Ryan's Journal – Page 49 – "My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?"

Watching the Sunset from Sunset

Posted from Culver City, California at 4:40 pm, February 18th, 2007

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:

The Grand Canyon, seen back when I was retired.

Baba O’Riley

Posted from Culver City, California at 5:00 pm, January 27th, 2007

Sometimes people need to go to Vegas. And then when they get there it’s FREEZING, and because those people came from LA they didn’t bring coats, and so they end up walking a mile along the Strip and turning into icicles. And then those people go to P.F. Chang’s for dinner, and the wait is an hour and a half, so they play the slot machine with the UFO on it (it’s the best one). And then they finally get seated and they do animal impersonations while eating, and it’s actually really hard to think of animals to impersonate after the first six or seven. And then the next day they go to the Bellagio buffet (it’s the best one) and they eat a lot, and then they find another slot machine that lets you play a video game when you get enough wilds. And then they go home broke and happy.

Vegas

I’m still not used to not having hair.

Mongolians

Posted from Culver City, California at 10:10 pm, January 21st, 2007

New year, but not too much in the way of new news. Work at DirecTV is continuing, and it looks like I may be there for a while. JAMWiki development has been slowed a bit due to having a nine-to-five (misnomer!) job, but it’s still going along well. There have already been more downloads this month than in any other month, and the project has gotten contributions from people hailing from places ranging from San Francisco to Ukraine to Mongolia.

JAMWiki Downloads

JAMWiki Downloads.

Also, here’s a quick geek announcement: for anyone looking to buy Microsoft Office, have a look at Open Office.org, which is free (Microsoft Office runs at least $200). Having used it for a few days now my impressions are:

I’ve been able to open and save all of my old Word and Excel documents without problems.
The menus are the same as Office, so there’s no learning curve.
The biggest downside is that it’s slower than Office, especially during startup.
It’s not quite as polished, but it’s close.

Intellectuals and Rocketry

Posted from Culver City, California at 9:00 pm, December 31st, 2006

2006 definitely had its share of memorable adventures – here’s hoping that everyone else has similarly fond memories, and best wishes in 2007.

Awesomeness.

I won’t lie to you – when you’re in Antarctica wearing nothing but a tuxedo, it’s not warm. Not warm at all.

Under the Thumb of Da Man

Posted from Culver City, California at 9:30 pm, December 21st, 2006

The Great Retirement of 2005-2006 came to an end three weeks ago after nearly thirteen months (new record!) and these days I find myself slaving away to make Direct TV’s web site run smoothly and look pretty. Despite no longer being able to control my own schedule, there are some definite upsides:

I get a window that overlooks LAX, and planes are way cool.
I get a paycheck, and being able to pay rent is also way cool.
For various reasons I had to form my own company, so my paycheck goes to “Holliday Information Technology Services” (yes, HITS), and even though it doesn’t need to be said, that’s super cool.

Happy holidays to everyone, especially those poor schmucks buried under a mile of snow in Denver!

Game Over

Posted from Culver City, California at 9:10 pm, November 28th, 2006

This year’s Turkey Bowl ended with a collision that was described as sounding “like two pumpkins smashing together”, and while I didn’t make the tackle I stumbled to my feet before Miner did, so I’d like to believe I won the battle. The epic three hour football marathon was the longest in history, with everyone involved in considerable pain the next day.

Other Thanksgiving highlights included Skip’s joy at discovering Aaron had set up an eight foot tall inflatable Santa in the front yard, the eleven hour drive home (traffic is awesome), and some atomic wedgie action that is probably better forgotten.

The latest retirement will be coming to an end on Monday after more than a year, the Browns are not very good, and JAMWiki is cruising along. Also, this story is super-cool, and this video is inspiring for anyone who has ever felt dumb.

Consumerism

Posted from Culver City, California at 1:20 pm, November 14th, 2006

This is a really good deal: for anyone else out there with a DVD addiction (Lost is evil), Deep Discount DVD, already one of the lowest-priced DVD sites, is now offering 20% off of all DVDs with free shipping through November 18 (as pointed out on the DVD Talk forums). Pick your DVDs, and then enter the code “DVDTALK” at checkout to get the discount.

Musings

Posted from Culver City, California at 1:10 pm, November 8th, 2006

Lost is very addictive; Aaron and I finished season one last night, just five days after Audrey gave it to me.

And for the first time in a long time, an election made me happy.

Four years ago, lookin’ studly.

Culver City, California

Posted from Culver City, California at 5:40 pm, October 28th, 2006

This is the first year since 2002 that I’m not going to be in Antarctica during the Winter, and I’m going through a bit of withdrawal. Reading through my journal entry from this day two years ago, however, makes the withdrawal a bit easier to bear:

In the words of Shane, “What kind of shit have I gotten myself into now?” Winds are sustained at thirty-to-forty knots, waves are twelve-to-fifteen feet, and the boat is jumping like a Mexican bean. With the assistance of drugs my vision is horribly blurred but I’m not feeling ill, although several of the fellow passengers have been heaving forth with great gusto throughout the day. One thing they don’t tell you about rough seas is that while walking around is very, very tough, using the bathroom is practically a gymnastic event.

Even with the threat of hideous seasickness it would be nice to be heading back again.

King Penguin & Chicks at Right Whale Bay

Termites in the Kitchen

Posted from Culver City, California at 2:45 pm, October 19th, 2006

So it costs $83 to go to Disneyland. That’s a lot. It’s a magical place and all, but $83 is not cheap; Mickey and Minnie definitely aren’t eating ramen noodles for dinner.

Costs aside, the Goob, the Sandra and I had fun on Sunday. We took the scenic route down to Anaheim (actually past Anaheim, back through Anaheim, and then back to Anaheim again) but arrived at the park before the crowds were too insane. A little Pirates of the Caribbean and Space Mountain later and all was well. We then headed over to the California Adventure part of the park, where the Tower of Terror sent my anxiety factor shooting skywards – I’m a total wuss when it comes to rides involving steep drops. To entertain ourselves in line we played “who’s the weirdest dude here”, and quickly found our winner, dubbed Freaky Frank. And of course, when they sat us down to go on the ride, Frank and I were sharing armrests; having anxiety AND having a weirdo staring at you are a great combination when you’re about to be dropped twelve stories.

The day concluded at Big Thunder Mountain, which conveniently broke down as we were about to get on. The timing was actually pretty good, as we were all pretty tired and being stuck on a ride with animatronic squirrels for an hour probably would have reduced the magic factor somewhat. And speaking of magic factor, yeah, I high-fived Goofy.

I was the Big Winner

Posted from Culver City, California at 3:55 pm, September 29th, 2006

As Vegas is wont to do, my winnings of day one turned into losings on day two, but it was still a fun trip – there was a midget on a bar pouring shots, after all. Life has since returned to normal, with the Browns losing, JAMWiki progressing, and many fewer midgets around to pour shots. We saw Audrey’s friend Shark (yes, that’s his name) at a show a while back, which was all good. The government here is more insane than I suspected they could be, the weather is nice again, and did I mention that the Browns are losing? Life goes on as usual.

I like dolphins.

I’m the Big Winner

Posted from Las Vegas, Nevada at 10:00 am, September 24th, 2006

Lest it get lost from memory, in the last journal entry I forgot to mention the outing Audrey set up to go see a performance of Carmina Burana at the Hollywood Bowl. I know nothing about the music, but apparently it’s a famous piece and everyone has heard parts of it in movies at some point (trust me, you have). Anyhow, given the joy that is Los Angeles traffic we decided to meet Greg and Bronwyn in downtown Culver City to catch a shuttle bus to the Bowl. As we left to meet them I realized that I was having discussions with my stomach about a vanilla latte I’d consumed twenty minutes earlier. Unhappy with the state of discussions, my stomach sent a few gallons of cold sweat up to my head about fifteen minutes into the bus ride, and my head returned the favor by draining of all blood. By this point Audrey was searching through our picnic dinner for a bag to give me, but we arrived at the Bowl without incident. Once there I calmly followed the group to our seats, dropped off my jacket, and then headed to the men’s room to lose my latte. After that the concert was fairly awesome, and ended with fireworks and massive flame towers that I swear raised the outside air temperature several degrees throughout the Bowl.

And that was all of the excitement in my life until Friday. Aaron called to find out if I wanted to drive with him to Vegas – he was going for a bachelor party, and his driving buddy had bailed. The catch was that I had to find my own lodging, and that we wouldn’t be able to hang out together until Sunday; not a problem – I’m admittedly cheap, so rather than shelling out $100 for a crappy room I figured I’d just crash for the night in the Suby.

So I picked up Aaron, we had a fun drive here, and then I dropped him off at the Luxor and headed over to the less-pricey end of the Strip to see if I could find a $5 Let-It-Ride table. Six hours later with $20 of winnings in my pocket and having seen a three-foot-tall man dressed as a leprechaun running up and down a bar pouring shots I headed out of town to a spot I’d parked at for the night on a previous trip. Unbeknownst to me, however, Nascar was in town, so my nice quiet exit twenty miles outside of town was filled with hundreds of cars leaving the Las Vegas speedway. Luckily five miles later the next exit had only a few semis that were parked for the evening, and I slept like a baby until the sun woke me up at 7:00.

New Hotness

Posted from Culver City, California at 12:45 am, September 17th, 2006

Life over the past two weeks:

Labor Day Weekend

The somewhat delayed Sixth Annual Meat Massacre took place at Ma & Pa’s residence, with this year’s total weighing in at thiry-three pounds. Despite the charcoal grill, an abbreviated home run derby, and underestimating the number of guests the event again went off pretty well. We even managed to get super-smart folks like JB and Gene to focus their mental energies on figuring out whether a rodeo bull could beat a rhino, or an elephant standing in four feet of water could best a great white shark. And much meat was consumed. Even the old neighbors from Cleveland made a visit, so the event was definitely a good one.

Post-Labor Day Weekend

Bellies full, Audrey and I set off in the Son-of-Suby for Yosemite. I figured it would be easiest to camp in the Valley, so we set up the tent in the backpacker camp (Camp IV) and I was soon sleeping soundly. Unfortunately Audrey wasn’t quite at home in a tent, and spent most of the night playing “bear or neighbor?” with the sounds she heard outside. The next day we headed off on the Half Dome trail, and made a leisurely hike up to Little Yosemite Valley. That evening we again jumped in S-o-S and headed down to the beautiful and alluring city of Fresno, got directions to Chevy’s from a hostess who got north and south backwards, and imbibed of the world’s best chain margaritas before crashing for the evening at the lovely Fresno Day’s Inn. Have I mentioned yet that Fresno was alluring? The next day we made a brief stop to see the big trees in Sequoia before finally heading past the wonderful city of Bakersfield and returning home.

Since then

A friend from Singapore came to town, and despite the fact that I’ve got much less hair and many fewer brain cells than when I saw her last in 2001 she wasn’t overly frightened. Aaron and I watched the Browns score an eighty yard touchdown on their first play of the 2006 season, and predictably watched it be called back by a penalty, after which they seemed to forget that the goal was to advance the ball forward. JAMWiki marches onwards, with the next release on the horizon, and the rest of the world remains insane as always.

Politically Uncorrect

Posted from Culver City, California at 4:15 pm, September 1st, 2006

Spent the past two days in Catalina with Audrey, her mom, and mom’s husband. There are stories circulating that I may have let a dingy float away while grabbing a bag off the back of the boat, but I can assure everyone that it was all intentional – I just needed an excuse to dive in and chase down a rubber raft.

The Catalina trip offered tons of time to read, and I’m on to another Carl Sagan book – The Dragons of Eden, a non-fiction book about the evolution of human intelligence. At the beginning of the book he makes an attempt to give some idea of how long the time periods are when discussing evolution. To illustrate the point, he condenses all of history into one year, and then lays out the following dates:

January 1: The Big Bang

May 1: The Milky Way galaxy Forms

September 9: The solar system forms

September 14: The Earth forms

September 25: Origin of life on Earth

December 1: Significant oxygen atmosphere develops on Earth

December 20: Plants begin colonization of land

December 24: First dinosaurs

December 26: First mammals

December 28: First flowers, dinosaurs extinct

December 31:

10:30 PM: First humans

11:00 PM: Widespread use of stone tools by humans

11:56 PM: End of the last Ice Age

11:59:50 PM: Beginning of Egyptian civilization

11:59:53 PM: Bronze Age, Trojan War

11:59:56 PM: Birth of Christ

11:59:59 PM: Rennaisance

The first second of New Year’s Day: Present Day

It’s a pretty cool way to look at it; if it takes (relatively) just four minutes to go from the last Ice Age to the present it puts in perspective how much things can change over a much, much longer period of time.

I Make Maps

Posted from Culver City, California at 9:25 pm, August 18th, 2006

On a lighter note, Jason found a site that allows you to generate a list of states and countries that you’ve visited.
There are a lot of red states.

I’ve been to South Carolina, but I don’t remember it. (image from world66.com).

They don’t include Antarctica… (image from world66.com).