Random Stuff

I used to think it only happened on TV and occasionally to someone I know. But with a little help from facebook and asking some questions, I now know different.

30% of the people I grew up with.
Plus or minus 4 years in age.
All grew up within 50 miles of each other.

One died as a result of a brain tumor.
The rest of the %30 all suffered or are dealing with cancer. Mostly brain, thyroid, or pituitary.

We all spent our summers swimming and water skiing in the Columbia river. Less than 40 miles downstream from one of North America’s worst polluters. Cominco used to dump their industrial waste into the Columbia river. If you drove along the Columbia to where the Cominco plant was located, you would notice the land was baron. No trees, no forest. Dead. Just what were we swimming in?

Time was also spent riding motorcycles, hiking, and swimming along the Little Pend Oreille river or the various lakes there about. It was always interesting to come across a double chain link fence with razor wire and radio active warning signs while out in the middle of the forest. Uranium mines. Upstream. This same water that was our drinking water supply?

Forest fires were quite common. Ever see the pink stuff being dropped from an air plane to put out fires? Did you know that it is filled with Dioxons? Poisons that stay in your fat cells for decades. It was proven to be in the water supply we were drinking from.

Add to that three saw mills treating wood with arsenic, and one creosote plant.

Is 30% of the people my age who grew up in the same place at the same time a pattern? What about those same people suffering from only 3 different types of cancers? Is it a pattern yet? How about that those types of cancer seem to be rare in the general population? hmmm.

As for me, I don’t know. I’ve never been checked. But after finding out about just how high of an occurance it is happening among the people I grew up with, I think I should.

Those kinds of numbers really make me wonder.

I am thankful for my girlfriend, who has been unbelievably patient with me. Always putting up with my crazy ideas and looking forward to sharing whatever I am interested in at the moment. Most of all She lets me just be me.

My son, whose music constantly fills my house, which I miss terribly when he is not around.

My friends who really care. Who at time I don’t know how I would have made it without.

I spent thanksgiving day with a group of about ten friends and Debbie eating a home made dinner which everyone cooked together.  It was great. It’s not what I asked for but it’s what I needed.

An unexpectedly good surprise. I’ve recently started a new project and got a good start to it today. Debbie and I got what amounted to a private car show. So, despite my project not really being ready for prime time, I thought I’d give you a peak at it anyway.

The short of it is that we stopped to take some pictures of an old car we spotted for sale, and got a chance to see some true works of art thanks to a great guy who was willing to show us his garage. And boy what a garage it was!

So go check out RustingAway.com to see what I’ve been up to. (outside work that is)

Thought I would say hello to all of my former coworkers who over the last couple of days have let me know they read my blog.

A job has been handed to me on a silver platter. A job back at Microsoft. But this is not just any job. This is back to the same group on the same team that I worked with 12 years ago. Add to that all of the people are good friends. They are also people I work with exceptionally well as part of a team. In short it is the dream team I would have put together given a choice.

Interviews were a formality. Sallary negotiations consisted of them giving me what I told them I would take and then they added some more. But the real reason I accepted is the team I will be working with. I am being brought in as a senior member in the team. But make no mistake, these people are stars. People who I not only respect personally but professionally as well.

It was a choice that I did not take lightly. It kept me up at night thinking about this. Should I? Shouldn’t I? But, again, it all boiled down to the people.

I wound up leaving a party last night a bit early. It was for a friend who is shipping out to Iraq in a week. Debbie wasn’t with me, but my friend’s parties are usually quite safe. Attractive single women have not been commonplace at any of his parties in the past.

There was an open pit fire going in the back yard where a couple of people were keeping it well stoked, so it was a nice place to hang out while others from the party filtered by and chatted. It was also a good bit quieter than inside the house making it a good place for conversation. I got to meet and talk to lots of different people as the night went on.

Joon and her friends showed up, my friend introduced her to those of us sitting around the fire.

“Kobanwa.” she said with a slight nod to the head.
“Kobanwa.” I responded back in the same manner. Kobanwa is a Japanese way of saying Good Evening.
“Ah! You speak Japanese!” she said in Japanese
“A little, but not very well.” I said back in Japanese. Then I followed up in English that I didn’t know any more than that. Next thing I know, she is sitting on my left and we are talking about Japan and Okinawa.

Soon after Tina showed up. She was a neighbor of my friend from just up the street. A couple others from the party were openly trying to pick her up and failing miserably. It wasn’t long before she had that “Get me out of here” look on her face. I was watching this when she looked my way. I couldn’t help but smile, an acknowledgment that I knew what that look was. But then she smiled back. I actually turned my head and thought “Shit, I shouldn’t have done that.” Next thing I know she is sitting on my right.

The conversation was enjoyable, but they started to get a bit obvious. The hand on my arm when making a comment. The slap on the shoulder when I made a joke. The scooting closer and closer on the bench. I think the most interesting was I now had an entourage of two when I went up to get myself a drink. It was flattering. But as they both became more obvious as well as competitive for my attention, I decided to call my exit.

That’s the first time I’ve actually been uncomfortable with the attention I was getting.Flattering yet, but I was just looking for conversation. Had I been single I most definitely would have stayed and I suspect it would have been quite interesting to say the least. But I am not single.

I called my girlfriend as soon as I was back in my car and on the way home.

It’s a joke with my girlfriend that I can’t help it. Just being me is what “it” is and I can’t turn that off.

Well, actually, it was pretty hard to beat the view I had on my ski day, but a friend of mine just posted all of her pictures from a recent trip snowboarding. Here’s one.
No, that’s not Mt Hood.
It’s Mt Fuji

Today was another great day. The team I am a member of at VoiceBox Technologies was rewarded with a day off to go skiing. So we did. It couldn’t have been a better day for it. Temperature was just below freezing so the snow stayed good, no wind, bright sunshine, spectacular views, and great people.

In this first picture is the top of a blue (intermediate) run. Here you see Roman at the map, Philippe looking at the camera, and Michael taking a picture. This is probably our third run of the day.

Mt Rainier just one hilltop away. This was taken from the top of a double black diamond run. You could also see Mt Adams and Mt Hood from here. The run was exhausting but a lot of fun. I wish I knew my new phone could take such good pictures, I would have taken more.

The Double Black Diamond run, the top of which the picture of Mt Rainier was taken from. I almost took a dive here but save it. I hit a mogul hard enough to push my knees to my chest and knock the wind out of me.

I used to ski a lot as a kid. From 8 years old until I turned 19 or so I was skiing almost every weekend of the winter. Mostly at Red Mountain by Trail, B.C. and at 49 Degrees North by Chewelah, WA. After 19 I had to pay for it myself and then I realized it was expensive, so my I was limited to every once in a while. I haven’t been skiing in at least 6 years.

Still with all of the years I have been skiing, I have only seen a few days like today. They are few and far between.

Today was not only great because of the scenery and weather. I was also there with some great people. It’s not often that you find so many people all in one place who you enjoy working with and spending free time with. Rare indeed.

As a side note, we were from USA, Russia, Japan, China, France, and Norway. This led to quite a few discussions about how things are here, there, and elsewhere.

A post I just read on another blog made me consider a couple of people from my graduated class who have passed away. To be honest, I don’t know if there are others because I have not kept in touch with most of my classmates. But the two that I know about are memorable in their own way.

Yvonne was always quiet. Always hid behind her glasses. Her glasses were perhaps what was most deceiving. When she took them off, she was strikingly pretty. But they were over sized and quite often falling down her nose. We spent a lot of time together hanging out at the computers in our school acting like we knew something about them. (yea, yea, yea, I liked smart geeky girls even back then) Brand new TRS-80 Model I machines if you want to figure out when this was. Soon enough we were dating, though I must admit I was too young to really know just what “dating” was and she was the first girl I kissed. She passed away a few years ago. Lost her fight with a brain tumor. She was married to Eric, another classmate and childhood friend. He was a good guy and, actually I think, for her sake, was probably the right person to be around while going through that.

Chris was a bit obnoxious. I didn’t hang around him much. Mostly we ran across each other at parties, in class, or in the hallway. But we did chat from time to time. He had a fast car, good looks, got excellent grades,  and was expected to go places after school. The summer after graduation, though, he went around a corner too fast on a dirtbike and met a Jeep head on. End of story. Even though I didn’t know him that well, the suddenness of his passing really got to me. One second he was here, next he was gone. Up to that point, I hadn’t really experienced anything like that. I guess his death made me realize I wasn’t immortal.

The times they enter my thoughts are few and far between. Every now something will remind me. But the details fade. I can no longer remember the exact places, or names of others who were around, times of year, or even exactly what year.  As time passes they become a smaller part of my life. Figuratively and literally.

When the pressure starts to build my mind starts to wonder to other places and other times. It helps me relax and escape for a bit. Here is one of those moments.

Tech City Bowling in Kirkland is a popular place for a lot of companies on the east side to go for team events and celebration. I’ve been there several times over the years. Before it was even called Tech City Bowl.

Today the company I work for decided to take us all there to celebrate shipping one of our products. There was another company there doing something similar. Looking around I started to see several familiar faces. Then it dawned on me that they were all my former coworkers from my previous employer.

It was quite fun actually. It was a bit odd because I didn’t have a lot of good things to say about the company. I got along with the people fine, but sometimes the line between how you feel about your work and the people you work with is blurred.

The group I normally hang out with and I got a lane right next to my former coworkers where we sat, joked, talked about how they were doing and how their company was doing. In general we all had a good time. It was fun to be essentially hanging out with both companies at the same time.

I’m glad I make friends easily.

My inbox has an odd mixture of “Happy Birthday!” and “Kung Hee Fat Choi!” email messages in it.

My Chinese astrological sign is either a Rooster or a Monkey. Going by year only puts me in as a Rooster (friends like to joke that it is technically calls a “Cock”) but going by date, I was born just before the new changed, so that makes me a Monkey (friends also joke that Monkey is quite fitting).  A couple of people who say they know about Chinese astrology say that makes me both.

Can I take the best of both and leave all the bad out?

Happy new year all! I hope all of you have a new year as good as or better than my 2007 was. And 2007 was pretty spectacular for me!

Right now I’m sitting at my desk, watching an episode of Eureka on Hulu.com. I have an account there while they are in private beta. Pretty cool stuff actually. High quality. A lot of shows I like, a lot easier to navigate that the cable box menu. I don’t find the content or the website amazing. I do think it is cool, but this is something I could see coming. I’ve talked with others many years ago. What is really cool though, is that I have a friend who is working on this project. (thus my beta access).

At work, we just took a loot at the Android open phone platform which Google plays a big part in. The day it was announced, knowing the history of a friend who works there, the first thing I did was email him and ask him if he was one of the people who is working in it at Google. “Yep” was the reply.

Those two are just a couple of the high profile examples I can say something about. There are many more friends working on many more projects that will shape not just the computer industry, but our lives.

Back when we all started doing this, we did it because it was cool, but most people didn’t understand. We really didn’t care. We weren’t doing this for everyone else. But somewhere along the way it all came together and other people caught up.

What really amazes me is where we are compared to where we came from.

An old familiar saying: The only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.

More and more I find myself buying the things I wanted as a kid. Or at least a teenager.

Next weekend I go pick up a 1967 Mercury Cougar muscle car. It’s not finished, and is missing a few parts, but both the price and the amount of work needed to complete it are well within my range.

A friend of mine is selling it because he is not really a car guy and doesn’t want it anymore. He’s also getting married and his girlfriend also does not approve (no comments please). I was glad to be able to help him out.

Sitting here thinking that it’s been too long since I’ve seen some of my friends.

I miss them.

I walked away from the coffee stand this morning wondering just how I wound up in that conversation. Trying to explain to the two of them that I was just as much of a pervert as any guy. That I looked at their breasts just as much as anyone else and that even I was guilty of the occasional comment. One of them responded with “Yea, but when you do it, it’s got more class.”, the other with “Yea!”

me: “What?!?”

I’m not even sure how the conversation started and really wasn’t quite sure how to respond.  They laughed and I walked back to the gas pump where my car had finished filling up.

She was one of the cute baristas at the coffee stand that I always go to. She started there shortly after it opened. During that time she often asked me about my job and what it took to get a job in the industry. Two years later, she was a programmer for a small local software company with some big customers. That was seven years ago. Last night was a send off party for her as she follows the love of her life to Ireland. I wish her all the best and look forward to catching up with her in the next couple of years when I head over to that side of the ocean.

She was one of the few people who stuck around when my life was falling apart. And one of the first to show me that life was still pretty fun. From kicking my ass at pool, to trying to teach me to dance at the blues club we went to from time to time.

She lives a good number of time zones away now, so chatting with her is somewhat rare. Usually she is just off to work when I am heading to bed. But still we’ve kept in touch here and there. I knew she would be in town but had forgotten, so it was a nice surprise to see her pop onto IM and then find out she was in Redmond.

She walked into the coffee shop looking as stunning as ever. Not that I had forgotten what she looks like, but you can’t help but think “Wow!” when faced with one of the most beautiful and smart women you have ever known. Just like always “Tall double americano with a little bit of ice” for me and “Tall white chocolate mocha with whip” for her. Then a race to see whose credit card the barista would take. The same thing we ordered every day for almost two years.

Conversation about how things are now, how things have been, where things were going. How much different the UK is from the US. Talk about her work and how they keep things rather restrained which really does not suit her. Talk about my new job and all my stock options. Leaning against my car having a smoke and yes, we both need to quit.

Travel and where we are going to see. The disappointment of me not getting to go visit Europe this year, and her making it well known that I have to visit her when I do get over there.

Her previous BMW, both of our ungodly fast motorcycles.

It was a good visit. Even if it was short. It’s always good to visit with friends and reassuring when things pick right back up where they left off a year ago.

And I am sure, that had any of our mutual friends been there, they would have been just as confused as to why we are just friends. Just as always. Though the marriage proposal threw even me off a little.

A friend of mine is a serious car enthusiast. His list of cars include the following: Mitsubishi GT3000 VR4 Hardtop convertible, A 1950 something MG, a 1968 GTO that is as much of a work of art as it is a rare muscle car, a Ford pickup that is much much faster than mine, and a couple of Jeeps. All of which he did all of the work on to get them to the condition they are in now. Over the years, I have seen him with a number of cars including a Porsche, a Delorean, a corvette, and many others. At any given time he has had at least 5 cars at one time.

When it comes to cars, he knows his stuff. He’s had his cars featured in magazines and has written technical articles that have been published in various trade magazines. (this from a software engineer). So when it comes to cars, I respect his opinion and follow his advice.

So when he looked at my truck today while at his house and said “That thing is just beautiful.” It really means something.

I’ve just returned from a long weekend with my girlfriend over on the East Coast. I saw North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Together we explored the Smokey Mountains, A tourist trap city which I forget the name at the moment, and spent a lot of good time together.

A few things that stick out in my mind from the trip.

A Chinese circus/ballet/drum show. It reminded me very much of Cirque De Sole. It was very impressive. But because there were only about 25 people in a theater that could fit 1800 I think appreciation for culture in the area is somewhat lacking. I talked to one of the people who worked for the show and asked him if there was some way they could make it to Seattle. No such luck. Too bad really. I don’t think the show will last where it is at. Not if there are more cast members than people in the audience.

Me being afraid as we drove up into the mountains. I hate driving next to cliffs. Even though I have a lead food, I drive like a grandpa when next to a cliff. But I wasn’t driving rattling my nerves even more. Debbie got a kick out of this and I don’t blame her, it is kinda funny. I don’t often show fear. Likewise we took a lift ride from a small tourist town up a mountain side. It was like a ski lift but no snow. Debbie who loves to ride thrill rides at the fair was kinda scared by this.

Driving at night, I let a semi truck pull in front of me. As a courtesy when he passed, I flashed my lights to tell him there was enough room to change lanes. He flashed his tail lights to say thanks. Several miles down the road, I passed him as he climbed a hill, but got behind a big SUV who wouldn’t let me pass and even slammed on the brakes in front of me. The truck that I was polite too came up behind me, flashed his lights, so I moved over. He got right up on the tail of this SUV and beside another semi truck. Both semi trucks chased the SUV down the freeway side by side at 80 mph until the SUV finally pulled off the freeway. I guess it pays to be polite to truckers. It also doesn’t pay to piss them off.

Bob Evans’ restaurant has an excellent breakfast. They had grits which I haven’t had in close to 20 years. The price was very reasonable. $16.00 for both of us. It still doesn’t compare to Georges in Kirkland, but that would be pretty hard to beat anyway.

Watching Debbie take pictures of butterflies and humming birds in a field of red and yellow flowers. How can you beat that?

Dieing trees and pollution in the Smokey Mountains are rampant. The trees are being killed off by beetles and weakened by acid rain. It seems all the pollution up and down the coast blows into the Smokey’s and stays. Visibility on a sunny day is rather bad.

Brick houses everywhere. And they were cheap. When I say cheap I mean, if I sold my house I could spend the same amount of money and buy a small mansion with an acre of property, complete with a shop and three car garage. My house would sell for around 80 thousand. (It’s valued at 320k here).

Churches EVERYWHERE. Worshiping God and Jesus really is a part of everyday life there. I don’t think I would fit in too well in that aspect.

Speaking of fitting in. Everyone there was either white or black and a few in between. While I think I would fit in by my skin color, I found the lack of diversity quite surprising. The extent of diversity I saw there, other than people being black or white, was one couple from India, and the cast of the Chinese ballet.

NASCAR. Bigger there than football. Except of course the local college football team. Bristol racetrack was already filling up with motorhomes and there were “Welcome Race Fans!” signs out all over the place by the time I left. The race isn’t until next weekend. We got to sit in an empty Bristol Raceway Stadium, which is an experience all it’s own.

And of course, sitting next to one of the America’s Top Model contestants for season 9 on the plane ride home. Nice girl, very pretty, but way way way too skinny. Good conversation and certainly better than talking to a salesman. And no, I didn’t get her number. (I must be losing my touch ) I might have to watch an episode if it happens to catch my attention.

I don’t think embarrassed is the correct word. A little uncomfortable maybe? I’m not sure.

Whenever someone  goes out of their way to expresses appreciation or thank me for something I did, I’m not sure how to react.

This goes back as far as I can remember.

And now that I’ve written this, it sounds a lot more important than it really is.

I’m guess I’m trying to figure out why I feel that way.

“Wow! We went to school with a bunch of old fat people!!!”

I didn’t say it, but I didn’t disagree either. I laughed. I think my response was something along the lines of “I don’t look that old do I?”

Catchy title, huh? It’s so hard not to make a juvenile joke and besides, I’m a legs man myself. OK, couldn’t resist just a little bit of joking, but in all seriousness “What would you do for boobs?” is the title of an email I received from a friend today with a link to her donation page for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day.

I’ve written about Lisa once before. She has been battling breast cancer for close to a year now. Hard stuff. I could not imagine having to go through any of that. Cancer is devastating, the treatment is painful. With breast cancer touching one out of every eight women, you can bet that you know someone who as been affected by it.

I’m not sure what else to say, other than donate. It is something than will help you, a friend, a significant other.

Go read her story and then make a donation.

Here’s an insight about conversations between men…

Two friends and I were sitting around a table at the Chinese restaurant we have been frequenting for close to ten years. It’s not the fanciest restaurant by any stretch of the imagination, rather it’s a familiar place. We’ve been there often enough and have been going for long enough that we know all the staff and owners by names, as well as their kids who work there. They will often sit down with us and chat as well. No waiting at the “Wait to be seated” sign. We just go sit down at one of our usual tables sometimes stopping by the kitchen to say hi.

The three of us are all professionals and quite skilled in our respective fields. I am a build engineer but could pass for a software engineer. Bryn is a software architect who works on operating systems running on computers that operate aircraft control towers and stock markets. Terry is a property and construction attorney.

Bryn has a very diverse background to say the least. He’s traveled the world worked on some interesting projects and has some of the coolest cars I’ve ever seen. He’s the type of person that will pick up a text book and read it from cover to cover and remember everything in it. He spends time researching and experimenting just to make sure he understands what he just read.

Terry being an attorney has the ability to absorb and analyze large amounts of information. He reads up on science in his free time and is a hobbiest woodworker. I think he is close to 7′ feet tall.

Our conversations usually start about either science, computers, or law. Sometimes travel or family. One or two of us asking questions to the others or coming up with debatable answers. On this particular night we started out talking about something scientific. I’m not sure what now, but it turned to a discussion about nuclear chain reactions. Remembering this section from advanced chem in college I was able to remember the atomic breakdown of a chain reaction and brought up the fact that you wind up with an extra hydrogen atom that goes off to split something else and how it’s this extra hydrogen atom out of nowhere that cause it to be such a devastating reaction. This this brought up string theory which Terry had just read about and the topic went down that path for a while.

But somehow, at the end of the evening. We found ourselves once again talking about women. I’ll admit, it wasn’t a polite conversation. And yes I did take part. But that is how it works. We talk about stuff we either know or don’t know and it all boils down to what we really think about the most.

I have sitting on my desk what must be two pounds of little chocolate chip cookies I’ll call Maria’s World Famous Cookies (because I can’t remember her exact term). There were probably three pounds of cookies , but between random coworkers stopping by (then stopping by again) and taking a few as well as me eating them, they have been slowly disappearing. Just in case you were wondering, yes, they do live up to the title! My co-workers and I will attest to this. And perhaps our waistline too.

All of my friends are very smart people. Far more than me. I find that comforting.

I’ve resigned to the fact that I won’t be going to Europe this summer. Both the friend I travel with and I just have too much going on. I am starting a new job and just won’t have the vacation time that would do the trip justice. My friend just found out about family events that happen close to the same time frame we were planning to go leaving her in the same boat with no vacation time. Oh well. Makes for a better trip later.

Not all is given up though. There are still plenty of weekend trips to take.

I’ve updated a link on my sidebar. It was “Just cat”, now it’s “Traveling Cat”, her travel blog. Cat is one of those people who inspired me to travel. Right now she is doing work in Africa. She posts regular updates and pictures of her travels on a regular basis.

We were walking down the street when my friend mentioned another friend had said ”Have you heard about the Asian Invasion?”

“What?”

“You know, the Asian Invasion. You haven’t head of it? Think about it, they are selling us their cars, they’re buying up all the property, they have all the best technology, the beautiful women, they are everywhere you go!”

I stopped walking, looked at my friend with a somewhat perplexed look, then looked around at the rest of the group I was with, then looked around at all the people in the crowded area I was in I blurted out “Oh my god! You’re right! They’re everywhere!!!! Oh well, as long as I get to be the token white guy, I’m fine with it.”

Everyone laughed. For a little context, we were wondering around the Heiwa-dori in Naha, Okinawa. I was the only non-asian in my group, or on the street for that matter.

FYI: The Heiwa-dori is best compared to Pike Place market, but imagine the street down the middle is covered with a canvas roof. Then imagine it is three blocks wide and four blocks long. Lots of t-shirt shops, trinkets, food, and a fish market to put Pike Place to shame.

Over the last couple of weekends, I’ve spent some time catching up with an old friend of mine. We ran around together quite a bit in high school but then lost touch. Through that wonder that is classmates.com we got back in touch.

A lot of things have changed, but strangely in a similar way for the both of us. Some things don’t change, like the toys we buy. Except they are a lot more shiny now than they were 20 years ago.

At left is a (somewhat) artistic shot of our motorcycles. Instead of our motorcycles being the old beat up and abused Honda dirt bikes, our rides are now state of the art machines, a lot faster, and cost about fifteen times more than our old ones and look a heck of a lot better. These were our dream machines when we had the Honda’s. Click on the picture for more photos.

Surprisingly we both left our hometown for similar reasons and neither of us has any desire to return. We both followed similar paths to our current relationship status, though I will admit, that I am happy in the present and he seems a little hung up on the past. We’ve both grown quite a bit older, though whether we are more mature is very debatable. We are both at a place in our career that we never thought we would be. Even the though of having a career back then didn’t really occur to us.

It’s been good. We’ll see if we continue to catch up or go our separate ways from here. I really don’t know. But it would be cool if he did stick around.