Happy 2014 Winter Solstice!

[http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert (Robert)]

Happy Winter Solstice!

Here is my latest contact information:

Robert
.
where-I-live 
my-Oakland-voicemail-number (voicemail)
our-San-Jose-phone-number
our-Oakland-cell-phone-number (cell)

http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert
http://www.

My solstice update is below.

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News

Lifestyle
  * Careers
    * Spam with poi, er, boy.  Our group at work managed to get some
      low-cost labor over the summer by bringing my nephew on board to
      do some small programming projects.  During his time in June,
      July, and August, he ended up contributing to a daily report
      that's still being used, and did some small spam research
      projects for me.
  * Home
    * Futon the bill.  We knew that our old hideabed wouldn't cut it
      for my nephew, not to mention other future guests.  (Of course,
      it was Ikea couch and it was always very uncomfortable, partly
      because the legs that came with it the wrong length resulting in
      the mattress resting at an angle.)  So, in May, we purchased a
      convertible futon couch which, we hope, will last us many years.
    * An indecision tree.  It was not our choice for the branch full of
      fruit on our persimmons tree to come crashing down to the ground.
      But, come down, it did.  And, luckily, none of the people who had
      been sitting there for shade at our potluck just a week before
      had been hurt due to this tree failure.
  * Pets
   * It's always the neighbor's dog.  I was convinced to join
     nextdoor.com earlier this year and was somewhat surprised to find
     out that the primary topic are people's pets: losing them, finding
     them, caring for them, deciding what to do with them.  The
     secondary topic seems to be security and crime, but that may just
     happen to be on people's minds where I live.
  * Transportation
    * Bicycle
      * I like the night life, baby.  Riding my bike on roads crowded
        with cars was getting more and more scary.  The problem with
        going on the bike trail, though, was that there is no lighting.
        I made the plunge and invested in a 550 lumen headlamp.
        Although some people on the trail don't appreciate my presence
        much, my commute has become much more pleasant.
  * Health
    * Sepsis, schmepsis.  While cooking a meal, I managed to cut my
      thumb.  I didn't think much of it at the time, just wrapping some
      toilet paper and a piece of tape on it; then, graduating to a
      bandaid after Noelle found out.  It didn't get better after 2
      weeks and looked all puffy, red, and full of pus.  We went to urgent
      care and, after the painful biopsy and after taking antibiotics,
      I was diagnosed as completely fine.
    * Yoga
      * So psoas.  Noelle gave me an unusual birthday gift - the
        opportunity to stretch my limbs in unpleasant ways.  It was a
        yoga class called Trauma Release Exercises.  The idea is to hold
        a position until the muscle begins shaking; the shaking is
        supposed to allow the muscle to settle into a more relaxed
        state.  The founding practioner of this technique, David
        Berceli, focuses on the psoas muscles, which, at the time, was
        causing me troubles.
  * People
    * Missing persons.  I continue to no longer have email addresses
      for these people:

        Clayton Glad
        Louise Zivnuska
        Bruce Moreland
        Scott Fraize
        
      If you're in contact with any of these people, please tell them that
      I am missing their email addresses.
  * Miscellaneous
    * Passe paper.  In October, we made our annual trek to the
      stationery store to buy our paper organizers.  For the first
      time, I was dismayed that they had stopped carrying my beloved
      4" day-to-a-page Letts of London appointment book.  The
      alternatives (all larger models) were unacceptable.  I ended up
      finding the new Letts model on their website and ordering it.
      But, I am fearful that my paper world is ripping apart and
      is crumbling down.

Entertainment        
  * Movies
    * Expanding Jobs.  It seems like we're all so cosy here in Silicon
      Valley.  We got a flavor of that when, in January, we saw the
      "Jobs" movie with a group at a friend's house, and there was a
      special guest who happened to be Steve Jobs's neighbor and knew
      him fairly well.  I can't say that I appreciated nor enjoyed the
      film, but it was different.
    * Just another pineapple express.  The Asylum film studios puts out
      zillions of films, and many of them are bad.  Rifftrax felt
      compelled to take advantage of that by making fun of "Sharknado",
      which we, including my nephew, saw in July.  The film was about
      big storms hitting Ca and bringing things with them.
      This concept is especially relevant right now with our current
      rain storms ('tho, not nearly as dramatic).
    * Same old story: freedom under threat.  It took the tragic suicide of
      Aaron Schwartz for me to recognize his achievements, and the movie
      "The Internet's Own Boy" showcased them all.  It was only by
      sheer luck that we got to see it since it played just a single
      day at our local theater.  (Netflix seems to be carrying fewer
      and fewer films these days as well.  This probably would've been
      our only opportunity.)
    * Other flix.  You can see my Netflix queue at
      http://tinyurl.com/nosnetflixqueue .  Unfortunately, there's no
      way to share our Netflix instant watch queue (a.k.a. My List) nor
      share my Movielens ratings any more.
  * Music
    * Not-so-sweet music.  Noelle heard a band on a local radio station
      and then discovered that they were touring, and we saw them in
      downtown where-I-live in June.  Pinata Protest plays accordian-backed
      hard-rockin' gypsy punk-style music on a variety of topics; they
      hail from San Antonio, Texas and are true to their mexican
      american roots.
    * Put aside the alienation.  A friend had her big 40th birthday
      this year and invited us to her favorite activity: karoake.
      Neither Noelle and I had ever done karoake in a group setting
      before.  In order to minimize embarassment, we decided to sing a
      song together (Rush's "Limelight").  Of course, it sounded
      terrible since hardly anybody sounds like Geddy Lee, but it was fun.
  * Books
   * Prophet for the atheists.  Although Barbara Ehrenreich has been a
     confrontational journalist, speaker, and writer, her latest book
     is more personal and focuses on unexplained phenomena and how that
     strengthens her atheism.  Back in April at a local bookshop, we
     were enlightened as we listened to her speak in front of a live
     audience.
  * Outdoors
    * Hikin' for lichen.  I'm always surprised at how complex the
      natural world is.  Lichen is a good case in point.  It's a
      mixture of a plant and a fungus.  In January, we went on a group
      hike lead by a docent who was knowledgeable about lichen.  There
      were all sorts of colorful variations and creepy variations (like
      mistletoe).  It was unfortunate that we didn't bring a camera.
    * Feeling grovey.  Vacations options are very limited for Noelle
      with her current job.  So, we've been trying to take short, local
      getaways.  Our trip to Pacific Grove was one of those.  In late
      March, we stayed a weekend in Pacific Grove at Asilomar and rode
      bicycles (actually, Noelle was on her trike) around the area,
      including Monterey.  Pictures can be seen at
      https://www.flickr.com/photos/noelle/sets/72157643266340214/ .
    * Going wild with the natives.  We found on a docent-lead hike in
      April that wildflowers in Ca, especially during a
      drought, aren't big, showy displays.  Rather, they are very
      subtle.  You can see pictures of wildflowers and some lichen at
      https://www.flickr.com/photos/noelle/sets/72157644366137902/ .
    * You can put your mind at ease.  Our friend was transitioning out
      of the Navy.  A formal ceremony is held called "Change of
      Command" when this happens, and we attended his ceremony in
      Alameda in April.  Some photos can be found at
      https://www.flickr.com/photos/noelle/sets/72157643485747865/ .
    * It takes a lickin'!  Despite the expectation of our visit to Lick
      Observatory in August to be focused on its "history", it turns
      out that some current research is happening there.  It was all
      fascinating, and we got to view some astonomical objects,
      including nebula and planets.
    * While I Mendocino, Ukiah.  One of our short getaways in October
      involved us travelling north, close to where we went last year
      (Clearlake).  Our stay in Ukiah was at Vichy Springs, where Jack
      London and other luminaries stayed to soak in the mineral waters.
      We only got to go on a short hike since it rained most of time
      there; the water was warm, which was a relief.  As we did a few
      years ago, we stayed at Stanford Inn so we could pig out on rich
      vegan food.  Flicks can be found at
      https://www.flickr.com/photos/noelle/sets/72157649033417225/ .
  * Theater
    * Mime redux.  We always love seeing the SF Mime Troupe and
      especially because, in July, we got to bring my nephew, but it
      was again bittersweet this year that, due to limited funding,
      they had an abbreviated show with a small cast.  The message was
      relevant, 'tho, telling us something that we often forget: that
      even people in high tech are workers, too, and can be exploited
      just like all workers.
  * Art
    * Stretching the mind with a distorted view.  Along with a friend,
      we hit the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco in May to take in
      the yoga exhibit.  Naturally, it being the Bay Area, it was quite
      popular, with a zillion people there gawking at the poses and
      positions.  Frankly, I think it was way more than ever wanted to
      know about yoga.
    * At least I don't think they're martians.  The fact that there is
      art that nobody wants can be sad.  But, sometimes, you just
      cannot get rid of it for sentimental reasons.  Such was the art
      from my great uncle.  It was a strange painting with a couple of
      unknowable green people.  My parents were moving and needed to
      unload it in May.  There was a possibility that we were going to
      get it.  (I had ideas of mounting it on the ceiling so most
      people wouldn't see it easily.)  But, we ended up donating it to
      the Boston-based Museum of Bad Art and we were estatic when it
      was accepted.  You may be able to see it at
      https://www.facebook.com/77346695969/photos/a.381656245969.162064.77346695969/10152789837925970/

Politics/Society
  * Voting/Elections
    * A panoply of lack of choices.  The election here this year was
      probably the worse in my memory.  I was happy to vote for Green
      Party and Peace and Freedom Party people in the primaries, but,
      because Ca has adopted this "top two" system, there was
      almost nobody I could convince myself to vote for; I ended up
      leaving most of my ballot empty.  It is really no surprise that
      turnout was so low.
    * I want too much information.  It always confuses me when people
      tell me that they get overwhelmed with too much information and
      too many choices.  I like information; I like choice.  So, it was
      with fear of losing yet more choices that I decided to register
      (with the top-two system, Ca now calls this an
      "affliation") with Peace and Freedom Party.  There was a
      possibility that the party would no longer be included in the
      primaries if there were too few people registered with them and
      I didn't want to lose them.
        
Technology
  * Computers
    * Hardware
      * Networks
        * Dying your routes.  Our Linksys router finally started
          failing, dropping connections and generally flaking out.  So,
          I went with a Buffalo router because it would allow me to run
          open source router software on it.  I merely need to get around
          to installing said software on it.
    * Software
      * Linux
        * Phoenix reborn.  After years of running the same old version
          of Firefox on Noelle's computer, I finally got around to
          upgrading it.  Needless to say, a lot of things broke.
          Eventually, I got everything to kinda look OK, but it's only
          barely better than the old version.  At least, now, it will
          continually be updated with the latest, safest version.
      * Windows
        * More than just a cold.  This was a first, but a computer in
          our household actually got a virus.  It was Noelle's work
          laptop.  We did manage to remove it, but Noelle's company
          insisted that the laptop be replaced instead.  Thankfully,
          since I don't run Windows at home, it didn't manage to
          spread.
  * Internet
    * Liberally bleeding hearts.  Like most people, we were affected by
      the OpenSSL heartbleed bug, and changed our passwords
      appropriately, making our lives even more complicated and filling
      our minds with meaningless strings.  It really hit home at my
      workplace, leaving them scrambling to push out a new release of
      the software to avoid customers being unnecessarily exposed.