Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/11/20/field-report/
Walnut Creek 20/Nov/04 — Highs and lows in the rugged terrian around Mount Diablo. I took a new job in San Ramon, which is known for being a nice, quietly dead town. Fifteen miles up the road is Walnut Creek, where Yayoi and I have selected an apartment very close to the BART.
When Yayoi came out, everything was beautiful. I rented a car from Thrifty but they cajoled me in to spending a little extra for a convertible. Normally, I might frown at the excess, but what better way to welcome my new bride to California? She has school and can not join me out here ’til December, but she was able to spend a few days out here. The first two days I had to work, and she trudged around Walnut Creek in the rain evaluating housing options. On the weekend it cleared up and we decided on a two bedroom place with a pool and a hot-tub for the modest rent of $1200.
Then, as the sun was shining on the newly verdant hills, and the leaves were turning colors, we hopped in the convertible and drove to the top of Mount Diablo. We surveyed the land as man has surveyed this territory for hundreds of years, if not more, from the tallest peak in the land. It was quite the honeymoon, for it is about a week after we were married that I had landed this job in California. (more…)
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/11/21/walnut-creek-nightlife/
Yesterday, I took the BART. I got off at Oakland City Center, and began to wander. I first found a gaming store — what a fortuitous start! And the rest of it was Oakland Chinatown, which I told Yayoi about later … Asianania is just a BART ride away!
The highlights were:
- Bananas for 40c/pound. This is Devon Avenue prices. Walnut Creek is 80c. I bought some Bananas just because.
- A black lady taking a break from her salon complimented me on my hat. Actually, on Thursday, Bill remarked that it looked like an old Italian guy’s hat, and I told him that actually I did buy it in Italy.
- I had a decent cheeseburger in a Korean-run, downtown lunch cafe.
I made my way back to Walnut Creek, and still had a Saturday Evening to kill. I wandered downtown, where there is a movie theater. Unfortunately, it is mostly crap. They were playing “Ray” on one screen but I would have to wait two hours. I settled on “The Grudge” which was a horror movie in the “Lost in Translation” genre, meaning it was about Americans in Tokyo — I think the Japanese government must be promoting this stuff — and it was with the hard-to-follow a-linear plot format. The nice thing about that, from the producer’s point-of-view, is that you can hide the problems with the plot that way. Anyway, it was a fairly scary mess of a movie. I watched it because Yayoi might enjoy it, except it would probably be too scary for her, so it is okay if she missed it, if that makes any sense. Really I was just bored and lonely.
After the movie I walked past crowded bars that revealed to me the awful flip-side of Walnut Creek’s Soccer Mom Weekdays — Frat Boy Nightlife! That was creepier than monsters running around a suburban Tokyo house. One drunkish guy eyed me and my old Italian guy’s hat and French sweater and muttered “fag” . . . I could only take that as a compliment. (more…)
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/11/22/howto-map-an-ip-to-an-asn/
whois -h whois.cymru.com <IP Address>
Thanks due to a colleague at CacheNetworks.
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/12/03/coming-together/
It is weird, because I have never had a manager before who spoke with me on a daily basis about what I was doing at work. At first it seems intrusive, but really, this is the way it should be. Especially for a new employee, it is good to have somebody providing direction. And, for the first time, I have a job where communicating what I am doing is simply a part of routine.
Hopefully this new adventure will turn out to have an even better pay-off than I had reasonably imagined.
Oh, and I have DSL at home now. And off-line e-mail on the laptop, so I can catch up whilst riding the bus. I bought a desk and a very good chair the other day, with adjustable back height and almost-high-enough lumbar support. I have to assemble the desk though, which I’ll do after work this evening before some heavy network maintenance tonight.
Things are coming together. And Yayoi can probably make it right after Christmas, which is good.
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/12/06/geek-envy/
I drove down to Mountain View to lunch with Brian this weekend. He mentioned that Amazon.com has Free Sidekick IIs these days. I checked it out this morning, and after some discussion, found that I can not get this through work because we already have a bunch of cell phones under contract with Verizon.
So, I e-mailed my predecessor, who has to return his old phone yet anyway, asking if maybe he wouldn’t mind taking his contract with him? He writes back that his new employer just gave him his new Sidekick II and it is sweet, so, no thanks. I’ll have his old phone, which is nicer than the loaner I’m on right now, pretty darn soon.
I could potentially get one for Yayoi, and then trade phones with her. But then it is her turn to have the awesomer cell phone anyway, so … hey, free Christmas present for someone not wedded to Verizon! :)
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/12/07/frebsd-laptops-windows-backups/
My fancy new Dell laptop and FreeBSD are a bit of an odd couple. I haven’t tried yet, but apparently I could get the trackpad, nub and mouse keys working through something called “Project Evil” that supports Windows drivers under FreeBSD. Entering suspend mode causes the computer to reboot, this in part because apparently Dell has messed up their implementation of standards-compliant power management, but whatever. (more…)
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/12/08/npr-no-kpfa/
So, Walnut Creek and San Ramon are in the valley between mountains. It is tricky to tune in San Francisco’s public radio station — I can usually get a better signal from Sacramento, which is scary. Anyway, I had to drive to work today and on the ride back, I found that KPFA, just over the hill in Berkeley, has a plenty good signal for me to tune in to. Pacifica makes NPR sound like Fox, but this evening they were talking the history of United States relations with Iran.
Beats the crappy jazz coming out of Sacramento after about 8pm. KPFA insted switches to Greatful Dead covers on Wednesday nights. What this may lack in quality is made up for by its eclecticism. I hope the morning show helps me come around to consciousness tomorrow morning. They ought to have more edge in the voice than Bob Edwards or whomever is calling out the NPR News now that I haven’t been paying too much attention anymore.
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/12/09/buy-blue/
Frustrated that your guy lost the election last month? Well, you can still do a little something — let politics help guide your brand choices:
Interesting, Costco and Shell are more Democrats than not.
I think this might actually, to a degree, encourage people to shop at stores where the employees have more money and time to devote to politics. At least, if you can assume that wealthy doners trend Republican while working class donors trend Democrat. Well, that is a stretch, sure . . . but I would like to think that progressive employment policies help you trend blue.
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/12/10/two-one-way-tickets/
I have just booked two one-way tickets to San Jose, for the Sunday after Christmas. This year, for Christmas, I get to bring my bride to California with me.
I may be on the car rental thing another month or two as Uncle John may wish to hang on to my wheels for a February road trip to New Mexico. Not a bad deal. The cost of shipping the car is comparable to renting a car for six weeks. And it would be neat to show him California. He could possibly even transport my bike, which saves the hassle of carrying it on the airplane.
Well, my spirits are definitely up. As I just sang to my coworker, “All I want for Christmas is my … Ya yo i!”
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/12/14/subsistence/
Dinner tonight? Hummus, pita, and raisins.
The hummus I made myself — chickpeas, a.k.a. “Garbanzo Beans” and olive oil, combined with a potato masher. Bland, but probably healthy, and a lot cheaper than eating out, which I have done a lot lately.
I have to cancel Yayoi’s plane ticket. Due to school schedule complications, she can not come out with me after Christmas.
P. S. Ooohh, thanks for a pita recipe, Mike!
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/12/14/morality-police-pagan-ritual/
Responding to complaints from vigilant, God-fearing Christians, praise God, the Federal Public Broadcasting Morality Police (FCC) have requested a tape from NBC of the Opening Ceremonies of the pre-Christian ritual known as the “Olympic Games,” which were this year hosted by Greece.
The opening ceremony, as staged in Athens, this year, featured a long parade of actors portraying Pagan Gods, choreographed to modern “interpretive” dance. Some of these actors, clad in bikinis and grey body paint, sported prosthetic genitalia. The Federal Public Broadcasting Morality Police will review the tape to ensure that the most degenerate segments of this heathen performance did not profane the airwaves of the United States of America, God help us.
If such images may have been broadcast in Cristendom, during a broadcast popular among broad-minded Christian families who seek to expose their youth to barbarian cultures, they pose a serious risk to our Christian Republic of spreading sexual degeneracy and moral turpitude, as well as the sin of homosexuality, among our youth.
Vigilance has been raised since the atrocity breached during the last Super Bowl, in which a woman’s teat was exposed to our youth for nearly two seconds during a sports event. President George Bush has recently been re-elected by the Right-Thinking Christian American people, not only because of his ongoing, successful crusade to bring Christian democracy to Arabia, but based on his solemn pledge to protect the fundamentantal Chstian values of our land from those the likes of Kerry the Papist. All Praise to Jesus!
Source: New York Post: “NO NUDES MADE IT TO OLY OPENING”
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/12/16/ugh-thursdays/
When I am elected Dictator, there will be a three-day work week! The weekend will be two days, and one day for the Sabbath. The beauty of this is that you can alternate everyone’s schedule so that you always have someone at work.
Yes, if you do the math, the week will come out to six days. We can have twelve months, but they will be thirty days apiece, or five weeks. At the end of the year there will be a five-day Holiday, that will be six days on leap years.
Also, daylight savings time will be abolished, as will time zones. Everyone will use GMT, and know what the offset for true noon is in their locality. When people have to make arrangements, they will not have to do any calculations, because time will be the same everywhere. And the first thing you’ll be told upon arriving in town is what time they normally eat lunch. After all, there is really no more important human activity than eating lunch.
In times of austerity, when we need more productivity, we can extend working days to four or even five, as long as we observe a Sabbath day. And the pious types will be happy because one day in six will be for God, which is more than one day in seven.
Anyway, I return now to the incumbent paradigm, which has me working!
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/12/19/christmas-list/
Let’s see …
Yayoi!
Coffee!
- A steamer or milk frother, and/or a french press.
Furniture!
- Perhaps an IKEA Gift Certificate?
Books!
- Amos Oz “A Tale of Love and Darkness”
- John Stewart “America” (Maybe for Yayoi. :)
Software!
(Yes, I can run Windows software.)
- “Pirates!”
- “Tropico 2: Pirate Cove” may actually be a better, and cheaper, game.
There may be some very interesting gift ideas for people at http://www.jlist.com/ which imports interesting things from Japan, including lots of cute stuff.
More to come …
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/12/19/spanglish-sideways-oceans12-closer/
I have seen four movies in the past two weekends. The modus operandi has been to pay for one full-price admission at the Walnut Creek megaplex, and then sneak in to a second movie. Each week I have seen a very good movie and a not so good movie. (more…)
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/12/20/silly/
I can tell, this is going to be a very silly work week.
The work week before a major holiday is always very silly.
And I don’t mean silly lalala let’s photocopy our buttocks while downloading eggnog, I mean silly as in vendors splitting up their product lines and Word documents misplaced in CVS silly.
But it is only three days for me, so, I can take it.
HOOYAH!
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