Fiat Lux

I’ve spent the last 2 days in New York, celebrating the wedding of a very old and dear friend. I got caught up with several people who knew me when I was still a shy, gangly teenager and discovered that another old friend now lives about 10 minutes away from my in-law’s house. Good times.

One thing that struck me in the middle of the reception was how infrequently I spend time in the company of people who are not part of the tech business, and how I really need to do more of it. Listening to writers and lawyers and doctors and teachers talk about LinkedIn, Skype, and MySpace was fascinating — of the three, Skype got the highest marks, for helping a grandmother video conference with her grandchild. MySpace got a universal thumbs-down. Only one person used it, and he couldn’t understand how anyone found “real” friends on it because all he got was invitations from porn spammers. The rest thought it was ugly and couldn’t see why anyone would want to have a profile there. People were interested to hear about LinkedIn, but only one person was on it and wasn’t too sure it was even useful.

All in all, it was a powerful reminder to me — what we in the Valley take for granted is barely on the radar screen of people outside the bubble. More of us should remember that.

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I haven’t played D&D since I was 15 or so, but I never threw my dice away. There’s a real visceral pleasure you get out of holding a handful of dice. Something to do with the colors, the way they click in your hand, and the sense of endless possibility.

Thanks, Gary. Rest well.

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Another year, another birthday. It’s nice to celebrate one on a weekend for a change. We slept in, then made our way up to the farmer’s market at the San Francisco Ferry Building and wandered the stalls in search of a few future dinner ingredients.

The Saturn also hit a milestone today as we drove back home — 90,000 miles. Unfortunately, gas prices are way over $3.50 a gallon at all but the cheapest off-brand gas stations. *sigh* With my long commute, this is Not Good At All. If, as predicted, gas goes over $4 a gallon this summer, I’m going to be spending about $200 a month just to drive to work. That sucks.

On a happier note, we finally got a Mac in the house. I picked up an old but serviceable Apple G4 for peanuts, and Scott’s been having fun tearing it apart and learning his way around OS X.

Gimi likes the Mac too. Or at least the monitor!

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Yesterday, a friend of ours e-mailed a link to a video of her new kitchen. I decided to send her back a video of our own kitchen. So I shot a quick video, uploaded it to YouTube, and sent out the link.

Then the weird thing happened. About 30 minutes after I uploaded the video, it disappeared off my YouTube account. Poof. Gone. No notice, no nothing. I have no idea why. The video is about 45 seconds of me talking as I walk through my kitchen; I didn’t add any music or graphics or do any editing at all, so there’s no possible copyright issues.

I don’t upload stuff to YouTube very often so maybe this is normal and I just don’t know it. Or maybe I’m the victim of some unfortunate glitch. Either way, it’s a little annoying.

At any rate, I signed up for a Vimeo account and re-uploaded the video there. If you’re really curious, you can see it (but I warn you, it’s kind of boring):

UPDATE 8:30PM: And now it’s back on YouTube. Go figure.

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Life’s funny sometimes. Earlier today, someone I thought was a nice person acted like a complete jerk and screwed over two people in the process (one of them being me). And then, this evening, someone that I barely know at all (but who seemed like a jerk on first impression) did something extremely generous and unselfish, and gave me something very valuable for no reason at all and asked nothing in return.

Karmic payback? Random chance? Who knows. We humans are great at pattern recognition, and we can see patterns where there aren’t any.

Either way, one thing is for sure. Today was a reminder to me — to judge people on what they do more than what they say.

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In November of 2004, I donned a black zip-up hoodie and walked out into a grey, foggy San Francisco morning to go vote. I was scared, angry, and stressed out. We all know what happened.

Today, I’m wearing purple and the sun is shining after a week of rain. I’ll be leaving to go vote as soon as I finish this post.

I fear hope — it has let me down bitterly in the past — but right now, I’m cautiously hopeful about the outcome of today. Tonight, I could be looking at this post and wishing I’d never written it, but right now, I’m going to indulge in the luxury of hope for a better, brighter future. And now I’m going to go do something about it.

Get out there and vote today if you live in a primary state!

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I spent roughly 10 years as a member of New York’s Village Light Opera Group. It’s a classic community theater group comprised of dedicated, hardworking, talented volunteers, who have put on high-quality theater in the heart of New York City for decades.

Tonight I learned of the passing of VLOG’s longtime Music Director, Ron Noll, and it’s hard to type through the tears. Ron’s passion for music shone through everything he did, and came second only to his passion for his family.

One of my favorite memories of Ron dates back to VLOG’s production of “The Desert Song”, back around 1995 or so. In the finale of the first act, Azuri, the “native woman” seduces a French soldier, thereby proving that he’s not a suitable match for the heroine (sorry, that’s not politically correct, but what can you do, Romburg wrote it in the 1920s). At any rate, the ensemble sings this gorgeous accompaniment to her dance, and right before the end, there’s a key change signaled by the sopranos. Every night we did the show, Ron’s eyes would meet mine as the transition happened, and he would smile happily, as would I. It was a perfect little musical moment.

Ron did more than run a community theater group. He won an Emmy, among other achievements. But for me (and I suspect for many others), his work with VLOG was what left the biggest mark on the world.

You like to think that things will always go on as they were … and then, they don’t. It’s a sad fact of life. Luckily we were blessed to have Ron with us for as long as we did.

Rest well, Maestro.

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It’s an odd feeling to compare the stats of my 4+ year old blog and my 3+ month old blog, and realize that the baby blog is getting more traffic and more subscribers than this one.

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The storm system rolling through CA currently is a nasty one, but Scott and I are safe at home, with no power outages (at least not yet).

Stay safe all!

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This was the view from my terrace tonight. A fantastic, colorful sunset to close out the year:

A friend is coming over a little later, and we’ll have snacks, some champagne, maybe play some Wii or watch a movie. A nice quiet New Year’s with all the important things: good friends, good food, family, and some fun.

2007 was an up-and-down, “two steps forward one step back” kind of year in some ways, but on the other hand, I have my health, my family, my friends, and the great good fortune to live in a place and time where my destiny is changeable and under my own control. When I start thinking too much about the bad things, I need to remember that.

Thanks to all my readers for stopping by and sharing a part of your life, however small, with me. I hope you’ll be back in 2008. I’m looking forward to what happens next.

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