June 2003
Summary: Patrick goes to Arcata, UCSF School of Pharmacy graduation dinner at Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotel, anal sex is legal!, Patrick's first gay pride festival (but not parade)
Dates on this page
Sun Jun 1, 2003
Late lunch at Ti Couz (415-252-7373, 3108 16th Street), delicious crepes in the style of northern France's Brittany region. Patrick had sausage and swiss, a glass of iced tea. I had smoked salmon, a glass of water. About US$20. Dessert at Tartine Bakery (415-487-2600, 600 Guerrero Street): Patrick had Sharffen Berger chocolate pudding, a latte. I had a slice of cake with strawberries, a glass of water. Delightful perfection. Both desserts were very fresh. About $11. Napped. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftover yellow curry chicken. Shopped for a way to put our MP3 music in the car, but didn't find anything good. I want an player that will accept Microdrives in-dash, but the only thing I found was Clarion Joyride, which is $2700 retail—yikes!. It has a lot of features I don't want (like DVD). I'm not really serious about it—just checking to see what's available. Guess I'll have to keep waiting.
Mon Jun 2, 2003
8:30 AM bus arrived and left at 8:34 AM. I caught the 8:50 AM bus instead (but I heard the other bus go by earlier). The bus driver has a new hairstyle which looks great. I complimented her on it. Alumni changes for Susie. Graduation section changes with Joel. Lunch with Joel at You See Sushi. Admissions changes with James. Chatted with Chris about the Microsoft Campus Agreement fallout. This evening the 8:00 PM bus showed up at 8:06. The driver let people on the bus, then got out and went to the corner market for a bottled water. We left 9th and Judah at 8:09 PM. Today we received a replacement drawer pull for our Restoration Hardware Mission Mule Chest. They didn't charge us a penny, so I don't mind that it took a fair amount of work with their customer service department to get it. After some back and forth with e-mailing their customer service, they said they would send us a replacement. However, they presumed that the address in their computer was where I was still living. I e-mailed them back in a panic with my current address, and they corrected the delivery address. Sure enough, when the package arrived, it had one shipping label slapped on top of another. I peeled it back and it showed my old address: 302 Junipero Serra Blvd. Dinner at home with Patrick: shrimp and fresh tuna with wide Asian noodles.
Tue Jun 3, 2003
8:30 AM bus arrived and left on time today. Helped Joel with font substitution. Helped Debrah with printing envelopes. Spent the rest of the day working on Web changes. Graduation pages went live. Alumni pages went live. Lunch at desk: leftover noodles from last night. Made more mods to the admissions section, sent more URLs to James for review. Sorted assorted files that had gathered in a holding folder. Started cleaning up my cluttered bulletin board. Patrick left today on his retreat to Arcata (you say Ahr-KA-duh, I say Ahr-KAH-TA, let's call the whole thing off). He returns next Monday afternoon. I'm miss him already, and I haven't even started cooking dinner yet. The 6:30 PM bus arrived and left on time today. Dinner at home by myself: leftover yellow curry chicken. Listened to Abstract Beats on spinner.com while catching up on e-mail and news. Installed a hosts file to get rid of banner ads once and for all (well, mostly)! Hooray!
Wed Jun 4, 2003
Did a lot of chores after waking up this morning. Exercise. Breakfast burrito, tater tots, and orange juice at Burger King—ugh! Alumni changes from Susie. Hid e-mail addresses from spammers throughout about a third of the Web site. Verified e-mail notification of database problems. Used mod_rewrite to make cleaner URLs in the Medicine Question of the Month and Glossary. Julie had some emergency rebooting of the dev server to do, went to lunch while she fixed the problems. Lunch at Nan King Road Bistro: double happiness. Picked up groceries on the way home at 5th and Irving. They had the first summer cherries for US$1.49; I could not resist and bought a few. Discovered that linklint has been skipping some of my files, don't know why. Did some digging and increased linklint's limit to 2000 (from the default of 500). Sounds about right—our site passed 500 pages a few months ago. Ran it. Bingo! All better now. Checked envelope printing from Debrah's computer—all is well. Dinner at home by myself: deli-sliced chicken breast sandwiches with red leaf lettuce and tomatoes. Cherries for dessert. Got a lot of small tasks done: labelled some CD-ROMs, wrapped a present for Debrah, cleaned up some in the kitchen, changed the battery in the mantle clock, organized the big closet putting all of our packing materials and supplies into one big box, paid bills, took digital photos of things I want to sell on eBay, shredded some old documents, did some buying research for patellofemoral pain management and inkjet cartridges for our new Epson CX5200. Prepared a package to send to Rob and Lani.
Thu Jun 5, 2003
Exercise. At work, we celebrated Debrah's birthday, which is coming up soon. I gave her a baby orchid, Joel brought 2 huge platters: one of fresh strawberries and melon with a yogurt dip and another platter of fresh apple slices and a caramel dip. Cindy brought bagels. Kristina gave Debrah tiny pin-on buttons of one of her dogs. Researched Acrobat forms—there seems to be no way to create forms easily from within Word or Excel and have the form fields convert to PDF form fields automatically. If there was a way, I could not find it (and Adobe certainly didn't make it easy for me to find out how). Lunch at desk, tho I only ate half of 1 of the 2 deli-slice chicken sandwiches I brought because of the bagel I had eaten. Afternoon: admissions changes for James. Patrick calls me from Arcata around 3:00 PM. He says he's been doing a lot of driving; he forgot how much he likes driving. Room 322 at Hotel Arcata is comfortable. He's been taking a bath every day. His rental car had cat food spewed in the trunk from the previous renter. He said he fed squirrels the cat food, and I gave him shit about how that's not a great thing to do because it creates dependencies on humans that those animals shouldn't have. He said that the squirrels came right up to him like they were used to being fed food, so it wasn't him creating the problem. Ha! Helped Joel and Cindy with the Student Awards and Recognition Ceremony. The 7:30 PM bus arrived and left on time. Put an item for sale on eBay for the first time in perhaps over a year. There are so many more options than before! I'm exhausted! The item I'm selling is an old copy of Adobe PressReady; when I left Adobe I thought it might be useful to have in case I switched inkjet printers, but alas the product is now discontinued. After watching a few copies sell for $20 on eBay, I decided it's worth more to me as cash than anything else. Especially since we just bought a new printer (Epson CX5200) and it's not supported by PressReady. Got a wonderfully lengthy update from Chris De Lay about what's going on in his life. Got an e-mail from Brian Lewis saying he likes my journal (he says "diary"—whatever!). Is this blewis from Adobe or someone else? I replied to find out and to thank him for his comments. Ate the uneaten lunch sandwiches for dinner. Read M2M: New Literary Fiction while listening to various stations (Electronica, Abstract Beats, New Wave, Old Skool) on spinner.com. Realized that the title of that book: "M2M: New Literary Fiction" is not going to seem so new after a year or so—what were they thinking? In the introduction, the editor, Karl Woelz, holds exactly the same snobby opinion that Patrick does: that there's a distinction between "literary fiction" and all other fiction—a distinction that Patrick himself cannot define precisely but which has something to do with an assumption that certain kinds of fiction (science fiction, horror, fantasy) cannot also be literary fiction. I don't agree, but I'll entertain his fancy until more evidence (or even a definition) can be provided. It was Rob's birthday today, too. He and I traded e-mail—he needed advice about redesigning the Stem Cells Web site. I pointed him to Web Redesign by Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler and gave a few other pointers, wished him a happy birthday.
Fri Jun 6, 2003
Did research on PDF forms—trying to find a way to streamline and de-paperize the supplemental application portion of our process. Conclusion: In the long run, everything ought to be Web-based and secured. PDF might still play a role; I need to know more from James about workflow and their reviewing process before I can decide. Before that can happen, we need to set up SSL for our site. For now, we have 2 choices. Choice A: nothing changes from our old routine: students will download and print blank PDF forms, fill them out with typewriter or pen, then mail them in, someone (who?) will manually count words to ensure students haven't gone over our word count limit. (This last piece is the most embarassing.) Choice B: we supply a PDF with form fields, students download the PDF and fill out the form inside Acrobat, they print them out and mail them in. No manual word counting is necessary because our form fields will have character limits set inside Acrobat. One problem: People who have only Acrobat Reader cannot save the PDF while working. Modified the School of Pharmacy organization chart for Susie and Sarah, sent it out for review, got an okay from Sarah, had some questions for Susie before making the changes live, we'll talk on Monday. I realized today while reading Joe Clark's Web site then using m-w.com that "countenance" is not only a noun, but also a transitive verb. Weird! His grammatically correct usage: "I doubt you would countenance racism, sexism, or anti-Semitism on your Web site." However, I must say one more thing about Joe Clark's writing (and I might have said this in the past, but here goes...) He frequently writes tangentially but conveniently puts those accessory words in parentheses. They're all over the place, and it is perhaps the most annoying thing about his writing. It made me wish that Opera (or any browser for that matter, but Opera is the most likely to have it) had a mode which removed all text within (and including the) parentheses. I wonder by how many pages his book would shrink if the publisher printed a "no parentheticals" version—kind of like a large print version only different. (A little in-joke there, get it? (You didn't know that in-joke was hyphenated, did you? Holy parens! I have Joe-Clark-parenism!)) Late lunch at home by myself: pork and shrimp wonton soup with fish balls. Read Joe's book on joeclark.org. Talked with Patrick, who said he wrote 15 pages today (or was that yesterday)? Fun fact: There are 55,400 pages in the world titled "Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6" and 211,000 pages titled "Welcome to Adobe GoLive 5" and 169,000 titled "Welcome to Adobe GoLive 4". Searching on "Welcome to Adobe GoLive 3" gives only 1 hit: a blog entry on blork.org for Friday, November 16, 2001 in which blork exactly what I'm reporting here, only different numbers: GoLive 5 = 113,000. GoLive 4 = 181,000. GoLive 3 = zero! The box of PressReady I put up on eBay yesterday is now at $46! I started it at $15 and wasn't expecting it to sell for more than $20. Hooray! Chris De Lay sent me an e-mail today with this in it: "Tivo is the best thing since... since... SEX!"
Sat Jun 7, 2003
Exercise. Breakfast at Tennessee Grill. Picked up a razor at Walgreens. Picked up a book at the public library: First Meetings by Orson Scott Card. Tried to find Office Depot in Potrero Center but couldn't find it—if only Patrick had been with me! Groceries at Church and Market Safeway. Sandwich at home. The woman who bid $46 (or was it $42?) asked to let me cancel her bid because she mistakenly thought it was for Mac not Windows. I guess I didn't have to let her out of it, but I did. So my auction is back at $15—the starting price and with one bidder who bid $15. Oh, well! Sent feedback to Office Depot: "The map to store SAN FRANCISCO #946 is very misleading and caused me to not find your store. I found out after I got home that if your map were accurate as drawn, your Office Depot store would take up 4 city blocks (from Shotwell to Florida). I got in my car thinking "Okay, it's not far from 16th and Mission"—got to 16th and Mission, drove past the intersection a while, and couldn't find it. Kept driving 2 more blocks, couldn't find it. Your map would be a lot more accurate if it said Bryant instead of Mission (and I don't know if the Costco would then remain on the map). Or better yet, partner with Mapquest or someone else who can provide more accurate maps that are interactive. Please send my feedback to the supervisor of the person or team that designed your maps. Thanks!" Spent the afternoon putting listings on eBay for ink cartridges from our now-dead Lexmark 5700. It's a tough market for ink jet cartridge sellers! Packed up for mailing the sandwich bag and ice pack that Lani had let us borrow. Fondue party at Randy's place. I arrived at 7 PM—1 hour late—but only his co-worker Irene was there. We waited another 90 minutes or so and Jamie and Aaron showed up, too. Randy's other friends who said they'd come all flaked—poor Randy! The fondue was a lot of fun. He had two fondue dips—one plain and one with shrimp, both based on Swiss gruyere. There were 2 kinds of meats, pork and lamb, which Aaron cleverly called "oink 'n' boink" ("boink" coz some people boink sheep, I guess). The meats were cooked in a hot oil fryer right on the table. 3 dips: chipotle, mixed spices, and mint vinaigrette. Vegetables: roasted potatoes, roasted (or sauteed?) mushrooms, broccoli, bread. After the savory course and a bit more cooking and cleaning (while Aaron and Jamie retired to the deck to smoke - ha!), we enjoyed the dessert fondue: one of chocolate, one of mixed berries. An entire jar of Nutella was also available for room temperature dipping. The sweets were: pound cake, strawberries, bananas, and pears. Yum! Jamie passed out for a while partway through. Around 11 PM it was time to end the party. Randy and Irene walked me back to my car, we ran a tobacco errand for Randy, dropped him off at home, and I gave Irene a ride back to her home on Nob Hill.
Sun Jun 8, 2003
House chore day. Biscuits and soup for breakfast. Cut my hair. Cleaned the range. Laundry. Early dinner: pork and shrimp wonton soup with fish balls. Ate cherries all day. Read from First Meetings. Ordered drug store stuff from walgreens.com. Installed security updates on frankfarm.org whilst catching up on e-mail. Researched setting up a new server for home. Backed up the server. Trivia: Searching google on "whole thing sorted out" gives only 168 results. (I was expecting more of this overused phrase.) In contrast, "getting all worked up" gives 5,120 results. Checked out cbardcole.com (because Aaron complained last night that's the site that shows up when he googles on his own name)—it's charming. A fun way to meet Mr. Cole and his friends. Soup. More trivia: "you do the math" gives 50,700 results. "no, you do the math" gives 3 results (and one of them is a false positive: "'Hey Frog, I said will you marry me?' 'I SAID, NO, NO, NO!!' (you do the math.)"). It amazes me how often people use the expression "you do the math" when there is no math involved. Sleep.
Mon Jun 9, 2003
8:30 AM bus arrived and left at 8:35 AM. Slice of pizza for lunch. Met with Susie in the afternoon. Dinner at Eric's with Patrick: sizzling rice soup, walnut prawns, moo goo chicken, steamed rice. My fortune: That special someone loves to see the light in your eyes. 05 15 26 35 39 15. His fortune: Good things will come to you in due time. 08 18 21 26 39 18.
Tue Jun 10, 2003
Got e-mail today from Janelle Flodder at Office Depot: "Frank, Thank you very much for your suggestion to OfficeDepot.com. We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us. Please note that we have made several changes to our website based on valuable input such as yours. Should you have any additional concerns, please feel free share them with us. Have a great day! Janelle Flodder"
Wed Jun 11, 2003
Patrick and Aaron went to a reading by Tom House in the evening, so when I got home (late) I made ramen with vegetables.
Thu Jun 12, 2003
Panda Express at my desk for lunch. Went to a San Francisco Bay Area Higher Education Web Professionals meeting. It was Beth Berrean's idea to go, and she convinced to other UCSF Web developers, Valentina Bettencourt and Gilbert Guerrero, to go as well. She drove us down in her Volkswagen station wagon, and we got dinner at Long Life Noodle Company in Stanford Shopping Center before the meeting started at 7:00 PM. It was still sunny, and it was like a revelation to see the sun again after our many days of being stuck in San Francisco's constant fog. We arrived at the meeting late (because we inadvertently got lost). We missed the first presentation, but enjoyed the rest by Scott Stocker, Judith Blankman, and Paul Nozica. After the meeting, I met Scott Stocker and Judith Blankman from Stanford and chatted with them a bit. I would have stayed longer to meet more people, but the rest of my UCSF group was tired and wanted to go. Beth graciously dropped each of us off at our homes—she was so nice to drive and even refused my contribution to her car maintenance fund. After getting home, I find out that my copy of Adobe PressReady for Windows sold for $76 (!). Who knew?!
Fri Jun 13, 2003
Panda Express at my desk for lunch. Dinner at home with Patrick: salmon, giant baby bok choy, steamed rice.
Sat Jun 14, 2003
I haven't been keeping up with the journal lately. Work has been boring, the weather has been unusually overcast, my eyes have been itchy, and MUNI switched the awful driver away from our route so our bus has been more on time than I normally expect. Consequently I've had essentially nothing to write about. I've been researching new Web hosting for the School but there are too many options and not enough direction above (yet) regarding the future of our information technology structure, so I can't choose an option that will last us several years. I must choose something temporary because it's the only thing that fits in with the current knowns. Last night I dreamt I was at some kind of amusement park attending some event such as a festival or family picnic. I saw Janelle Carey, a friend of mine from high school. She still had her yellow flipped-back hair and attractive smile. I said hello and she did the same. And Laura Dickens was there, too. We chatted a while, and then I decided I wanted an ice cream cone. No one else wanted one, so I said I'd be back and went to find where the ice cream was being sold. I walked a long time past crowds of people eating picnicky foods at umbrellaed tables with curved benches. It was much farther than I had expected, but eventually I found the place and looked up at the sign listing the flavors. There were about 10, mostly the standards: vanilla, chocolate, and so forth. I choose one called berry and that's when the dream ended. Today was the first sunny day in a long time, so Patrick and I spent the day out. We had cereal for breakfast, but then we went to the Castro for brunch. Patrick had wanted pancakes, so we ate at Baghdad Cafe, but he changed his mind at the last minute and got gumbo with a biscuit and iced tea instead. I got fried chicken, corn, a biscuit, and hot tea. After brunch we got some medical tape for my knee at Walgreens, had tea at the new gourmet tea house on 18th, then hopped over to Cafe Flora for coffee and chai. Patrick read from Dream of the Red Chamber by Tsao Hsueh-Chin. I read and edited fiction for Lodestar Quarterly's forthcoming Issue 5. Bought plant fertilizer at the garden shop on Market, browsed for books in Books Inc. A wonderfully casual day in the Castro. Dinner at home with Patrick: braised cow with green onions and steamed rice. I did the dishes, then gave Patrick a back massage. Did some e-paperwork for some eBay auctions that finished tonight. I made $77 selling stuff we didn't need anymore! Hooray!
Sun Jun 15, 2003
Brunch at Orphan Andy's. Reading and chai at Cafe Flora. Put in Patricia Nell Warren's poetry for Lodestar, sent it to Patrick for review.
Mon Jun 16, 2003
Admissions changes for James. Installed Resource 25 for Debrah and Cindy. Lunch by myself at Burger King. Dinner at home with Patrick: panko tuna with lemon and barbeque sauce (he calls it "fusion", corn on the cob, macaroni and cheese). Put in poetry for Lodestar, sent it to Patrick for review.
Tue Jun 17, 2003
Couldn't work on Lodestar today—tcsh disappeared!
Wed Jun 18, 2003
Oatmeal for breakfast. Worked on Lodestar: Put in half of the fiction. Dinner at home with Patrick: shrimp chow mein. Dessert from Tart to Tart: chocolate eclair.
Thu Jun 19, 2003
Exercise, oatmeal. Admissions changes for James. Graduation planning meeting. Templates section work. Tonight was the School of Pharmacy graduation dinner for our senior class—a dress-up celebration before Saturday's graduation celebration. It was held at the Mark Hopkins Inter-Continental, the Web site for which has not only the world's longest URL for a hotel (san-francisco.california.intercontinental.com) but also the world's tiniest pictures: the largest of only 3 images of the hotel measures 126 pixels square. Sad injustice for what is a beautiful building and a San Francisco landmark and institution. The party was held on the ground floor of the hotel in a back lobby and adjoining large banquet hall. There were about 35 or 40 tables, and a small dance floor. It felt like someone's wedding. The pre-dinner cocktail hour hors d'oeuvres included a complimentary bar (2 drink tickets included in the dinner price, which Cindy generously paid for us staff out of the office budget), mushroom puff pastry triangles, seafood puff pastry triangles, huge prawns with cocktail sauce, roast duck on toast. Dinner: bread and butter; hearts of romaine topped with parmesan, a side of croutons (Kristina got a mixed green salad). Entree choices: COW: filet mignon, scalloped potatoes, squash, yellow and green beans. CHICKEN: breaded chicken boob and (I think) similar sides of vegetables. VEGETARIAN: I can't remember, but I remember it looked good. Desserts: two choices: one was an apple tart tartin with a tiny scoop of vanilla bean ice cream in a fortune cookie cup. the other was white and dark chocolate mousse formed into a half dome on top of a thin layer of chocolate cake then covered with a rich (I think milk) chocolate ganache then topped with a tubular tuile cookie (I don't know what it's called). All the food was very fresh and prepared with excellent care, particularly for such a large banquet dinner. The service staff was confident and competent—a pleasure to have. Our table included: Cindy Watchmaker, Don Kishii and his wife Ruth, Jorge Gomez, Claire Lee, Joel W. Gonzales, Ena Wilson, Kristina Hallett, and Betty-ann Hoener. Don graciously bought a bottle of red and a bottle of white wine for the table. I didn't have alcohol—puts me to sleep, and I don't bother trying to build a tolerance anymore. Class yearbooks were handed out, and they held a small awards ceremony to honor those who helped them along in their education. Everyone in my office got a little something (or more), and staff from other offices and other students got awards and recognition, too. After the ceremony the DJ played dance music. Cindy offered me a ride home all the way to the lower middle Sunset, but she lives in the East Bay and I insisted I wouldn't make her spend 40 minutes taking me all the way home. She dropped me at Powell station, and indeed I had gotten home by 11 PM—not too bad—I hope she did, too.
Fri Jun 20, 2003
Searching Google for "Friendster is evil" gives 4 hits: 2 on hereitype.com, one on mofokdphi's xanga site, and one on phonopsia.co.uk. Two people I know have invited me to join Friendster. I am wary not because I don't want to share an affiliation with the friends who invited me. Just doing a little listening before participating is standard operating procedure for me with any new electronic community. To me, from what I've heard, Friendster seems to foster a culture in which participation—and popularity—is fueled by the fear that you will be judged by the quantity—and looks—of your friends overwhelmingly more than by their many other qualities. Sex sells, and this "who knows who" service is no different, I think. Some people are already mocking it. I found ASCII art of what I believe to be a man's genitals. Above the art are these words: "THE NUMBER OF FRIENDS I HAVE IN MY FRIENDSTER PROFILE IS DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO MY VALUATION OF MY OWN SELF-WORTH." The art also looks like some kind of Star Trek ship, but that wouldn't make any sense. It's probably a man's genitals. Did some reading about information theory. Ordered 2 copies of Tufte's Cognitive Style of PowerPoint—one for the office, one for home. Shopped Stonestown with Patrick for more comfortable dress shoes, but didn't find anything I liked exactly. Nordstrom had a pair I liked, but they were $250 (!). There was another pair I liked by Kenneth Cole New York, but they didn't have my size and I was hoping to have them for tomorrow. We shopped at the other stores, but came up empty. Instead, we found a dress shirt I liked at Nordstrom's and had a tailor alter it. I used the gift certificate that the School of Pharmacy Class of 2003 gave me plus $40 more out of my own pocket. We also bought gourmet underwear at Macy's (on sale only because they forgot to take the sale sign down—it ended before today). Late dinner at home with Patrick: deep-fried pork and shrimp wontons, shrimp chips. It was at this meal that I came up with an idea for a new kind of restaurant. It would be similar to Korean and Japanese barbecues where you cook at the table but instead of a griddle you have a deep fryer set in to the table, somehow made safe from potential hot oil disasters. And instead of it being centered around one ethnicity's cuisine, it's a collection—a celebration!—of all the deep-fried foods of the world. We'd maybe call it "United Fried Foods of the World" and the tagline would be: "Come fry United!" If it's deep-fried, you'd have it! Fried chicken, chicken fried steak, french fries, onion rings, twinkies, wontons, egg rolls, shrimp claws, shrimp chips, Hong Kong noodles, tempura, tofu, mozzarella sticks, fish sticks, beignets, doughnuts, fritters! Oh, the possibilities!
Sat Jun 21, 2003
A busy day. Helped out at the School of Pharmacy graduation ceremony. Gave James a ride home. Made live Issue 6 of Lodestar Quarterly. Celebrated the new issue with dinner with Patrick at Cafe Cuvee (2073 Market St, 415-621-7488). A zillion times we must've passed this small restaurant which curves around the corner at Market and 14th, but only tonight had we remembered it was there and actually went in to try it. It's small, comfortable, and charming. Reminiscent in many respects of the pleasant Cafe Sabika (315 East Pine Street, 206-622-3272) I knew in Seattle. To start, Patrick had a mixed greens salad with gorgonzola and walnuts and vinaigrette. I had a salmon risotto cake. Entrees: Patrick had the coq au vin. I had the honey something chicken. Patrick also had a glass of the house red French. I had just water to drink. For dessert, a semifreddo of slabs of vanilla ice cream with layers of chocolate shavings, crushed hazelnuts, and chocolate cake crumbs nestled within. I found very pleasing the variety of textures in this dessert. Two coffees. Service was occasionally inattentive, but when we got attention it was of excellent quality. Dinner total: about $71 before a $12 tip. Worked on a secret project that Patrick and I thought up—and laughed uncontrollably over—while waiting for the L train in the Church Street station. Somehow I missed this important news which was reported one week ago: a photo of George W. Bush, Jr. riding—and falling off of—a Segway. Hilarious because it's embarrassing to both Bush and Segway at the same time! (You can find it easily by Googling on george bush segway.) Trivia du jour: I am roughly the same height as Jet Li. Ke Huy Quan is about 2 inches taller than me and Jet.
Sun Jun 22, 2003
Watched Adaptation on DVD with Patrick.
Mon Jun 23, 2003
Fine-tuning graduation documents. Hiring guide changes for Susie. Late lunch with James at Burger King. Admissions changes for James. Dinner at home with Patrick: homemade char siu, steamed rice, corn on the cob. Set up SpamVault on Lodestar. Upgraded the account from 25 MB to 100 MB.
Tue Jun 24, 2003
Scanned slides and photos for Susie, then retouched them. Changes to templates section for Susie. Printed out all of the admissions section for James. Lunch with Martha Fitzgerald. We talked about her new baby girl, her partner Ellen, her dog Kasha, life in Public Affairs, change management as it relates to project management, campus signage. Set up or began process for Melissa H's various accounts. Chatted with Marie Parfitt-Pattie about her image needs for a new alumni site. Dinner at home with Patrick: mystery chicken with red bell peppers, steamed asparagus, steamed rice. Wrote in the All About Us book. Tweaked SpamVault. Read the Mauritius and United States entries in Wikipedia.
Wed Jun 25, 2003
Hot weather today, maybe in the 80s. Fire alarm drill (boring). Lunch at desk: Subway chicken breast sandwich. Met with Susie. Admissions changes for James all day. Dinner at home by myself (Patrick was at a Mandarin speakers event at the new tea house on 18th): chicken ramen with 3 greens (baby bok choy, Napa cabbage, spinach). Caught up on e-mail. Watched Baraka on DVD.
Thu Jun 26, 2003
Hot again today. Lots of broken links to parking services because www.cas.ucsf.edu restructured without warning. Admissions changes for James. Another hot day. Lunch with Patrick at You See Sushi. Dinner at home with Patrick: hong kong chow mein with 3 animals (shrimp, chicken, bbq pork). Napped on the couch after helping Patrick clean up—worn out! Martha Fitzgerald sent a lovely baby announcement for their little girl Rose. Got a Jamba Juice card from my dentist Dr. Lee for referring James to her. Listened to Spinner (aka Netscape Radio): abstract beats, ambient, jungle/d&b.
Fri Jun 27, 2003
Yoga at home in the morning. Worked from home today. Would have worked on admissions changes for James but didn't get the new document he said he'd send me. Instead (not like I don't have anything else to do) I worked on the Student Directory on the Web statement of work—now retitled the "project plan" to keep it simple. Lots of edits to adjust for the compression of schedule and the removal of meetings that it seems no one wants to go to. Just say the words "committee" or "meeting" and watch the faces cringe with horror! Sent round heads up e-mails to potential reviewers of the project plan. Made the new graduation class photo page live for Joel and Cindy. Put Debrah's vacation notice in place—she's gone for 3 weeks. Dinner at Four Season with Patrick: potstickers, Lover's Dynasty, steamed rice. It was our first time trying the Lover's Dynasty: large sweet and sour shrimp on one side, chicken and snow peas on the other, separated with a row of sliced lemon—wonderful! Potstickers were very good—full of air on the inside, which I'm not used to, but the amount of meat was still acceptable. My fortune: A new adventure awaits you this weekend. Patrick's fortune: Nothing is difficult if one preservers. (Yes, that's exactly how they spelled "perseveres.") Went over to Jamie's to meet Jamie and Aaron before the reading tonight. Discovered that Martha, my co-worker and senior graphic designer for UCSF, lives just behind Jamie's place. We could look down from Jamie's rear window and see her front door. I remembered her address from the baby announcement she sent us just this week. Jamie even kinda knows them, too: "Oh, you mean the two women who just had a baby?" I'll have to remember to let Martha know the next time I see her. Reading at Books, Inc.: Trebor Healey read from "Sacajawea" and Felice Picano read from "An Encounter With the Sybil"—both stories from M2M—with an introduction by Krandall Kraus. These were, coincidentally, my 2 favorites from this new collection of short stories. Trebor's has a simply fantastic fantasy ending that I find unforgettable. Felice's has that indelible aura of Europe feeling so otherworldly. A pleasure to simply sit and listen and be taken to new places. The hunky guy on the cover of the book was also there—Krandall pointed him out, I think to the guy's embarrassment. I looked over and was not too surprised to see that he was exactly my height—about 5 foot 6. Not surprised because Chris De Lay and I already had pegged him as being exactly Chris's type just from the photo. However, Patrick said later (and I'd disappointingly have to agree) that the guy was more attractive in the photo than in real life. I didn't say it (because it wouldn't've mattered to Patrick) but the guy still had a nice smile and a friendly demeanor that I liked. Patrick joked that I should have gotten his phone number for Chris. Ah, the fleeting fantasies of gay men materialize and vanish in the same breath. Anyhow, I think Krandall said the guy's name but I didn't catch it. A few questions from the audience and the reading was over and turned over to book signing. We decided to depart. Aaron was feeling crotchety because the recent heat stirred up all the allergens and bothered his sinuses, so he and Jamie went home. Patrick and I had dessert and lattes at Cafe Flore. He had a coconut cake. I had something—I can't remember the name—but it was like tiramisu but had chocolate powder all around the outside and had cherries on the inside. 2 words, I think it sounded Spanish. The thin bottom layer was chocolate cake. The cherries were the best I'd tasted in a dessert in a long time. Afterwards we simply walked around the Castro watching the hundreds of people enjoying the first night of Gay Pride weekend, many of them high on the political victory announced yesterday that the United States Supreme Court struck down laws banning sodomy. It's an important decision, certainly, but it just struck me as a little odd since it was one won by a 17-year battle by 2 gay men in Texas. It didn't take hundreds or millions of people marching with signs saying "SODOMY RIGHTS ARE EQUAL RIGHTS!" or "U.S. OUT OF MY BEDROOM" or "ANAL SEX NOW!" Just 2 men, probably a few lawyers, and all the people and funds supporting them as they tediously ate their way up the chain of courts that make up the bureaucratic American judicial system. The Supreme Court decision had even affected me a little. Or it could have been the very warm weather we've been having. I'd been in perhaps the best mood in weeks. Accidentally tipped the barista at Cafe Flore $2.50 on a bill of $11.50 but then did a Michael O'Brien and said, "Eh, so what?" Oh, by the way, Patrick said earlier today he saw Little Brian from across Market street. Little Brian doesn't deserve such a mention, but then again, he does. Even if that could possibly have made sense to you, it doesn't matter because I'm certain he'll never read this. And even if he did, I'd certainly never hear about it from him.
Sat Jun 28, 2003
Oatmeal for breakfast. Car wash at Divisidaro. Lunch in Berkeley at Barney's gourmet burgers: Patrick had a cheese lover's burger. I had a chicken breast burger. Mixed vegetables basket (mushrooms, onions, and zucchini) deep-fried in vegetable oil so hot that we had to wait until after eating half our burgers for them to be cool enough to eat. I decided that I'd never go back because the woman at the register gave me only 8 cents back from a 20 dollar bill on an $18.92 lunch check. Bought cookies at Virginia Bakery: $12 for a small plate. Walked to the home of Amy, David, and George. Met some cats that live in the neighborhood. Walked Walnut Street to the original Peet's Coffee then visited a nearby park and other local establishments. Went to Andronico's where Amy and David picked up stuff for today's barbecue. Drove a mile or so to the home of their friend Mariko who lives on nearby Short Street. In addition to Mariko, we met Libby, Lee, Alex, and Kristen. The barbecue was held in the backyard and everyone brought something delicious. We had salmon, hot dogs, chicken sausage, tri-tip steak, veggie burgers, tortilla chips and salsa, shrimp and rice noodle vermicelli salad, orzo and dill and feta salad (no olives!), ratatouille and corn salad, sangria with brandy, artichoke dip, cherries, Virginia Bakery cookies. After eating, Libby, Lee, and Alex departed. David removed a hornet's nest (!) from the peephole in Mariko's front door. We played Pictionary: me, Amy, and David lost to Patrick, Kristen, and Mariko. Dropped Amy and David off at home. Got caught in traffic in the Castro because Market Street was blocked off to traffic for Gay Pride. Took an hour to get home—still half as much time as taking BART and MUNI.
Sun Jun 29, 2003
Breakfast at Cafe Rain Tree. Took MUNI to Civic Center, skipping the parade and going directly to the Gay Pride festival. Turns out we caught some of the parade on the TV in Cafe Rain Tree. So technically, Patrick has still never been to a gay pride parade though we initially intended for this to be his first. The best parts about the festival: Fag Friday's stage with Ruben Mancias and David Harness and the jump rope people nearby. Worst things about the festival: $3 for water, cigarette smoke. Patrick ran in to Yasuto and chatted for a few minutes while I was in a Porta-Potty. We drank only a single Red Bull. Got bored after about 90 minutes and went to the Castro where the smaller crowds were a relief. We ate at Nirvana. We were both amazed at the awful service, but it's clear that people here are hired for their looks rather than their intelligence or skills. Example: the guy who brought our entrees dripped a line of sauce from my ramen noodles about a third of the way from the kitchen, leaving the plate edge smeared with the sauce. However, what amazed me more was my notice of the large drop of post-nasal drip that was hanging out of his right nostril when he set the plate down, and I wondered if any had already dripped in to my meal. He had a theme about dripping going on, but if this is truly Nirvana, I'm switching religions! Walked around the Castro a little more, then went home. Napped. Late snack: leftovers from the barbecue.
Mon Jun 30, 2003
Cindy brought orange juice, strawberries, and coffee cake to welcome our new admissions assistant Melissa H. Set her up in her own network account. Prepared fall 2004 schedules for upload. Prepared lists of listservs for tomorrow's changeover of the mailing lists. Converted Laura Myers' QuarkXPress document to InDesign—few problems, just need to get a font from home. More admissions changes for James. Late lunch: Panda Express to go, ate at my desk. My fortune: chow mein, orange chicken, cow with broccoli. Children will play an important role in your life. Windows Updates on Melissa's computer. Installed Microsoft Office, PharmAdMIT 4.0 (aka 2002), and PharmAdMIT 2002 (aka 2003) for Melissa. Dinner at home with Patrick: deep-fried wontons, cold soba noodle salad with shrimp and snow peas. Yummy! Patrick watched Hot Chick on DVD while I went to bed early.