July 2007 Archives

aka. "Jane, You Ignorant Slut" (Weekend Update)

The day on Friday did its best to suck the life out of me:

1. My VP scheduled a dog-and-pony-show meeting for 4pm on a day that I could NOT be late leaving!
2. At about 1:30 Matt yanked a rug out from under me by asking:

   "What about the [other permutations of that UI you built last week]?"
   "We agreed we weren't doing that in this version."
   "I don't remember that, and it's in the latest revision of the [nebulously defined requirements document]
   "Ok, but I'm sure we agreed to put that off until [the next version after this proof-of-concept].
   "I'm pretty sure they see that as a required feature. We might be able to [solve it by requiring more work in another location], but it needs to be done somehow."

   So I had to scramble to get that UI done before the 4pm d&ps.
3. There was inter-personal <jazz hands>DrAmA!</jazz hands> starting on Thursday that came to a head on Friday having to do with the plan for Saturday. While it started with me freaking out, making a bad call, and acting upon it. I did, once clarity returned (and repeatedly aftward) offer to correct the mistake. In the end it worked out, but it certainly didn't help my mood during the day on Friday.
4. There's probably more, but it's piddling little shit (yeah, I know, it's all piddling little shit.)

Friday evening, however was a completely different matter:

All I knew was that I was to be dressed nice and ready to leave at 7. Matt redeemed himself and managed to curtail the dog & pony show. It ended, miraculously, at 4:20. I opted to skip the, ah, "luau" that HR had planned for 4 (to "celebrate" two things that I happened to think weren't necessarily in the best taste to put together.), made the Bullet one earlier than I normally take.

The cabbie did his best to spoil the surprise, but I really had no idea where we were going until a block or two before we arrived. I'd forgotten that we'd both expressed an interest in going there, so it was a complete surprise. The destination for the evening was Supper Club [Warning: Flash site. One I couldn't make work beyond the first page, even after I whitelisted it in Flashblock.] I'll post pictures soon(ish).

It was a unique experience. They have one seating per evening, and you sit/lie on a wide bed that encircles the center performance area as the entire (prix fixe) meal is simply brought out to you on platters. All very Roman, heavily performance-art oriented, and very decadent!

The waitstaff are all dressed in costumes (on Friday they were varying kinds of (generally evil) bunnies. One of the gents helping us was an odd mix of Alex deLarge and a devil bunny), and as the night progresses, there are various performances. We chatted with the couples on either side of us, it was an amazing adventure. After the dinner seating (about 3-4 hours) it turns into a dance club. If you came for dinner, your bed is yours for the evening! Unfortunately, I had to get up early the next morning, so we decided to vacate our bed at the conclusion of dinner.

It was at that point that we found out that the couple to our left (from Miami, I think) had Paid for our dinner! (apparently because it was my birthday), our server's reaction summed it up: "Dude! You sat at the right fucking table!" ("No shit!") We chatted with them for a(n awkward) bit, and then said our goodbyes.

The whole evening was a bit surreal, but since it was my birthday, that's really perfect. To be brutally honest, the food was the weak link. The appetizers were phenomenal, the cold cucumber mask-er, I mean soup was uninspired (and I LIKE cucumbers and cold soups!) and the veggie entree (which we both had, since the meat was all fish) was good, but nothing special. I'd still like to go back and stay until closing, but some other time.

Saturday I woke up at the crack of dawn and did something awesome that I can't talk about for 3 weeks.

I was involved in a playtest of Shinteki's next event. I can't say much more than that (and maybe I'm not even supposed to say that). But if I'm not supposed to say that, I'll mitigate the damage with a bit of free publicity: I don't know if they have any space left, but the real event is running twice: 7/28 & 8/4. If you're local, get 3 friends together and sign up. Do it now. What are you waiting for?! Trust me, it will be incredible!. Do it now!

Sunday we had a last-minute gathering of folks to celebrate my new eligibility to be President.

A nice, low-key party with a few friends. I spent far too much of it at the grill. I need to work on that, it's a common problem. But it was great to see everyone. Need to do more of that.

Two of the atendees were under the impression that I was actually considering running ("Uh, have you met me?") and want campaign buttons: "[Liberté, égalité, fraternaté,] Ou la mort!" I kinda like that idea, I may yet do that part.

So it got off to a rocky start, but all in all, it was a great weekend, and a nice introduction to what middle-age has in store, I hope.

Edit: Woot! Posted before the names of the days became confusing. That's probably a first.

This past weekend (a bit less than a year ago) we had a very busy weekend.

We went to a wonderful show for a band we'd known well since high school, a sorta jazzy, brit-pop ensemble known for their upbeat melodies mixed with dark and twisted lyrical styling and subject matter (and a rather distinct male lead): The Beautiful South.

Later we saw a Y'All-ternative pop band with beautifully voiced chanteuse and an eclectic backup band named . . . The Beautiful South.

To their immense credit, as the show opened the two factions of fans were very clearly delineated. Long before the end we moved as one crowd. The energy was incredible. It was far and away the best show I've seen in a very long time.

It did occur to me that when she sang about the sun shining "across the San Francisco Bay" in my new favorite of their new songs that it was probably meant as someplace far away and slightly exotic when the song was written. And here they were playing the Fillmore.

And, to be fair, we had some warning that this might happen. After we bought the tickets a few months before, Chiara said, "You know, we haven't heard anything they've done lately." So she fired up iTunes and after a few samples to be sure we weren't just hitting the anomalies, we both had the same reaction: "What the hell is THAT?!" The music bore absolutely no resemblance to the band we knew.

I must confess that I entered the hall that night with quite a bit of trepidation and a fair bit of dread. It is doubly to their credit that they were able to pierce that mood and make me so thoroughly enjoy the show.

Edit: And, ok, American country music grew out of Irish folk singing, so there's a better chance that the firey red-haired chanteuse wasn't actually singing country in those 30s snippets we heard on iTunes. It was still one hell of scare.

Last night (Over a year ago), a bunch of us went to an event in the designer gultch at the bottom of Potrero Hill: The Charles and Ray Eames Film Festival, we arrived early, though not early enough. They. Ran. Out. Of. Chairs!

[ed. Admittedly a few of you may find this amusing, but there was one funny-bone in particular I wanted to tickle with it, it's too bad it's taken this long to come out]

(Oh, and I never knew they were the ones who made Powers of Ten, that only further boggles me with their sheer genius.)

Apparently the new fun thing to do (at AP) is to walk out into the street and ask random passers-by, "So, is there something going on downtown?" (And watch them sputter with indignation at the rock you must be living under.)

While this didn't seem overly fun to me (yeah, ok, making people sputter with indignation has it's moments, they then start sputtering about baseball, ferchrissake), I'm sorry I missed it.

(For those who didn't know, AP's office is on Brannan between 2nd & 3rd. This is about 3 blocks from the ballpark. And SoMa is wall-to-wall people looking cold and confused. At least that's how it was when I was there Saturday, I can only imagine how it's been the last few days.)

Today I realized that "Stupid Agent Technology" and what I used to hear (years ago) as "Stupid Asian Technology" are, in fact, one an the same. I blame the fact that there was a several year lapse in my being around people who actually use the term.

Of course, the correct term makes quite a bit more sense. I imagined my mondegreen must have to do with the fact that menial labor is so cheap when you have such a surplus of population, and found the term more than mildly offensive.

[And to the original perpetrator of the "Kanga & Roo Moment," (who is on my LJ f.list, but I don't think actually reads it anymore): I hope you get a smirk from the fact that I have ever since referred to them that way. It is, to my mind, the perfect term. Hugs. Hello to Edward. ]

We laid down for a nap early in the afternoon. An alarm was set. Or, I remember one going off.

Missed calling friends to connect with them for making their lives easier wrt. a concert this afternoon.

Missed the Brian Eno "77 Paintings" showing at Yerba Buena, for which we'd excitedly bought tickets months ago.

On the upside, wondrous, glorious sleep. (And C's still at it) But gah!