25 May 2008

Beautiful!

Do you know what this is? An empty Inbox at work. Sweet!




--e

Alcohol Meme, Lightweight Edition

Another meme from Toast.

Yes, I am a lightweight when it comes to alcohol. I’d much rather vaporize. Funny thing is, I can down the whiskey with no problem; but, beer and wine go straight to my head. I’ll easily drink 8 or 10 scotches but can’t drink more than 2 or 3 beers.

Beer, wine, liquor, mixed drinks. Rank 'em.

1. Liquor (scotch)
2. Wine (red)
3. Beer (dark)
4. Mixed drinks

How often do you drink?

1-2 drinks per week.

Favorite Scotch?

Used to be Laphroaig 15, but Macallan 12 is catching up.

Favorite Bourbon?

Knob Creek, but I far prefer Scotch. Bourbon is too sweet.

Favorite tequila?

Casta, in the worm bottle.

Favorite Gin?

Tanqueray.

Favorite Vodka?

No comment.

Favorite Rum?

No comment.

Drunkest you've ever been?

Passed out in the ice skating rink we were trying to make in the frat’s front yard, after a bout of Chernobyl Aide.

Red or White?

Red.

Best wine you've ever tasted?

Cote du Rhone, 1992 (drank it in ‘97).

Favorite type of wine?

Southwestern French and Northern Italians.

Favorite every-day red?

Two Buck Chuck.

Favorite every-day white?

No comment.

Best value wine?

Spanish wines in general.

Do you drink box?

I’ve got nothing against ‘em.

Fastest you've ever gotten drunk?

RIBS “shipping” party in CS3. 8 shots of Bushmills in 30 minutes with a couple of colleagues, one of whom I made it my mission to piss off that night. He left early...

Longest you've ever stayed drunk?

I’m always sorry the day after, so no more than 18 hours or so. Yeah, I’m a lightweight.

Ever do anything you really regret while drunk?

Yeah. This past February. I said something really stupid. Luckily the other person didn’t remember it in the morning. I have to say, I’m usually much more stoned than drunk and, when stoned, have a lot more control over myself.

Favorite lager?

Yebisu.

Favorite IPA?

No comment.

Favorite brown ale?

Newcastle.

Favorite doppelbock?

I love ‘em all.

Favorite Belgian?

Chimay, blue label.

Favorite stout?

I’ll go for Belgian, thank you.

Favorite Winter Ale?

No comment.

Favorite Scotch Ale?

McEwan's.

Favorite Other? (Because this meme is annoying to non-beer-nerds.)

Hoegaarden.

Favorite Brewery?

No comment.

Favorite mixed drink?

G&T.

Favorite morning libation?

A curse and a glass of red. But I prefer Wake and Bake much more.

Do you suffer memory loss when you drink heavily?

Not in two decades.

Favorite place to drink?

Hangin’ with one of my engineering teams in Seattle.

Favorite sports bar?

Sports bars are anathema.

Ever consider AA?

Not for alcohol.

24 May 2008

Not Shabby

An 88 out of 100. No wonder we can walk everywhere but the hospital, Kaiser. However, Kaiser did open an office within walking distance and they have a pediatrician. So even that should be taken care of soon.

--e

Update: Apparently a key metric is missing from this walkscore site, access to public transportation. The fact that there is a train station within three blocks of home doesn't change the walk score. It should. It means I never have to drive to work or to San Francisco or to go out dancing, drinking, etc. So 88 is probably too low. --e

18 May 2008

Relaxing Sunday

Its a fairly normal, relaxing Sunday here. The unbearable heat of the past few days is now tempered and eminently bearable. Birds are singing in the yard. There's many more birds this year after the native, draught tolerant garden with which we replaced the green grass has taken root. I've got 2-3 hours of work in my inbox. A meeting with India tonight. So I'm taking this short break while Hirono gets ready to walk to the best farmer's market in the Bay Area to write a blog entry.

OK, one thing isn't normal or relaxing. Every time Hirono makes any kind of noise or thump I'm running upstairs to see what is the problem. Alisa is literally knocking at the door and trying to get out. Meanwhile, Leia is doing her best to turn head down with her sister taking up all the room. Hirono's 9 months pregnant this past Thursday. Now that's not so relaxing!

14 May 2008

Is there any remaining doubt

Is there any remaining doubt that the halls of power in the US are filled with evil people? Another way to torture. And I'm paying taxes for it. Awful and disgusting. Can I renounce my citizenship and still vote?

02 May 2008

Interesting Union Out Here

The longshoremen's union were in the local paper today. As I was eating breakfast there this morning (venti 5-shot americano and some goat cheese I bought at the farmer's market right out front this very store last Sunday) I read it in the print version for a change. This story was on the front cover. There was a picture in the print copy of some protesters trying to turn back a truck driver at the entry to the port of Oakland. One lady's face looked remarkably like this person. She looked like she had healed nicely, which I'm glad to see.

It's good to see some strong people. I still wonder what can I do to help. Protesting a day is not a problem for me. I imagine if Adobe employees organized and took a day off to protest someplace. That would be perfectly cool; though, I'm sure the company couldn't sponsor it. Who knows, maybe they could. I'll have to ask.

Update: Grrr. I shouldn't post without proofreading. My grammar and sentence structure suck. --e

analysis please

I finally lift my head up from work and take stock of the news cycle. There's this noise going on about a tax holiday for gasoline. So I try to find out what is really going on and whether or not it would work. Instinct says that anything the GOP wants is probably wrong; but, let me look into instead.

So, I go to this AP article to see what is behind the noise. No luck. He said/she said nonsense again. So many people seem to realize that our traditional media sucks; but, it keeps going on. I believe I'm better informed than the majority of Americans at this point and I haven't owned a TV since college (and even then it was the frat's TV - though I just ordered a TV online to help with raising the girls.) I seem to get better information from the personal blogs I read than the news.

Is this surprising? Well, according to dominant theories in organizational science this is expected. It turns out the most efficient and accurate way of communicating is from one "friend" to another, where "friend" is defined as a trusted person with whom rapport has already been established. This is true within corporations. This now seems to be playing out in current events. Go figure.

Update: I forgot to the link to the article.

01 May 2008

My Guardian Angel

Just like in college, Toast’s room was always a fun place to just hang out. There’s always an interesting conversation.

Today there was talk of prayer and the consensus was that prayer is a deluded pastime that is nothing but wishful thinking. I tend to agree. Meanwhile, I got religion today. There was a strange encounter at the train station. I think I met my guardian angel. First, I’m taking a break from work a bit and relaxing.

The purpose was to go to the gym; but, my meetings ran late and Hirono was coming home. So I went to meet her at the train station. While there a fellow began talking to me, baked out of his mind. He seemed to be lost. He had no cell phone and used his last change trying to call his girlfriend from a pay phone. She didn’t answer.

So I offered my cell phone and he proceeded to call. No answer. He then says what we need to add the area code. I add the area code and call. Fax machine. He then tells me his plan was to take the train to a different station and walk to a bus station. Turned out he was from San Francisco and had made it close to his girlfriend’s place but couldn’t really get hold of her. Asking him for his bus number we walk to the other side of the platform where there’s a bus map. The bus he wants to take stops right there at the station. He’s golden. And he’s on his way.

The occurrence struck me because the man reminded me so much of myself. His attitude is what I could be if I wanted to be relaxed, not quite like Toast. But he was fun to hang with like Toast. But I really connected to this stranger on some kind of out-of-phase thought. There was a strong sense of identification.

I’ll never see this fellow again. He came and left like he was my guardian angel making sure I’m still doing good in the world.

--e