Christopher Moore

I just finished reading a book for the first time since July. Really, it was two books and the book I read in July was just a very long online cyberpunk serialization that was book length. I am pretty pleased with myself. It is not often that I read these days. I've been spending so much time working on my projects that I resent taking the time away from them to do something as frivious as reading. Nevertheless I did just spend like 20 hours playing Fallout in the past week, saw the new Bond (disappointing) and spent some time staring at nothing.

Back to the books -- The first I read was Bloodsucking Fiends, by Christoper Moore. I had to read it because I also purchased You Suck by the same. It would not have made any sense to read You Suck and not Bloodsucking Fiends, as the former is a written-twelve-years-later-takes-place-20-minutes-later sequel to the the later. First off, they are very quick reads. I started reading them at 6pm last night and finished this morning -- about 5 hours per book. I tend to read a bit slower than I used to because I noticed myself "speed reading" through the books to suck up the plot (hehe, suck) and ignore the prose. This pattern is even more apparent when I read comic books -- I read them super fast because there is not much dialog; probably the reason I don't enjoy reading them very much.

Both books are about newb vampires being hunted/taunted/attacked/courted by an older vampire. The books take place in San Francisco. I haven't read a book based in San Francisco that I can remember (or cross reference with my list, http://joelapenna.com/vanity.html) then again, I have a terrible memory when it comes to books; hence I keep a list of books I've read.

The things I liked about the books: The dialog was very witty and felt very natural. The characters frequently had this "what the hell?" confusion about them which was funny. Not so great was the lack of "what the hell?" confusion going on in the second book. The saving grace of the second book was a new character "Abby Normal," who if I had to describe using an Internet phenomena is the Robert Hamburger of Vampires; the prototypical high school goth chick. Her chapters in the second book are had me laughing most. I enjoyed that so much of what was going on was just outrageous enough that aside from the vampirism you would keep asking yourself "This probably could happen, huh..."

On odd thing about these stories is that two years ago my friend Josh recommended them both to me. I think I might have to trust his book opinion a little more. The reason I picked these up was that another friend, an avid reader also recommended them to me. When she mentioned the author I recalled Josh's suggestion and their powers combined caused me to read for all of the last ten of my waking hours.

Labels: books, cyberpunk, San Francisco

9:57 AM 0 comments links to this post

Lonely Ramblings

I've spent most of the past few months alone. Most of it has been because I've been abroad, some of it has been because I needed to decompress when I got home. Now I'm out in Dublin again and I've done scarely a thing in a city that I enjoy being in. This weekend and last I spent cooped up in my apartment lazying around and playing on the internet. Now tomorrow starts my last work week in Dublin for a while. I head back to San Francisco on Thursday. When I get back I don't plan on working until around the 6th of October (possibly the 3rd if I feel guilty). Some of this time I'll be in San Francisco, where everyone I know will be at work, as a result I will have even more solitude and time to myself but I am begininng to grow tired of my anti-social behavoir. There comes a time in every person's life where they just want to party like rock starts with their closest friends. Unfortunately, a lot of my friends these days are past the days of rock star parties. As we all grow out of College it seems that the fun parts about rampant drunken hyjinks are replaced by the monotony of pretending you're back in school. Even your drinking habits become habits and its less likely that you have the chance to meet someone new. That, I think was the main reason we had parties back in the day but now even when we go out for drinks its hard to find a place as good as Josh's DeKalb place or Chris' Chicago flat. Now its just loud music and a handful of us drinking away our work sorrows.

I felt like at Gen Con I had the chance to be a rambunctous overly social dufus again but it didn't seem like people were really in the mood for that.  I don't always want to be the guy running through the fountain alone, I miss team driven hijynks!  Bring back

Geeze, I think I just want to hang out and waste time with my friends. Any time I get to see people from Chicago its a special event so I always feel so pressured to make something of it. I miss those kinda-lazy Sundays where we would all hang out by sitting in the same room as eachother doing (home)work. What is it now that makes that not possible? It was great to know that over there Josh was studying for some crazy selling stuff class and steve was over in the other corner trying to catch up on all the classes he didn't go to during the week, all the while I sat and struggled on Calculus. I don't mind doing work, heck I invented a top secret project so that I could treat something like a job but not really have to rely on it for any sort of money or real responsiblity. I know, I know, a paragraph ago I was talking about drowning work-sorrows in alcohol but there is something that is satisfying about it.

I'm sure I've spent several hours in the past few weeks clickin refresh on Facebook and my Google reader shared feeds. I want to know what people are doing these days. Even the mundane is better than me reading another story on Tech Crunch about random tech company Q. I troll people's pictures hoping that I'll see something new going on that I can pretend to have been there.

To my friends who post on Twitter, update their status on Facebook or blag-o-blog about whatever, please keep doing it, its almost-but-not-even-close to those fantastic Sundays where we sat around together and did nothing together.

PS. This is my 500th post.

Labels: Chicago, dublin, facebook, gencon, San Francisco, travel

4:31 PM 0 comments links to this post

I'm back... San Francisco, Gen Con and more.

Wow, I've been on the road, almost all summer and am finally back in San Francisco. I would have to say that my travel bug is back -- Expect to hear from me on the road more frequently than I've been, during the past year. I believe I will be travelling to Chicago, Dublin, Sydney and Toronto in the next couple of months and I will hopefully track that travel a bit better than I did most of this summer's escapades.

It feels good to be back in San Francisco -- after almost two years of living here, it finally feels like home. I was even a bit homesick by the time I hit my last week in Dublin but by the time I left Chicago for San Francisco, I was thinking "Where do I go next." I guess homesickness is fleeting.

Gencon -- Wow! I had such a great time seeing my gaming friends. Even through we didn't play all the games we hoped we would, I still had a great time. Next year though we better execute better. Less standing around, more doing things. Less shopping, more doing things. Less stress, more doing things!

Labels: gencon, San Francisco, Toronto, travel

11:57 PM 0 comments links to this post

New York Day 10

This is going to be a short entry -- Its my last day here in NYC and for lunch I took the team I was working with to Katz' Deli. I had a delicous (but expensive) pastrami sandwich, pickles (dill and sour), matza ball soup, fries, root beer and cream soda. I did not finish any of those items. See previous posts for pictures.

My ten days in NYC were fantastic and I can't wait to come back here again. I am still amazed that Amy and Josh came to visit and I can't wait to meet up with friends for travel in the future!

I'm in the taxi back to JFK right now and because my plane was delayed I won't even be able to meet up with people tonight in SF. Thats too bad.

Labels: food, New York, San Francisco, travel

2:43 PM 0 comments links to this post

We Need a Roommate

One of my roommates is moving out on the 1st of June and we are looking for someone to take his place. Rent runs $930 with less than $100 in utilities. The room is large but connected by a pair of double doors to the living room.

Haight and Divisadero

Know anyone interested?

Labels: San Francisco

2:30 PM 0 comments links to this post

Friends

Its been a fantastic few weeks for visitors. Chris was here in February and March and Josh is here right now. Yesterday Josh and I met up with Huber for Bagels then later met up with Dean at Toronado for beers and sausage (from Rosamunde) but after a few we rolled over to Molotov's for some whiskey and pool. We hung out there for a couple of hours until Josh decided it was time to go to the ocean... So we did. On the way back we stopped for average/below-average Sushi then stole a ride on the N train back to my place.

Today is breakfast and video games day... It feels like DeKalb in a way.

Labels: San Francisco

10:46 AM 0 comments links to this post

The Day My Music Died

I've been trying to catch a lot of concerts. I've gone to four in the past 3 weeks. They've all been OK but nothing mind shattering. Though, I will have to say that last night's show (when I saw Alkaline Trio for the second night in a row) really made me sad. After seeing the show I felt like I've not only lost connection to the band but that it had changed enough to discount me as a listener. It reminds me of when you're a kid and right after you get that awesome ultra-mega-action-figure-of-doom for Christmas you realize that you don't like those toys anymore but that you wish you did. Alkaline Trio was my favorite band and somehow I have become disconnected to the music that I've loved for 7 years.

Labels: Alkaline Trio, music, San Francisco

10:45 AM 0 comments links to this post

So they say . . .

Wow, it has been 14 hours since I woke up today and I feel so much better than I did yesterday. Its been quite some time now that I've worked on my own project for such a streak. I didn't write any work email. Didn't talk to anyone about work. Didn't send in any code reviews for work. But, best of all I didn't stress out about work.

See, work has been pretty tough the past few weeks as I work on a project that seems to progressing in the wrong direction. Its been tough enough that I, the dude who's not "professional" in the first place has slid some place far south of sane.

So, what did I do today? Well, I wrote a neat little app that I'm going to clean up before I publish. Its very simple: a quotes database with neat cross-linking between posters and the people they've quoted. It has four models to it and it is only a few hundred lines of python and a bit of html but after a day of working on this little guy I'm actually a bit proud of it.

Frameworks... This is the first time I've put together a website with a "web framework" of any sort. I never realized how wonderful it would be to not have to worry about writing SQL schemas, handling CGI and dealing with HTTP. There is now thousands of aborted lines of code that will never be written because someone thought ahead and saw that some code only has to be written once.

Labels: code, Google, Python, San Francisco

12:23 AM 1 comments links to this post

What's new?

Its been four months since I last updated this blog and surprising little has happened in that time. When I last left off I had just moved to San Francisco for work. I had a job, a place to live and even some friends already who had either lived in SF for a long time or had just moved to the state as well.

I spent November getting used to living in San Francisco. I had to learn the transit system, purchase things by which to live . . . soap, curtains, desk etc. I also had to learn to not use my car which compared to the other choices -- which soap to buy? Which place to get my hair cut? -- was the easier decision. I was able to find a parking garage that leaves its gates open on the weekends and doesn't check for illegal cars on the week days. Parking would be cheap as long as I could do without taking my car out during the week. Luckily Google provides a shuttle from various points of the city into work at may times of the day and night. The down side is that I have to take a bus to the shuttle stop which adds another 20-30 minutes to an already hour long commute.

I spent almost one third of December out of state. First I went to the LISA (Large Installation System Administration) conference. I had quite a blast in Washington, DC with some of my co-workers from SF and Oregon. I was decimated in a car bomb contest when the bartender we did one with slammed empty glass to the table while I still had half my glass left. I came in 3rd out of 16 people in that race. Second would have been mine had I not been stunned by the 'tender's surprise performance. The following weekend my brother came into town and I enjoyed showing him what I knew of the city. The cap of the weekend was when we went to see Rx Bandits at Bottom of the Hill. I spent the last week of December back in Carol Stream visiting friends and family. While it was quite fun and I enjoyed seeing them I was anxious to get back to my new city and life.

I returned to San Francisco on a terribly early flight on New Years Day courtesy of Josh and for the next few weeks hammered on my project at work anxiously awaiting news of a promotion.

In Februray Diana came into town to visit for a couple weeks and there were good times abounds. I visited Napa Valley for the first time saw some movies and generally had a relaxing time all the while being quite stressed at work. It was late February when I heard about my promotion. I nearly passed out when I heard the good news I was so excited and relieved.

Its the first week of March now and this month has nothing special to report. Chris is visiting for GDC this week and I imagine I'll be hanging out with some folks from Chicago tonight and for the rest of the week.

Labels: Chicago, Google, rxb, San Francisco, travel

12:16 PM 1 comments links to this post

My Place

Labels: San Francisco

11:12 PM 0 comments links to this post

Cold Weather

"Did you have to add any coolant to your car recently?" - MINI Rep.
"No." - Me
"Oh, I was wondering what these spots were" (pointing to the little white specs covering the engine) - MINI Rep.
(looks over) "Road Salt." - Me
"They do that?" - MINI Rep.
"Yeah, like I said, I'm from Chicago, it was snowing the day I left." - Me

"Oh." - MINI Rep

*laughing* - Me

*funny look* - MINI Rep

Labels: San Francisco

10:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

Good Job

A good friend of mine is graduating in December and he's the first of my group ofriends to do so. Funny that he's 2 year younger than I am and two years ahead of me in school. Smart kid, let me tell you.

Another of my good friends is finally getting his life in order. Soon he'll figure out what he wants to do with his life. Working and school is tough and you have to balance what you can tolerate quite precariously. Spend the wrong amount of time in one or the other and both will suffer. Even if the ratio tends towards work thats okay because at least you're making progress. Congrats.

Some kids want to be astronauts or ninjas or doctors when they grow up. For as long as I've known this guy he's wanted to make games and he is finally doing it. Its great to see him legitmately happy about something and not just ranting and raving as people expect of him.

I have to give accolates to my brother though I've spoken to him so little as of late. He's getting had is act together for a while now (well better than in the past) and he's been a far better son to my Mom and Dad than I have in recent memory.

Props go to my little sister for going through high school with out a problem I can see.

My Mom is pretty awesome too -- She's gotten through cancer which though is something a whole lot of people have faced it is still a challenge.

My Dad's been hit by his share of problems lately and it seems that he's really good about keeping up his spirits and keeping focus on what he really cares about.

A hearty well done to everyone I know . . . we all face problems day to day and the fact that we're still around means that we're winning.

Labels: San Francisco

12:58 PM 0 comments links to this post

Bye Bye Chicago Part 2

I need to send out an apology . . . well not so much that as an explaination. First off, I'm happy to have been away for 8 months. I'm even happier that I'm moving away for a long time. I don't regret the former and expect to continue to be happy about the latter in a couple of year's time. I haven't kept in contact with people because I've been busy and a 12 hour time mismatch makes it difficult -- I'm lazy. There is another reason. I don't like talking on the phone all that much. I guess except when there is nothing else to do. So what I do is I send emails. People don't respond to them. Even people I would have expected to I get no reply or something filled with so little content that continuing a conversation is impossible. I guess it's my just reward since I should call people who abhore writing as much as I dislike chitchatting. I have to give special props to my dad who is as far from an acidemic as you could imagine and a technophobe to boot but who has regularly written me over the past eight months. Maybe being in California instead of Taiwan will make IM more viable and I can talk to some people I have been negligent in contacting. l can't say I will miss a whole lot when I move to california i I can say that there is not much I will miss when I leave Chicagoland for good -- As long its taken into account that I have friends who I keep in contact with who live an 11 hour drive away. A four hour flight is almost 1/3rd that time. I will always have my friends and family. I guess that can be a speculative statement afterall who says anyone will like me when I turn into a Californian. I think that my friends enjoy my company as much as I value theirs. I don't mean that in a pompus sort of way, simply that my idea of a friendship is a fully recirpocal one and I think we're all doing our part.

Labels: San Francisco

12:57 PM 0 comments links to this post

Bye Bye Chicago

This was written about 2 weeks ago on my return from Taiwan.

I'm on an airplane between SFO and ORD. I'm on 500mg of Vicodin because I sprained my ankle the night before last attempting to rock climb. I'm not listening to music right now because my iPod was swiped off my desk the same night I decided it was a good idea to try to climb up a wall. My attempt to upgrade to Business class failed. I lost my drivers license (then found it.) I lost my wallet (then found it.) All the halloween parties I had chances to go to are no longer valid because I can't drive into the City and I had to leave SF. My friends are busy all weekend long and a couple members of my family are seriously il. All in all this has been a poor couple of days. My car insurance isn't active so I shouldn't drive until Monday.

I guess I can't complain much more than that though. I just spent eight months in asia, I have only 2.5 pages left in my passport I've gone so many places. Japan, Taiwan, China (well, Hong Kong) and the US (it still counts!). I got a promotion and the transfer I've been dreaming about for two years. I (might) have found a great place to live in a pretty cool neighborhod in SF. In the past couple of months I've made some new friends who are pretty cool and I gained back one friend who I thought for sure hated me. I am going to have the chance to drive across the country (maybe) next week with some cool people too.

For me things are going amazingly well (sore ankle and stolen iPod aside). Unfortunatly the rest of my family is not doing so well. I don't really know how to deal with some of the things that are going on and some of the problems I wish would just finish: whether a good or bad outcome, knowing would have a large weight lifted off of a bunch of people's shoulders and would provide me with the capacity to be of some use.

In two weeks I'll be going to an Rx Bandits show that I'm super excited about but moving around at the show will probably be a pain (literally) -- its a fest with multiple stages.

Eight months in Taiwan has felt both like an instant and an eternity. It wasn't until I made my last trip to the US that I realized how much things were changing in the time I was away and made me realize how much I needed to get back on the same side of the planet as my friends and family. On the other hand, I scarely realize that i was in Taiwan for so long. Sometimes I think back to a couple of months ago and realize that I'm thinking of the end of 2005 and not summer 2006. Its a pretty odd experience trying to trace together a timeline everytime you have to jog your memory back to figure something out.

I'm still a fat ass. I tried to get off on the right foot in SF by eating reasonably (despite amazing food at corp) and by trying to get some excersize. Unfortuantly I fell on the foot and it is no longer right. Well, I guess it should be usable in a couple weeks and the daily mile walk to the shuttle stop should do well for my big fat belly.

Its going to be tough moving across the country but with intant communications available and sleeping schedules not totally reversed I'll be better able to stay in contact with people. Plus, everyone wants to visit California someday, I'm an excuse to get there.

Labels: San Francisco

12:57 PM 0 comments links to this post

My Street