April 2003
Summary: Patrick's 33th Birthday Celebrations: Kabuki Springs, 2223 Restaurant, Harbor Village with Amy, David, Jamie, Aaron, Jason, and Sam; Patrick's first mix CD called The Beat Archaeology; Matthew's first birthday; Dinner with Glenn and Bill at Suraj; Dim sum lunch with Don and Jenna at Kan's; Patrick sees Scott Heim's Mysterious Skin.
Dates on this page
Tue Apr 1, 2003
Spent most of the day researching USB keychain drives. Decided to purchase five 64 MB Sony Micro Vault devices for the office. Lunch with Joel at You See Sushi: we both had lunch special A: California roll (6 pieces) and one each of: ebi, unagi, tuna, and Dinner at San Tung by myself: steamed vegetarian potstickers, chicken chow mein. My fortune is one that Joel would covet: An aura of glamour and mystery surrourds your events for the week. Patrick had gone to the Lambda reading at the Eureka Valley branch library. Patrick met with his language partners today. Tried out our new Samsung SM-348B CD burner. It's rated at 48X-24X-48X-16X but the first burn I tried—a music CD with a 70-minute WAV file—poked along at only 7X. Spent over an hour trying to figure out why—DMA is set, the CD-R is indeed rated at 48X. I didn't try copying to the hard drive before burning, but that doesn't make sense since the file is already on the hard drive (and I'm not doing a disc to disc copy).
Wed Apr 2, 2003
Worked on the Viagra revision that Candy sent to me on March 28. It looks good so I put it up on the dev server and sent it out for review. Took 4 hours to code. Lunch with Joel and Ena at Pomelo—yum!. Worked on the Web Developer's Guide Templates page. Worked on the Sautter application. There was a freakish storm today. In the early afternoon a downpour and steady rain fell for about an hour and then it was all gone. By the time I left work, the sidewalks were all dry again.
Thu Apr 3, 2003
Worked on the Sautter application. Lunch with Joel at Pasta Pomodoro. Fixed networking for Chris's laptop. Here's my work log: upon boot: an error message something like "your xircom network card is not working properly. you may need to install it again." appears. in device manager, i removed the Xircom Cardbus Ethernet 10/100 + Modem 56 device, which had an exclamation point next to it. restarted. in device manager, i removed Iomega Parallel Port Interface (Device), which had an exclamation point next to it as well as 2 floppy devices with red X's on them. restarted. windows found new hardware and installed it. i checked device manager, and it had added back the floppy components. when i looked in the network control panel, there were no network components listed at all. changed CMOS from minimal to thorough boot post tests. plugged in the xircom card. in device manager, got properties on the unknown PCI device, then clicked reinstall driver. chose manually, found the correct listing. it wants the Win 98 CDROM. i downloaded xircom drivers from the website, installed compactflash drivers to bring them over via USB port. installed xircom drivers, but they gave errors at the end of the installation. upon boot, device manager reports the xircom device with a red X. (still the 2 red-X floppy devices, too.) uninstalled xircom drivers, restarted. removed a bunch of registry keys referring to xircom, restarted. upon restart, windows asks me for NETCBE.CAT. i choose Cancel, windows loads, showing windows that say it has found the xircom card and is installing software for it. before it finishes loading, it asks to restart. i restart. windows restarts, now showing me a network login dialog, with inputlines for login, password, and domain. (!) I try to log in to the server, but I get "No domain server was available..."—not surprising since I still need to set up IP, DNS, etc. i choose okay, and windows finishes loading. we now have a network neighborhood icon that was missing from before. device manager now shows the xircom network card working properly (no red X). still have the two floppy disks with red Xs: GENERIC NEC FLOPPY DISK and Standard Floppy Disk Controller. in network control panel, i removed the client for netware networks. client for microsoft networks, xircom card, and ipx/spx protocol remain. i add microsoft tcp/ip, then configure it for the proper network settings, then restarted. network working properly—i can get to the internet, i can see network folders for the osaca server. updated xircom card firmware from 2.40 to 2.90. organized icons and program shortcuts. set up handy shortcuts on the links bar in Internet Explorer. xircom installation files are in "C:\My Documents\My Software Installers" if needed again in the future. modem seems to be functioning properly, tho I could not test without a proper telephone line out. if iomega zip drive is attached to this computer again, it might need drivers reinstalled. in device manager, i think the floppy drive red Xs are normal and they might go away when the floppy drive bay is inserted—not sure. installed a security update from windowsupdate.com, restarted. reinstalled zonealarm. laptop wouldn't shut down properly now—complains about having to close a sophos component before shutting down. reinstalled sophos and latest ides. problem is gone now. -- Adjusted guest account security for the office server. Dinner at home with Patrick: gemelli with shrimp in red sauce, dinner rolls. I received the most unintelligent response from Samsung support today about the SM-348B drive we have which is rated to write at 48X but only writes at 8X. I sent them this message: ===== Samsung SM-348B T505 -- 2 MB buffer -- DMA on -- AutoRun on -- slave on secondary IDE -- RPC-II -- firmware updated to T505 from T504 Easy CD Creator 5.3.4.21 -- upgraded from 5.2.1 Media: Imation CD-R 48X, 50-count, on spindle (UPC = 51122 15708) PROBLEM: I cannot write at the maximum speed. THINGS I HAVE TRIED: I found a web page (now defunct) which says the solution is: "Check the latest firmware of your model for an upgrade. Turn off the JustSpeed feature. (You can disactivate the feature in the Recording option window of Nero Burning ROM.) Caution: Turning off JustSpeed may increase the frequency of a buffer underrun error." -- I have already updated to the latest firmware, which did not fix my problem. -- It doesn't say what the JustSpeed feature is or *how* to turn it off. -- It doesn't say what Nero Burning ROM is or how to find it. -- In Easy CD Creator, if I uncheck the "buffer underrun protection" the drive writes at 1X. Please help! I am very happy with this drive except for this one problem. ===== Their response: "You cannot have two of the near same software by the same vendor on the same computer. PLease chose which burner software you want to use eother NERO or Easy CD Creator and remove one. If problem persist please call us directly at 1-800-SAMSUNG 9 am to 9 pm Eastern Time to discuss the situation with a technician." ===== Why their response is unintelligent: I never said I had Easy CD Creator *and* Nero. So I called Samsung support on the phone, got to a technician rather quickly. He listened to my story and then said the drive probably had a tracking problem and I needed to send it in at my expense or return it to the place I got it from.
Fri Apr 4, 2003
Worked from home today. Read about NT hardening. Put in a new front page story for Susie, sent it to her for review. Helped James resolve spam questions. Responded to Libby's responses regarding the PharmCAS demo. Removed and added names for Jannie Yu for the Phi Delta Chi listserv. Worked on the Sautter application. Dinner at home with Patrick: pork chops, asparagus, and rice pilaf.
Sat Apr 5, 2003
Went to Kabuki Springs—Patrick's early birthday present. We had private baths and one-hour massages and spent time in the communal baths. Lunch after at Sapporo-Ramen: I had yakisoba, Patrick had tempura, we shared gyoza to start. Saw Spirited Away at Kabuki Theatres, which was bizarre—like someone realized in film their bad acid trip. I laughed at the plot turns here and there—so comical. For example, why did the all-powerful witch keep telling the girl to stand aside from blocking the thing she wanted instead of just sweeping her away with her powerful magic? She either wasn't so powerful as she was made to seem, or the writers didn't really care for the plot to make sense. The story was extraordinarily arbitrary, but part of the fun was trying to make sense of it all at the end. At least I didn't fall asleep. This film should not have won an Academy Award—what were they thinking?
Sun Apr 6, 2003
Hash browns and bagels for breakfast with Patrick. Laundry and other chores. Dinner at home with Patrick: bacon sea bass, steamed broccoli, curly fries, dinner rolls.
Mon Apr 7, 2003
Set up guest computer for PharmCAS testing for James. Installed Dialup Adapter in Network Control Panel for Chris, copied Win 98 cabfiles to the laptop, backed up the laptop. Updated the current students calender, made live the changes to the NIH link for Susie. Copied a large file from Zip disk for Kristina and Leticia. Lunch at Subway with Joel. We ate in the restaurant—my first time there. Joel later decided it was gross.
Tue Apr 8, 2003
Set up the free computer in our office for PharmCAS testing—more tweaks requested by James, it's finally all done. Sautter application. Met with Susie and Cindy about desktop support issues. Lunch at Burger King with Joel. We ordered to go and ate at Golden Gate Park, watching men walk their dogs and straight high school baseball boys with their pants hanging off their asses wrestle each other before a game. Worked on the Style Guide. Dinner at home with Patrick: stir-fried baby bok choy, fries and curly fries, gardenburgers on large dinner roll buns. Caught up on e-mail and news and craigslist.
Wed Apr 9, 2003
Staff meeting. Got a lot of Style Guide done today. Lunch with Joel and Ena: Sliders Burgers to go, then dined in the peaceful Library Garden at Golden Gate Park. Beautiful sunny weather today! Resolved a problem with Sophos—some computers weren't updating properly. Turns out I somehow installed an old version of Sophos rather than a new version. Reinstalled the newest version. Updated my scripts. All better now. Dinner at home with Patrick: cow stew over rice. After dinner, we started designing the CD label for his new mix CD, which he calls The Beat Archaeology. One of the books I put up for sale on amazon sold today! It's a Simpsons comic book that Patrick gave to me for one of my birthdays recently—read once, it was funny, but I'm no comic book collector and we need the money, so out it goes.
Thu Apr 10, 2003
It's Patrick's birthday! We started celebrating last Saturday by going to Kabuki Springs. Today we go to dinner at 2223 Market. And this coming Saturday we spend the morning having brunch at Harbor Village with friends, then a party at Jamie's in the evening. Double-backed up then upgraded Joel's computer to Windows XP to resolve problems with the character letterforms appearing too sharp and jagged after he switched from a CRT monitor to a digital LCD flat panel monitor. He absolutely loves it! Lunch with Joel and Ena at Crepevine. I had the Florentine—a spinach crepe, Ena had a big salad, Joel had the Santa Rosa scramble. Delicious! Finished a lot of Style Guide work. Dinner at 2223 was a fine experience. Our server's name was Todd, who was pleasant and made us feel welcome. The server's assistants were particularly efficient. Patrick started with a hearts of romaine salad. We had fizzy water (a bottle for $6.50?!) and Patrick had a glass of white wine. For entrees, Patrick had a seafood sampler (shrimp, mussels, and I don't know what else), and I had free-range chicken over mashed potatoes and under a towering stack of onion rings with a side of green beans. The gravy in this dish is particularly tasty and mouth-watering. The chicken was cooked perfectly. For dessert we shared a slice of moist German chocolate cake with coconut cream, Patrick had a cup of coffee. The bill came to $67 before a $10 tip. The entire experience was great save that the restaurant tends to be quite noisy from all the people talking. We were quite tired after and rode the Muni home. During the day, Patrick had spoken with Mitchell and is reconsidering St. Martin's Press now. Sam and Dianne gave Patrick some birthday gifts: From Dianne: a $30 gift card to Barnes and Noble. From Sam: a martial arts DVD called Arhats in Fury, a cloth condom for Patrick's Shao-Lin sword, and a book called Karate II by Goju-Ryu. When we got home after dinner, Patrick opened the gift I got him: the book called All About Us by Philipp Keel, wrapped in pear wrapping paper that I made myself! We got birthday greetings on the answering machine from Patrick's mom, his brother Carey, and his brother Terry.
Fri Apr 11, 2003
Did some PharmCAS testing. More style guide work. Leftover chicken for lunch. Style guide: Finished section 2 (but still need to break it into children) and finished half of section 3 (but still must remove Device Independence since that can be covered under Accessibility). Patrick got more birthday gifts today: his language partner Eric gave him a birthday card ("Life's Journey: As you journey through life, choose your destinations well, but do not hurry there. Wander the back roads and forgotten paths. Seek out new voices, strange sights, and ideas foreign to your own. Such things are riches for the soul. Inside: May happiness always be your companion, wherever you go, whatever you do. Happy Birthday.") and a datebook for 2003 with photographs and descriptions of Chinese culture: weddings, traditions, etc. His Mandarin teacher gave him a set of Chinese calligraphy note cards with Chinese characters for traditional greetings: Many Thanks, Apology, Peace, Deep Condolences. Patrick and I had black bean quesadillas in the early afternoon. I took a "nap" around 5ish and woke up around 11:30 PM, got up and did stuff until about 6:00 AM on Saturday.
Sat Apr 12, 2003
Patrick woke me up around 9:15 AM. We went to Harbor Village for dim sum and invited Amy, David, Jason, Sam, Aaron, and Jamie along. Aaron and Jamie showed up late, but everyone had a great time. It was Jason's first time having dim sum! Patrick distributed his first mix CD called The Beat Archaeology which he created with Mixmeister on his laptop. We made the CDs using the CD-RW/DVD combo drive that we recently bought for about $75. He used clear standard jewel cases and custom CD labels using the Avery Afterburner "label system." Amy and David gave Patrick a smart collection of herb seeds for making a garden as well as an origami rabbit. (Patrick laughed when he pointed out my dangling modifier in the previous sentence, so I'll leave it in.) Jason gave a bottle of Francis Coppola Merlot 2000 and a fine edition of Albert Camus's The Stranger (Every Man's Library, Knopf). Sam gave a trio candle set with a glass base. We stopped at Site for Sore Eyes to pick up my new glasses: one pair is prescription with clear lenses, the other is non-prescription with dark lenses for sunglasses. They're both more rectangular than my oval brushed silver glasses I occasionally wear, mostly at home. Bought gas. We returned home and Patrick previewed new music for his next mix CD (probably house, he thinks) while I tidied and organized and did pseudo-yoga. Later in the evening we went to Jamie's place for Aaron's birthday party. In attendance were: Hilary (sp?), Jason, Lill, Steve, Pauline, Alina, Nicole, Aaron, Jamie, Joanne, Patrick, me, Brock, Brian, Randy Williams, Scott, Tucker White, Tom, Sue, Iku (sp?), Tara, Tara's friend, Kai, Evan. We ran into Joseph as we were leaving. Patrick said, "It was a blast. We played my DJ mix CD. People danced." I talked mostly with Jason, Joanne, and Randy, who all seemed like nice people. Bought gas on the way back.
Sun Apr 13, 2003
Patrick and I had breakfast at Bagdad Cafe, errands in the Castro, read books at Cafe Flora. Napped. Fixed a rod socket in our coat closet, chatted with Tina on the phone. Homemade macaroni and cheese snack. Domino's pizza and salad for dinner.
Mon Apr 14, 2003
Office party to celebrate Joel's birthday. Debrah made a sash with stick-on letters saying QUEEN FOR A DAY and also got a tiara with blinking lights. We had Krispy Kreme doughnuts, a large fruit platter, and Odwalla tangerine juice. Tried setting up the Sony Micro Vault USM64U2 devices I got in the mail today. Seems to work fine except the Password Lock software requires Administrator access for installation and usage—requiring admin for installation may have been okay but I can't give all my users admin access for using it. How stupid is that? Still, we'll keep them because I can't deal with the hassle it would be to return them. 3 of 6 steps in the style guide are completed (first-pass-wise, anyhow). They wanted a rush job, so I can always add things later. Hard drive maintenance on the Win NT server (C drive was almost out of space). glibc updates on the Linux server.
Tue Apr 15, 2003
Style guide: tidied up sections 1, 2, and 3. Started on sections 4 and 5. Installed compactflash reader software for Kristina. Patrick did grocery shopping, cleaned the bathroom and kitchen, wrote thank you cards. Dinner at home with Patrick: crabcakes, curly fries, salad. We received Chris De Lay's late anniversary present: some music CDs called So Emotional by DJ Buc, a friend of his friends Chris and Ray. Watched Signs on DVD with Patrick.
Wed Apr 16, 2003
After shuffling around backup sets in Retrospect I got "error -703, need a user-entered password but can't ask". Nothing on the Web about this error. I resolved this problem by opening Retrospect, choosing the Configure tab, double-clicking a backup set, entering its password when prompted, choosing the Options tab, then changing the Password option from "Ask for any access" to "Save for scripted access". Worked on more style guide today: sections 4 and 5 and reviewed everything I did so far. Lunch with Ena and Joel at Sliders Burgers. Prepared USB keys for distribution to staff. Patrick has been writing a new story about someone named Tobias. Dinner at home with Patrick: salad, portobello mushroom sausage with farfalle in Italian tomatoes. Napped. Caught up on e-mail. I felt sick after getting home, probably because of taking vitamins on an empty stomach. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftovers. We talked about money, spending, cities, moving, and apartment prices while waiting for my stomach to feel better. Watched The Simpsons: Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington, which we liked very much—better than the average Simpsons episode.
Thu Apr 17, 2003
Lunch with Patrick at Park Chow: Patrick had iced tea, zucchini soup, small cobb salad. I had a burger and fries. Our server was Bryan. Our table was 84/1 on the upstairs patio. Lunch was perfect except for the screaming child at the neighboring table. Physical therapy appointment with Pinder, which went well—she gave me instructions on how to tape my knee, how to buy shoes, how to exercise my legs without causing problems.
Fri Apr 18, 2003
Woke up at 2:00 AM, couldn't sleep, got up and had ramen and made a few more copies of Patrick's mix CD and created a new template for Avery 8695 or 5931 based on a template design I found on adobestudios.com which didn't work well for me. Went back to sleep. Woke up around 8:30 AM. Ate breakfast, started work (telecommute). Set up Pharmacy Information Day changes. Installed httrack. Style guide: section 5, reorganized a few items to put them in proper categories. Curly fries and corn on the cob for lunch. More style guide work. Joel had a few more PID change requests, so I did those. Groceries at Albertsons. Dinner at home with Patrick: Freschetta pizza from the grocery. Catalogued CD-ROMs. Watched Road to Perdition on DVD, which Sam let us borrow.
Sat Apr 19, 2003
Visited my sister's family in No Mountain View. Dexter, Johnson, and Chika also showed up to celebrate. It was a late birthday party for their son Matthew, who had celebrated his birthday last week with family in southern California. Jeremy has gotten louder. He knows how to say "Patrick" without anyone feeding him the word first. He still knows how to say "I want candy!" Matthew is standing up while holding on to things now. He can take a few steps now and then, but not quite walking. Rob played video for us from the celebration down south. Lani effortlessly prepared a huge meal for everyone: crescent sandwiches with a platter of meats and cheeses, BBQ sausages, spinach salad, multicolor chip cupcakes with chocolate fudge frosting. Johnson and Chika brought impressive homemade spring rolls and peanut sauce. Patrick and I brought homemade chocolate chip cookies, and we helped frost the cupcakes. We talked about Las Vegas, who was going to Corinna's forthcoming wedding, what everyone thought of her fiancee Patrick, Patrick's learning Mandarin, my mom and dad. Visited Glenn Cochran and Bill Kirby. Tom Worrell had just moved out of Glenn's place. Jon was over helping to rearrange furniture and move Glenn's stuff into the larger bedroom. Glenn gave us the tour since we hadn't see his place since he moved in to Unit B on Fox Court. We had dinner at Suraj, an Indian restaurant near their place. We talked about Madonna, gay porn, Don Don's forthcoming wedding, Lodestar Quarterly, my normalized numbering scheme, mini golf, the attractive busboy.
Sun Apr 20, 2003
Breakfast at home: cereal. Castro errands: mailed packages to Chris and Nate and Tina, potting soil for the medicinal herb seeds that Amy and David bought us. Coffee at Tully's. Lunch at Fuzio: Singapore BBQ pork for both of us. I napped while Patrick did Mandarin studying. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftover Indian food, sea bass, steamed broccoli. We listened to one of the DJ Buc CDs that Chris De Lay sent us, then a new mix in progress that Patrick is working on.
Mon Apr 21, 2003
Toured office space we may move into on the 9th floor with Cindy and James. Lunch with Joel at Pomelo. Web steering meeting. Style guide. Listserv management. Dinner at home with Patrick: fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob. Filled out more of the All About Us book. I paid bills and took care of money paperwork.
Tue Apr 22, 2003
Cereal for breakfast. Some exercise before a shower. Arrived at the bus stop at 8:20 AM because the 8:30 bus has been leaving at 8:25 lately. The 8:30 bus does not show up. I wait and wait. Three elderly Asian women give up waiting and start walking toward Taraval, probably to catch the L train. I wait and wait and wait and finally the 8:50 bus shows up. An elderly Asian man with a cane boards the bus, making an effort to bridge the 3-foot gap between the curb and the bus. The bus driver does not bother to make the bus kneel. This bus, like all the others, is filthy. If I took a white glove and wiped the surfaces of the inside of the bus, I could make it coal black in about 3 minutes. During the whole ride, I can't help thinking about how much people in San Francisco suffer from injustices like these. By the time I get to work, it's 9:25 am, and I'm in a foul mood because of the bus ride and because of the sad state of our finances and my quality of life. Our recent bills have made us realize that we can't afford even to remain healthy in this city. We recently got new glasses for me that I needed but we really couldn't afford. Patrick has postponed the dental procedures he needs. I am reminded of two truths: We will never own a home in this city. We will never prosper here. I feel like giving 2 weeks notice on my job and just packing up and leaving, but I know that's foolish. Still, I can't think what else can be done. Rents aren't dropping enough, and my salary certainly isn't likely to go up anytime soon. I feel trapped, and I want to scream at everything that's been unfair to me: UCSF's inability to provide salaries that meet the costs of living, MUNI's inability to effectively run a bus system, landlords and their overinflated rent prices, the person who throws eggs at my car (why me?!). Could I possibly have been happier in Seattle? Sometimes I wonder this. I truly do. Put in changes to the pharmaceutical care pathway schedule and requirements for Cindy. Subway sandwich for lunch. Made lots of changes to the admissions section for James because PharmCAS is going live soon so we need to update his section of the site. Lots of hairy changes. Ugh!
Wed Apr 23, 2003
Changes for Cindy, including the block calendar for 2003-2004 and adding a note that graduation requirements can change to the curriculum overview. Stylesheet tweaks to add space above and below box elements and to create an h3 flushtop style and to make minor adjustments for Mac users. Fixed broken links caused by Student Health Services redesigning their site. Lunch with Ena and Joel at Pasta Pomodoro, which was participating in the Dine Out for Life campaign to benefit the Stop AIDS Project. Group photo with the office staff. More changes for James. For example, he wants to remove all references to the application workshop, change the title of step 1 from Admissions Requirements to Minimum Eligibility Requirements, move the computer requirements from step 1 to a later step. All fine, it just takes time. Dinner at home with Patrick: chicken pad thai.
Thu Apr 24, 2003
Created a poster for Cindy using yesterday's group photo. Resolved problems: Ena couldn't get PharmAdMIT to print a letter correctly—I did some voodoo and the problem went away. Debrah couldn't print to her printer but we tried and now it works without me doing anything. Chris had trouble logging on to the domain—I removed him from the domain, then readded, now it's fine. James got garbage when printing a PDF file to the LaserJet 4000, so I installed the PostScript driver for him and had him use that, which works. Reconfigured the laptop to resolve problems with wireless networking—people couldn't log on when they were in a wireless area but they could when outside of a wireless area. Also, on the laptop, Sophos was giving trouble: "WARNING: Useful life of Sophos Anti-Virus of 4 months has been exceeded. After this date it may not discover current viruses. (OK) (Cancel)" Trouble is that the problem happens even if I reinstall from the network using the current version. I reinstalled again, this time unchecking the "prevent removal" switch. Went to Add/Remove Programs Control Panel—Sophos is listed as version 3.68—the current version. However, when I click Remove to remove it, the dialog that appears says version 3.61—somehow it was hanging on to an old version. Restarted. Removed remaining files in the Sophos directory then removed the directory itself. Emptied the recycle bin. Searched for all occurrences of "sophos" on the computer—there were none. Restarted. Reinstalled from the network choosing a new installation (not an upgrade). No "useful life" warning this time, but when I check in Sophos Admin it still didn't copy over the 14 IDE files I expected. Sophos log file called sweep.txt has an error: "At least one of the virus data files is missing." Found a problem in my updated IDE files script—a line was commented out when it shouldn't've been. The problem about the IDE files not copying over is now solved, but Sophos still gives the "useful life" warning when I try to run the app on each workstation. Something is still not right. The problem doesn't happen on the workstation I just updated, so I copied its configuration to all the other computers using Sophos Admin and now everything works like it should. Met with Cindy—she wants me to start on the student directory project and have it go live before fall.
Fri Apr 25, 2003
Worked from home: style guide. Dinner at Jamie's with Jamie, Patrick, Joanne, Brock, Kai, Iku: ordered Indian food.
Sat Apr 26, 2003
Exercise, breakfast, cleaned the house, did link checking, updated my resume Web site, did cost of living research and ACCRA data gathering. Talked about cost of living data. Dinner at home with Patrick: ham and swiss sandwiches, leftover fried chicken. Watched Arhats in Fury on DVD.
Sun Apr 27, 2003
Cereal for breakfast. Patrick and Sam did sword practice. Dim sum lunch with Don and Jenna at Kan's. We got to meet Jenna for the first time, and they were counting down 26 days until their wedding. They had a dance class for the wedding scheduled in San Francisco, so we conveniently met them before their class. They have a honeymoon planned the day after the wedding: London and France. We talked about what food they'll have at the wedding and other wedding plans, travelling in Europe, my Web sites, college pals and who's having new babies (Aaron and Lisa Labowitz, Doug and Gloria Steckman—both couples are on baby #2 [no one told me about Sabrina—Doug and Gloria's first child, now 3 years old!]), Don's employer Tivo (which he says is doing well now after some hard times), our health (everyone nothing serious to worry about fortunately). After lunch we walked through Union Square looking at art for sale. It was perfect to see them both before the wedding. I asked both of them how stressed out they are on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being most stressed. Don said 4, Jenna said 6. Not too bad, I thought. It had been several years since I last saw Don. In some ways, he has hardly changed at all in the 15 or so years I've known him, and I think that's a really good thing. Nightmare pizza order with Domino's: We ordered a large mushroom pan pizza and an order of cinnamon dots. When the order arrived, they gave us a medium mushroom regular pizza and an order of cinnamon dots. I called and complained, so they said to take the dots and give the pizza back to the driver, which we did, and they'd send us the right pizza. We waited another 40 minutes and we got a large pan pizza. I paid the driver before checking the box—stupid me—it was a cheese pizza—not mushroom. I called again to complain and they said they'd send the right pizza again and this time it was free. Another 40 minutes later, the correct pizza finally arrived. I was so upset I couldn't eat more than 2 slices. Patrick sitting across the table from me wanted to console me, so he reached across to take my hand and he got pizza grease all over himself! Ha ha ha ha! That made me laugh so much it got me out of my sour Domino's mood. But I'll still never order from the Sunset one again (415-681-8100, 3116 Noriega). They got our order wrong once before, too—we think because someone with a thick foreign accent answered the phone to take our order. That one time should have taught us, but now we know: never again! Worked on frankfarm.com makin it very very spiffy—better colors, better templatization, better code. Not launched yet—maybe another 3 weeks of work and it should be done. There's some new content that needs to be written.
Mon Apr 28, 2003
I got a lot done at work today. Oh, before I start on that I have to tell you about the bus ride this morning. We were on Quintara and at—I think—26th. The bus driver picked up 2 people, then closed the door. Before she started off, however, someone ran up from behind the bus. It was obvious the driver saw the woman at the door, but she honked her horn and just drove off. Not like regular, mind you—she took off fast, as though the woman trying to get on the bus had SARS. I knew this bus driver was mean because she's the same one who doesn't let us off at 8th and Judah because technically there's no stop there but she'll make everyone get out where there's no stop at 9th and Judah because she has to turn right to pee. I'd seen her totally miss seeing the elderly Chinese couple that gets on a few stops before Abraham Lincoln high school. That time I was sitting in the back of the bus and I looked out the back window to see them staring at the bus. I watched them get smaller and smaller until I couldn't see them anymore. Today the bus driver had crazy sneezing fits that I'd never seen her have before, so I guess she must have been ill with a cold, but that's no excuse for the raw meanness she exhibited today. When I leave San Francisco and someone tells me this is a great city, I'll have this bus driver story like an ace in my hand to pull out—this city turns people mean for no discernable reason, of that I'm certain. At work I uploaded the new PDF of the academic calendar for 2003-2004. I followed up on inactive e-mail account holders. I bought and installed Acrobat for Kristina. Got cash and bought Muni passes. Drafted an e-mail to some other Web developers at UCSF asking for a peer review of the style guide I had written. Uninstalled spyware from Cindy's computer. Reinstalled Acrobat 5.0.5 on my computer. (I had been trying to get rid of the Acrobat toolbar which wastefully takes up a whole bar for just 2 icons, but when I removed the toolbar all the Acrobat features inside Word disappeared.) Showed Cindy how to use her new 64 MB USB keychain drive—a Sony Micro Drive. Finished the first draft of the Larry L. Sautter award application, sent it to Cindy and Susie for review. Dinner at home with Patrick: his first time making chow mein—it's very tasty: Chinese chicken, shrimp, garlic, ginger, green onions, sauce, vinegar, Chinese cabbage, enoki mushrooms. Patrick has been playing the newest Madonna album a lot—American Life. Clearly he likes it. On every Madonna album there's 1 song he doesn't like. On this one, it's the song called "I'm So Stupid." He's also been growing the medicinal herbs using the kit that Amy and David bought him. The faintest traces of sprouts are coming up now and he's excited about it, watching them every day, breathing on them to make them come up faster ("so they get more carbon dioxide").
Tue Apr 29, 2003
Today I showed up for the 8:30 bus at 8:20 AM because it had been leaving early sometimes. But instead today it showed up late at 8:40, so I waited 20 minutes instead of 10. Usually when the bus driver does his or her job correctly and waits until 8:30, I can walk out to the bus stop 1 or 2 minutes before and not wait long. Today I waited between 10 and 20 times longer than normal. There is no justice in this city! Conferenced with Susie over the phone. Made proposed changes to the home page, then sent it out to Lisa Magargal and Martha Fitzgerald for review. Lisa liked them, but Martha wanted to try some of her own designs. Incorporated Susie's changes to the Sautter application. Lunch in the office with Joel and Ena: Round Table pizza delivered: mushroom, olives, pepperoni. Helped Chris with the microphone input on his laptop: he wasn't sure it was working and didn't know about Sound Recorder. Admissions changes for James: still coming along nicely. I found it for him and demonstrated that everything was working just as it should. Dinner at home with Patrick: chicken chow mein. Worked on frankfarm.com.
Wed Apr 30, 2003
The 8:30 bus was 10 minutes late again today. Admissions changes for James. The power went out in the whole office around 11:10 AM. We sat around and did nothing but watch Joel pack infoday folders. Chris said if the power was still out at 1:00 PM we all could go home for the day. Joel and I left for lunch around 12:15—the power was still out. We ate at Nan King Road Bistro. When we got back, the power was back on. Finished up changes for James. Went to the Web developers meeting in Toland Hall. John, Beth, and Carol spoke—all great presentations. I met Gilbert Guerrero, a Web developer from Human Resources, and Cynthia (didn't get her last name) who is working with Valentina at the School of Medicine. Scanned in a Miss America photo for Joel. Leftovers at home for dinner by myself; Patrick went to a play tonight. Worked on my Web site. Tried calling Tina, who had an erotic emergency and needed help with Windows Media Player—she could hear but not see avi files. I discover today by googling on ["frank farm" adobe] that someone named Ben Klocek is linking to frankfarm.com but I don't know who he is. More googling reveals that he runs murioi.com and is a student at Sonoma State in the 707 area code, but I still don't know who he is or why he thought my site was cool enough to link to. Patrick went to see the play called Mysterious Skin, hanging out with Prince Gomolvilas afterwards (and probably Scott Heim as well—I didn't go so I don't know the details).