Archive for May, 2005

2005.05.14

It’s Done; Goodbye Sunset

After a grueling week at Sunset and working until almost 6PM yesterday and today, I finally said goodbye to Sunset Publishing and am trying to relax in preparation for starting work at VIZ on Monday. I had a decent day despite the work load until the very end, actually, when I didn’t get to to say goodbye to a few people I really wanted to because my Boss had to wait until I left before he could leave. I understand the need to “escort” the “ex-employee” out when he’s done, but for fsck’s sake… If they didn’t trust me not to wreak havoc when I left then they never trusted me at all.

Despite my irritation at the end, I’m happy to be moving on with my career. Especially to a place that I feel like I could have a future with.

For a grand total of two day now I am officially unemployed. Freedom!

(PS: I might get a chance to catch up on some posting I’ve been meaning to do for the past week… we’ll see!)

2005.05.13

One More Day; Will I Make It?

One more full day at Sunset after a rough and busy week. I had some insane notion my last week there would be calm and at least mildly pleasant in terms of workload. No such luck. Suck.

One more day. One more day.

One. More. Day.

2005.05.08

10.4 Good Buddy

So I’m starting to futz about with Apple’s latest version of the MacOS, dubbed Tiger. I am having mixed feelings about it so far. A few things look interesting and neat like Dashboard (little apps you can call in on a whim) and Spotlight (search; almost too thorough a job finding everything on your computer). Some things you would think would be better but aren’t like Mail, whose user interface plummeted off a cliff into ugly land. How the fsck to I get my mailboxes on the right side instead of the left?

I’ll have to play around some more with it, but over all I’m not as impressed as I was between the 10.2 to 10.3 upgrade. This is not to say I’m disappointed; I am still happy with it. I’m just not ecstatic.

2005.05.06

Men From Monkeys

You know the interesting idea about one of the Fundamentalists objections to Evolution -that man is descended from apes- is that it is fundamentally flawed. We evolved at the same time along different branches. Yeah, there’s a common ancestor back there, but then if you dig back far enough there’s a common ancestor for everything.

The charming thing about evolution and what it says about the human condition is that we’re not done evolving. This is a comfort; wait a few hundred thousand years and we might be at least mildly more decent to each other.

2005.05.05

One Year Ago Today

Robert Hahn posted is last entry. Not to give him too hard a time about it (though I suppose I am, and publicly, too!) but ???

2005.05.05

Food in the Old Days

I called my brother, Chris, up last night to tell him about my new job and find out how he and his family are doing. One of the funny things we talked about was in answer to a question Jake, my nephew, asked. “What kind of food did Gramma make?”

So Chris and I reminisced about food Mom used to make when we were growing up. Macaroni and cheese, string beans, minute steak (cube steak to some) that was so dry you could soak up spilled milk, mashed potatoes, previously frozen spinach with a pat of butter floating in the middle… Pretty funny stuff. I also remember burritos, which were one of my favorites, hot dogs, Rice-a-roni, pasta with seasoned salt, chicken and dumplings, minestrone soup, and salads with bleu cheese dressing. I also remember Mom making pizza from scratch (including the dough) and homemade donuts on Sunday mornings. Good stuff. Good memories.

2005.05.05

Well That Didn’t Take Long

I’ve just had my first two hour commute home. Accidents all over the Menlo Park area caused back up in every direction. It took an hour just to get to 280, and another hour to get home from there. Sucko.

2005.05.04

Big Announcement

I’ve got a big announcement. Yesterday I accepted an offer from VIZ, LLC to join their technology department. I’ve been at Sunset for just over four years now and have a myriad of reasons for going, but the most important two are opportunity and that VIZ is located in San Francisco. VIZ is a media company that brings Japanese anime and manga to the American market.

A huge thank you to Moneka, who let me know the job was available; to Dean, Russ, Jerom, Madoka and Kimberly for finding me worthy during the interview process; to NHK and Michael for their references (and anyone else I haven’t yet heard was contacted!); and to their hiring manager Michelle who seemed just as excited as I am at the prospect of working for such a great company. Many thanks to those folks at Sunset, too, many of whom I have close friendships with now; thank you for letting me be a part of the 100+ year old family history.

Fittingly, my last official day at Sunset is Friday the 13th and I start at VIZ the following Monday. Just by way of warning, posting may get spotty for the rest of the month. Then again it might just pick up. I guess we’ll find out.

Woot!

2005.05.02

2005 Spring House Tour in Berkeley

Today Ann and I went on the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association’s 2005 Spring House Tour.

Panoramic Hill has been compared to a European hill town, but with its brown-shingle houses and lush vegetation, this “hill town” could only be found in the Bay Area. There are few sidewalks, but the many steps and paths will let you bypass the street often.

The tour was very interesting if only because it was an opportunity to see the interiors of some of these amazing houses, many of which are mansion sized by Bay Area standards. Unfortunately I wore my boots today, and I was required to take them off at many of the houses, some of which were exceptionally old. The greatest thing to me, and this was simply a result of the terrain, was the organic layout of many of the locations. So much of America is laid out in a grid that I feel can be very dehumanizing.

Unfortunately they didn’t allow pictures to be taken within the houses. Even so they do this tour every year and if you get a chance I highly recommend it. Make sure to wear shoes that will take a lot of hill climbing yet come off easily.

2005.05.01

Extremist Bloggers

A strong title for something perhaps not so strong, but it does reflect something I’ve noticed on many blogs and am wondering if it applies to me.

It seems that many bloggers, especially the political ones, tend to get very extreme. The conservative bloggers are vehemently anti-liberal and visa versa. As a result many of them completely ignore the other side even when they might be right and have an instant and almost prepackaged opinion about everything. I can go to a political blog and predict what I’ll find there once I know their leanings. The only interest might be the particular focus of the blog (military matters, gay rights, privacy, etc).

The sad thing is that when someone is wrong they won’t admit it yet both sides have been wrong upon occasion. I’m generally a liberal but if I’m proven wrong about something I’ll admit it (and I appreciate it when people do point out when I’m wrong, like Mookee has sometimes). I admit, many of my ravings here have been based purely on my opinion, speculation and conjecture but I like to think I’m a reasonable person with a reasonable opinion who respects, generally, people of almost any political persuasion.

The reason I am thinking about this right now is because I recently admitted I was wrong on something I didn’t realize was a political issue and when visiting the site of the person who was right I saw a few catch phrases like their motto, “Saving the world from liberalism, one rant at a time.” This just strikes me as ludicrous. Literally, liberalism is, “1: a political orientation that favors progress and reform 2: an economic theory advocating free competition and a self-regulating market and the gold standard,” at least according to Princeton’s WordNet.

I know, I know, they mean Democrats and that kind of liberalism, but that’s neither here nor there. To me it means simply progress, and apparently American history supports my opinion. Anyways, I know what they mean so we’ll stick to the meaning, “Liberal: a person with left leaning beliefs.”

How does anyone plan on converting these “evil” liberals if they do not interact with them in a patient, positive and convincing fashion? Likewise, how does someone convert the “evil” conservatives with mere rants and raves and appeals to common sense? One does not. One only appeals to like-minded individuals and groups and really accomplishes nothing aside from making the proverbial Grand Canyon even wider.

I don’t think I’m an extremist blogger. I hope that, for my part, I can bridge that chasm. I wish I could find someone “from the other side” that could meet me half way in my bridge-building; maybe together we could actually get something done… then again maybe it’s too late and it’s just wishful thinking on my part.