Almost forgot I had this

Of course, I really wasn't writing anything since nobody was reading it. But, I may as well keep updating this with big developments.
OK, here's the big things:

• I applied to Google and almost made it.

• I got handed a video project, very cool stuff. Unfortunately some consultants ended up taking way too long and effectively screwing me, since now I have to work double-hard to catch up after waiting for them for so long.

• A Trader Joe's opened in Manhattan, around Union Square. For those not in the know, TJ's is about the best food store ever - good stuff, really cheap, nice people working there. It is a bit of a madhouse, though, seeing as apparently I'm not the only transplant to NYC who remembers just how awesome TJs is.

• My dad and Ania had a baby girl in August, named Cora (not actually sure of the last name). I don't think we've spoken since she was born. I'm not happy about it (not speaking to him, that is) but that's sort of just how it's worked out.
  

• My brother's doing much better, I can tell just from the few brief conversations we've had in the last couple of months. Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned there for my future parent self - maybe discipline's not such a bad thing if it's couple with attention and support.

• I have a new client, she's about the nicest person you could hope to meet. She's pretty clueless about computer stuff but obviously sharp and educated about many other things. Plus, she never haggles over the bill or anything, which is good.

• We bought a new car. After having the old one break down once every couple of months, we realized it was better to just get a new one. Buying a new car is so much fun on the east coast - I though that the California car sales places were sleazy, but NY and NJ are way worse. Nonetheless we ended up with the car that she wanted at a price we could live with.

So overall life's OK. Clau and I are going out a bit less (trying to save money) and making weekly pilgrimages to TJs for dinner for the coming week. Between that and the Kraft store we're definitely spending more on Saturday night than the rest of the week combined. Dunno if that's a good thing or a bad thing. We're limiting ourselves to two nights out per week, and shooting for one (going to a friend's party and stuff like that doesn't count).
Oh, and I almost forgot another point - Sam got a job at Company_A and will probably be joining me soon. She probably won't stay all that long but it'll be nice to have her nearby for a little bit.

Web link:
"Peanuts" by Group X. I love these guys

Updates

So what's up lately:
Just when Clau and I were starting to get our finances under control, we've decided to go and splurge on all kinds of shit, this time for me. She bought me an xbox 360 for our anniversary and it's awesome. My computer has been dying lately, I think it's the RAM but I can't be sure, and so I must replace it with another. This could, however, be a good thing, since I want to replace it with a Mac Mini. I have one of the original (PPC processor) minis, and I'm using it to display my video etc. It's working fine (I put Linux on it) but it's neither pretty nor user friendly, and since Apple has the sweet Front Row application (in addition to all those others), I'd just as soon use that for everything. But, I'll probably try to replace the RAM in my box first. I just wish I knew exactly what I needed to replace it with.

Clau's going to Milwaukee tomorrow through Thursday, so I'm going to try to entertain myself during that time. I think I'll seriously try to fix the damn computer we have so that I don't have to convince her that we need another one.

Also, we've gone out with Sam and/or Matt a few times now and we're totally enamored with them - those guys are so much fun to hang around.

My little brother's become a prisoner in my dad and stepmother's house. They "caught" him smoking pot (in that they asked him and he told them) and he's been on house arrest ever since. Or at least that's what I get from talking to him. I don't know how to broach the subject with my dad. The last time I talked w/ my little brother I was fuming and Clau made me calm down before calling anyone. But, I need to call my dad before my brother's summer vacation vanishes before his eyes (or worse, he gets the thrill of spending it helping my stepmother care for the new baby). I guess my big beef is that he's such a good kid, and they're treating him like a criminal. Especially since I know that compared to me at that age he's an angel. Then again, he's only 15 - maybe they're saving him from a life of crime. I dunno. It's tough to try to figure out what the best thing is when you're so far away, both in terms of distance and perspective. I can't really understand what it's like for either party, but I can't see how what my father is doing is OK. You can see why I haven't called him yet...

Quick update

Obviously it's a bit late to be writing my blog - Clau's asleep already and I should be, too.
Attila and Reka visited last weekend and brought their boy Shoeldt (I'm sure I'm spelling it wrong, I'll look it up later), he is adorable but I can see that children are a lot of work. Clau and I have decided to wait just a bit longer, I made her promise that we won't wait beyond the point where it's safe.
I just found out that one of my high school classmates became a filmmaker - kind of a tiny world considering how few people were in my high school class. Her name is (or was) Miranda Grossinger - she's now going by "Miranda July", probably one of the reasons I didn't notice earlier. She made a movie called "You, Me, and Everyone We Know", which I read a lot about in Time Out and such, but didn't see. I will of course put the DVD in my Netflix queue now, hopefully she gets some money out of that. Not that she and I were friends or anything - I just remember her being very very spacey most of the time, and she also sparked what was probably the biggest broohaha (how do you spell that word?) during my four years of high school; as I recall, some girl had poured chinese food on top of a guy's car. The guy was extremely extroverted - actually, I can't really think of a good word to describe him...cocky? cocksure? Well, you get the idea, to the point of being frequently obnoxious - if high school were a corporate workplace, he surely would have been fired for sexual harassment. I actually liked him because, besides occasionally being an asshole, he was very smart and funny - we played together in a band for a little while and I had gotten to sort of know him.
So, to get back to the story, after this girl pours chinese food on his car, he makes an announcement at a school assembly asking people to please respect his car. He said something to the effect of "if you have a problem with me, talk to me; don't take it out on my car." Soon after that, we arrive to school to be greeted by a huge banner reading: "You say 'respect my car.' We say 'respect our bodies.' Signed, CPS Women" It sparked a huge debate throughout the school, everybody arguing both sides of it. I wish that, at that time, I could have realized just what a wonderful place that school was. I often refer to that story when I try to explain what my school was like.
Anyway, as far as my personal interaction with Miranda goes, I don't think we ever said anything to each other, but I recall her being nice (but, like I said, spacey). I think, though, that I'd like to have coffee or something with her if I got the chance - I feel like I missed out on knowing someone really interesting in high school. After I realized that she was Miranda July, I took a quick look at her blog (hey, just b/c nobody reads mine doesn't mean that I won't read anyone else's) and there's some really great writing in there - I remember when I used to be able to write like that. Somewhere in my life, between living and breathing Unix and learning Portuguese, my ability to write like that slowly faded away. Maybe I could get it back if I practiced more.
Anyway, enough self-pity - I'm going to update flickr soon, got lots of pictures of last weekend's visitors, and this weekend we're going to CA to see Sean and Tess, as well as meet Sean's new wife, so I'm sure there will be lots of pictures of that. I think, with a lot of practice, I could eventually take a decent photograph...

Voltamos a vida normal

Grr...estô um poquinho mal humorado - tenho tentado escriver português no meu laptop (de Linux) por trente minutos. Bem, não e fácil- ao fim, achei um jeitinho; posso usar Windows num "computador virtual" al dentro do computador de Linux. Não gosto, mas funciona.
Então - o que tem acontecido ultimamente - desde chegei do Brasil, tenho sido doente. Pois, não posso fazer um dia para estar doente diretamente depois das férias, então tenho trabalhado e tossido toda o dia. Finalmente estô ficando melhor, mas estô tossindo ainda. Provavelmente todos os cigarros e cerveja nos fims de semana não ajudaram.
Procurei os fotos da minha câmera (um presente da minha esposa para meu aniversário), e vou colocar alguns no web. Preciso aprender mais dos sites como flickr - não me importe se otras pessoas vêem os meus photos, mas nao entende completamente como esse tipo de site funciona. De qualque maneira, gostei do viagem - não vou me esquecer jamais a experiência do carnival no Brasil.
Acho que a Sam e o Matt tambêm gostaram do viagem - ao menos, somos ainda amigos. Agora, acho que eles sabem que foi muito mais barato viagar ao brasil com uma brasileira que viagar sozinos. Alem disso, eles tinham o oportunidade para experimentar muitas frutas estrangeiras (açai, caja, manga brasileira) e sucos diferentes (abacaxi com hortelã, cupuacu, graviola), beber cervejas e drinks diferentes (Skol, Brahma, caipirinha - não gostaram), e experimentar comidas diferentes (talvez foi um mal idéia introducar os meus amigos ao fejioada e a churrascaria no mesmo dia - vc pode ver o que aconteceu com o Matt depois). Nao se preocupe - ele viveu...

Comencando escriver em Portugues

Esto fazendo um curso de Portugues a NYU - comecei a terca passada, e o professor recommenda que fazemos um jornal. Entao, vou tentar escriver ao menos um pouquinho cada semana. Geralmente vai provavelmente escriver do que tenho feito na semana passada.
Come sempre, trabalhava durante a semana passada, mas ultimamente nao tenho tido muito para fazer. Falei com o meu gerente e ele diseu que vai haver muitos projetos, e ao momento eu deveria so esperar. Entao, tenho tentando ficar movimentado, porque nao gosto de fazer nada - parece legal ao inicio mas fica chato rapido. Na sexta eu e a Clau fomos na casa de Anderson e Andrea. Gostamos, mas a Clau estava muitoa cansada, e precisamos ir embora a duas horas de manha. Um amiga da Clau nos vitisou na sabado; ela se chama Sharon, gostei muito dela - ela estava visitando a Nova Iorque para encontrar um groupo grande de Internet. Ela ficou conosco para fin de semana, mas a gente nao via ela muito. Sem problemas pra mim e a Clau - gostamos dela, e a Sharon vai repagar a Clau essa semana quando a Clau vai a Chicago.
No sabado noite, eu e a Clau fomos de novo a casa de Anderson e Andrea, e essa vez bebemos demais. O problema com visitar o Anderson e que ele e um "host" bom demais, especialmente com a cerveja. Eu nao posso beber devagar - se eu tenho um cerveza en frente de mim, vou beber-lo. Entao, eu me controlo para esperar um poquinho entre uma cervaja e a outra. Quando voce ta na casa de Anderson, ao momento que voce esta acabando a cerveja, ele esta ali con a proxima. Adoro Anderson (e Andrea tambem), mas e tao perigoso lhe visitar que eu so posso ir a casa dele na fin de semana.
Essa semana, minha gatinha vai ir a Chicago para a empresa dela. Ele parte hoje (segunda) e vai voltar na quinta. Na proxima dia (sexta) a gente vai ir a Salvador (finalmente!). Nao gosto da ideia de falta minha esposa por quatro dias, mas ao menos vamos ter ferias juntos directamente depois a seperacao.
Bem, espero que esse e bastante. Em escrevendo esse, realizei que nao sou accostumado a escriver em portugues, e preciso praticar mais...

Been a while

Well, there's no way to recount everything that's happened so far, so let me try to sum up a few things:
1) I don't believe anyone has _ever_ read this. I thought I would eventually give this blog url to my folks, but I get the feeling that nobody cares. Oh, well. So, maybe this will disappear.
2) Got a call from a headhunter for a contract. I took a breath to say "No, thanks", then realized that I have no reason not to accept contract work. Clau's got benefits now and a decent salary, so we'd have something to sustain us during lean times and still have coverage if we get hit by a bus. As it happens this contract wasn't something I wanted to do, but still, it's something to keep in mind if another call comes in.
3) There was a reorg at work, so now I work in the applications group, which is cool. I'm busy trying to get rid of my infrastructure projects and I realize just how much I disliked most of it. It's too bad because infrastructure is what I did for a long time at QAD, and I thought I would miss it. But, mostly, it just seems like a PITA now that I'm seperating myself from it.
4) I want to take a Portuguese class at NYU. Classes start next week so I better figure it out. I think I'll take the level 3 class and find out where I need to catch up. Conversationally I'm OK, but obviously a lack of formal education has left some pretty big gaps in my skills (which is the whole point of taking a class in the first place). Still, it seems like a lot of money to pay just to force myself to learn (there's nothing stopping me from just picking up a book except for my own lack of motivation)
5) We took a road trip to Vermont a couple of weekends ago and ended up getting into a fight with John and Nicole. It was over who was going to drive, I think that they were pretty unreasonable, and Clau made a good point; we try very hard to be flexible, and the one time she really wanted something her way, they wouldn't be flexible in return. It's too bad because it occurred as we were leaving Vermont, which made for an unpleasant ride back to NYC, and we probably won't go out with them again. Too bad, because I liked going out with them (they're the good-looking ones in the Amazing Race picture).
6) The winter here has been really bizarre - so far only about 2 weeks of cold weather. Yesterday it was in the 50's and just a beautiful day. The trees are starting to bloom (they're confused) and the bugs are coming back. Today it got cold and wet. I keep having to remind myself it's the end of January and not March or April. Of course, that wasn't so good when we went to Vermont (no snow), but we got lucky and it snowed on the last day, so I got to try snowboarding.
7) I went to the gym about 6 weeks ago and asked one of the P.T.'s what I have to do to get into semi-decent shape in time for Carnival. The basic answer is "work out a lot". So, naturally, my response has been to sit on the couch playing Xbox. I don't know why I have such motivational difficulties when I know exactly what I need to do. January's gym membership was a waste, and I gotta get in there for February, if for no other reason that in my current condition I won't last two hours in Carnival. Even if I can't look good, I need to get myself into better shape.
8) I have to swap my drivers license. Seems easy, right? Well, not exactly. Went there on Friday and found out that I need my SSN card. Seriously, what's the point of that card? I'm the type of person who loses useless stuff, and the SSN card qualifies; it's got no photo, and I can't remember the last time I was asked for it - probably waaaay back in the day as proof of employment eligibility (and I mean years ago). So, yesterday I went to the Federal building to get another one. Like a dumbass, I left my pocket knife in my jacket, the one that Geo gave me right before I went backpacking through Europe (when you could still bring a knife on board). They were kind of harsh about it; you can't bring it in, we won't hold it for you, there's no place to store it. Either give it to us (so, we'll happily take it, but we won't hold it) or come back another time. Sigh. So, I'm coming back today (I ditched the knife at home).

Sometimes, all the security we have to go through really bugs me. NYPD doing random searches in the subway is a good example of it. There are literally thousands of ways to access the subway system. The NYPD might be checking two at any given time. Plus, since just randomly searching people is a blatant violation of their civil rights, you can just say "no, I'd rather you didn't search me" and walk away. Even if they use that as a justification to deny you access to the train (which I don't see how they can really do), you can just leave and walk to the next entrance (to the same station), or walk to another station entirely (in Manhattan that's about a 5-minute walk). This is a perfect example of what all this "security" really is: a stupid show to make people feel safer. My question is, how many people (in particular, how many jaded New Yorkers) see that show and actually fall for it? It can't be that many. Maybe tourists would fall for that, but even so, does having armed police randomly searching people send a good message about our city?
Another case in point; not allowing me in the federal building with my pocket knife. What the hell am I going to do with that? The worst thing I could do is deface something; do they think I'm going to try to take hostages with it? I can see that in a plane, where unless you have an air marshall on board, a pocket knife will probably rank as one of the most powerful weapons on board, but in a government building? What would that call be like, anyway...
Dispatcher: We have a hostage situation in the federal building. We have an armed perpetrator demanding a new social security card and he refuses to submit to the standard fingerprinting and DNA swab.
SWAT Team: We're on it! What's he holding everyone hostage with?
Dispatcher: It appears to be a knife - he has threatened to -
SWAT: What kind of knife? Bowie? Machete?
Dispatcher: According to reports, it's a regular pocket knife, but witnesses say it looks like it's very sharp.
SWAT: OK boys! Here's the situation - we have a perp with a knife! Everybody arm your slingshots - this could get ugly. Stand by with an ambulance, make sure it has plenty of band-aids.

Sigh.

So...full....

Had a TG holiday with Adrian, the Hopfinger family, the new baby, Bindu, and about 20 cases of beer and three turkeys. I have never ate and drank so much in three days in my life. It was absolutely perfect - the weather was pretty decent, there was more food than we could have possibly eaten, and we were almost completely secluded from the rest of the world - I was out of pager range and my cell phone was off for most of the time.
The baby is absolutely adorable - the only time I heard him cry was when they tried to put him to bed on Thansgiving, and he just didn't want to miss the excitement. He smiles and laughs a lot and is generally adorable. Overall it was a great time. And the food - oh my Lord, the food! Two deep-fried turkeys, one roasted turkey (only used for the gravy on TG night), 20 lbs of potatoes, corn casserole, yams, stuffing, wild rice, green beans, salad (like anyone was going to eat that), and lots of other good stuff. Plus a smorgasboard of deserts. Oh my it was good. And, we got to spend most of the day drinking beer and burning leaves. It was great.
So, now back to the regular world - we have to go shopping this coming weekend for presents. That'll be fun.
Sorry for the short one, but work is heavy. Gotta run...

TV Show musings

Had weird dreams for the last couple of days, but oddly I’ve been feeling overly creative lately. Of course, there’s nothing like a good day at the office to suck that out of me and get me ready to play video games or watch TV after getting home.

Speaking of TV, I was thinking about some shows I really liked that didn’t make it very far. My favorites so far that failed:

1) Andy Richter Controls the Universe – this show was a lot like Scrubs (in fact, I believe it came out at the same time), but Scrubs always has some “serious” part toward the end, whereas Andy was just bizarre the whole way through. Really funny, don’t think it made it past Season 1. Then Andy was in that god-awful Quintuplets which, sadly, lasted longer than ARCTU. Sad.

2) Push, Nevada. I never saw Twin Peaks so I can’t compare the two. I thought Push was bizarre but still accessible, and I believe that everyone’s biggest complaint with Twin Peaks was that it was just too weird. Unfortunately Push only lasted something like seven episodes. I think there was also a hokey component of you (the viewer) somehow winning a million dollars if you could solve the mystery or some crap like that. Seriously, who has time for that kind of shit? My guess is that the subsection of the population that would go for that sort of gimmick are the same types who just wouldn’t get it.

3) Freaks and Geeks. Perhaps this is a little bit bandwagon, but I really did like this show – sort of “Wonder Years” in the 80s. Of course everyone knows all about what a gem this one was so I won’t get into it.

4) Kingpin. I confess; I’m totally bored by “The Sopranos”. I have the first two Seasons on DVD and I forced myself to watch them both, figuring that everybody and their brother can’t be wrong about how totally bad-ass the show is. Whatever. I was completely underwhelmed. I watched the first season with my old roommate, which prompted him to buy the second season, which left me slightly less impressed than the first. After that I called it quits. Anyway, I thought that “Kingpin” was much cooler, but I’m guessing that everyone else thought it was a ripoff of “The Sopranos”. Or maybe there was just too much backlash from Hispanic organizations (I suppose I could see that one both ways). Or maybe it just wasn’t popular enough to fit in the three hours of non-reality prime-time TV that NBC had slotted for the week. At any rate, it only made it about 6 episodes.

5) Firefly. Yes, another bandwagon, but I really liked that show. Admittedly it would have probably started to suck after a couple of years, just like Buffy and Angel, but I thought it was a cool idea and very well written (as I have about nearly everything Joss has done). Admittedly I haven’t seen the movie, but that’s because we live in Manhattan and seeing a movie is an expensive and necessarily rare event for us, and the wife wasn’t too keen on wasting one on Firefly (sigh).

6) How I Met Your Mother. Actually this one’s still on, but Clau and I are convinced it won’t last more than one full season, if that. I think it’s really cute and I dig the show a lot. Not great, but worth a giggle and unexpectedly endearing. I still haven’t yet watched one and thought “well, that’s 30 minutes I’ll never get back”.

Since I’m on a TV list roll, here’s another one. Shows that should plan (or should have planned) to be 2-3 Seasons and then be done (i.e. shows that really, really jumped the shark)

1) Alias. Goddam that first season was cool. Rimbaldi, Sydney’s mother might be alive, etc etc. The fact that Jennifer Garner was so cute as to be hot didn’t hurt either. After a long wait (or, in my case, a few days for the next season to arrive on Netflix), the second season kicked in rocking. The Rimbaldi thing still had some good mileage left in it, lots of stuff going on with Syd, her parents, Will / Vaughn, etc. Then it ends with that whole coma thing? WTF? Then things just started to suck. Now all the good people are gone from the show and they’re trying to write JG’s pregnancy into the show. Wouldn’t it have been great if she could have retired at the end of season 2? Or if we just could have had an awesome finish with the Rimbaldi thing as the focus of Season 3, and finished the show? But hey, everybody’s making money, and we the audience keep watching it, hoping to recapture that sense of wonder and awe that we felt during that first season. And could we please have a little less gratuitous use of the slow-mo? It gets old after a few years.

2) Lost. Coincidentally by the same fellow. Again, breathtaking first season. Awesome characters, multiple twists-and-turns, the final opening of the hatch. Wow, wow, and wow. Of course my new theory (yes, this is my idea, but I’m sure there’s about a million other people who had the same idea) is that it’s all just some ginormous experiment, run by the government, or some thinktank, or even financed by Hurley (OK, that might be a stretch). The Darma logo on the shark was a great touch – my guess is that they put that on there to see if anyone would notice, then started spreading the word. But, you can already see the show approaching the point where you wish it would just end. Wouldn’t this be a great, great show if they had a pre-set time limit? Say, three seasons? Instead, they’re going to be stuck on that island for another 5 years and it’s gonna turn out to be a Martian colony or some bullshit like that.

3) Smallville. The first season (and maybe second, it’s all a little fuzzy now) was awesome. The development of this teenage boy, who we all know is going to grow up to be Superman, and everything that leads him to his destiny. Just like the comics, except with Starbucks and cell phones. What a great idea. Especially all the early interaction with Clark and Lex. I believe the moment of the shark-jump may have been when they introduced Lois Lane to the show. Now, as my wife likes to point out, it’s “Dawson’s Creek with superpowers”. Sadly I’m inclined to agree – I keep telling her “I just want to watch until he can fly”, which is probably what everyone else is thinking and therefore Clark won’t realize he can fly until the very last episode. I gotta give them props for actually have Clark and Lana do it, though, and also doing it in such a tasteful way. Other than that the show sucks now.

I’m sure there’s a lot more but that’s the ones currently on that I’m into.

OK, I’ve been writing this on and off for the last few hours. Time to finally publish.

Ho-hum

Training was cool, got lots to do now.
Last weekend we went out drinking. Clau and I went a bit over our entertainment budget for the weekend but we enjoyed ourselves. Besides, what's the point of making money if you don't spend it once in a while?
More updates later - too busy now.

--Nate

Late update

Well, it's Monday night - I'm doing a little work for Company_A after my first day of Project Management boot camp. Lots of fun, it's not a tremendously fun class, there's only 7 people in it and 5 of them are techies like me who are trying to round out their skills. One is a PM for a bank (he hasn't said much) and one is this Australian guy (Paul) who is actually making it interesting (not that the instructor's bad). Paul's the director of PM for some big financial company and he's taking the course to get the credits for recertification. That guy is seriously sharp - some people are just able to make so much sense, and when they explain things it seems to obvious - my dad said a long time ago that people who are really masters of a difficult art make you say "that doesn't look so hard, I bet I could do that", until you try it.
Anyway, so obviously no Company_A stuff going on, except that the stock price looks to be healthy. We announce earnings etc tomorrow. I hope we did well (believe me, I'm in no position to even guess as to how well or poorly we did - such is life in the trrenches).
Went to CA last weekend, to Santa Barbara for a wedding between Terry and Harry, two men who have been together almost as long as I've been alive. It was really, really nice. I'd never been to a gay wedding before and I didn't know what to expect, but I guess I didn't expect it to seem so...normal. Nothing flashy or extravagant, just two people who I haven't seen look that happy together since my own wedding. It was also a Lutheran mass, which I'd never seen before and it was almost exactly like the Catholic wedding mass. They had a really nice reception and Harry made a particularly touching speech, and Terry invited us to the after party. I think Clau was really happy to see Terry and Nancy (her old bosses from the museum) again. I like Harry and Terry a lot, and I was really glad we got to go.
My only complaint about the weekend was that I felt rushed the whole time. We flew to CA in the morning on Friday and got there at about noon. We hauled ass to Ventura to have lunch with Joyce and John, and I got sucked into a phone meeting just as we got to the restaurant. I finished my meeting, then ate lunch with them, then dropped Clau and Joyce off for a movie, then went to go see Jimmy and the new QAD campus. Very nice place. I ended up seeing quite a few people there who I never got to say good-bye to, so it turned out to be really good. Then raced back to Ventura, picked up Clau, went to Sean's house, went out to dinner (Mexican - good Mexican! so good!) with Sean and Tess, then went back home and hung out and did stuff. Then on Saturday we had breakfast w/ Sean and Tess, then went to the wedding, then raced back to Ventura to have dinner with Sean and Tess again. Sean's quite the cook, although he's definitely not pepper-shy, so we were scorched but happy after the meal. We had breakfast with Al and Neva the next day. Really, the only person I didn't get to see was Ernest, because his phone no longer works (again!). And, in reading this, it looks like it was pretty relaxed, but we were running around the whole time. It was really good seeing Sean and Tess. We could tell Tess was having a hard time of it, but she put on a brave face.
I miss California. I was telling Sean "I know we made the right decision in moving to New York, but I really miss this place." I miss seeing stars at night. I miss sleeping in silence. I miss having a backyard. I miss cheap, delicious Mexican food. I miss the few good friends we left behind.
Anyway, we flew back last night, and we're still kind of recovering. I just finished my work for Company_A so I'm gonna go drink a beer and see if we've got anything to eat.

Funny stuff

A couple of things that were pointed out to me recently:
http://www.angryalien.com - 30-second Flash summaries of movies by bunnies. Pretty damn funny, and of course they don't take very long to watch. The Pulp Fiction one is awesome.
http://maddox.xmission.com - This guy is very funny.

Gotta run!
--Nate

Quick BitTorrent / Azureus / etc explanation

OK, this stuff has all been written about to death by people who actually enjoy writing about this sort of thing, so I'm going to give the executive summary for people who don't know what this stuff is. For anyone who wants to learn more, there's a LOT more info out there.

Some definitions: BitTorrent is a method of transferring files, much like FTP. I'll try to give a quick explanation of what makes it so great by comparing it to other transfer methods:

FTP / HTTP - works great for what it is. However, in this case you have many clients downloading data from a single source. Both are reliant on getting the whole file in one shot, otherwise you have to start over again. Not very practical if you want to share your latest home video with the world.

Kazaa / eDonkey / etc - Break files into many small pieces, and work on downloading one piece at a time. This means that, first off, if your download gets botched, you've only lost one small piece of the file, which can be easily recovered. It also means that you can download many different pieces of the same file at the same time. As far as I can remember, Kazaa was the first program to do this (I don't think Napster did it, but now I can't remember - it was a long time ago). These programs also need some centralized servers to keep track of who has what. I won't get into how that works, but it's very clever. I know that Napster was the first program to do _that_, which is what made it so clever. Of course, by the time Napster got the axe, Kazaa was already around to take its place. Kazaa (as far as I know - I don't use it anymore) keeps its own servers, whereas eDonkey / Gnutella rely on people to set up their own servers, which then start keeping track of who has what. That means, if you're looking for something really obscure on one of those networks and can't find it by searching, you can try disconnecting and reconnecting to the network, and you'll reconnect to (hopefully) at least a few different servers.

Finally, BitTorrent - BitTorrent is the next evolution from eDonkey, Kazaa, etc. BitTorrent has all the same ideas as the above, but adds in a couple of key parts. For one thing, there are no centralized servers. Each file you want will have a "tracker", meaning a server that keeps track of who has what pieces of the file (remember, the file is broken into a lot of small pieces). The tracker (and you can have multiple trackers per file) tries to keep track of who is connected and what pieces they have, and instruct everyone accordingly. So, let's say, to make things easy, that a file is only broken into 5 pieces, and there's a lot of people trying to get it. Pieces 1-4 are all over the place, with hundreds of clients having each piece, but piece 5 is only on three or four clients. The tracker will immediately tell a bunch more clients to go get piece 5 (actually, I think the tracker just presents the information and the clients make that decision on their own, but you get the idea), so that it immediately becomes more common and can be downloaded by more clients. This gets rid of a common problem with other clients, where the file is 98-99% done, but you just can't get that last piece; man, I hate that.

BitTorrent also has an egalitarian quality, in that the more you upload, the more you can download. Truthfully you don't have to upload a lot to get a good download rate, but you do have to be able to upload something, otherwise your performance is going to suck. However, this means that whenever you use BitTorrent for anything illegal (i.e. movies, music, etc), you're not just receiving it, you're distributing it, in direct violation of that little warning screen they put at the beginning of the DVD and you can't get fast-forward through.

OK, that all took a lot longer than expected. So, I'll have to cut this short. Later I'll try to explain RSS and how it ties in. Actually, if you fo a google search for "bittorrent rss" then you ought to get a lot of other people's writings about it. I think these things are the wave of the future - they could be used so well to keep people informed and entertained if done properly. Anyway, more about that later.

Weekly update (maybe)

Well, here's an idea: let's try doing one update per week, maybe Monday mornings after I get my email / etc. settled. Now is such a time.

OK, what's going on:
Work (that I can talk about): I played around with a Sun Ray last week, got the server hoisted, it's such a great idea, too bad it didn't fly (although for all I know there are entire large companies running on these things). The hot-desking part is awesome, it's especially neat if you have to go the lab or something: just pop out your card, pop it in at the lab and it's like you never left. Totally kick-ass. I was thinking about taking one home so I could hot-desk into work from home, but then I remembered that we don't actually have a monitor at home, so that put an end to that. So, I think I'll put one in each of the labs and see how that works out. Also working on some other fun stuff that I don't want to write about here.

Home: Clau was sick last Saturday so we stayed inside the entire day, watching TV and eating soup. It was awesome. I played my video games until the wee hours and slept in a little on Sunday. On Sunday, we went to carve pumpkins with John and Nicole (the other couple from the Amazing Race picture). Clau hadn't done it since she was a little kid (honestly I couldn't remember the last time I did it), but we had a lot of fun, ate a lot of toasted pumpkin seeds, and the jack-o-lanterns actually came out pretty good (considering my absolute lack of artistic talent). Then we went home and Clau started working on setting up her PDA, which went late into the night. I just wanted to be grumpy and watch TV but she kept asking me to rescue her from some tech corner she'd painted herself into. Still, she got pretty handy with the Palm pretty fast; good to see there's a geek in there somewhere.

Also, I called my grandmother, and through a little phone-tag I found that she's doing the family Xmas party on Dec 10. That works out for us, but I think it may conflict with this year's Santacon: we didn't go last year (because we didn't know about it) but we're determined to go this year, unless something else conflicts with it (like my family's Xmas party).

I guess that about covers it: temps are definitely getting cold, and it's still pretty dim when I leave for work now. In a month I'll probably be forced to wear a hat. Oh yeah, speaking of which, Clau bought a bunch of pants on Sunday, too, so she's happy.

Speaking of HDTV

I use azureus, a popular BitTorrent client, for my BT transfers and getting my HDTV broadcast stuff. It has an RSSFeed plugin that just rocks. I've got pretty much all my favorite shows: Lost, Alias, Desperate Housewives (for the, um, wife), Veronica Mars (don't knock it till you watch it!), CSI (original), all the Law and Orders, etc. The only tough part is CSI and LAO, since there's so many spinoffs. I don't like the CSI spinoffs, and I like to keep my TV organized, so have all the different Law and Order shows going into their own subdirectories.
This came about because I was talking with Matt (Sam's boyfriend - Sam's an English girl who volunteers with me at God's Love We Deliver, Matt's her boyfriend, both very cool people and they're going to Carnival next year with us). Matt said he wanted the "set it and forget it" kind of deal. Well, this isn't perfect but it's pretty close. Now I just need a frontend that can use the remote control and tell me what I haven't watched yet, and I'm set - it's like a Tivo without needing cable.

On another note, since I put up those posts, Apple (or is it ABC) started offerring $1.99 versions of their two most popular TV shows - for the video iPod. Not exactly what I had in mind but it's a start. Now all we need is high-quality HDTV rips for $1.99 and we're in business. In fact, you know what? A decent interim solution would be to just make a "legal" version of the show with only nationwide (or global) advertisements (i.e. McDonalds, Coke, H&R Block, etc), and throw it into the BT universe. I think that a lot of people, if given the choice between a "legal" and "illegal" download (I use quotes because there's no precedent, but let's face it - it's probably illegal to download - or at least to upload, which (with BitTorrent) is a part of the downloading process), would probably choose the legal option. I know I would.
But, of course, that's not going to happen. Or, if it does, it'll be some really crappy, half-assed version; a medium-quality version with lots of ads thrown in, that you have to download from some ad-ridden site and pay $5 per episode. Something that nobody will go for, and then the TV company can say "well, we tried that, but the consumers just don't want to work with us - they just want to pirate our material and get it for free".
OK, I sense my own bitterness approaching. Signing off now.

--Nate

--Nate

My slashdot post

Here's a copy-and-paste of a post I did on slashdot. I'm never very popular with the slashdot community (I'm guessing it's because I'm usually a few days late to the party), but I had been wanting to write this stuff down for a while.
For context, the topic was "Universal going to offer movies online". Basically saying that Universal was looking into making their movies available online, but they were extremely worried and paranoid about anyone pirating / copying the movies. More than a few people said "just make me a decent product and let me buy it!". One fellow also talked about being able to buy TV shows rather than have to watch them w/ ads. He cited lots of various reasons you might want to download a show as opposed to Tivo / wait for a rerun / etc. Here was my reply:

--------

I feel the exact same way, although my situation is a bit different; I have a HDTV set from my days of living in a house (I live in a small 1br in Manhattan now) and there's no reasonable way for me to get OTA HDTV [note: OTA = over the air] broadcasts without upsetting the board or the wife [I should have specified in the post - in order to get a decent signal, you need a reasonably powerful antenna either mounted on the rooftop or - I think theoretically this would work - in the window]. Every show I like is OTA. So, my options are:

1) Bend over a chair for HDTV cable (very pricey in Manhattan), just so I can see the shows I like (which are all OTA)
2) Watch OTA analog broadcasts (I can get a signal by plugging in the cable, doesn't work for HDTV as a lot of you probably already know), reception's not too good but at least I'm _seeing_ it.
3) Download HDTV rips the next day.

Guess which one I go with?
I would be OK with paying a couple of bucks per show, or (even better), "subscribing" to the show for like $25 / season, with HDTV versions available online at the time of broadcast. But, here's another idea, and I think it's a good one: highly targeted ads. Have subscriptions to the show be free, but before you can sign up, you need to fill out a 15-minute survey with all the standard marketing data (age, gender, income, hobbies, neighborhood, do you have kids / do they watch the show with you, etc). After you fill out the survey, you get a login which can then be used to download any show that the network offers subscriptions to. Using your login, you can download a version of the show(s) you want with specifically targeted ads (ads for the Mexican restaurant two blocks from your place, ads for the local plumber, ads for stores / boutiques / games / etc all based on your survey). You're still watching ads, but they're ads that are really specifically targeted for you! A lot of people might not mind seeing that kind of ad, and even if you do, you can still FF or skip over it (it's a high-quality avi). Can you still share that? Sure, but if you can get it from the source just by filling out the survey (and hey, you might actually see an ad for something you _want_), why bother going the BitTorrent route?
Yes, I know there are all kinds of technical hurdles here; bandwidth for the servers with tons of people dl'ing high-bitrate video files, how to inject the ads properly in the first place, how to store all that stuff (since theoretically you've got a seperate file for each dl'er), and of course the algorithm to choose which ads go to which customers. Tech hurdles, to be sure, but how much harder is it than the rat race of copy protection?

Which brings me to the second point (probably echoing a lot of other people here) - why go through all this trouble to install copy protection on your downloadable / Internet-deliverable content? I mean, if I want a pirated copy of something, I can get it _now_ from someone who ripped a DVD. What exactly would Universal be trying to prevent? The worst-case scenario (people are taking the content and sharing it illegally) is already happening! Why not focus on giving people a good experience for a reasonable price? I think a good percentage of people who download something illegally would happily pay a reasonable fee for it, and the lower the price, the higher the percentage of people who would do it. Make a less-than-DVD-quality version available (particularly of movies that don't rely on special effects or other visuals) that's quick to download, charge $1 and see how many people purchase it. What's the risk? That people will illegally share and download the medium-quality version (as opposed to the high-quality versions that are already floating around the BT universe)?

Seriously, I often wonder if I'm missing something here. All this fuss about making content available online to prevent piracy. News flash: piracy is already here - you should know, you're the one putting those god-awful commercials at the beginning of movies. So what exactly are you trying to prevent?

---

And for the record, I have NetFlix - in the amount of time it takes to DL a rip, I can have the DVD itself in my hands, so I don't download movies.

--Nate

Getting a bit cold

It really feels like autumn now. We're waffling between nicely cool and "wow, it's getting cold" cold.

Events of note lately:
1) We had a big birthday party for Clau at the apartment. Got it done to the point where it looked good enough for the party. Oddly, though, everyone showed up within about a five minute window (like from 10:20-10:30pm), got hammered fast, and everyone was gone by 2am. I don't know if that's a successful party or not - it only lasted a few hours, but at least everyone had a good time for those few hours. Bindu was completely MIA at that time.
2) Bindu showed up about a week later, turned out that he had run off to Europe for his birthday. He had a belated brunch a few weeks after that which turned out to be a hoot. Since it was at Intermezzo (just a few blocks from our apartment), we invited everyone over for beer (left over from Clau's birthday) and chili (which we had decided to make that day in the crock pot). A spicy time was had by all.
3) Last weekend we participated in an NYC version of "The Amazing Race". We had a lot of fun and ran all around Manhattan. And, the best part is, we won! That's a picture of the victorious team looking all sweaty. Lots of fun.

I'll post more later about various stuff (yeah, yeah, I always say that, but hey, blogs take time and I like to spend my free time on video games, TV, stuff that matters)..
--Nate

Change in schedules

Well, I've been put on the 7am-3pm shift, which means I get out of here at about 5pm. So, work hours are long. Add to that the fact that my family has been visiting for the last week, and I've had a very busy week.

On the bright side, the construction is almost done in the apartment, and we've hit a good "pause" point. I'll describe the whole delightful process at some point, but for now let me just say it's been a hell of an ordeal.

As soon as I get a chance, I'm going to set up the StaunchTech server in the bedroom/office. Before I do that, I want to get another router, so I can create a DMZ for the staunchtech server (yes, I'm paranoid). And, of course, I have to get the Mac Mini up and running on the TV, which should be fun.

Soon enough I'll give the long version of all this stuff...

--Nate

Getting going

Just getting started. More to come soon...