Author: ryan

Can’t sleep, and I’m gonna ramble. Stop reading now if you’re looking for anything coherent.

Two weeks ago when I was in the mountains and trying to do some thinking my brain was fixated on Survivor and Claymation Christmas Specials. Now that I’m trying to clear my head and get to sleep I can’t stop pondering thoughts that matter to me. Thoughts about past friends and girlfriends, and how it’s sad that we’re not as close as we used to be, but how great it was to have had the experience of that closeness. Thoughts about how maybe it’s time to put some roots down somewhere, but also about how much I’d have to give up to do so. Thoughts about the tradeoffs between a comfortable routine and taking risks. Thoughts about big technical ideas, how they could literally change the world, but of how difficult the challenges would be in creating and implementing those ideas.

It’s crazy. There is so much going through my head at the moment that I want to stay up all night thinking about things, sketching out ideas, writing some code to test some theories, and working out some details to figure out how tough it would actually be to move back to the Bay Area and stay there. At least right now, the idea of having a real home again, something I’ve not had since college, is a very appealing one. A place that was more than just a temporary spot to sleep at night — somewhere where I could call up friends to go out on weeknights, rather than having to drive 375 miles to meet up on weekends. And this is a weird thing for me — I’ve been a nomad for six years now, and I’ve enjoyed it immensely. And if I stayed a nomad for the next six years, I wouldn’t regret it. But I miss my friends. I miss my brother. I miss belonging somewhere.

And the technical ideas are flying fast and furious. When I was with Accenture I created a prototype system for intelligent information storage and retrieval that I think was actually patented. Since then I’ve been pondering something much more extensive in which everything that we do that deals with information is stored, organized, and then made available to us in a useful format. Along the lines of Nat Friedman’s dashboard system, but using many more sources of input including how recently information was viewed, what that information means to the user, how long the user worked with the information, the context in which the info was used. It’s a wide open field, but the first person to do it right will quite literally make everyone who uses a computer about ten times more efficient.

And as a result of all of these thoughts I’m awake at 12:15 (or 1:15 if daylight savings hadn’t just ended) banging away at the keyboard. As soon as I’m done with this journal entry I’ll probably pump out several emails to let old friends know they’re missed, write a few lines of code, check out the Bay Area job and housing markets, and by the time I’m actually tired hopefully there will be a few hours for sleep before I need to get up for work. Insomnia sucks, but at least it’s insomnia with a purpose.

Because the weather in Los Angeles is confused and wrong it’s been nearly ninety degrees outside even though it’s almost November. As a result there are a bunch of fires burning in the hills around the city, so a thin layer of smoke is drifting over everything. That in and of itself isn’t unusual (at least not for LA — anywhere else when the city is burning down it’s cause for panic) but what is strange is that the sun shining through the smoke this morning turned a weird reddish-purple color, and all around it the sky turned a blood red color. I can only imagine what people thousands of years ago would have done after seeing a sight like that — when I first saw the sky my immediate thought was that we needed to start sacrificing goats and virgins left and right. It’s no wonder that this is the city that brought us Armageddon, Volcano, and The Core.

Unrelated, but just for fun guess which pumpkin was carved by the art school graduate.

Antarctica Photos from Time Magazine. Sixty-eight days to go.

It’s been a week since I’ve posted anything. Better post something really interesting that’s happened to me in the last seven days. Ummmm… OK, better post something out of the ordinary that’s happened to me in the last week. Right, nothing there either. Maybe I’d better just post some random drivel.

Mission accomplished.

And for the five people who will recognize this little gem, the Eagle Bar is off the hook, yo.

I was so exhausted last night that I quite literally stumbled my way back into camp. Even hiking down today was tiring, so I’m convinced I had a touch of the flu — in addition to fatigue my appetite disappeared and I carried out nearly all of the food that I’d taken in. Still, it was an amazing weekend — a group of thirteen deer gathered to see me off this morning, and after a brief excursion through the White Chief mine I was back at the trailhead and heading home. Saw another black bear while driving out, but otherwise it was a fairly uneventful drive home. Pictures will go up some time in the next few months after I’ve had a chance to finish the roll.

Oddly enough, in the moments where I wasn’t completely overcome by the beauty and peacefulness of the High Sierras, there were two thoughts that kept coming back into my head. The first was about that Claymation Christmas Special with Rudolf and the elf who wanted to be a dentist. The second was about how cool it would be to be a contestant on the show Survivor. I’m somewhat afraid that this is a sign that something in my brain has broken.

Whether due to the altitude, dehydration, a slight flu, lack of fitness, or something else I am absolutely drained of energy. Slept for nearly twelve hours last night, and briefly debated taking it easy for the day. My original plan had been to try and scale the huge, bowl-shaped cliffs that surround my camping spot, so I finally decided to make an attempt to get as far up them as I could manage.

Having to carry all of my food with me (can’t have have the bear rummaging through my campsite while I’m gone) didn’t make the trip any easier, but after lots of rest stops, a ton of free-climbing (not easy with a backpack on) and more than a few thoughts about turning back I’m sitting on the top of a sheer ridge, surrounded by steep piles of boulders with an amazing view of my valley on the right, and another valley on the left. I’ve got to believe that this new valley, filled by three small lakes, is a site that very few other people have ever set eyes upon. Beautiful blue skies, a mild breeze, and some amazing scenery make this a moment worth remembering forever.

Camping at over 10,000 feet elevation in mid-October is a cold thing to do — I’ll be wearing a shirt, a flannel, and a jacket to bed tonight. Left Glendale last night, slept for a few hours in the back of the Subaru, then woke up at 6:00 this morning and drove the rest of the way up to Mineral King. Picked up a hitchhiker on the way, which isn’t something I would normally do but I figured anyone hitching up to Mineral King had to be all right. Saw a black bear on the road, and all told today I’ve seen more deer than people — never a bad thing.

The trail up here starts at 7800 feet, and between the altitude, the fact that I haven’t been running, and the pack on my back I was completely wiped out when I got to my camping spot. Took a three hour nap in the afternoon, then went out to watch the sunset and the stars. I used to think that bears didn’t come up this high, but there are two huge piles of bear crap within thirty feet of my tent that are convincing me otherwise, and since I don’t have a bear cannister to store my food in I’m very much hoping that I’ll be able to spend the night without visitors.

Another Antarctica teaser photo:

Even though I disagree with the current California recall effort, having just received an absentee ballot in the mail I was at least amused by it. Each candidate is listed by name, political party, and profession, and I swear to God I am not making up any of these candidates:

• Ivan A. Hall, Custom Denture Manufacturer
• Kurt E. “Tachikaze” Rightmyer, Middleweight Sumo Wrestler
• Paul “Chip” Mailander, Golf Professional
• Angelyne, Entertainer
• Daniel Watts, College Student
• Mary “Mary Carey” Cook, Adult Film Actress

I was curious if Gary Coleman would list himself as a security guard, but he went with the safe choice of “Actor”. And of course, having read through the list of candidates I now definitely need to find a “Tachikaze for Governor” bumper sticker — how have those not swept across the state already?!?!

This photo is from a collection of photos taken on a previous Cheeseman Antarctica trip. Eighty-four days and counting.

Drove up to San Francisco for the weekend, and went with Aaron and Jen to meet Scott, Nadia, and a bunch of other folks at a bar in the city. Nadia had picked a (straight) bar in a mostly gay neighborhood (imagine that, in San Francisco) and a not-insignificant number of the folks on the street were wearing nothing but leather thongs and chains. Even if you’re not the slightest bit homophobic, when you see a man walking down the street wearing nothing but a leather thong and a couple of chains it’s a freaky, freaky sight.

Aside from scary bondage moments life has been calm lately. The studio lot is back in action with all of the TV shows shooting and several movies apparently getting ready to start production. For whatever reason most of the shooting has been on the indoor soundstages, but I’m hoping to be running amok in an outdoor shoot the next time something interesting goes in front of the cameras on the street sets.

I’ve also been playing around a bit with the site code (I know, ladies, control yourselves) so if you happen to notice anything that seems broken on the site please let me know.