Windows 7 launch today
Windows is broadcasting the Windows 7 Keynote. Finally, the stuff they promised you in Vista is available today! Well, plus a couple things from Apple, minus the pretty shell.
On the other hand, if you're skeptical of the whole thing this might be more your speed.
Marriage (3 of 6)
I was in the middle of the desert. My desert family and I had built a lounge in the middle of the second largest flat region in the northern hemisphere. We were exhausted from the work, dehydrated from the heat and probably more than a little tipsy from the Jäger. I was with a friend who had just been married. He had met a girl and married her soon after. Their life was turned upside down as they struggled to move her into the country and obtain the proper authorization to allow her to work in the country. I asked this friend if he was afraid of being married, afraid that things might not work out and he shared a revelation that made me change my entire outlook on marriage. He dismissed the idea that he might be afraid of the outcome of his relationship. He said that it didn't matter. It was more important that he had the experience with this girl. Out of all the girls in the world, this was the girl he wanted to experience marriage with. I don't know why, but at that moment I looked at his ink. He had this elaborate tattoo around his torso. I remembered that someone had told me that tattoos weren't supposed to be about finding a design that you would be happy with for the rest of your life. It was about celebrating a moment in your life and commemorating it in a special way. When I started to think about what he had said I started to panic. This whole time I had been living my life with someone that was incredibly special to me. If something were to change I could see myself looking back with regret at not having shared the experience of marriage with this girl. If this window of opportunity were to close without me sharing a marriage with her, I would have made a decision, a very long committal one, the wrong one.
Quote reads: Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest. Maya Angelou.
Marriage (2 of 6)
I've always been apprehensive about marriage. I suppose this attitude matches my general approach to commitment, any sort of commitment. It's the prospect of making a decision that lasts forever that gum up the works. I have a month to month phone plan because I don't like the idea of committing to a plan that will lock me in for a couple years. I've had my month to month plan for 3 years. I'm in a relationship that I suppose could be renegotiated at any time but I've been in that relationship for nearly a decade and a half. I suppose I like the idea of being non-committal about my long range plans. I'd been looking at things backwards.
Marriage (1 of 6)
When people talk, often times that conversation can be filled with dialog that is more about making a connection with the person than about the content. Sometimes, when the stars align and all is right with the world, that conversation can be incredibly substantive as well. Often times I find myself hungry for this type of connection. I try to surround myself, as much as possible, with people who are comfortable with that sort of dialogue. Sometimes they are brief and start with a spark. In the past I've had people share some incredibly insightful tidbits of information. Other times it's spawned from the sort of comfort that only hours of introspection can bring. My life changed in one of these moments.
Vesuvio is located in North beach just across from City Lights Bookstore. Established in 1948, this historical monument to jazz poetry, art and the good life of the Beat Generation still attracts a diverse clientele. On Oct 17, 1955 Neal Cassady stopped at Vesuvio on the way to the Six Gallery for a poetry reading. The place has never been the same since. It became a regular hangout of Jack Kerouac and other famous Beat poets and has become ground zero for pilgrims on the Beat trail ever since.
Photo shoot
The girl and I went to North Beach today to do our engagement picture photo shoot. We've arranged for Ken Kato to shoot our wedding and when we talked it over with him we decided that we should experiment with something a little more urban. The day started of surprisingly sunny. By the time we got to these shots we'd loosed up a bit and started really having a good time with the camera. Over the next few days I'll be posting pictures from that shoot.
The Killers
This is a great video. I love the "Faster Pussycat" -esque look of the girls. The shuffled video scenes was a really create way to tell the story. I saw them Sep 12 at the shoreline. They arranged the songs perfectly with a waterfall climax at the end of the show.
Cold Play
Jul 13 was the Cole Play concert. I was at the balcony overlooking the path that divided lawn from assigned seating and noticed that security was assembling. They cordoned off a line on the walkway and I knew something was up so I got as close to the rail. The band moved from the main stage to a stage that overlooked the lawn. Then at the end of their set they walked right by me. They were so close that I could have tapped them on the head if I'd reached out.
This is a video of one of their songs. It looks like the whole thing was recorded backwards, including his singing.
Error connecting to Yahoo with Trillian
I was having trouble with the Yahoo service in Trillian (trillian-v3.1.12.0) it displayed the message below in the (Show status window from the Yahoo ball at the top of the Trillian window). To fix the problem I changed change the host to "mcs.msg.yahoo.com". I've included more detailed instructions below.
*** Reconnecting to Yahoo! as "qicboy" *** Will attempt 10 connections with 60 second intervals. *** Connecting to Yahoo! as "qicboy", attempt 1. *** Error while connecting (Error Code: 0). Disconnecting. *** Failure resolving "scs.msg.yahoo.com"! Attempting to connect to a known server...
- Select "Trillian | Connections | Manage my connections..."
- Select the "via YAHOO" connection and press the "Change..." button.
- Change the host to "mcs.msg.yahoo.com" and press the "Save Settings button.
- At this point you may need to select the yahoo ball and select Disconnect to cancel the existing connection attempts. Select Reconnect to establish a connection to the new server.
Dog trapped by square of Pepsi cans
This dog can't seem to figure out how to get out of a square of cans. I totally knew he would go for the rope thingie. That's Zuul's favorite too.
Dog tries to save his friend
This video has been updated since it was originally posted. It's footage of a dog trying to save his friend by pulling him off to the side of the road. Both dogs live.