Recently in Personal Minutiae Category

I have been trying to write this entry for two weeks, and have run out of time. Tomorrow/Today is my last day at Context Optional.

They are a great group of people and I wish them the best of luck. After some hard reflection and rumination I came to the painful realization that my destiny lies elsewhere.

For quite some time I have been wrestling with the nature of the work we do. I had chafed at the fact that I have, through them, hitched my wagon to a company whose core “values” I despise. We may be making people “happy” to a degree, but with saccharine connections to “brands,” not real people. It is very hard to call what we do “important” by any metric that truly matters. The only possible exception is my current project: the Chase Community Giving program, where we have helped people tell J.P. Morgan Chase where to donate millions of dollars to charity … so that people will hate them slightly less.

In light of this assessment, I am ecstatic to say that I am moving on to Change.org, a network for social change and grassroots organization. I will be working with the team to scale their application to serve communities around the globe who are clamoring to use it, in spite of there being roadblocks in the way now.

We will be helping people work on the international, national, regional, and local levels to spur action on causes and issues that matter most to them. It is through these actions that we will start to see real change in our world.

I really look forward to rolling up my sleeves and beginning the work that needs to be done.

A lot has happened in the last month…

First off, it appears that this information has been unevenly communicated. For that, I apologize. But I hope you agree that I had a good excuse. (At least at first.)

I’m still midway through writing a very long-winded, exhastive account (with its own summary) of what happened that nobody in their right mind would actually want to read. It’s stalled. This is getting ridiculous.

In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya: Let me ’splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

I was hit by a car.

The evening of Friday, February 12th as I crossed the street (in the crosswalk, with the light) to catch a bus home, a car turning left onto Market from Montgomery struck me at slow speed.

My knee was broken (x-ray). Everything else was fine. (Specifically, a portion of the tibial plateau was sheared off.) I was, in many respects, very lucky.

It was a long, painful, and story-filled night.

After a long, disagreeable week, the following Thursday I had surgery to fix the (skeletal) damage (another x-ray). My ACL was torn but not repaired (I’m told that many people live full, active lives without one). My MCL was stretched rather badly.

I was (IMNSHO) discharged too early on Friday evening. I spent a harrowing night at home. Too harrowing to be story-filled. The less said about it the better.

The convalescent prescription from here is rather high-powered narcotics (which work most of the time) and no weight bearing on that joint for 10-12 weeks! After that, the real recuperation begins: 6-8 weeks of physical therapy and rebuilding.

The reason 10-12 weeks is two-fold: primarily, it’s to give the cartilage in my knee a break (ha!) to prevent it from deteriorating further. Secondly, it is also hoped that this break will also give the MCL a chance to tighten back up (at least a bit).

This greatly increases the chances of arthritis in my knee (but there is no way to predict if it will be symptomatic or not.)

I am definitely healing. I have good days and bad days with the pain, but it’s reassuring (after the fact) that I’m healing even on the bad days. I’ve regained quite a bit of mobility, but as of right now, I am still confined to the upper floor of our house.

The outpouring of support and well-wishes has been fantastic and overwhelming. Chiara, too, has been a saint to put up with so much. I am humbled by it all.

There is more I want to say, but this is already starting to get long, so I’ll save it for another post.

There are far too many words for me to write here, and I’ll never get it out if I try to capture them all. Keeping it short: The candle that burns at both ends burns twice as bright, but half as long. Horus succumbed to chronic renal failure today. Hoka Hey, little man.

Chiara and I are spending this weekend in Monterey / Carmel / Pacific Grove hammering out wedding details. To me this is poetic for on this day our relationship becomes “legal.”

18 years ago today, we had our first date. February 8, 1991 was the Snowball.

I don’t yet know if she realizes this fact, but I do know that she doesn’t expect me to remember.

Today will be fun!

ETA: She didn’t remember. I win! Off to taste some cake.

I'm sweaty, smell faintly of smoky beeswax, and I have (mild) first degree burns on my hands and forearms.

I also feel giddy, and more centered than I have in a long time. Even though pretty much everything I tried failed, most of it spectacularly.

[For the really impatient, you can just skip straight to dessert.]

I've been remiss, but work has been Crazy! A few of you already know this, but for those that don't:

Chiara and I took part in an event ruse last Saturday. She has already described the event fairly completely, I just feel compelled to point out that in presenting the puzzles as faits acomplis, she makes them seem much easier than they were. Much of our time was spent figuring out how to attack each clue, and what the puzzle might ultimately be.

After collecting plastic eggs all afternoon, the final step of the final puzzle spelled out "ARE YOU READY TO PUT YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET(,) CHIARA(?)" I had knelt beside her to "read over her shoulder" while she transcribed the message as Kate read it. At least, that's what she thought. Finally, questions were popped, the enormity sunk in, and champagne flowed.

Yes, the entire event was a ruse. And everyone involved, save one (miraculously), knew that.

So, how did this incredible, over-the-top, crazy afternoon come to pass?

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.

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!

Ok, yesterday was an anniversary. And every year it's something different. Yesterday, I spent the day just a huge ball of misplaced emotion, some of which ended up in a rant in this space. Fortunately, I deleted the specifics of it.

In response, here are some good things about the baseball fans yesterday:

1. They were using public transit, really that's commendable
2. They don't generally take the train. They don't know the drill. Yes, that was part of what I was railing at, and they ignored the prompting of the conductor (a rare treat, a conductor conducting folks out of the bike car), but I shouldn't assume they understand the implications of them taking spaces in the bike car
3. They were a lot more orderly and pleasant than the drunk fucktards I used to have to deal with going home from the game (on the nights they didn't send my train early, running a special train with no bike car, stranding me until midnight)

The "sport" of baseball, however, can still suck my left one.