SwimFinsSF

Super quick note to let y’all know i’m still alive

So I KNOW its been ages since i’ve posted and i don’t have a ton of time right now to go into the gorey details – but a LOT has been going on and it all explains why my last post was about old concert tickets i found.. Reader’s digest version is after 17 years at Apple I had another opportunity present itself that I just couldn’t resist.. So about a month ago i left the mother ship, took a few weeks break, and two weeks ago i started working at Industrial Light and Magic… I’m working in their RnD group helping look over some of their software development process… Not only is it a cool place to work with brilliant people making really cool movies but i get to work about 10 minutes drive from home with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge… I’m still feeling kind of overwhealmed – but in my favorite kind of way.. Learning a lot every day..

So thats the big news… Also been doing a lot around the house and trying to focus on relaxing and being a little more well rounded… Started taking Yoga classes with kevin during those weeks off and we’re still doing it ( Bikram Yoga actually )… Also are taking a meditation class once a week… We’ll see if i keep it up long term but i’m digging it right now…

So things are good but busy… I’ll try to post more but probably the best thing to do is watch the right hand side – thats where the twitter updates go which i update more frequently than my blog these days (short tweets are easier than long posts)…

more later

Tags: apple, ilm, San Francisco, technology, vacation, work, yoga

A few quick notes

just a few quick mindless notes for a friday….

my day: it was actually pretty damn good. I got a lot done. had some really good conversations with folks that i’ve needed to have. Relatively drama free which is a beautiful thing. And, most importantly, i got a lot of good coding done – added some really cool stuff to something i’ve been working on for some time. Usual  stuff so can’t say anything about what or when – but still. fun.

words: I just read a note on JMG about the wing nuts freakin out because Barney Frank called Antonin Scalia (who is not chief justice btw – thank god) a Homophobe. I think we overuse the word Homophobe. Perhaps these people have “an extreme and irrational aversion to homosexuality and homosexual people.” but i’m not so sure… Bigot is a better word (intolerance toward those who hold different opinions from oneself)…. Just at thought…

weekend: Lookin forward to it. BSG party tonight (yes i’m a geek – lest there be no any question. but man i’m gonna miss that show). Then brunch and an afternoon with friends. Then a birthday party tomorrow night. Then a massage Sunday. All things considered not a bad way to spend the weekend.

facebook: not diggin the new redesign. sorry. i’m kinda curious about people’s status updates and i liked being able to checkin occasionally. but i found things people posted far more interesting. Links. Pictures. New Friends. That kind of thing. Status messages from most people are kind of an over-share most of the time if you ask me (which is odd given how much i use twitter). I liked having a different tab for status updates and ‘other stuff’. seems like facebook is trying to take a swipe at twitter at the expense of some of facebook’s strengths.

like i said.. a random post… more updates coming soon but for now that should tide me over! 🙂

Tags: battlestargalactica, bsg, Politics, random, weekend, words, work

Weekend ahead

Ugggg… Its been one of those weeks and i woke up this morning absolutely exhausted. We did have Kevin’s niece Kayla in town from North Carolina which was fantastic – she’s a total sweet heart and its always great having her around. Unfortunately, because of work and other things I didn’t get to spend very much time with her. We did get to have a few nice dinners and Kevin made sure she got to get around and enjoy the city – they even went to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium and then got a massage yesterday (her first). Hopefully she had a good time – we did.

Work week was much of the usual but it seemed to all collide at the same time. My job is a very strange combination of an ever decreasing amount of technical and engineering duties combined with an ever increasing number of meetings and other people and planning activities. As a manager in a company like ours my job frequently boils down to a lot of interpersonal coaching – which is particularly funny coming from me since i’m well known to be relatively calus to such things.. (or at least I think I am)… Engineers are a very interesting breed of very smart people who care very deeply about what they do but, at the same time, can be a little bit rough around the edges when it comes to how they interact with others. They can often be blunt and very matter of fact without a ton of thought to how what they say will be received (my self included – just to be clear). So when you’re managing these type of smart folks you end up spending a good amount of time helping people through sticky interactions. So, between planning for upcoming work, people management type things, and meetings, I got very little time to be a geek which is somewhat sad! 😉 🙂

ANYWAY… thus my exhausting week…

This weekend looks to be good but very busy. Tomorrow we’ve got the gym in the AM and then Audrey’s 4th birthday party (YAY) in the afternoon. Then Sunday we’ve got some family stuff to do with Matt and Brian. Between there i’m hoping to relax a little (though also get some work done… :-\)

ok… enough for now… more later…

Tags: Family, management, work

He Lives

Once again, I fell off the face of the earth for a while.. but back now.. Lots going on and rather than wait till I have time to write about it all i’m just going to post a quick hi and fill in the details as I have time…

But the reader’s digest version is things at home and work have been keeping me VERY busy. I’ve been a little cagey about it since its not entirely my story to tell but the long and short is Kevin found out last june or july that he had Lymphoma. Thats the bad news.. The good news is today is the very last of his radiation treatments and then, knock on wood, its all taken care of… But for the last few months he’s been going through Chemo and Radiation to deal with it and i’ve been trying my best to hold down the fort and help him out… Not going to say no big deal cuz that’d be a lie. Its just one of those things in life that ya just deal with and try not to ask why too many times – cuz there isn’t an answer… But things are going VERY well and we’re doing fine… Kevin has posted some stuff on his blog if you want more dirt! 🙂

As to other things.. Well work is work… I could go into details there but its the usual Apple stuff – can’t talk about details… Suffice it to say the usual challenges continue to make me a little nuts but on a good day are a lot of fun.. The one good thing I can add is that they’ve started a bus system like Google’s to get me to work – so now I have nice buses that pick me up right in my ‘hood and deliver me directly to work.. pretty rockin…

Oh yea – and the puppy… Well she’s just too f-in cute for words… And she’s getting HUGE… Still a puppy though.. Cute as can be but a total handful. Training is going really well though I still don’t know why she does the things she does.. Some times she is PERFECT… sits at the corners on walks… comes when she’s called… sleeps like an angel at our feet while we’re chilling at home.. And then there are other times.. pulling at the leash.. random accidents for no reason we can see… ignoring us when she doesn’t want to obey… Just have to remind ourselves that she’s just a baby.. but we love her to death regardless…

Anyway – bus is half way to work and I have other stuff to do.. so rather than wait a while before posting this again i’m going to post and go… I’ll post more details later…

Tags: apple, cancer, dog, Family, kevin, lymphoma, nina, vizsla, work