News from 2002

Due to changes in the weather (i.e. rain), I have changed my riding habits a bit. I now ride to the closest Max station and take my bike on the train. It's not as much of a hassle as I had thought. In fact, most train cars have hooks for hanging your bike. As an added bonus, I've discovered that I can get home much faster at night since I can ride my bike through downtown (and downhill, to boot!) much faster than the Max can go through downtown. I've been riding since August and I continue to enjoy it greatly!

Work has been hectic again. We're coming up on a final deadline for our current project so last week featured several late nights. We're finally ironing out the bugs now, though, so I'm hoping for a tranquil Thanksgiving. It won't be long before the next project kicks into high gear.

I recently repurchased (long story but this will be my first copy) The Crown Jewels by Queen, which is their first eight studio albums boxed together with original album artwork. It is simply the best box set that I own right now. I listened to it non-stop for the first three days and felt like I was 14 all over again. Queen was my second band. The Beatles were the first. I don't even know who the third was.

When I changed domain hosts a few months ago, I had the foresight to have him setup email accounts for Graham and Thomas. Thomas was recently asking me about email so I set him up to check his account on our extra iMac. He's having great fun with it and enjoys getting email from everyone. You can email him if you don't mind terse replies.

I've added numerous links on my Computer, Links and Family & Friends pages.

Current reading: A Pirate Looks at Fifty by Jimmy Buffett
Recent listening: The Crown Jewels/Queen (box set), Morning Glory/Tim Buckley
Recent movies: Spiderman, Sopranos Season Three, Stigmata, The Bone Collector, The Towering Inferno, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Insomnia, My Left Foot, Once A Thief

I've begun riding my bike to and from the Max station instead of driving my truck to the park and ride. There's a pretty steep hill that is a bit of a bear in the morning but it's a blast going home. A biking organization in Portland provides secure bike lockers at the park and ride so I don't have to worry about taking my bike on the Max (although I could but it's a hassle). It feels good most of the time but some nights when I get home late I don't look forward to the 15 minute ride home.

At the end of September I visited Lexmark International in Lexington, Kentucky for a week with some collegues. Highlights of the trip were belly dancers, Krispy Kreme, a near car accident and a trip to the Liquor Barn. Unlike previous trips, I had recommendations for restaurants which all worked out very well. Except for the Lexmark cafeteria, but what can you do?

Last month also saw my 36th birthday come and go. Our Oregon family all chipped in so I could get a wireless router for home. It's a NetGear MR314 and let's me attach to my network wirelessly with our Powerbook, my Newton and the extra iMac we have. I now have three separate networks in our house (Ethernet, LocalTalk and 802.11b) all bridged together. We have three computers and a printer on Ethernet, one computer and a printer on LocalTalk and the three aforementioned devices on wireless. The new router sadly led to the forced retirement of my beloved Mac IIci, which has been routing packets for me since I had a modem connection and two computers. Although it performed flawlessly and never crashed, the new router is much easier to use and has more cool features. And did I mention it's wireless?

I've been collecting pictures for the last few months. Hopefully, I'll find the time to get them up soon.

Current reading: Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace
Recent listening: The Eminem Show/Eminem, Move It On Over/George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Earth Sun Moon/Loe and Rockets
Recent movies: Infinity, Buena Vista Social Club, Friday, Panic Room, Death to Smoochy, Begotten, Gosford Park, Mulholland Drive, A Beautiful Mind, In The Bedroom

Today we returned from our summer vacation that started on Saturday, August 24. This year's vacation consisted of two legs: the Canadian Leg and the Bumbershoot Leg.

The Canadian Leg started on early in the morning on Saturday, August 24. We rose early, packed the van with camping gear and supplies and drove four hours to Anacortes, WA, which is north of Seattle. At Anacortes, we drove aboard an international ferry bound for Sidney, British Columbia. The ferry ride took about three hours and took us through the lovely San Juan Islands. After passing through customs at Sidney, we drove south to Victoria where we stayed at the cheapest hotel we could find.

The next day we arose in the morning with a single goal: finding a great place to camp. After driving around a bit outside of Victoria, we found Goldstream Provincial Park which was conveniently located 20 minutes outside of Victoria. During the next three days, we took in Victoria in all its neo-British grandeur. Some highlights included:

• Pacific Undersea Garden
• Walking about downtown Victoria
• The Royal British Columbia Museum including an awesome IMax movie about the Space Station
• Touring the key parts of the city aboard a vintage double-decker bus
• Butchart Gardens
• Craigdarroch Castle
• The Crystal Garden including a tremendous butterfly garden
• An afternoon at the beach
• A decadent seafood lunch while gazing at the boats coming and going

Canada is mostly the same as the U.S. but I definitely noticed some big differences:

• Everywhere bathrooms are called "washrooms". Everywhere.
• As in the U.S., there are web addresses on many of the businesses. However, all of them end in the country designation ".ca" instead of ".com". This is even true of companies that we generally consider to be "American". Check out "mcdonalds.ca" or "sears.ca" for good examples.
• I went to Walmart to get propane for our camp stove and lantern. They were out but the lady there referred me to a place down the road called "Canadian Tire". Canadian Tire is actually like a Home Depot or a Lowe's. I did not see a single tire there but I found the propane rather quickly.
• One of the the big differences is in units of measure. As with the rest of the world, Canada expresses everything in metric units. It's rather shocking to see a posted speed limit of 90 until you notice the km/h underneath. I had a great deal of difficulty in buying lunch meat at a grocery store deli. A half a pound is about 225 grams. I bought 100 grams of several things but ended up with way too much havarti cheese.
• Perhaps the most difficult difference is in the currency exchange. One US dollar is worth about 1.55 CAD. I had committed that number to memory prior to departure but it was totally the wrong number to remember! All conversion had to be carried out in the other direction. If you charge to your credit card, they will give you the most favorable rate at the time of the transaction, but sometimes we had to use cash. Eventually we just got ourselves some Canadian cash at a currency exchange but I still left the exchange feeling confused and ripped off. Oh well.
• If you want to truly understand the difficulties of adjusting to new currency and units of measure, try filling up your car with gas. The first thing you notice is that gas only costs .779. Converting this quickly in your head to USD gives you something below 50 cents. Feeling somewhat gleeful at your good luck, you begin pumping the gas and then notice that the volume indicator is just flying by. You've got 10 gallons in your tank before you've even looked up. It is then that you realize that perhaps the unit of measure is not gallons. So if it's not gallons, it must be liters. How many liters in a gallon? Well, I know two liters is the size of one of those big plastic soda bottles. Probably about two of those in a gallon. That means the price is actually .779 * 4. Almost three dollars a gallon! But that's in Canadian. By this time, the pump shut off and I just figured the hell with it!
• It is important to remember when spending money anywhere in Canada that you get an immediate 33% discount on everything. It is your right as an American and a benefit of the exchange rate (.645 today). In some instances, the price of a Canadian is higher by the American equivalent by a third... but sometimes it is not! Most significantly for us, it appeared that the prices on menus were the same in Canada as the U.S. For example, a kid's meal was about $4 CAD which converted to next to nothing USD! Pretty cool, eh?

Our stay in Victoria was all-too-brief because we had to continue on to the second part of our vacation: Bumbershoot. On Thursday we packed up our camping gear and drove back up to Sidney and through U.S. customs onto a ferry bound from Anacortes by way of the San Juan Islands. The ferry did not leave until 18:00 so we did not arrive back on U.S. soil until after dark. Upon disembarking we went through customs again and set out for Seattle.

Every year Seattle hosts a four-day arts and music festival over Labor Day weekend called Bumbershoot. This year, one of the acts was Michelle Shocked in what I had earlier concluded to be her only Northwest appearance (later I discovered she was playing the Waterfront Blues Festival, which I noted in a previous entry here). Not wanting to miss Michelle touring for her stellar new album, we planned our vacation to coincide with Bumbershoot. As a bonus, Bumbershoot turned out to be more than just music and we had a grand time. Nobody wanted to go home after the four days were over. Here's some of the things we did:

• Hula hoops: There were a huge number of street performers of every variety at the festival. One of them was a hula hoop guy who left his hoops laying around for anyone to try. The boys wanted to visit the hula hoops every day and Thomas became a master by the last day.
• Crafts: Near the hula hoops was a huge craft tent where parents and children could build little craft projects like binoculars, shakers and the like. Also very popular with the boys.
• Percussion: Near the hoops and the crafts was huge mass of junk converted into a mobile percussion station. Drum sticks made from chopsticks where supplied and you could bang on a hundred or so different things. Thomas loved this one, too.
• Children's Museum: Bumbershoot is held in the Seattle Center, a huge complex that was created for a World's Fair years ago. The most famous part of Seattle Center is the Space Needle, but there are also museums, arenas, a stadium and other buildings that lend themselves to the festival. One of these is the Children's Museum which is free with Bumbershoot admission. We spent a fun afternoon there which Thomas really dug since he's really into stuff like that.
• Experience Music Project: My only regret is that we did not budget enough time to more fully explore this museum devoted to rock and roll. It's more than a museum, though. It's got a hands-on section that teaches you o play all the major instruments (guitar, keyboards, drums, etc.) as well as little studios where you can pick up a guitar and jam with your son as he pounds on the drums. Very, very cool. I could have spent days in this place.
• Circus Ballyhoo: This was a five-act euro-style circus with a hula hoop guy, fighting balerinas, a rope girl, a balancing act and acrobats. These guys did three shows a day and we all memorized the MC's lame jokes.
• Break dancing: Unbeknownst to most of us, this subculture is still alive and well and thriving. One of the performing areas was devoted to break dancing every day but we just went for one performance on the first day. It was very cool.
• Jonny Lang: Hot young guitar slinger who wishes he was SRV.
• Ani Difranco: Iconoclastic folk singer. She did an acoustic set by herself in which she change guitars after nearly every song. It appeared that she played the guitar so furiously that it was out of tune at the end of each song. Many grrrls and many lesbians in attendance.
• Concrete Blonde: On their reunion tour. Graham totally rocked out while Thomas played his GameBoy. We all enjoyed "the Joey song" as Tina and the boys call it.
• Kevn Kinney: He played an acoustic set with Lenny Kaye who was the real reason I was there to watch. Kinney used to be in Driv'n and Cry'n who I never really liked, but I liked this set. Lenny said his album, Broken Hearts and Car Parts, was the best of this year.
• John Wesley Harding: You may or may not remember his brief stay in the spotlight in the late 80s, but he plays quirky, insightful pop with a nuance of new wave. Thomas was without his GameBoy so he had to listen to the music instead.
• Richard Thompson: An artist I have long admired from afar but never really managed to "get". Unfortunately, although this performance had its highlights (including a tremendous, no-kidding Britney Spears cover), I still would not classify myself as a fan.
• Michelle Shocked: As usual (this was the sixth time I had seen Michelle) she was tremendous. Not only is she a great musician with a great band and great songs, she creates an atmosphere of comaraderie and, dare I say, love that leaves you with a warm feeling when the show is over. It's an experience not to be missed and even Thomas turned off his GameBoy at the end and rocked out with Graham and I.

So we ended our vacation and drove back this morning after sleeping in a bit. This was the last day of summer for us - Thomas starts school tomorrow, Graham starts on Thursday and work will be picking up again for me very soon. It's sad to see it end but it's good to be home.

Remember, only 20 days until my birthday!

Current reading: And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave
Recent listening: Canadian Public Radio
Recent movies: Birth of a Nation

This weekend we spent a day at the Rose Festival Airshow in Hillsboro. Although it was a little hot at times, it turned out to be a perfect day. The highlight was the Thunderbirds who performed about a half hour after we arrived. Their forty minute presentation seemed to last only a few minutes and was quite breath-taking at times. After the Thunderbirds, we walked around looking at all the aircraft and snapped a few pictures.

I also put some pictures up of the boys playing in our "new water fountain" in the back yard. For those who are interested, I also got some pictures of Michelle Shocked when she was at the Waterfront Blues Festival last month.

Current reading: And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave
Recent listening: The Marshall Mathers LP/Eminem
Recent movies: The Importance of Being Earnest, Sexy Beast, Vanilla Sky, Before Sunrise

We've been filling up our summer with family activities ever since my project ended. I got a little time off and work has been slow, so we've all had a chance to spend some quality time together:

Biking

A few weeks ago Thomas could not and would not ride a bicycle without training wheels. Two weeks ago I took off the training wheels and started pushing him around the yard. Within a few days he was riding on the sidewalk with no assistance and now he rides with Tina and I in the evenings on rides more than five miles long. We bought a little bike trailer for Graham to ride in and we have a pretty nice bike trail close to our house so it's lots of fun. I've begun riding my bike to and from the Max (train) station. It's good to ride again after so many years.

Camping

When it got really hot at the beginning of July, we pulled out the tent and set it up in the backyard. We all slept in it for a few days since it was so much nicer outside than in the house. A couple of weeks ago we packed up all our gear and found ourselves a spot on the Wilson River near Tillamook for a weekend. We visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory while we were there as well as fishing, hiking and hanging out around the fire at night. Other than some boisterous neighbors, we had a wonderful time. This was a warmup gig for the big show that we'll be attempting at the end of this month when we go to Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.

Golf

Last summer I finally bought myself a set of golf clubs for forty dollars from a pawn shop. Since then I've been slowly picking up the game but I've been trying a little bit harder this summer. As I mentioned before, I won the CPS company golf tournament in a thrilling playoff finish. Last week I golfed 18 holes for the first time but was exhausted for two days after. I think I was the only damn fool there who carried his clubs through all 18 holes.

Zoo Concerts

Once again the Oregon Zoo has had an outstanding series of concerts this summer. We've gone to several but the highlights had to have been The Bobs and Riders in the Sky (on two separate occasions). If you get a chance to see either one of these groups live, don't miss it. Riders in the Sky is also a great show for kids. Our boys were so mad when we left during "rope tricks"!

Current reading: The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
Recent listening: Frank Zappa, The Bobs, Tiny Tim
Recent movies: Wild Wild West, The Poseidon Adventure, Seven Samarai, The Magnificent Seven, Blackhawk Down, The Royal Tennenbaums

Things have finally slowed down enough in my life that I am able to start updating this page again. From March until the beginning of July, I was very busy with a project. So busy, in fact, that I neglected many other parts of my life including maintaining this web page. The product shipped last week, though, and I've been happily catching up on personal matters since then. I have been largely successfuly so there is time to update you all on other things that have been happening since March.

In May, my mom came to visit us for a little over a week. I took a four day weekend and we visited the Wild Animal Safari Park (outside Roseburg, OR) and Crater Lake which is a couple of hours from Roseburg. We had an excellent time despite almost missing Crater Lake. We arrived there only to find signs that said the North entrance was closed. The West entrance was another hour away and we were ready to head home, but on a whim I turned into the North entrance where we found rangers who told us they had opened up the road the night before. We ended up spending the night in the lodge there. It is so beautiful there!

This weekend Critical Path Software held their annual company picnic. Each picnic begins with a golf tournament in the afternoon at the local pitch-and-putt golf course. The course is not far from our house, so I played nine holes each morning for 2 days leading up until the tournament. I finished with a 66 which was technically lower than anybody else, but my boss declared it a tie with his 69 and we had to play two playoff holes to decide the outcome. Obviously we tied on the first hole, but I sank a birdie putt after he missed his bogey putt.

Tina golfed the first nine holes with me but left before the turn when she found out our friend Isamu Nakayama had died that morning. Isamu was only a couple of years younger than I was but had been struggling with brain tumors for a few years. We were all sorry to see him go but we still cherish our own personal memories of times we spent with him.

Tina gamely returned with the boys and her mom for the picnic that night but her heart just wasn't in it. She left with her mom and Graham after dinner but Thomas and I stayed until after it got dark. Thomas got a treat when he got to sit in driver's seat of an RX-7, one of our favorite cars from Grand Turismo II.

Current reading: Out of the Woods by Chris Offutt
Recent listening: Who's Next (remastered)/The Who, The Ultimate Who Collection
Recent movies: Amelie, Mr. Nice Guy, Seven Samarai, The Majestic, Ali, The Shipping News

Last Monday I was witness to the aftermath of a murder that occurred a half a block from my office window. A woman in our office saw it happen. Everyone at work was sort of in shock for the rest of the day. Here's the story of when the perp was caught.

I've been procrastinating badly due to serious obligations at work right now, but this weekend I managed to finish off a couple of sets of pictures I've been working on. One documents the clown that visited Thomas' 6th birthday while the other chronicles the boys' adventures during the lone substantial snowfall we got this year.

Tina's mom, Jan, had back surgery last week and has been in the hospital since. The surgery went better than anticipated and she is expecting a full recovery and looking forward to less pain in the future.

Current reading: So Long and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
Recent listening: O Brother Where Art Thou (soundtrack), Play/Moby, Nanci Griffith, Bob Dylan
Recent movies: Chuck & Buck, Snow Falling on Cedars, Roots, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, The City of Lost Children

Last week I moved the rynosoft.com domain including web site and email to a new server. Due to a glitch during the move, the web site was unavailable for most of the week. That situation has been remedied now!

Current reading: The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
Recent movies: Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Your Friends and Neighbors, My Breakfast with Blassie

Current reading: In The Beginning... Was The Command Line by Neal Stephenson
Recent listening: Faith and Courage/Sinead O'Connor
Recent movies: The Anniversary Party, Final Destination, Soundstage: Andy Kaufman, My Dinner With Andre

In case you missed it two weeks ago, Apple announced a newly redesigned iMac. It looks very nice and seems to be functionally sound, but I'm worried that it might be a bit over-priced. They've priced it exactly the same as the original iMac when it was first introduced. I'm hoping they continue to keep the old iMac around for people who can't spend $1300 on a new computer.

The good news is at the high end. For $1800 you get:

• Very fast G4 processor (800 Mhz)
• DVD burner (you can make your own DVDs)
• CD Burner
• Flat panel display resulting in more available space on your desk

Current reading: Andy Kaufman Revealed! by Bob Zmuda with Matthew Scott Hansen
Recent listening: Little Love Affairs/Nanci Griffith, Drums and Wires/XTC, Before and After Science/Eno
Recent movies: Moulin Rouge, The Claim, Gimme Shelter (The Rolling Stones)

I have made a few minor changes on this web site. I removed the Vacation 2001 link from the Contents and have added a link to my new section on barefooting. I also changed our contact info to reflect recent email additions/removals.

Current reading: Kentucky Straight by Chris Offutt
Recent listening: The Who, Cream, Brandenburg Concertos/Bach
Recent movies: Mallrats, You Can Count On Me

Wow! I haven't updated this web site for way too long!

In the last month or so we have procured three new (to our household) computers. At the beginning of december, a friend at work sold me his old PowerMac 7200 for $50. It was a good deal since it came with a 1 Gb drive and 96 Mb of memory. I didn't exactly know what I was going to do with it but I had a few ideas. As it turned out, it is going to be Thomas' new computer. It's got built in Ethernet and has a PowerPC processor which means he can surf the web with a newer browser and newer software will work on his own computer. Right now Thomas has a Quadra 650 which came before the PowerPC and, consequently, does not work with much of the educational software he has. I'm going to run Ethernet into his room and give him the 7200 for his birthday. He will be happy.

During the last week of December, Apple put a bunch of unsold stock up for sale on an auction web site called DoveBid. I got an awesome deal on an iMac 450 to replace Tina's old original iMac. This iMac will be twice as fast and has a DVD player, which she'll like for watching movies in our room. It also has FireWire which means that we can start dabbling with video editing. The new iMac shipped today and we expect it in a week or so.

Right after I finalized the bid for the new iMac, my mother-in-law was kind enough to give us an old PowerBook G3. It's about 4 years old but it's just as fast as Tina's iMac and works great for browsing the web and playing games. I've set it up with the built in Multiple User feature of Mac OS 9 so everyone has their own login and special environment for their individual needs. Thomas and Graham have both enjoyed using it already and I'm sure Tina will get into it at some point, too.

Current reading: Kentucky Straight by Chris Offutt
Recent movies: Annie Hall, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, O Brother, Where Art Thou?