Zach's So-Called Life

New Job

2008-07-28T14:12:47Z

Today is my first day at a new job. I'm pretty excited about this one. I'll be the lead admin at an online storage/collaboration company. They're still in startup mode but they just received a new round of funding and are currently in a growth phase. They're currently growing and have a few months before they hit capacity, so they want to take the time now to setup systems that will enable them to grow rapidly and in a manageable way.

They're in Palo Alto, which currently means a commute every day, but I think I'm gonna move over to the peninsula so that won't be an issue.

Beards

2008-01-22T19:41:48Z

Growing a beard is a gradual change. A good beard takes time to grow, months for some men, years for others. Sure, you can have the basic outline there in only a few days, but it takes times for the slow peachfuzz to grow out and help fill it in. Your family, your friends, your coworkers, the people at the coffee shop, they all have a chance to get used to it. Sometimes they don't even notice, one week you don't have a beard, the next week you do.

Shaving a beard, on the other hand, is a drastic and immediate change. You have a beard. Five minutes later you don't. The very first person you run into who knows you, no matter how casual the acquantance, will notice something different about you.

I started growing my current beard about this time of year in 2004. I couldn't tell you exactly when, such is the way with beards.

Sometimes a drastic change is needed.

Today is Veterans Day

2007-11-11T21:32:16Z

Go show your support for the troops. http://thisnovember11th.com/.

It's not often that politics compels me to action, but I donated $100 today. You should too.

Random Wit

2007-11-04T23:47:07Z

If you're like me, you have a terrific sense of wit but only when it doesn't actually matter.

For example, today I read a 3rd-hand story about a pizza shop employee who was complaining about people on cell phones. Apparantly they'll talk on the phone while waiting in line and then have to decide what they want once they actually get to the cashier, often after taking 30-60 seconds to wrap up their phone call.

My first thought after reading this was, "She needs to send that customer to the Deciding Area, which is, of course, between the door and the other customers in line." It's a pity that I couldn't have been there to deliver a line based on that thought.

Luckily, I can still "blog" it so my readers can sorta chuckle about it (both of you.)

New Job

2007-07-24T01:41:07Z

Well, I've put off this announcement a while, but I really should say something here. I've taken a new job, and it means moving back to the Bay Area.

I've officially gotten a place to live, a nice 2 bedroom house on Seminary Ave in Oakland. It's actually a duplex, and the other unit is downstairs and only one bedroom. My unit is upstairs and has this really cool spiral staircase leading from the garage to the unit.

I get to move in sometime next week, I'll have the exact date when my landlard emails me.

My new job is with a company that is doing streaming video to mobile devices. We have established relationships with a number of wireless companies in the US and Canada.

I'm doing sysadmin stuff, as usual, and mostly support developers and QA engineers.

In the spirit of keeping a basic (although easily traversed) disconnect between my professional and personal life I will not be publishing the name of the company I work for, but it's not very hard to figure out. Most people who read this know how to contact me anyway. I hang out on the usual network, you need only msg me. Failing that, you can construct my email address from the URL to this page. :)

Life Hacks: Dishes

2007-03-18T23:07:31Z

They're one of life's constant companions. They may as well be the 3rd certainty in life. They're the enemy. The nemesis. The scoundrel.

Yes, I'm talking about... DISHES.

Silly dramatics aside, I'm one of those people who can't seem to actually do dishes. I keep things sanitary. I don't leave dishes with food on them for weeks. I do, however, leave dirty dishes for weeks. They've been rinsed and scraped clean (not necessarily in that order) they just haven't been done. Typically I've gone through every dish in the house before I buckle down and do the dishes.

I think I've finally figured out how to change that. The secret is filling a bottle with diluted dish soap. I bought a 1 liter spray bottle and I find that 300ml of soap is just about perfect. Now, instead of having to fill the sink full of suds, or using a huge amount of soap to clean a couple items, I can just rinse, spray, wipe and rinse. Voila! All done.

Easy dish cleaning, combined with a new household policy of "A dish doesn't come out of the cupboard so long as there's one like it dirty and not in use" means I may actually keep clean dishes in the cupboard.

Smoke Free Still

2007-02-26T18:25:36Z

Well, if you were hoping to see constant updates here on my smoking situation, you were sorely mistaken. You should know by now that I don't update my blog often enough for that.

Anyway, I've made it through the worst part. I did slip during that trip to Seattle, but two packs of smokes later I quit again, and have managed to not start again. I think I'll be OK for a while.

Quitting Smoking is Easy, I've Done It Lots Of Times!

2007-02-01T18:33:08Z

So I quit smoking again. 36 hours without a cigarette now, except for those butts I fished out of the ashtray at 12 and 24 hours. I barely count those, they were only 2 or 3 puffs each and kept me from going to the store.

I think I'll be ok if I make it through the drive to Seattle on Friday. That will be my toughest battle for the first week.

One benefit right away is that I'm not coughing up so much crap. I didn't have to force myself to keep my vitamins down because they were trapped in a web of phlegm.

Trip to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone - Part 3 - Yellowstone

2006-10-29T22:28:26Z

Wow. Two entries in two days! It's a record! So, without further preamble, here's the penultimate entry on my trip.

When we last left our hero, I was driving north out of the Grand Teton National Park. In retrospect, this was a mistake.

My first stop was Grant Village. It was early morning so nothing was open yet. I did talk briefly to the Ranger that was getting everything ready to open. He was surprised when I asked him if he was reopening the restrooms. Apparently most people ignore the signs by the doors that say the restroom is closed. After answering nature's call, I continued on to Old Faithful.

Old Faithful erupting

I got to Old Faithful, and it turns out I got there just 10 minutes after an eruption. I killed the 45 minutes until the next eruption. Again, I was both delighted and mortified that I had internet access through my cell phone there.

Finally, I got to see Old Faithful erupt. What a disappointment. If I had to wait only 10-20 minutes it would have been worth seeing, but longer than that wasn't worth it. At least now I can say I've seen it.

I left Old Faithful and continued on my way. I gradually made my way up towards Madison Junction. Along the way, I discovered why the rest of the world hates America. It's the tourists. Most American tourists are not rude, but enough are that you start to see all Americans that way.

You see, Yellowstone has a speed limit of 35mph. It's all two lane road, but there are turnouts every 1/2 - 1 mile for slower traffic to let faster traffic by. There are all kinds of signs posted that say "slower traffic use turnouts." Still, there are rude, arrogant bastards that drive 25mph without using the turnouts.

I hate to generalize, but the states the cars were from were pretty consistent. I saw several states pop up in the dozens of times this happened to me. The ones that stick in my mind the most, even a month later, were New York, Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida, Pennsylvania (Sorry nous) and California. The vehicles that consistently pulled over to let traffic by were largely from Idaho, Oregon, Washington and various mid-west states.

OK, rant over.

A waterfall on the Firehole River

I continued on my way, stopping at one of the paint pots on my way through (no pictures came out, though) and driving the Firehole Canyon Drive. It was on Firehole Canyon Drive that I found a really picturesque waterfall that is largely ignored. The Firehole Cascades are interesting, but not worth taking a picture of.

After driving Firehole Canyon Drive, I found a nice place to have lunch next to the river. From there I continued on towards Canyon Village.

One of the more picturesque pictures of Artist Paint Pots.

Along the way to Canyon Village I stopped at the Artist Paint Pots. This was the highlight of my day in Yellowstone. You park in the parking area and take a short 1km walk. Once there, you're greeted by a boardwalk that takes you around the bubbling pits. The loop is 2-3km all told.

I found the paint pots very interesting, even though they're not much to photograph. For those that don't know, paint pots are geothermal features. They're basically basins of boiling mud.

While I was there, I happened to be standing next to a girl that also had a K1000. She caught me looking, then noticed my camera, and remarked on it. We exchanged praises for the camera and each went on her own way. The guy she was with was dressed like an Indian, but it really didn't suit him. From his hair and beard, I guessed that he was a hipster and radically out of his element. He probably thought he was being ironic by wearing the silly outfit.

After the paint pots, I continued on my way. The rude drivers were starting to get to me, the overbuilt "wilderness" was getting to me, and I just wasn't having that good of a time. I stopped at Canyon Village to get batteries where the crowd wore me down more.

I didn't decide to leave until I got to Mt. Washburn. It was at that point that I decided that picturesque scenes were gone, and I decided to just leave. I continued north until I got to the north entrance and left, never to return again. From Gardiner I went north on US-89 at a nice rate of speed, thanks to a generous 80mph speed limit. Montana speed limits own.

Next time: Getting home.

Trip to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone - Part 2 - The Grand Tetons

2006-10-28T21:01:54Z

Well, it's been longer than I thought it'd be before this entry, thanks to a busy week at work. Regardless, here's day two of my trip.

(A quick note, first. I can't figure out why the pictures are screwed up and showing up along-side the wrong paragraphs. If you do, let me know.)

One of the many scenic views on my way to the GTNP

There's not a whole lot to say about my trip to Jackson Hole, WY. The drive was pleasant, and while the limits were 50-60mph the whole way, the drive seemed to go pretty quickly. I got to Jackson Hole in time for lunch. Not far into town I found a Motel 6, which I decided was as good as any place to stay. I was a bit floored that a single room was $85/night, especially in the off-season, but I paid it anyway. I dropped my things off, stopped at a Wendy's for lunch, and went on my way to scout out the park.

My first shot of The Grand Tetons

It's pretty easy to get to the park. You follow the highway (and the signs) north for a while. Once you get out of town you start to see many pulloffs along the side of the road for vehicles to use. They're spacious areas with plenty of parking so you can look at the mountains without stopping traffic. After you get past the airport, you'll hit the Moose Junction entrance. Past the lodge and the post office is the entrance to the park, where you pay your park fee and get maps and information.

I should point out here that if you want to avoid paying the fee, you can do so by arriving early, before the rangers get there. Don't do that, however. It's only $25 and it helps keep the park pristine and available for use.

From there I followed basically the only path I could have taken from that entrance. I drove North, stopping every so often to look at the scenery or take some photos. Jenny Lake is nice, and has some nice scenery. There's a nice sized pullout at the Mt. Moran Lookout, which is where I took the cloud photo. When I got to the turn-off for Signal Mountain, I took it, thinking it might be a good place to get photos at dawn.

Cell phone towers are even found out here :(

It takes 10-15 minutes to drive up Signal Mountain. When I got to the top, I found the monstrosity in the picture to the right. Yes, they have cell towers in the park. I guess people can't stand to be out of touch even in the wilderness. This is where I would kill 30 minutes or so the next morning by getting on IRC.

The view from the top of Signal Mountain was great, except that it was an eastward view. You could see the entire valley, and since this was fall you could see where the deciduous trees mixed in with the evergreens. On my way back down I stopped at another point, where a short 200 m walk took me to an excellent view of the mountains. I considered this secondary point for my dawn photography, but there were some trees that would have been in the way.

The view from atop Signal Mountain

I drove back down the mountain and continued north to Jackson Lake. Signal Mountain Lodge is a spot of civilization here. I didn't stay long. I continued driving and scouting until I hit Jackson Lake Dam. Here I found a good place to park, and a path that would take me around to a good westerly view of the mountains. I also had the option of parking there and crossing the dam for another view of the mountains. I had found my dawn photo spot.

I drove back to the motel, this time taking the Moose-Wilson road, which is a little 1.5 lane dirt road. It was frustrating because there was no room to pass, and the people in front of me don't know how to drive on rough dirt roads. They kept it below 10mph, which meant I felt every single bump and hole in the road.

Back in Jackson Falls, I stopped at an Albertsons and bought some bread and chips, then went back to the motel and did laundry and had dinner. I got to bed early so I could get up in time for dawn, this time with no middle of the night interruptions.

An early morning shot of the mountains.

The next morning I woke up at 4 and got going. I took the Moose-Wilson road again, and because it was so early I didn't have to worry about people who don't know how to drive. I drove up to Jackson Lake Dam again and parked.

There was a lot of early morning fog coming off the lake, which meant that plan A was out. Luckily plan B, crossing the dam and walking part-way around the lake, worked out well. It was cold out, and I was glad that I had enough layers to wear. The only thing I didn't bring I wish I would have was warm socks, but two layers of socks seemed to do fine.

Early morning birds and the dawn light just hitting the mountains

I learned a couple things about my camera that morning. First, when it's cold the light meter will stick. Second, when it's that cold, the shutter mechanism will stick. Luckily I was able to warm it up enough inside my jacket, and after I got started the mechanism didn't freeze again.

After exposing two rolls of film, I walked back to the car and got going. It only took an hour or so to get to the South Entrance of Yellowstone.

Tomorrow: Yellowstone!