cdymek's Blog! – Page 69 – One man's life trying to find and keep his place in the world.

Travel

Take Me Down to the Bay

We headed south down the pennisula today, to see sunny Monterey and the popular aquarium. The ride along scenic route 1 between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz was incredible and worth the additional time, along with the several stops along the way to enjoy the pounding surf and sandy beaches. The photos will no doubt be spectacular. And Santa Cruz still strikes me as a fun town.

On an unrelated note, I keep meaning to start writing more on politics, but it’s been hard to motivate. Despite my strong feelings on the topic.

Personal

Good to be the King

Today marked the arrival of my aunt and uncle and their “adventures” around the city. Suffice to say, with all the family around my patience have been a bit worn down. I’m looking forward to the arrival of Tammy and Scott tomorrow.

Travel

Greetings from SF

We arrived yesterday night and (relatively) uneventfully made our way to the hotel. Today we ventured up to Reyes Point to the lighthouse, a thrill for my father whom particularly enjoys that kind of thing. Between the scenery driving and the place itself I tend to believe that the family’s having a good time.

Oh, and getting a room separate from them was definitely the best idea. After a full day, they do drive me a little crazy.

Personal

Off to San Francisco

Farewell from the CO President’s Club. See you in a week.

Personal

Name That Tune

In the background of the Australian women’s gymnastics team performing on the balance beam a few minutes ago, there was a song that was playing. It’s from a movie that I’ve seen recently, but I can’t, for the life of me, remember what it was called. If I find it, I’ll post it.

Update: Now all I can recall is the theme to Bonanza.

Update: I just heard it tonight as the intro on Bravo to the women’s archery match between Greece and the USA. I still have no idea what the song is called.

Personal

I’m Free!

I had set a goal for today, to tidy up a few items around the office and leave by 5. I would be home around 5:30, whip up something for dinner, clean, do laundry, finish packing by around 10 and relax to watch the Olympics. That was the goal.

Reality, though, has a funny way of intruding. Those items around the office never got tidy up. Instead, I spent the morning developing time estimates for work on applications I know nothing about. The leaving at 5 instead turned in to 7:30 as I spent the evening working with someone on a project that honestly did need the time investment. As for the last bit, it’s 11:15 PM and I’m still doing laundry while the Olympics drone on in the background.

Damn, reality bites sometimes.

News

Super Powers

As I watched the women’s individual all-around gymnastics medal ceremony tonight, I couldn’t resist drawing the pseudo-obvious connection between the placements and the evolution of the global superpowers over the past decade. In second place, the Russians, stabilizing but faded. In first, the U.S., currently enjoying its own moment in the sun. And in third, the rising Chinese, whom have an opportunity to become a huge force in the world as they evolve.

Work

Thank God Tomorrow’s Friday

Post author By cdymek
Post date August 19, 2004
No Comments on Thank God Tomorrow’s Friday

I’ve been waiting for tomorrow afternoon for over two weeks now, with the week’s vacaation that begins after I shut down my laptop at the office. Today was in some sense a waste of a day, since I accomplished nothing I needed to accomplish. The major distraction of the moment was the preparation of estimates for our Executive Director for all the applications migrating to our new data center. They’re done, of course, but the fifteen other things I needed to finish before I leave aren’t. And with half my day tomorrow taken up with meetings, that’s not likely to change.

Then again, I won’t be there.

Personal

New Functionality

I’ve introduced a few new pieces of functionality to the site this evening. The user account functions are now available, so you can add and edit your account used for posting comments. I have also put together an RSS feed for the site. Every update I post will now generate an updated RSS feed file, which will likewise updated in your RSS aggregator automatically. Use the RSS icon at the bottom left to subscribe.

Update: It’s all working! Great, off to watch some heavily biased Olympic coverage. To be fair, the coverage of the China-Cuba Women’s Volleyball match this morning on Bravo was fantastic. If only the primetime announcers were as good.

Personal

Sing Along

My voyeuristic side takes over when watching the medal ceremonies during the Olympics. I’m always fascinated by watching the tears of joy that are so common, and I constantly hunt for signs of the gold medalists singing along to the national anthems. The raw, unedited display of humanity this shows is such a wonderful contrast from the generally scripted and timid responses people usually show.