Hm! The idea of this blog definitely doesn't interest me anymore — though the meditation routine that inspired me still does.
Oh well. I may find a use for this blog yet...
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Friday, August 10, 2012
Thursday, 9 August 2012
Note: Once again this post was not written in the morning.
Yesterday I woke up on Apurva's couch, around the time Apurva and Deepa were getting up. Deepa came out first while Apurva was on the phone, and we chatted a bit about backgammon and life. I went to the bathroom and got dressed, and by the time I got back Deepa was ready to leave work. She left, and Apurva made coffee while I inquired about the unlocking process his phone had undergone in India.
Apurva went to take a phone call and I started researching how to downgrade the baseband of his iPhone. Within just a few minutes I'd found a method that promised to work. The method itself took about 45 minutes because of a long download, but it worked perfectly and now I have a "new" iPhone. Apurva and I chatted a bit, and then it was time to eat a peach and leave.
I biked to the CalTrain, chatting with Diane (Diana?), a pleasant stranger, about the differences between the west coast and the east coast. Fiddled with my bike a lot to lock it up right. Eventually we reached Millbrae, and I got out to transfer to BART. At first I got in the wrong car, so I had to move to another one. All the while I was just fiddling with my new phone, downloading apps, toggling settings, etc.
Once off BART it was a beautiful day in the city. I biked home, kind of exhausted, weighed myself, posted in the diet blog. I chatted with Ambrose and nibbled on some food. Then I went to the computer to write in this blog, and do some online chatting. Pretty sure I talked to Rose.
I'm not exactly sure how I passed the hours, but eventually I found myself heading to the Mission to play backgammon with Jake. On the way I posted an ad on OkCupid; as usual, no one responded. Jake and I played a few rounds in Four Barrel Coffee (great place!), and he fought back mightily. I was getting hungry, so we went to a Mexican restaurant (I think it was called Taqueria Cancún — and after a Google search now I'm sure it was), where I got a big plate of delicious slop. On the way we talked about life in Silicon Valley, and some of his interviews.
After dinner we walked back to Four Barrel and closed the place out playing more backgammon. We then went back to his hostel and listened to Schubert and Berlioz on a record player while we played yet more background and were subjected to a lot of marijuana smoke. I reëstablished my lead to 9 points.
He went to a github meetup, and I walked home. On the way, I called Nemo to see how VoG's guest night had gone. I sent my hellos. I came home, ribbed David about all the lights on in the house, helped the gays watch 'Threesome' (in the end, to no avail), and retired to my room to play on the internet and do crossword puzzles.
I spent the next hours listening to everyone talk loudly in the kitchen while I listened to Phil Hendrie and did puzzles in bed. Eventually I asked them if they'd move into the other room. They all politely did, except David, who grumbled and whined petulantly.
I would have gone to bed shortly thereafter, but I decided to download a backgammon game for my phone. As a result, I didn't get to sleep until about 3 AM.
Yesterday I woke up on Apurva's couch, around the time Apurva and Deepa were getting up. Deepa came out first while Apurva was on the phone, and we chatted a bit about backgammon and life. I went to the bathroom and got dressed, and by the time I got back Deepa was ready to leave work. She left, and Apurva made coffee while I inquired about the unlocking process his phone had undergone in India.
Apurva went to take a phone call and I started researching how to downgrade the baseband of his iPhone. Within just a few minutes I'd found a method that promised to work. The method itself took about 45 minutes because of a long download, but it worked perfectly and now I have a "new" iPhone. Apurva and I chatted a bit, and then it was time to eat a peach and leave.
I biked to the CalTrain, chatting with Diane (Diana?), a pleasant stranger, about the differences between the west coast and the east coast. Fiddled with my bike a lot to lock it up right. Eventually we reached Millbrae, and I got out to transfer to BART. At first I got in the wrong car, so I had to move to another one. All the while I was just fiddling with my new phone, downloading apps, toggling settings, etc.
Once off BART it was a beautiful day in the city. I biked home, kind of exhausted, weighed myself, posted in the diet blog. I chatted with Ambrose and nibbled on some food. Then I went to the computer to write in this blog, and do some online chatting. Pretty sure I talked to Rose.
I'm not exactly sure how I passed the hours, but eventually I found myself heading to the Mission to play backgammon with Jake. On the way I posted an ad on OkCupid; as usual, no one responded. Jake and I played a few rounds in Four Barrel Coffee (great place!), and he fought back mightily. I was getting hungry, so we went to a Mexican restaurant (I think it was called Taqueria Cancún — and after a Google search now I'm sure it was), where I got a big plate of delicious slop. On the way we talked about life in Silicon Valley, and some of his interviews.
After dinner we walked back to Four Barrel and closed the place out playing more backgammon. We then went back to his hostel and listened to Schubert and Berlioz on a record player while we played yet more background and were subjected to a lot of marijuana smoke. I reëstablished my lead to 9 points.
He went to a github meetup, and I walked home. On the way, I called Nemo to see how VoG's guest night had gone. I sent my hellos. I came home, ribbed David about all the lights on in the house, helped the gays watch 'Threesome' (in the end, to no avail), and retired to my room to play on the internet and do crossword puzzles.
I spent the next hours listening to everyone talk loudly in the kitchen while I listened to Phil Hendrie and did puzzles in bed. Eventually I asked them if they'd move into the other room. They all politely did, except David, who grumbled and whined petulantly.
I would have gone to bed shortly thereafter, but I decided to download a backgammon game for my phone. As a result, I didn't get to sleep until about 3 AM.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
Note: I'm not doing this post first thing in the morning because I wasn't at home.
Yesterday was my first experiment with this blog. I don't want to call it a failure —because I didn't put any standards in place by which I could measure its success— , but I know that it didn't give me the same sense of space that my in-bed Bodil-style meditations did.
One reason is that when I was typing up my blog post, I was constantly distracted by computer stuff: Facebook, email, etc. I turned those off eventually, which helped, and I'm doing the same now. But I also thing there's something less "space"-y about typing at a desk, compared to softly speaking aloud in bed. Also, I feel compelled to type in complete sentences, I go back and edit what I've said, etc. None of this was part of the original scheme, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a blog takes on a different form from private meditation. In any case, I'm going to keep the experiment alive a little longer.
So what did I do yesterday?
I woke up at 7 AM to David and his fuck-buddy talking loudly in the kitchen. They were having one of those "deep" metaphysical conversations where people speak very emotionally and hazily about their life experiments and their philosophies in a sort of self-congratulatory manner. It was annoying, and I put in my headphones to listen to some Phil Hendrie, but I could still hear them, so it was like ten people were talking in my head. Eventually they went back to bed and I fell asleep.
I woke up again quite late, around 10:30 I think. I went to the bathroom and weighed myself, reported in the diet blog, and started typing up yesterday's entry in this blog. As I observed above, that was an often interrupted, not particularly meditative experience. By the time I finished, it was getting close to noon, so I had my coffee, snacked a bit, brushed my teeth, packed, and headed out. I forgot my helmet, of course. :)
The ride was very smooth. I biked and walked to BART, and while waiting for the subway to arrive, had two surprising discoveries: First, Rose went to Hamilton (but we didn't overlap), and second, my entire Documents folder has been deleted somehow (the folder is there, but it's empty). I wonder if it has something to do with upgrading to Mountain Lion, but I guess I'll never know. In any case, the only I've lost are some edits to intimacy.xls. Thank goodness for Time Machine!
I spent most of the BART ride googling about the Documents folder fiasco, to no avail. The transfer to CalTrain was immediate, and I spent the second leg of the journey working on, and nearly completing, one of my crossword puzzles.
I got off the train, called Apurva for directions, and then biked over to his place. Deepa was over, and we all embraced and said hello. I had water and a few nuts, and then Apurva and I decided to bike over to the tennis courts and rally a bit. I ran into my usual difficulties but picked up three important tips: stay on the balls of your feet (this makes moving into position strangely effortless); I tend to angle my racket back, so I might want to correct forward for awhile; and keep an open leg position for forehand, and swing through the hips. I guess I also figured out a decent grip for backhand. We took a nice break in the shade, and then went back to playing. In the end, I kind of sucked, but I had some good moments! Another thing I remembered: follow the ball all the way to the racket. And on the way to the tennis courts, we stopped by Safeway to buy sunscreen.
On the way back we talked about life and our future. Back at Apurva's, I took an icy cold shower, washed my clothes in the sink, and laid them out on the patio to dry. Apurva took a shower while I snacked a bit and played on the iPad, and then we decided to walk to Red Rock and have some coffee and play backgammon. The coffee was great, and before backgammon we had a long talk about RecordBox and Apurva's next moves and desires as an intelligent programmer in the Valley. (We came to no positive conclusions.) The game of backgammon was fun, but it was getting late so we packed up and went back home.
We picked up Deepa and drove to Palo Alto to eat at a salad place. Deepa parked between two spaces and I called her out on her moral transgression. My salad was delicious (fennel!), but the steak was sadly over-cooked. We finished the meal just before 9 PM.
Back at Apurva's we had tea and played more backgammon. Chocolate was brought out, and I suppose I would have had some but I'm sticking quite well to my regime for the month and decided not to partake. First I taught and played Deepa, then Deepa played Apurva, then I played Apurva. A great time was had by all.
We got ready for bed, and I spent the next hour or so fiddling with Apurva's old iPhone 3GS, trying to get it to work. I came to the conclusion that the baseband needed to be downgraded, which I assumed was going to involve a very elaborate procedure (not true — see tomorrow's post), and so eventually gave up, did some crossword puzzles, and went back to sleep.
Yesterday was my first experiment with this blog. I don't want to call it a failure —because I didn't put any standards in place by which I could measure its success— , but I know that it didn't give me the same sense of space that my in-bed Bodil-style meditations did.
One reason is that when I was typing up my blog post, I was constantly distracted by computer stuff: Facebook, email, etc. I turned those off eventually, which helped, and I'm doing the same now. But I also thing there's something less "space"-y about typing at a desk, compared to softly speaking aloud in bed. Also, I feel compelled to type in complete sentences, I go back and edit what I've said, etc. None of this was part of the original scheme, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a blog takes on a different form from private meditation. In any case, I'm going to keep the experiment alive a little longer.
So what did I do yesterday?
I woke up at 7 AM to David and his fuck-buddy talking loudly in the kitchen. They were having one of those "deep" metaphysical conversations where people speak very emotionally and hazily about their life experiments and their philosophies in a sort of self-congratulatory manner. It was annoying, and I put in my headphones to listen to some Phil Hendrie, but I could still hear them, so it was like ten people were talking in my head. Eventually they went back to bed and I fell asleep.
I woke up again quite late, around 10:30 I think. I went to the bathroom and weighed myself, reported in the diet blog, and started typing up yesterday's entry in this blog. As I observed above, that was an often interrupted, not particularly meditative experience. By the time I finished, it was getting close to noon, so I had my coffee, snacked a bit, brushed my teeth, packed, and headed out. I forgot my helmet, of course. :)
The ride was very smooth. I biked and walked to BART, and while waiting for the subway to arrive, had two surprising discoveries: First, Rose went to Hamilton (but we didn't overlap), and second, my entire Documents folder has been deleted somehow (the folder is there, but it's empty). I wonder if it has something to do with upgrading to Mountain Lion, but I guess I'll never know. In any case, the only I've lost are some edits to intimacy.xls. Thank goodness for Time Machine!
I spent most of the BART ride googling about the Documents folder fiasco, to no avail. The transfer to CalTrain was immediate, and I spent the second leg of the journey working on, and nearly completing, one of my crossword puzzles.
I got off the train, called Apurva for directions, and then biked over to his place. Deepa was over, and we all embraced and said hello. I had water and a few nuts, and then Apurva and I decided to bike over to the tennis courts and rally a bit. I ran into my usual difficulties but picked up three important tips: stay on the balls of your feet (this makes moving into position strangely effortless); I tend to angle my racket back, so I might want to correct forward for awhile; and keep an open leg position for forehand, and swing through the hips. I guess I also figured out a decent grip for backhand. We took a nice break in the shade, and then went back to playing. In the end, I kind of sucked, but I had some good moments! Another thing I remembered: follow the ball all the way to the racket. And on the way to the tennis courts, we stopped by Safeway to buy sunscreen.
On the way back we talked about life and our future. Back at Apurva's, I took an icy cold shower, washed my clothes in the sink, and laid them out on the patio to dry. Apurva took a shower while I snacked a bit and played on the iPad, and then we decided to walk to Red Rock and have some coffee and play backgammon. The coffee was great, and before backgammon we had a long talk about RecordBox and Apurva's next moves and desires as an intelligent programmer in the Valley. (We came to no positive conclusions.) The game of backgammon was fun, but it was getting late so we packed up and went back home.
We picked up Deepa and drove to Palo Alto to eat at a salad place. Deepa parked between two spaces and I called her out on her moral transgression. My salad was delicious (fennel!), but the steak was sadly over-cooked. We finished the meal just before 9 PM.
Back at Apurva's we had tea and played more backgammon. Chocolate was brought out, and I suppose I would have had some but I'm sticking quite well to my regime for the month and decided not to partake. First I taught and played Deepa, then Deepa played Apurva, then I played Apurva. A great time was had by all.
We got ready for bed, and I spent the next hour or so fiddling with Apurva's old iPhone 3GS, trying to get it to work. I came to the conclusion that the baseband needed to be downgraded, which I assumed was going to involve a very elaborate procedure (not true — see tomorrow's post), and so eventually gave up, did some crossword puzzles, and went back to sleep.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
I woke up at 4 AM to David plodding through the kitchen, spraying Febreze everywhere, and muttering. Then I fell back to sleep, to wake up again around 9. I don't remember exactly when it was. I got up to weigh myself and write in my diet blog, after which David and I got into an argument about use of the kitchen in the middle of the night.
The argument began as a simple question, whether it would be possible for him to do such kitchenly activities at a later hour. He insisted that he had to do it then, and he was being quiet. I said that however quiet it was it woke me up, which no other person in the house does. He repeated himself (something to the effect of, I was being quiet and I need to do it), and through my rage of frustration I said calmly that we'd better reconsider our concert at the end of the month, and he said that was a good idea.
It might seem punitive on my part, punishing him for being loud by not playing in his concert. But I see it thus: he is self-concerned to the point of blindness and is deeply inconsiderate of others. Getting involved on a project with him means that at his whim, I may be put in an uncomfortable position. I'd rather refuse him now than refuse him later. But really I'd rather just get a good night's sleep. (Tomorrow's post will speak to that some more, unfortunately.)
I then made some coffee and tried some of David's stew, which was unfortunately not nearly as tasty as his last batch. For the next few hours I did nothing but stand in the kitchen, nibbling on food, clicking around Facebook and OkCupid, but primarily catching up on crossword puzzles. I think I finished three or four of them. In the background, Ambrose watched olympics and commented on swimmers' bulges.
During the puzzling I was sending a few messages to Rose (OkCupid: lichenandmoss), finally revealing that I wouldn't be in SF for much longer. I brought my laptop back to my room and noticed she was online, so we started chatting. It was a great chat, and I think we're going to meet for a valedictory talk about the directions of our lives in the next few years. Anyone who wants to do something like that is pretty darn cool in my book.
Actually, no, this all happened after I went grocery shopping, I think. We were slow-messaging before shopping, then I went shopping, then I saw her online, then we chatted. Okay.
So I took a nice walk to Falletti's. First bought some cashews and pistachios at Nabila's and munched while I walked. Did pull-ups and such at the park on the corner, then took my shirt off and walked in the sun. Grocery shopping is such a liberating feeling. I bought beans at Peet's, giving my free cup of coffee to a strange old Asian man, then bought lots of veggies and some pork chops. Walked back, eating two cheese bites, and doing more upper body exercise.
I came back inside, put away the groceries, and had the chat with Rose. Printed out the puzzle, and turned on some jazz while I prepared dinner for me and Mason. Steamed and seasoned the Brussels sprouts and onions, diced the melon and whipped the cream. In the meantime Ambrose and I chatted idly and I watched him cook his delicious food and rave about himself.
Mason arrived soon thereafter. I fried up the pork chops with rosemary (forgetting the garlic yet again) and the veggies, we filled up our plates, and went out to the garden. In the meantime Ambrose was making lots of gay comments. The pork chops were overdone, and sad to say the dessert was also a bit of a disaster, because in no time at all the freezer had done its job and frozen the fruit and whipped cream solid. Oh well.
We put our dishes away and went to Two Sisters for a drink (he had a chamomile Old Fashioned, I had club soda and lime) and talked about his new girl situation. Much discussion of the friend zone. Then we went to Place Pigalle for another drink (he had a 90 Minute IPA, I had club soda and lime) and played backgammon. What fun! Several rounds were played, and the final score was 12–0. The moral of the story is that Mason is not very good yet at knowing how to use the doubling cube.
We came back to my place, where Mason picked up his stuff and left. In the meantime all the gays were watching a gay movie: a movie about homosexuality and not, from what I could tell, anything else. I find it hard to imagine the existence of a movie whose main emphasis is the fact that the genders of the leading couple are distinct, but apparently having these genders be the same is reason enough to make a film. I long for the day when we have a movie like Mission: Impossible, but the main star (male) happens to make out with the hot dude, not the hot chick, and no mention is made of it by any of the other characters. Just like in real life, where the similarity or difference of gender of two people kissing does not really warrant commentary.
Anyway, I got ready for bed, texted Apurva about today, turned on some Phil Hendrie, and went to sleep.
The argument began as a simple question, whether it would be possible for him to do such kitchenly activities at a later hour. He insisted that he had to do it then, and he was being quiet. I said that however quiet it was it woke me up, which no other person in the house does. He repeated himself (something to the effect of, I was being quiet and I need to do it), and through my rage of frustration I said calmly that we'd better reconsider our concert at the end of the month, and he said that was a good idea.
It might seem punitive on my part, punishing him for being loud by not playing in his concert. But I see it thus: he is self-concerned to the point of blindness and is deeply inconsiderate of others. Getting involved on a project with him means that at his whim, I may be put in an uncomfortable position. I'd rather refuse him now than refuse him later. But really I'd rather just get a good night's sleep. (Tomorrow's post will speak to that some more, unfortunately.)
I then made some coffee and tried some of David's stew, which was unfortunately not nearly as tasty as his last batch. For the next few hours I did nothing but stand in the kitchen, nibbling on food, clicking around Facebook and OkCupid, but primarily catching up on crossword puzzles. I think I finished three or four of them. In the background, Ambrose watched olympics and commented on swimmers' bulges.
During the puzzling I was sending a few messages to Rose (OkCupid: lichenandmoss), finally revealing that I wouldn't be in SF for much longer. I brought my laptop back to my room and noticed she was online, so we started chatting. It was a great chat, and I think we're going to meet for a valedictory talk about the directions of our lives in the next few years. Anyone who wants to do something like that is pretty darn cool in my book.
Actually, no, this all happened after I went grocery shopping, I think. We were slow-messaging before shopping, then I went shopping, then I saw her online, then we chatted. Okay.
So I took a nice walk to Falletti's. First bought some cashews and pistachios at Nabila's and munched while I walked. Did pull-ups and such at the park on the corner, then took my shirt off and walked in the sun. Grocery shopping is such a liberating feeling. I bought beans at Peet's, giving my free cup of coffee to a strange old Asian man, then bought lots of veggies and some pork chops. Walked back, eating two cheese bites, and doing more upper body exercise.
I came back inside, put away the groceries, and had the chat with Rose. Printed out the puzzle, and turned on some jazz while I prepared dinner for me and Mason. Steamed and seasoned the Brussels sprouts and onions, diced the melon and whipped the cream. In the meantime Ambrose and I chatted idly and I watched him cook his delicious food and rave about himself.
Mason arrived soon thereafter. I fried up the pork chops with rosemary (forgetting the garlic yet again) and the veggies, we filled up our plates, and went out to the garden. In the meantime Ambrose was making lots of gay comments. The pork chops were overdone, and sad to say the dessert was also a bit of a disaster, because in no time at all the freezer had done its job and frozen the fruit and whipped cream solid. Oh well.
We put our dishes away and went to Two Sisters for a drink (he had a chamomile Old Fashioned, I had club soda and lime) and talked about his new girl situation. Much discussion of the friend zone. Then we went to Place Pigalle for another drink (he had a 90 Minute IPA, I had club soda and lime) and played backgammon. What fun! Several rounds were played, and the final score was 12–0. The moral of the story is that Mason is not very good yet at knowing how to use the doubling cube.
We came back to my place, where Mason picked up his stuff and left. In the meantime all the gays were watching a gay movie: a movie about homosexuality and not, from what I could tell, anything else. I find it hard to imagine the existence of a movie whose main emphasis is the fact that the genders of the leading couple are distinct, but apparently having these genders be the same is reason enough to make a film. I long for the day when we have a movie like Mission: Impossible, but the main star (male) happens to make out with the hot dude, not the hot chick, and no mention is made of it by any of the other characters. Just like in real life, where the similarity or difference of gender of two people kissing does not really warrant commentary.
Anyway, I got ready for bed, texted Apurva about today, turned on some Phil Hendrie, and went to sleep.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Raison d'être
Back when I was life-coaching with Bodil Henrikson, we crafted an effective meditation routine: Each morning, right after waking up, I'd spend a few minutes recalling everything I'd done the day before. This is a slow, thoughtful process, and it gave my days a slower, more thoughtful feel.
For no particular reason, I decided to turn this routine into a blog. So now you, dear reader, can follow every boring minute of my life in excruciating detail — as long as you're willing to wait 24 hours to do so.
I have no doubt that this little life-reflection experiment will evolve into something more useful. (In fact, I hope it does.) That's another reason for beginning with such a simple structure. Apurva has written that we should strive to be aware of the choices available to us, so we can make the best choice. If we have no idea what the best choice is, at least we will know that we made a choice, so that we may return to the crossroads if our original choice doesn't work out. For this reason, in such situations, it's advisable to make the simplest choice at first: If it works out, you win! And if it doesn't, it will be easier to backtrack and allow more complexity into the picture.
So that's what I'm doing here.
Edit: I note with some pleasure that my background image is probably a cryptic crossword puzzle.
For no particular reason, I decided to turn this routine into a blog. So now you, dear reader, can follow every boring minute of my life in excruciating detail — as long as you're willing to wait 24 hours to do so.
I have no doubt that this little life-reflection experiment will evolve into something more useful. (In fact, I hope it does.) That's another reason for beginning with such a simple structure. Apurva has written that we should strive to be aware of the choices available to us, so we can make the best choice. If we have no idea what the best choice is, at least we will know that we made a choice, so that we may return to the crossroads if our original choice doesn't work out. For this reason, in such situations, it's advisable to make the simplest choice at first: If it works out, you win! And if it doesn't, it will be easier to backtrack and allow more complexity into the picture.
So that's what I'm doing here.
Edit: I note with some pleasure that my background image is probably a cryptic crossword puzzle.
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