Full Frontal Nerdity

In Memoriam

2009-12-26T00:04:00.003-05:00

Last Sunday, 12/20/09, I couldn’t get out of bed. Steph let me sleep in until she and Maya came to say “Good Morning” around 8:30 AM. I got out of bed, went to the kitchen for breakfast and found I had missed a call from my aunt. The message was short. “Dean, call me.” My heart sank. I knew.

Israel Sumner Saxe, my grandfather, passed away that cold, snowy morning in Boston, 12 days shy of his 91st birthday. He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Ethel, three children, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

I last saw Grandpa over the summer, when Maya and I went to Massachusetts for a visit with my grandparents. At the time he was slowing down and in pain, but doing his best to enjoy life. That’s not how I choose to remember Grandpa. I remember him as a big, strong man who didn’t take shit from anyone and always told it like he saw it. A man who was loved by everyone who knew him.

My earliest memories of Grandpa are in Grandma and Grandpa’s house on Margaret Lane, playing with my brother and cousins in and around the pool. Fishing on Lake Massapoag in Sharon, MA and in the pond at Grandma & Grandpa’s condo on Cape Cod. Learning to shoot a pistol. Watching Grandpa cook breakfast for everyone at the Massapoag Sportsmen’s Club, which he founded in the 1950’s after being denied membership to another club because he was a Jew. Taking the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. My favorite, and strongest memory, is watching Grandpa smoke his pipe, burning a sweet-smelling tobacco. The smell of his tobacco is indelibly imprinted in my head. To this day I think of him every time I see someone with a pipe or I smell pipe tobacco.

I spent the past few days with my extended family sharing stories about Grandpa and his life. Yesterday he was laid to rest at Sharon Memorial Park in Sharon, MA. Rabbi Jonathan Hausman presided over a moving service. As the pallbearers wheeled his casket to the hearse, I noticed that the funeral home was standing room only. Grandpa always said nobody would show up at his funeral, he had “outlived all of his friends,” in his words. By my estimate over 100 people attended on a cold Christmas Eve to say their final goodbye to a great man who touch the lives of so many people.

Standing at the gravesite in 37 degree Fahrenheit temperatures, surrounded by snow and ice, the Mourner’s Kadish was read. Before completing the final mitzvah (good deed) of burying his casket, his grandchildren, children and son-in-laws smoked Grandpa’s pipes filled with his favored vanilla flavored tobacco, filling the air with the sweet scent of pipe smoke in his honor. As we smoked, we performed the mitzvah, shoveling dirt upon his casket, filling his grave as we said goodbye. The first shovelful by each mourner is done upside-down, using the back of the shovel making it difficult to use, as a symbol of our reluctance to complete the task. Normally, the family and assembled mourners shovel a small amount of earth into the grave; the cemetery groundskeepers complete the remainder of the work. In an act of love, kindness and ultimate respect the gathered crowd remained under cold, overcast skies, family and friends each taking part in the mitzvah until his grave was completely filled.

This week has been one of the most difficult of my life. I am finding it hard to believe that I won’t speak with him again; I won’t Skype with him again to show him how Maya is growing up. He is gone, but he is not forgotten. At the funeral, I was handed a videotape of interviews conducted in 2004 with Grandpa to share stories of his life, particularly focused on his family’s emigration from Poland in 1924. (Ukraine? The fluid borders in that area in the 1920’s make it difficult to determine without more research.) My aunt found an audiotape of interviews starting in 2004 where Grandma and Grandpa attempted to verbally document their lives. In the next few weeks I hope to have digital replicas of these to distribute to our family. I have resurrected my work on my family tree, a project I began when Maya was born. Grandma was instrumental today in providing information about his relatives and hers. My grief will be turned into work to preserve our family history for those who remember my Grandpa and those who never had the pleasure of meeting him.

Israel “Sumner” Saxe
January 1, 1919 – December 20, 2009
עליו השלום (alav ha-shalom)
Peace be upon him

Things I've Noticed in Seattle...

2009-11-30T10:55:00.005-05:00

We moved to Seattle two weeks ago and in that time I have noticed quite a few differences from Atlanta:

People are nice. Really nice. I have particularly noticed this when interacting with people in service jobs (Comcast installer, DMV employees, etc.) who not only are nice but appear to be competent, as well. I have yet to see the "I hate my job" attitude that everyone in similar positions in Atlanta seem to have. Of course, that attitude rubs off in the way you are treated... ugh.
The speed limit is not 85 MPH wherever you go. People actually do seem to follow the speed limit more closely here instead of going Warp Speed everywhere. And drivers are nice, too! Of course that may be because everyone thinks I'm a tourist because of my Georgia plates... we'll see if that changes when I get Washington state plates.
Recycling. Whoa. We were good recyclers in Atlanta. We filled up our recycling bin to overflowing. So we bought a larger, 65 gallon rolling bin which was often filled up to capacity or beyond every other week. Yet we still filled up a 96 gallon "Herby Curby" every week with trash. Now we have a small 12 gallon (!!!) trash can, a 65 gallon (I think?) recycling can (with a wide variety of recyclables accepted, much more so than in ATL) and a can specifically for food waste composting. We pay for the trash we generate and pay extra if we overflow our garbage can or include too many recyclables or too much food waste in the garbage, so it pays to reduce, reuse and recycle. We've had to adjust our habits, but we're making it work, even with all of the extra waste we have generated from moving in. I keep looking at Steph and saying how amazed I am at the tiny amount of trash we're generating these days. I find it eye opening to see the amount of food waste we can generate. Some of it is inevitable (banana peels, orange peels, chicken carcasses, etc.), but a lot of it can be saved and repurposed (trimmings from carrots, celery, etc. can be put into stock, for example). At least I don't see us wasting food like we did when I was traveling non-stop...
Groceries are expensive. Safeway is way overpriced, I can't imagine how expensive Whole Foods is. Fred Meyer appears to be the most reasonable of the bunch.
Elfin ears? Seriously... I saw someone with a pair last night and they looked pretty freaking real to me, though I suppose they could have been makeup.
Cupcakes. Yum.

I'm sure there is more for another post...

Changes...

2009-11-23T18:58:00.004-05:00

Today is a day of mixed feelings for me as I publicly announce my resignation from Foundstone Professional Services after nearly five years of employment.

The past years with Foundstone have truly been great to me. I’ve had the opportunity to travel the world, grow as an information security practitioner and project manager and work on interesting information security projects with long-reaching consequences. None of which I can talk about, of course. I have had the opportunity to work with some of the smartest security folks in the industry today. We worked hard and played hard. The past five years have been an awesome experience, however, all things must come to an end.

Let’s rewind…

Nearly five years ago I fell into this position. I was happily serving as the Web Application Security Manager for Digital Insight’s (DI) corporate banking unit. Two Foundstone consultants were training the development team at DI and, thanks to the insistence of their boss, Mark Curphey, we shared dinner and drinks at Fogo de Chao. Dave Raphael, Rudolph Araujo and I met that night in January 2005 and my life changed for the better.

We ate. We drank. (Probably a bit too much!) One thing lead to another and I began enquiring about their work consulting, the work environment, the travel, etc. I had no interest in taking a job, yet I found myself engaged in a conversation that was clearly leading in that direction. Rudy and Dave were emailing Mark through the evening. The next thing I knew I had an interview with Foundstone set up for the following week.

I told myself I didn’t want to be a “conslutant”. I didn’t want to travel. I wouldn’t like being on the road. An offer was made. I still couldn’t envision making such a drastic change from my desk jockey job at DI. Steph and I talked it over repeatedly. We decided that I would only consult for one year. I could take the opportunity to learn, grow my skills, mature as an information security professional and then head back into a “normal” position with my new skills. On February 18, 2005 I became the newest member of Foundstone Professional Services consulting team. One year turned into two, then three. Steph and I had conversations about why I couldn’t see doing anything other than consulting. Sure, I worked hard, often seven days a week, and the travel was tough on us when I was on the road week after week. But the projects were interesting and I was still learning on the job every day.

Maya was born April 2, 2008, shortly after my three year anniversary with Foundstone. My outlook on consulting and traveling for work began to change; I wanted to be home more and on the road less.

Since Maya’s birth, my travel schedule did change. Sometimes it was less hectic, I spent months on end working from my home office. Unfortunately, that was lonely; I lacked the intellectual stimulation of being around other type A alpha geeks. On the other hand, I spent more time traveling overseas and doing extended engagements at client sites. In Q2 2009 I spent approximately 11 weeks on the road. At the end of Q3 and beginning of Q4 2009, I spent 8 weeks straight on the road.

In September I made the decision that it was time to look for new employment in order to reduce my travel to 25% or less. Our home was on the market, we were getting ready to move to Seattle after more than three years of planning. Buyers began showing interest in our home; the pieces began to fall into place. I started sending around resumes to companies, primarily located in Seattle, as well as companies that entertained hiring employees for 100% telecommute positions.

Immediately after I started sending out resumes, we accepted an offer on our home! My stress level went through the roof! I am working my tail off all day and every evening I’m doing phone interviews for jobs and working with Steph to manage the process of selling our home, packing and moving 2700 miles across the country. I’m on the road through this process, working every Monday through Friday in suburban Washington, DC! This goes on for about three weeks before I caught a break.

I finagled 3 weekdays when I could work off-site, and parlayed that into a trip to Seattle to look for a rental home. During a quick trip we found a rental in Ballard, had great meals with family and friends, continued phone interviews and had an in-person interview with potential employers, all while working remotely from a hotel during Maya’s nap times. An offer was made and accepted later that same week…

When we decided to move to Seattle it was to be a major lifestyle change. The job fits directly into that lifestyle change. I won’t be traveling, for the most part, and I’ll be home with Steph and Maya for dinner every night. I’m looking forward to spending time at the local farmer’s markets and getting back into the kitchen to cook great food for my family. I’m also excited to get back to my hobbies, homebrewing, running and hiking, and maybe picking up a few new ones. Snow skiing or snow boarding, perhaps? Without traveling for work, I suddenly find myself with the potential for a lot of free time. What a novel concept!

The past few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind! Ten days ago we closed on the sale of our house in Atlanta and I started driving west. After four days of driving I landed in Seattle and was joined by Steph and Maya the next day. Last week we moved into a rental home in Ballard, this is just a temporary place to land, we’re going to look to buy a home once we get settled and determine where we want to live. We’re still buried in boxes, though each day there are fewer to navigate around. We’re getting used to living in Seattle, catching up with some of our local friends and family and starting what feels like a brand new life here in the Pacific NW. It will be a challenge leaving behind everything we knew in Atlanta, but we’re both up for it. Today I am back to work at Foundstone as I wrap up the loose ends on my projects over the next 2 weeks.

So where am I going? What will I be doing? I have accepted a job with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a Senior Information Security Analyst, where I will be taking the skills I have honed over the past years and applying them within the Foundation. That’s all I can really say for now, though I may have more to add after I start with the Foundation on 12/7/2009.

Snow Leopard, Time Capsule and Network Issues

2009-10-27T07:44:00.002-04:00

For a few weeks now I have been seeing weird network behavior, but only at home and only on my Macs. Both Macs connect to a WRT150N wireless router running DD-WRT VPN firmware. As described in an earlier post (its early and I am too lazy to link) I have set up a fake TimeCapsule on an Ubuntu box sitting on my home network for net-based backups. Everything was working fine until a few weeks ago...

Suddenly when attempting to move large amounts of data across the network, such as when backing up, my network connection would drop. My connection to the network remained, but throughput went to zero on the local network. Connectivity was completely lost. Many times I couldn't even reconnect to the wireless network to reestablish connectivity. However, if I used a hard-wired connection I didn't see the same problem. Ultimately this corrupted my TimeCapsule data twice in 2 weeks.

After some frantic Googling I found somewhere which indicated that the problem may have to do with auto channel switching in 802.11N networks. So last night I configured my wireless network to choose a specific channel (8, FWIW) instead of allowing it to automatically choose the best channel. My network problems appear to have now been resolved, no more loss of connectivity over night or this morning. I created a local backup on a USB disk overnight and I am now recreating my online backup to the Ubuntu TimeCapsule as I write.

This seems to be an unacknowledged bug in most recent versions of MacOS Snow Leopard. Apple, I hope you're listening.

Flip - Part II

2009-09-05T13:29:00.003-04:00

Maybe I'm the last person on earth to know this, but Perian is necessary to import directly into iMovie from the Flip (or at least the UltraHD).

New Flip UltraHD - Problems Already?

2009-09-05T13:08:00.003-04:00

Just bought a new Flip UltraHD at Costco and I'm already having issues. The FlipShare software wanted to update the camera, but I received repeated errors:

Error code: 27, 2
An error occurred while interacting with your camcorder. Please make sure your camcorder is connected to your computer.
Error removing file '/Volumes/FLIPVIDEO/System/VIEWER/mem_size.txt'.
Thread info: Upgrade camcorder software : {7e00ce54-bccf-41cc-a2ed-2f0342e16b38}

Bah! Google to the rescue! I found that the problem was due to locked files on the device and that you could reset the flags on the files, enabling the software update to work. So I ran the following from the terminal:

find /Volumes/FLIPVIDEO -flags +uchg -print0 | xargs -0 chflags nouchg

I then restarted FlipShare and the software installed just fine. Thanks to TDD for the tip!

Image Issues...

2009-07-11T16:00:00.002-04:00

Bear with me while I work through some issues with my host to get images hosted at the former fullfrontalnerdity.com working again...

Google Apps, Mail.app and the iPhone

2009-07-11T11:37:00.003-04:00

I've started consolidating my domains' mail and calendaring services under Google Apps. Besides being free for the standard edition, Google provides many of the same services I was using at my previous host, LuxSci, plus group calendaring, docs, etc. However, the support of labels in Gmail is what has really intrigued me.

I've been an IMAP user for years. I'm extremely organized with my email, using a large number of filters on MacOS X's Mail.app to filter email into the right folder for organization. Unfortunately, when I got my iPhone last summer, I began to realize this strategy had its problems. Namely, if Mail.app is downloading and filtering email to folders other than the Inbox, I would miss them on my iPhone, due to its failure to synchronize the entire IMAP folder structure. To handle this, I would disable mail checking from my Mac when I was away from it, allowing all mail to flow to my inbox where I could check it on my iPhone. Unfortunately, it means the hundreds of emails I receive daily from mailing lists were causing me to check email incessantly, often to be dissapointed to only find mailing list messages which could wait to be reviewed later. There had to be a better way.

My goal was to have mailing list email automatically filtered to the appropriate folder, skipping the inbox and the related notification(s) while allowing friends and family mail to hit my inbox where I was guaranteed to see it in a timely manner. This would require strong filtering on the server, which GMail provides (sort of... more on this in a moment). I also want to ensure that seen friends and family mail is filtered into the appropriate mailbox as well, requiring a filter that runs occassionally to move read mail to its organized spot in my mail hierarchy. Unfortunately, this is not supported by GMail.

What's a geek to do? While researching the use of labels for GMail I realized that I could have inbound email skip the inbox for mailing lists (yay!) and I could label friends and family mail with the appropriate label, i.e. [Gmail]/Friends, while retaining the default Inbox label as well. Mail.app treats Gmail labels as IMAP folders, therefore, mail labeled with Inbox and [Gmail]/Friends will appear in both my Inbox and my friends folder at the same time! More importantly, if I read the mail in either folder, it is automatically marked as read in both folders with a slight lag-time between IMAP folder synchronizations. But the best part is that if I delete the mail from Inbox, it only removes the Inbox label, effectively "archiving" the mail in my friends folder. Suh-weet! So how does this work in practice?

Let's say an email from a friend arrives and is placed in the inbox and friends folder. If I am using my iPhone, I receive a notification and read the email. I can delete the email from the inbox, removing the label and ensuring that it is archived in the Friends mailbox. If I am using Mail.app, I'll probably first notice the email in my Friends folder and read it there. In either case, it is marked as read and won't show in the unread count in either folder. This is almost ideal, except that when I am using Mail.app the email shows up in both mailboxes, a less than stellar behavior, but one I can deal with. Also, if I read the email in my Friends folder, a copy of the read email still remains in the Inbox where I have to manually delete it. I may handle this with a filter in Mail.app to clean up such occurrences in the future, but for now it doesn't seem to be a big issue since the vast majority of my email is from mailing lists.

The biggest problem I have so far is with Gmail's filtering. It is teh suck. I need a few abilities that it doesn't support:

Filter ordering and a "stop processing rules" function on filter actions. I need mailing list filters to run first and then friends, family and other filters. Too many people are friends and regular mailing list posters and I don't want to have mailing list mail show up in my inbox, the appropriate mailing list and my friends mailbox. For now, all friends filters must also contain a filter which doesn't match mail sent to mailing lists.
Filtering based on contact groups. Instead of writing a filter to use many different email addresses, all of which get pushed to the same folder, I should be able to filter based on the group a contact belongs to instead. This will make filter management a LOT easier.

Overall, I can't complain. For a free service this will meet my needs for the near future and save me a few bucks in the process.

Ubuntu Time Capsule Update

2009-02-22T13:37:00.003-05:00

I finally did a disaster recovery using my Ubuntu Time Capsule replacement. It took about 5 hours to recover a 160GB drive (95% full) over my home network. Started right up and worked like I had left off just a few hours before!

Here's the set up to use:

Start up from the MacOS X disk and open the Terminal from the Utilities menu. Type the following:

cd /Volumes
mkdir ./YOURDIRNAMEHERE
mount_afp -i afp://ip_address_of_ubuntu_box/VolumeName /Volumes/YOURDIRNAMEHERE
ls -al ./YOURDIRNAMEHERE

If you find the disk image volume in the listing, you're all set. Exit the terminal and using the Utilities menu you can select Restore from Backup Disk.

Sweet.

The Most Difficult Call...

2009-01-13T18:58:00.002-05:00

I just made what is possibly the most difficult call of my adult life: the call to schedule an appointment for Java to be euthanized. I'm sitting here with Java at my feet, crying while I type.

Java in the past year has has a number of medical issues: A huge mass in his abdomen, the baby-wipe swallowing incident(s), some type of gastrointestinal issues which caused a large case of the "vapors" emanating from either end and now, diabetes. The diabetes came on suddenly just before the end of the year. One day Java started looking thin, then we noticed he wasn't eating as much, then he wasn't eating at all. He was drinking excessively, and urinating excessively too. He was up at all hours of the night wanting to go outside, probably to drink and pee. We tried feeding him different food, more food, more different food, but he wouldn't eat enough to sustain himself.

One trip to the vet told us he had severe diabetes and was acid ketodotic. His glucose numbers were off the chart. Java has been on insulin since the 2nd, with his doses steadily increasing. We've tried twice now to get a glucose curve to check his response to the increasing insulin doses. These have been to no avail, his numbers are still off the chart. Java is now below 60 pounds, a shell of his former self, all skin and bones. He's now nicknamed "Kate Moss" for his lithe figure. Its easier to laugh about the situation than it is to cry over what we know is coming.

Java can no longer run around, walk up and down more than a handful of stairs and often has trouble getting up off the floor by himself. He spends most of each day in his bed, which has been moved downstairs since he can no longer go up to the bedroom. When he does get up to go outside, its a slow process as he carefully makes his way down the front steps and, sometimes, back up them. The past few nights I have carried him upstairs so he could sleep with us in the bedroom as he has always done. I have also been awaken by him each night to carry him downstairs and outside so he can "do his stuff."

When I picked him up at the vet yesterday we spoke about Java, this treatment and possible outcomes. He's never going to be the same dog again. We can continue to treat him and try to get his diabetes under control, but what else is wrong? What caused this sudden onset of diabetes? At 12 and 1/2 years old, he's a very senior dog. The average lifespan for a lab mix is 10 years.

Last night I knew what the next step should be. Steph and I discussed it ad nauseum, but it wasn't until this evening that we finally were able to make the decision.

The past twelve years have been great. Java has been my companion, my friend, my chick magnet (when he was a puppy!) and a part of my family. He's given me unconditional love, something we all need to learn a little more about. He's been with me as I was a struggling graduate student, trying to find my way in the world. As a grad school dropout, falling into computers and programming. He's been there through many (ex-) girlfriends, a wife, a new dog (Lucy) and the birth of Maya. He was Maya's protector when she was a newborn. I had hoped he'd be around as she grew older, since he is so well behaved with children...

I know I am doing what is best for Java, even though it feels like I am betraying him by failing to take care of him when he is most in need. He was always there for me when I needed him, I feel like I can't do the same right now... This would be so much easier if nature would take its own course, rather than forcing me to make this choice.

We've had a tradition for many years now. On every birthday Java gets an ice cream cone. First it was from McDonald's, later we found that Brewster's Ice Cream does a "dog bowl" which includes a small dog treat. Later this evening I'll be headed to Brewster's to buy Java one last cone. A big vanilla waffle cone, just for him. One last treat for my friend.

May peace be with you Java. You always be with me in my memories.

Ubuntu Geekery Part 2

2009-01-13T17:43:00.002-05:00

A few notes since I first got set up:

You can configure printers directly through the CUPS web interface.

Parallel printing was throwing off lots of errors and generally unreliable. I changed the printer to a USB connection with a USB -> Parallel cable and created a new printer through CUPS. Everything works like a charm!

ssh has been locked down to use keys instead of passwords and only allows specific users a remote login. Now this has been opened up to the world at large so I can ssh into the home server.

OpenVPN is set up and running, but I am still having some networking issues and no time to fix them...

Also up and running but not yet working is saned, a scanner daemon. I can't seem to get this working with my OfficeJet 5510, I may try a standalone scanner I have sitting around instead.

I still have yet to to a disaster recovery scenario to validate the backups... perhaps this weekend. The back up server has been rock solid, except for a minor hiccup with Steph's backups...

Geeking Out - Setting Up an Ubuntu Server

2008-12-21T09:52:00.009-05:00

I've been working on this project for a few weeks now and its finally coming to completion, so I thought I'd document it here so others can save some of the time and hassles I have had in getting to this point.

When I bought a new MacBook for myself, I convinced Steph to ditch her P.O.S. Windows XP machine and take my old MacBook. We now needed a few thing:

Home file server for sharing documents, photos, etc
Automated back up system (TimeMachine would be ideal, but I didn't want to purchase a TimeCapsule for the network based backups. I'm cheap!)
Shared printing (again, I'm cheap, I don't want to buy a new printer and my existing printers don't support networked printing)
Home-based VPN to allow me access to the home network when on the road

So the obvious solution was to repurpose Steph's old Dell box into a server to support our needs. Here's what I did:

First, I replaced the hard drve with an unused 160GB SATA drive I had sitting around. After burning a CD from an ISO of Ubuntu 8.10 Server (Intrepid Ibex), I installed the server and got it up and running on my home network with a static IP address. The server is called "papaya". The initial install included an ssh daemon for remote access so I could work away from the console. Eventually the box will be headless, but for now its connected to my home office KVM.

Next, I configured ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall) to start locking down services. First, set the firewall into the "default deny" mode (a.k.a. whitelisting of approved inbound connections):

sudo ufw default deny

And then I added a rule to allow inbound ssh from the local network:

sudo ufw allow proto tcp from 192.168.5.0/24 to 192.168.5.2 port 22

Next I installed netatalk to support AppleTalk, allowing me to connect my MacOS X systems to papaya's shared disks. I started with directions from here and here, but I found they didn't work exactly as presented, and I needed some tuning to make it work. (See the referenced links for more details on all of these steps, I just distilled this down to the most important info.)

First, install netatalk with encryption support (required by MacOS X):

sudo aptitude update
mkdir -p /tmp/src/netatalk
cd /tmp/src/netatalk
sudo aptitude install devscripts cracklib2-dev dpkg-dev libssl-dev
apt-get source netatalk
sudo apt-get build-dep netatalk
cd netatalk-2.0.3
sudo DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=ssl dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc
sudo debi
echo "netatalk hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections

Note the last line, it places a hold on any updates to netatalk when running updates on the Ubuntu server, this is necessary to prevent updates from breaking the installed version. Next I configured netatalk by editing a few files. First, /etc/default/netatalk was modified with the following configuration:

ATALKD_RUN=no
PAPD_RUN=no
CNID_METAD_RUN=yes
AFPD_RUN=yes
TIMELORD_RUN=no
A2BOOT_RUN=no

Next, edit /etc/netatalk/afpd.conf by adding the following line to the end of the file:

- -transall -uamlist uams_randnum.so,uams_dhx.so -nosavepassword -advertise_ssh

Now, configure your shared volumes in /etc/netatalk/AppleVolumes.default by adding the following lines to the end of the file (make sure its one line!):

/media/TimeMachine TimeMachine allow:username1,username2 cnidscheme:cdb options:usedots,upriv

This mounts a shared volume named TimeMachine located at /media/TimeMachine (your mount point may vary, this is an external 1TB USB drive at the moment). List the specific users who should be able to login to the share with their credentials. The remaining options have to do with dealing with invisible files/folders which are used by MacOS X. I actually created a handful of shares, each of them with different functions (TimeMachine, generic file share, etc.).

Now we restart netatalk:

sudo /etc/init.d/netatalk restart

Unfortunately, this share is not publicized to the local network, which I wanted for ease of use. So I set up Avahi, a daemon for Apple's Bonjour zero-configuration service:

sudo apt-get install avahi-daemon
sudo apt-get install libnss-mdns

Edit /etc/nsswitch.conf to add the mdns service to the end of the line beginning with hosts. In the end the line should look like:

hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4 mdns

Next, configure Avahi to publish the service. Create a file with the name /etc/avahi/services/afpd.service containing the following XML:

<?xml version="1.0" standalone='no'?>
<!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">
<service-group>
<name replace-wildcards="yes">%h</name>
<service>
<type>_afpovertcp._tcp</type>
<port>548</port>
</service>
<service>
<type>_device-info._tcp</type>
<port>0</port>
<txt-record>model=Xserve</txt-record>
</service>
</service-group>

Note that this sets up Avahi on port 548 and tells Avahi to publish the device as an XServe, which will make papaya appear as an XServe icon on any Macs connected to the network. Open port 548 to listen for inbound connections:

sudo ufw allow proto tcp from 192.168.5.0/24 to 192.168.5.2 port 548

Restart Avahi to publish the servers:

sudo /etc/init.d/avahi-daemon restart

Woohoo, now I have the server publishing its shares to the network which are seen by my Macs, as seen below.

Now we need to configure the Mac to be able to use papaya as a TimeCapsule without paying for Apple's hardware. Drop to a command line and run the following (on your Mac, not Ubuntu!):

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

Mount any of the remote volumes from the Mac and use the TimeMachine preferences to select the remote system for backups. TimeMachine will actually create a disk image on the remote system and utilize that image for its backup volume. Or, in my case, maybe not! But we can easily fix that. Use MacOS X Disk Utility to create a new disk image as a "sparsebundle disk image". The naming is very specific and in the format machine_name_MAC_ADDRESS.sparsebundle. For instance, if your machine name is joeyjr and the MAC address of the primary interface (en0) is 00:13:24:1f:12:10 then the name of the disk image should be:

joeyjr_0013241f1210.sparsebundle

Note that the MAC address separators have been removed. How do you find the MAC address of the primary adapter? Drop to a command line and execute the command ifconfig, it should return something like:

lo0: flags=8049 mtu 16384
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
gif0: flags=8010 mtu 1280
stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280
en0: flags=8863 mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::223:32ff:febf:cd2%en0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
inet 192.168.5.114 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.5.255
ether 00:23:32:bf:0c:d2
media: autoselect (100baseTX ) status: active
supported media: none autoselect 10baseT/UTP 10baseT/UTP 10baseT/UTP 10baseT/UTP 100baseTX 100baseTX 100baseTX 100baseTX 1000baseT 1000baseT 1000baseT
en1: flags=8863 mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::223:6cff:fe7f:5cd%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5
inet 192.168.5.3 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.5.255
ether 00:23:6c:7f:05:cd
media: autoselect status: active
supported media: autoselect
vmnet8: flags=8863 mtu 1500
inet 192.168.94.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.94.255
ether 00:50:56:c0:00:08
vmnet1: flags=8863 mtu 1500
inet 192.168.200.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.200.255
ether 00:50:56:c0:00:01

The lines after en0 refer to the primary adapter, in this case the ethernet adapter, and the MAC address is found on the line in bold.

Create a sufficiently large image (i.e. 500GB) (note: this image will only take a few MB until it is filled, so this can be done on a pretty full disk) and move it to the root of the share you wish to use for TimeMachine.

Mount the TimeMachine share from above. Open the System Preferences, choose the share as your TimeMachine volume and let it go to work. If you did everything correctly, bacups should begin. My 160GB backup took at least 8 hours, if not longer.

Now backups are great, but they only work for me if you can restore from them in a crisis. How do I define a crisis? Not restoring a file that has been accidentially deleted by using the TimeMachine application, that should work as long as I have the volume mounted. How about Installing MacOS on a blank drive and having the MacOS installer pull all of the data from your networked backup?

In theory, everything should work as follows. I have not done a full disaster recovery yet (though I will before I depend on this as my only backup solution) so take all of this with a large grain of NaCl. Boot from the install CD and start the terminal from the Utilities menu. In the terminal, mount your afp file share:

mkdir /Volumes/timemachine
mount_afp afp://username:password@papaya/TimeMachine /Volumes/timemachine

If the disk is mounted you should be able to find your .sparsebundle in the directory /Volumes/timemachine. Exit the terminal and now open the Restore from Backup utility. The restore utility will find the remotely mounted TimeMachine volume and allow you to restore from that point.

OK, we now know we can back up and restore from the backup. That's all good news. Let's get some printers set up. I have 2 HP printers, a HP LaserJet 1100 which runs on a paralell port, and a HP OfficeJet 5510 All-In-One, running from the USB port. First, ensure hp-lip and cups are installed:

sudo apt-get install hplip
sudo apt-get install cups

Run the hp-setup command to set up your printers (follow the prompts):

sudo hp-setup

Configure cups to listen on port 631 for remote printing and configuration by editing /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

# Allow remote access
Port 631
Listen /var/run/cups/cups.sock

And configure cups to allow remote administration at http://papaya:631/:

<Location />
Allow all
Allow all
# Allow shared printing and remote administration...
Order allow,deny
Allow all
</Location>
<Location /admin>
AuthType Default
Require user @SYSTEM
Allow all
# Allow remote administration...
Order allow,deny
Allow all
</Location>
<Location /admin/conf>
AuthType Default
Require user @SYSTEM
Allow all
# Allow remote access to the configuration files...
Order allow,deny
Allow all
</Location>

See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=736489 for more information on configuring cups. I'm not perfectly happy with this yet, I believe it can be locked down further, but its good for now.

Now, open the firewall to allow access on port 631:

sudo ufw allow proto tcp from 192.168.5.0/24 to 192.168.5.2 port 631

Restart cups:

sudo /etc/init.d/cupsys restart

Now I browse to http://papaya:631/ to manage configured printers. With the printer URLs in hand I can add remote printers to my MacOS X machines through the Printers preference pane. Printing on the LaserJet is a bit wonky at times, but printing to the OfficeJet is perfect. I still need to set up remote scanning, but that's a project for another day.

The VPN is still a work in progress. I'll post details on setting up OpenVPN once I have had chance to configure and test it completely.

(All the info posted herein is for informational purposes only. Use this at your own risk as I will provide no support.)

Maya Gets the Last Laugh

2008-08-16T19:46:00.003-04:00

Tonight we were finishing dinner when Maya started whining. Steph picked up up and held her while we finished eating when Maya suddenly burst out laughing. This continued for a minute or so before I ran for the camera and sat down to see if I could catch it.

I did catch a bit of her laughter, but she definitely got the last laugh.

Seattle

2008-07-31T21:05:00.000-04:00

We're back from Seattle, where we spent a week on vacation and
attended my cousin's wedding. I love Seattle! We always have so much
fun out there. This time was a bit different, Maya takes some extra
planning due to naps and feeding.

Highlights include dinner at Mashiko (sushiwhore.com) where we each
ate a beautiful chirashi - sashimi on a bowl of rice - while Maya
slept. Walking around the Fremont Sunday market. Running in Myrtle
Edwards Park on Elliot Bay. Dinner at Vios Cafe. Walking along the
piers with Steph and Maya.

I'm happy to be home... But I can't wait to go back!

Maya is Growing Up!

2008-07-24T23:36:00.001-04:00

It seems like it was only a few months ago that we brought Maya home from the hospital. (Oh, wait... it was!) Today she flipped herself from her belly to her back four times in a row, twice to each side! Yay Maya, you're growing up! Video of the momentous occasion will be posted when I have a moment to download and edit the files...

Linksys Wireless Routers & DD-WRT

2008-07-20T19:30:00.003-04:00

For a while now I have been planning to flash my routers (Linksys WRT54G and WRT150N) with either Sveasoft or DD-WRT. Last week one of the routers appeared to have finally died on me, a reset wouldn't work to coax it back to life and get Steph's computer back online. So I had nothing to lose by flashing the WRT54G.

The process itself was surprisingly simple and yields a wealth of options that are not in the original firmware on the router. I was so impressed, that I flashed with WRT150N today, as well. Now I am going to change my home network a bit. The N router will now serve up wireless on one SSID with WPA2 encryption, this is for all of my computers and any other devices in my house, like the Wii, which communicate wirelessly. I have also set up a second SSID on the same device for a public wireless network that friends and family can use if they are in range. On this public network I am hoping to use QoS to limit the bandwidth that any stranger can suck down. I'm also using QoS to hopefully improve the quality of my Vonage VOIP traffic when I am using the network heavily. I've got some more reading to do to ensure everything is set up correctly, but in theory it should work. I'm also planning to implement ipchains rules to prevent anyone on the public network from gaining access to the web based management console, but no luck on that one yet.

As for the other router, it will be moved downstairs and plugged into the TiVo. It will serve as a client, or possibly a bridge, in order to handle data from my DirecTV DVR, so I can get some of the on demand content that I am currently missing out on.

I don't get a lot of time to be a geek anymore, so this was a pretty fun project for a few hours. Not a bad experience to learn some more about wireless networking, as well... All in all, I'd recommend the upgrade to DD-WRT for anyone who owns a compatible router. I hope I can still say that in a few months time... but nothing can be worse the the Linksys default firmware...

I'm a Negligent Blogger

2008-07-17T17:04:00.005-04:00

Oops... It sure has been a while since posting. Some updates:

I'm now an instructor at the 6 AM Operation Boot Camp in Bitsy Grant Park. I run around a lot and yell (not at people, of course). And instruct. And sweat. Good times, I tell you. And I am still losing weight and inches. Which is an even better time. Today was bring a friend day and we had Super Phat Mikey from Star 94 come for the workout. See the video here. Can you spot me? Look for the Incredible Hulk green shoes doing fire hydrants... I have to say, Mikey did a great job. He should come work out with us more often... but probably at the 6 PM camp since he's at work when I'm working out.

Peachtree Road Race: I ran it and didn't die. 1 hour 6 minutes. Just a bit longer than I would have liked to have run the race in — an hour was the goal — but I am still happy to have completed it. Next year I will avoid getting soaked on the course from the various water spraying contraptions. Wet shoes are heavy. Duh. The post-race drinking was good. The post-race drinking was, however, interrupted with some tastless, racist remarks from someone who shall remain nameless. I won't be hanging out with said person any more. And if he truly hopes to run for office... well I hope his remarks come back to bite him in the ass. (Had I not been inebriated, my comeback would have been much more swift than the half-assed "That was... off-color..." pun that flew out of my mouth.)

Next 10k is the US 10k Classic on Labor Day. Is there a half-marathon in my future? Perhaps...

Java is not dead yet. Thankfully. Dumbass has probably stopped eating baby wipes for a while.

I still don't have a damn iPhone. Because I have a business discount I can't buy it at the Apple Store. AT&T still has none in stock and their customer service still sucks. No surprises.

We bought a new car. The POS Passat is no longer, we replaced it with a 2009 Subaru Outback XT. This is the turbo model, nice and fast. Not that I can really open it up until the 1000 mile break-in period is done with. No more VWs for me, thanks. And Jim Ellis VW can bite my butt, they are the worst dealer in the Atlanta area for any kind of sales or service. I highly recommend Classic Cadillac and Subaru in Roswell.

I met up with the Atlanta People With Blogs Who Get Together To Drink at 6 Feet Under for dinner. And drinks. Good times were had by all. And it helped me reconnect with an old friend. I've known Tami since my IRC days back in the early 90's when I was in grad school. We've all grown up and moved on since then, but it was nice to reconnect. Maybe she'll come out to drink next time?

We're headed off on vacation to Seattle soon... more on that when we get there.

Maya is still cute as hell. No surprises there...

Java, Long Runs and Family Trees

2008-06-22T21:23:00.002-04:00

Lots of little updated combined into one here...

Java is fine. He is eating and gaining weight and back to himself. We finally had someone come and deal with mowing the yard after the lawnmower died (again), and found lots of wipes that Java had eaten. He was trying a little intestinal roto-rooter. Yuck. We have stopped putting any wipes in any unsealed garbage can.

I ran 7 miles yesterday from Big Peach Running Company in Buckhead, down to 10th and Peachtree in Midtown. (Map) This was my longest run yet in both mileage and time (1 hour 17 min). My pace was slower than I'd like for the Peachtree at around 11 minutes/mile, I'd love to get this just below 10 min/mile for the Peachtree. Two weeks more running to work on that.

Finally, I have started building a family tree for Maya. This was spawned from Steph buying a baby book to document her life in. There is a spot for a family tree, but Steph wasn't sure how to go about filling it in. So I used Ancestry.com to put one together. I now know more about my family tree than I ever could have imaged. Most of it is on my father's side, but I am working to fill in more on my mom's side too. I'm shocked that I can trace back 6 generations from Maya to her great-great-great-great grandmothers Pauline Edelstein (maiden name? married name?), Sarah Berkman (married name, maiden unknown) and great-great-great-great grandfather Harris Berkman, all born in the early/mid 19th century. Most of the trails backwards lead to Russia, Poland, etc., so I doubt I'll find much prior to their emigration to the US, but it's been fun anyway.

Java Health Update

2008-06-15T21:00:00.003-04:00

Two days have passed and Java seems to be eating regularly, looking healthier and generally feeling better. But he is still super skinny, so we're doing the ultrasound tomorrow to see what, if anything, is going on with him...

Happy Father's Day to Me!

2008-06-15T10:36:00.003-04:00

I started the day with a ~5 mile trail run at Sope Creek... a great beginning to my first father's day. And much more fun/interesting than running on the road. After visiting with some family, Steph, Maya, the dogs and I plan on spending the remainder of the day together. Other than a few hours work later today, it's my day to be lazy.

Yay for mostly lazy Sundays...

Java's Health

2008-06-13T22:44:00.002-04:00

Java is once again giving us a health scare. After returning from Asia Steph and I both discussed that Java was looking skinny and then he stopped eating for a few days. Before heading to Boston we went to our vet to get a check up. Java has been known to raid the trashcan, but it appears he has been stealing used wet wipes from the trash can (not diaper genie!) in Maya's room. Java lost 7 lbs since February, about 10% of his body weight! We put him on some meds and wet food and he appeared to be getting better and was eating regularly.

Yesterday Java stopped eating again. He is back on medication from the vet and did eat some today, but is now refusing food again late this evening.

He's skinny. Scary, heroin chic skinny. I brushed him tonight and he is bony, I can feel most of his spine on his lower back quite easily. His tail is down, he is seemingly weak and lethargic and not acting like himself at all.

I'm not sure what the next step is. We'll call the vet tomorrow, they may try an ultrasound to see if he has a blockage which they can remove. But for tonight all I can do is go to bed and hope that Java is as stubborn now as he has been the rest of his life. If he is, he'll pass whatever may be inside him, if anything, gain weight and get back to being the happy "old man" that he was just a few weeks ago...

Coming Home From Boston

2008-06-07T21:59:00.000-04:00

We're on the way home from a quick trip up to Boston, flying somewhere over the eastern US. The flight is pretty empty, so Steph, Maya and I have 3 seats together, allowing Maya to sit in her car seat for the flight. The girls are both passed out...

We came up on Thursday to visit my grandparents, Maya's great-grandparents, as well as my aunt Robin and uncle Ronnie. Due to their advancing age, my grandparents aren't able to travel any longer. This was an important trip for us to make, however, it was not about a vacation or doing something for our own enjoyment. The timing couldn't have been worse with my recent crazy travel schedule and lack of time alone with both Steph and Maya. Instead, this trip was about being selfless, giving of ourselves to provide some happiness to others. We made the trip solely for Grandma & Grandpa so they could meet Maya, spend time with her, hold her and get to "know" her at this very cute stage of her life. I know we brightened their days by introducing them to their fourth great-grandchild, making the difficulty of the trip worthwhile.

Maya, for the most part, was an angel. She has been extremely well behaved on the flights to and from Boston and in the airport at either end. She's been a pleasure to travel with, but it amazes me how much crap one little girl needs! Instead of traveling with a single suitcase and my backpack, we've got 2 suit cases, my backpack, a diaper bag, pack and play (portable crib), stroller and car seat. Holy crap, that's a LOT of stuff to travel with. Our days of traveling light are over for a while, I guess.

We're all looking forward to getting home, getting back on a normal schedule and... What's normal anymore? While Maya is going back to her schedule with Steph, I won't be on any kind of normal schedule as I am traveling to Newark tomorrow and then down to Baltimore Monday through Thursday for work. Perhaps in July I might get to spend some quality time at home with Steph and Maya...

Coming home...

2008-05-31T13:10:00.002-04:00

5/30 8 PM EDT

Its now 9 AM (5/31) local time in Korea. I got here this morning at 6 AM on the red-eye from Singapore. I hardly slept. I'm exhausted and just trying to stay awake at the moment. I'm sitting at Incheon Airport waiting to find out if I managed to get a standby seat on the 10 AM flight to Atlanta. If not, I'll be here — Korea, not the airport I hope — until 6 PM tonight. I'm hoping like crazy that I'm not here all day, it will make an already long trip that much longer. I should know in 20 minutes whether or not luck is working in my favor today. If not, I can't complain. I accepted the 12 hour layover here originally because it was the least expensive business class fare I could get ($6000 round trip), fitting within my budget for this engagement. Now I'm thinking about what a fool I was. Ooops. Lesson learned. I should have spent the night in Singapore instead.

(A cute, but strange, Japanese girl just sat next to me to practice her English. We exchange pleasantries and she asks me where I am from, so I tell her the US. Then she tells me she is some kind of student, something unintelligible, followed by "peace student". I flashed her a peace sign and asked her if that's what she means and she says yes. She then shows me something god oriented and starts explaining... I shooed her away. She didn't get the concept of atheism, but I didn't try that hard to explain. Perhaps now that I am alone again the deaf gentleman will come back and pester me for money for the third time...)

In the airport there is paid WiFi. But you have to have a Windows machine since the online purchasing requires an ActiveX control that won't run without Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to run with Internet Explorer all that well either! I did find an open AP and I have been using it off and on to check email and call Steph to let her know of my progress. Obviously, its how I managed to write this, as well. For a world class airport, one ranked best in the world along with Singapore's Changi, this is pretty pathetic. Come to think of it, I had the same issue last night at Changi, but I wasn't sitting there for innumerable hours, bored to tears. *sigh*

Off to check and see if I got on the flight...

5/30 9 PM EDT

W00t! I got on the flight. Its Korean Air, which has less comfy business class seats the the Delta flight I took to Shanghai, but it gets me home at 10 AM today (i.e. I leave here at 10 AM 5/31 local time, arrive in ATL at around 10 AM 5/31 local time) instead of 7 PM on Saturday. 14 hours of flying, no puking. At least one can hope. ;-)

5/31 6:21 AM

En route to Atlanta right now, we're just coming off of the Pacific ocean near the British Columbia/Washington border. Almost home.

Earlier in the flight I watched the season finale of Desperate Housewives, an episode of Everest: Beyond The Limit, ate a bowl of bibimbap and passed out (chemically enhanced by Ambien, but no alcohol and no puking). 5 hours of relaxing sleep later, we just had "breakfast", some kind of beef soup, noodles, rice and Korean pickles. They make pretty decent food on Korean Air, I'd fly them again. Now I am watching The Bucket List and staring at the monitor watching the plane creep ever so slowly across North America. I'll be seeing my Maya Papaya in a few hours! I think she's been a bit of a pain in the butt to Steph lately, their drive to and from Florida was apparently less than stellar. Maybe she just needs some daddy time. I certainly need some of that myself.

The past few weeks have been really hard. Everyone told me that I would stop traveling after Maya arrived. I didn't, and I don't wish I had. But when it rains, it pours, and the travel has been crazy lately. Since Maya's birth I have done trips to NJ, TX, central GA, and Singapore. In the next few weeks I will be in Boston, NYC, Baltimore and Chicago. And that's just before the end of June! So I clearly have not stopped traveling, but the trips are different now. I'm traveling too much, and feeling guilty that I am missing Maya as she "grows up". I know that she has a long way to grow, but she changes every time I see her. When I call or come home after I a trip I find out that she is making new noises, smiling more, etc. Will I miss her first time crawling? First word? On the other hand, I work from home when I am not on the road. So I get to spend more time with Maya during those weeks than most of the dads I know who don't travel, but spend their lives at work.

I don't want to miss these one time events in Maya's life, but this is my job. I love the job, and the opportunities it provides and my wife and daughter. Can one be put above the other? My job allows us the very nice and comfortable life that we live, both in material things like houses, and experiences like traveling around the world (vacation, not work), putting money away for Maya to attend the school of her choice someday and (hopefully) early retirement for Steph and I. We have no needs that go unfulfilled and want for nothing. (Well, I'd love a convertible, but I hardly drive any miles these days, so its a total waste of money.)

Are the tradeoffs worthwhile? Will I some day look back and wish I had made a different choice? I just don't know. I do know I am greatly looking forward to giving her a big kiss when I see her soon. I'm not quite looking forward to cleaning a poopy diaper, but I have to take the good with the bad and relieve Steph of her duties (doodies?) with Maya.

1:10 PM 5/31

I am finally in the house with Steph, Maya and the dogs. It is good to be home!

Bye, bye Singapore

2008-05-30T07:10:00.004-04:00

I'm sitting in th executive lounge of my hotel in Singapore, looking out over SunTec City and the city beyond while I wait for my flight. This has been an interesting trip, no doubt, but I'm happy to be headed home. Will I be back? Probably. Will I eat my way through the city again? Absolutely. Will I be a bit more touristy? Sure, why not! I might even check out the Night Safari if I get the chance. Unfortunately, too much work and too little time left little time for me to explore the city after last weekend.

Things to do next time I am back:

Check out more hawker centers for lunch and or dinner. Visit Lau Pa Sat on the weekend for satay again.
Eat more chili crab. And white pepper crab. And any other crab I can get my grubby hands on.
Go back to Muthu's Curry for dinner. I had lunch at the outlet in SunTec City Mall today and it was amazingly good. And super spicy, in a good way.
Find some chicken rice. I know its the local specialty and I was supposed to eat it during my stay. Somehow I screwed that up.
Eat more laksa.
Drink more Guinness Foreign Extra Stout while avoiding the local craptacular brewpubs. (Oh, Brewerkz was OK, but The Pump Room was total shit.)
Shop less. I don't want to visit another damn mall anytime soon.
Take more pictures. I failed on this count.
Drink a Singapore Sling. Yes, I managed to not have any whilst staying here.

Clearly, I have a lot to do next time around. Amazingly they all seem to focus on food. Hmmm, is eating the national pastime?

Last night in Singapore

2008-05-29T07:06:00.002-04:00

My time here is coming to an end. It has been fun, but I've been gone a long time (7 days) and won't make it home until Saturday night around 8 PM. I'm totally missing Maya and Steph right now.

I felt like my jet lag got better through the week, but tonight I'm just absolutely spent. Its 7 PM and the gin and tonic I had in the lounge has totally knocked me out. I was hoping to go out for one last nice Singaporean meal tonight, but I fear I am probably going to stick close to the hotel due to the incoming storms and my sleepiness. Teaching all week definitely takes its toll...

Last night I met a local for dinner. While I forget where we went for dinner, we ate an amazingly large amount and variety of Chinese food. Celeste would probably correct me and tell me it was Cantonese or Haianese or something else, but at the moment I forget what it is exactly. No matter, it was all good stuff that I would never find at home. Admittedly, I felt like a bit odd eating with Celeste since there are some significant cultural differences between how we eat. For instance, in Singapore people eat with a fork and spoon, using the fork to push food on to the spoon. No knife. I was totally klutzy trying this. I am sure I was even less graceful with my chopsticks, making a fool of myself. Do I pick the bowl of rice/soup up toward my mouth when eating or is that rude? I'm such a clueless American. But I'm learning!

However, it was a good time overall. I learned a bit of Singaporean culture and world view while sharing some American culture with her. I learned about SPGs (Sarong Party Girls), the fact that women (men?) can't rent an apartment until they are 35 or married, and the concept of a 3 room or 4 room (apartment with 3 or 4 rooms + kitchen) and the fact that Singapore is a "fine" country (in other words, you get fined for anything and everything possible). This is a bit of an odd country. Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore...

Its time for dinner, then I need to pack my bags. I'm leaving after class tomorrow on a 10:50 PM flight to Seoul. I'll spend Saturday in Seoul before heading home to Atlanta to see my beautiful wife and daughter. And those crazy dogs, too...

I spoke to soon...

2008-05-25T00:58:00.004-04:00

Jet lag sucks.

I thought I was doing OK, but around 7 PM last night I was completely zonked. I grabbed some dinner, called Steph around 9 PM and then, magically, I was awake again. I finally went to bed around 11 PM. I woke up at 1 AM and tossed and turned with some really freaky dreams until 3 AM. And then I was up for the rest of the morning. Tonight I'm going back to the Ambien, I need my beauty rest.

After a full morning of running around Little India I'm spent. Its time for a nap.

Flickr Photos

2008-05-24T07:15:00.002-04:00

Of course my photos from Singapore will be making their way to Flickr...

I'm (Somewhat) Famous!

2008-05-24T06:29:00.002-04:00

I almost forgot to mention this!

As I was flying into Singapore, I flipped through a copy of Atlanta Sports & Fitness Magazine. I ran across this article and thought the pictures looked familiar.

Of course they look familiar, I took them! Too bad I didn't get credit, but these were all taken by me during the 2007 Hike For Discovery season. (The hard copy has a few more images, but John Donaghy, who is shown in the picture coming up the switchbacks on the approach to Half Dome, spent a lot of "quality" time with me that day. You know what I'm talking about, John.)

Saturday in Singapore

2008-05-23T23:51:00.004-04:00

So its my first full day here in Singapore. Some initial thoughts:

The city is clean. Really clean. The only foul smells anywhere are from some of the stalls selling raw fish or other dried fish products that have that have a funky, fish out in the open on a hot as balls day smell to them.

It is hot. Damn hot. I walked around from ~8 AM until 11:30 AM and I am just dripping with sweat. Hot and humid, two great tastes that go great together. Bugis and the Arab district (Arab St, Hajj Lane) were the destinations of the morning. Mostly aimless wandering and some photos now and again as I orient myself. I did some shopping on Arab St. and found a nice present for Steph and some potential batik fabrics which we could hang in our entry way. Gotta check with the boss first and see if she approves before buying them.

Eating here is quite fun. First I ran into a fruit stand with some cut open dragon fruit, something I had never tried. So I bought a piece, it reminded me of a firm, purple kiwi, but not as tart. The hawker also convinced me to try some jackfruit, it was nothing special. I walked around the hawker food stalls in Bugis and sat down with some seafood laksa (seafood coconut milk soup, yum! I'm sure this was much better than what was featured on Top Chef last week), a Guinness Foreign Extra Stout and then a cool glass of soya milk to soothe my burning tongue. That laksa was seriously spicy but so very good. And cheap! All in I spent about US $6.

No signs of jet lag yet. I slept about 6 hours last night (1 AM - 7 AM, thanks Ambien!). Since the middle of the day is the hottest, I'm going to chill at the hotel for a bit before exploring a bit more tonight, possibly in Little India. I'll be poking around Wikitravel further to see if there is anything else that I need to see on my 2 days off here before work begin

Howdy from Singapore

2008-05-23T11:15:00.004-04:00

Some random notes from today's 24 hours of travel...

5/22/08 2:21 PM EDT

Here I am on Delta from Atlanta to Shanghai in Seat 1A as I travel the first leg of my trip to Singapore. We’re just northwest of Wabamun, Alberta and headed on a northwesterly course toward the Canadian Rockies. I’m well fed — yes, the airline food was surprisingly good in Business Elite, though not the Chik-fil-A chicken biscuit I wanted — tired of working and ready to catch some sleep to stave off the inevitable jet lag. A glass of bourbon and Ambien were both consumed 90 minutes ago. The cabin lights are down, ear plugs shoved into my ears to block out the cabin noise and my eye shade pulled over my eyes.

I’m wide awake. My well intentioned plan to force myself to sleep on Singaporean time (exactly 12 hours ahead of Atlanta) to stave off some of the inevitable jet lag is not working. Sure, I’m yawning a bit and I think I did nap for 15 or 20 minutes but real sleep is escaping me right now. With 9+ hours to go until we land in Shanghai, this is going to be one long flight if this keeps up. Perhaps after a little more work and a movie or two things will change. However, with an estimated arrival in Shanghai at 1:50 PM Friday (1:50 AM EDT) and a two hour layover before my next leg to Singapore, things are not looking so hot right now.

5/22 4:58 PM EDT

I've been sneezing my head off for 90 minutes. So glad I dumped my normal cache of cold meds based on horror stories about heading into Singapore. Still no sleep, but I did finish the report that was hanging over my head. We're over Alaska now, due north of Anchorage. 8.5 hours of flying time to go. Yes, it seems like it should be less, but for some reason the landing time keeps changing.

Ambien, take 2: Double bourbon on the rocks and 10 mg of Ambien. With any luck this will knock me out for the remainder of this leg. Until that sets in, I'm going to watch some bad TV...

5/23 2:59 AM EDT

About an hour outside of Shanghai at the moment. For the past hour or so I have been feeling pretty crappy, swinging between hot and cold. I was brought food which I couldn't manage to eat. As my stomach began giving me a hint that something was not right I walked to the front lavatory. Full. Turned around to go to the back lavatory. Full.

Turned around again and I puked in the middle of the aisle in business class. All over the floor, my shirt, everything. The good news: The mess I made is significantly far back in business class where I don't have to smell it until we get off this plane. But I think the flight attendant who came upon me in my puking glory is not so happy. Glad I had a change of clothes in my carry-on luggage.

I can't wait to get off this flight for a bit so I can stretch out and put some simple food in my belly.

5/23 7 AM (EDT)

After a layover in Shanghai, where I ate some good noodles and dumplings in soup along with some green tea to soothe my stomach, I'm on the way to Singapore. While in Shanghai I learned that I forgot to enable international roaming on my cell phone. Oops. I tried to call AT&T via Skype, but it was too early in the morning for that to have worked. Of course Steph and Maya will be awake and awaiting my call when I arrive in Singapore, they will have to wait until I reach the hotel.

Sitting on the plane I have my Singaporean immigration card in front of me. In BIG RED LETTERS it reads "WARNING DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICKERS UNDER SINGAPORE LAW". They take their laws seriously, too. Of course, I have had a stuffy nose for hours and would love to have some Dayquil about now, but I dumped it all on my desk at home lest I be considered trafficking in Dayquil.

This flight is nice, quiet and very clean. The flight attendants are all beautiful Chinese women who are unfailingly polite, even when their English is a bit shaky. I passed out when we took off, catching about 2 hours of much needed sleep. When I woke I was immediately asked if I wanted dinner. Sure, why not? So dinner is brought to me — mostly not worth eating, IMHO — and she asked if I'd like a beer.

Would I like a beer? Uh, lady, HELL YES! Before I get the chance to find out what kind of beer she might offer me she is gone. In a flash she's back and has poured something out of a silver can with a mix of Chinese and English. Its yellow. Its fizzy. Its BUD ICE! Was she being stereotypical and giving the nice, sleepy eyed American gentleman what he would drink at home? I took a sip. Yuck. <snark>I love beers with no flavor to speak of other than cooked corn. </snark> So I ask her if she has anything else. Tsingtao and Lan Cang River (LCR) Beer. Who am I to pass up on the chance to try yet another disappointingly bad beer? I was right, it was no better than the icy silver bullet that came before it. I'll stick to water for now.

I am completely over sitting my ass in a plane and staring at the map of where we have been and where we are going. At least this time its in both English and Chinese, ensuring that I learn the symbols set of our soon to be overlords. We're off the east coast of Vietnam at the moment (all I can think of is Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam as Adrian Kronauer singing "Follow the Ho Chi Minh Trail!" as if he were a munchkin from Oz. Or, seeing Da Nang on the map. In the movie he fakes the weather report from Da Nang. "How hot is it?" "It's so damn hot I saw one of those little men in the orange robes burst into flames! It's that hot, you know what I'm talkin' 'bout?"). In 2 more hours we should be landing in Singapore.

The next question is one of jet lag. I'm surprisingly awake. I have slept, perhaps 6 or 8 hours in the past 20 hours since I left Atlanta. But when I actually go to put my head on the pillow tonight, what's going to happen? Anyone's guess at this moment. Though I think I may avoid the Ambien and bourbon routine, that didn't seem to work out so well on the last flight and may have been the reason I blew chunks.

5/23 11:22 AM EDT

I'm in my hotel. I have no need for sleep. But I do need food. Jet lag is going to suck.

Catching Up

2008-05-10T20:37:00.006-04:00

Lot's of little things to catch up on here...

On 5/2 Maya turned a month old. On 5/3 we had a baby naming at our house, both celebrating her birth, her identity and our 5 year anniversary! Happy anniversary, Schmu!

On 5/5 we celebrated Cinco de Mayo. Not. It was, however, Java's 12th birthday which we celebrated — a day late, mind you — with our twice annual "dogs eating ice cream at Bruster's" day. Ice cream was enjoyed by all, except Maya who got her's second hand.

We had Moms on Call come out this week to help us with some of the baby care basics that nobody ever teaches you. Most importantly, however, is that they teach you how to help your baby sleep longer in the night so we can get more sleep. They promise you'll be able to get your baby to sleep from 9:30 PM until 2:30 AM (or later), have a feeding and then sleep until 6:30 (or later) using their techniques. I thought it might be BS, but indeed, it works! Maya is being a total angel and letting mom get some much needed sleep.

Living in Atlanta, we not only have the book to refer to, we also had one of the authors come to teach us her methods along with 6 months follow up support via email. The hands on time was fabulous, we both learned a lot and felt our time and money was very, very well spent. However, I did have one minor issue:

When we were speaking about nighttime rituals, Jennifer asked us about our faith. I politely told her we don't subscribe to one. I figured that would be the end of it. However, she pressed on, wanting to know in what faith were we brought up. We responded that we were brought up Jewish. She then went on to tell us how we should talk to Maya as we get her ready for bed, telling her how someday she'll go to temple, recite prayers, etc. I can appreciate that her nighttime rituals include reading bible stories to her kids (Steph tells me this is mention in their book). However, I am an atheist, I don't believe in god, the bible or any other religious texts. Why can't we talk about the dogs, our family, things that are important to us?

As I am always reminded when consulting, there are three topics never to be broached with clients: religion, politics and money. Again, this is a minor quibble (less than 2 minutes out of 2.5 hours we spent together) and I'd hire her again in an instant, perhaps after explaining to her that my beliefs are as strong and important to me as hers are to her. Reading their website now, I see that they are both quite religious. Perhaps if I had known this before our meeting I would have been more direct with her regarding how we desire to raise Maya with respect to religion when the question was raised.

I ran 4.5 miles yesterday in about 45 minutes. My longest solid run yet, albeit pretty slow. I was using my heart rate monitor, trying to maintain a relatively steady heart rate in the 75 - 85% range. I'm going for a run again tomorrow, today was on off day, and I'll try to break 5 miles. Working toward the magical 6.2 for the Peachtree in less than 2 months time.

Finally, today Maya went on her first hike to Kennesaw Mountain. She didn't do much hiking, just a lot of sleeping as Steph, Lucy and I did all the hard work. I'm looking forward to her being older and able to sit up on her own. By that point I should have a baby backpack to put her in for longer adventures...

Jonquil Jog 5k

2008-04-27T09:16:00.002-04:00

I ran my second 5k yesterday in 28 minutes 16 seconds, taking almost 2 minutes off my previous 5k time. Considering I was sick the entire previous week, I'm pretty damn happy with that time.

Next time I have to find a 10k as I get ready for the Peachtree Road Race on July 4th...

Nalgene Bottles, Bisphenol A and REI

2008-04-21T22:38:00.004-04:00

It has become hard to avoid the news over Bisphenol A (BPA) lately (here, here, here and many, many more). As an avid water drinker — in addition to beer, of course! — I have sworn off plastic disposable water bottles for a while now and mainly used my trusty Nalgene water bottles. Made of lexan (polycarbonate) it is nearly indestructible and was always with me on hikes.

No more Nalgene bottles for me, however. With the recent news of Bisphenol A, I swore off my old-school Nalgene bottles (at last count, I think we had 6 of various forms in the house) and went to REI to buy a new bisphenol A free water bottle. Here's where things get interesting: REI has voluntarily removed all bottles containing BPA from their shelves! According to their staff they are only selling BPA free bottles, predominantly from CamelBack. Cool, nice job REI, I'm glad to see you out ahead of this issue.

But wait, there's more! If you bought any BPA containing bottles from REI under an REI membership, you can return them for a full refund! Sadly, many of my bottles predate my membership, but at least one bottle is being returned for a refund. Two more bottles, neither of which appear on my membership purchasing history, have REI labels printed on the bottle, so I hope to return these as well so I can replace them with new BPA free bottles.

REI, once again, you prove what a great company you are. Your customer friendly policies will have me coming back and paying (sometimes) high prices again and again.

Home With Maya - 2 Weeks In

2008-04-20T22:00:00.002-04:00

We've been home with Maya for a 2 weeks now. She's sleeping very well, allowing both of us some much needed rest, though not as much as we had before she came along. All in all, she's been a great baby. We've taken her on a few brief outings (Ikea, Muss & Turner's, Costco, Atlantic Station, REI and, of course, Babies R' Us). I even managed to get Steph to relax enough to take her out for dinner twice.

I started right back with Operation Boot Camp on Monday after we came home from the hospital. I have missed a few days due to being really tired, the crazy pollen count and, now, to a head cold. I've also gone back to work, but it has been an odd transition. Steph is still not allowed to drive, so I have to take her and Maya out any time there is something we need to do (get a birth certificate, etc.). So the work week was tough. But Maya, Steph and the dogs have been pretty cooperative with me, allowing me to work at home with minimal disruptions so far. Plus, its always nice to see Maya during the day when I take a break!

This week is the big test: A 2 day trip to NJ for work. Steph will be able to drive again, so she and Maya will have freedom to go do whatever it is that ladies do. I'm a bit more concerned about how well I'm going to handle the transition...

Maya's Birthday Box o' Beer

2008-04-07T21:20:00.006-04:00

I'm putting together a list of beers to lay down in the cellar for the next 21 years (give or take a few days) to share with Maya when she's old enough to legally imbibe. (I'm getting nothing out of this. I swear. Its all for her. Yup, it will pain me to drink these in 21 years... or 18 if current legislation in 7 states has its way...)

Here's what I have on the to-buy list so far:

J.W. Lees Harvest Ale (2008 vintage, whenever I can find it in stores)
Thomas Hardy's Ale (2008 vintage, whenever I can find it in stores)
Other barleywines... both American and English. I'll see what I run across in 2008...
Dogfish Head World Wide Stout
Dogfish Head Raison d'Extra
Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA
Some kind of lambic or gueuze probably from Brasserie Cantillon, which we visited in 2003.
Samichlaus Bier
Chimay Grande Reserve
Trappistes Rochefort 10
Gouden Carolus Carolus D'Or - Cuvée Van De Keizer
Westvleteren 12 (yeah, like I can get my hands on some?

Of course, if anything interesting should come out this year, that will probably get added to the beer box, too. Hopefully work travel will pick up soon, many of these beers, particularly the Dogfish Head brews, aren't available in Georgia due to our 14% ABV cap on beers...

Maya's First Night at Home

2008-04-06T10:00:00.003-04:00

Last night was Maya's first spent at home. We were prepared for a difficult evening with little sleep, however, we got more sleep than we expected! Maya was a very good girl last night, allowing us both to get a reasonable amount of sleep. I managed to get 6+ hours between diaper changes and comforting Maya in the middle of the night. Steph actually managed 4 - 5 hours of sleep Steph between feedings.

The dogs met Maya for the first time last night. Java was quite curious about the little squirming, crying thing in our arms. Lucy wanted nothing to do with Maya. And then Maya started crying. Java started barking. They had a little chorus going, but the tune wasn't something you could dance to. Nor would it become a number 1 hit anytime soon. Then the cutest thing happened. We were getting ready for bed. Maya was swaddled in her crib when she began crying. Java immediately jumped up, ran to her room and paced around, worried about Maya! He was so cute! I think he's going to be her little protector.

Tomorrow we're seeing the pediatrician for Maya's first appointment. Since we're not going to feed Maya formula we plan on getting a breast pump from the hospital tomorrow, as well. Steph can pump and put away milk which will allow me to take on some of the feedings with Maya. I hope this will allow Steph to get the rest she needs to recover fully from surgery while making the best use of my paternity leave from work. Of course, I am also anxious to be able to take Maya out for a walk or a trip to the store sometime soon while Steph catches a well deserved nap. Unless I have a food supply that is mobile, i.e. a bottle of milk, that's not going to be a possibility.

Once I go back to work, we're going to have to find a schedule that works for us with respect to feedings and sleep so that we are both able to function... we have a week or so to figure that one out. Since I work at home, we'll also need to figure out how I can find the time and space I need to be fully functional with Mom and a new baby at home. Perhaps it is time to build an office in the basement...?

Maya's First Day Home

2008-04-05T15:14:00.002-04:00

Steph and Maya came home today, yay! The dogs are down at Wag-A-Lot in daycare at the moment, but they'll come home soon to meet the newest addition to the family. That should be... interesting.

I can see the scene unfolding in my mind's eye: Java takes one look, a quick sniff and thinks "WTF is this little thing? It smells of baby powder! It sure is loud, too!" Lucy, on the other hand, will get a worried look on her face as she realizes that she is still at the bottom of the hierarchy in our home. Then she'll run away, tail tucked firmly between her legs, never wanting to meet the little squirming thing in the cute yellow onesie.

A Baby Story...

2008-04-04T15:56:00.006-04:00

People have been asking what happened during Maya's birth that made it "not as planned", so here's the whole sordid tale. Most of it was great, just the last few hours or so where things went south quickly...

Around 6 AM Steph woke up with regular contractions. I woke up shortly after and we discussed her contractions before I left the house for a life insurance physical. By the time I returned, the contractions were coming regularly, every 10 - 12 minutes or so. This is usually referred to as "early labor".

I called work and let them know I was taking the day off to be with Steph in case this was "it". We then headed down to Memorial Park for a walk along Peachtree Creek with the dogs. Slow, steady contractions continued as we walked. The dogs definitely knew something was going on, you could just tell by the way they were acting, but of course they had no idea what was yet to come.

We then made a run up to Muss & Turner's to see my cousin Todd (aka "Muss"), his wife and one of their children over lunch. Throwing caution to the wind I had the M&T version of a sloppy joe and some fries. Good stuff indeed, especially since I haven't eaten that kind of food in more than a month! (Yes, Greg, Molly, et. al, I ate unhealthy, fattening food and I enjoyed it!) We had a leisurely lunch before heading down to the OB for an previously scheduled appointment. At this point we are indeed in early labor, and Steph was 1.5 cm dilated. The doctor advised us we're probably be parents in 24 hours or less...

Apparently, much less than 24 hours, as we would soon find out.

We called our doula to let her know our progress and headed home to labor. Things started progressing quickly. Contractions became stronger and closer together over the next few hours. We were in contact with our doula a few times as we waited for the magical "contractions spaced 5 minutes apart consistently for 1 hour" which signifies the change into active labor and the time at which we're supposed to call the doctor's answering service and head to the hospital.

About 20 minutes into timing contractions which were about 5 minutes apart, Steph was having real pain. My wife is tough, she has put up with a lot of painful things in her life, but she was really struggling. I was at a loss for what to do to help her. Feeling pretty helpless I called our doula. She gave me some advice to have Steph labor in the tub which we did, but the pain continued to grow and the timing of Steph's contractions grew shorter, coming every 3 - 4 minutes. I felt completely helpless, there was nothing I could do to relieve her pain. Both of us were in tears at this point. The dogs felt equally out of control. Java was barking and Lucy had a very worried look on her face and tail between the legs. Oy!

I called the doula again for advice. She questioned our technique for measuring the timing of contractions and questioned the amount of pain that Steph was dealing with. Neither of us felt as if she was being helpful or truly engaged with us at this point. When we both stated our intention to go to the hospital, she gave us a choice: she could meet us at Piedmont Hospital (~45 miles from her home) or we could call after Steph was "checked" by the doctor. The question was clearly loaded, she did not feel as if we were as far along in labor as we were. The question was put in such a manner so as to make us choose the latter option, which we did. She's the expert, after all. We were made to feel as if we were most certainly being overly concerned and would probably be told to go home once we arrive at the ER. We were both made to feel completely stupid.

We headed to the hospital as quickly as I could get Steph dressed and in the car. All together that took 45 minutes, 30 minutes longer than it should have. Steph, being herself, was apparently hanging up towels we had used and depositing plates in the sink on the way out the door. Always straightening something up, I swear. The car ride was horrible, thankfully its only 4 miles! Steph was writhing in pain next to me with each contraction. I was trying to keep it together, driving through the tears and trying to ensure we actually made it to the hospital without any accidents. We dropped the car with the valet at the ER and Steph was wheeled up to the maternity ward, checked in and in a hospital bed within 5 minutes. The staff at the hospital was great and efficient!

Steph was close to 6 cm dilated and having contractions about every 3 minutes, we were definitely in active labor! And we've been receiving very bad advice from our doula. I called the doula and told her to get her ass down to the hospital IMMEDIATELY. She replied it would take her 60 - 90 minutes! When I told Steph, the hospital staff laughed and said we'd be parents long before the doula ever arrived. What a comforting thought...

Labor continues, doula or not, so Steph and I had to be a two man team. I was working with Steph to keep her breathing steadily through an oxygen mask while the staff gave her an IV and hooked her up to various monitors. The doctor on call, whom we had seen earlier in the day, came in and was clearly not pleased with the situation, our lack of doula and my retelling of her advice. Not pleased, at all. (The next day, we had a 30 - 40 minute open ended discussion with him about our choice to use a doula as well as things his practice can do to serve pregnant women more effectively. It was very nice of him to spend that time with us.) Quickly we progressed to Steph being fully dilated and ready to give birth. On the instruction of the maternity ward staff and doctor we started really pushing, trying to have a natural birth as we had both intended. Steph had always intended to try birthing Maya without drugs, I think she was beginning to reconsider that decision. However, we were way too late for that. After 30 minutes or so of actively trying to give birth, Maya was struggling, her heart rate was decelerating and she was clearly in distress. (We'd find out later that the placenta had abrupted, i.e. prematurely pulled away from the uterine wall, causing distress for the baby. Had we waited at home any longer, the outcome might have been quite different.)

The nurses quickly gave Steph drugs to stop her contractions, unplugged all of the wires from various monitors and in no time Steph was whisked into an emergency C-section. While we had both intended for me to be there with her during the surgery if possible, due to the emergent nature and the need for immediate sedation, I was not allowed to be with her. She was rolled into the OR for sedation and surgery.

I was left in a room. Alone. Crying.

I had no idea what was going to happen to my wife or my baby. And there was nobody who could tell me.

15 minutes passed, it seemed like an eternity.

During this time I managed to compose myself enough to send an emergency text message to my cousin asking for help. I finally got myself together enough to call him as well. Todd hopped in his car and headed my way. This was the longest 15 minutes in my life sitting alone, without anyone there to support me in my time of need. Nurses came in and out of the room where I was alternating between sitting alone crying and pacing a hole in the floor.

Connie, one of the nurses, came out to get me. We had a baby! I was so stressed out I almost forgot to ask her if we had a boy or girl! Connie helped me get dressed up to go into the OR and lead me in. Seeing Steph laid out on the table, cut open with people still working on her made my heart sink. That was a very scary sight, the image is one I don't think I will ever get out of my head. It was only then that I learned that she was OK and would be out of surgery soon.

Then I saw Maya! She was being tended to, cleaned up and having her APGAR scores checked, etc. I stood there in shocked silence, camera in hand, gazing at my newborn daughter. I continued crying. I could barely get myself together enough to take a picture. I didn't say anything until someone asked me what her name was. Somehow I managed to get out "Maya Simone" before falling back into my dumbfounded silence.

Maya was ready to be moved to the transitional nursery so she should could finish being cleaned up, weighed, measured and have her footprints taken. (Side note: I have an extra set of her footprints which I will put to good use soon... more on that some other time.) She was put into a bassinet and I got to wheel her out of the OR and down the hall with two nurses in tow.

As soon as we exited the OR I looked up to see our doula. We exchanged few words, but my message was clear: "Go home, your services are not needed." Steph had already been through most of a vaginal birth and a C-section without the support of the person we hired for support! What else could she do? How much more bad advice did I really need?

While waiting on Steph to come out of surgery I made some important calls to let family know what was going on. Shortly afterward, Steph came out of the OR and into a recovery room. I got to give her the good news about Maya! I showed her the pictures I had taken kissed her and told her she'd get to meet Maya soon. My cousin, Todd, showed up shortly thereafter. Finally I had some support! I was so relieved to have a shoulder to cry on. He stayed with us for a few hours to help with Maya - Todd is a master swaddler! - and be there for both Steph and I.

In the end, everything turned out OK, even if not exactly as we had planned. Mom and baby are healthy and happy. While the experience was not as planned or expected, there were some things that the doula could not have changed, specially the abrupted placenta. However, the doula failed to deliver services that were promised. We decided to request that all fees be returned to us. This was a conversation neither of us was looking forward to.

After consulting the doula's contract this morning to understand our rights, I spoke to her. I was unimpressed by her unwillingness to negotiate with me on a refund of her fees for her negligent behavior and lack of support during labor. After an unsatisfactory and argumentative response from the doula, I called the owner of the doula service directly in order to express my dismay.

The owner and head doula was much nicer and more accommodating. She listened to my concerns, gave me a chance to share my recollection of the events on Wednesday night and recognized that our doula did not provide acceptable service. She also indicated that she had already discussed our birth with the doula and given her a "talking to" about the way in which she presented our choices with respect to coming to the hospital. With the help of a labor timeline guided by my cell phone records and photographs, we have been able to document exactly what happened during Steph's labor, when we contacted the doula, etc. Based on our discussion and the details provided the owner of the service has agreed to refund all fees associated with Maya's birth.

We are quite appreciative of the owner's willingness to work with us and her recognition that we did not receive the quality of service that she expects from her doulas. In deference to her and the services her company offers, I have chosen not to name either the doula or the doula service.

I don't know how differently the evening might have gone had we received the expected service, but I am still very happy with the outcome: a beautiful little girl who has already stolen my heart.

24 hours in...

2008-04-03T21:34:00.003-04:00

I'm exhausted, but running on adrenaline for the moment. It has been a full day of family and friends coming to visit us and meet Maya while I learn how to change diapers, swaddle Maya and generally try to keep her happy. Of course, I don't have boobs, so I can only do so much at this point...

I've had 3 hours sleep since 6 AM yesterday, so I'm headed home to be with the dogs and catch some shut eye while Steph and Maya spend another night in the hospital. Steph will get some rest with Maya in the nursery between feedings. Of course I'll be back first thing in the morning to keep everyone company...

Who is Maya Named For?

2008-04-03T09:46:00.002-04:00

People are already asking how we came up with Maya's names, so here's a little info to chew on...

Though I am firmly atheist, or what Richard Dawkins would call a "strong atheist" denying the existence of any god or gods, and Steph is agnostic, we both enjoy the cultural traditions of Judaism. We wish to raise Maya in a home with respect for our cultural traditions.

These bullet points from Wikipedia on Humanistic Judaism represent our views quite well:

People possess the power and responsibility to shape their own lives independent of supernatural authority;
Ethics and morality should serve human needs, and choices should be based upon consideration of the consequences of actions rather than pre-ordained rules or commandments; and,
Jewish history, like all history, is a purely human and natural phenomenon. Biblical and other traditional texts are the products of human activity and are best understood through archaeology and other scientific analysis.

In the cultural traditions of Ashkenazi Jews parents name their children after deceased relatives. However, we do not reuse the name of that relative, only the first initial. Following this tradition, we have named Maya after a few prominent people in our lives:

Maya is for Steph's father, Mitchell Levine. As you may recall from our first Hike For Discovery, we hiked in honor of Steph's dad who lost his battle with myeloma in November, 1995. Maya has a number of different meanings, the one I like best was provided by one of my coworkers. In Hindu culture, Maya means "ultimate truth". Simone is for my maternal grandparents, Sue and Samuel Jacobs, and Steph's maternal grandmother Sadie Buchman. Simone comes from the Hebrew word for "loud". We are already seeing her live up to that name!

Introducing... Maya Simone Saxe!

2008-04-03T08:17:00.005-04:00

It's official, I'm a daddy!

Maya Simone Saxe was born last night, 4/2/2008, at 8:45 PM. Although her birth was not at all what we expected — the emergency C-section was definitely not part of the birth plan, nor was the doula showing up after the birth — both mom and Maya are doing great. I've put up a Flickr photostream for Maya where I will be pushing pictures over the next few days.

Baby Update

2008-03-31T13:17:00.004-04:00

Yes, Steph was due Saturday. No, we haven't had the baby yet. Due dates come and go all the time, this is nothing out of the ordinary.

It is so nice of everyone to be inquiring about our soon to grow family, but the endless email, Skype and AIM messages, phone calls and SMS messages are a bit overwhelming. If you're comfortable enough using one of the above means to contact us and make an inquiry, you are also on the phone or email list to be notified when there is something to know. No, we haven't forgotten about you, or the almost 200 other people on our email list. I'm not trying to be rude, so I hope nobody takes it that way.

In the meantime, life goes on as normal. Well, sort of... I have no focus at work and Steph is watching bad daytime TV and playing Super Mario Brothers on the Wii.

Of course the obligatory cute baby pictures will be posted when there is something to post...

Bootcamp Physical Fitness Test

2008-03-28T18:12:00.004-04:00

Bootcamp is over and I did my fitness test today. I knocked 2 minutes 40
seconds off my 1 mile run (from 10:30 to 7:50!!) and improved my timed sit ups, push ups and dips. w00t! I'm going to take the weekend for a little relaxing, a lot of beer drinking and some good, unhealthy foods that I have been craving before I get back to the hard work of working out hard on Monday AM.

I bought myself a heart rate monitor this week to help me train for the Peachtree Road Race. I'll be taking it out for a run this weekend to guide me to keep my heart rate in the 70 - 80% max heart rate (MHR) zone as I run so I can (hopefully) start extending the length of my runs in both time and distance. Right now I'm working off the age based calculations, but I should find some time soon to determine my MHR more scientifically based on my resting heart rate as I wake up in the morning... if I can remember to do that at 5:30 AM when I get up.

Operation Boot Camp - Week 3

2008-03-24T21:42:00.000-04:00

Three weeks have passed since I started at boot camp. I just signed up for three more months. I am a glutton for punishment.

On Friday I take my PT again to check against my stats from day 1. I can't wait to see the improvements I have made...

If its not obvious already, I really like boot camp. Having someone to push me every day, make me work harder and go beyond what I think my limits are is a powerful motivator.

The only thing that would make boot camp better is warmer weather. Tomorrow morning it will be hovering around the freezing point as we head out for our morning work out. YUCK! It is almost April already, the dogwoods are in bloom and the pollen is in the air. What's with the crazy weather?! Spring is coming soon and then summer. By then I'll probably be wishing it was in the 30s again...

I'm not dead yet!

2008-03-24T21:13:00.004-04:00

Last Saturday Steph and I were at home, entertaining some friends when I stepped outside to take a call. I took the opportunity to check the mail and, damn, did I get the surprise of my life. Java died. I have the condolence card from my vet to prove it!

But, there's one problem: Java is still alive and kicking! Perhaps because it was Easter weekend he had been resurrected (if you can believe in such fallacies)? Probably not.

It appears as if there was some mistake at the vet. While I love the vet herself, her staff is pretty dumb. There is more than one Java that visits our vet clinic and the vet herself often refers to Java as "she" instead of "he" before quickly correcting herself and mentioning, yet again, that she sees multiple Javas of different genders. (This is especially humorous when Java is prone, legs in the air, displaying his junk for all to see. Perhaps she's not aware what a penis is? Maybe the twig without berries is confusing? Who knows!?) Apparently her staff has somehow mixed up the records for Java (with twig, no berries) and Java (no twig or berries), hence the condolence card to Java (with twig, no berries). Needless to say, the vet was quite embarrassed when we called to alert her to her (his?) mistake.

Next time I get a dog I am giving it a unique name so that this kind of situation doesn't happen again. Perhaps we'll use one of the baby names we considered and quickly threw away, such as S'phyllis or Lemonjello... only time will tell.

Bootcamp - End of Week 2

2008-03-16T15:44:00.003-04:00

Its been two weeks since I started bootcamp and I reached my first goal. For the first time in way too long I broke 190 lbs, losing my first 10 lbs! After two weeks I am really starting to notice changes in my body as my waist becomes slimmer and my legs are becoming more defined. I'm amazed at the difference two weeks of working hard and eating right makes!

Today I ran my first road race. If you know me at all you'll know I am fond of saying, "I only run when chased." Well, no more. I ran the Sham Rock 'n Roll 5k this morning at Atlantic Station in a hair under 30 minutes! Considering 2 weeks ago my 1 mile run at boot camp was 10 minutes 30 seconds, I've gained both speed and endurance through boot camp training. The best part about the race? The 2 hour nap I took when I returned home!

Since 5k was a breeze (well, not really), its time to take it up a notch to a 10k. I just completed my Peachtree Road Race application so I can run with 55,000 of my closest friends on July 4th! I've never run a 10k before but I have more than 3 months to train before the big day.

BootCamp - Week 2

2008-03-12T08:02:00.003-04:00

We're in the middle of week two of bootcamp. I'm feeling stronger, faster and generally have more energy than I did in the beginning. The meals are getting easier as I get into the habit of eating six times a day. I have the additional benefit of needing to cook at home in order to meet my daily allowance of protein, carbs and vegetables while minimizing my fat intake. This has been great for me since I love to cook, but often find excuses why we need to go out to dinner instead. I've taken quite a bit of inspiration lately from Rick Bayless' Mexican Everyday where the meals are healthy and relatively quick to prepare. Rick's Chicago restaurant, Frontera Grill/Topolobampo, is one of my favorites and a must-do when I am in the windy city. As a huge Mexican food fan its nice to see some more healthy alternatives to what most Americans think Mexican food is. Not that the cheese filled and fried foods aren't good... they are! But they are not on my eating plan at the moment.

Interestingly, I'm already noticing significant changes in my body composition. I've lost more than two inches off my waist already! Clothes that didn't fit 2 weeks ago now fit. Clothes than I haven't fit into in more than 2 years now fit, as well! By the time I get back on the road for work (May?) I'm going to need to buy a new wardrobe! This is seriously cool stuff.

At the doctor's office yesterday it was noted that I have lost 18 pounds since the last time I saw her! (2006? At the time I was pushing 210 pounds, near my heaviest weight.) That means I am down about 9 pounds since the beginning of March. W00t!

There's still 2.5 weeks of boot camp left in March and I'm already considering joining again in April. Boot camp and a newborn. It sounds crazy. It probably IS crazy. But I'm committed to being in the best shape of my life by the time I turn 35 in July! I'm already in the best shape of my life, I'm just hoping to continue that trend, increasing my strength and endurance while bringing my weight down to a healthy level that I can maintain for the remainder of my life.

Yippee!!

2008-03-11T10:16:00.002-04:00

Shawn Mullins has a new album out today. Shawn is one of my long-time favorite artists and an Atlanta institution.

I first saw him play acoustic guitar at Oxford Books (an Atlanta institution that is long gone now) in 1993. I used to go there to read/study when I was in grad school and discovered Shawn, Millan & Kenzie, Matthew Kahler and others there. I have so many good memories of going to shows where Shawn played, such as New Years Day 1994 at Rainy Day Records (also long since gone) when I met Shawn's dog, Roadie, and a very intimate performance at Oxford College with perhaps 20 people, Shawn playing and singing and Andy Edmonds (???) playing harmonica.

I'm giving the new album a first listen right now...

Bootcamp - Day 2

2008-03-04T09:05:00.005-05:00

I'm on the second day of bootcamp.

Ouch.

I hurt.

Bootcamp is kicking my ass.

One of the most difficult things to do is eat properly six times a day. Thankfully my job keeps me at home, so I have everything I need in the kitchen to make good, healthy choices following a meal plan like that in Body for Life. Since I did BfL back in 2001, the food is not as daunting as it could be, but I was so hungry yesterday.

So what do we do in bootcamp? Get our butts kicked around the parking lot and fields at a local tennis center! Yesterday was a physical fitness test where we got to find out how out of shape we were. My stats:

1 mile run: 10 minutes, 30 seconds
Push-ups (timed, 1 min): 30 manly pushups, 8 more girlie-style
Sit-Ups (timed, 1 min): 35
Dips (timed 1 min): 20 (straight legs), 10 (bent knees, much easier)

In 30 days I hope to see these numbers improve!

Today we focused on legs with lots and lots of squats and lunges, with a good number of push-ups and sit ups to make it interesting. One thing that the instructors are great at is keeping everyone moving for the entire 45 minute workout. When you are in line waiting to run the course you are still moving: running in place, lunges, squats or the "listening position" where you hold a squat with your legs bent at the knees at about 45 degrees! OUCH! I was definitely showing my lack of cardio training today as I started fading half-way through the workout and my runs became slower, my push-ups uglier and my clothes soaked through and through. (Sure, it was raining, but I'd wager my clothes held more water weight in sweat and tears than rain!)

Tomorrow is an off day, so I'll be doing my homework running on the PATH near my house... This is the test to see if I can be as motivated without being surrounded by others going through the same workout as I am...

Boot Camp

2008-02-23T09:13:00.002-05:00

Boot camp begins in a week. I'm a bit nervous now that my neighbor, a veteran boot camper, has told me that I am "crazy" for joining in the same month that Steph is due. At least the Rabbi has decided to join me in the pain that will be coming my way...

Java - One Expensive Beast

2008-02-23T09:11:00.001-05:00

About two weeks ago I was on the floor petting Java. There he was, lying on his back, all four legs up in the air, when I noticed a large mass in his abdomen, just beneath the rib cage. He's a lumpy old man full of little, harmless tumors called lipomas. This one felt very different. It was larger than any of the others and it appeared to be in his abdomen, not on it. Not good.

Last Friday we saw our vet who took blood, urine and x-rays. The vet confirmed that there is a large mass of unknown origin in his abdomen and referred us to a specialty clinic for a more thorough diagnosis. Of course, all I could think of is that he has a terminal disease or something that would reduce his quality of life, making last weekend quite unhappy in our house.

On Tuesday we went to the vet at Georgia Veterinary Specialists. After more blood work, an ultrasound and aspirating the lump, it turns out to be nothing more than another lipoma. Cheers all around, Java is a healthy old man after all! And now he has a very expensive funny haircut - shaved belly with very uneven edges - to show off to all the ladies...

Java, its time for you to get a job and start paying some of the bills around here! Maybe you can tour with the Black Eyed Peas singing about your lumps. ("My lumps, my lumps, my big ol' fatty lumps... check it out!")

Hike for Discovery 2008

2008-02-18T08:52:00.002-05:00

The new season has kicked off, but I won't be joining this year for obvious reasons. I am, however, remaining active with the team. So I went to Kennesaw on Saturday for the first hike of a season. We time everyone as they climb to the top of Kennesaw mountain (1.2 miles, ~650' elevation gain). I offered to lead the fast group to the top. Stupid me.

Two guys, one part of HFD, another who was considering joining, and a mother/son team kicked my ass hiking up the mountain. Just under 20 minutes to get to the top! I was huffing and puffing and having an asthma attack just trying to keep up with them. And my legs, damn were they burning! So much for leading the charge up the mountain! Previously my quickest time to the top was ~25 minutes, so this was quite a bit faster than I have ever attempted this previously and it really showed me that I need to work on my aerobic conditioning more.

In order to get in more cardio and work on my aerobic conditioning, I have joined Operation Bootcamp. Starting March 3 I'll be doing bootcamp workouts for the month of March at 6 AM daily. I must be a masochist to put myself through this. My only hope is the beer-hating Rabbi will be joining me in my month of pain prior to the baby arriving...

To prove I'm not a lager hater...

2008-02-18T07:42:00.003-05:00

I did have one great lager last night: Left Hand Brewing Company's Rye Bock Lager. This is a very nontraditional doppelbock brewed with rye, which normally adds a spicy characters to beers. A very smooth drinking beer with notes of chocolate in the nose and a rich, malty body, this went down way too easy. At ~$12 for a 750mL bottle, I won't be buying a lot of this, however, its a nice addition to Left Hand's lineup.

Simple pleasures

2008-02-16T20:45:00.004-05:00

As a beer geek, I am often drawn toward things that are bigger, better, more extreme. I had a phase where I was into double IPAs, though it began to seem similar to being into hot sauce. After a certain point, there was no balance, only hoppiness (spiciness). Lately I have been into barrel aged beers from the Lost Abbey (The Angel's Share was my favorite beer last year), Goose Island and others and wild beers from places like Russian River. And of course, Dogfish Head, particularly their very high gravity beers like Raison d'Extra and World Wide Stout. These are some fabulous beers, with crazy flavor profiles just begging to be shared with friends who can appreciate the art of brewing. These beers are for sipping, not drinking, making them inappropriate at some occasions. Some of them have near cult-like obsession for people, i.e. the guy who dropped $150 on a bottle of The Angel's Share on Ebay.

But sometimes, its a simple beer that brings me pleasure. Lately, I have been into Theakston Old Peculier, an old ale from the north of England and Fuller's London Pride, a bitter from London. The nutty, biscuit flavors of London Pride make an easy drinking, fairly low alcohol brew, so you could have a few at a sitting, if you should wish.

Another recent simple pleasure was two bottles of Ayinger Altbairisch Dunkel, an "old Bavarian dark beer" and a lager. Lagers are generally not something I consume a lot of, especially the pilsners, marzen and vienna styles. Bocks and doppelbocks are my lager exception. However, this beer was quite nice, very easy drinking with a strong malt profile and few, if any, hops, perfect for a warm winter day like today.

I'm not giving up on the more extreme beers, but I do intend to have a few more light, easily approachable beers in the fridge for those times when I just want to enjoy something completely unpretentious. I might even buy a 6 pack of Michelob Ultra Pomegranate Raspberry for "the Rabbi"...

New Year, New Changes

2008-02-10T13:29:00.000-05:00

OK, so it isn't really a New Years Resolution, but like Shawn, I am trying to be a little more green in 2008. To that end, we've changed a few things in our life:

Last year we stopped buying bottled water for the house. I try not to buy it on the road, but that seems a near impossibility at times. Of course, research suggests that using a Nalgene bottle may expose me to Bisphenol A. I may have to buy a few of the Sigg bottles instead.
I've started recycling more. After spending some time to determine what we can recycle in Atlanta, I have added more printed junk mail and cardboard to the outbound collection of recyclables. We already were very good about recycling plastic, glass and some paper products, so this is more of a tweak to our normal routine.
Bye, bye printed catalogs! They fill up our mailbox every day. Catalogs from places like REI (which I want) and L.L. Bean (which I don't want). So I have used Catalog Choice to stem the flow. So far, no difference.
"Free" newspapers that come in the mail aren't free to print, distribute and then haul to a recycling center. I called our local free newspaper and politely asked them to stop distributing to our home.
Low flow toilets are great (well, sometimes) but they still account for a lot of our water usage. New motto: "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down." A little urine in the toilet isn't going to kill anyone, but it will save a lot of water.
Low flow showerheads are next on the list. I bought one already from Bricor, a 1.5 gallon per minute (GPM) model designed to save 1 GPM over my current showerhead, but I am disappointed with the results. The water pressure in my house may be part of the problem, but increasing the water pressure will cause more waste elsewhere. This one is going back to the manufacturer while I search for other solutions. (On this note, my water bill averages $35/mo. Another couple who are neighbors of ours have an average bill of $85/mo and some neighbors run $300+ bills in the summer. We're already pretty light users of water, it seems.)
I am trying to get better at turning off the monitor, printer and other peripherals when they are not in use. Steph's machine automatically turns off when not in use. Since I'm almost always online I haven't yet gone down that route for my machines.

There are a few things we've done for years, too:

Telecommute. I've been doing it for 3 years, full time. My car gets about 5000 miles/year traveling mostly to the airport and the gym. I figure this saves us 10 - 20k miles/year.
Use automated thermostats and moderate the HVAC. Sure, I'd like it warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, but that gets expensive quickly. The difficult part is when I work from home, I can't just heat or cool my office easily. I've looked into thermostats that automatically circulate air through the house even when the heat or AC are not needed, just to keep the temperatures even and air circulating. This may be a future change
CFLs. Need I say more?

And then there are the things I can't or won't change. Admittedly, I could buy carbon credits, but I'm just not there yet:

Air travel. I flew ~70k miles last year. Its my job and we love to travel.
Inefficient cars. Sure, together we only drive ~25k miles/year, but neither car is particularly fuel efficient, at best we get 26 MPG in the Passat on a road trip. Considering that we drive an about average amount of miles in average fuel efficiency cars, this isn't all bad news. But it could be better if we had reasonable public transportation...
Plastic grocery bags. They make good dog-poop bags. Two uses and I don't need to buy dog-specific bags.

What are you doing to reduce your ecological impact, if anything?

More Nesting!?

2007-12-31T07:17:00.000-05:00

Just when I thought we couldn't nest anymore, we did.

Who knew we had files of crap going back as far as 1989? Who knew that they needed to be purged RIGHT NOW?

After a review of all of our personal files, Steph managed to pile up a stack at least 4 feet tall of old paperwork. Since it all needed to be shredded I set to work. Hours later — the shredder would only run 20 - 30 minutes at a time before overheating and needing an hour to cool down — with less than a 4" stack of papers left in the queue for the shredder the shredder coughed and wheezed and stripped its gears. The shredder will shred no more. So much for my recently new but just out of warranty, 12-sheet, diamond cut, king of all SOHO shredders. I'm now left with a pile of stuff to shred and one more piece of junk to throw out this week.

What else was accomplished? Since Steph was reorganizing files and taking ownership of all of our household paperwork, something I am horrible at dealing with, I decided it was time to reorganize my office again. Add a new bookcase here, organize this pile over here, patch and paint holes in the wall, hang up the art that's been on my floor for months, etc. Of course, I'm still not done, I've got a stack of National Geographic maps that I have no idea what I'm going to do with and I still have to rearrange the books, camera equipment and CDs of various operating systems and software I have collected over the years.

Somehow I have a feeling what we'll be doing on New Years Day! Shredding! Anyone need confetti for a parade?

Nesting

2007-12-29T09:36:00.000-05:00

Today marks Steph's 27th week and we're both in full-on nesting mode. (OK, more her than me, but I get roped into it!) Over the past few weeks, we've been busily cleaning the nursery, choosing paint colors, hanging ceiling fans and a lot of pre-spring cleaning around the house.

Since we've lived here for almost 4 years now and never had much of a need for the extra bedroom that is now the nursery, there was a lot of extra "junk" that just seemed to pile up in there. All of our mostly-disused CDs, books we'd read, magazines we'd flipped through, the "bag of bags" which provided convenient bags for any and every occasion, empty boxes, files, hiking gear, etc. You name it, that room had it! Much of the junk was thrown out or recycled, however, a significant amount of stuff needed to find a new home. By no means are we cramped in this house, but that meant a lot of reorganizing in the basement. Which means more junk to give away, throw out or recycle!

Collectively we've spent a few days working through our crap. Who knew two people could accumulate so much junk in such a short period of time!?

Now we're down to the fun part. The nursery is getting painted next week and the furniture should arrive sometime in February. We're often asked about the Jewish taboo regarding decorating a baby's room or having a baby shower before the baby arrives. Being that it is just superstition, neither Steph or I feel the need to stop being rational. However, we have agreed to limit what we do in the nursery until after the baby is born. So, we're going for the convenience route. The baby furniture will be delivered and set up in the nursery, the walls will be painted and it will be move-in ready! However, all of the baby clothing, pictures, toys, sheets, etc. are remaining tucked away in the basement until after the baby is born.

My 2007 Travel

2007-12-16T16:33:00.000-05:00

This year I decided to track my travel and map out many of the places I have been. While I have been obsessive at times, tracking every restaurant and hotel, I have been lax at others. But this map should give a good overview of the traveling I did this year.

Highlights include:

2 continents (North and South America)
The Hawaiian Islands
2 foreign countries (Argentina & Uruguay)
19 states (including OR, MI, WY and MN which I had never visited before)
~60,000 miles on Delta Airlines (still not enough for Platinum Medallion again... damn!)

And since we're closing the boarding door on the last trip of the year... I'm out!

The strangest things...

2007-12-16T15:39:00.001-05:00

Last night Steph and I went to the Piercing Experience in Candler Park to get her some new jewelry for her nose. While there, another couple was buying some jewelry too. They didn't fit the usual clientele, being a bit older and pretty "vanilla" looking. So we thought nothing of it... until the following exchange:

Woman (to the piercer): "He's always losing the jewelry in his PA..." (NSFW! Prince Albert)

Me: "That's gotta be hard to do..."

Woman: "He can't keep his hands off his dick. He's always playing with it. So much so that he rubbed the color off of his jewelry! Its a 00 [double-zero gauge] and expensive to replace. The balls are $45/each!"

Me: "I think you'd notice that falling down your pant leg..."

Pierced Man: "No, I have lost them at work, in the grass, everywhere. I never feel it, but I feel naked without it!"

A few things to note...

Don't play with your cock so much, you might lose your expensive jewelry. Or rub the color off.
People who play with their cock at work deserve to lose their jewelry. And their job.
People who have a penchant for playing with their cock (ring), might want to try Loctite to ensure that they don't lose their jewelery. I'd hate to find a stray piece of body jewelry and have to find out where it came from.
Even when in a piercing studio, I don't want to know about your cock ring. Keep it between you, your wife/girlfriend/SO and the piercer. Please. If I wanted to know, I'd have asked.

Pix from BA

2007-12-03T08:02:00.000-05:00

I found this cool new Web2.0 site called Flickr....

Actually, I've played around with it before, but decided it was time to actually start using it... so here you are.

Pictures from South America

Ultrasound — 22 weeks

2007-11-28T20:21:00.000-05:00

Wow, I can't believe we're at 22 weeks already. We couldn't manage to fit in the ultrasound at the usual 20 weeks, that is, before vacation. So we had it today, instead. It was an absolutely crazy experience, especially watching the heart beating and being able to see the four chambers of it clearly, along with fingers and toes.

We did not find out the gender, we're leaving it as a surprise that we'll get sometime in March.

Here's a few images from the ultrasound...

Thoughts from Buenos Aires

2007-11-24T13:00:00.000-05:00

Random thoughts for the day...

Dead people smell funny. Going to Recoleta Cemetary was interesting, but the freshly dead do have a funny smell in the heat of the day. Yuck.

Uruguay was very cool and we'll need to go back and spend more time there. We'll also be back to BsAs someday, this is one of our favorite places we've ever visited... but we still have a lot of the world to see.

I found some craft beers here in BsAs, I'll be bringing back a few for a tasting sometime in the near future. But for the most part beer in BsAs sucks. Salta Negra was the one exception, though its a bit sweet. Uruguayan beer also sucks.

We're headed to the airport in a few hours and will be back in the ATL tomorrow AM. I'll put together a slide show and a full trip report over the next few days...

Buenas Noches de Buenos Aires, Argentina

2007-11-17T21:49:00.000-05:00

Hola!

Steph and I are in Buenos Aires, Argentina (BsAs to locals) for a week during the upcoming Thanksgiving holidays back in the states. We arrived this morning and spent the day getting acquainted with the city while walking around Puerto Madero, Microcento and Recoleta neighborhoods. So what's caught my attention so far?

FOOD!

Yeah, I'm obsessed with food and drink and this city is great for foodies. The food is good, plentiful and CHEAP! We just had dinner in one of the more upscale restaurants in Puerto Madero, La Caballeriza Puerto (yes, its almost midnight and we just finished dinner... that's typical here!). For the grand total of 120 ARS (slightly less than $40USD) we had a huge meal with more beef than two people should be allowed to eat, potatoes, salad and a bottle of Argentine malbec wine. I really am enamored with BsAs! And a bit tipsy too, since the bottle was mine to consume given Steph's current state.

More pictures and travel notes to come as the week goes on... look forward to stories about dulce de leche, dead people, side trips to Uruguay and yet more Argentinian beef! Just wait until I get a bit of mate in me for that extra caffeine boost before my next trip report!

Off to bed for now, a long day of shopping, sightseeing and eating is yet to come!

Congratulations Lucy!

2007-11-15T08:01:00.001-05:00

Lucy passed her Canine Good Citizen test last night! While my wife had no faith in our daughter (well, OK, neither did I!) because she's been acting like a canine bad citizen lately, she managed to put on a good show last night and actually passed her test. Now both of the dogs have CGC certificates.

Yay Lucy!

Leopard & Stacks

2007-11-11T11:02:00.000-05:00

Stacks are a cool new feature of Leopard when used in the dock. However, the implementation leaves something to be desired, since it isn't clear which directory the stacks belong to. Until now! These neat little icons serve as an overlay to give a container like appearance in the dock, making the stacks more visually appealing and a bit more intuitive.

Foundstone Blogging

2007-10-29T16:46:00.000-04:00

It's back! Some of the FS gang have started blogging again through official McAfee channels. Check it out here (or better yet, see the Foundstone-only archive here).

It may be a few days before this sees any action, so be patient!

Compact Power Strip

2007-10-19T07:56:00.001-04:00

My buddy Cameron has recently moved back to Atlanta and started doing quite a bit of travel for work. He tipped me off to a very compact power strip, ideal for airports like Newark where there are plugs, but they are always occupied. Now with mini-power strip in hand I'll be able to convince folks to share their electron stealing with me when I'm in need of a bit of juice in the laptop.

Thanks Cam!

To the rude SOB in seat 35F on DL1561...

2007-10-12T18:16:00.000-04:00

When you walked past me sitting in seat 34C, you were chewing a mint. As it came flying out of your open mouth landing on me — didn't anybody teach you to chew with your mouth closed? — perhaps you could have said "Excuse me" or some other pleasantry, instead of "Oops" and ignoring the fact that I'm now stained by your saliva and half-chewed mint.

Oh maybe I'm just over sensitive to being assaulted with someone's half-chewed food...

Ziplining in Kaua'i

2007-10-11T22:30:00.000-04:00

Here's a few movies from my camera (yeah, the quality is questionable... deal with it!) from ziplining in Kaua'i. All of these are QuickTime movies from ~15 - 25MB each:

Carrie ziplining #1

Carrie ziplining #2

Mike ziplining

Me ziplining. This on was taken from my perspective as I went down the line... not for those who may get motion sickness. That means you, Steph.

I can't wait to try this again. With a high-def video camera... ;-)

Applet Security

2007-10-11T19:47:00.001-04:00

Alex has written one of the clearest explanations I have seen to date of the applet security model. I was previously mistaken in some of my thoughts on this issue. Alex set me straight yesterday during a (virtual) work conversation (mmmm, Skype) and blogged about it to make sure everyone else understands it too.

Read it here: A Brief History of Applet Security

Kaua'i Hike for Discovery Trip Report

2007-10-08T22:42:00.000-04:00

Kaua'i Day 1

This was our first full day on Kaua'i. The phrase of the day was jet lag. Yuck. The animal of the day (week?) is the chicken. Wild chickens are everywhere on Kaua'i, ensuring that you can never go hungry if you are smart enough or fast enough to catch one of these birds.
Kayaking the Wailua River
We woke up early to drive to Kapa'a on the eastern shore of Kaua'i for a kayak tour up the Wailua River to Secret Falls. We met up with our guides at Wailua Kayak Adventures. Unfortunately, they give some seriously craptacular directions. Even though I asked numerous times for an address I was repeatedly told I couldn't have one. Instead, I got "We're at the north end of Kapa'a town behind Movie Tours." Well that's great and all, but I have no idea where that is either. So of course we got a bit lost on the way yesterday morning. I called them and told the owner where we were and got new directions. "We're just before the last building on the north side of Kapa'a." That's great and all, but I don't know if I am at the last building until I pass the building... argh. We did eventually find it, however.

We headed out to the river with our kayaks and guide, Cole. There were a few other couples on the trip for a total of 8. I was actually quite lucky not to have to share a kayak with another single guy on the trip, I had my own solo kayak, which was quite a lot of fun.
Carrie & Jerry
Kayaking the Wailua RiverWe hopped in the kayaks headed out up river toward the falls. Paddling upstream is pretty easy, the trade winds are at your back pushing you upstream making the upstream trip pretty low effort. I did have a bit of trouble getting used to the kayak and getting it to travel straight upstream. I guess I was padling harder on the right, my dominant side, than my left, ensuring the kayak tended to turn left as I paddled upstream.

After an hour of so of easy paddling we reached the landing point where we began our hike. We waded across a muddy part of the river and followed a trail for a mile along the river to the falls. The trail itself is an old aqueduct built to flood the taro fields that once occupied this part of the island. Along the way you could make out old stone walls and parts of an old community that has long since been abandoned and overgrown with trees bearing tropical fruit which littered the ground around us. Cole was full of information about the local area, plants and animals which made the hike enjoyable, even in soaking wet Keens! In about a mile we reached the (not so) Secret Falls where we stopped for a little bit to eat, pictures and swimming in the pool at the base of Secret Falls before hiking back to the kayaks.
Nice cock!On the return trip down river, the wind and currents were not in our favor, making the downstream paddle much more difficult. Not to mention Jerry's antics trying to ram my kayak with his... After an hour or so of paddling we reached the marina and ended our trip. This part of the trip was exhausting, but fun anyway. I thought I might have a little soreness the next morning since I'm not used to using these muscles and I haven't been to the gym in a few weeks due to travel for work. Thankfully it wasn't too bad, just a a bit tight in the shoulders.
(Not So) Secret Falls

We then headed to the center of Kapa'a for lunch at Mermaid's Cafe. Mermaids Cafe is nothing more than a tiny little lunch window where we picked up some nice fresh food. I had a burrito in a spinach wrap with brown rice, seared ahi tuna and cilantro pesto. Along with a few local beers, it was a good meal. Yummmmmmmmy!

Back to the hotel for for a few drinks and a pretty early night...
Kaua'i Day 2

Jerry overlooking the
Pacific Ocean
Awa'awapuhi Trail
This was supposed to be the day to sleep in. I slept in until a very late 5 AM. Woot. Jet lag. The next three hours of so were spent catching up on email, making calls and a quick trip to the beach for views of the sunrise. Unfortunately, the cloud cover ruined that plan for me. Oh well...

Jerry and Carrie managed to get their slack asses out of bed at 8 AM, so we didn't even head out toward the trail until around 10 AM. We drove across the southern end of Kaua'i toward the Waimea Canyon before driving up Waimea Canyon Road to the head of the Awa'awapuhi Trail in Kokee State Park for a hike toward the coast.
Carrie & Jerry
Awa'awapuhi TrailThe trail itself descends 1600' from the trail head to the lookout point at the end of the trail over 3.25 miles, for a 6.5 mile round trip hike. At the lookout you are about 3000' above sea level, with cliffs quickly descending down into the valleys below and to the Pacific Ocean. The trail itself was very nice with spectacular views of the cliffs along the coast, beautiful foliage, including lantana, guava and java plum trees. We stopped and picked some guava on the way down for a nice fresh fruit treat before stopping for lunch at the end of the trail. I've never been on top of cliffs like these before. From the cliffs you can see the ocean and sea birds. But instead of looking up to see the birds, you had to look down and view them from above! Of course, there were chickens there on the cliffs which tried to share our lunch with us. The locals tell us the only place you don't find any of the chickens is in the KFC parking lot. ;-) There were also plenty of the state bird of Hawaii: helicopters. (Yes, every guide we met all week shared the same joke. So I have to share it with you, dear readers.) They buzzed up and down the coast and into the valleys in a constant stream disturbing what should have been a pleasant, quiet hike.
The end of the trail...
Awa'awapuhi Trail

Heading back up to the car, I bonked (i.e. ran out of energy) and struggled back up the 3+ miles to the car. A combination of jet lag and eating poorly over the previous days had finally caught up to me. Slowly but surely we ascended to the trailhead, just in time for a strong downpour. The cool rain sure did feel good after a warm, sunny hike!

After we hopped back in the car to drive back to Poipu beach, where we were staying, we caught sight of a rainbow over the canyon. This is now becoming a regular occurrence, we saw rainbows both days of the trip and more would come in the next few days. Tired and hungry we headed to Puka Dog in Poipu. Puka Dog is a local Hawaian-style hot dog stand. The menu is limited to dogs, chips and lemonade, but the food was great.
The end of the trail...
Awa'awapuhi TrailBasically, you choose a hot dog, Polish or vegetarian, how hot you want the lemon & garlic sauce, mild, hot or volcano, and one of their island-style relishes such as mango, papaya and star-fruit. The grilled dog and sauces are stuffed into a large, fresh bun which has had a hole poked into the center to accomodate everything. To borrow a phrase from Rachel Ray, "yummo!". (Wow, I can't believe I just wrote that... or even *thought* to right that.) I have never seen three people shove hot dogs in their mouths so damn quickly... we knew we were hooked from the first bite. For the record, I had the Polish dog, volcano lemon & garlic sauce and mango relish. Hell yeah, that's some good shizzle... We then headed back to the hotel for some early evening drinks with some of our teammates and LLS staff before another early night to bed.

Kaua'i Day 3

Coming in for
a landing
Another bright and early morning, I'm up by 5:30 to meet Carrie and Mike for a drive to the north end of the island. We're going zip-lining in Princeville, about 90 minutes from our hotel. We meet our guides at Princeville Ranch Adventures, get suited up in a climbing harness and a stupid looking helmet before hopping in the Pinzgauer for a quick drive up the road to the zip line course. Over the course of 4+ hours we traversed 8 zip lines and a suspension bridge. The longest of the lines is well over 600' in length and 150'+ above the river valleys below. Even though it rained off and on through the day, it was a great time! Of course, there are some interesting tales to tell.

First, all participants must be under 280 lbs. There were two large women in our group who were probably pushing that limit. No big deal, right? WRONG. The tour states all participants should be in good physical condition. These ladies were anything but in good physical condition. If you are unable to walk up an uneven flight of stairs or stand up from a nearly seated position when landing, you probably shouldn't be on the tour.
Carrie taking off...

One of the ladies was particularly inept at the zip line. A mistake we all made the first time around was to jump before reaching the end of the platform and before the line caught and supported your weight. If not timed correctly, the line would dip enough that you could land on your ass on the platform before zipping down the line. I did this, once, but I didn't slam my ass on the platform. On the second line we were warned again. "Walk down the steps and on to the dirt at the bottom of the platform..." The goal is to walk down until the line catches you and supports your weight, suddenly you won't be able to touch the ground and you'll take off down the line. On this line we were warned the consequences of failing to walk down far enough were meeting "The Violator", a root sticking out of the ground which would violate your nether regions if you hit bottom...

What do you know, our large friend jumped from the step above the ground and landed ass first on the violator and the ground, covering her ample bootie in red Kauaian dirt. This pattern would continue, again and again, for all 8 lines. Her ass must have been in some serious pain from all of the abuse it took from the various platforms and stairs that she should have walked down, but bounced her ass down instead. Ouch.

Her landings weren't much better, either.

(Don't take this the wrong way, I know people are in various levels of physical condition and ability and some of these conditions are beyond their control. But you know your limits. If the event you are taking part in requires some basic level of physical fitness and this is outlined in the promotional materials, perhaps you should think twice before taking part next time...)

After a quick stop at Hilo Hattie's for some shopping and another stop at Puka Dog (Yay! Polish w/ volcano and papaya relish) we head back to Poipu for the HFD inspiration dinner. Due to weather, the dinner is moved inside to a ballroom. Good thing too! The rain was coming down in buckets as one of the speakers desciber her own fight with blood cancer years earlier before describig her brother's more recent fight against solitary melanoma which was found as it weakened his spine, crushing it and making him paraplegic. Her message was to spend the next day placing "one foot in front of another" and thinking about her brother who can no longer do that due to melanoma. I cried like a baby during her speech, it was extremely moving to me and the entire crowd of HFD participants. The next day, when the going got tough, I found myself reminding myself to put one foot in front of the other and repeat, while thinking how lucky I am to be able to do so while so many cannot.

Back to the room I packed my hike bag for the next day's adventure and went to bed with a 4:45 AM wake-up call.

Kaua'i Day 4
Kukui Trail

04:00 — Wake-up time! That must be Steph calling... hey, wait, its Delta Airlines?! I got an upgrade on a flight next week. Yay. Hey Delta, you flew my ass out here, shouldn't you know roughly what time zone I am in since you're flying me home, too? Bad Delta, no cookie. I tell Mike and we both fall asleep again.

04:13 — Wake-up time! Damnit, another upgrade call from Delta.

04:45 — Wake-up call/alarm/etc. Finally the right time to get up. 04:45. As Adrian Kronauer said, "What's the O stand for? Oh my God its early!" After a quick clean-up, I throw on my hike clothes, check the pack one last time to make sure I have all the water and food I'll need for the day along with two cameras (man, I'm a geek). I head down to the lobby to meet our guide, Bobby, and the hikers from the SF Bay Area and Silicon Valley for the drive up to the trailhead.
Waimea Canyon
Kukui Trail We're hiking the Kukui Trail down from the canyon rim to WiliWili camp (2.5 miles, 2300' elevation change one way) before following the Waimea River northward on the west bank, crossing the river and folloiwng the east bank up Poomau Stream, one of two tributaries (the other is Waiahulu) which merge to form the Waimea River. The goal for the day is Lonomea camp on Poomau Stream.

We hit the trail just before 7 AM, following a red dirt path as it quickly descends through various levels of vegetation, including some larger trees like silk oak and silver oak, along with smaller brush, like lantana. We find some wild java plums on the trail and try a few. They are very tart and slightly astringent, but refreshing since they don't taste like water or any of the other items in my pack. The vegetation on the trail thins, providing less cover as we descend.
Kukui Trail

The trail is rough, much less maintained that the trails I have hiked in Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and around Georgia. Its clear that people try to maintain the trail, but the constant rain and erosion makes it difficult to be effective and forces rerouting of the trail. In parts, the trail is strewn with scree (loose rock) which slows down our progress as we carefully step through, trying not to twst an ankle. I slip a few times here, planting a hand in the red dirt while trying to tay upright and not take out my team like stacked dominoes. Slowly we make our way down the ridge line and switchbacks carved into the walls of the ridges until we come to a large wash where the effects of wind and rain are most obvious. A steeply descending part of the trail across red dirt with many large veins carved out by the water flowing downhill strewn with rocks large and small, and loose, large grained sand continues for perhaps .5 miles until we reach a large stand of trees and vegetation further down in the canyon.

We enter the tree cover and continue descending toward Wiliwili Camp surrounded by various oak trees and fruit trees bearing guava and passionfruit, which our guide picks and saves for later. We also begin to identify a number of sisal plants which look like oversized agave plants that came straight of out of Jurassic Park.
Waimea River
Kukui Trail(JP was filmed on the island of Kaua'i, so its no doubt that there are some similarities.) Eventually we reached Wiliwili Camp. Users of this camp site have left it in deplorable condition with trash strewn everywhere. Beer cans, water bottles, food cans, random pieces of clothing, etc. were all over the camp site. It really pisses me off to see people abuse their environment like that and take away its natural beauty which others can no longer see. They need to learn the principles of Leave No Trace. We clear out of Wiliwili camp quickly and start heading up river where we meet our first challenge of the day: crossing the Waimea River.

I knew this was coming and wasn't particularly concerned, though it was the first time I had to cross an unknown stream. Our guide, Bobby, had done the crossing earlier in the week and reported the water to be waist deep, it was a bit higher on me since I'm quite a bit shorter than him! I threw my small camera and some other gear in the little dry bag I carry, place my large camera toward the top of the pack, kicked off my shoes and socks and tied them securely to my pack before stepping into the water. Bobby had already helped one of the smaller women on our team (she couldn't be more than 5' tall and 90# soaking wet) across.
Waimea River
Kukui TrailI decided to ford the stream alone, using my trekking poles for support and to help me find footing on the river bottom. Three steps into the river and I trip on a rock, nearly falling into the river unceremoniously. I say nearly becuase my poles saved me from doing more than just dunking the bottom few inches of my pack into the water, everything important remained dry. *whew* Once on the other side I got a chance to take some pictures of the river and some of the people crossing after me, cheering them on. After getting back into my dry boots — but still in wet clothing — it was time to continue up river through the canyon forest toward Lonomea camp. We traveled a mile or so upriver before stopping at the Hipalau camp for lunch. Due to time we were forced to turn around here instead of continuing another mile or so upstream to the Lonomea camp which was the original goal for the day. Here we sat down, ate lunch and a few pieces of guava and passionfruit that we had collected along the trail during the inbound hike. There is nothing better than freshly picked fruit collected trail-side!

Back upstream, we do everything in reverse. The river has started moving a bit more swiftly at this point, making he river crossing a little more difficult, but we all manage to cross without incident. As we pass Wiliwili camp the trail begins the ascent to the top of the canyon. While normally I'd rather hike under tree cover because its cooler, in this case the hiking was hot and steamy. The on and off rains along with our soaking wet clothing made this section of the hike very, very steamy.
Mike & Bobby
Kukui TrailI felt like I was hiking uphill in a large sauna, not the most pleasurable of circumstances. When we finally broke out into the sun I was a happy man. Finally my clothes could have a chance to dry off and there was a nice canyon breeze to keep us cool. Now we had to look for shade where we could find it along the trail, but the trade-off was well worth it! Slow and steady, one foot in front of the other we asended the walls of the canyon. Bands of rain showers came through the canyon, providing us with a cooling mist and brief respites from the hot tropical sun. As we ascend, I noticied significant changes in the look of the canyon in the early afternoon sun. In the moning, the light was strongly filtered through a low haze. Now, the light was strong and direct, bringing out the beauty of the canyon walls and making the colors, reds, greens, blue skies and more muted tones in the rock walls begin to pop visually. In just a few hours the entire canyon looks like a different place, just because of the position of the sun. Wild...

Further up the canyon, standing on a ridge line we get a good blast of rain and wind that feels wonderful, nice and cooling. Turn and look back into the canyon and we see a rainbow stretched out below us, running north to south in the lower parts of the canyon. By far, this was the best view of the day! We've been seeing rainbows daily, more often than not 3 or 4 a day, but this was one of the strongest I have seen all week long. One last big push forward and we work our way past the "Speedo and Crocs" crowd hiking down into the canyon (yes, seriously. Bannanna hammocks and Crocs are not really appropriate for hiking...) We all pop out of the canyon around 3:30 PM for a snack of fresh Hawaiian pineapple and some sports drinks, before heading to the car and back down to the coast. Round trip, we did ~9 miles &mdashl I'm still looking for better information on the length of the hike.
Me and a Hau Bush
Kukui Trail

On the return trip to the hotel we drop in on Jo-Jo's Shave Ice for a cold, sweet treat. Think sno-cones with pan-Pacific flavors. I had a shave ice with lychee and mango syrups and azuki beans (the base of red bean icecream). I figured I'd get a little protein with my sugar water. ;-) We get back to the hotel where I take a quick shower to get rid of the red dirt covering me from head to toe and then head down to the beach for a quick dip in the ocean. I've been in Hawaii since Tuesday, its now Staurday and I am just now making it to the beach. There is something seriously wrong with that!

Another quick shower to get rid of the sand I have collected and then we're off to the Mission Celebration dinner. Some numbers for you:

This weekend 70 hikers in Kaua'i have raised a total of over $400,000!
This season, HFD participants from around the US have raised to date over $2,500,000!
In the past 2.5 years/5 seasons of HFD (I've now participated in 3 of the 5 seasons!) over $12,500,000 has been raised!

These are amazing numbers which make a difference in the life of patients dealing with blood cancers evey day.
Waimea River
Hipalau Camp

On a sadder note, this will be my final season with Hike for Discovery for a while. With our first child arriving in March, I'm not going to be able to participate again next year. I'll certainly be around and helping out on occassional hikes with the team, but I won't be able to dedicate the amount of time I have in the past 18 months to the HFD program and LLS. Once Steph and I get into a rhythm with the baby I'll be back.

For those who continue with HFD in the future: HIKE ON!
Heading back up...
Kukui Trail

Kukui Trail

Waimea Canyon rainbow
Kukui Trail

On the way home...

2007-10-07T20:49:00.000-04:00

We're sitting in the airport in Lihue waiting for the long flight home... the hikes were great and Hawaii was tons of fun. Pictures and a full trip report coming soon...

Random thoughts from the road...

2007-10-02T12:31:00.000-04:00

I'm in Salt Lake City right now, sitting in the Wasatch Brewing Co. bar drinking a Polygamy Porter. You can't have just one. ;-)

I'm on the way to Hawaii for a few days of vacation without the crazy pregnant one. OK, so she's not crazy, but pregnancy does strange things to a woman. And she was the one who decided not to join me in Hawaii...

I'm really on the way to Hawaii for the Hike for Discovery fall season. We have a small team going to Kaua'i this week for Saturday's hikes around the island. I'm meeting Jerry (HFD team coach) and his wife this afternoon in Kaua'i for a few days of fun before the big HFD weekend. I'll be hiking the Kukui trail down into Waimea Canyon, more details on that soon.

I've been on the road a lot lately for both work and pleasure which always results in some humorous experiences. The best one of note recently was in NJ. Jeremy and I were staying in Harrison, NJ for the week doing consulting for one of our clients in the Jersey City area. Unfortunately all of the hotels in and around Jersey City were booked, so we were scraping the bottom of the barrel for a decent hotel. The Hampton Inn in Harrison, NJ qualifies as the bottom of the barrel due to its location and the fact that its inconvenient to everything. So we took the hotel shuttle a lot to get to the train station, dinner, etc. On our last night in NJ, we called the shuttle to pick us up from dinner in the Ironbound district in Newark. After being picked up, the driver picked up a guy in a suit from Penn Station. Let the fun begin.

Jeremy engaged the guy in a conversation. Lo and behold, he's a security consultant! (Gee, I sure am glad *I* don't have to wear a suit!) So we start chatting and ask him about his work. While I don't remember the exact conversation, it went something like this:

Us: What kind of work do you do?
Suit: Security consulting. Penetration testing, SDLC (software development lifecycle) work, software security, policy work, etc.
Us: Interesting, we also do SDLC work... Are you a developer?
Suit: Oh no. Accountant.

(At this point, Jeremy and I shoot each other looks of WTF??)

Us: So, uh, when you say software security, do do do code reviews? Threat modeling?
Suit: Threat modeling? No, I don't get down to the packet layer.
Us: What about your SDLC work?
Suit: Oh, well we tell people how to push code to production environments...

The conversation went on like that for a few more minutes before we got back to the hotel. When we were in the clear, Jeremy and I had a good laugh at Mr. Suit and his "packet layer" comments. Threat modeling is a method of analyzing a software system as an attacker thinks about it, outlining his goals and enumerating the manner in which he can achieve his goals. Specifically, we look for threats against the system, mitigating strategies, and vulnerabilities exist where threats don't have mitigating strategies in place. I've never had to "get down to the packet layer" when dealing with threat modeling on most software systems, so I'm not sure what he thinks we were talking about. (Yes, I can see where this would be useful if threat modeling a network protocol, but most of my TM work is at a higher level using standard network protocols like HTTP, for instance.)

I'm not sure who you work for, Mr. Suit, but this is why accountants don't make good software security consultants. If you don't understand developing code, and you don't understand working in a development environment, its a pretty good bet that you're not going to be too successful at doing SDLC consulting... unless you're only writing policy about who gets to push code to production...

Buyer beware... not all consultants and consulting firms are equally capable of doing software security work. Especially if their consultants are accountants!

QWERTY?

2007-10-01T17:25:00.000-04:00

I guess it is a bit odd that I never really learned how to type. Oh I am fast. And accurate (sorta). But I only use 3 fingers with any regularity.

I need to learn to touch-type QWERTY. Yeah, Dvorak is cool, but the reality is most keyboards I encounter will be QWERTY, not Dvorak. So how does a geek go about finding a good way to relearn how to type like a normal human?

Favorite Software: Keyword Manager

2007-09-23T14:47:00.000-04:00

Like most people, I have a pretty large cache of photos in iPhoto. 7000 and counting. I need a way to organize them and the iPhoto keywords always left me feeling as if something was lacking.

Along comes Keyword Manager. This is tagging for iPhoto at its best. Slowly but surely I am making it through my old photo libraries adding tags for easier searching. The tags are hierarchical, meaning when I assign a picture a tag for me, it also inherits the tags of My Family, Family and People, allowing for later searching by different scopes, if you will.

West Coast Trip - Part II

2007-09-23T11:11:00.000-04:00

Whew, finally got around to finishing this...

June 19, 2007

A lazy day walking around San Francisco following the Barbary Coast Trail. We did manage to get over the Haight-Ashbury (what do you mean there is a Gap in the Haight Ashbury!?). Drinks at the Tornado with some amazing sausages from next door. We're tired and head back to Jen & Howard's early to watch TV and pass out.

June 20, 2007

We spent the morning driving to the Tenaya Lodge, just south of Yosemite National Park. Nothing exciting to report. After dinner with the HFD teams from around the US and a meeting with our trail guides, we head to bed. Early.

June 21, 2007

3:00 AM — Yes, that's a wake up call. Oh hell its early. I have to meet the team in the lobby for a departure at 3:30 AM to head into the park. Its an hour long drive to the trail head. A few more hours of sleep would be quite welcome.

Steph's first view of Half Dome from the Panorama TrailWe're on the trailhead at dawn's first light. For this trip we're hiking up the Mist Trail past Vernal Falls and Nevada falls and then meeting the Half Dome trail for the remainder of the outbound leg. The Mist Trail is a steeper ascent than the John Muir Trail, but it shaves off more than a mile of hiking. The first major climb of the day is at Vernal Falls where we ascend a few hundred stone steps to the top of the falls. The trail is pretty steep and one of my teammates was having trouble on this first climb. I handed her a Hammer Gel (energy gel) which she promptly slurped down and kicked her butt back into gear for the rest of the day.

Climbing Nevada Falls

After Vernal Falls the trail continues along the river toward Nevada Falls. More. Stone. Steps. Yuck. The morning is uneventful as we reach the top of the falls, stop a short break at the restrooms and a bit to eat. So far, the views have beeb incredible. As the sun rises higher in the sky and the clouds burn off it turns into a really nice morning. For the next 2 miles or so the trail is on pretty level ground, but it has become quite sandy, making the hiking a little more challenging. We stop at the final "bathroom" of the hike outbound, its little more than some eco-friendly portapotties built in the woods. I'm feeling great and ready to tackle the rest of the hike up to Half Dome.
Or maybe not. 20 minutes more hiking and I'm sick. Wanting to puke on the side of the trail sick. After an extended rest out in the woods, a few hundred feet off the trail I get my shit together and start hiking again. Slowly. John, one of my teammates, and Sam, our guide, walk with me as I slowly get myself back together. I'm not sure why I'm having issues today, but its definitely not making this section of the hike pleasant. As we approach mid-day, the elevation increases and we become more exposed to the sun as the trees thin and we start to get a good view of Half Dome. Holy crap, I can't believe I am about to climb this thing.

Quarter Dome (forground)
Half Dome (background)
Note the people walking up the switchbacks on Quarter Dome
When people discuss hiking Half Dome there are really two things that stand out: The switchbacks up to the top of Quarter Dome and the cables up to the top of Half Dome. The cables were nerve wracking, this is before I even saw them up close. Switchbacks are just something to climb. But I've never seen switchbacks like these. Carved into the side of Quarter Dome, the switchbacks cling to the side of the rock, snaking up above most of the trees, covered in small pieces of granite that has come off Quarter Dome. These little pebbles are like ball bearings under foot. Be careful...

John, coming up the switchbacksI'm afraid of heights, but I usually manage to keep it under control. Not today. Just climbing the switchbacks, crowded with people in both directions, I was getting nervous. I kept thinking, "How in the hell am I going to manage to climb DOWN this stupid thing?!" Every time I looked back down the stairs toward my teammates I realized how quickly we were ascending. My heart was racing, a combination of altitude — I was at sea level ~24 hours ago and we're hiking at over 8000' MSL — and my own fears being tweaked. Hard. I don't think I'd have been so concerned if I knew and trusted everyone in my general vicinity. But all these strangers moving around me made me nervous... I couldn't wait to get to the top for a quick lunch break before tackling the final climb...

Finally! We get to the top of Quarter Dome, just below the cables and the peak of Half Dome. Hell yeah! Time for food, at least whatever I can force myself to eat. Nothing in the pack is looking good right now, so I stick to a protein shake — I mixed up the powder into a spare Nalgene bottle — and some trail mix. The whole team is here, ready to make the final climb, so we head over to the cables.

HOLY SHIT! There is no way I am climbing up THAT!

The Cables

The line is 100+ people deep to even approach the cables. On the cables there are probably 30 - 40 people climbing up the ~600' to the top of Half Dome. And its taking them each ~1 hour to make the climb, due to the traffic moving up and down. While I previously swore I was going to go it without any safety harness, my fears win out. I strap a harness around my waist to give me a little extra confidence... Of course, the harness is nothing more than some stout rope looped around my waist with a carabiner used to clip on to the cables as I go up the rock.

Unfortunately, the pictures don't really show the cables too well, so let me describe the scene. As you approach the base of the cables you'll see a pair of cables anchored to the granite with ~1 yard between them. Every 10 feet or so there is a pair of poles mounted perpendicular to the rock which supports the cables, holding them ~1 yard off the rock. Spanning between the gap horizontally between the poles is a 2X4 which provides solid footing as you reach each pole. The cable itself is approximately 1/2" in diameter made of twisted steel, much like what you'll see anchoring a telephone pole to the ground. This will hurt your hands if you don't have gloves, so most people climbing Half Dome bring gloves for the final ascent. (Honestly, even with gloves it was a painful experience). Generally people climb up in between the cables, ascending on the right and descending on the left, however, some people choose to climb on the outside of the cables which is reported to have better footing, due to the rock surface not being smoothed as much by people's boots.

Climbing the cables
I've been standing around for an hour or so watching people climb the cables ahead of me. My heart is racing. I've watched too many water bottles, cameras and all kinds of other crap fall from people's packs and bounce down hundreds of feet before falling out of sight and heading into the valley below. Holy shit.

I walk up to the cables and clip my carabiner on the cable. I'll do this another 50+ times each direction. Sam, one of our guides, is directly behind me, urging me on. Did I mention I really don't like heights? The fall off the face of Half Dome is quite a long way down and people have died doing this. In fact, someone died the weekend before. Why do people keep mentioning that?

We start walking up. I'm grabbing the cable with all of my might and trying to find good footing. Standing on the face of this rock, hanging on and trying not to slide downward is actually quite difficult when you may not move for minutes at a time. Especially with people descending the cable directly to my left, brushing past me, bumping backpacks and scaring the crap out of me each time. About 50 feet up the cables I quit. Well, I tried to. I turn back to Sam and tell her that there is no way I can do this. She tells me I can. Damn, if she can do this, so can I. Right? RIGHT? I "nut up" and keep heading up the cables. Every pole that I pass I need to stop and rest. My heart is racing, my adrenaline is pumping and I am starting to feel that we're at almost 9000' abouve sea level, making breathing more difficult than I'm used to. After almost an hour we have climbed the cables and walk on to the top of Half Dome. WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!

On Top!I collapse on top of Half Dome, grab a drink and take a look around me. I don't want to talk to anyone. I just want to look at everything around me and put out of my mind the fact that in less than an hour I'm going to have to do it in reverse as I climb back down. Going up is optional. Going down is mandatory!

After lots of pictures we head down the cables and the switchbacks for the ~10 mile hike back to the trailhead. This par of the hike is uneventful, except for the searing pain in both of my big toes. Every step is painful for the last 4 of 5 miles, and I cannot wait to get back to the hotel. More than 12 hours after we began we return to the trailhead, hop on a bus and head back to Tenaya Lodge.

While I should be hungry, and I am certainly ready to drink to beers I picked up at Russian River a few days earlier, I find that my body refuses to allow me the pleasure of either. A few sips of beer. A few small bites of food. I can't put anything else in my body. Steph forces me to drink a protein shake — almost 20 miles of hiking and I've hardly eaten all day... this is not a good thing — and then we head to bed. Thankfully its over.

In retrospect, this was the dumbest thing I have ever done. Seriously crazy. Stupid. Possibly deadly, although not very likely. Exhausting. Painful.

I can't wait to do it again. When are we going back to Yosemite?

States Visited

2007-09-19T00:35:00.000-04:00

A quick update... I've been in 39 states now... 11 to go!

Random Pix

2007-09-19T00:29:00.000-04:00

A few random pix for the day....

I sure do look happy to be entering Wyoming...

Possibly a bad sign when
found in the building where you'll be spending the whole week...

A bad picture of my new ergonomic office

Ergonomic Office

2007-09-16T12:16:00.000-04:00

I've been dealing with tendonitis in my right arm on and off for 10+ years now, since I started programming full time and left my cushy grad school gig. ;-) I have tried to maintain some some of ergonomic office for the past 10+ years in order to prevent further aggravation of my right arm. And I happen to be working through a particularly bad bout right now with lots of visits to the chiropractor and ice. Lots of ice.

Long story short, I now have a pretty damn cool set up at home thanks to an acquaintance. I'm now sporting a whole lot of cool gear, including a chair, monitor arm and keyboard and mouse tray, from Humanscale. I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time in the updated home office!

The Rabbit Died

2007-09-10T22:21:00.000-04:00

Well, it is time to come out of the quiet period. The rabbit died, Steph is knocked up and we're having a baby. Steph's almost 12 weeks and she's due on 3/29/2008.

Holy shit, what did I get myself into here?

So, if you were wondering about this, it was a reference to one of the Dixie Chick's difficulties in conceiving and having to go through IVF to have children. We too went through 2.5 years of trying to get pregnant, including various fertility treatments and 3 rounds of IVF. Turns out the IVF was completely unnecessary and that our doctor didn't know her ass from her elbow. Let's just say that evidence based medicine was not in her vocabulary. (More on this soon when I have time to write further on this topic and other reasons why the fertility clinic at Crawford Long Hospital isn't a place any man or woman should ever visit.)

After switching to RBA and meeting with Dr. Shapiro — he successfully helped friends get preggo through IVF — we learned that we wasted a lot of time and money. Three weeks of antibiotics was the remedy to our infertility problems. Six weeks later we got knocked up. Think of all the time and money we wasted. Yup, thousands of dollars down the drain and we could have resolve our problems with less than $100 worth of doxycycline. Yes, I am pissed, but there is not a damn thing I can do about it now. Besides, we're just ecstatic that a new phase of our life has begun!

More to come later with specifics and advice for those seeking fertility treatments.

Not so hard?

2007-08-09T12:44:00.000-04:00

Maybe its not so hard after all?

(Get your mind out of the gutter, James.)

Hating Life at EWR

2007-07-18T20:23:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting in EWR (Newark Liberty International Airport) hating life.

I had a 7:30 PM flight to Atlanta. Being the savvy traveler I managed to get on an earlier flight via a same-day confirmed seat on Delta. The flight was scheduled for 6:07 PM but due to delays was expected to leave by 6:30 PM.

Then 7:10 PM.

Then 8:40 PM.

Now it's estimated departure time is 9:35 PM.

My original flight left around 8:10 PM.

I screwed myself tonight...

West Coast Road Trip, Part I — Seattle to San Francisco

2007-07-16T22:24:00.000-04:00

Friday 6/15/2007

We flew to Seattle on a late flight. *yawn* We check into the hotel across the street from SeaTac and pass out.

Saturday 6/16/2007

We woke up early and picked up a rental car for the trip down the coast. First we drove up to Alki Beach for a drive around the waterfront and spent some time looking around the neighborhoods of West Seattle. We stopped in for a quick breakfast at Eats Market Cafe in West Seattle. The huevos rancheros were good, but Steph's hot whole grain cereal was amazingly tasty with dried fruit, pumpkin and sunflower seeds and honey drizzled on top. Seriously, this was enough to feed a family of four! We'll definitely be back for breakfast sometime.

After breakfast we headed over to Ballard, a neighborhood in NW Seattle, to meet my cousin Cheryl, her fiance Andy and their dogs, Kozmo and Rosco, before heading to Fremont for the Fremont Fair parade. Whoa! There's naked people on bikes! Even though I had heard about it, seeing it live was definitely an interesting experience. Of course, all we could think is that there would be riots in Atlanta with the same display of body painted flesh riding down the street! Not to mention the uncomfortable chafing. And it was somewhat chilly... I'd have nipples that could cut glass if I were out there in the buff! Naked people were only the beginning, the parade itself was somewhat organized chaos with all sorts of political and social messages, jugglers, musicians, etc. We tried to hook up with Nick and Tiff, but unfortunately the crowds conspired against us during the parade. (We did run into each other briefly later in the day.) Of course the parade was not the only part of the Fremont Festival, there were plenty of food stalls, beer gardens and lots of shopping of arts, crafts and, well, crap! . Later that night we had dinner with family and crashed pretty early. Sunday is going to be a busy day.

Sunday 6/17/2007

We start the day with brunch at Pete's Egg Nest. Man, these are the biggest plates of food ever. I swear the omelettes were at least 6 eggs each and the plate had pound of hash browns. Whoa! The food was very good, we'll have to come back here sometime. We headed down to the Pike Place Market for a little shopping adventure before going to the Space Needle so we could get our fill our touristy goodness. Mmmm touristy. The Space Needle would have been better on a clearer, warmer day, but it wasn't meant to be. Steph found it a helpful way to orient herself with the various neighborhoods we had been in over the past two days. We then headed over to the REI flagship store for some further shopping goodness. All thsi shoping and being tourist like made us feel pretty thirsty, so we headed to my absolute favorite German bar in Settle, Feierabend in South Lake Union. (OK, so its the only German bar I know in Seattle, but I like this place, its close to Nick's and REI and they serve the best soft pretzels ever. Wetzel's Pretzels, eat your salty heart out.) After a beer and a pretzel, Nick, Tiff and Yen-Ming joined us and we headed out to dinner at Jade Garden in the international district. We had gone here before when I was on a trip to Seattle for work and knew to let Yen-Ming order for us. Once again, more food than we could have possibly eaten, but everything was tasty, especially the Peking duck and the razor clams.

Monday 6/18/2007

Another early day for us, we pack up our stuff, say goodbye to Cheryl and Andy and hit the road for the drive to Portland. Its an easy drive, just over 3 hours, we arrived in Portland by 10:30 A.M. We stopped in to our hotel, The Kennedy School, briefly to get oriented and figure out the best way downtown. Turns out that we can drive to the light rail sation and take the train downtown for free. Free is my favorite flavor.

Like a fool, I leave my jacket in the car. The weather was supposed to be in the mid seventies, so I figured I'd be fine in a short sleeve shirt. No such luck, I was uncomfortably cold until at least 3 PM! As a warm-up stop, we dropped in on Henry's 12th Street Tavern for a bite to eat and a beer. The tomato soup was a great way to warm up while we planned our next few stops. After lunch, we wandered around the neighboring Pearl District. Going up and down the various streets, walking into shops and commenting on how cute everything is — and not buying anything! — is very tiring work. Quite nicely, there was a Rogue Ales Public House right nearby!

Rouge brews beer, distills gin and 3 different rums and has a creamery, to boot! The location we were in had a microdistillery and we were in time for the 2 P.M. tour. After tasting a few beers, including the Orange Honey Wheat and Chipotle Ale, we headed upstairs to join the "tour". While not much of a tour — it consisted of standing around two rooms on two different floors! — it was pretty interesting to see how they make the rums from the mash, through distillation and maturation in barrels. I've only been on one other distillery tour at Jack Daniel's in Tennessee, but that was on a greatly different scale! After the tour we got a chance to taste two of the rums and then gin. I should have bought a bottle of the gin when I had the chance, it's not available in Georgia.

We hit the streets again and spent a little more talking walking around the Pearl District before heading to Chinatown to see the Chinese Gardens. On the way Steph caught the Hung Far Low Building sign... hilarity ensued with lots of pictures being taken whilst I did my best charades about being overly well endowed.

After our entertainment we found the Portland Chinese Gardens which we wandered for at least an hour. The gardens are a replica of Chinese style gardens with imported plants and rocks. This is not a place that I can describe well, one really needs to experience sitting in the gardens on a sunny day, amidst blue skies to really appreciate the surroundings. This is definitely my favorite memory of Portland.

From calm & peaceful gardens to hot fat, good topings and a bit of Voodoo, we headed down the street to Voodoo Doughnuts. Whoa, this place is crazy. We had two donuts, a "Portland" Cream and a chocolate frosted covered in Cocoa Puffs and drizzled with peanut butter. Yummmmmmy. We were happily on a sugar high as we headed back to the hotel to relax for a while. The rest of the evening was low key and uneventful, we're exhausted and pass out early after planning tomorrow's route. Long day ahead...

Tuesday 6/19/2007

After breakfast at the Kenneday School, we check out and drive right into... Portland's rush hour. Oops. Today we head southwest from Portland toward the coast at Lincoln City and south down 101 to our B&B in Klamath, CA. It's a long day, 7+ hours of driving on mostly 2 lane roads, but it was worth the effort! As we headed through the Willamette Valley toward the coast, we stopped at a roadside stand for some fresh fruit and snacks for the road.

Best strawberries ever. I am ruined on supermarket strawberries forever. The fruit here is very good! I think we ate an entire pint by the time we reached the coast at Lincoln City, OR. We got out here to stretch our legs and check out the beach. Not a particularly nice beach, but not bad either, we walked around for a few minutes and took some pictures. I ventured down to the water and put my toes in. Damn, that's cold! Its not like the warm-as-piss Gulf of Mexico, that's for sure!

Back in the car, we drove down to Newport where we found the Rogue Brewery. We stopped in for lunch. A very good lunch, I might add! Its hard to screw up a burger and a fish sandwich, but it's easy to make a mediocre burger too. I guess their use of Kobe beef didn't hurt! I sampled the Rogue 10,000 brew and, like most of the folks on Beer Advocate! I was not impressed. Glad I didn't spend $20 on a bottle! (Plus, I have to save my beer money for the 2007 Sam Adams Utopias which will run ~$150 retail for a 750 mL bottle!). On the road again stuffed with food and beer we drive down to Sea Lion Caves which is just north of Florence, OR!. What an absolutely cheesy tourist trap. Glad we stopped in and saw the sea lions, but it really wasn't worth almost $20. Next!

We head further south down the coast and reach the Oregon dunes. Its crazy driving down the road and seeing a huge sand dune encroaching on a grocery store on the side of the road. Eventually we reached the trailhead for the Oregon Dunes Overlook Trail which leads to many miles of hiking trails. This is a great spot to get out, stretch your legs and go for a walk. We thought we might hike a few miles, but once we're on the dunes and realize the difficulty in walking in soft, shifting sands it became clear we weren't going to go too terribly far. From the boardwalk we wandered on to the dunes, the trail is marked by a series of wooden posts (blazes) that are placed in the sand every few hundred yards. We headed down the first dune following the trail that leads to the ocean. The trail itself is ~1 mile, but after the first quarter mile or so the Keens came off and we started walking barefoot. The sand felt great at first, but soon it became irritating to walk barefoot, so we sat down and enjoyed the warm, sunny day. Looking around we realize how disorienting it can be when you are surrounded by a sea of sand with some vegetation in the distance. Its getting later in the day, so we decide to head back to the car and drive the last 200 miles or so to our B&B in Klamath, CA.

The next few hours of drive time are some of the most beautiful parts of the Oregon coast and free of most of the travel trailers and motorhomes we ran into further north. The coast of Oregon is absolutely gorgeous, we stopped every so often just to get out of the car and take in the sights. For two people who have spent most of their lives on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, the cliffs along the coast are a novel sight. Eventually we cross into California and drive into one of the northernmost stands of redwood trees in the world. This is only a small sampling of what we're going to see tomorrow — and not nearly as impressive — but it tells us one very important thing: Our 8 hour drive is nearly complete.

We pull into our B&B, the Requa Inn in Klamath, CA, around 8:45 PM. After eating our sandwiches from Subway — I believe this is considered fine dining in Klamath! — we settle in with a bottle of wine and start downloading pictures to the laptop while we plan tomorrow's drive.

Wednesday 6/20/2007

Today is Steph's birthday and we're going to make it one to remember!

Originally, we had planned on hiking along the mouth of the Klamath River along the Pacific coast. Due to the low fog, this plan is quickly thrown out the window since we wouldn't be able to see anything.

Instead, we hop on the road, top off the gas tank and head to the Tour Thru Tree in Klamath, CA. This redwood has been carved out in order to allow cars to drive through the tree. Another cheesy tourist attraction, yes, but how can we resist? After squeezing our Chevy Impala through the tree and taking our requisite pictures we hit the road again. The plan is to follow 101 south to San Francisco with a few stops along the way. Our first detour is in the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park on the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway. This is our first chance to get an up close and personal view of some of the giant redwood trees. I can't describe the experience and our pictures don't do it justice either. This is a place one has to experience to understand how magnificent these trees are. Sadly, less than 10% of the original old growth giant redwoods remain, most have been lost to logging. At the end of the scenic parkway we get back on 101 South for a few miles before turning off into the Redwood National Park to hike the Trillium Falls Trail. The trail starts just off the road in an old logging camp. In the last 10 years the camp has been torn down and the land restored to a more natural state. After a short walk down a paved path running alongside the recently restored areas the trail heads uphill and into the forest. Suddenly I feel small. Very small. Everything around us appears to be supersized! We hike into the forest about 1 mile to the Trillium Falls where we stop to take a few pictures and marvel at the beauty of the forest and everthing that surounds us.

Enough nature, we have a few hundred miles to cover still if we're to make it to San Francisco in time for dinner! We hop back in the car and continue driving southward on 101. We did make a short detour on to the Avenue of the Giants through another large stand of redwoods. I didn't find this to be as nice or exciting as the aras we had traversed earlier. So we cut the drive down the Avenue of the Giants short and hopped back on 101. The remainder of the drive to SF was uneventful and included a brief stop in Santa Rosa, CA to hit the Russian River Brewing Company where I picked up a pair of growlers filled with Pliny the Elder and an ESB. These will be enjoyed on Saturday night after the hike. Or so I think...

After more than 7 hours on the road we finally arrive in San Francisco. We meet our friends Jen & Howard at their condo before heading out for a birthday dinner at The Slanted Door on the Embarcadero. After a great meal we head back to Jen & Howard's for a well deserved rest. Its been another long day on the road...

Back to normal...

2007-07-14T09:02:00.000-04:00

My digital life is back to normal. I did lose most of my vacation photos, but I found some advice on various sites which indicates that I may be able to recover some of my data by fscking the disk... This is something to work on in my spare time.

My west coast trip report is forthcoming... I recovered the vast majority of the writing I have already done for the blog post, now I just have to finish writing. I hope to do that over the next few days...

Backing up is important

2007-07-12T17:36:00.000-04:00

I have for many years maintained regular backups of my systems. Minimally I keep a copy of my user directory on either a network share (which ended with the demise of my G4 tower) or USB based hard disks.

Before going to the west coast I backed up my MacBook. I always make a backup before a road trip.

When we came home, laden with gigs of pictures, I made a backup. It filled the drive and never completed. I finally got around to making a backup yesterday.

"Hey, what's making that funny noise?"

Oh. Crap. That funny noise is coming from the hard drive in my MacBook. Everything got very slow on my Mac and it finally hung. I had to reboot.

No dice. The drive is dead. Nothing has been able to rescue it (Disk First Aid, Disk Warrior). "Invalid sibling link" errors. Note the part where it says "This is an error you definitely don't want. It indicates that parts of your directory, and therefore some of your files and folders, are inaccessible." Yay!

So, the question now is, how far did my backup get? Did I really lose 800+ pictures from 10 days on the road?

Sadly, the answer looks to be yes. Everything that hasn't been uploaded somewhere or possibly saved in an email looks to be lost. Once I replace the drive and get my digital life back in order I will explore other options to retrieve my data. So far it looks like I may have only lost those photos, other directories containing important data that has changed recently (remember the older, incomplete backup). Thankfully I didn't lose my 7000+ photos that happened before the road trip or hundreds of albums that I have in my iTunes library. Ripping disks to MP3s is a PITA!

I bought a new Western Digital 160GB SATA drive which is being delivered tomorrow. The old drive, a Hitachi 160GB SATA drive, is still under warranty, so I should get a replacement eventually. And I'll be using it to make more regular backups. The plan is to have a 160GB drive that I use a tool like SuperDuper
to make a bootable image of my laptop drive on a regular basis. (Oh crap, I have a lot of software to reinstall...) I'll make incremental backups of my home directory and application directories using Carbon Copy Cloner.

Next time, I won't procrastinate on making a backup of something as important as vacation photos, either.

West Coast Road Trip in Pictures!

2007-06-28T22:47:00.000-04:00

I'm still not done writing about our trip, but I do have some pictures to share finally...

I DID IT!

2007-06-24T02:33:00.000-04:00

It was a hell of a hike, but I completed ~20 miles of hiking to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite. That was the scariest and most exhilarating thing I have ever done. Pictures coming soon...

iPhone == iP0wn

2007-06-12T08:20:00.000-04:00

I think Brian Chess and I are sharing the same thoughts about Apple's SDK for the iPhone. I'm happy developers can write apps for the iPhone, but this is a craptacular mechanism for writing apps, since they depend on connectivity to the network to function. And using security as the excuse? I guess Steve Jobs has never seen an insecure web app...

In other news, I am still lusting after the iPhone...

The Rich Web Experience & No Fluff, Just Stuff

2007-06-04T17:48:00.000-04:00

Thanks to my good friend and coworker Roman Hustad I have been hooked up with the guys from No Fluff, Just Stuff where I will be presenting a few talks.

The first group of talks will be in London at a No Fluff, Just Stuff seminar series. You can find the list of presentations I am making here.

The following week I'll be talking at the Rich Web Experience in San Jose, CA... details on this conference coming soon.

Hike for Discovery - Sweetwater Creek State Park

2007-05-14T20:47:00.000-04:00

Steph & Lucy
On Saturday we hiked at Sweetwater Creek State Park just west of Atlanta. Steph and I had hiked here once before, so I knew it wasn't a challenging hike with relatively flat terrain. But it is pretty technical with lots of scrambling over rocks and roots. Since I'm a masochist I added an extra 5 pounds of weight (two 1 liter Nalgene bottles) to my pack in an effort to slow my pace and still get a good workout.

This was the first hike of the season that Steph joined me on. When we arrived at Sweetwater at 7:30 AM it was already extremely muggy due to the previous night's rain. Yuck!

As a team, we decided to hike the red trail to the white trail for 6 miles with an optional 3 mile extension on the yellow trail. Off we go!

The first part of the trail is pretty flat with a lot of rock outcroppings and roots littering the trail. Its a nice hike that follows along the river past the New Manchester Manufacturing Company textile factory ruins. The factory itself was destroyed during the civil war by Sherman during the Atlanta Campaign. Al that remains is part of the shell of the original building.
New Manchester Manufacturing
Company Ruins

The rain on Friday night made it a bit more difficult on this part of the trail, especially on the rocks that you hike over. Being the incredible klutz that I am I slipped on some of the rocks and fell. The trail is ~15' above the river at this point. When I fell and slid down the rocks I managed to grab hold of the rocks to prevent myself from sliding all the way into the river. Unfortunately, my right leg was hung up on a tree, so I had no leverage to life myself out of the predicament I was in! Steph and another hiker grabbed my hands and pack to lift me slightly, free my leg and get me back on the trail.

The rest of the hike was nice and uneventful, thankfully. Steph and Lucy enjoyed themselves greatly and tired themselves out. After the hike we came home and the ladies, Lucy and Steph, passed out. I don't think I have ever seen Lucy pass out so hard! Clearly she enjoyed herself, but I believe I wore her out. I'll have to keep this in mind for the next time I want Lucy to relax!
Sweetwater Creek Rapids

Next week we're headed to Vogel State Park for the Coosa Backcountry Trail. This is the toughest hike of the HFD season and one I did not complete last year. I'm looking forward to tackling this trail again and completing the entire trail without bailing out at the road crossing. I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures to post from Coosa this time around!

Fuck the TSA

2007-05-11T22:05:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure what kind of a police state we currently live in, but the TSA appears to believe that they can confiscate anything they want. Per the poorly enforced rules about carry-on liquids and gels, I had three bottles, each 2 oz., which I put my shampoo, conditioner and other styling products in. These are not the original containers, but nowhere do the rules state that as a requirement.

Flying from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Newark last week I checked my bag. It was overstuffed and I didn't feel like dragging it through the airport. Upon arriving in NYC I see that my bag was searched and the bastards stole my bottles of hair products from my bag. When I called the TSA they offered to help me file a report, but claimed that there was really nothing more they can do.

All I have to say to that is "WHAT THE FUCK!?!"

I bought 3 more bottles... we'll see how long until these get confiscated under some other unpublished rules.

Happy Birthday Java!

2007-05-11T21:57:00.000-04:00

Ice Cream, Yum!Happy birthday old man!

We celebrated Java's 11th birthday in the traditional manner by getting the dogs ice cream at Bruster's. Java loved it. Lucy, as usual, was a total pussy and was scared of her ice cream cup. *sigh*

Still no official word on Java's foot, but it does not appear to be cancerous. However, we still don't know what it is and how it will affect him moving forward...

NYC

2007-05-08T22:38:00.000-04:00

Friday night I flew to Newark where I met Steph to celebrate out fourth anniversary. Of course, I was a day late to the celebration, due to Cf.Objective() and work. I figured a trip to NYC would be a good way to say "I'm sorry" for having to be away.
Times Square

We got in to midtown Manhattan around 9:30 and searched around for someplace to eat dinner. You know how when you're so hungry that you can't seem to make a decision on where to eat? Combine that with being in a city that neither of us are really familiar with and you have a serious issue! We decided on an Indian place on West 52nd, but when we walked up to check out the menu, we saw the Indian place was empty... but the Greek Restaurant next door was quite busy! So Greek it is!
Katz's Deli

We sat down at Anthos and proceeded to wait for a menu. And wait. And wait. Finally we got some menus. And we waited some more. Finally I grabbed a waitress and explained to her that we were feeling ignored and would really like to order. Turns out I just ratted out our crappy waitress to our waitress! Oops! After this she got much better.

We had a few cocktails along with appetizers. Grilled octopus, a contemporary Greek salad with beets, radishes, endive, ramps, feta and fresh garbanzo beans and a raw meze platter with five different kinds of fish were brought out. The food was well prepared, nicely presented and rocked our world. Kyma, eat your heart out.
Katz's Deli

After dinner our waitress, who had previously enquired as to why we were in NYC, brought us out two different desserts on the house to help us celebrate. The first was some kind of round donut. filled with an orange blossom cream and served with burnt honey ice cream. I thought I would have a food orgasm! The second was a trio of three kinds of baklava. While they were all good, the donuts were the winner of the evening. We'll definitely be heading back to Anthos next time we're in NYC. After a quick drink at P.J. Clarke's it was time for bed.
Lips and Assholes
YUM!

Saturday morning we woke up early and headed for the only scheduled task of the day: shopping for clothes! Of course we were too early to actually shop, so instead we wandered around midtown and into Times Square where we ran into a run/walk for breast cancer research. Having participated in a number of the Susan B. Komen Walk for the Cure events (a.k.a. "Walk for Boobs!"), it was pretty cool to see the absolutely huge crowd as they walked and ran north from Times Square. We continued to wander around Midtown until around 10 AM when we finally got in a bit of shopping.
Pommes Frites

After a quick stop back at the hotel to drop off our newly acquired schwag we headed to the Lower East Side for lunch at Katz's Deli. Somehow our cabbie didn't understand East Houston at Ludlow and wound up taking us to Chelsea before we ditched cab #1 and hailed a second cab with a driver that understood my broken English. *smirk* After a corned beef on rye, potato knish, pickles (old, new and sour tomatoes) and a Dr. Brown's cream soda, we were fat and happy. We waddled out of Katz's and wandered around the Lower East Side and East Village for quite a while. Walking through the village we decided it was time for a drink and someplace to rest our feet. I thought I knew where we were, so I suggested we hit up McSorley's Old Ale House, the oldest continuously operating bar in NYC.

Unfortunately, we were a block too far north when we hit 2nd at St. Marks Place. But what a fortuitous mistake! As I tried Googling an address I spied Pommes Frites, a Belgian style pommes frites (French fries) shop. Being big fans of pommes frites ever since our first trip to Europe in 2001, we had to stop in for a bite. Yummmmmm. This also put us a half block from McSorley's where we stopped in for a few beers. (Definitely get the dark. The light was, well, too light.)
Drinking at McSorley's

With a nice beer buzz going we hopped back into a cab and headed up to the TKTS booth in Times Square. We picked up a pair of seats to Spring Awakening for that evening. I headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit — I was still exhausted from my previous 6 days on the road — while Steph did a bit more shopping.

Before the show we headed out for dinner at Dervish, a Turkish restaurant in the theater district recommended by our New Yorker friends, Annette & Jed. After another great dinner we sauntered over to the theater for the show. I'm not a huge fan of the theater, but the show was quite enjoyable. If you're in NYC, I highly recommend getting tickets.
MAN TITS!

After the show we headed back to the hotel and made it a pretty early night. The next morning we woke up early (again!) and headed to Park Slope to visit some friends. After brunch at n Austrian restaurant and a great walking tour of the neighborhood, it was time to head to the airport.

While it was a short trip, we had a great time in NYC celebrating our anniversary. Where will we go next year? Perhaps if Steph is lucky I'll take here to Bumblefuck, WI! Nah, probably not.

Cf.Objective()

2007-05-04T16:33:00.000-04:00

Whew, what a week. After a few days in Bumblefuck, WI I drove to Minneapolis yesterday for Cf.Objective() where I gave my talk this morning. Had a pretty packed room, I'd guess 40+ folks were there. I'm glad its over and I am on my way to NYC for a fun weekend and a chance to play with my new toy, a Canon Powershot SD800 IS camera. w00t!

Want the presentation? Email me and I can send you a PDF. When I get back from NYC that is. 80+ hour weeks suck... I'm going to be drinking many Manhattans in Manhattan this weekend.

Cf.Objective() Preview Talk

2007-05-02T07:31:00.000-04:00

My preview talk for Cf.Objective(), Security and the SDLC: Threat Modeling, i online at Charlie Areharts User Group TV. Check it out here.

Java

2007-05-01T22:43:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, Steph and I went away to North Carolina for the weekend. As usual, the dogs went to Wag-A-Lot for the weekend where they spent time in doggy daycare and cursed us for leaving them for the weekend. Upon our return, Steph though Java was limping, but I dismissed her concern since I didn't observe it myself.
Java at the Braves game

A few hours later I was standing at the butcher block in our kitchen. I turned quickly and my foot hit Java's right front paw. He flinched, pulled his paw back and made a noise. At this point I knew something was up, so I bent down for a closer look. What I saw worried me: Java's "pinkie toe" was swollen and had a sore on it. The toe itself was really tender and he wouldn't allow me the opportunity to look at it.

The next day I left on a work trip and Steph took Java to the vet. They couldn't find any obvious issues and gave us some antibiotics and instructions to watch his toe to see if anything changed over the next few days. Unfortunately, the swelling didn't go down, so late in the week Java had another vet appointment where they took some x-rays and a biopsy of his toe. That was April 13. When I called the vet that afternoon she indicated that the x-rays didn't show anything abnormal — we had hoped that he had a piece of glass or some other foreign object stuck in his toe. The x-ray also showed that its not cancer of the bone, apparently a common affliction of dogs. The biopsy was sent off to the University of GA for review...

Its now 2.5 weeks later and the biopsy is still not back from the University of Georgia. The swelling in Java's toe hasn't gone down, though the tenderness has improved. Is it an infection of some sort? Cancer? Something else? We have no idea and neither does the vet! I am anxious as can be about the results and what this means for Java. Of course, my thoughts are turning negative and I am thinking about amputation of his foot or leg due to cancer. I have no reason to think this is the case, but I don't have any hope that it's not, either. I'm scared to death and want an answer. Now!

Java is celebrating his 11th birthday this Saturday. Unfortunately, I won't be around to celebrate with him. Thankfully, he can't tell time, so he won't know that he gets his annual ice cream from Bruster's — I'm a cheap mofo and get him their doggie bowl of vanilla ice cream with a dog bone — but I'm sure he'll enjoy it just as much when I get home next week. My only hope is that his birthday gift is good news from the vet.

Whatever happens, we're going to do whatever is necessary to ensure he is happy, healthy and comfortable. I know the day will come some day in the future when we need to make tough decisions about Java's care. It won't be easy when that day comes. Let's hope we don't have to make those decisions anytime soon.

Thumb War?

2007-05-01T22:40:00.000-04:00

Bumblefuck, WI

2007-04-29T19:46:00.000-04:00

One of the perks of being a consultant is traveling to great places. Buenos Aires, NYC, Chicago, Boston, etc. Of course, we also travel to some pretty out of the way locations now and again. This week I'm stuck in Bumblefuck, WI.

Now Bumblefuck wouldn't be so bad. Wisconsin is known for its cheese and beer (yay, beer!). But Bumblefuck has little of either from what I can see so far. I found a few chain restaurants as I drove around looking for a place to grab a meal. I also found a few local places, so I decided to drop in on one of them. The first warning sign that I made a bad choice was that there was no beer served here. Well, that's the only warning sign, but the food was decent and cheap. But no beer? I feel like I'm back in the South, standing in the wine & beer isle at Publix on a Sunday where signs everywhere remind me that someone else's religious beliefs are being pushed upon the rest of us and therefore I can't buy alcohol on "God's" day. Feh.

On another note, I went to Stone Mountain yesterday for some hiking. 3 times up and down for ~7.5 miles (including the walk in/out of the park, since we're all too cheap to pay for admission). Sandy mentioned hiking Kilimanjaro... perhaps when we're done with the fall season we can plan an expedition for a handful of folks... I'm having some serious wanderlust these days. Vacation can't come soon enough.

Preview of my Cf.Objective() Talk

2007-04-25T15:58:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Charlie Arehart and the guys behind Cf.Objective(), I'll be presenting a 30 minute mini-talk on Friday entitled "Security and the SDLC: Threat Modeling". This will be the first online user group presentation I'll be doing and I'm pretty excited!

"In this 30 minute preview of his CFObjective seminar, Dean will examine how threat modeling can be used as a baseline activity to ensure the security of web applications. Threat modeling is a structured approach for identifying, evaluating and mitigating risks to system security. By modeling a system as an attacker would, development organizations can prioritize the usage of a development/security budget, manage risks to system security and find vulnerabilities earlier than technical testing or code reviews. Applied early in the development lifecycle, threat modeling can be used to drive further secure SDLC activities, such as code reviews and penetration testing to ensure the security of your software throughout its lifetime."

While this is billed as a preview of my Cf.Objective() talk, its more of a parallel track. In this talk I'll be hitting on one of the three high ROI activities that can be added to the SDLC in order to begin addressing the problem of software insecurity. Of course at Cf.Objective() I'll be spending more time on the baseline activities, including code reviews and penetration testing, and how they fit into the overall development lifecycle.

I hope people will RSVP for this online meet-up and then come see me in Minneapolis next week!

Behind on posting... again

2007-04-19T09:10:00.000-04:00

I'm behind on posting about HFD again due to work... I've been on the road the past two weeks from Sunday to Friday, so it has definitely slowed me down.

Last week I was in Madison, WI for the final blast of winter weather. We got more than 6" of snow in a day, more snow than I have seen in many, many years. Thankfully, Madison doesn't just shut down when it snows.

I returned home to much warmer weather on Friday, just in time to hike at Amicalola Falls on Saturday. We were expecting severe thunderstorms, so it was decided that we'd do a short hike of 10 miles to the Len Foote Hike Inn and back. This is a pretty easy trail with no difficult climbs or descents, so we knocked out the 10 miles and a short break at the Hike Inn in about 3.5 hours. After sharing some homebrew with the team, we all headed back to town and took shelter from the storms which never materialized... Sure, it rained, but it wasn't the downpour that was expected.

This week I'm in Nashville, TN, home of bad bouffant hairdos and some really questionable "western" clothing. I feel like I've been transported back in time... I really can't wait to leave.

The next few weeks will be light on posting since I'm going to be traveling a lot. Sunday morning I'll be hiking on the Benton MacKaye Trail with the team before running back to ATL for a flight to Memphis. I'm going to be presenting a seminar on software security in Memphis and meet with some potential customers for a few days before returning home. The following week I'll be back to the cold, white north — hopefully a lot less cold and white this time — to teach a class and present at Cf.Objective(). This trip is going to involve a LOT of driving. I fly into Green Bay, WI on Sunday, drive to central WI that afternoon and spend the next 4 days teaching a software security class. Then I'm driving 200+ miles to Minneapolis to catch the first day of Cf.Objective() where I will be presenting a talk entitled Security and the SDLC: A Strategic Approach to Software Security. But I won't be spending a lot of time at the conference since I need to be in NYC that night. So I'll be making a mad dash to the airport after my talk to catch a flight.

Damn... its going to be a busy few weeks. Hopefully things will calm down as we get into May... but I doubt it. Work hard... play harder!