This morning on NPR I heard a story about West Coast ports, including Oakland's, being shut down and locking out dock workers. This is crazy. West Coast ports from San Diego to Seattle are all shut down. Collectively, they brought in $300 billion in goods last year. It's estimated to impact the national economy at a rate of $1 billion per day that the ports do not operate. I got to thinking about unions, how much influence they can have, and how inter-connected everything is. The ports being shut down affects not just the dock workers. Next, it affects the truck drivers who are paid by the load and cannot pick up their shipments from the cargo ships. Then it affects manufacturers and suppliers who build consumer goods and supply our stores. It's surely impacting some of Autodesk's customers in the manufacturing industry. So it could even impact me. If Autodesk's customers don't do well, Autodesk doesn't do well. Then our stock price might be impacted and everyone's job is at risk.
OK, enough of that, but you get the idea. The world and its daily operations are more connected than anyone realizes.
Gabe Anderson // 9:20 AM
Saturday we headed back home to begin cleaning mania and shopping to prepare for our dinner party. I did all the cleaning while Jen did the shopping and cooking. We had the FF kids and cohorts over -- Katie, Jeanine, Tiff, Miguel, Isaiah, and Aniko. Jen made her famous lasagne and her newly-famous eggplant parm, both of which were a great hit. We all had great fun. Our neighbors Stacey and Tony were also having a party, so before our guests arrived, Jen and I had gone next door for a few. Later on in the night, Stacey arrived with a tray of Jello shots, which were a huge hit. She and Tony later returned with even more Jello goodness. They received several rounds of applause.
Today is a nice, chill day. I'm just IMing with Pete Dog and hanging out. We had some yummy waffles and fake sausage patties for breakfast and now we're just lounging around. We may take the fur children to to the dog park later on.
In my attempt to refine my custom content management system that I'm beginning to use on my Web site, I posted this message to DreamHost'sdiscussion forumthis morning.
Later this afternoon I'll be dropping off Happy Dingo at Planet Canine, since Jen, Stella, and I will be heading to Sacramento tonight to hang out with James and Tracy. Happy isn't quite ready to be trusted alone in the room at Nana's house. Case in point: He ate his bed inside his crate last night.
The latest exciting development with Dad's new installment of 100 Faces of Marin is that Jen and I will likely be collaborating on the production of the book. The project and funding are moving along steadily. Dad emailed me this press release today about the book.
On September 18 my friend Jonty's house burnt down. I can't imagine what that must have been like for him and his family. I'm relieved that everyone's OK and wish you the best, Jonty, in rebuilding. I'm sorry that New Jersey isn't closer, or I'd help you with the clean-up and rebuilding.
The incompetent folks of The Villages at Treasure Island continue to make my blood boil. I am currently awaiting a call from the head of the ridiculous operations there, Reginald Harris, to explain to me why they charged us $416.99 to replace the entire living room carpet for alleged "dog damage." (He's currently taking a look himself.) Funny, seeing as there wasn't any dog damage. The only damage to the carpet was caused by mold and normal wear and tear over three years on cheap-ass fake berber rug.
Gabe Anderson // 9:42 AM
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Tuesday, September 24, 2002:
This morning Happy Dingo and I stopped at J.R. Muggs. When I walked in behind a group of men clad in army camo rags, I suspected they were more likely on their way to hunting ducks (is it duck season?) than on a mission of the U.S. government. My suspicion was confirmed when I overheard one of the men order a double low-fat latte.
Last night Jen, James, Tracy, and I had a yummy Thai dinner at the Thai House in Central San Rafael. After that, James and Tracy headed back to Sac and Jen and I took it easy the rest of the night, watching the dogTV.
Tonight Dad and I are off to Pac Bell Park to see the Giants battle the Padres. I think this will be my fourth game this season.
Gabe Anderson // 8:52 AM
Sunday began with a delicious homecooked brunch around noon. Jen made a scramble and fake sausage patties and I made a dozen Belgian waffles. James and I were feeling saucy, so we turned our OJ into screwdrivers, and also invented "driverscrews" -- the dipping of orange slices into vodka. Mmm... It was a fun warm-up for the rest of the day that we would spend in Sonoma -- first at Viansa then at Gloria Ferrer. We all had a really good time at both places. James and I were in rare form at the latter, where we went through three full glasses of Brut Rose, and James even bought a whole bottle to go.
Last night Jen made a delicious dinner for everyone -- lasagne and eggplant parm. Enoch even came over to hang out and partake of the goodness.
Happy earned his second pee strike when he had the nerve to take a leak right in front of me. I caught him in the act and yelled at him.
Also over the weekend I heard from one of my good friends from Vassar, Larry Weinstein. It's always really cool hearing from old friends. It's fun catching up and hearing what everyone's up to. I really like Larry so I was psyched to hear from him. And I just read the props that Larry gave me and Jen in his blog. Thanks, Larry. You rock.
The TV archive that Alexa (Jen's former employer) put together to preserve the historical news coverage on and following September 11 is pretty amazing. I haven't even looked at any of the footage yet, but the concept is really cool.
I came across the link to that while reading this interview with Brewster Kahle about The Way Back Machine. I've seen The Way Back Machine before and think it's really impressive, and found the interview about the technology behind it on my friend Sandy's Geek Guide site.
Gabe Anderson // 4:21 PM
We went on with our night and then Jen discovered a little gift courtesy of Happy Dingo. Luckily, she hit the lights before walking into the office to turn on the computer (she almost had walked right in). Sure enough, there was a giant pile of turds from HDMcG. The plus is that they were solid. One strike against Happy.
This morning after sleeping in longer than usual, Jen took the beasts out for a stroll. When she returned with the kids and announced that HDMcG had not peed, she knew immediately that he had gone somewhere in the house. Sure enough, on a plastic bag under the stairs was a Happy puddle. Again, it's fortunate that most of the damage was on the plastic bag. Two strikes against Happy. Admittedly, though, it is partially our fault for having taken for granted the fact that Happy had been so good for nearly a full week. We haven't been diligent enough in taking him out right before bed and right when waking up.
I'll be heading home yet again at lunchtime today to take out SBN and HDMcG.
Gabe Anderson // 9:28 AM
I went home at lunch today to let him out of the kitchen and to take him and Stella out for a romp. They met new friends -- Milo and Xenon -- and ran around off-leash at the park outside our place. They were really good and both came back when called. It's nice to have an affection-driven dog.
Aside from having a new dog child this weekend, I spent a good deal of time creating the CMS for my Web site and content database, and putting in place much of the framework for cranking out the wedding Web site. I'm really psyched to have built such a cool, simple CMS system.
Gabe Anderson // 2:14 PM
Today is a big day for me, Jen, and Stella Brie. We all just returned from the Marin Humane Society where we spent some time with Stella's future brother, Split. He's a spunky little border collie mix whose name will be changed to Bobby McGee. He and Stella got along excellently and had a great time running around. Passing the Stella test is no easy task. All three of us adore Bobby. He'll be coming home with us later this afternoon, after Jen and I get back from her coworker Jane's party in Montclair.
I first saw Bobby yesterday afternoon after Karen and I had lunch together and visited the Humane Society. I saw Bobby and immediately knew that he was the two-dog we've been searching for for so long. Two people had him on hold before I added my name when I returned after work yesterday (which I'm glad I did), but as of about 10 this morning we were first on the list (got a call from the Humane Society).
Welcome to the family, Bobby McGee!
Gabe Anderson // 12:35 PM
The documentary was incredible. As Jen said, "I wish we could tell them to get out [of the WTC tower that was about to collapse]." It was eye-opening and intensely sad to see the terrorist attacks unfold from the perspective of someone who was there on the ground -- and to have that feeling of being right there as it all happened. The hardest part must’ve been seeing those people who had jumped from the towers land on the ground below. Just hearing the distinctive thud with each body was hard enough in the documentary. One of the firefighters said something to the effect of, "It makes you wonder how bad it must’ve been up there if the better choice was jumping to your death."
I’m excited and proud of myself for having created a great database-driven application for the forthcoming wedding Web site. It’s a wedding guestbook -- nothing fancy but quite functional (and no design as of yet). But I built it all myself and that’s a good feeling. My dad was the first to post to it. One of the advantages of building and hosting it myself is that we never have to worry about its going away; it will always be there for years to come. Hopefully it will become a great place for our friends and family to post memories.
Karen’s on her sabattical, but swung by the office to say hi today. It was good to see her. We’re going to meet up for lunch tomorrow.
Tonight it’s off with Jen and the FF kids to a bar in the Mission called Laszlo.
In memory of those who were lost one year ago, and to those families, friends, and individuals afflicted by and still suffering from the attacks on America, here's to you.
As I stood this morning in the Network Operations Center (NOC) of Autodesk's Data Center, which felt more like the bridge of the Enterprise than the 24/7 worldwide monitoring station for all Autodesk servers, I glanced at the silent TV screen tuned to the FOX news network ("so that we can monitor world events [that may impact the data center]," I was told) and saw that America's Homeland Security Advisory System had reached the second-highest level: orange (just below severe/red). I seemed to be the only one of the group who was at all concerned and realized how appropriate my locale was for watching this bit of news. I was in a highly secure building surrounded by folks trained in disaster recovery. Of course, they're folks who are good with software, hardware, and data, not terrorist attacks, but it somehow felt appropriate.
Then I got to thinking about the fact that tomorrow is the first anniversary of 9-11. We're all on our toes. How could we not be? For anyone who was old enough to remember that terrible morning, it is a day we'll never forget. And our enemies, the faceless and cowardly terrorists, know that, too. Even if there really is no repeat attack planned for tomorrow, lest we forget that important lesson of one year ago: the root of the word "terrorist" is "terror." The primary objective of terrorists is to instill fear. And if we let that get the best of us, as so many writers wrote during the past year, then the terrorists have won. I'm sure that they're taking advantage of the heightened state of alert and are using that to spook us as much as possible.
I do feel safe knowing that America will be on her toes tomorrow. But just in case, I'm going to avoid national landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge.
On a much lighter and somewhat related note, yesterday I ordered my first-ever vanity plate for the WRX -- with the new "We Will Never Forget" license plates.
Today I blocked two sets of 12 rooms at both the Courtyard Marriott and Holiday Inn Express in Poughkeepsie for the wedding. The rates seemed a bit high, so I'm also going to look into the Poughkeepsie Grand, where I'd like for Jen and me to stay in one of their 2- or 3-bedroom jacuzzi suites.
Gabe Anderson // 3:06 PM
Yesterday was the all-day off-site in Tiburon with my new Web Services team. It was really cool to meet everyone, talk about our mission, and enjoy the gorgeous views from the Bay Conference Center. A few of us went out for some drinks afterward at Sam's Cafe, which had incredible views of the Bay and the city. It was absolutely perfect weather.
And now, here's the cool link of the day (courtesy of Brad): Interactive undressing girl. (Yes, this is pornographic, so don't click on the link if you're at work, don't like seeing naked women, or are offended by porn.)
Wow. I just learned from this Web site that my WRX has a top speed of nearly 180 MPH! (With computer-control removed, of course. It's only 140 or so stock.)
Vehicle Speed at 7000 rpm redline with WRX 3.9 differentials: 1st gear 3.18 ratio = 41.79 mph 2nd gear 1.94 ratio = 68.51 mph 3rd gear 1.35 ratio = 98.45 mph 4th gear 0.966 ratio = 137.58 mph 5th gear 0.74 ratio = 179.60 mph (remains stock) (bone stock WRX is "drag limited" at 140mph)
Jen and I had quite the weekend. Spent a couple days in Sacramento with the family cleaning out the garage -- or at least trying to. We only managed to create one truckload of stuff. Mom wasn't quite ready to let go of a lot of stuff, so we put a bunch of stuff back into the garage. Saturday night Jen and I saw XXX, which inspired me to finally purchase The Fast and the Furious DVD yesterday at Target. Ben came over last night and we watched it. I also learned today what double-clutching is and that it is good. I will start learning how to do it.
Sunday while parked at The Villages at Corte Madera for some shopping, some asshole in a newer black Impala opened a rear car door into my car and put a dent in it. I got the license plate number of the car and left a note with my number (well, Jen wrote a nicer version of the note than the one I had written). No word yet from whoever did it. Still need to look into how much it would cost to fix and if it would even be worth the trouble (and if I'd even be able to track down person based on license plate number). It just makes me mad. But I'm also working on becoming less attached to things.
Tomorrow we're going to see the Giants play the Rockies.
Gabe Anderson // 2:24 PM
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