1. The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is such a good documentary/movie. I nearly cried. All animal lovers should see it. Or maybe everyone. Some people won't get it.
2. I [or we?] got a Wii today! Finally. Months of waiting and passing up chances are gone. If you've got early Sunday morning free and happen to see it advertised in your weekly Sunday Target ad thinger, there's a good chance you'll get one. We are hooked.
3. I make a good huevos rancheros.
Guess what?
We're moving to San Francisco.
Actually, this move has been anticipated for months (possibly even years, if I count the potentials that The CulturalConnect might've lived up to). Asma, up until recently, was fighting the idea, so I never pushed it or anything. The plan initially was that, once our [Raymond and I] startup takes off and we get funding, only then would we move. But all that uncertainty meant we couldn't plan long-term or even short-term.
Then just a few days ago, Asma was like "Let's move to San Francisco". And ever since then there's been a flurry of excitement in the house. We're now super excited about the future and possibilities. All the ideas we have on what we want to do seem like they can happen there.
At the very least, it'll be great weather and food, and new experiences. DC is nice, and on pretty days the city really is pleasant to walk around, and there are scenic things in the area. But outside of that, we've never really found any sort activities to take part in. At least I haven't. My head's been in the work sand.
So that's that for the moment. We're expecting to be out of here by end of July. That gives us a lot of time to clear the junk we've accumulated and maybe fix up all the damage around here. The next apartment we get will be baby-proof.
The startup seems to be going well, more so on the funding side. I've been bogged down with AARP work that it's usually hard for me to do other things during the week. But I'm excited, and things are starting to come together a bit. I might be able to start building and testing basic functionality by next weekend.
I wonder if I can say now what exactly we're doing? Maybe not.
Also, I'm basically a vegetarian now, and have not eaten meat in the last three weeks (minus tuna salad one day).
The trigger was when we were at Soul Vegetarian before we went to see Saul Williams perform on April 7th. Asma was looking through a PETA pamphlet in the restaurant and read to me how male chicklets were discarded (i.e. crushed/killed) and that their beaks were cut off.
Not that I wasn't aware of the horrible conditions that mass-produced farm animals have to endure, but to hear about what happens to these innocent little babies is just obscene. That was the line totally crossed.
This doesn't mean that I'm going to stop eating meat completely. What it does mean is that I won't eat meat unless I know the source. So if it takes five years to find farmers that aren't cruel, that's how long I'm going to abstain from meat. I also need to be more wary of dairy and eggs (but I think we're doing pretty good on that end).
This meat ‘industry’ (as if animals are a commodity like steel and nothing more) is disgusting. I don't get why people are allowed to do this.
But that's enough of that. Be aware of what you eat, don't lie to yourself. If you're ok with it, so be it. That's all.
Good evening and great luck.
Last play: 5/3/2007
I would never seriously consider getting a government job. Ever. I've been in a state bureaucracy, and I'm hearing certain things that only confirm what I've thought of a federal job. It's not like it's a surprise at all.
However, Asma happened to find what would be the only federal job I'd ever consider applying to. In fact, that's the most excited I've ever been about a job description.
Did anyone think the government had positions like Apprentice and Journeyman? That's amazing. How many places have apprenticeships that take years, anyway?
So whether or not I make it big as a tech entrepreneur, I will seriously consider going to the government for something like this. But if I could somehow become a typeface designer's apparentice and get to work with old technology (i.e. engraving, print press, etc.)… that would be happy times.
"34 Ghosts IV"
…it takes a radically different kind of mind to be a lawyer. I almost want to quit forming a company so that I don't need to read forms for incorporation. But having to fully understand and enforce any of that wording in law is unreal.
So tired. Bunnies are grounded. Mishti is unspeakably adorable with her blanky.
So Nine Inch Nails just released Ghosts, out of the blue. And Asma and I hesistantly decided to go for the $300 Ultra Deluxe [they couldn't think of a classier name?] edition. It isn't a bad choice maybe, given that we love Trent, and it's signed, and the packaging is going to be amazing, and we get tons of stuff, and some nice prints, and an autograph. And it's limited to 2500.
The response was apparently unexpected, because the servers just slowed to the most terrible hault known on the internet in recent years – they would've been better off shutting the servers down completely. We spent nearly two hours Sunday night trying to order the damn thing, and when that didn't work, we tried first thing in the morning (5 AM). The servers worked better, but there were still glitches in the ordering process, so we ended up submitting two orders.
So maybe they'll correct it. If not, that's also fine. The spectacular collector set is sold out and will probably fetch a nice amount on eBay if we happen to get two.
Twelve days without a restart, and no performance drop.
(This is more a *nix thing, though. So me loves *nix more.)
You can throw down five without even realizing.
Glances furtively at the box ten feet away.
Starbuck's skinny latte drinks are disgusting. One thousand percent disgusting. Totally artificial and devoid of any goodness. I took one sip and tossed it.
Why are people willing to drink shit to shave off 200 or 300 calories? Walk a couple of miles. Damn.
I really think YouTube is the best thing to happen to the internet. I can't get over how videos I thought I'd never see again are floating around out there. It's equally as good as finding things I'd never think of.
Like StSanders.
Mohammed introduced me to a string of parodies that take the wind out of Metallica, Iron Maiden, Carlos Santana, and several other big names. All were put together by Santeri Ojala.
But just as I was getting into it, that very same day, YouTube shut down his account and took down all his videos. And this was after most of his videos had tens of thousands of views. I managed to snag a video through KeepVid.com before the big comedown (lol):
One of the fun things about all his ‘compositions’ is his [sometimes] subtle allusions to other aural things (songs, sound logos) – they're blended in so well that you don't always catch it the first time. I'm stumped with something, though: can anyone tell me what part of the Metallica video is from (0:19 to 0:21)? It's killing me not remembering where I've heard that.
One of the commenters says that Yngwie Malmsteen is to blame for all this. Bastard.
I emailed Santeri about obtaining the videos or whether he'd be coming back. He hinted at MySpace. I am now happy.
Does my site need to go on hiatus once again?
Hello, and happy into the new year. The trip to Illinois was ok. My parents can be ridiculously annoying. And we didn't to hang out with Hasan much outside of the house, which sucked. We were in Chicago on our last night there and hung out with Carly and Ryan. It was so, so cold – I can't remember DC ever being like that. But it was fun. Chicago is so much better than DC.
Asma started her job Monday at the Census Bureau. I'm proud of her. And it looks like she's found a group of like-minded individuals. If she gets a briefcase she will be the most professional mouse on the planet.
I've also decided to start leaving for work when she does, which will be 6:15 everyday once she gets fully into it. It should be easy to shift my day three hours earlier without any transition period.
(Side note: this post was started Monday. I developed a fever Monday night, and I've been a bit exhausted and sick as a result. I've been going to bed earlier these days, so I get the same amount of sleep as usual. The past few days have been extremely long, though. A couple of days already, we've been out of the apartment for at least 12 hours. Maybe that's it?)
We also started doing physical therapy a few weeks ago after seeing a competent orthopedist [who didn't just tell me that these knee pains happen]. The general issue for both of us is an imbalance due to some opposing/supporting muscles being weak.
For me, a lot of it had to do with my left leg being up slightly more than my right. Immediately after my first session with the therapist, my right knee inflammation from walking down stairs disappeared. (He essentially pulled my leg out of the socket. It doesn't hurt like it sounds.) Also, that nagging left that I got nearly a year ago from doing squats (which got severely reduced during a run, prior to the onset of the right knee inflammation) was probably the result of the imbalance, because the left knee pain was reduced even more.
I'm still not recovered, unfortunately. I've got a new sort of pain, which I've actually had on and off since running: shin splints in my right leg. Trying to recount how my pains have changed over the months is too confusing, but I will say that now, my shin splints radiate to my knee, which they didn't use to do. Maybe I'll need to try new shoes? I don't look forward to spending another $100 (this would be my third pair in six months if I do buy a new pair), but compared to therapy and injury prevention, it's necessary and worth it.
The upside is that I'm doing supporting exercises, and I think I'm going to do pilates regularly since a lot of my exercises are pilates-style. Also other types of cross-training. We'll be back on the road to ultra-marathons soon. Running is fun.
The furs and feathers are doing well. Penelope is slowly warming up to me. I hope that in a month or two he'll be playful outside of the cage. He seems so happy if he's by himself, but he has to be bored a lot of the times. We're going to find him a friend once he's more tame and comfortable with us.
Also, Raymond and I are teaming up again. We're hoping to do something big on social platforms in the coming months. Hush-hush for now. But we do have an app made: Campus Books. And a new one in the works. I hope this venture works out. I'm enjoying being able to actually use my expertise and creativity, and have ownership of a vision/product. There shouldn't be a TCC-style staleness about it, either. So that'll be refreshing. Refreshing is opposite of stale. Hmm.
But until the roads are open for me to leave, It's going to be a busy busy few weeks, especially the next two. AARP is going to fully lunch its site on Feb. 20, and the sky is starting to fall as a result.
I dreaded today (mainly the whole gift-giving thing), but it turned out to be really fun. The highlight was the build-up to Mohammed not getting a specific gift as everyone else opened theirs. Mona then asked Mohammed to go to the outside garage and get orange juice. He got all excited and smiley, and within seconds we heard a ‘No!’ which I thought was a happy sort of ‘No!’ because he got Rock Band.
Turns out that the Rock Band he got was not for his XBox360, but, a Playstation 3! Poor kid. That was so much worse than not getting Rock Band at all, let alone Maman telling him he couldn't have opened it anyway because of a grade in one class. We still couldn't help but laugh. Would his situation be an ironic paradox?
Family quirks aside, it was all good. I got a 1gb iPod Shuffle, so I can put on Pimsleur language programs and get fluent in Farsi and Japanese without relying on the laptop.
Tomorrow is going to be ridiculously busy. We're going to Illinois on Thursday. I'm going to miss the little munchkins.
I was one piece of the puzzle in the building of the new AARP site (just went up on the 20th).
This is your love song to your future girlfriend/wife:
Thank god I was at Linens-N-Things on Friday night to hear this.
Yay! Congraluations, sweety.
Ever since I've been dabbling with developing Facebook applications, I'm liking Facebook [in general] more and more. Practically everything on the site – all the design and functionality – is executed so well and flows together. I'm really impressed that they've got their shit together despite how fast they grow.
Doesn't mean I'll be spending my hours poking around everyone's profiles.
I was eating leftover mashed potatoes over the sink when I remembered something I was trying to think of last week: the original Emogame.
Was it really five years ago?
From Emogame 2:
lololololol.
Asma and I ran the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Turkey Chase 10k yesterday. It was the first time I ‘ran’ more than 1.5 miles in the past three weeks, and I finished at least 20 minutes faster than I thought I would (around 1:13:00).
My knee did act up at around 2.25 miles, so it was sporadic attempts to run since then. I experimented with different forms to keep the stress going directly to my kneecap, and found out that pointing my toes slightly out did the trick. Not a good or permanent solution, but it worked overall.
Asma and I started and finished together, and we walked 5 miles to and from the race. So in all, we covered 11 miles on foot. And because we didn't have any post-race food, there was a 40-minute delay in getting in calories. Poor bodies. We ended up feeling exhausted for the day.
We ate good foods in the end, though. Big feast at her parents' house. And Evan Almighty wasn't nearly as bad as people (critics?) say. I liked it. License to Wed stupid, though, except for the flipbook.
I'm going to be working some of today. Fun.
Mishti had a dicey couple of weeks (due to my negligence three weeks ago), but she is all fine now. Yay.
