February 2010
Summary: Julianne's 40th birthday party, Macworld 2010, Mardi Gras potluck, DJ Qbert, Nate's homemade pizza
Dates on this page
Mon Feb 1, 2010
Stretches. Breakfast: granola with fresh diced organic gala apple, organic nonfat milk; 12 ounces of apple juice. To work. Responded to a stranger who asked me a question about my unresolved problems with reCAPTCHA. He got his working by resolving problematic DNS entries. Requested an invoice for DrupalCon SF (since our Pcard is supposedly ready as of a few days ago but I don't have time to go to Mission Center Building to pick it up). Facelift project work all day. Staff meeting. Lots of calendar management today. Lunch by myself at Crepevine: fish tacos, potatoes, side caesar salad, water. BSOD troubleshooting and laptop maintenance for student KL. Posted draft spring schedules for Lucia. Forwarded a websteering add request to John K. To home. Dinner at home by myself: leftover fish tacos from lunch; hard tacos; salad with shredded iceberg lettuce, sliced baby beets, sliced red onion, ranch dressing. Web work for Recharge Spa: small edits, added an add-to-address-book feature. The add-to-address-book feature was easier than I thought.
Tue Feb 2, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with fresh diced organic gala apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk; 12 ounces of apple juice. Picked up bialy and focaccia from Arizmendi Bakery. To work. Helped student PG with a listserv problem. SCWG meeting. Office celebration. Calendar management. Facelift project work: made nav parent-titles larger for Susie. Mailing list work. Created a photo sheet for Cindy. Alerted staff to a phishing message. Laptop maintenance for student KL. Dinner at home by myself: soup with mushroom broth, 2 kinds of organic noodles (chow mein and soba), organic forest nameko mushrooms, red onion, garlic, kale, chard, tofu. Chatted with Auntie Helen about importing and exporting contacts. House chores: dishes, laundry. LLGH module update: learned that fckeditor is now ckeditor.
Wed Feb 3, 2010
Stretches. Breakfast: oatmeal with fresh diced organic gala apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk; 12 ounces of V8. Telecommute day. Tried to get an FTP tunnel over SSH working in Windows 7. I tried SSH Secure Shell 3.2.9, Putty beta 0.60, and Bitwise Tunnelier 4.31—none of these worked. Finally got it working with Mindterm 3.3. Facelift project work: began secondary page templates and body styling. Lunch #1: leftover noodle soup. Facelift project work. Lunch #2: leftover noodle soup. Facelift project work. Dinner at home with Patrick: ravioli with marinara sauce, dinner roll, Smart Balance Light, hot water. Small edits for Recharge Spa. Shopped for a new 1U UPS. Talked on the phone with Tina who had a problem with Windows 7 starting up in German. I don't know how we fixed it but we did.
Thu Feb 4, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with organic thompson raisins, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk; 12 ounces of Odwalla orange juice. To work. I had wanted to work on the facelift project today, but other things got in the way. Management activities. Followup with student PG about computer problems. Planned to attend Macworld 2010 Expo. Answered a listserv question for student MH. Chatted with Rodney Y about his pager—he and CBW and I agreed we no longer need to keep that service. Listserv maintenance. Timesheet paperwork for Rodney Y and Eric D. Answered a question from MD about password management. Reserved the shared office laptop for Drupalcon SF. Handed off Partners in D renewal info for domain reg and web hosting. Asked Valerie a question about MCCA renewal. Prepared paperwork for handling credit card payments online for JWG and JCB. Graduation reg form for faculty and staff for CBW—put in changes for 2010 and added Other as a pickup location. Dinner at ? with psychobauble and Nate. Chatted for a bit at their place afterwards.
Fri Feb 5, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with fresh diced organic gala apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk; 12 ounces of V8. To work. Made plans to attend Macworld on Friday, February 12 and possibly Saturday, February 13. Sent JWG a copy of form C as requested. Lots of inbox cleanup. Websteering rsvps. Shuttle to MCB, picked up my university credit card from Jackie G. It's taken a really long time to get it, and it will make purchasing things a lot easier in the future. Got my H1N1 vaccine. Lunch: small caesar salad from Cafe Bellini. Checkpoint meeting with Stephen F, JWG, JCB, CBW—work is coming along nicely, we identified a number of small issues to resolve in the demo. Facelift project work: minor edits for Susie: mega-parent-titles bumped up from 11 points to 12 points, baseline alignment for Top Stories and the top story headline, also prepped for Monday review meeting. Chatted with Susie about Facelift meeting prep. Handed off istockphoto info to Susie. Under 30 items in my inbox! (But some of that was just filing stuff to folders to handle later.) Drinks and appetizers at Bruno's with Quyen, Drew, Phil, and Paul. Afterwards we had dinner at Specchio. The owner worked our table, perhaps talking a tad too long after our entrees arrived, but we enjoyed his enthusiasm nonetheless, and at the end he treated us to a delicious something with a name I can't remember that I think started with a b—he called it an early port, a nice way to finish an Italian meal, and he was right. The pizzas here are thin-crust and the kind that is not easy to pick up—you must eat it with a knife and fork. Not my preference, but I would eat it just the same—it looks fantastic. Stopped at Walgreens on the way home. Patrick leaves today for Vancouver BC to help Joseph's brother Albert move and to learn some TCM stuff from him.
Sat Feb 6, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with fresh diced organic gala apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk; 12 ounces of V8. Lunch: soba noodle soup with egg, tofu, alba clamshell mushrooms, seaweed. Yoga stretches. Weight training: various leg exercises, crunch, superslow dumbbell press, superslow dumbbell fly. Nap. Julianne's birthday at Danae and Julianne's place, did some catching up with them after not seeing them for a long time. Left the party to hang out with quantum13, but he decided he wanted to meet tomorrow instead. Answered this question on Formspring: Question: What's your favorite type of flower? Answer: Iceland poppy.—Answered this question on Formspring: Question: Have you broken any bones? If so, how? Answer: No.—Answered this question on Formspring: Question: Who's the most overrated musician? Answer: I don't follow music and musicians very much anymore, so I don't know the answer to this question.—Answered this question on Formspring: Question: What's the best thing you ever ate? Answer: I have tasted many delicious things in my life, and consequently I think it's impossible to choose only one thing and call that the best, especially without offending anyone who ever cooked for me. Memory and eating is a peculiar thing, I think. Patrick and I enjoyed an amazing multi-course meal at Aqua in San Francisco once but because we included the wine pairing we now cannot easily remember the latter half of the meal. (Well, honestly, I've now forgotten the first half, too.) A dinner at Michael Mina in San Francisco with Patrick, Tina, and Jenny was an elegant whirlwind of flavors and textures executed with flabbergasting precision. I remember the first time I enjoyed eating polenta (Stars Seattle). But great food memories are certainly not always in the more expensive restaurants. I fondly recall a cold noodle black sesame seed salad I enjoyed several times at the (Borders?) bookstore cafe near the walk-through fountain at Westlake Center in Seattle. I enjoy eating yakisoba even though most Japanese restaurants do not offer it. I sometimes lean toward foods that combine multiple flavors, textures, temperatures, etc. without overdoing it. e.g. I might choose chinese chicken salad over caesar, tiramisu over pumpkin pie, and I think I do this because I want to recognize the challenge of the proper execution of complexity and enjoy that when it exists. I know this answer doesn't really answer your question, but it's a more truthful one than if I had picked only one thing.—Answered this question on Formspring: Question: What hangouts in SF would you recommend to visitors looking to absorb the local culture? Answer: I would want to tailor the advice based on the asker. But without knowing more, here are some general suggestions. If there's a farmer's market on this day, start your day early, arriving a little before the market opens, browse the market. If there's no farmer's market, visit the Ferry Building Marketplace instead. Take a walk in Golden Gate Park, Dolores Park, or at Sunset Beach or Baker Beach. Browse in any of the city's many museums, perhaps seeking some of the lesser-known gems like the Cartoon Art Museum. Spend an hour during the day exploring and relaxing in Union Square. If there's a street fair or outdoor public event or any unusual event, visit it even if you think you won't enjoy it. Dine anywhere along Mission or Valencia or in the Castro, favoring places with sidewalk seating near lots of foot traffic. At night, visit most any bar holding a specific event like a show or comedy or live music. After midnight eat at most any 24/7 or late-night eatery like Orphan Andy's, Sparky's, Baghdad Cafe, King of Thai Noodle. Eat at Tartine anytime it is open. Tartine is renowned and revered but there are lots of small, great bakeries all over the city—ask someone for the nearest one that has seating. Specific hangout recommendations: Harvey's, Truck, Lime, Catch, Sweet Jo's Cafe at the Jewish Community Center, Bi-Rite Creamery, Dolores Park, Dolores Park Cafe, Pilsner Inn, Chow on Church, Park Chow, Nightlife at calacademy, Friday nights at the de Young, Asia SF. For Asia SF, reservations might be required long in advance—check on it. These are all places where it's relatively easy to start a conversation with someone local, and that can make all the difference in getting a great visit out of San Francisco. If you are on your own or your party is only 2, eat at the counter instead of a table. Go out of your way to speak to people. Most San Franciscans are reserved but they can bloom quite delightfully when addressed directly. You can easily get most San Franciscans to talk by complaining about Muni. Avoid Pier 39, Ghirardelli Square, Lombard Street, the Powell and Market Cable Car turnaround—anything catering specifically to tourists. That stuff is arguably local culture and it can be fun, but it's usually manufactured or packaged in a way that doesn't show the true nature of the city, and most everyone doing that stuff is not local.—Answered this question on Formspring: Question: If you could be invited to one person's birthday party, whose would it be? Answer: This is another one of those questions that is designed to offend someone no matter how you answer. I would like to say the creator of our universe, but I don't know that anyone can say for certain that the creator of our universe is a person. Even then, what kind of concept is "birthday" to an entity that created our universe? I don't follow celebrities, and although I admire or have admired some people I don't form very strong attachments to any particular notable people enough to name someone specifically.
Sun Feb 7, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with organic flame raisins, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk; 8 ounces of Odwalla orange juice. Stretches. Weight training: shrug and other exercises. Grocery shopping at Safeway. Cheese rice snacks; mini pizzas with basil garlic marinara sauce, organic monterey jack cheese, and sliced mushrooms; 8 ounces of Odwalla carrot juice. House chores: vacuuming. Nap. Dinner at psychobauble and Nate's: appetizers: jalapeno cheese, goat cheese, crackers; main course: white bean soup, bread, butter; dessert: homemade pistachio ice cream, waffle cookies. Stretches. Weight training: crunch, bridge. Answered this question on Formspring: Question: Why can't you just answer the question? Answer: I've answered every question given to me in Formspring. Just because the answer didn't satisfy you doesn't mean I didn't answer the question. It's also unclear which question you mean. I give specific answers only when I feel they are true. I would rather give a non-specific answer that is true rather than a specific answer that is false.—Answered this question on Formspring: Question: Who was the best teacher you've ever had? Answer: I really don't care for questions that ask for answers in a superlative because if you give a superlative answer it prevents you from granting the respect that could well be due those who were not chosen. I think that it's very unlikely that any of my former teachers will see this response, but I still think it's unfair to pick only one and hold that person in higher regard than all others. (If there were a clear winner, I would say so, but here I think there is not.) Also, like the question earlier about memory and food, I think it's unfair to select a best teacher because what's best to a child isn't what's best to a teenager or to a college student—how can such comparisons be considered fair? And students are not always the best judges of what makes the best teacher—sometimes administrators or peers are. I was educated in the public school system in Anaheim, California, then at UC Santa Cruz for college and almost every one of my teachers seemed to have a passion for his or her work and a genuine caring for students and their learning, and I am thankful for all the teachers I have had. I think I turned out pretty well under their care.
Mon Feb 8, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with fresh diced organic granny smith apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk; 12 ounces of Odwalla carrot juice. ICRD management: renewal card for Lisa S, access issues for Scott E, JWG, and others. Calendar management. Lunch: ate on the sidewalk with to go from Panda Express. Shuttle to Laurel Heights. Arrived early so had coffee and facelift project work at Peet's in Laurel Village. Web team meeting with Eric D and Susie L: mostly facelift project review. Susie graciously gave me a ride home. Dinner at home by myself: chinese no-chicken salad. Nap. Stretches. Weight training: superslow sissy squats (just a few).
Tue Feb 9, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with fresh diced organic granny smith apple, organic cinnamon; 11 ounces of Odwalla carrot juice. To work. Facelift project work without and later with Eric D. Dinner at home by myself: yakisoba with tofu and vegetables, hot water. Worked on the Recharge Spa website: minor edits for Drew. Answered this question on Formspring: Question: What's the kindest thing someone has ever done for you? Answer: Someone returned my wallet with everything in it after I had lost it. It had fallen out of my pocket while I was walking down the street.—Answered this question on Formspring: Question: If you could be a star athlete in any sport, which sport would you pick? Answer: wrestling.
Wed Feb 10, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with fresh diced organic granny smith apple, organic cinnamon; 12 ounces of Odwalla carrot juice. To work. Redirected some image requests to Susie. Told student LH how to distribute a message widely. Registered Eric, Susie, and I for Drupalcon SF 2010—my first use of the new university credit card on my own account. Resolved a WebDisk/WebDAV problem for Kerry M who is working on the websites for Desai and Roy. Management activities. Updated the draft of the videoconferencing web page in the communications section. Facelift project work all day. Lunch at Soi Gow by myself: garlic pepper tofu with steamed rice. Stopped at the organic produce market on Irving and bought some onions. Stopped at the Wednesday farmer's market on campus but didn't buy anything. Dinner at home by myself: large salad, chips and hummus.
Thu Feb 11, 2010
Stretches. Weight training: various leg exercises, crunch, superslow dumbbell row. Breakfast: oatmeal with fresh diced organic granny smith apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk; 12 ounces of V8. To work. Helped student MN with a question about the listservs. Followup with student MR about Blackberry setup. iStockphoto account management. Investigated proposed changes to the preview session section for Shirin. Updated the pharmsci pathway section for Carol: new clin pharm postdoc fellowship website from Leslie F. Answered a software licensing question for CP. Answered questions about the cardkey reader for Lucia. Lunch: salad brought from home. Dinner at NKRB by myself: noodles with prawns and scallops, jasmine green tea. Answered this question on Formspring: Question: If you could ask Barack Obama one question what would it be? Answer: Thank you for acknowledging what you call non-believers in your January 20, 2009, inauguration speech. However, if you have the opportunity in the future, could you please instead use "agnostic or atheist"? "Non-believer" defines such an individual in terms of what he or she is not. But we don't say that straight men are non-gay men or that people of color are non-white people. You've already taken a great step toward recognizing the diversity that exists in attitudes toward religion in the United States. This change would make that step even stronger. This "non-believer" believes you can do it. Yes you can.—Answered this question on Formspring: Question: What was the worst movie you've ever seen? Answer: Probably Alan Alda's Sweet Liberty (1986).
Fri Feb 12, 2010
Stretches. Weight training: superslow tricep kickback, superslow lateral raise, superslow front raise. Breakfast at home by myself: 2 Thomas' english muffins, one with Smart Balance Light, the other with Adams creamy peanut butter. Went to Macworld Expo today. Chatted with Rodney at the Expo. Snack: cheesy potato crisps and water that I brought from home. Lunch by myself at Osha Thai. Shopped in Westfield Center at H&M then at abercrombie. It was my first time shopping and buying clothes in abercrombie. The store fully reminds me of all the clothes I wore when I used to go moose hunting and canoeing with my dad in the Appalachians <wink>. The quality of the cloth is much higher than to which I'm accustomed from my purchases at other clothing stores. Yes, the Bruce Weber photography (it's him, right?) and the sagger mannequins showing buttcrack are a bit creepy, but the nudity and suggestiveness is a lot tamer than A&F. I guess Mothers Against Softcore Kiddie Porn In Clothing Stores (MASKPICS) has yet to be founded. It's all kind of laughable, from the cologne and perfume table to the crazy crap (canoe hanging from the ceiling, moose head mounted on the wall) to the sizing label "MUSCLE" inside some of the shirts for boys. (Since when did lots of teen boys require clothes which claimed to be specifically designed for muscular physiques?) I bought some sale items but for now am still avoiding the $25 t-shirts and $40 button-downs. I know it's crazy, but that sounds expensive to me after having long bought perfectly-fitting $11 polo shirts at H&M boys. You can mark up the price on an item with thicker/better cloth only so much before I say no. If the button-downs go on sale and I have more time to try them on maybe they will be good for me. I now have essentially given up on my previous mainstay The Gap boys department. 10 to 15 years ago I used to be able to visit Gap Kids and buy really great jackets and a lot more that fit me well. Now there are only 1 or 2 kinds of jackets each time I go, and the sleeves are too short anyway. Long sleeve anything no longer fits me at the boys department at The Gap, so they are pretty much good for only short-sleeve t-shirts now. Today H&M boys had nothing interesting and a smaller boys selection than I remember them having, but it's hard to tell for certain because they rearrange the layout of the store somewhat every time I go. They had no socks for boys—none at all. I found some great sale items and bought some gifts, and I found a cold weather cap with green in it, so it was not a complete waste of time at H&M. Took the L train home—it was backed up at West Portal where we waited doing nothing for perhaps 10 or 15 minutes. Took me 45 minutes to get home. Dinner at home by myself: yesterday's leftovers with some organic garlic udon noodles, 22 ounces of Odwalla carrot juice. Dessert: one almond roca. Answered this question on Formspring: Question: If you won a $1,000 shopping spree for any store, which store would you pick? Answer: Amazon.—Stretches. Weight training: superslow shrug, superslow dumbbell fly, crunch, sissy squats. Installed Firefox 3.6 and the theme called Parasol Totoro by eryc. Enjoyed the almost-full-screen browsing—finally! Late snack: multigrain chips, organic garlic and rosemary crackers, and hummus. Realized that the apartment now smells like the abercrombie store—they seem to soak the clothes in cologne or perfume, which is a rather sneaky and smart marketing tactic, I think. You can't take the clothes home without the perfume. You get hooked on it until it goes in the wash and on your next store visit the smell comes back to you like an old friend.
Sat Feb 13, 2010
Breakfast at home by myself: 2 Thomas' english muffins, one with Smart Balance Light, the other with Adams creamy peanut butter and Mad River Farm huckleberry jam. House chores. Worked on the Recharge Spa website for Drew. Lunch at home by myself: noodle soup with vegetables. Baked strawberry cupcakes. Dinner at home by myself: Quesadillas. Made cocoa whipped cream icing. Patrick returns from Vancouver, BC. We eat a cupcake each. Installed TuneUp for iTunes today after seeing it at Macworld yesterday.
Sun Feb 14, 2010
Slept in. Brunch at home by myself: vegetable 3-egg scramble, tater tots. Worked on the Recharge Spa website for Drew. Lunch at home by myself: organic garlic udon noodles stir-fry with red chard, cabbage, mushrooms, carrot. Nap. Tennis ball back massage. Dinner at home with Patrick: pizza delivery, 2 small pizzas, one with mushroom and onions, the other with pineapple and ricotta. Watched Michael Jackson's This Is It on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Archived documents. Answered this question on Formspring: Question: What music are you listening to today? Answer: Lately I have been too lazy to work up my own playlists so I have been letting iTunes DJ run, and every now and then I skip a song. For example, it's not yet smart enough to figure out that in February I probably don't want to hear "Santa Baby." last.fm and Pandora are also good times. Less frequently I play stations at di.fm. Genres I'm listening to nowadays: pop, dance, breakbeats, eclectic. Played a bit with TuneUp.
Mon Feb 15, 2010
Stretches. Weight training: superslow concentration curl, superslow front raise, superslow lateral raise, crunch. Stretches. Holiday, no work. Breakfast at home by myself: oatmeal with fresh diced organic granny smith apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk; 12 ounces of V8. Lunch at home by myself: leftover pizza. Walked around in the Castro. Safeway. Home. Installed Trillian 1.0.0.103 (alpha) for Mac. Nap. Watched the remainder of This Is It on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Cooked red beans for tomorrow's potluck dinner. Late meal: vegetarian chili from a can (Eating Right brand), which was surprisingly delicious.
Tue Feb 16, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with fresh diced organic granny smith apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk; 13 ounces of V8. To work, bad Muni day, late to work. SCWG meeting, Jon J jokingly thanked me for being later than he was, making him look good (or less bad)—funny. Website monitoring maintenance—removed CTSI from our watch list since their site goes down so frequently. Lots of calendar management. Purchasing epaperwork: Drupal. Let student EM know how to widely distribute a message. Small web edit for Cindy: CPJE checklist. Small web edit for the visitors page: free wifi. PharmAdMIT 2010 install and brief testing, asked JWG to test a bit more. 1-on-1 with Cindy: chatted about announcements for students. Chatted with James J about revenue codes and PeopleSoft preparers. More followup with Jen L about Drupalcon SF reg, just confirming that all is well. Same followup with Eric D and Susie L. PeopleSoft followup with La'Trece C, Michael N, and James J. Chatted with Eric D about his cat. Today I decided it was time to give Windows 7 another go at work. I had temporarily given up on it at work several months ago due to error message "vmware-host is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. The network address is invalid. (OK)" which I was unable to resolve until today. The resolution for me was to trash the existing Windows 7 VM and reinstall it from scratch choosing the "less integration" option (or whatever it was called during setup). I was still able to share specific folders and not have the error message return. Got Firefox, Sophos, and a few other apps installed. So far so good. At home Windows 7 has been working well for some time. Mardi gras potluck at Phil, Drew, and Romy's with Phil, Drew, Romy, Nate, Sandip, Quyen, Dave M, Paul M. Dirty rice (Phil), seared ahi tuna (Phil), steamed rice (Phil), fried catfish (Quyen), grilled tilapia (unknown), red beans with sausage (me), 2 different shrimp dishes (unknown), chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream (Nate), wine (Dave), assorted alcohols (Drew).
Wed Feb 17, 2010
Stretches. Breakfast: oatmeal with fresh diced organic granny smith apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk; 12 ounces of V8. Telecommute day. Facelift project work all day: restructured files so that they're no longer in a special folder, lots of stylesheet work. Lunch at home by myself: leftovers. Dinner at Masala Indian Cuisine (415-566-6976, 1220 9th Avenue, San Francisco, California, USA 94122) with Patrick. Worked on the facelift project until very late. Late meal: leftovers (with meat). Stretches.
Thu Feb 18, 2010
Stretches. Weight training: superslow dumbbell fly, crunch. To work. Facelift project work all day again. Accepted computer from student KL—followup hard drive work. Lunch: two no-meat tacos from Carmelina's. Meeting: WeID card arrangements for summer and fall. Dinner: leftovers (with meat). Late meal: leftover Indian food (with fish but no other meat). It was a bad day for hard drives at home. I determined that our music hard drive failed. I had thought just the miniStack v2 case had failed, but after I removed the drive and tried to mount it in OS X it would not mount at all. Then the same thing happened with my Time Machine hard drive. I still have CrashPlan locally backed up 100% and CrashPlan in the cloud backed up 80%. Researched and bought some new hardware. Decided to start buying Firewire 800 equipment now. It's pricier, but the performance boost over USB 2.0 will make it worthwhile.
Fri Feb 19, 2010
Began reformatting and diskchecking my Time Machine drive. Breakfast: oatmeal with organic flame raisins, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk; 12 ounces of V8. To work. Facelift project work all day again. Began work on KL's computer. Lunch: leftovers at desk. epaperwork prep for accepting credit card transactions over the web. Took the N-Judah train to Powell, chatted with Eric D along the way who described a wooden collar he's planning to build for a freezer for his home brewing activities. Took a cable car to California Street. Drinks and food at Tonga Room (or is it now just Tonga?) with Romy, Paul M, psychobauble, Nate, Phil, and Drew. Phil gave me a ride back to Powell Street station. Rode the train and at Van Ness station the doors opened and Danny was standing in front of me—I say coincidence, he says fate, either way a pleasant surprise. He hadn't eaten dinner yet, but I wanted to spend time with him, so I changed my plans of going home. We got a table at Thai House Express. He ate dinner, we caught up on life, he talked about My and Christy, we shared fried banana and vanilla ice cream for dessert. Afterwards we got drinks and danced at Badlands, which had mostly dance pop music. Met Chris, Donny, and Jimmy. Home by L-Taraval. Late meal: leftover steamed rice with grilled talapia and shrimp. My Time Machine drive turned out to be okay. Started Time Machine over from scratch.
Sat Feb 20, 2010
Stretches. Recharge Spa web work. House chores. Researched and purchased airline tickets for a New Orleans trip at the end of March with Patrick to celebrate 10 years. Lunch: leftovers (with meat) and steamed rice. Weight training: crunch, various leg exercises. Snack: mini pizzas. Dinner at Destino with Jen, psychobauble, Nate—of particular note were the amazing buñuelos. Thought about going to Industry but did not—too tired and I thought I wouldn't like the music.
Sun Feb 21, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with organic thompson raisins, organic cinnamon, nonfat milk. House chores. Brunch at JY and Adrian's with JY, Adrian, Ryan D, Tyler, Melvin, Larry, Spencer: mimosas, quiche (with meat), salad, muffins, fruit salad. Web work for Drew for the spa: new business cards. Dinner at home by myself: leftovers (with meat). Chatted with Tina. Edited and uploaded photos to Flickr. Late meal: leftovers (with meat). Stretches. Weight training: one-arm, one-leg, advanced plank; bridge. Stretches. Researched hotels in New Orleans.
Mon Feb 22, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with organic thompson raisins, organic cinnamon, nonfat milk; 12 ounces of generic V8. To work. Mailing list maintenance for Eric D. Made live changes I proposed in response to Doug C's announcement of a new financial aid portal. Followup work with student KL's laptop. Lunch: spinach and tomato pizza to go from Cafe Bellini only because the line was shortest. Shuttle to Mission Bay with Eric D. Eric and I sat in the wrong conference room for a long time before I called Susie on her cellphone and we realized our mistake. Genentech Hall at Mission Bay has a room S536A on the south side of the building and an N536A on the north side of the building. Eric and I both failed to notice that we entered the wrong room—I saw 536A on the sign and figured it must be the right room. Pharm chem web content meeting. Web team meeting in the cafe with Susie L and Eric D. Chatted with Jeff M and Susie L. Shuttle to Parnassus. Along the way, I had another San Francisco moment—seeing someone in the Panhandle doing tai chi on rollerskates. Small edits to the facelift project. To home. Dinner at home by myself: leftover vegetable curry with steamed medium grain white rice. Stretches. Weight training: one-arm, one-leg, advanced plank; bridge; sissy squats. Stretches. Late meal: same as dinner.
Tue Feb 23, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with organic thompson raisins, organic cinnamon, nonfat milk; 12 ounces of generic V8. To work. Facelift project work: added and styled announcements. Continued work on student KL's computer. Lunch: tuna sandwich from Subway. Dinner at Kingdom of Dumpling with Patrick: vegetable dumplings for Patrick, shrimp dumplings for me, onion pancake for both of us. Ran in to graduate Carolyn and her husband Eugene who were just finishing their meal there, said hello. Made hotel reservations for our New Orleans trip. Unloaded photos from the camera. Partitioned and verified the new replacement hard drive for our music. Attempted to begin a CrashPlan local restore, but was stymied by messages "unable to restore until we have synchronized with the destination" and "synchronizing block information" which prevented me from restoring data—annoying. The block synchonization seems to be taking a long time—currently at 18%. Will check again tomorrow. Answered this question on Formspring: Question: If you had to perform at the circus, what trick would you do? Answer: I'm really flexible, so I would probably be a contortionist. (I thought Formspring was recently dead—none of their pages would load for the past few days—but it works again today.)
Wed Feb 24, 2010
Weight training: one-arm, one-leg, advanced plank. Stretches. Breakfast: oatmeal with organic thompson raisins, organic cinnamon, nonfat milk; 12 ounces of generic V8. To work. Facelift project work and continued work on student KL's computer. Late lunch at La Boulange de Cole: frittata with smoked salmon. Stopped at Bay Shabu in West Portal and laughed at the monitor in the window. Dinner at King of Thai Noodle on Taraval by myself: yellow curry with tofu and vegetables, hot tea.
Thu Feb 25, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with organic thompson raisins, organic cinnamon, nonfat milk; 12 ounces of generic V8. Lunch: open-faced tuna melt from Cafe Bellini. Website visual design review meeting with Robin A, Susie L, and Eric D. Dinner at New Sandy's Cafe by myself: crispy egg noodles with tofu and vegetables. To bed earlyish.
Fri Feb 26, 2010
Stretches. Weight training: one-arm, one-leg, advanced plank; superslow dumbbell fly. Stretches. Breakfast: oatmeal with 3 walnuts, organic cinnamon, nonfat milk; 12 ounces of generic V8. Lunch: pizza and berry trifle from the cafeteria. Dinner at home with Patrick: spinach and feta frozen pizza, spinach salad. Watched extras from Michael Jackson's This Is It on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Unpacked and set up a new Firewire 800 drive enclosure, with some drive swapping involved. Computer repair: my iMac had a drive problem and I had to reformat it then restore it from Time Machine. I have now had 3 drives fail in the past 2 days. Bizarre! So far, no data loss that I can tell. Set up a new USB hub for Patrick, reorganizing and tidying cables, labeling. Set up a new USB hub for my computer. Tried on new clothes.
Sat Feb 27, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with fresh diced apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk; 12 ounces of apple juice, 12 ounces of hot water. Tweaked Patrick's USB hub configuration. Cleaned up dead leaves and removed weeds from the backyard. Removed worm carcasses of worms that had crawled into our apartment under the door and subsequently died. Saved two worms that were still living and moved them outside. Washed dishes. Removed trash, recycling, and compost. Began backing up our music hard drive to my Time Machine drive. Cleaned the bathroom, cut my hair, showered. Lunch at home by myself: soba noodle soup with organic vegetable broth, egg, baby spinach, baby bok choy, garlic, red onion, organic tofu. Nap. Dinner at home by myself: 2 kinds of pasta shapes with garlic, basil, and crimini mushroom marinara sauce; dinner roll and Smart Balance Light; side of baby spinach salad with red onion, sunflower seeds, lowfat ranch dressing. Drove to the Japantown parking garage, parked. Walked to Yoshi's. Saw DJ Qbert with special guests Casual, DJ Shortkut, Jazz Mafia All-Stars, and Mars-1, promoted by Dan the Automator, $20. Upon arrival I found a will call line but it wasn't clear where I was supposed to buy a ticket. The ticket booth is deep inside the main entrance past another set of doors in the center. I bought my ticket, and during the purchase I asked if there was a coat check. I was told that they weren't sure and there probably wouldn't be but if there was one it would be to the left after you enter. It wasn't clear in which line I was supposed to wait, so I asked the ticketseller about that, too. Turns out that the will call line was also the line for ticketholders—confusing. After I got my wristband and 3D glasses, I was passed through another set of doors. I did not see a coat check, so I wandered around a bit. Everyone was waiting in a restaurant area. A DJ area and a small open space in front for standees had been set up in what was usually a dining area, which I thought strange since the space was probably way too small for DJ Qbert, it was carpet and not flooring, and you wouldn't expect a lot of people to be sitting at tables during such a performance. The DJ area was still being set up so it was cordoned off somewhat by some Japanese room panels. I went back to look for the coat check. Turns out that there was a coat check but there was no sign for it and there was no one stationed there permanently. (The coat check person seemed to be playing more than one role, so he wasn't always in the window.) Coat check was $1, but when I said I had a ten and needed change he realized he didn't have change to offer and waved his hand saying, "Get me later." While waiting, I noticed that the kitchen at Yoshi's was in our waiting area and they were serving appetizers for $5 per plate: one California roll, one spicy tuna roll, one plate of french fries, one plate of chicken wings. I did not buy food or drink. The Yoshi's space I wandered in is excellent. There are a lot of different rooms, all very excellently decorated and with slightly different moods. There were many bars all over, too. DJ Shortkut began playing right around 10:30 PM, all old-school hip-hop. It was the first time I had seen video directly integrated into the mixing and scratching. I don't know how they did it, but it seemed like he was controlling the sound and the video effects and the synch was seamless. I thought that was really neat. Dan the Automator introduced himself after a while and provided a welcome message to open the new Audio Alchemy series. Some of his mannerisms remind me of patchooey. Later in Shortkut's set he also announced that DJ Qbert would be set up in a different room around 11:30 PM but then told us that the room's capacity was only 500, which set me and everyone else at some unease because it was obvious that there were way more than 500 people who had been admitted. I don't go to live music performances very much, and so I was disappointed to have arrived at about 9:45 PM and wait so long to see the main performer. I could have been dancing at Shangri-La instead of waiting around. There was some other kind of delay and the 11:30 PM start became midnight so before midnight everyone was crammed in the space closest to the room that would be opening. People were shoving through, some carrying drinks for others, some wanting to go to the restroom which was near the doors-to-be-opened. It wasn't very orderly but it wasn't very disorderly, either. But inevitably I came into contact with people who were rude or who simply didn't respect other people's personal space. I could tell others near me were thinking the same thing I was—this isn't worth waiting for, let's just bag it and call it a loss—and that's when the doors opened. Just before the doors opened, I thought there would be a stampede resulting in news headlines, but that didn't happen. I got in to the next room and right after I did they decided to temporarily hold the line—and that happened twice in different spots! Whew! But once I got in I saw that the room held way more than 500 people and it was not even half full when I got in—I don't know what happened with the communications mixup. Everyone who wanted to get in most likely got in. Jazz Mafia opened with a few numbers, then Qbert came on and jammed with them. One of their numbers was an interpretation of Herbie Hancock's Rockit—excellent! After a few songs Jazz Mafia let Qbert continue on his own. A man painted off to the right during the performance. Qbert played for an hour but even after 20 minutes I was yawning partly due to the late hour and partly due to how long can you listen to scratching on top of other music? The video camera positioned over his turntables was displayed on a large screen, and that was very valuable to have the live-blown-up version of his hands doing the work. They had also set up a large screen behind him which had a 3D fishtank. (I had the glasses but could not see any obvious 3D effects with them.) Afterwards I got my car—parking turned out to be $10. $30 for 4 hours of entertainment, only 1 of which was really what I wanted to see. Not a great deal, but I would come back April 10 to see Mixmaster Mike, and I might show up later than the stated start hour of the show now that I know the main performer doesn't start for 2 hours after the show "starts." Afterwards I was really hungry so I got breakfast at Mel's Diner at 4th and Mission. After that I drove to the End Up to see what remained of Shangri-La. I chatted mostly with Tony H, met Richard (whose face was I think painted kind of like that boy in Baraka), Charles (who did acrobatics with me), and Corey and Garrett. Richard took a photo of him and me and sent it to me in email but when I checked later it had never arrived. It must have gotten eaten by the spam eater, and I have no way of contacting him to let him know.
Sun Feb 28, 2010
Slept in. Lunch: leftovers, 8 ounces of Odwalla orange juice, 1 Tina Luu snickerdoodle. Realized that my Windows 7 installation at home had been excluded from my Time Machine backup as recommended by VMWare but I had never made a manual backup of it—oops! Stopped at Mollie Stone's. Dinner at Chris and Nate's: salad and Nate's homemade pizzas (6 of them!), everyone brought toppings. I brought 3 kinds of mushrooms and red and white onions. Attending: Romy, Paul, Chris G, Drew, James D, Quyen, Dave, Chris, Nate, me. Bought gas on the way home. Chatted with Tina on the phone. Weight training: one-arm, one-leg, advanced plank. Removed a small silverfish found in the laundry bin. I washed it down the drain (but it was still alive when I did so). Began reinstalling Windows 7 at home. Installed Firefox 3.6, Windows Updates. Late meal: leftover pizza slice, slice of Nate's chocolate cake.