The Underground Man

When Chihuahuas attack..

Ok, this is just too damn funny not to pass along..

Hmm.. Ruby on Rails

Hmmm.. been thinking about Ajax lately.. seems to be the newest wave of Web development - the Web 2.0 it's been called - as the Web gets more capable, moving the burden of interactivity onto the client side. Predictable given the increased horsepower on the desktop (to mix my metaphors) and increased bandwidth into the average home.

It seems that the Ruby on Rails open-source project provides a fairly good development platform.

I know my friend, Gary Shewan, has been looking at RoR for at least the last year.

Time to pick his brains.. (what a weird expression that is..)

Yes, Virginia, I know I should be packing.

I hate packing..

It's a phobia.. I've drifted away from being a packrat over the last few years. Moving to France convinced me that I could live quite happily with what I could
fit into a large suitcase.

My worst offense is probably books. I have many boxes of books, and should I eventually move back to France it's highly unlikely they'll move with me (unless I ship them by sea).

I don't yet know where my next job will be.. I have interviews in Connecticut, Seattle, and San Francisco. Any of the three would be interesting and challenging, but in the mean time I need to clear out of my apartment (where they are charging a usurious rent).

So I'm taking the opportunity to filter and sort my "stuff" - which kind of owns me. I'll have to pay about $120/mo to store my "stuff" so it's well worth figuring out if it is worth keeping.

Sometimes I think I should just have a fire sale - or a bonfire. I haven't quite decided, but every time I move the decision to junk it all comes closer.

Really, all I need is my laptop, my watches, my photo gear and some clothes. Most everything else is superfluous.

One of my good friends in college, Rico Tudor, one of the original white hat hackers, used to move around with a duffle bag containing his worldly possessions.

Today, just today, I think I wish I were he.

One more day of packing left.

My Name is Nobody

I finally know the name of this film..

I watch and enjoy a "B" films - war films, sci-fi, western. Lots of genres. I was talking to my uncle last week about the first spaghetti westerns (The Man with No Name Trilogy with Clint Eastwood) and I remembered this one other film that was very well done. But for years I didn't see the film anywhere and not knowing who was in it, it was very hard to track down. It had a good plot, decent music and good gunfights. Everything a "B" film needs.

Well, it's playing right now - My Name is Nobody.

That's two films in the last six weeks that I've identified, C'Etait Un Rendezvous was the other.

I wonder if it was a homage that the kid just recited the names of Beauregard's victims and they included "John Carson" and "Valance" - references to other characters in Westerns of the time. Sam Peckinpah gets a mention too. Ah.. now the "Nevada Kid" did..

A total homage film..

Liverpool Rampant, parte deux

Watching Liverpool play Everton in today's Merseyside derby.

Wow.. they look awfully good. Very slick passing, Harry Kewell is once again impressing, and Peter Crouch is scoring good goals.

Very disciplined defending, in spite of having given up their first Premier League goal since October.

I really feel they might push Chelsea this season and go some distance in the Champions League again.

It's a good year to be a Liverpool supporter.

Prevarication

Why is it that being a PM in my professional life comes so easily but having the discipline to pack up my apartment, day after day, comes with such difficulty. I find myself easily distracted (checking email, reading old letters found during the packing, making lunch) and allow it to take away time in my day better spent packing.

I have to be out of here but NY Eve. So today is the hump day - got to get the living room, along with the photo station (laptop, scanners, negs, etc.) packed as well as the kitchen. If I can manage that, then Thursday and Friday look survivable.

Ouch. Every time I move I think that my possessions own me, not the other way around. I learned living in France that I really need very few possessions to be happy. Given the amount of time I get to spend with each individual possession, I would say that only my watches, photo station, TV and iPod are necessary to my existence. :>

Wigan v. Man City

Having a chance right now to watch the Wigan v. Manchester City game. Somewhat delayed and stored on my DVR. It has been a rip-snorter. Backward and forward in constant flow, with high quality goals being scored. A truly memorable Premier League game.

It's not done yet, the teams only separated by a goal in the last 5 minutes..

If you get a chance, watch this game.

Book of Xenon

Just read about the "Book of Xenon" (Xenon was the codename for the XBox 360) penned by J. Allard a couple of years ago. Described variously as either a 120- or 147- page memorandum explaining the future strategy of MS with regard to the XBox.

Have embarked on a search for this on the Internet, surely someone has leaked it by now.

Liverpool Rampant

Just got the chance to watch the Club World Championship (where Liverpool played in the final and lost 0-1) and Liverpool v. Newcastle (which they won 2-0).

In both games they looked quite dominant - it was scarcely credible that they lost the Club World Championship match - I think even a neutral would have to say that not only were they the better team but the fix was in. I don't think I've ever seen a game where 3 goals were called back by the ref - not in 15 years of watching. At least one of the calls was obviously wrong.

Nonetheless, they seem to be playing with great organization, imagination, and steadfast determination not to give up a goal. 11 of the last 12 games in all competitions and only one goal given up. They made Newcastle look pretty ordinary.

I see both Peter Crouch and Harry Kewell growing into the players that we thought they could be. Could this be their season? Quite possibly if Chelsea stumbles.

The Book of Ruth

I love this passage from the book of Ruth. Should I get married, I think I want to figure out some way to have this in the marriage ceremony:

"or whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God"

Just lovely..

Creativity

Why is it that creativity or my ability to pursue other interests is stifled by working? I noticed that my productivity (in the blog sense) went through the floor when I was working at Microsoft (contract ended last week, now have to take the mandatory 100-day break).

Very weird that there is an inverse relationship. Maybe it was the type of job - one that didn't foster my creativity at all. Not in the conventional sense anyway. I managed to solve problems creatively ("think outside the box") but they were generally people and personality-related issues.

I think my next position has to allow me some room to continue to develop creatively. I have interviews with Microsoft probably next week, and I would hope Amazon soon, and there is a very interesting firm in the Bay Area that I've been talking to.

I would love to live in SF again - one of the world's "great" cities - though I would be sad to be further away from my parents.

I need to figure out where I'm going to be soon - I cannot even buy air tickets for visits to friends because I don't know if I'll be leaving from SF or Seattle. I love having the time off, but it's very hard to enjoy it without knowing where I'm going to be in three months.

Time to get back to packing..

Aging..

Why do some people age so quickly?

I was going through photos I took at my college reunion this summer and was shocked at how poorly a number of my friends and acquaintances had aged..

The oddest phenomenon that I noticed was that someone would be standing behind me and I would hear their voice and know instantly who they were. Their voice would not have changed in 20-odd years. But then I would turn around and some I would barely recognize because of the weight they had put on or how grey they were.

Yes, we worked very hard, and partied just as hard but my God.. I wonder if this is typical. Other than broader shoulders and a tiny bit of grey, I look much the same as I did in college.

Very sad really.

Swinging through the jungle

I just got back from a week in Puerto Vallarta.. feels like a second home these days because of how quickly I seem to assimilate and how familiar it seems to be. Not quite like Cozumel in the early 1990s (much more developed) but still a fun place.

I'm told it rocks during Spring Break (now that Cancun is constantly getting blasted by hurricanes the west coast has become more popular). In any event, I experienced a couple of new things while I was down there.. Here is a photo taken of me while I was ziplining through the Central American jungle.. one of the ziplines ran across a 450-ft drop - that's 45! stories, folks.

Good amount of adrenalin, followed by a couple of shots of ricilla (the last zipline drops you in the bar.. very cool).