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

Ticket Stubs from the past

Ticket Stubs from the past

Originally uploaded by SwimFinsSF

Found these in a drawer in my office today and got a kick out of them… They’re from years ago in my concert going days but the collection of shows and movies kinda makes me giggle… INXS, Marilyn Manson,Front 242, Jimmy Buffett, a Giants Game, and Lie Down with Dogs (Movie)…

Anyway… Made me giggle so i had to share! 🙂

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

Shades of Gray

I don’t know if its something that comes with age or what but I’m becoming increasingly tired of people (myself included) speaking in absolutes. Right / wrong. Conservative / Liberal. Good / Bad. Pro Life / Pro Choice. Pro-this / anti-that. I haven’t fully fleshed out the reasons why (and thats part of why I’m writing) but it seems to me that it bugs me for two very important reasons. First, because I don’t think, by and large, people don’t believe in absolutes if you actually get them to let down their guard and talk about where they’re coming from. Take the Conservative / Liberal thing. I’ve seen a WHOLE LOT of debate on the news, on twitter, and in person that start with the us versus them crap but if you start analyzing the statements being made they’re all somewhere in the middle… ya know… in the shades of grey…

Which leads me to the second reason why it bugs the hell out of me. If you start with a premise of debating differences you immediately deadlock all conversations because you’re in a defensive position debating and defending your position. If, on the other hand, you started the conversation without these assumptions and focused, to start, on where you agree and then branch out to explore and understand differences and the reasons you can have a much more sane conversation. Otherwise the debate send everyone’s blood pressure through the roof and have people walk away from every conversation thinking ‘well they’re just a fucking idiot’… not productive.. not helpful..

I’ve seen SO MANY examples of this around me over the years. You see it in politics. In the President’s speech the other night you saw half of the audience cheering and the other half sitting on their hands pouting. Same premise on both sides – i’m right and they’re wrong. Get over it. Stupid – all you people have a big problem you need to solve and if you can’t work together – ALL OF YOU – then we’re screwed.

I see this in my day to day life. My solution to the problem is the right one and yours is fundamentally flawed. The truth is neither is true. Both are options with merit and if you start with where they work and go from there you’ll ALL come up with a solution that is better for the effort. I even see this in debates in forums like twitter.

The result is the same in all situations – deadlock.

Now mind you I’m not saying that we all don’t have incredibly firm convictions on certain topics. There are people who think that abortion is wrong in all cases. There are people who believe that gay marriage is a fundamental human right. There are people who believe that Objective-C is the appropriate language for all development problems. Whatever. The point is if you start with those absolutes first the conversation is SO MUCH HARDER and, quite frankly, the debates are T.E.D.I.O.U.S…. Put those absolutes aside and start with the gray so you can actually make some progress…

Sorry for the rant and the random stream of consciousness post. I’ve just been thinking a lot about what has me tied in knots lately and it boiles down to that – I’ve allowed myself to get drawn into, worked up by, and emotionally invested in following these types of debates. Sure they can be entertaining on occasion – but if you get invested in them they wear you down and you don’t actually solve anything…

Deep breath…

now back to your regularly scheduled program

Tags: human nature, Politics, rants, sociology

Finally… A new years post

Happy new years folks… as is typical, the holidays wizzed by and i immediately got thrust into the tempest of my regular weeks and haven’t gotten around to posting till now. And even now i don’t have much to say but i got tired of the last post lurking there. So here is a quick update…

Lets see – holidays were fantastic. Kevin and I spent Christmas out in Granite Bay with my parents and my sister and brother in law who drove out from Colorado. Drive you ask? Well they also brought their new puppy Calvin who is a gorgeous Yellow Lab pup. So we had a very Canine Christmas – 4 dogs romping and playing like crazy dogs. Nina was in Heaven. Christmas was very nice and relaxing which i enjoy..

After Christmas Kevin and I drove down the coast to spend a couple of nights at Costanoa to get a little quiet time… If you haven’t been there you should go – its kinda pottery barn camping. Camping without the hassle or the dirt. We went hiking along the beach, drove to santa cruz, had nice dinners, and relaxed… VERY Nice!

After that Katie and Nick drove into the city from Sac-to to spend a few days for new years eve. They crashed out with us and got to spend time with Nick’s mom who was visiting for a conference. Highlight was new years eve where my parents drove out from Sac-to for the evening (such a long haul for such a short time – we really appreciated it) and we all went to a really nice new years dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in the ‘stro…

The next day, after Katie and Nick left my step sister Haylie and her beau Ross came out to visit for a night. It was REALLY great to see her and meet Ross – he was a really nice guy. The only regret was that I was so tired by that point in the holiday that I don’t think we were very good hosts. but it was wonderful seeing them.

So that was the holidays – then i dove back into work… As usual i can’t talk about the details of that aside from the public stuff (you know – macworld last week… FCP supermeet last wednesday which was cool… some health issues with our fearless leader… blahh blahh blahh)…

Ok… Now you’re all up to date.. More smaller updates later.. but that should hold ya for now! 🙂

A quick update

I think its been a while since i’ve posted anything… No real excuses aside from the usual ones – just super busy with a zillion different things and not a whole lot of time for much else… I have been keeping up with twitter (see the sidebar) but not much time to actually pull together a post… Its Sunday night now and i figured i’d pull together a quick post…

Reader’s digest is work work, Christmas, work work, Baby Shower, work work, hanging out, work work… We had a baby shower at our house for our friends Drew and Adrian who are having a baby just after the new year. We had a house full of people and amazing food thanks to kevin… Was a lot of fun. Since then work has been super busy with things that I can’t talk about as usual..

This past weekend was pretty good. Had dinner with Alex at a restaurant called Sauce in Hayes valley that was super good. Kind of funky variations on old classics… Meat loaf. Tater Tots. That kind of thing.. Was really good. The rest of the weekend we spent working and christmas shopping. Boring I know but such is my life lately – and i’m OK with that 🙂

We did manage to see Milk this weekend. If you haven’t seen it you NEED to see it. I expected to be touched by it because i’d heard good things and because we’re surrounded by signs of that part of history living here in the Castro – but I had NO IDEA how moving it would be. They do an amazing job of combining new footage and historical footage to put together an amazing story. I came out completely exhausted and looking for more information (which is always my sign of a good movie).

Anyway.. thats it for now… more later

Tags: updates