My my, it’s been a while since I’ve updated! A little recap for everyone:

Right before the holidays I studied madly and took my final for calculus 1A - I got an A! According to the calculations, I must have aced the final. Wooha!

I’m already signed up for this next semester. Classes begin tomorrow! My physics class has quite the schedule - a bunch of times during the middle of the day so I will be using PTO and vacation hours to cover the time I’ll be gone from work. Thankfully it’s all on the same campus! I can’t imagine how I’m going to deal when I begin at SSU in a few years.

We got a holiday tree, my first, and decorated it all up! It ended up being quite natural and not at all over the top. Pictures here! Look for the cats in a few of those pictures, once they got accustomed to it, they went into curious-mode! At some point, I should write a post about my feelings towards the holidays and the different kinds of things it represents and what I choose the celebrate during this time of year. When I’ve got more time. Heh!

We had a holiday party with tons of friends and family that all went quite well. There was so much food! I had leftovers for what seemed like weeks!

I hosted friends from Chicago who had their little one with them. It was such a joy to have them over and really wonderful to catch up with them and watch their lil one roam all over the house. Poly wasn’t quite sure what to think, so she watched from afar, her tail twitching. :) More delicious food was had by all.

I visited with friends from San Diego and Oxnard, as always it was great to catch up. We spent time playing board games, shopping, and of course ate more great food!

As a mini-vacation from the holidays, D and I went to see Teatro Zinzanni, a cabaret circ de soleil style show in the city. We got all dressed up for it and had a night on the town. :) It was incredible! It felt as if we were in Vegas. I would highly recommend it. I even bought a fedora for the occasion. I think I’m going to need to wear it more often. A tip of the hat (literally) to Joel for helping me figure out how to dress in the right style. You rock, Joel! :)

I saw Milk - it was wonderfully done. However, it saddened me that this was the first time that I’ve ever heard about him, his runs for office as the first openly gay candidate, and the trials and tribulations he and his followers had to go through. Additionally, it was also the first time I’d ever heard of California’s proposition 6 in 1978. Local historical moments like these should be taught to kids in high school! In fact, over the days after seeing the movie, I spoke with friends and family about a potential new curriculum for high school history classes. One that allowed a more open dialog that would allow students to bring up topics in current events and have the instructor expand on the history behind the events that affect us today.

Last week was the first week back to work after being off for two weeks. It certainly took mew a few days to get back into the groove. And for the new year, I decided to start a new project! It is a database based on the same program that I use for the Riverside database. It will be used for internal device tracking, and I’ve gotten a lot of wonderful input from one of my coworkers and it has been fun working with him on the project.

Speaking of Riverside, we’re hiring the programming company to come back in to change small parts of the front end. Work on that begins tomorrow. I’ve already been working on the back-end, fixing little things that we had issues with last year.

Not quite sure when I’ll be able to get back here to write updates. Once classes begin and the Riverside stuff starts taking off I’ll be just as busy as I’ve always been! Hey, you’ve got to keep things interesting, right? :)

Take care everyone, happy new year!!

Z.

Originally published at Zephire. You can comment here or there.

This morning as I sat at my desk, sipping my coffee and still attempting to wake up, I happened across a movie trailer for a new Bollywood movie called Chandni Chowk to China. At first, I didn’t quite know what to think. Was it a serious movie? The first part of the trailer makes it look like it could be? But then it looked comedic? It was produced by Warner Brothers so could it be a spoof on Bollywood? Oh wait, no, this looks like one of those action movies where there is just a little bit of comedy… oh wait, no, he’s dancing Bollywood style and then slips on a banana peel, this most definitely isn’t serious.

But then there are scenes that look like James Bond, scenes reminiscent of the silliness that were in Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, really cool looking kung-fu action scenes, a chef on a journey out of his element, tons of Bollywood dancing and music, and then things you’d see in a Chinese artistic warrior movie: beautiful slow motion action and artistic-flowing-flying people.

I must see this movie. :)

Check out the trailer at Apple’s site -

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/chandnichowktochina/

Z.

Originally published at Zephire. You can comment here or there.

Last night Five A.M. opened for U2! Okay, well, they haven’t become that popular (yet!) but they did open for a showing of the U2 3D movie which was absolutely incredible! The venue was the Cameo Cinema, a tiny mom-and pop independently owned one screen theater in the heart of St. Helena.

Apparently, they are one of the very few small theaters in the country to have the ability to do 3D. Mostly, the 3D technology is reserved for huge theaters like IMAX and such. In fact, after the show, Kerry and I hung around to chat with the owners about how they were able to procure the technology. Apparently it took a lot of support and they hope to get the word out about their new 3D equipment, sound system, and remodel to get people to come to their shows both live and on screen. And what a great idea to mix live music with a rock concert movie in 3D?! The owner was telling us how he was going for the blur between live and movie, and I think it worked really well. I will definitely go back for their other shows - the small theater is quite plush inside, seating quite comfortable (complete with couples seats that are doublewide), and the sound system is astounding.

Five A.M., of course, rocked the house, even if they were a bit “quieter” than they typically are. It was a sit down show, though they kicked the chairs and the acoustic sound to the side for their encore of “Burning Seed” where everyone got up to dance. Hehe! Zach had some trouble with Barry, his baritone guitar (aw!) but was still able to pull off quite an evening with the “Big Bird,” or “Big Ugly” as Trent puts it. :)

Before the show, a few of us die-hard fans had dinner with the guys at a really great restaurant across the street called simply Market. Then after the show, Kerry and I helped out with the merch table, finding shirts and selling CD’s and such.

After helping the guys load the bus, I headed back in to the U2 “concert.” The 3D technology they have is teh uber-special. Much better than those red/blue glasses and even better than the polarized lenses I’ve used before. These were probably polarized, but differently somehow. And the movie did things with the 3D that were unconventional but perfect for a rock concert. At times, they would animate 3D words and phrases and effects that the crowd was seeing on the electronic boards behind the band. Beautifully done!

And as I mentioned before, the sound system in the theater was astounding so the concert sounded beautiful, as if we were there. I’ve always appreciated some of U2’s work, even have a few of their songs, but after watching the concert, I really want to get more of their albums now. I really loved their music. Bono had quite an air about his personality onstage, something that really hit home with me because I always appreciate artists who are humble and who completely enjoy what they do and envelop it all.

Overall quite an evening! I can’t believe that I was having doubts going! Early on in the day, I was feeling a bit down and mopey and thought I’d rather just stay home. Well, I’m certainly glad I ended up going.

It looks like the U2 3D show will be playing at the Cameo for a few more weeks so if you get a chance, definitely check it out!

Z.

Originally published at Zephire. You can comment here or there.

Last night I watched Juno. What a wonderfully adorable movie. I enjoyed every moment of it. I really felt the acting was suburb - they all did a great job of portraying a slightly “off” version of a character who, in any other film, would have been the “perfect” version of that person. What I mean by this is, take the potential adoptive father figure: his character was just a tad off of normal, yet I could see that another director could have made that character a perfectly aloof father figure. This was the case in Juno for almost every character and it was so enjoyable to watch. This method made the film seem closer to reality in a way. Not many films have done it, but I cried for the last 10 minutes of the film - I loved the way they wrapped everything together.

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Saturday night I was finally able to get back out to the observatory! Ben and Mel joined for a lazy summer BBQ before observing. I’d been looking forward to that for ages so it was great hanging out up there on the mountain - slight breeze, no one around, us chatting up a storm, ahh.

A week or so before, my boss brought in a telescope he had gotten from a good friend of his. He knew I was into that so he brought it by to give to me - his friend had it in his garage for about 5 years untouched. At first, before opening the ratty-looking trunk that had the scope within, I thought “great, yet another Cosco $30 special.” But I was pleasantly surprised! It turned out to be a variation of the Celestron SPC-8, a 1993 8in SCT! The mount has a motor for RA tracking, and the tripod was wood but more solid than my first scope years ago. It also had a gadget I’d never seen before - a rotating viewfinder, like what you’d find on a microscope, to hold several different eyepieces!

I thought it would be a good idea to take it up to the observatory and set them both (mine and the new one) up and do some comparisons. Dave joined us that evening as well and so I was able to get his opinion too. It turns out that the OTA (the actual scope) is in incredible condition! It _may_ need collimating, but the image is crystal! The tripod was a little shaky, but that didn’t really bother us. Later in the evening as I pointed towards stuff with my scope, Dave used the other one. :)

I got several compliments from a bunch of the docents up there about how great a find it was, about how you have to be in the right place at the right time, etc. I’m super happy about this. Though I’m kind of unsure what I’m going to do with it! :) I already ordered an obscure battery for the finder scope illumination and some “Bob’s Knobs” for collimation, so for now I’m investing in it. Heh! I may get a better tripod and potentially a better mount for it too… Heh!

As some of you know I aim to see new objects every time I go. This time it was M81 and M82. They are galaxies right next to each other in the sky. With my 26mm I was barely able to get them in the same field. Beautiful! The edge on is the better view, IMO. :)

I may end up going again with just my scope on the 7th. Or I may see if I can do one of the other duties like the 24in or the CCD. Not sure yet.

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Monday began the similar kind of insanity that we experiences a few years ago: The new library. Though this time it’s in Petaluma. The new Mahoney library is smaller than Doyle, but still has a lot of the same kinds of things we need to get up and running before day 1. One of the issues is I’ll be leaving next week for Apple’s WWDC, so they want to get me there to image the computers before I leave. So Monday we did the receiving, unpacking, and setup of the computers for the public access. Today I worked on the last bits of the image and tomorrow we’ll push that image out via Ghost. What’s nice is that over the years as I’ve tweaked the library image, it has gotten easier and we’ve worked out all the kinks. So this time should be easy as pie. And even easier: they don’t have different shutdown schedules, they only have one print center, and so therefore the batch files I’m using are much less complicated. Though there are still the gotchas. :) We’ll see tomorrow!

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One last thing before I head out this evening. I got my new dining room set last week! It’s gorgeous! I’ve finally got room that I can put some of the dishes that used to be stored above the sink, and the table and chairs are sold. What a change from the chairs I used to have that would fall apart! I haven’t had anyone over yet - I need to plan a dinner soon! Check out the pictures here:

http://gallery.mac.com/marc.b

Z.

Originally published at Zephire. You can comment here or there.

All done with my first semester back in school! Okay, granted, it was only one class… and I’ll likely be doing only one class at a time for a few years… but still, I’m excited. :) The final for trig/precalc took me a little over two hours, but it went very well thanks to the three days of studying I put in over the weekend. I’ve mentioned how my attention in class has gone up, my study habits have changed, but this was the first time I realized how my testing skills have changed too. I’m calmer this time around, and actually follow through with questions that frustrated me initially. I’d also go back and check certain problems again… these things I almost never did when I was in college the first time.

Speaking of which, I met with a really great counselor last week and we were able to determine my educational path. Evidently I’ll be starting SSU in the spring of 2011. Wooha! The other thing was that I’ll needa few GE requirements that I didn’t need for my first bachelors: history and another social science. I’m actually looking forward to those! Something different in the mix. :)

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I watched “Dan in Real Life” last night. I liked it. However, it was a more subtle movie than I thought it was going to be. While Steve Carell did a great job, as always, I thought the plot was a little odd considering it was a “dramady.” It all worked with some good messages, but there was something there that struck me as a little off. I think because some of the characters did some things, I thought, their character would never do… but perhaps it was a way of saying that we don’t really know how someone will react to a situation until that situation actually presents itself.

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Now that I’m done with class for the summer, I’m going to get back into SCAS and the docent stuff at RFO. If it works, I’ll go up on the 31st and bring my scope for anyone who wishes to join. Plus, I may go early to do a mini-BBQ / picnic! Let me know if you’re interested, it would be great to have a group join in. :)

Z.

(Image from http://fatcatenator.googlepages.com/calculus)

Originally published at Zephire. You can comment here or there.

I can’t believe my last update was made close to two weeks ago! I feel a little strange leaving my last post up for so long without an update because that was pretty much the last time I felt the way I did. In fact, after I wrote my last post, Void and Omana came by and cheered me right up! :)

And on that note, I will begin my lil story. :)

That weekend, we all went out for sushi and a movie. Nice afternoon getaway. We had planned to make poki later that evening, but since we were already at Saporro… we couldn’t resist! hehe! The movie was SWAT. While there wasn’t anything memorable (besides the cool idea of landing a plane on a bridge), the movie was actually decent for what it was offering. I enjoyed myself. *nod* Later, we ended up in at this awesome pizza joint in Gurneville. They had a live jazz group that played some wonderful music. I especially enjoyed the xylophone. We had an awesome pizza of mushrooms, Canadian bacon, and pesto sauce. *melts* I was so relaxed, it was as if the prior week had occured months before. Void and Omana seem to do that to me: create an alternate bubble of life in which I can exist when I don’t want to be near reality. It’s so nice. I listened to Omana tell her story of getting smashed the prior evening, and Void’s heroic tales of parting some drunken minds so they didn’t end up killing each other.

There was some confusion with how we were to get Brehn back to Rio Nido for the next days’ adventure, and in the end Omana ended up leaving us to drive down to San Jose area to pick him up. Meanwhile, Void and I decided to drink sake and play Frequency for far too long. An interesting thing to note about that game: if you play it for long enough, and then look up at something else in the room (a painting for example) it will move and “breathe.” An optical illusion, of course, but still very cool to look at. DDR was next. We attempted the training missions which really helped! (Si claro!)

The next day we all took off to Sol Fest in Hopland. It was an interesting verity of solar panels, alternate fuel vehicles, organic food, grown up hippies, too much sun, recycling bins, kids running this way and that, hemp, Ford fuel cell vehincles, liberal people up on stage speaking their mind, hommade slip n’ slide, books on everything from organic food to ecological house design, and much much more. I was a little delerious by the end of it due to lack of water and food, but a good time was had by all. Brehn loved playing in the mud. :P I had a vision of my alligned house complete with ecological design and solar panels. :P

This past week at work was fairly uneventful, which was really nice. I was called for jury duty, and was half-expecting to be called for a case. After an hour of waiting in the large room, they did call me for a case. But after more waiting, I found I was only possibly a juror if others in the 12 chosen from the prior day were dismissed for a particular reason. The whole process was very exciting and I learned a great deal about the intricate nature of being a juror. One of the most interesting things I experienced in the court while I waited to be picked was the selection process. The judge and attorneys ask questions to the jurors which are quite extensive. Based on the answers, they either dismiss the juror or not based on bias or (unbelievably) too much knowledge about the subject at hand! Aparently there must have been a discussion the day before with a particular juror. I caught the tail end of it. Aparently the juror was quite liberal and he believed that you can not place value on emotional damages or the like. The attorney stated that it was the law for jurors to deliberate the amount the prosecution asks. In the end, the juror agreed that he would “follow the law, but still did not believe in it.” After some deliberation between the judge and the attorneys, the man was dismissed. Heh. Fun stuff. I was dismissed, but only after the recess for lunch. Half my day was gone. Oh well! :)

mach22 came into town this last weekend. It was really wonderful to see him. It seems we tend to “pick up where we left off” whenever I see him. We don’t really chat OL or on the phone much, and yet we can just pick up and talk about anything when we meet up. Good stuff. Though it was a strange weekend, it worked out well for us all. We went to a bizzare party on Saturday where EveryDayFreak was to play. There were a lot of people there I wouldn’t normally hang out with, and the basement where they were going to play was questionable, but after an hour of sticking around, it wasn’t too bad. Mach had a hard time with the low ceiling. :( That stinks. The first band to go up was quite good. They had lost their vocalist, but as an instrumental rock group, they were very good. Though I believe the songs sounded quite alike, I think the vocalist could have changed that. The drummer was the most impressive as he was preforming some incredible things with the double bass pedal. Damn.

EveryDayFreak rocked! It was awesome to hear them outside their practce shed. And this was the first time out for them too! I was quite impressed with omana bass playing, and Void’s unbelievably fast drum action. Raven’s vocals were awesome! Though they were different than what I had previously heard, I think they were better because he was experimenting with different notes at different times. Good stuff. Baktoue got unplugged once, came in at the wrong time at one point, and generally wasn’t really with the rest of them. Overall, from an outside perspective, the details were vitually unnoticable, but got the rest of them a little angry. I took some pictures for the band. I had to wince before taking the one flash photo of Raven! Hehe! I think they all came out really well. The basement, which I had thought to be a littel strange before, was a perfect backdrop. I’d like to see them on the computer soon. Ti Moune worked the video camera, and aparently got in some nice video work. Afterwords, pie at Bakers Square which just seemed perfect for some reason. :)

Because Mach was in town, we decided that we needed to do something different for the weekend. Camping! I had looked all last week for a place, but since it was Labor day weekend, I couldn’t find anything open. I mentioned that Omana’s family had some land up in Boonville and the idea took off like a rocket. Whee! So, we went up there and spent some time with her family. It was awesome. I was able to throw my boomerang around for a while (caught it twice!), and the stars in the evening were spectacular. I hadn’t seem anything like that since… probably Hawaii it seems like. Santa Rosa is just not a good place to view the stars anymore. :( I even gave a little astronomy lesson to everyone. I think everyone really enjoyed the time out there. It even gave me a good introduction to camping again. Mach and I are discussing plans for future camping trips either in the Southwest or SoCal. Awesome. Perhaps nicholascat can join us?

I had a really wonderful (and unique) dream last night. I dempt I had been transported back in time somehow to early 1999. I was still the “me” from 2003, and aparently I had some mission to complete in 1999. The dream was realistic enough, yet had some things that were unconciously created as dreams typically provide. I remember at times I had to be very careful who I ran into or what I said to certain people. I was getting really good at impersonating the “me” from 1999, and was having a great time rediscovering 1999. Many times I would consider how “old” 1999 was, even though it was only 4 years ago. But in reality, so much has happened in my life between then and now that made it completly different. I remember thinking I had to cover up the fact that I had been to college, gotten a job at a winery, participated in the SCA, graduated, gotten a full time job at the JC, moved in by myself, got a cat, got certificed in Cisco and Apple, etc. Because of this, I think a part of the reason I had the dream was because I have been feeling as if my life is getting stagnant, when in reality, only 4 years have passed since 1999, and I’ve done a ton. Later in the dream, I met up with raskal, which was strange because in 1999 I didn’t know him at all. So, I was acting like it was the first time we had met. But he told me it was Computing Services who had sent me back in time, and he had come to check up on me. I was confused, but it was really nice to be able to discuss my situation with him because he was the only one who would understand! :) I don’t remember many of the other physical details of the dream, which is dispoininting because when I first awoke, I remember it was an awesome dream with some neat details. I wish it was possible to record that kind of thing. :P

Today I spent ALL FRIGGIN’ DAY dealing with the newly delivered bond printers. I tagged all of the with the HP express codes (tired to the serial numbers) and since it was 70+ printers, I was incredibly tired at the end of it. Though in the afternoon, I did all of the paperwork so we can fully deploy all of them on Thursday. It will be tough to do it in one day, but I think we can do it! :) Tomorrow is student information day, so I will be setting up the network for them, like I do every year. Should be fun.

Good long update. I really should update in here more often… but it’s not too bad. I actually have stopped writing in my journal at home in favor up updating in here. I should really change that behaviour. Hehe! Take care all!

Originally published at Zephire. You can comment here or there.