Ryan's Journal

Over the weekend Jason asked his girlfriend (we’ll call her “A”) if she wanted to get married. It’s not entirely clear if she realized he meant to him, or if she thought he was just asking in general, but either way he’s now engaged and congratulations are in order.

In slightly less life-altering news, I had a work event in Hollywood two weeks ago that just happened to be across the street from a movie premier at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. I walked out of the parking garage into a massive crowd, and after working my way towards the crosswalk was stopped by security who demanded to know what I thought I was doing. I pointed across the street and said “Going there”, at which point I was given the so-not-amused look and turned around one-hundred-and-eighty degrees. The next crosswalk I came to was blocked off, as was the next… eventually, twenty minutes after exiting the garage, I finally arrived at my destination. The cause of this long journey? Reno 911. I could understand if it was a good movie, but I arrived late because of a movie featuring a dude that wears Daisy Dukes. I wasn’t a fan of the show before, but I may have crossed the line into full-fledged hater.

In an effort to prove that we don’t have a gambling problem, Aaron, Charlie Chi and myself made yet another excursion to Vegas last week. I proved to be a lucky charm (for the casinos), and shortly after I arrived Aaron and Chi’s winnings had turned to losses. My own luck was rather terrible as well, and my losing streak at Let-It-Ride now stands at twelve straight hands. The slot machines treated us better, and we managed a slow bleed with occasional big wins, including a $75 jackpot for me that ended my gambling for the weekend.

In other ways life is trudging along as normal, so rather than bore with details of my days spent programming at DirecTV, here are a few other noteworthy events going on in the world:

• SpaceX is planning their second launch attempt for early March. Provided it goes off without a hitch then space travel is suddenly three times less expensive.
• MIT is working on a plan that would put huge floating wind turbines a hundred miles offshore, generating enormous amounts of power while avoiding the “not in my backyard” complaints of those with oceanside vacation homes.
• Lost is still a ridiculously good show.
• Boeing’s new 787 airplane looks very cool. Bigger windows, a more comfortable cabin, and lots of other goodies in addition to better fuel efficiency to make the airlines happy.
• The combination of Open Office.org and KDE running on Linux is looking better and better. In another year or two I suspect I might be done with running Windows.

Yes, I’m a big dork, but technology is cool. And of course, here’s the obligatory pretty picture: