Saturday, November 19, 2005

Welcome to SF, LJ!

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

Hooray! Successful move - I'm glad it went so smoothly!

Friday, November 18, 2005

Wisdom from Mark

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)
"Trackback spam is the fifth horse of the apocalypse."

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Manitoba Caribou

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

Living so close to your office can be a terrible thing if you really love what you do. You tend to push yourself beyond your limits and end up having to walk home completely mentally and physically drained The plus side to this is that you're never satisfied with just any random soundtrack - you need something perfect and inspiring.

Tonight it was "People Eating Fruit" by Manitoba.

I'd heard of Manitoba from a friend of a friend named Timmy Jones. At that point, the only Manitoba release was "Start Breaking My Heart" - which isn't nearly as emo as its sounds, honest. It was a pretty good freshman release, but I didn't pay all that much attention to it at the time. Some time in the future I met someone interesting and we spent some time together. We happened to be sharing some lychee when "People Eating Fruit" came on my random playlist. I knew I'd heard it before, but couldn't remember where. When I saw the name of the song, it was one of those crystal-clear moments and I knew it would become one of my favorites. And so it has.

So that was my soundtrack for the walk home tonight.

When I got home I decided to check the artist out. I knew he was a 20-something solo artist with wildly varying interests and stylistic influences. What I did not know what that he'd released another LP called "The Milk of Human Kindness" under the name Caribou and had released his earlier two LP's under the same moniker on iTunes as well.

So that's your homework for tonight, darlings, go to iTunes and search for Caribou. Listen to "People Eating Fruit" and jump around to his other songs to hear his amazing diversity. Proselytize!

Monday, November 14, 2005

Catching up

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

The last week I've been pretty nocturnal. I'm trying to right myself, but just end up feeling like a zombie. Today's my first day back in the office. My bonsai is still alive, maybe Garth took care of it.

I've been added to lj_core, which seems to have instantly doubled the length of my friends page.

So many interesting things going on right now, hard to know which to focus on. Maybe I'll be able to prioritize and find a balance once I've had some sleep.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Perfection

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com, friends-only)

I just had the perfect walk home from work. The air was stark and vibrant and felt good in my lungs and on my skin. My iPod shuffle served me up a bunch of interesting music, but nothing that seemed to fit my mood. That is, of course, until I got to the courtyard of my apartment complex. To my favorite tree, the one with the fragrant blossoms.

"These Days" by Nico...

I walk past it every day on my way home from work, pause, and stretch up on my tiptoes to inhale its scent. I don't do this in the mornings on my way in, because mornings lack the comfort and security of surrounding darkness.

(a reminder to myself, six months from now, of thoughts from this evening: "inverse")

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Detachment

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com)

I didn't vote today.

It's not that I'm a bad person. In fact, I think it's to my credit that I didn't vote. The painful truth is that I simply don't pay enough attention to the day-to-day issues. I don't know about propositions or politicians or any of it. Nor do I really care to, I think. That part may be a little sad. But when faced with making a bad decision or no decision at all... it's an easy choice.

So I read on Google News that Texas passed a constitutional ban on gay marriage, or something. That's interesting. And then I read from a very forlorn xb95 that San Francisco is outlawing personal firearms, or something. That's interesting.

Really though, I don't care. I'm far too self-involved/self-centered/selfish to really care. My main concerns today have been my work and how much data I can move while still paying attention to my engineering duties, whether I'll be able to find some time to go home and read or play a video game, and whether the girl I've been interested in is for real or whether she's just into playing mind games. And that's it. Life's just not all that complicated for me. It's simple, I enjoy it, and I think that's all anyone can ask for in life.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Front Row (& rambling life update)

(originally posted at crw.livejournal.com, friends-only)

I've been trying to reset my sleep schedule, so in theory I should be asleep right now. Instead, I'm psyched that I got Front Row to work on my powerbook. Media Centers are fun when they're not from Microsoft or Sony.

I'd like to get it onto my 2nd gen iMac, because the only apps that box ever runs are iTunes, DVD Player, VLC, and SNES9X - but alas, it's still running Panther Server. What was I thinking? Maybe this weekend I'll run some cat5 into my room or temporarily drag the iMac into the living room to get Tiger client onto it.

Straddling between engineering and ops has been interesting. In theory I should be doing ops full-time, but I'm finding it hard to let go of the project I'd been working on - it's just too interesting, too fun, and far too grandiose not to want to pay attention to it. This has resulted in a shifting of my previous work/play balance to one of mostly work - but when you love your work...

Perhaps the oddest part of it all is that within the last week, amidst all the craziness, I've unexpectedly stumbled upon an amazing external source of inspiration. I wonder what will come of it all...