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August 2002
Craig Appel's birthday!
Sonic Youth at the Variety Playhouse! Quote of the night: "Just say no to ear plugs"
Apparently someone likes the Power Puff Girls more than I do... The research my work colleages do in their spare(?) time always amuses me...
Worked late preparing for Tuesday's meeting. Got out of the office around 8:30 and met up with the rest of the team at the Holiday Inn down the road for dinner and a few beers. I got home around 10:30, very much in need of sleep.
Work involved another 7am start. It involved more meetings. It involved obtaining knowledge that I would rather not have obtained. Of course, none of this I can talk about in a public forum. At least, not yet.
George, Brad, Tony and I headed up to the nearest pub at the earliest feasible opportunity - The Foghorn Grill. It was a little scary. It was full of old people. One of whom took a fancy to Tony, much to everyone's (except Tony) amusement. Chinta also joined us for a pint of guiness that was seriosuly nursed. Then Chinta suggested going to the Rock Bottom Brewery, so down to Buckhead we went.
George called ahead, and Dave joined us at the Rock Bottom. This is also where I ate - a very tasty salmon sandwich with fries. Yumminess with the beer.
My next stop was the Local, still dressed in meeting uniform (dress shirt and pants). I sat in on Amber and Mary's trivia team and also caught up with Jen Garner and Aimee. Invited both to the party on Saturday.
More meetings and general disillusionment.
Positive event of the day: I got home to find a couple of packages on the doorstep. Inside said packages were DVDs. In the first was the complete second season of The Simpsons. In the second was pornography courtesy of Playboy. Loads of fun for all the family.
Had a none-too-pleasant phone conversation with Amy.
Went to Lauren's, hung out drinking vodka. Ate the dinner I picked up from Market One (grouper in a tarragon cream sauce, cauliflower and broccoli, and bread). Very relaxing.
The work stress and general dillustionment continued. Sometime soon I shall be able to talk about it in some more detail. Just not right now.
Left work early and went to the Local. I was meeting Lauren later on the evening, but was distracted by various arrivals at the pub. I did manage to get to Green's before it closed and so Lauren and I were set for beverages. We spent a lot of time sitting on her patio, drinking vodka, and talking about the current state of affairs. At some point, Clair and Sherrod turned up, but they were eventually ushered away as crash-time rapidly approached.
09:00 - All Blacks vs Springboks in Durban.
And I was awake to watch it. I was awake at Lauren's around 7am and after laying in the sun for a couple of hours I got up and came home. I missed the first two tries, but watched the rest of the game. And a hard fought game it was. The Springboks were really fighting for the victory, but the All Blacks managed to hold on and got the win and the four tries for the bonus point. This means that NZ should win the Tri Nations. This is the best news I've had in weeks.
We tidied the place in preparation for the evening's party, after having gotten bagels for breakfast from Einstein's Bagels. Mainly a lazy day, which included watching several episodes of the The Simpsons second season.
The first to arrive was the Marconi Team, supplying the first round of beverages: Dave, Sal, Tony and Lori. The supplies they brought (a combination of their's and Peter and Yvonne's) were outstanding and complemented nicely the supplies we contributed. Later, Andie supplied another box of liquor, and much merriment was had all round.
I think I bailed out around 3:30am, although Patrick woke me up when he arrived around 4am. John went to bed around 6:30am, leaving Steve in charge. Yet another party success!
Didn't sleep too late. CG Jen had stayed over; John had slept in the computer room. Some tidying up was attempted, but due to lack of real motivation, John and I watched som eof the Playboy DVD. Heheh. Kinda silly really.
I gave Lauren a call and when she was ready, John and I picked her up and we went to brunch at Virginia's. That place is so yummy. Plus, the chick you shows us to our table is really cute - I like that sort of touch.
After brunch we came home, did some more clean up (granted, John did most of it), and I played some Civ III. Sarah W came over and collected John for some moutain-biking. After the exercising, Sarah made us dinner (salad and grilled chicken breast) and we all watched Sunday Night TV.
Darts and dinner at the Local. Pete and I formed an impressive darts team.
Karaoke was packed.
Called Brad to book getting the moonroof installed in my car. It was his day off, so he said he'd call me back tomorrow.
Sarah and I conversaed about the upcoming trip. This is going to be very exciting.
I spent the evening doing laundry and playing Civ III, and then got an early night, as I was due to be at work at 6am to assist in an upgrade. Ugh.
Got up at 5am and was at work at 6am. The upgrade process went pretty smoothly, which was nice. It did mean that I spent the day feeling pretty tired, and so I bailed out around 3pm and played Civ III for a couple of hours. I heard back from Brad and my car is booked for 7am on Tuesday.
When John came home we went up to the Local for trivia. He was going to be playing tennis with Sarah but they couldn't sort out a tennis court and so that was cancelled. So, the Power Puff Drunks were back in effect, consisting of myself, John, Amber and Mary. We didn't play too well.
After the trivia, John and I ended up playing darts with Manny and one of his friends. We got home much later than I had intended.
Went in to work late as I wanted to stop by REI to pick up a few things - backpack, gloves, warm leg garments. I fully intend to be prepared for Alaska.
Got to work to find that everyone had already left for the "farewell lunch" for Dave and for the InforChain employees that finish on Friday. I called George, who indicated that they were at the Happy Sumo, so I headed on down there, arriving just in time to place my order. A very tasty meal.
Over the course of the afternoon I tied up a few loose ends prior to my trip. I had a conference call at 5pm with NZ to review Wednesday's upgrade. This took a good hour, but was well worth the effort.
After work I was to have met up with Ashe for a drink or three, but she had to postpone due to lack of funds. So we agreed to set something up for next and I set about repacking my bags.
Seeing as I was now dateless, I called up Lauren and after picking up some last minute supplies (small bottle of eyeball juice [contact lens fluid], shaving cream, 128MB compact flash card), I picked up my partner in crime and went to the Local.
At the Local I proceeded to consume a pita pizza with green peppers, mushrooms and black olives, followed by a barbecue sandwich and fries. With mayonaise. Yes, it appears I was rather hungry.
Then it was time to come home, finish packing and get to bed for the morning's early rising.
Up at the ungodly hour of 6am and at the airport by 7am. And straight through to the Crown Room by 7:15am, where I drank some juice and attempted (unsuccesfully) to get an upgrade on the flight to Salt Lake City. It's a better option to save the upgrade points for the return journey.
It was good to be able to board with the medallion level fliers again. To get in and get situated quickly and easily, and then get settled into my music iand book (in this case, By the River Piedra I sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coello) is very nice.
As per normal, I had to stop reading as I entereed a light slumber as the plane taxied away from the gate. I have only the smallest of recollections of the plane taking off. I dozed for a while, but only really came out of my snooze well into the in-flight movie, Life or Something Like It. I didn't bother watching it (Angelie Jolie's hair looked rather silly, and the premise was rather, um, passe).
Instead I read the aforementioned book, which was very interesting. One of the key topics was visitations by the Virgin Mary and one of the stories told was one I had read previously (albeit in a slightly different context) in a Tom Robbins novel, Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates.
Anyway, I finished the book (it wasn't very long) and went on to do the Delta Sky magazine crossword. This I almost completed; just three letters I couldn't get. I was quite happily impressed.
We landed in Salt Lake City soon after, early by about ten minutes. However, we had to wait as the jetway took about fifteen minutes to actually move to the plane. Oh well, never mind.
I disembarked (or "deplaned" as they call it now), used the men's room, located the Crown Room, and hunted down some food. The choices were limited, so I selected Sbarro and had pizza, garlic bread, and spring water.
Next stop was the Crown Room, where I checked on the posibility of an upgrade on the leg to Anchorage. The likelihood was good, so I went ahead and got on the upgrade list. I also enquired as to how many upgrade points were required to upgrade on the return flight from Anchorage to Atlanta. It was one more point than I would have if the SLC->ANC upgrade came through, so I got online and spent 10,000 miles on getting the necessary points to do the job and still leave a few left over.
Seeing as I probably won't get too many more flights this year, I may as well go ahead and enjoy the ones I do have!I checked hotmail and found that I had lots of porn site passwords. Woohoo.
Seeing that it was getting close to boarding time I headed down to the gate only to find that the flight had been delayed. I returned to the Crown Room to be told that the flight had been delayed by two hours for an equipment change. Ugh!
So now it was time to get a drink. And to be reminded that I was in Utah. No bottle pours here, baby. Carefully (ie mechanically) measured shots only. Oh well, I'll still take a vodka tonic anyway right now, even if it was weak.
While waiting, I started reading Anna Karenina. Yay for dead Russian authors. They rock! Looks very interesting. Point to note: aside from the liquor issues (which are the fault of the state) the Salt Lake City Crown Room is rather nice. It is big and open with a sort of ski lodge feel. And it has two PCs for those without laptops. Very cool.
I did get my upgrade! Woohoo!! Definitely worth it. Although I unfortunately did not get a window seat. Ah well, can't have everything. I did see, across the aisle, a couple of big mountains in Washington, including Mt St Helens.
The movie was Changing Lanes starring Ben Affleck and Samuel L Jackson. Mildly entertaining drivel - reasonable brainless, eating, fodder. Overall an overly simplistic, contrived, condescending piece of tripe. But watchable through lunch, which was chicken and spinach lasagne, with salad and bread. And, of course, several glasses of chardonnay. Preceded, as one would expect, by a couple or three vodka tonics.
Music for this leg was Luna. I really like Luna. They rock in a mellow, relaxing, and intelligent sort of way. Spontaneous thought: I need to make a Wilco mini disc.
I just checked the time and it appears I have been up for twelve hours and I'm still on a plane. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee. Woohoo! More wine! Woohoo! That 70's Show. Hmmm...I think I might be getting a little drunk...It'll only be mid-afternoon when I get to Anchorage.
My Luna disc finally came to an end and I really felt like listening to Wilco. Unfortunately I have not yet prepared a Wilco disc, so I checked what was in my pocket and settled on VNV Nation. "And God Created The Heavens And The Earth...". Ah, I'm sure what I feel right now owes at least equal parts to the alcohol as well as to the music and being far away from the office. But i's such a nice feeling...."Yes, I'll have another chardonnay, thank you very much."
Observation: the Food Network (and the subprograms shown on Delta Horizons, the in-flight show) rocks. I now want to go eat! And eat magnificently!
Sarah met me at the airport and we caught a cab back to her place and she showed me to what would be my room for the next couple of days. I then had a shower and cleaned myself up a little. We watched a bit of TV, and then caught a bus into downtown Anchorage.
Downtown Anchorage is kind of small, but that made it easy to get around. I had a reindeer-meat hot dog, which was quite tasty (the sausage was grilled rather than just boiled like most hot dogs). I got a couple of photos of some of the store-front animals and checked out a clothing store where I purchased a couple of shirts. The store was in the same mould as Gargoyles in New Orleans, only about $10 cheaper.
We walked down to the inlet and I took a few more photos. Of particular interest was a statue of Captain Cook. Apparently he came to Alaska on one of this three great voyages in the Pacific, and Anchorage actually lies on Cook Inlet. I didn't know this.
We proceeded to teh mall so Sarah could pick up some film for her camera and then we were off to get a beer at Humpy's.. It was pretty crowded there. I tried the local Doppel Bock, which was quite tasty. We only had the one beer and then moved on to another, more dive-bar establishment All good fun. After a beer there we headed back to the bus stop and back to Sarah's place.
We sorted ourselves out again, watched some more TV, and then walked down to Sarah's workplace, a seedy little strip bar. I met her workmates and proceeded to get quite drunk. Courtesy of Sarah I also ended up with several lap dances from the various girls that worked there. Highly amusing.
I don't recall getting back to Sarah's. I do recall leaving the club though. It had been a long day!
Link of the day: LegoDeath.
I was feeling a little rough when Sarah woke me up. The advantage was that my body was still on Eastern Time, so it wasn't as early for me as it was for Sarah. I got up, showered, and turned into a real person. Sarah made bacon and egg sandwiches and we ate. Then we packed our bags, called a cab, and were off to the airport to pick up a rental car.
We received a tidy little Mercury Cougar and after some crazy city driving (crazy because I was still distractingly dehydrated and still quite tired) we were on Highway 1, heading north. The scenery was beautiful and the roads were fun to drive, especially when there were no cars in front slowing things down. After about two hours we spotted the glacier and what a sight it was!
We were a little late in getting to the hut to meet our guide (Ben), but he didn't mind. We took some time to get kitted out - protective leggings, boots, crampons, harnesses, helmets, gloves, sunscreen. Then we grabbed our backpacks and headed out to the glacier.
As we made our way out, Ben stopped and explained various of the formations and structures and stuff that we would be encountering. Once on the ice, he spoke in more detail about each feature as we encountered it. Prior to the ice, our first encounter was with a silt pool that effectively acted like quicksand. We were careful not to get too close to that! We also encountered basal ice - ice formed under so much pressure that it is transparent and contains none of the usue fractures you see in ice created in your freezer. Ben also talked about how, because of this immense pressure, when this sort of ice is put into a glass of water, it tends to explode rather than just melt, destroying the glass in the process. Neat.
Over the next four hours we encountered white ice, blue ices, two types of crevasses, ice falls, and a glacial lake. We also heard ice collapsing in a quite stunning (ie loud) manner. So cool. And lots of photos...
My only down points for the day were related events. Early on, Ben was teaching us ice climbing. This is where you climb a high gradient or near vertical slope reliant entirely on your boots to hold you in place and capture the next secure point up. Your hands are only there to balance you against the wall of ice. Sarah went first on the trial wall, and made it to the top in great fashion. I got off to a good start, making it the first half in no time. But then I freaked. totally wigged out. My legs refused to wouldn't function right, my heart rate went insane and I couldn't bring myself to apply weight to the boots even though Ben was assuring me that I was making excellent holds with them. Some neural connection had decided that manner in which I was applying weight was inconsistent with what it believed to be correct and was not letting me continue. I was, with some assistance, able to move laterally to a splot where I could come down.
We took a break at that point so we could have a bite to eat and so I could compose myself. I was a combination of freaked out and pissed off at having suffered such an ignoble defeat in my attempt at ice climbing. But I wasn't going to let that ruin my day. No way. So after muching on a peanut butter sandwich and sipping some water, we made our way onwards.
We looked into crevasses and climbed up and down ice hills, with streams that change daily and ponds that grow at rates dependent on the temperature. We looked into ice caves and under overhangs. And we went upwards...
We were making our way upwards to a vantage point overlooking the glacier lake, and, as our mode changed to more like ice climbing, the same fear that had struck me previously, tackled me again. Onlyl this time I was in the same sort of safety as where we did the original climb. I did actually freeze up for a few moments, but, with some difficulty, and much perserverance (and a 200bpm heart rate), I did make it up to the top. And it was most definitely worthwhile.
We rested for a while, allowing my pulse to return to something close to normal, looking over this lake, and watching other ice climbers playing with ropes and hammers. And it was a nice day. And we could see up into the magnificent blue of the ice falls.
Then it was time to make our way down. We went down towards the lake, passing a pool of water that was perfectly transparent, and perfect blue. Beautiful. Down to the lakeside and around it. This was good stuff. However, I could not believe the number of people we encountered here who were not equipped for being on the ice. And this continued as we made our way back to the hut.
By the time we got back to the trailhead, I was utterly exhausted and very sore. But the experience was well worth the effort, and I recommend it to anyone.
Once back at Sarah's there was no chance of me going out again. So we watched TV and ordered pizza. After eating, I went to bed and Sarah started working on a jigsaw puzzle.
I was awake on more-or-less late Eastern Time, but didn't feel rough at all. I was a little tired but there was no soreness. At around 8am (Alaskan Time) I got up and started packing my bag. It was a tight fit, but I managed to get everything in.
This morning we went for a drive east, through the Cook Inlet. Absolutely stunning views. We stopped for breakfast at ??. Then we continued east to Portage Glacier.
We returned to Anchorage and stopped in at the zoo. Seeing as I hadn't seen any actual wildlife, I was keen to see some at the zoo. It's a small zoo, but it has some cool animals, like a pair of siberian tigers, mountain sheep that look stoned, various beers, otters, and a couple of american eagles. There were more, but those were the highlights. Unfortunately the battery on my camera died before I could take any good pictures of the tigers, but I did get some photos of animals.
After the zoo we returned to Sarah's and I loaded all my stuff into the car. Then we went back down town and had a late lunch/early dinner at Humpy's. On the TV was a repeat of the previous night's Tri-Nations game between South Africa and Australia, so I took great delight in being able to watch that while eating. We started with an Alaskan Salmon spread with french bread. It was yummy-licious. Then for my main course I had char-grilled halibut with rice and cucumber. It was sooooooo nice. I still have difficulty with the concept that Sarah does not like fish. Craziness, I tell you.
Them it was a quick stop at the store for Sarah and I dropped her home before zooming on to the airport. Anchorage airport sucks. There are two terminals and the car rental return is right next the non-Delta (also non-International) terminal. SO I had to wait, with a huge mob for a bus to transport me to the Delta terminal. I got there and reaffirmed my desire for an upgrade and set about waiting. I did get my upgrade in the end, but I was the last person to get one. In fact, the girl ahead of me on the list and I were pulled to one side to wait to ensure that our upgrade seats would be available. But it was no problem.
The movie for the flight was Spiderman. I thoroughly enjoyed it; loads of fun.
Up bright and early to drop my car off at the Ford dealership to have my sunroof put in. Woohoo!!
Today I spent most of the day concentrating on a different project at work. You might have seen the publicity around interactive cigarette vending machines...we designed and built those.
Links of the day: Extrabad.com, OddTodd, Pee-mail.
Caught MARTA to work. Well, to Doraville, and George came and picked me up from there. I picked up my car at lunchtime, complete with a nice new hole in the top. The hole comes with a window and five buttons - one to pop the window up, one to zoom it back into the roof, one to close it, and two to vary the position of the zoom-back. Very cool. And it automatically closes when I turn the car off.
After work was Trivia. With Jenny and George. We did okay, in spite of missing some questions. But it still wasn't good enough to place anywhere.
Brand management links of the day: number 1 and number 2.
Hot Clermont Action with The Wondrous Bria!
Lauren and I picked up Bria from the airport and we zoom zoom zoomed to Ru-San's for a tasty sushi dinner. Yum yum yum.
Dropped cars at Lauren's and went up to Clermont.
Then to the Local.
Link of the day: OpenWave.
Tony G's latest acquisition: Matrox Parhelia-512 video card. It's nice.
Work was work. On my way home from work I picked up a book on XML. Looks to be pretty good.
After work was Local. While at the Local a guy at the bar (Brent Bonet - got your email) said, "Hi. You're Damon. I've read all about you on your website." O-kay...what's the story here? Well, it turns out that he was doing a Google search on The Imperial Pint and among the pages returned was my website. Freaky. It was his birthday so I bought him a shot.
After the Local I went to Lauren's. Can't really remember much of that, although I didn't drive there.
Link of the day: Cybergeography.
Happy Birthday, Matt! Welcome to Atlanta, Amy!
Read about XML.
Amy arrived in town on her one way ticket from Chicago.
Matt, Lauren, Amy and I had dinner at Spice. Very tasty. As expected.
After dinner we played Mexicans at Lauren's. John turned up with Zelda and her friend (??). Pete also popped over seeing as we encountered him in the parking lot. John drove us home as I was a little too inebriated to consider driving myself a safe option.
Your ultimate Olsen Twins experience - courtesy of Ben.
Slow day, didn't really do much. Read my new XML book, played some Scrabble and watched some Simpsons. Sarah came over and made dinner (grilled salmon, fresh beans, roasted potatoes, total yumminess) and watched some TV
That is, until the power went out. Crappola. So, after waiting about half an hour, John, Amy and myself went to the Local. We ran into Stacy and Dill, which was very pleasant, although Stacy did give me a bit of a shock when she let down her hair. It is longer than I've ever known it to be, and when she put it down around her face she looked scarily similar to Celise in bygone days. Rather disturbing, really.
Clair and Pete were in attendance, with Brook from Alaska. I told her about my recent adventure and she enjoyed the tales.
I only had a couple of hoegaardens, and by 11pm was rapidly losing interest in being social. This turned into some angsty moments, and in the end John decided to stay when we left.
Went to work tired. Didn't accomplish terribly much, although I did some work-type stuff. Stayed long enough for the NZ conference call and headed home.
Amy was relaxing, so I took to tidying my room and sorting out my mail and bills. Good time fun. Amy and I went to The Dark Horse Tavern for dinner, so we could try Charlie's new menu. It's good. I had the bourrbon pork tenderloin - absolutely awesome.
The rumour mill (ie our customers) has it that the transaction was completed today; the theory is that management can't inform us until the other bidders have been notified. I guess we'll get the official word tomorrow.
The offical word is that we still have to wait two to three more weeks and there has been no inking of any deals. Someone is telling lies to someone...
After work I came home and discovered a couple of books on product management and strategy I had ordered from Amazon had arrived. I started reading one of them and straightaway have found it interesting and enlightening.
Amy and I went to the Local to meet Jenny and George and, later, John, for trivia. We performed "eh" in the first half, recovered notably in the second half, and spewed on the last question. Ah well, never mind.
After the game, Amy and I went to pick up Lauren and Matt to go to the Earl to see The Dictatortots. John declined to accompany us as he was going to go home early because he had an important meeting in the morning. The 'tots were great fun, although their replacement of cheesy poofs with coco-pops was not so cool (ie a little more painful). But a good show, nonetheless, and they finished with El Camino to everyone's delight. Also in attendence was Clair, Sarah G, Jen Montgomery, Luca, Karen, Beta and probably other people I've forgotten.
Then we headed back the Local, where, surprise surprise, John was still playing darts. We gave him some hassles about that and soon after headed home.
Went in to work for the morning. Got a bunch of stuff done (email correspondence, documentation updates, process documentation started, requirements analysis started). Then it was time to go home around 12:30. Via REI, where I picked up a CamelBak for (de)hydration during the weekend.
Picked up Amy and dropped her off at Berlitz for her English teacher training. Then I headed home via food.
I decided to try out Qdoba, a burrito place, which has a restaurant just down the road from my house. The review in brief: not as good as Willy's. Hell, I was served by two white guys. And they put the cheese in last. And the black beans didn't taste right. Ah well.
Got up. Ate with Amy at the BellSouth building food court and then caught MARTA to the hotel. Ran into Scott and then Clair and went to a panel discussion on Douglas Adams and his posthumously published 6th Hitchhiker's novel. The general sentiment was that it shouldn't have been published - it was incomplete and it appears that Adam's wasn't really that interested in doing it. I also learned that Adams wrote a couple of episodes of Doctor Who, back in the Tom Baker days as far as I could determine.
After the panel, Clair and I went back to the Chocolate City to meet up with the others and travel as a troupe to the hotel for checkin. At Clair's I met three girls who were going to be using Clair's home as a base for the weekend: Bhren, Kimberly, and Berlin. We potted aronud for a bit, shot over to Green's and Kroger (with Matt) to pick up some last minute supplies, and went down to meet Pete and head over to the Marriott.
When we got to the Marriott we found that our room was not yet ready, so we left our bags and supplies with the bellhop, and went back to the Hilton to look for the bar. This was a good plan, as we were then able to encounter Sherrod, Rosalie, and Beta.
DragonCon 2002 continued. Also known as How Drunk Can We Get Today?
Caught the end of the EFF panel on spam while waiting for a panel on internet radio. Apparently, Georgia law expressly prohibits spam and provides means for prosecuting spamers.
Went to a session on Alan Moore.