ivy_rat

11:20 pm - this was supposed to be about a bunch of things, but I got tired. so it's mostly about birthdays

There's still about 40 minutes here, but where he is it is already Neil's birthday, so I figured I should wish him a happy. I was trying to figure out an appropriate story, but I have so many stories, though not too many that have to do with birthdays. I love Neil's birthday, because this is the day that I get to lord over the gang because now they are all older than me. The gang, in this case, consists of all the people that were at Winter's birth that were born in the same year. In other words, Scott, Kurt, Neil and me. For the next month and a piece, I get to make jokes about how old they all are, and how young am I. It's a thing. It really only amuses me, but it does amuse me, so I have to mention it every year.

So, a Neil story. I just wrote a long one, and then deleted it because it was more about us than Neil. It's hard to come up with something appropriate for a birthday. Next year, I'll really let him have it, but 49 seems like I should save up for the big one next year. Hmm, I could tell you the story of when Neil literally (and I know how to use literally correctly) gave me the shirt off his back. Or the time that he excitedly called me, and woke me up because he wanted to read me the book he had just finished writing making me the second person (other than him) who had read the book. Or the Stephen King story. Or I could tell about the time we all went boating. Or how about the time we went to the drive it movies together. Germany. I could tell the story about our trip to Germany together. Hmm, More mundane than that, how 'bout his 40th birthday party. Or maybe I'll just admit that I have too many stories.

Neil has gone out of his way, throughout our friendship to always make sure he led a more interesting that we did. This is ok, because it means we get to live vicariously through him, and though they might not be all about us, we do have awesome stories because of him.

It is also the birthday of Allison Gertler. She is much younger, so we don't have lots of stories for her yet. Give it time. We will.

Happy birthday to both of you! I hope it's wonderful.

I was going to take this time to also tell you what I thought of the movie Men Who Stare at Goats, but I am oh so tired and think I should probably get some sleep. I will tell you that I loved it. I want to post this soon (it is now Neil's birthday on this coast), so what I think I'll do, is post this before I go to bed, and then, in the morning I will write the review and add to this post. Ok?

There were three things on my list, and I only remember two. Yeah, I think I need to sleep. Expect either this post to change mid morning tomorrow, or another post.

Good Night. And Happy birthday Neil and Allison.

crisper

09:07 am - Illin'

As awful as it is to have the little one waking up three times during the night for feedings, that's a far better way to lose sleep than being sick.

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For consideration: ugh

xach

10:21 am - Planet Lisp meta-news

In the past few days I've made a number of updates and changes to Planet Lisp. If you normally read the Planet via a feed, you will need to visit the site to see some of them.

• Added upcoming Lisp meetings in the sidebar; easily find Lisp meetings!
• Added embedded version of the CL-USER Google map in the sidebar; easily find Lisp users!
• Changed the appearance somewhat to get rid of big horizontal rectangles and lines
• Removed a number of feeds that had not updated in more than a year; that included some important past contributors like Juho Snellman (last updated in December of 2007) and Kevin Rosenberg.

As always, if you have a blog that's at least partly about Common Lisp, please send me a link so I can consider it for Planet Lisp.

ivy_rat

03:58 pm - Yes. I remember it well.

A story.

As I've mentioned many times before, I went to Syracuse University, which, among other things is where I met Scott (and Kurt, and Alice...) and where I have many many happy memories. But I only went there for two years. My junior year I spent at Syracuse's London campus. I was supposed to go there for one semester, but Alice (who was there with me) and I fell in love with the city and decided to stay for two. When Kurt found out we were staying, he decided to come out for second semester instead of waiting until his senior year as he had originally planned.

During Christmas break most of the people left. Alice had her own plans for the break, and Kurt wasn't arriving until the new year, so I was at loose ends. I decided that what I needed to do was go on an adventure. So I did.

We had some family friends that we loved very much but barely ever saw. We knew them from the art circuit that we were on for many years (my mom being an artist and all). Many old friends will recognize the names Gracie and Nobby because we loved the people so much, we named a couple of dogs after them (the dogs were two of our favorites as well). Gracie was from England, Nobby from Germany, and when I was in London, they were living somewhere in Europe. At that point it had been many years since we had last seen them. They would send us letters or call every now and again, but we were barely in touch.

I decided that if I was that close I had to visit, and so began one of the defining experiences of my life.

It started when I went to the travel agent to book the train to get to them. Luckily, I had someone who was from the area I wanted to go to. I had gotten the address from my mom (I think) and it was the mailing address we had. I had decided that I would surprise them, especially since this was all last minute and I didn't have a phone number. The travel agent guy was awesome and would not let me book a ticket. I know, that doesn't sound awesome, but it was. The address that I had was a postal address, and had more than one city listed, and he would not let me go there as there really wasn't a there to go to. He insisted that I get a better address. So, I went back to my flat, found the phone number for Gracie's parents called them and was given an address in a completely different city, and COUNTRY! Gracie, Nobby and their daughter were all living on a boat docked in the French Riviera. The address he had was for a friend of theirs who collected their mail. I could only hope that this friend lived close to them.

On my way back to the Britrail ticket center I stopped at the bank and got enough money out for the tickets, and not much more. This is important. It was December 23rd. The good Britrail guy was still there, and he approved of my new address and would let me buy the tickets. It took a very long time to do for some reason, and when I was done, it was too late to go back to the bank to get more money out. My train left early the next morning. This was in 1980, and there were no ATMs, so I was getting onto a train with only the money that I had in pocket (not very much mind you) and a return ticket.

This was also the days before the Chunnel, so I was taking a train to Dover, then taking a boat and another train to Paris where I was changing trains (at a different station: scary) to arrive early Christmas morning, looking for someone that I wasn't sure was even going to be there. I was pretty sure that the cash I had would pay for a night in a hotel, maybe, if I needed to, which was good as there were no trains running going back. I couldn't leave until the next day.

On the train, I met a fellow traveler who also needed to change trains and the two of us decided to share a Christmas Eve dinner together in Paris. After dinner we found our way to the train station, and got on different trains. I don't really remember much about her, but I remember that she existed and that we had dinner together. I wonder if she remembers that dinner?

The next morning, I arrived in this still sleeping little town and made my way to the docks to see if I could find the boat. There were lots of boats docked there, but only one or two looked to me like what I would expect them to be on, but I had no idea which was theirs. If I HAD actually seen their boat, I would have know it was theirs, but it was down farther than I had gone, and I missed it.

I found a bakery open early on Christmas morning and I bought a baguette (I was in France, it's what you do) and asked for directions to the address I had. The woman spoke about as much English as I spoke French, but with lots of pointing I was able to figure out what she was telling me. I walked to the address and found an apartment building that I couldn't get into. It was too early in the morning to be buzzing doors, so I stood out side for a bit, then walked back to the docks where I sat on a bench, watched the water, opened the box my parents had sent to me for Christmas, and cried. I was all alone on what might be a wild goose chase, I barely spoke the language, and I was missing my family very much.

After some more time (still early, but not as bad, I think I had gotten into town at around 5 or so in the morning), I went back to the apartment. Someone came in or out, and saw me there and let me in. I went to the apartment that I had the address of and stood at the door having no idea what to do next. I think I stood there for ten minutes wondering if it was too early to knock. finally I heard something behind the door so I figured it was safe, I knocked and someone in their bathrobe answered the door. I tried to explain who I was, and what I was looking for, and they told me the name of the boat and where it was docked.

I was frustrated when I found the boat, because I would have known instantly that it was theirs if I had seen it, it looked just like the ones that I thought might be theirs, and it's name was the name that Gracie and Nobby used to do art under. Now that I had found it, I had no idea how to proceed. There was a plank leading from dock to the boat (literally, as in a piece of wood) and it looked scary to cross, plus, you know, no door to knock on. So I waited again. There was a bench nearby and I sat there watching the boat. It was a while later when I saw two arms holding a baby carriage appear from the cabin below. They were followed by Gracie, who looked exactly the same as the last time I had seen her several years before.

She got up, nodded to me (I was right there, staring at the boat) and then went to the back and down another stairway, that I later discovered went to the bathroom. Now I really didn't know what to do. I had seen her, she had seen me, clearly not recognizing me, and then she had left.

A few minutes later she reappeared and saw that the strange person was still standing there, so she actually looked at me. I will never forget the look on her face as she did the double take. Last time she had seen me, I had been maybe 15, 16 years old, maybe younger, I was now days away from my 20th birthday. I imagine I had changed some. It only took her a moment to recognize me, she screamed, "Ivy?!!" and ran down the scary looking plank, grabbed me in her arms and hugged me. She brought me onto the boat, we went down and surprised Nobby and their daughter who was now a little girl as opposed to the infant I had last met, and I was welcomed as part of the family.

On my birthday a few days later, they took me to another friend of theirs and Nobby made me rouladen which had been my favorite dish ever since he had made it for me years before. The friends made escargot. You can tell this all made an impression on me. This was my 20th birthday, I turn 49 years old next month and I still remember what I was fed. I have had neither food since.

New Year's Eve the four of us (Gracie, Nobby, their daughter, and I) spent the day turning flowers into bouquets that Gracie and Nobby sold while I hung out with their daughter (whose name I am not using because I don't want to misspell it, not because I don't know it). I remember people sending off flares at midnight. It was a bit unsettling and not what I was used to.

I don't remember what city we were in anymore. It was a long time ago. But we were very close to Cannes or Nice or Monaco or thereabouts. It was that area anyway, and they took me to whatever city it was that was close by. I just remember that it was awesome.

When it was time for me to return to London they wouldn't let me leave. I spent longer there than I had originally planned on. I think I managed to sneak buying an ice cream for their daughter once. That was the only money I was allowed to spend. School was about to start back up, Kurt was due to show up in London, and I figured I needed to get back to the real world, so I had to say goodbye. The day I left, the people whose house they had used for my birthday party, showed up with bags full of food for my return trip to London, so I wouldn't go hungry. Everyone treated me as part of the family, I don't remember ever being made to feel more welcome.

Going on that trip was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I went having no idea if I would find my friends, or if they would want to see me if I did. I had no money and barely knew where I was going. I took a chance. I wanted an adventure, and 29 years later I remember things that happened during that trip better than I remember things that happened last week. Because of that, there have been many times when I've decided to do something that was just a little bit crazy (taking the kids out of school and spending a year on the road going to all 50 states springs to mind). I have never once regretted doing whatever it was. And I have some truly awesome stories because of it.

I have not seen Gracie or Nobby since then. They have called my folks or I've gotten an email or call from them a few times in the intervening years.

This morning I got a notice that Gracie would like to be my friend on Facebook. She wrote me a note that ended, "remember on the boat in s. of france?"

So I am taking this time to say, yes! I remember! Thank you for one of the best times of my life.

And thank you Facebook. I don't do Facebook very well. I have trouble keeping up, and I know I miss lots. But I do appreciate the fact that a whole bunch of people who have helped shape my life have found me because of it.

tensegritydan

11:20 pm - KB is totally gonna nut over this

Superbad Anti-Whaling Stealth Boat

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11:01 pm - Delicious LiveJournal Links for 11-7-2009

• German Goggles
  
  
  
  (tags: goggles glasses)
  
  

tensegritydan

06:22 pm - I really wish Carl Sagan were alive to see these.

But at least Kim Stanley Robinson is, and I would love to see the look on his face.

velvetdahlia

04:03 pm - Twelve years...

Twelve years..., originally uploaded by velvetdahlia.

We've been married 12 years today (been together 14). We're celebrating tonight by going to a German beer fest.

Tuesday-- Berlin!

crisper

09:24 pm - Dream: Augmented Demo

I had apparently been dispatched to London (by Apple, same as last time) to work with the guys at BERG on an augmented reality demo. The technology apparently involved a choice-driven experience overlay deployed on trains from London to other parts of the country. As the trip progressed, some sort of (projected) story would begin to unfold, both in and out of the train, and along the way you could make choices that would change the direction (and thus display) of the story - including other people on the train, weather outside, etc. We were going to deploy on above-ground trains but the initial demo was to be run on one line of the Underground and involved something vaguely urban-fantasy-ish, some kind of CHUDs & fire thing. But we were just getting it started when I suddenly realized that we did not have two weeks to get the demo running, rather only two days - it was Wednesday night and I needed to demo on Friday morning and then fly home. Cue the deadline panic.

Amusingly enough, all the BERG guys lived together in a giant converted firehouse/loft, like GHOSTBUSTERS, and wore Devo-like uniforms. Every morning, the communal alarm clock went off like an air raid/launch pad klaxon and they would all scramble around in Keystone Cop-like hijinx.

I did not manage to get out into the rest of London to see if it still resembled what I had last visited in my sleep.

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For consideration: augmented reality, mass transit, communal living, trains, alarums & excursions

substitute

05:30 pm - Vocabulary of the day, courtesy Bob

Whiskey Car (n). A car which has been operated by a heavy drinker for some time. A particular damage pattern identifies a Whiskey Car. There will be parking lot dents, small ones with a bit of paint from another car or a pole. A distinctive pattern of impacts will be seen on the top of the fenders or bumpers due to angry car-whacking, for example with a pool cue or a hand tool. The inside of the car will smell vaguely bad, similar to the tobacco and old alcohol aroma of its owner at the end of the evening. Any keyhole will be scratched from impaired attempts to get the key in.

The whiskey car is immediately identifiable by observant people who've spent time in bars.

Current Mood: sleepy

substitute

12:01 pm - I love California

Seen on the 405 Freeway:

Little black Mazda with license plate CRO FLIP and license plate holder that says:

Hrvatica <3 Pinay

Like No One Else

Current Mood: pleased

khedron

11:45 am - a two-er with only one bobble

I love this story about the different names kids come up with for LEGO pieces.

"Our small, international cast (half Brits, half Americans) is made up of four children. First, my seven-year-old son Barney, who surveyed the list as if it was another piece of homework. His friend, Jem, also seven, went through the list and then wanted to do it again. Five-and-a-half-year-old Max didn’t hesitate to name every piece. Six-year-old Raimi often builds spaceships, but has never referred to the pieces by name, until prompted by his father—at which point he revealed that he possessed names for all of them in his head."

tensegritydan

09:22 am - Soon we will have little "MAINTENANCE REQUIRED" lights on our foreheads

Michael Krasny did a show on IT in health care  that included the Robbie Pearl, the CEO of our medical group (our doctors have their own management separate from health plan/hospitals) who talked about our Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system.

I haven't listened to the whole thing but Pearl gives a nice shout out to the genetics research database my division is developing with UCSF.

I thought it was hilarious when Krasny asked if he thought a public option would include support for EMR, and he (wisely*) sidestepped and (somewhat lamely) served up his canned pitch for integrated health care delivery: "I think that for us to solve the national health care challenges we will not be able to do that unless there is technology underlying it and structures and incentives to ensure that we have integrated care delivery associated with prepayment leading to prevention."

And I had no idea that for $8 you can get an encrypted thumbdrive with your entire electronic medical record (all your allergies, medications, EKGs, x-rays, etc). But is this a good idea? I'm worried the TSA would grab it and torture you for the password because they think it has kiddie porn on it. No seriously.

*wisely, because we officially support expanded insurance coverage, improved access, and prevention, but the public option is bit of a political hot potato to support or oppose publicly. FWIW, we already have a large proportion of publicly funded members, i.e. Medicare, so we'd get a share of any currently uninsured people regardless of the payor mechanism. IMO, we need it because for-profit insurance companies suck by design and should be killed off whether quickly or slowly.

xach

11:58 am - Find some Lisp meetings

I've been maintaining a Google Calendar for upcoming Lisp-related user meetings. In the past month, several people have said it helped them find meetings, so I'd like to make it a little more visible.

To that end, I've added a sidebar to Planet Lisp that shows a list of meetings scheduled in the next 30 days. It's updated daily.

I've also created a new twitter account, @lispmeetings, that will post a tweet about a meeting the day before it happens.

If you want to see an upcoming Lisp meeting on the calendar, please email me and I'll put it up.

tensegritydan

02:45 pm - And the landlady from Kung Fu Shuffle should play her

Come on, this woman is bad ass! She should get a movie deal instead of prison.

Look at this resume:

• ran illegal gambling dens
• illegally locking people up
• harbouring drug users
• running protection rackets
• bribing police
• kept 16 young lovers

crisper

07:59 am - Dream: Spirit Animals

C and I (and I think the girls) were traveling in a foreign country - very hilly terrain, like Italian Umbria but less developed. The only thing I remember about the trip, though, is that frequently I would see these enormous animals - and by enormous, I mean they would sit out beyond the distant mountains, easily visible over them, thousands of feet tall. They were bigger than the land itself. There was a bear, a lion, an elephant... Every time, I would try to get my camera out fast enough to take a picture but each time, the mighty spirit form would stride away in two seconds, vanishing over the horizon. Nobody else saw them but me. Like meteors: I would gasp and point and by the time C looked, it was gone. I would have feared encroaching madness, but the locals just nodded sagely and assured me the giant beasts really were there. What do they want? Who can say. Maybe they don't want anything. Maybe they just are, like the hills themselves.

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For consideration: things that inhabit the land

ivy_rat

12:03 pm - Curling and Halloween

Saturday, November 7th! That is a very important date, so I thought I would start with that. Many friends of mine who live sort of in this area have asked me when the next curling open house is. So now you know. Here's a link to the official notice. COME CURL WITH US. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO . That's where I will be on Saturday night. I hope you can join me.

As for Halloween, I had a great time, though, it was the fun because it was fun, not because it was Halloween. It could have been any other weekend.

Game Night was not very crowded, but since I like my friends, I had a good time. There was a party another friend was throwing and a couple of our regulars went there instead of GN. We couldn't go, as we had to be home for Game Night. One of the frieinds showed up later anyway, so that was cool, and we got to see the pumpkin he carved. Paul Smith (yes, the artist Paul Smith) carves the best pumpkins. Always very cool. I took a picture, but I don't know if he wants it posted, so I'll not just in case. If you see me though, ask, and I will show it to you.

On Saturday, I made one concession to the holiday, which wasn't much of one. Sky and I saw Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant as a matinee. I can't say that it was a good movie, but I had fun. The thing that bothered me the most about the movie is that, since it's based on a book series, there was far too much story to fit into a movie, so it doesn't really end. I'm not sure that it's doing well enough to warrant making a sequel, so it just hangs there. If they do make a sequel, I would see it. Don't know that Sky would. But then she's planning on seeing the Twilight sequel, so there's no real accounting for taste there. ;-)

The rest of the day was spent getting kids places so that they could trick-or-treat with friends, having a nice dinner with Scott (meat! lots of meat!), and then spending the evening with Lori watching things. I showed her Wilby Wonderful, which she loved, and she showed Scott and I the Middleman pilot, which we both really liked. I can't wait until I can see more.

Probably because we got home so late (it was around 7:30 when we returned from dinner), we had NOT ONE CHILD come to our house. And we bought lots of candy. Last year, Halloween was on Game Night, and we were there the whole time, and we only got one group that had two children for the whole night. So, maybe it's the neighborhood.

Sunday morning found Lori still over and we then forced her to watch Breakfast with Scot, which she willingly sat through and enjoyed, so maybe we didn't really force her. After breakfast we had to say good-bye to Lori. We spent the rest of the day hanging out at home (well, the girls and I, Scott, as usual, was working), and eating far too much candy. Between what I had bought, what Lori had brought, and what Winter and Sky raked in, we will be eating too much candy for the foreseeable future.

The girls had awesome costumes. Many of them. As they seemed to think that they had to dress differently for every event. Sky's were all meta, and Winter's were all kinda creepy. I just tried to put the pictures I took of them up, but LJ has decided to make them sideways, and since that would be silly looking, I have had to not post them. I Twittered them, so you can see Sky as sky here, and Winter being creepy here. (Winter changed her makeup at school and wound up almost winning the prize for cutest costume!)

Those were the school costumes, The ones they wore Saturday night were very different. Winter went as a character that she likes from some anime, but I think she was being the character in costume, so it was kinda meta, and Sky went very very meta: she went as a Cake song (Short Skirt and Long Jacket), if you know the song, the costume was awesome.

Enough! Don't forget if you are in the area and you've ever wanted to try, to COME CURLING with us!

xach

06:56 pm - Super Mario Brothers!

Super Mario Brothers!, originally uploaded by shannabeane.

They got a lot of delighted compliments.

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01:34 pm - Halloween: What Not To Wear

The Halloween costume for women that I call the "Slutty Noun" outfit is now a topic of debate and outrage; I've been complaining about it for years. It's mainstreaming the sex industry, dragging women back into the Playboy Bunny past, and in poor taste. Yuck!

Last year I realized something worse. While the women dress as stereotyped available objects (nurse, catwoman, stripper outfits, little French maid, showgirls) the men have their own roles. They're pirates, soldiers, cops, horror movie murderers, Dracula, barbarian." These roles have something in common too: they're powerfully violent and often depicted assaulting women.

What's the message? Men are rapists and women are their victims. And now every year the men and women dress that way, go to parties and bars and get sloshed, and see what happens.

Anyone is free to explore sexuality and enjoy role-playing I don't like. In this case it would be less worrisome if any if these people knew what roles they were taking on and where that might go.

Current Mood: uncomfortable

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01:19 pm - Holiday!

In my father's novel Bull Fire, the four holidays that most cultures share are named as follows:

The Greater Sunstop
The Lesser Sunstop
Pandemonium
The Springing

Happy Pandemonium, everyone!

Current Mood: uncomfortable