http://tinyurl.com/6z8pge

The whole foods near us now carries the cinnamon bread of death aka Greenlee's Cinnamon Bread.

Nomnomnom.

http://echristo.blogspot.com/2007/11/lots-of-talks-lately.html

Your home is a Athletic Magnate's Villa Your kitchen is someplace you never go, because you "have people for that." There's a Chocolatessen, which is rapidly becoming your favorite room of the house. Having one is also becoming a trend among your wealthy neighbors. Your master bedroom is the size of a small barn, with carpet thick enough to reach your ankles. Your study has hardback editions of every classic ever written, plus a special edition of Rich Dad, Poor Dad with the parts you ghost-authored highlighted. One of your garages holds your collection of ferraris, and is measured in acreage. Your home also includes a guest wing and private quarters for your servants. Your guests enjoy your home theater with 37 different sports channels. Outside is your hedge maze and gardens, meticulously tended by a team of world-class botanists. And, you have a pet -- a doberman pincer named "Warren". Below is a snippet of the blueprints:

Find YOUR Dream Home!

More over there:

http://echristo.blogspot.com/2007/09/more-pointers-to-other-peoples-blogs.html

got cut off by SJ on my way up to the rink :)

What he said:

http://skzbrust.livejournal.com/33647.html

Wrote a couple more posts on "that other blogging site":

http://echristo.blogspot.com/2007/03/std-experiences.html

and

http://echristo.blogspot.com/2007/03/some-thoughts-on-transactional-memory.html

An entry about some nifty software I've found:
http://echristo.blogspot.com/2006/11/good-ui-and-useful-too.html

I've been posting at here lately. Nothing much interesting, and very little personal.

... and monday I start anew at Apple. It's been great at Cygnus, then at Red Hat. I've packed my cube, taken the last pictures of people, and had the good luck drinking with the office. Time to go home, take a nice relaxing weekend and prepare for an all new experience.

Eeek.

Here they are:

http://www.ophiuchi.net/~echristo/pics/2005_gcc_summit/

It was a great deal of fun hanging out and speaking with everyone. Next year should be great again.

Home. Had a great time, but it's nice to be back too. The kitties obviously missed me. "Hi dad! *shed*" "gee. thanks kitten"

Pictures so far:

http://www.ophiuchi.net/~echristo/pics/20050524_vacation/

Had a great time.

-eric

but i can't help it.

Your Birthdate: May 12

Being born on the 12th day of the month (3 energy) is likely to add a good bit of vitality to your life. The energy of 3 allows you bounce back rapidly from setbacks, physical or mental. There is a restlessness in your nature, but you seem to be able to portray an easygoing, sometimes "couldn't care less" attitude. You have a natural ability to express yourself in public, and you always make a very good impression. Good with words, you excel in writing, speaking, and possibly singing. You are energetic and always a good conversationalist. You have a keen imagination, but you tend to scatter your energies and become involved with too may superficial matters. Your mind is practical and rational despite this tendency to jump about. You are affectionate and loving - but very sensitive. You are subject to rapid ups and downs.

Stuff I read on the web today:

Blog of a bookslut diary
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1405382,00.html

Economist article on Open Source
http://www.economist.com/finance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3623762

Dianetics gone wrong
http://toothpastefordinner.com/020705/l-drew-rubbard.gif

The Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist
http://www.appomattox.demon.co.uk/acca/News/shortlist05.htm

The Economist Buttonwood column
http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3621966

At least that seemed to be the more interesting or amusing things.

bit old, but thought i'd put it in here for posterity:

trip day #3 5:10pm, cafe lulu

Listening to decent techno in a stylish cafe across the street from the
fratboy-esque Hard Rock Cafe. Served by the cutest waitress I've ever
laid eyes on, Felicia and I enjoyed tasty beverages of tea and chai
along with cakes and pumpkin pie.

Collecting a few thoughts of the last few days. We've driven down here
fueled by DJ Felicia's energetic tunes. Stayed in Anaheim where, per normal,
we let the temptation of warm cookies influence our hotel decisions.
Followed the next day with a trip to Disneyland where two of our favorite
rides, Space Mountain and The Matterhorn, were closed for renovation. On
the spot we planned a trip in the spring where we hope to ride our bikes
down and travel the area like that. The only other item of note at Disneyland
was The Haunted Mansion - an amazing tribute to The Nightmare Before Christmas!
We'll be singing "This Is Halloween" for the next week.

Now off to see The Incredibles with Kate and Ben, followed hopefully,
with dinner.

trip day #4 11:45pm, kate & ben's house

Relaxed. Drove through the town of Poway.

First reaction: Wow. Money.
Second Reaction: I'm hungry.
Third Reaction: Don't people go out to eat in this town?

Now, don't ge me wrong, we passed a number of fast food restaurants and quick
take out. We, however, wanted a place to sit down, relax, and have a nice
meal. After a while of searching we found a chain Mongolian BBQ restaurant
just off the freeway - the freeway that we originally weren't even near.
Sigh.

Food gotten we went back to visit Kate & Ben some more. Mostly we ended up
reading books and drinking tea while waiting for them both to return from
work, school, and traffic. Later we geeked, traded some music, and watched
a bunch of "Live" videos. Then dinner. Afterwards some more geeking and
then hottubbing in their very nice tub. Relaxing.

After too short a sleep we motored up the freeway to my grandparent's house
for Thanksgiving. There was, thankfully, no traffic and no CHP on the trip
so we got there a little more than an hour after we left.

Showers, breakfast, talking, and some cooking (and relaxing). Dinner
was everything I'd remembered. Felicia was wonderful. There was nothing
more than an outpouring of love and affection. I'm occasionally called a
food snob, but the basic and delicious meals prepared by my grandmother
strike a chord within me - and Felicia. If ever I needed more proof
that she's the one for me I found it today.

Tea and chocolate pie for dessert along with some TV watching and more
talking. I introduced my grandmother to both Good Eats, and (via Felicia)
QE. She seemed to like both. I mentioned that I often comment "hey, that's
what i do", or "I'm not so sure about that process" while watching Good
Eats - we both laughed when she did the same thing!

The last few days have been relaxing and filled with fun and family. Times
like this are good for the soul. Now some relaxing alone with my love, some
much needed sleep, and brunch tomorrow with Bill, Irina and her Mother.

trip day #4 12:32am, continued

Can't forget the new goal that Felicia and I have at Disneyland - we're
collecting pictures of babes and villians. The going is slow, but
it should be fun to gather and spend time together doing so.

trip day #5 9:07pm, car

After a short night's rest, Felicia and I had brunch with Irina, her mother
Natasha and her boyfriend Bill in Los Angeles. Mimosas, fruit, bread, cheese,
mashed potatoes, chicken breast, spicy mustard and russian tea were the
order of the morning. This great quantity of food was then followed up with
pumpkin pie, a russian shortbread and whipped cream with rum added. Tea and
port to drink - and it wasn't even noon yet. Fun and friendly conversation
washed down the meal, some gossip, some news and mostly just talking
about whatever suited our fancy. A great pleasure.

After lolling about and digesting for 20-30 minutes and noticing that we
really didn't have enough time for a movie before Irina had to go to
work that evening (the place she works was putting on a performance of
The Nutcracker and she was needed), we decided to go to Venice and feed
the ducks and walk along the canals - and gaze longingly at the
multi-million dollar homes. Since Felicia hadn't been there before we
walked to the boardwalk and looked at the freaks who were well represented
there. I hadn't remembered quite the concentration of drug culture though.
There were some interesting people there too. There was a set of performance
art done by some men of African descent. Quite nice, I'd have taken a
picture of it, but I forgot that I had the camera.

Back to Irina's apartment, more tea and Felicia prevailed upon Bill to
make some popcorn. A short while hanging out later, Irina was off to
the play and Felicia and I decided to end our vacation a bit early and
head home. Traffic is light so far and we're making good time.

I heard a bang and stars collided
Her skin drew me in just like a magnet
Little girl my little world is yours

Was relatively painless and the lines weren't too bad. This is likely due to the other polling place across the street as well. Used the Sequoia electronic voting machine. Was easy and quick - no paper confirmation though which is always worrysome. I like the idea of a good UI like that which would then give you a paper ballot to be read and tabulated along with the rest.

If you haven't voted yet, do so.

I was quite out of sorts until evening. I think part of it was that yesterday would have been my mother's 51st birthday. In all fairness she killed herself out of neglect and bad choices over the years. The timing of it was particularly miserable for me because not a couple of weeks earlier I had been speaking with darkstormangel about the possibility of trying again to help her with her life. We'd come up with at least some of a plan and just needed to get a hold of her to put it in action - then it was too late. Only occasionally do I blame myself for this, it seems like her birthday seems to be the day that I tend to do this. Her deathday isn't so much the day - that's a day of her failure, not mine. She died with only her insane sister in attendance, approximately at the end of the Super Bowl. Jokingly I've commented that the demoralizing defeat of her beloved Raiders might have been the thing to finally end it for her. I've realized that the woman that died isn't the woman that I miss when I miss my mother. The mother I miss was the one that taught me how to cook, that came to my soccer games, that took me to the emergency room on no less than a dozen occasions growing up, and never once squicked at the sight of my blood. She did die alone though. Friendless. Mostly without family. That's not something that should happen to anyone. At least it happened quickly and relatively painlessly. I do hope that people are right and she is in a better place.

One of the judges for the Man Booker prize talks about it in this article here. Interesting thoughts on both reading (132 books in 147 days!) and writing. Since a number of the people on my friends list are writers I thought people might find it interesting.

http://www.economist.com/books/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3308497

I plan on being a lemming and picking up at least a few books off the short list and probably the others mentioned in the article as well.