough. Dinner at home: organic shells and yellow cheese with tuna from a can and peas. Dessert: one small peanut butter cookie. Spent 2 hours and 30 minutes more preparing tax returns for filing.

Fri Apr 8, 2011

Breakfast at home: nonfat organic yogurt with country pumpkin granola and fresh, diced organic pink lady apple. Rode the bus to work. Linkchecking. Chatted briefly with Rodney. Followup with student AC about name appearing in the GAL. Updated /about/admin/ and /about/admin/archive/ and school profile numbers for Susie. Followup with La'Trece about missing paperwork. Listserv management: added Tetty. Also added Tetty to the OSACA staff listing on the web, sent it to Cindy to review. Edited the OSACA phone number cheat sheet, then printed and distributed copies. Created a new phone number cheat sheet for the communications team, then printed and distributed copies. Reviewed the redesigned m.ucsf.edu mobile website for UCSF. Didn't really have lunch today. One small bagel with cream cheese, then later 2 organic oranges and seaweed snack. PID work for Shirin: staged the addition of the Notes column to the export, sent it to Shirin for review. Sent the websteering lunch reminder. Edited a story for Susie: iRAD Warriors. Management activities. Left work late: 7:50 PM. Dinner at Nan King Road Bistro: shanghai noodles with tofu. I thought at first they served it to me spicy, but the red stuff was just sundried tomatoes, not chilis. Stopped at the liquor store looking for nonfat milk, but they were out. The man behind the counter said milk deliveries are on Tuesdays. Instead I found some Three Twins lemon cookie ice cream. Rode the bus home, had a scoop. It's really tasty.

Sat Apr 9, 2011

Laundry. Breakfast: organic lowfat yogurt with pecan praline granola, and fresh, diced organic pink lady apple, and fresh, sliced kiwi. Before today I thought I would have to file a 2007 amended California joint return via paper, but upon closer examination I am pretty certain now that this 2007 state joint return is not affected by amendment 201021050, so I only have to prepare 10 returns, not 11 as I had thought for a few days. Washed and dried 3 loads of laundry. Spent 3.5 more hours preparing tax returns for filing. Will thought I needed to take a tax-preparation break outside of home. We first ran an errand at C&W Tailoring. I had dropped off 4 ties to be altered over a week ago. I asked them to be made smaller both in length and width. 1 tie was perfect. 1 tie was 3/16 inch wider than I had asked, but I accepted it anyway. 2 ties were not altered to the length I had asked. She said sorry, and I agreed to pick them up next Saturday. Lunch with Will at Spiazzo: bolognese lasanga and a cola for him, spinach-ricotta ravioli with tomato cream sauce for me. Tasty food, very good service. Afterwards we got gelato at Tuttimelon. This gelato was very delicious. I thought it was rather expensive—over $10 total. Then I bought a light bulb at Papenhausen Hardware, bought groceries at Safeway on Taraval. 2-hour nap with Will. Folded laundry. Updated contact info for a few accounts due to the recent Epsilon data breach. Essentially this means deleting the custom email address I had for whatever company and creating a new one. For a while now I've been creating custom email addresses (forwards, really) for every company with whom I create an account, e.g., mtv@frankfarm.com or limerestaurant@frankfarm.com. This also makes it easy to spot who is selling my info to other parties. Late dinner at home with Will: taco night, water for me, Tropicana pomegranate blueberry juice for Will. Dessert: warmed coffee brownies, nonfat milk. Folded laundry, ironed some clothes. Spent 2 more hours preparing tax returns for filing. 6 down, 4 to go. Tropicana pomegranate blueberry juice. To bed late.

Sun Apr 10, 2011

Breakfast: 3 eggs scrambled with Dorot cilantro; fresh, diced red onion; fresh, sliced mushrooms; toast with Smart Balance light, hash browns; Tropicana pomegranate blueberry juice; hot water. Spent all day preparing tax returns for filing. Lunch at home: leftover steamed white rice with vegetable stir fry (spinach, mushrooms, garlic, ginger, red onions). Finished tax filing preparations at 5 PM. Vacuuming. Celebratory dinner out with Will. We first tried using a PopSugar FreshGuide FreshCheck I had for Rigolo but didn't realize they were closed until we got there. (FreshGuide people: It's a lot easier to say and remember "Groupon" instead of "PopSugar FreshGuide FreshCheck.") On Sundays they close at 4 PM. Instead we went to Eliza's: appetizer combo, pork chow mein, broccoli and cashew chicken, Eliza's spicy chicken (very similar to General Tso's), tea. My fortune: Investigate new possibilities with friends. Now is the time! Home. Watched X-Men (2000) on Netflix instant watch with Will.

Mon Apr 11, 2011

Weight training: pec crawl. Breakfast at home: organic oatmeal with fresh, diced organic pink lady apple and fresh, sliced kiwi, California sage honey, cinnamon, nonfat milk. Rode my bike to work. Chatted with Michael W on the phone. Spent pretty much all day on supp app project work in Drupal. Also chatted briefly with CPFM guy James who came in to check on air vents. Lunch at desk: leftovers from Eliza's. Dinner at home with Will: burritos and tortilla chips.

Tue Apr 12, 2011

Breakfast at home: organic vanilla lowfat yogurt with pecan praline granola and fresh, diced organic pink lady apple. Rode the bus to work. Minor web update for Cindy: OSACA staff listing. Minor web update for Susie and Paula: fellows number. Supp app project work: communications about payment process selection. Lunch: half tuna panini, small caesar salad. 1-on-1 with Cindy. Participated in 2 new committee meetings. The first was the Help Desk Oversight Subgroup and the 2nd was IT Governance Mobile Applications, New Media, and Web 2.0. InDesign work for Cindy: graduation program. Snack: one organic orange. Rode the bus home. Changed clothes. Drove to the Castro. Dinner at Kasa with Patrick. He signed the tax forms I had prepared for him. Afterwards walking to 18th and Castro we briefly saw walking past us a young Asian man dressed pretty much exactly like the boy (Felix Howard) in Madonna's "Open Your Heart" video. Home. Tax return filing work: rechecked for signatures, sealed tax returns in envelopes. Dessert: coffee brownies, hot nonfat milk. Installed libusb, SANE backends, SANE Preference Pane, and TWAIN SANE Interface so that I can capture documents from my Brother MFC-845cw directly into Adobe Acrobat Pro. On my first attempt to scan, I got an error: "No image source found." Found the TWAIN SANE FAQ which tells me that my device is unsupported. Manually uninstalled everything. (There was no uninstaller.) What a waste of time. Archived receipts to PDF. Weight training: door pull ups. Noticed at the bottom of my receipt for The Container Store a note: "Sign up for electronic receipts at myquickreceipts.com." Cool! I visit the URL and see: "QuickReceipts is closing, April 30th, 2011." Oh, well. I left feedback at The Container Store website reminding to change the message on their receipts if they haven't already done so. Read from the new 7x7, spotted someone I have met in the Social Studies pages. Weight training: standing leg curls. Late meal: lentil soup from a can. To bed late.

Wed Apr 13, 2011

Telecommute day. Breakfast at home: organic lowfat yogurt with country pumpkin granola and fresh, diced organic granny smith apple. Telecommute day. Spent the entire day working with Sencha Ext JS and PID registrations, got a number of new fixes in for Shirin on the staging server. Late lunch: Kingdom of Dumpling: shrimp and chive dumplings, onion pancake, thai iced tea. Service was very slow; nothing arrived in a timely manner. Dinner at home with Will: quesadillas, tortilla chips. Watched The Wrestler (2008) on Netflix DVD with Will. Dessert: Three Twins lemon cookie ice cream.

Thu Apr 14, 2011

Breakfast at home: organic lowfat vanilla yogurt with country pumpkin granola and fresh, diced organic granny smith apple. Rode the bus to work. Linkchecking, Flickr work. Small web edit to profile numbers. Began compiling web redesign exploration meeting notes for WCWG. Web steering lunch with Leslie K, John K, Ed C, Eric D. We talked about html email, calories, gut bacteria, Gowalla, Maker Faire, my idea for a software product that is responsible for what appears on the screen in a live meeting, Star Wars, tauntauns, sleeping bags, REI. Joel's computer caught a virus recently. Tran did most of the format and rebuild. I was needed to handle the things that DLS does not cover in our agreement. Installed PharmAdMIT 2011 and KeePass. Set up printing. (Windows 7 does not have drivers for a Xerox 6200DP and took an annoyingly long time to let us know that.) Reconfigured permissions in PGP, kicked off whole disk encryption. Continued compiling web redesign exploration meeting notes for WCWG. Created and staged an animated favicon for our website, sent it to Eric and Susie for review. Installed PharmAdMIT 2009 and 2010 for Joel. Will picked me up at work. We decided to eat out tonight. Dinner at Outerlands with Will: levain toast with herbs, roasted garlic, and olive oil ($2.50); roasted beets with wild greens, house-made ricotta, sherry dressing ($8) for me; delta asparagus with smoked pork shank, spring onions, pea greens ($12); root beer (I think $2.50) for Will. Service was excellent. We got a table just before the restaurant filled, within minutes about 10 people waited for the next 20 minutes. We were surprised to find only 9 items on the food menu; this doesn't count the 3 desserts on the chalkboard. There is a large beer menu (but we did not have beer). Levain toast is served thick and hot. I tasted a bite of Will's asparagus. It was perfectly cooked and excellent in flavor and consistency. My beet salad was salty, but I think it was meant to be. I need extra salt in my diet, so I didn't mind, and I thought the saltiness was perfectly matched with the rest of the flavors and textures. I could not identify the greens in my dish, so I asked the server who also didn't know but found out for me: oxalis and miner's lettuce. I was particularly taken with the miner's lettuce, which I had never eaten before and which I found particularly beautiful. Will thought the portion sizes were too small for the price, but I found the portion sizes to be typical of higher quality San Francisco dining. For dessert we shared a coffee and chicory chocolate tart which was served with a dollop of whipped cream and a brush of very thick caramel ($7). The dining room is almost entirely covered in wood. In fact, there is far too much wood for my taste. I love using wood indoors, but this is overbearing. To me, the dining room is a perfect example of using one kind of building material too much. The staff is very efficient and friendly. To save staff time, a large bottle of plain water sits on each table, and you're given the materials for the place settings instead of having them set for you. Excellent food, excellent service, unusually small food menu. I guess because there are so few food menu items, the pricing jumps awkwardly at the $12 mark. Here are all the prices of the food menu items: $2.50, $8, $8, $8, $9, $10, $12, $20, $24. The more expensive entrees are yellowtail ($20) and short ribs ($24). Underdog at 1634 Irving Street has about a quarter of the space and over 3 times as many menu items. I guess the small menu at Outerlands is its biggest disappointment. This is physically a small place—perhaps seating for no more than 25 people. If the wait here is too long, nearby Thanh Long is probably the next best choice.

Fri Apr 15, 2011

Breakfast at home: organic lowfat plain yogurt with fresh, sliced banana. Rode the bus to work. Chatted briefly with Rodney. Chatted briefly with Michael W. Lunch at Perilla: vermicelli noodles with pork and imperial rolls, thai iced tea. I liked it; must try the garlic noodles next time. 1-on-1 with Eric: web redesign work: we ranked 22 functional specifications on 2 axes (impact and difficulty). Rode the bus home. Dinner at home with Will: Pizzeria Sophia delivery: large with mushrooms and tomatoes, 2-liter of Coke, $19.70 before $2 tip. Dessert: Three Twins lemon cookie ice cream.

Sat Apr 16, 2011

Breakfast: breakfast burrito. Watched Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death. Snack: 2 grilled cheese sandwiches. Errands: C&W Tailoring—she still doesn't have my ties ready. I told her I would try again next Saturday. Encountered Jeff M in the shop, said hello. Grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. Small glass of Tropicana pomegranate blueberry juice. Andrew C's birthday dinner at Bisou. Late meal: organic lowfat plain yogurt with fresh, sliced banana, granola.

Sun Apr 17, 2011

Breakfast at home: organic lowfat plain yogurt with fresh, sliced banana, granola. Weight training: pec crawl, door pull ups. Edited and uploaded Asia trip and other photos to Flickr. Late lunch: butter leaf lettuce salad with grated carrot, sliced mushrooms, pepper ranch dressing. Aired out the apartment again due to cigarette smoke from the upstairs neighbors (but I didn't complain this time). Began reviewing divorce paperwork again. Weight training: door pull ups. Bought ice cream at Bi-Rite. Dinner at Danny, Drew, Romy, and Phil's with the 4 and Charlie and Nick: roast pork; roast duck; vermicelli noodles with chicken, shrimp, and fish balls. Dessert: 4 ice cream flavors: peanut butter with fudge swirl, ricanelas, mexican chocolate with salted peanuts, halo-halo.

Mon Apr 18, 2011

Breakfast at home: organic lowfat plain yogurt with fresh, sliced banana, granola. Rode my bike to work. When I started there was a light mist falling. Before I was halfway to work it turned into a light rain, but I made it without getting super drenched. I did pedal faster, though. This was my first time riding on wet roads. Linkchecking, Flickr work, kiosk work. Lunch: veggie burrito from Carmelina's. Supp app project work in Drupal. Snack from Panda Express: 2 veggie spring rolls. My fortune: A photo cannot capture your charm. Rode the bus home. Dinner at home: aglio e olio. Dessert: 2 small cookies. Watched Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death. Weight training: pec crawl.

Tue Apr 19, 2011

Breakfast at home: organic lowfat plain yogurt with fresh, sliced banana, granola. Rode the bus to work. I missed the 66 by less than a minute, so I walked to 19th Avenue and got on a 28L. The bus seemed to be moving very slowly. All traffic going in our direction seemed to be moving very slowly. After perhaps 20 minutes I got off near Moraga and walked to Judah. From 19th and Judah I could see emergency vehicle lights near 19th and Lincoln. I didn't see an N train, so I started walking down Judah. When I got near 17th I saw an N train letting about half the people off. As I continued walking, I saw that 2 cars had gotten into an accident exactly on the tracks. The train did not seem to be involved, but it was stuck behind the 2 cars. I eventually walked the rest of the way to work. A waste of $2, but it wasn't really Muni's fault, oddly enough. Michael W, Rodney, Cindy, and I met to review Michael and Rodney's findings in their testing of a virtual desktops environment for our IRC computer lab. We decided in the end to not do virtual desktops because we don't have a large enough lab to see the benefits—it works better when you have much larger numbers of workstations involved. Lunch: butter leaf lettuce salad with grated carrot, sliced mushrooms, pepper ranch dressing. Doctor appointment. PID work for Shirin. Supp app project work in Drupal: tried to wrangle the PDF print stylesheet but couldn't get it to do what I wanted. Coded and staged the proposed computer requirements for 2011. Worked late. Dinner at Panda Express: steamed rice with green beans and tofu. Rode the bus home. My fortune: The riches of others makes you more valuable. Uploaded Asia trip photos to Flickr. Late meal: fried rice with tofu, spinach, grated carrot, mushroom, garlic, soy sauce. My fortune (bonus 2nd cookie from Panda Express): Your efforts are budding; results will appear soon.

Wed Apr 20, 2011

Weight training: supermans, yes no maybes. Breakfast at home: organic lowfat plain yogurt with fresh, sliced banana, granola. Rode the bus to work. Linkchecking, Flickr work, kiosk work. Computer troubleshooting for student KR—computer virus. Registered for "Take Your Drupal Site Mobile Without Starting Over" from Acquia. Asked Mark to ask ITS to add links called "Download Windows anti-virus software" and "Download Mac anti-virus software" as default links to the home screen after logging in to VPN. Summarized the proposed computer requirements changes for fall 2011 and sent them to SCWG. Supp app checkpoint meeting. Supp app work. IRC proposed hardware purchases review. Listserv management. Asked our instructors if it was okay with them to remove the DVD drive requirement. Ordered replacement UPS batteries. Rode my bike home, a little rain. Dinner at home: stir fry with tofu, mushrooms, broccoli, spinach, garlic, Thai spices from a tube, steamed white jasmine rice. Looked for my driver's license and failed to find it. Resolved confusion with Asia trip journal entries (I had mistakenly wrote the wrong dates for 2 entries) and pushed the new edits live. Edited and uploaded Asia trip photos to Flickr.

Thu Apr 21, 2011

Breakfast at home: organic lowfat plain yogurt with fresh, sliced kiwifruit, granola. Rode the bus to work. Received a giant Easter egg cookie from Don K. Linkchecking, Flickr work, kiosk work. Calendar management. This is the 2nd time I have tried to remove my email address from the mailing list at aacp.org. Their unsolicited message to me does not contain any information about how to unsubscribe. Neither root@aacp.org nor webmaster@aacp.org work. Good thing I also mailed the president and president-elect. Made live staged PID changes for Shirin. 1-on-1 with Eric: we began watching an Acquia online seminar called "Take Your Drupal Site Mobile Without Starting Over." We thought it was going to be about how to make your Drupal site a mobile site, but instead it was about a product called Mobify and not really related to Drupal at all. We felt duped and left the seminar after about 15 minutes. We did web redesign scope document work, and he helped me with supp app project work in Drupal: setting the application deadline in profile fields enabling me to remove the hardcoding I had put in earlier in the code body. Lunch: tostada and Lipton raspberry iced tea from Carmelina's. Reviewed the new student welcome letter from Doug, sent back suggested changes. Reviewed hardware selections from Michael and Rodney, asked questions of HP and Dell via online chat. HP's online chat was pretty impressive in that it was the first time I had seen a chat transferred from one person to another. Set up a way to have ServInt invoices automatically forwarded to La'Trece after I receive them. Dinner at Kingdom of Dumpling with mom, dad, and my sister's family. My mom and dad gave me a number of gifts: 4 large stems of orchids and set in water in a reused Stax container (label removed) which strangely doesn't look as bad as it sounds like it would, various pastries and dim sum, the leftovers from dinner, about 20 large oranges from the tree in their yard. I gave Matthew a late birthday present: Star Wars balloons, Star Wars stickers, and The Encyclopedia of Immaturity. I played Uno with the kids. Looked for my driver's license and failed to find it. Weight training: door pull ups. Dessert: part of the Easter egg cookie, 12 ounces of hot nonfat milk.

Fri Apr 22, 2011

Weight training: supermans, pec crawl. Password database management. Rode the bus to the DMV. I recently somehow misplaced my driver's license and looked everywhere but could not find it. I arrived at 7:45 AM and was 43rd in line. It opened at 8:00 AM and surprisingly within 30 minutes I received a temporary driver's license. They'll send me the real one in the mail. Cost: $25. The woman helping me forgot to ask me to sign the form, but luckily I remembered to ask her at the end when she said I was all finished. While waiting in line I began rereading Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. Parts feel a bit dated. And I had forgotten how funny it is, was LOLing a fair amount. Chatted on the phone briefly with Patrick. Rode the bus to work. Reviewed proposed hardware purchases for the IRC project several times throughout the day. Helped student MT with a question about spam. Reviewed with Eric our remaining technology needs for S-936. More new student welcome letter followup throughout the day. Will picked me up at work. Dinner at home with Will: appetizer: cheddar herb bread that Mom and Dad brought; main course: semi-kamikaze potato curry, steamed rice; dessert: Easter egg sugar cookie. Watched The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters on Netflix DVD with Will. This film starts out being about Donkey Kong champions but ends up being about sportsmanship and integrity. I thought the production and direction of this film were excellent. The story and the drama weren't that important to me, but I was impressed by the skillful playing. Steve Wiebe's daughter has the best line in this film. It was also fun to see an explanation of the kill screen for Pac-Man because I have a t-shirt of the Pac-Man kill screen but didn't exactly understand what it was about. I went to bed 15 minutes before the end. If you liked this film, you might also like Trekkies (1997) or Trekkies 2 (2004).

Sat Apr 23, 2011

Finished watching The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters on Netflix DVD. Breakfast at home: organic oatmeal with fresh, diced, organic d'anjou pear, California sage honey, cinnamon, nonfat milk. Archived documents, organized receipts and memorabilia from the Asia trip. Today I finally got the rest of my ties back from C&W Tailoring and Dressmaking (415-661-9998, 1626 Noriega Street, San Francisco, CA, USA). My current preferred tie measurements: 53 to 56 inches long, 3.25 to 2 inches at one end, 2 to 1.5 inches at the other end. Grocery shopping at Safeway on Noriega. Home. Napped for 2.5 hours. Aborted a plan to go to Lani's house for a family visit—too tired. Late dinner at home: steamed leftover assorted dumplings from Kingdom of Dumpling. Listened to Patrick Ryan's "Mixtape 1.0 - Bored in Canada" podcast track, sent him feedback in email. Late snack: an orange, water. Edited and uploaded photos to Flickr (but did not make this set public yet). Reviewed micro four thirds cameras. Am liking the Olympus E-PL2 in red or white.

Sun Apr 24, 2011

Breakfast at home: nonfat organic vanilla yogurt with berry granola and fresh, diced organic granny smith apple. BK and Kel are in town, so I made plans to stop in to see them, brought banana liqueur that I had picked up in Luang Prabang to share. BK, Kel, Chris, Trudy, Zack, Cade, Mark, Scott, (Andy?), (Justin?), others. We talked about tequila, Brian and Eric moving, white people tacos, the effectiveness of bicycle helmets, who should or will win this season on RuPaul's Drag Race, Logo TV, straight neighbors, where BK and Kel ate in SF so far, New York City, BK and the bus, Nina, Simma. After some bacon (for the others) and French toast, we walked to Dolores Park for the Hunky Jesus contest. There were thousands of people—we didn't even try to get close enough to see. Home. Made hash brown casserole. I had planned to also make Caribbean banana bread but decided against it—not enough time. Easter potluck with Drew, Phil, Jane, Romy, Danny, Gerard, Richard, Kanta, Andreas, Chi, Coung, ?.

Mon Apr 25, 2011

Breakfast at home: nonfat organic vanilla yogurt with berry granola and fresh, diced organic granny smith apple. Rode the bus to work. Uninstalled Windows Search because I thought it was slowing Windows down. Helped student MC with a question about archiving email. Forwarded feedback from Claire to Ann about SumTotal reporting requirements. Helped a drop-in student with a question about not receiving confirmation requests from listserv. Followup with Sean about my request to add a default download antivirus software link to the VPN home screen. Chatted briefly with Shirin about Sierra's welcome pages project. Spent most of the day on supp app project work in Drupal. Lunch: leftover potato curry. Dinner at home with Will: leftover dim sum that mom and dad brought. Shower.

Tue Apr 26, 2011

Weight training: pec crawl. Breakfast at home: nonfat organic vanilla yogurt with berry granola and fresh, diced organic granny smith apple. Rode the bus to work. SCWG meeting. Staff meeting. Linkchecking, Flickr work, kiosk work. Coded updates to the computer requirements, asked Housing and Financial Aid to review relevant pages. Followup with Sean S about my request to add a download link for antivirus software to the home screen in VPN and my request to change the layout of software.ucsf.edu. With Zach S's help I added a calendar to the wiki space for SCWG then populated it with fall start dates. Lunch: Panda Express. My fortune: Good news will come to you from far away. Ate lunch in the sun on a bench outside of Millberry Union, read a bit from Snow Crash. Minor web update for Shirin: added a link to Inside UCSF. Supp app project work in Drupal. Reinstalled Windows Search because I found it enables me to perform simple searches of Outlook 2010 e-mail messages with results that appear in less than 20 minutes. Dinner at home: veggie stir fry with broccoli, onions, garlic, mushrooms; steamed rice; hot water. Dessert: one scoop of Three Twins lemon cookie ice cream. Watched an intro video for Balsamiq Mockups—interesting.

Wed Apr 27, 2011

Telecommute day. Breakfast at home: nonfat organic vanilla yogurt with berry granola and fresh, diced organic granny smith apple. Linkchecking, Flickr work, kiosk work. Staged fixes for the background PNG problem, sent it to Robin C for review. Staged adding a Facebook Like button and comments box to our news pages, sent it to Susie and Eric for review. Added In The News as a functional requirement to the scope document draft. Snacks: bagel with cream cheese, popcorn. Dinner at home with Will. Will brought over takeout from Thailand Restaurant. Laundry. Continued work on an Up Your Alley Fair or Folsom Street Fair drink menu that I had begun on July 19, 2010.

Thu Apr 28, 2011

Breakfast at home: nonfat organic vanilla yogurt with fresh, diced organic granny smith apple and sliced kiwifruit. Rode the bus to work. Linkchecking, Flickr work, kiosk work. Confirmed with Robin C that the PNG backgrounds problem is gone for her in IE—the problem was not reproducible by me, and we've had only 2 reports of it in the past year. Met briefly with Susie. Chatted briefly with Eric. Helped Cindy with the graduation ceremony program in InDesign. Met with Cindy, Joel, and Sammie about the supp app's forthcoming back end interface. Lunch: mushroom quesadilla from Carmelina's. Met with Eric about news stories. Completed pcard paperwork. Reported a problem to ITS about a stuck listserv queue for student VN. (The same problem happened to me.) Coded and posted the IRAD Warriors story for Susie. Small edits to a previous news story for Susie. Sent David H some advice about backup and migrate in Drupal. Updated the funding pages, started using Google Chart—it's pretty cool. Minor updates to our scope document. Followup with Kirk H about a web page describing their laptop charging service. Dinner with Will at Masala. Afterwards we went to UCSF night at Nightlife at California Academy of Sciences (aka calacademy). It was his first time to calacademy; he liked it. The night was windy and extremely cold outside. Stopped at Soi Gow where Will got some rocky road ice cream. (I wasn't hungry for dessert, and it was too cold anyway.) Stopped at 828 Irving Market for some groceries.

Fri Apr 29, 2011

Weight training: pec crawl. Breakfast at home: nonfat organic vanilla yogurt with Grandma Goodie's honey maple almond granola and fresh, diced organic pink lady apple. Rode the bus to work. 1-on-1 with Eric. 1-on-1 with Rodney. Listserv management. Continued and completed work on the funding pages, including a chart using the Google Chart API. Helped student AA with a problem installing SEP: "Error: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Temp\ucsfsep\setup.exe could not be executed. (OK)." I resolved the problem by deleting temp files then manually creating the ucsfsep folder it was seeking. 1-on-1 with Eric: Facebook Like button and comments work. Lunch: Panda Express. My fortunes: (1) You will be recognized and honored as a community leader. (2) You will soon be the center of attention. Eric, Susie, and I made live the Facebook Like button and comments work we had done. Minor page edit for Carol: pharm sci resources page. Reviewed an IT inventory worksheet for Orlando, sent him a reply. Snack: leftover veggie spring roll. Prepared for a meeting on Monday morning. Rode the bus home. Dinner at home: sweet potato fries, breaded halibut, breaded shrimp, hot nonfat milk. Continued work on the Up Your Alley Fair or Folsom Street Fair drink menu. Installed Pentadactyl for Firefox.

Sat Apr 30, 2011

Breakfast at home: nonfat organic vanilla yogurt with Grandma Goodie's honey maple almond granola and fresh, diced organic pink lady apple. Washed dishes. Baked 2 loaves of Caribbean banana bread. Ironed clothes. Washed windows. Brunch at Barracuda with Emery, Ray, Scott, Andy, Ben L, Ben H. Edited and uploaded photos. Still getting used to Pentadactyl. Snack: tortilla chips. Weight training: door pull ups. Dinner at home: cut ziti #164 with potato gnocchi in marinara. Weight training: door pull ups. Shower. Watched Witness: Disaster in Japan on iTunes—my first iTunes TV show purchase. Late dessert: Three Twins lemon cookie ice cream.