reflective, again - things I've done & things still to do

Reflective like a puddle on a rainy night? Not exactly. Have been going through the process of preparing a Christmas letter, and in recounting the events in my life of 2007 - namely, the major shift in moving from China back to the US, I can't help but reflect on how things are different.

Life in the US has already gotten routine, to a point - not that that's a bad routine, but China sure did seem to offer more in the way of adventure and unpredictability.

Alternately, perhaps in some irony, it seems that although the US is my native land and I speak English perfectly well, I'm less inclined to actively push for new experiences here - after coming back , in a lot of ways i feel like I've been staying in a "comfort food" / "comfort zone" type of rut.

One of my biggest excuses, however, is money, which holds some water in that I don't have a lot of it, especially after relocating & trying to re-establish savings. However, it's also a bit of a crutch - one can be creative and engage in new experiences without blowing a ton of cash.

Things that I should really do now that I live out here:

• Go hiking in the mountains
• Go skiing/snowboarding
• Join a band
• Learn Korean
• Finish my book
• Pursue more education (MBA or Product Management course?)
  

Things that (at least) I have done out here so far:

• Visit Snoqualmie falls
  
• Take a "Duck" tour of Seattle
• Visit Vancouver, Canada
  
• Greatly expand content of my book so far
• learn more about the web - new blog content, new things to see...(the uncensored internet in the US, compared with China, is excellent)
  
• Learn to cook better at home - more variety, more different recipies
• Learned to prioritize my time better
• minimizing tech experimentation for its own sake - while I love the idea of what Ubuntu and open-source software is about, I end up wasting a lot of time with it...at present, I still need windows for the games I run (I don't have a console), my PDA, and itunes. This probably isn't going to change for a while. I'll probably also still be running XP for quite some time too.
• seem to have gotten the obsessive need to check RSS feeds/updates constantly out of my system - using more time for my stuff.
  

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vancouver visit

This weekend went over to Vancouver, mostly to visit family.

This is my first time up there in 10 years. Also the first time in Canada after having lived in Asia.

I could understand a lot of the conversations by Chinese people on the street. Not so much of the conversations in Korean, Japanese, Cantonese, or Hindi (but at least I could tell what they were).

Vancouver is a delightful hodge-podge of a city. It reminded me of Hong Kong, Seoul, a bit of Seattle, New York, and even St. Paul at various points as we drove around in it.

Didn't really get to experience the nightlife so far as it was more of a family trip. However, hope to do more in the next visit.

I was really happy to try some of the super-authentic Chinese food at a place in Richmond...I miss food like that.

I'm due to post something

Things have been busy in the past 3 weeks since I've last blogged- there has been lots on my mind, lots to write about.

Just settling down and doing something to actually create more with my computer rather than just reading blogs is a bit of a challenge.

Main news:

1. I'm caught up on the US version of "the office" - Marsha & I are big fans, and we'd really like to start seeing more of season 4. It is too bad that NBC has decided to be super lame & pull-out from iTunes. While I don't really have an agenda against amazon.com, I don't want to support their DRM-laden windows-only download service. Too bad.

2. Beowulf 3d. Wow. Worth it. The story was on the light side, but managed to compel a bit of thought. Fairly good at modernizing the story without making it too full of ironic jokes.

3. TV Writer's strike. Really, it's amazing that the media companies aren't even trying to be liked. Just one greedy move after another as their distribution model becomes obsolete. Any good reason that writers don't deserve to be compensated & benefit a little more from the hyper-long copyrights that these monoliths have endlessly lobbied for? Lame.

4. OS X Leopard. Woot. Kind of unnecessary but pretty nice. Reinstalling got a ton of crap out of my system, so now I have a roomy 23 gigs of free space. (Tiny hard drive to begin with).

5. Vista - I'm using it at work and although it's fun to bitch about, it works pretty fine for what I need it for. I feel no rush to actually upgrade at home, however (since that pretty much will require a massive hardware upgrade that I don't need yet).

6. Ubuntu 7.10 - I've played with it and it seems pretty good, but I don't really have a reason to use it very much when I'm at home.

7. Rock - I need to start doing more musically. Did some messing around with making songs & beats on garageband and Ableton Live, but that's not moving very quickly.

8. Writing - Have been doing okay and the story is progressing, but erratic sleep & post-work activity last week got me a bit off-routine. Will re-establish it this week.

9. Thanksgiving - Should be fun - looking forward to it!

10. Upcoming travel - it's fun exploring new parts of the city & area out here. Everything's new. (On the other hand, in suburbia, everything is pretty much the same)

Rant on voice-activated telephone menus

Seriously...what's the deal with corporate phone systems that require you to speak to them?

I don't want to begin a chat with a computer, especially when it involves personal information and when I'm surrounded by my colleagues.

Mashing the keypad generally does get me through to someone useful, but that can't seriously be the best way to navigate these systems.

I recall a post on Slashdot some time ago from some admins that mentioned that such systems were generally implemented by managers who wanted the appearance of an up to date phone system - not that users ever liked or requested such systems.

new addiction

Despite better judgement to the contrary, I went ahead and purchased the newly released "orange box", which is a compilation of Half-life 2, Half-life 2 episodes 1& 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2.

Half-life 2 was an excellent game that I played about half-way through while I was living in China but then after a computer reformat I never bothered to finish up (was getting new games every month anyways).

Team Fortress 2 is an online game that is proving to be very, very addictive...simple to learn, but so difficult to master. Anyway, I've never really been into online games before, but this is making me reconsider my position.

The clerk at Best Buy was surprised that so many people were (evidently) getting the package.

However, I think that a solid collection of games at a fair price that still look on run great on basic hardware is certainly worthy of attention!

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Radiohead is cool

I think it is awesome that Radiohead has opted to distribute its latest album directly via its website.

Good on them.

I downloaded the album (and did pay them for it), and I'm pleased to report that it is a pretty solid release. More listenable than Kid-A and Amnesiac (which were fine in their own right).

Anyway, hope this is a trend that grows and continues.

M.I.A.

I did pick up the new album by M.I.A. (not sure if you pronounce each letter or read it like "mia" or maya...she says it a few ways herself on the record).

Anyway, different, funky-sounding beats and lyrics that are a good change from trite, tired love themes (that I heard way too much in china pop music) and rap cliches.

Her rapping style is maybe comparable to Missy Elliot, but she sings more than really just rapping all the time. Apparently Timbaland played a role with the album, I'm not sure how much of it he produced but I wouldn't be surprised if he played a pretty big role - many of the tracks are in his style.

Many of her songs stuck in my head. I can't honestly say all of them are great, but there are at least 3 or 4 excellent songs, and the rest are still all pretty fresh sounding.

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thoughts on the office

Lately, have been catching up on the US version of "The Office".

I had been familiar with the BBC version and had heard mixed reviews of the US show by fans of the BBC show.

However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed the US version quite a bit, and since the plot and characters do not exactly mimic that of the BBC version, it was a new experience.

Both series have their strong points.

BBC:

- More about the dreariness/monotony of day to day office life
- More about an insensitive boss who thinks he's an awesome and funny leader
- The series makes its point and then ends

US:

- Maybe a little more about the way that working with the same people in a monotonous situation can warp you - the supporting office characters seem to have a stronger role here; it's definitely more of an ensemble piece

- The series is still (?) going. I guess I've only seen the 2nd season thus far; I'm not sure how much they can drag out the love stories and other plot elements without straining my belief.

May have to make a Best Buy run to get season 3, as I'm pretty hooked.

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book review: Shatterday

Just finished up reading Harlan Ellison's Shatterday, a collection of (apparently) some of his best short stories.

I take it that Ellison stuck to writing a lot of short stories; he's very good at getting a point across concisely - most of the stories in this collection are 20 pages long or less.

He writes some sci-fi/fantasy and horror, touching on aspects of the human condition.

I'm not used to reading short stories collections; on one hand this type of book really lends itself to reading bit by bit; but on the other hand the experience does not offer the same type of immersion as a long story. I felt a little bit like I was back in English class from high school, reading short stories and abridged versions of things.

I can't say that I thought everything Ellison did in that book was golden, but there were certainly some thought-provoking stories within with unusual twists.

On the other hand, I'm glad that I got the book at the library; while Ellison is good, I do not think I would have been happy with having paid $15 for the trade paperback.

Next in the que - another collection by Ellison.

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touristy weekend...

One of my best friends from back home came out to spend the weekend, and we hung out all day friday, saturday, and sunday.

Really good catching up and finally doing some of the touristy stuff in the city that I've never gotten to do yet. Saw the space needle, the EMP, rode the monorail, saw a band do a show, and finally started to sample many of the watering holes around town.

Can't complain at all.

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Love for Missy Elliot

Under Construction:

Listening to it again, and really liking it...very, very well done album all around; every song is good. I think it is one of her better ones (though really, just about everything she does is good).

Not many filler tracks on the album, the only thing that sometimes get a little old are the tracks where Missy goes and speaks her mind - I appreciate her perspective and all, but it can get boring hearing that all the time.

Anyway, still a very solid record, almost 5 years later...I think this one should still be good another 5 or 10 years from now as well...

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I have a marker in Korea!

Apparently I have been marked as party of the family on their ancestral site. My name has been marked as "American Dan".

Awesome.

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flight of the conchords

Just heard this band on the radio during the drive to work.

Funny stuff.

They seem to be keeping this website current here:

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=1937162361

There are songs to listen to on that site; I highly recommend "Business time" (it's totally in the style of Barry White / Chef / and the ladies man character from SNL).

Books Read: Spider Kiss

Working through the several Harlan Ellison titles I picked up earlier from the library.

"Spider Kiss" is the story of the manager of an Elvis/Jerry Lee Lewis type singer who becomes hugely famous in 1961. The book's perspective on fame is pretty dark; what struck me is how universal the theme of fame & corruption/darkening of the soul is. Certainly writers of today's celebrity scene have no shortage of material to work with, but Ellison has summed much of it up very well, and had done so in 1961.

On the other hand, I didn't quite get the author's claim about just how evil and depraved his star's excesses were...in today's day and age (and probably from the 70's on), it became almost expected for rock stars to be drugged out, misbehaving, overspending, womanizers (or man-izers).

Power-hungry, single-minded machiavellian meglomaniacal ambition? Also kind of expected for success in Hollywood/entertainment, no matter what the carefully cultivated exterior image may be.

Regardless, a quick and entertaining read.

I'm reading "Shatterday", a collection of short stories by Ellison. About 100 pages into it now, ~230 to go. Will post on that at some point later this week, if I finish it...

Raves: Rammstein

A couple weeks ago, I left my ipod shuffle in my pants pocket. That's not usually a problem, except that my wife put those pants in the washer & drier (not knowing my ipod was in there)...suffice it to say, that ipod no longer works.

So, I've been re-discovering many of my cd's by listening to them in the car. I pretty much have nothing more recent than 2004 - era stuff, but that's okay.

Anyway - Rammstein "Live Aus Berlin" is fantastic!

They're a solid band and I hope to see them next time they're touring in the US.

switch 100% to Linux at home?

This is always a tempting thought to me; especially as home Linux distros keep increasing in usability & convenience.

Per one of my earlier posts, I'm less & less locked in to any one software suite - more and more of the things I do with my computer at home are browser based...Firefox & Opera run well on any of the major OS' out there.

Some things I like on OS X that I can't get (exactly) on Linux:

- Garageband
- Itunes
- Ableton Live (but I can get this for Windows)
- iPhoto

Options on Linux that should cover me for those things above:

- Hydrogen, Rosetta, (indeed, there ARE audio creation software options for Linux)
- Amarok (in many ways better than iTunes)
- use WINE to get some version of Ableton Live working
- Picasa or digiKam on KDE (in some ways better than iPhoto)

Things on Windows that I like & can't do anywhere else:

- Sync with my pocket PC (on OSX you can get "the missing sync", but that's ~$40 in additional software costs). Doesn't seem to be a good Linux option for this yet.
- Games - My PC is the main source of my video gaming entertainment; I like strategy games like Civ IV, RTS' like Rise of Nations, and action games like Quake IV. While it's possible to have some Windows games work in Linux (usually major releases from id Software, among others), that's kind of the exception, not the rule.

That's about it, however.

My iBook G4 is still quite healthy and working well for all I need it to do. I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon.

After having had such a strong impression made on me from using the mac so much, (hassle-free, responsive, no viruses, only need to reboot once every 2 weeks or so, etc), I was totally inclined to consider upgrading to a Macbook Pro (or equivalent) whenever time for upgrades drew near.

However, I'm now reconsidering that. It might be cheaper (and arguably, just as effective) to get a well-spec'd Linux-friendly laptop, and dual-boot (with Linux as the default, of course), keeping a small-ish windows partition open for gaming.

No rush to really figure this out, as my mac is working totally fine. But, as much as I like OS X, I'm still a little unsure if it's really worth the premium in hardware cost.

On the other hand, if virtualization technology improves further, then in the near-future (if not now, with a healthy-spec'd computer) it should be possible to run several instances of different OS' within one OS, so the whole issue of needing to dual boot to get the best apps across different platforms could be moot...you'd have to worry about ensuring you have Linux-friendly hardware, but that would be about it.

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quiet, quiet friday

The wife is away on a trip back to Korea, and it was a long day of pouring over excel sheets with rules & targets that seemed to be ever shifting.

I don't know what I really should be doing, but blogging about it seems like a good idea.

At some point it might have seemed strange to me that my choice way of spending free time is by using my computer to look at things on the internet when it seems that so much of my daily work is using the computer to look at spreadsheets, emails, and things on the internet.

But here I am.

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Things I like or am re-appreciating, lately

1. Quake IV...action-packed game that still runs well & looks fantastic on my noisy old (by gamer's standards, anyway) PC.

2. Firefox...runs well on Linux, OS X, & Windows - reliable for fun & work; extensions are useful!

3. ScribeFire extension for Firefox - I can do all my blogging in here without even needing to visit the blog page.

4. Jalepeño peppers - they make so many dishes taste that much better

5. Web-based apps...between syncing my bookmarks, calendar, email, read rss feeds, to do lists, project managment, documents, passwords (yeah, the security on that is still a lot questionable), blogs, & photos - the bulk of stuff that I'm mostly doing on a computer is now all through a web browser. I like that, and the fact that everything is so light-weight your hardware has little impact on it.

(well, I do most writing & spreadsheet stuff on office software...gaming & music software are unique non-web related apps).

So the browser is the OS? I used to think that was crazy talk but I'm nearly living it...

6. Libraries...although I mentioned it before, it bears saying again...free books & information is a wonderful service.

7. Civ IV - a very well designed game that is addictive & deep; yet simple.

8. Gomez - wonderful band from the UK that produced 3 solid albums in the late 90's and early 00's. Their 4th wasn't as good. They made a 5th one that I haven't listened to very much yet...probably still not as good as their first 3 but seem to be improving.

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Paprika

Wanted to relax after a VERY long day - I was up at 3 am to take the wife to the airport.

So, after getting back from a long day at work, I put in a frozen pizza and turned on this movie - I had picked up a copy while I was still in Asia.

While the subtitles were not correct, a quick google search proved to be very useful. Unfortunately, they only worked for about the first 30 minutes of the film; I followed along with a text file that was open side by side with the main movie window...the broken english subtitles on the disc helped me keep my place.

Anyway - the film itself was beautifully animated, and the story was trippy, broad, yet suspenseful and engaging. The pieces with elaborately detailed collages of different people's obscure dreams (nightmares?) all coming together are really wonderful eye candy. Anyway - I feel it is worth a look if you have time or inclination to obtain (read: download) it. Apparently it had a very limited US theatrical release between Nov. 2006 and the end of May 2007 across different regions. A real US dvd should be available at some point, but I've no idea when - have not seen mention of it yet.

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updates to picasaweb albums...

New pictures for your enjoyment:

http://picasaweb.google.com/daninbusiness/CatsOnComputer

(apparently there is a "benefit" when macbooks run hot)...

http://picasaweb.google.com/daninbusiness/Sept1418

(Fun with fire trucks, other random pictures from the weekend previous)

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