It’s awesome to sit on my balcony and be able to easily see the Big Dipper.
TIL about Tourette’s
Aug 21st, 2011 by bwann
While reading the chapter Witty Ticcy Ray about Tourette’s in Oliver Sacks’ book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, I discovered an amazing list of things I didn’t know:
- Tourette was a student of Jean-Martin Charcot, the founder of modern neurology
- Freud was also a student of Charcot
- Freud named one of his children Jean-Martin, after Charcot
- Charcot was the first to describe ALS and multiple sclerosis
- Oliver Sacks also wrote the book Awakenings, which a movie was based on
- In the movie, Robert DeNiro played Leonard (I had forgotten about this)
- There has been research into the grammar and linguistic structure of tics
- L-Dopa is a dopamine-precursor, and Haldol is a dopamine antagonist
California again
Aug 9th, 2011 by bwann
On vacation this week in the Bay Area! Weather is FANTASTIC. I had to travel 320 miles south on the 5 before I reached clear skies on Monday. I realized on the way down that I had forgotten what Northern California looked like during the day. The last two times I came down (this year), it was winter so it was dark by the time I passed through. The only time I saw it in daylight was 2006 or 2007, when I was driving back from Seattle during the great epic AUS-KCI-BM-SEA-SF-LA-AUS roadtrip. It reminds me a lot of West Texas, especially how the sky gets layers of violet and blue at sunset.
Today was eating lunch in the Golden Gate park, then wandering around the de Young Museum. Picasso was on expo again, looked like there was some pieces there that I hadn’t seen in Seattle. Lots of cool stuff in the general exhibit halls, I especially like the cathedral made out of gun parts and bullets and trompe l’oeil painting. I’m always amazed that not only did some man/woman imagine a piece of art, they sat down and actually created the thing.
I will have to buy some sunscreen for my outdoor wanderings. I’m not as tan as I was in Texas, so casual exposure can really burn me now. :(
Random thoughts
Jul 10th, 2011 by bwann
The rush of scale is often a potent and lethal addiction, for production engineering is a drug.
I always thought the Dyson ball was a gimmicky thing, but it’s totally legit. It’s so much easier to maneuver than a big clunky vacuum. It’s also quieter than my clunker, but the cat still hates it.
The weather is still pretty inconsistent here. On some days, it’s perfectly clear and warm, on other days it’s cloudy with a chilly breeze. I still occasionally pull out my space heater at night when kitty wants to stay out on the balcony for a long time.
It turns out it’s way easier to grow plants when it’s not 110 F outside. I decided I wanted my balcony to smell nice and vegetation-y, so I potted rosemary, lavender, petunias, mint, catnip, and azaleas. It’s tricky finding cat-friendly flowering plants. I bought patio furniture and have been using it fairly often.
Yesterday was the Redmond Derby Days. The parades happened right in front of my apartment complex and the all-day bicycle races were a block away at city hall. Redmond often feels like a big small town. All the Bing sponsorship in the parade made it seem like it was a hometown favorite invented by a few good o’ boys down the street. Older, skilled, third generation search engine workers who hand crafted it in their garage. They probably also cut hair and watch baseball on the weekends too.
YACHT’s new album, Shangri-La, is awesome! “Dystopia” and “Shangri-La” are by far my favorite tracks, I’ve listened to each dozens of times already. “If I can’t go to heaven, let me go to LA, or the west Texas desert or an Oregon summer day.“
My cat is awesome
Jun 7th, 2011 by bwann
Keeping me company while I install ESX servers
Back in April, I adopted Patch from the Seattle Humane Society. She was about 8 months old and solid black. She immediately took to Victoria’s shoulder so that was the sign I had to get her. She’s such a lovable and well behaved cat, always wants attention and be in the vicinity of humans, but never in the way.
Notable characteristics:
- When I get home from work, she doesn’t want to be petted nor picked up. She wants me to lay in the floor so she can greet me with headbutts.
- She doesn’t jump on things. I usually have to coax her to hop on the couch or the bed. For the most part she won’t jump much for a toy either.
- She loves the stick+feather toy, I think it’s her favorite thing in the world. I even got her a laser pointer, ropes, balls, mice, but she always wants to play with the feather day after day.
- Around the time my alarm goes off, she’ll be laying on the edge of my bed between my shoulder and the alarm clock.
- She loves being chased around playing hide-n-seek around the apartment at night.
Holy shit the weather is finally WARM. We finally broke 70 F! I was at Alki Beach on Saturday afternoon and managed to properly sunburn my face. It was fantastic sitting on the sand, tons of people and cute girls wandering about. Today is the first time I’ve ever been able to go all day without a hoodie and then comfortably sit outside on my balcony at night. There are people actually sitting outside enjoying the courtyard. Faaaaaantastic, I tell you.
It’s 10 PM and there’s still a shard of midnight blue light over the horizon. I pulled an all-nighter last night and I don’t think I ever saw it get dark. Even at 3 AM it seemed just a little light out.
PNW weather
May 22nd, 2011 by bwann
The rain stopped, the sun came out, and the days are longer FINALLY, thank god. A couple of weekends ago it was ~60 F, clear and sunny. There were even girls in bikini playing volleyball on Alki Beach! (How 60 F is bikini weather is beyond me.) I’ve been so weather abused and tortured throughout the winter that by comparison this spring weather really is very amazing. It’s still cool enough to need to wear flannel+hoodie though. It finally gets dark around 9:30, with a hint of sun over the mountains even at 10 PM. I feel like I’m finally able to really enjoy the west coast now. Having the ocean by so close now is really cool, which is something I’ve never had. I’m never going to take a sunny day for granted anymore!
Favorite things
Mar 22nd, 2011 by bwann
Some of my most favorite things: sparkling lemonade from Trader Joe’s, chicken coconut curry (extra hot) + garlic basil naan from Tandoori Fire. mmmm.
Roadtrip: California – Part III
Mar 13th, 2011 by bwann
View of SF from de Young
Saturday morning I struggled to decide out what I should do on my last day. I kind of wanted to go back to the UC Botanical Garden to see the rest, maybe go visit a museum, go shopping, or just walk around outside.
While making up my fickle mind, I drove down the Warren Freeway behind Oakland to oogle the hills and fancy houses. This is the most amazingly scenic part of east bay, it was fantastic! I discovered Piedmont, which is a really nice (read: well-to-do, well kept) area. Wandering around here lead me to Grand Lake Theater at which point the geography sudden snapped into place for me and I realized this was the end of Lake Merritt on the other side of I-580 I had seen before but not been to. It’s a pretty clean part of Oakland, disproving that all of the city is seedy.
I eventually decided I wanted to stay outdoors all day, so I headed to the Golden Gate Park in SF. I figure I need to spend at least some time over there, since otherwise I’d just run around east bay. There, I discovered the Japanese Tea Garden which was cool to walk around. Lots of fantastically manicured trees and the flowers were just beginning to bloom. Aside from the garden, I learned I could get in the observation tower at the de Young Museum for free, which I recommend as it offers a great view of the area. I would’ve like to spent a little time in the museum, but it was really too late to see much. I’ll have to do that later, I hear it’s quite nice.
I closed out the evening and trip by going to Baker Beach. The sound of the surf here was awesome. The beach is directly exposed to the greater ocean, no rocks, and is slightly curved, so the waves make a powerful crushing sound over and over. It was sunset, and there was a handful of people out. It was a great time to just sit and watch the sea.
I started driving back Saturday night. I wanted to stay so bad, but had to get going. I forget where I landed for the night, some rest area in CA or OR. Sunday morning I picked up where I left off and kept on driving. I got back to Redmond around 4 PM, wee!
Roadtrip: California – part II
Mar 13th, 2011 by bwann
My "campsite" near Furnace Creek
Wednesday morning I packed up and left Berkeley for Death Valley. I actually had some initial hesitation about this, since the bay was so nice and the drive would eat a lot of time. This is something I had wanted to do since last summer, when I expected to have a nomadic lifestyle for a couple of months between jobs. I decided I probably wouldn’t have another chance to drive there for a while (last time was 2006!) and I should go now.
This was an exciting new look at things since everything was green. Every time I’ve been out I-580 or down I-5, it’s been in August/September when it’s hot and everything is scorched brown. This time all the rolling hills were flush with green grass. It reminded me a lot of how Wyoming looks along I-80. All of the trees in the tree farms were blooming with white flowers. Also, the last time I was through Bakersfield it was dark and I couldn’t see anything. This time I got a great view of the massive hills and all the rock outcroppings along Hwy. 58 going to Mojave.
By the time I got to Hwy. 395, it was dark. The Garmin started me off on another road of bones adventure, as it tried to send me down a very unimproved Wildrose road in the middle of the night. I wised up, turned around, and took the sane longer route which turned out to be a very nice road. Some of the turns were creepy, there was no guardrail in many sections, and it was pitch black beyond that. I knew it had to be a long ways down, but I had no idea until days later.
Hwy. 190 over the mountain into the basin is a deceptively long gradual slope. I managed to overheat my brakes at one point, requiring the need to pull over, park, and let things cool off. I rolled into Furnace Creek around 9 PM. The first thing I noticed was the $5 gasoline:
The two hotels in the area, Furnace Creek Ranch and Furnace Creek Inn were dark and not much going on. I drove out to the Golden Canyon trailhead and set in to take star pictures and stay overnight.
It was a fantastic night and so absolutely quiet. When I got out of the truck the only thing I could hear was my tinnitus. No moon, no clouds, sky full of stars, reasonably cool and a light breeze. I wound up sleeping out in the open on the toolbox of my truck. In the middle of the night I could hear coyotes off in the distance. Unfortunately, none of my star photos were useful. I woke up bright and early at 6 AM to a hiker pulling into the parking lot.
I had read that Furnace Creek Ranch had a little cafe that served breakfast. Much to my surprise, the ranch was much bigger and active than I expected. Not only is there a cafe, but there’s a decently stocked general store ($9 firewood, ice cream, groceries, beer+spirits, tourist items), a bicycle rental/repair shop, saloon, steakhouse, breakfast/lunch buffet, a post office. And wait, there’s more! 224 guest rooms, a 1 megawatt solar installation, golf course, tennis courts, swimming pools, horses, and a whole lot of guests from around the world. It was exactly like somebody took Wall Drug in South Dakota, shrunk it, and put it in Death Valley. There was no problem for non-guests to come by and spend money. If you want the desert experience of Burning Man with the modern conveniences, you want to stay here.
The rest of the day I wandered around Badwater, Devil’s Golf Course, some of the various canyons, and up Dante’s View. I managed to get a mild sunburn, it was awesome. While there was lots to see, by the end of the day it was all looking the same. At night I hung out by the firepits at the Ranch chatting with several random people there, including some off-duty employees and a group of Australians who were touring LA and Vegas via RV. It was a great way to wind down an evening!
Friday morning I started heading back to the bay. In the daylight I got a good look at how far the side drops off the roads through the mountains (sans guard rails). It sort of surprised me how dangerous the turns were and I didn’t know it the other night. Scary.
Next up was Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48. I knew it was somewhere nearby when I saw the Sierras, and after looking at the map I realized it was only 20 miles away in Lone Pine. There’s a fantastic visitor center there, which showcases not only the Sierras, but Yosemite, California’s Aqueduct, the Navy station in China Beach, and keeps Mount Whitney trail reports.
The Sierras are neat because they seemingly rise out of nowhere in the desert. Brown and tan and bare all around, then over yonder rising out of it all is this snow-capped mountain range.
In the process of going to Whitney Pass, I misplaced my credit card after stopping at McDonald’s. It had slid between my seats without my noticing, causing a scare when I couldn’t find it. I even went back and asked if the drive-thru had kept it. Eventually I found it hidden in a piece of seat trim!
Whitney Pass road was closed, so I couldn’t get any closer to the mountain. There’s a great view of the entire range from the visitors center.
It was a pleasant drive back to the Bay on Friday night. The trip up I-5 was nice and fast. I managed to score a uppity suite in Emeryville for cheap thanks to the internet and I fully crashed out for the night.
