blog.circusgeek

a personal blog with nerdy bits thrown in

  • Tahoe, and server surgery

    Last week I was sent to South Lake Tahoe for a work ‘summit’, where several peeps from SuperSweetCo were sent to plan the next release (and beyond) of the app. It was quite the adventure, and an exhausting few days that taxed both my ability to focus on 12+ hour work sessions, and to deal with the elevation (I suffered from symptoms similar to altitude sickness, the headaches were pretty nasty). Despite the cold nighttime temperatures, it was beautiful up there.

    I arrived back in Portland Thursday afternoon, and spent Friday working until ~3am trying get caught up and fix bugs in my queue that had built up over the week.

    Over the weekend, after doing some yard work, I had to perform some emergency Linux server surgery (for circusgeek.com). The server had been acting up over the past few months, but nothing specific had gone wrong. Over the weekend I rebooted a few times and every few cycles it wouldn’t boot up. After taking the case apart, I heard a ‘hissing’ whiny sound. After some part replacement (including the power supply) I discovered it was the motherboard that must have had a faulty capacitor. Fortunately I had a ‘spare parts’ machine in the garage I wasn’t using so I was able to replace the innards and boot it back up with everything intact. Linux has come a long way; I remember when I couldn’t swap out much hardware w/o a kernel rebuild. Long story short, the server was back up in a couple hours (with a slightly faster processor) and all is well. Crisis averted. And, it means I can continue to serve up this little-read blog. Hooray!

    Also this weekend Kelly cooked up a delicious dinner out at my folks place for Mother’s Day. I also got to help my dad cut up some wood for an upcoming hunting trip of his, and play with my nephews (even the wee one, who’s just old enough now to play with in between pooping and crying sessions).

  • Surprise Astoria weekend (with Decemberists show)

    This weekend I surprised Kelly with a trip to Astoria. Before leaving all Kelly knew was that we were going out of town. Later I hinted that there would be “a show” but that was all I’d told her. Friday we left home (a bit past noon) and as I was driving she was guessing “we’re going to Seattle”, and when I didn’t drive north on I-5 she guessed “we’re going to Eugene?”. Once I drove over the Fremont bridge and started driving north on Highway 30 she correctly guessed that we were going to Astoria.

    We arrived around 3pm, checked into our hotel, and then wandered around town for a bit (including having some nibbles at both Fort George and the Wet Dog).

    That night, we went to the Liberty Theater and shortly after entering Kelly saw a poster (there was no obvious marquee) for the Decemberists benefit show for Jessica Schleif. This was a one-time show (the only scheduled Decemberists show for 2010 thus far) for a friend of the band who “recently suffered a tragedy that left her with unmanageable medical debt.” The show was a lot of fun. The opening act Michael Hurley was really really good, and the Decemberists were great as usual. It was a fun night.

    Saturday, after checking out the Flavel House, we drove over the Astoria Megler bridge and went to Cape Disappointment (visiting an old lighthouse) and Fort Columbia. Today on the way home we stopped at a friends place for a fortuitously planned birthday gathering before heading home.

    Loads of photos here.

  • (the rest of) May, and April (so far)

    The past month and (almost) a half, quick style:

    March 17th (St Patty’s Day): Spent the evening at Moon & Sixpence with friends. First time there for St. Patty’s Day and it was a lot of fun. Live Irish music played in one corner, and loads of friendly people, all in good spirits despite how crowded it was.

    March 27th: Got a lot of yard work done, and was able to break out the BBQ and do my first grill of the season. Great day ’round the house.

    April 8th: Went in for some oral surgery to fix up some gum disease I’d developed over the years of not seeing a dentist (brush your teeth kids, and go in for your regular cleanings!). This led to a week of stitches, and about two weeks of discomfort. I’m only now starting to feel back to normal. I have a photo of the stitches I took with my MacBook’s camera, but I won’t show it since it might make you feel a bit ill.

    April 17th: Did some more yard work including my first lawn mowing of the season. The work I’d been doing over the previous few weeks, coupled with some unusually warm spring weather has resulted in fast lawn growth. I also picked up a keg of the delicious Irish ale Kilkenny (which has only been available in the States for about a year). This means Guinness has been supplanted. Mmm, beer.

    Today: I managed to tackle some of my chore list: repaired my busted up front fence gate (which involved replacing a slat, some sanding, painting, re-hanging, etc), installed some much needed shelving in the utility room, replaced some burnt-out light bulbs both on the front porch and the kitchen, cleaned some windows, and cleaned up the garage. Good, productive day.

    Other stuff: I continue watching Lost, Fringe, FlashForward, Stargate Universe, and Doctor Who, and have seen a few decent films including Empire, Up In The Air, and Franklyn.

    I also learned of a blog that’s worth adding to your RSS reader: Sleep Talkin’ Man. It’s about this English man who talks in his sleep, and his wife records / jots down some of the nonsense he mutters, leading to some awesome quotes such as:

    • “I’m gonna have a great day…. Don’t you fuck it up.”
    • “Headstands are for girls only. When they wear skirts.”
    • “If I’m gonna be in charge, I need a cape. You can’t do the job without a cape. Take me to the cape tailor.”

  • Fancypants Fri, work Sat, yard Sun

    Friday after work I joined Kelly for an Oregon Symphony event called ‘Party of Note‘ where people can hear small ensembles/quartets of Oregon Symphony performers play in a more relaxed setting. The one on Friday was held at a house in Portland’s west hills (where the upper echelon live) and this house was insane. It was like walking into an Italian-inspired palace, complete with columns, tapestries, wood-paneled dining rooms, chandeliers, and fancy furniture. It reminded me of visiting some of the palaces in Europe, only smaller. I was clearly out of place, having come from work in my usual jeans and shirt outfit, everyone else were dressed to the nines, sipping wine and nibbling hors d’oeurves. It was a bizarre experience, but the string quartet that played some Mozart and Hayden was great. Even Kelly said that the previous one she attended was much more casual, so hopefully (if I go again) it won’t be so stuffy. That said, I got to see how the other 1% live.

    Yesterday I got up around 8am and spent the whole day and most of the night working, trying to put the finishing touches on some features I’m on the hook for. Kelly got me away long enough to take a nearly 5 mile walk though, so that was good. She also got me out to Moon & Sixpence for a couple pints of Kilkenny. Mmm.

    Today I relaxed a bit, watched several episodes of this British comedy The Inbetweeners, and then got out and mowed my lawn (first time for the year), aerated the front and threw & watered a bunch of grass seed (in an attempt to revive the sad little strip of mostly mud).

  • Yardwork, and Midlake

    After a long week of work, and my first Windows virus infection (long story short, keep your anti-virus up-to-date and Windows patched), I spent the day doing yardwork and went to see a band tonight.

    The weather in Portland today was gorgeous (a sunny 65 degrees), so Kelly and I got out and continued to tidy up our yard; pruning shrubs, pulling weeds, and generally getting a jump start in the hopes that the rest of the spring and summer will be less upkeep and more kicking back and enjoying. Things are starting to look pretty good.

    Tonight I joined some friends to see Midlake at the Wonder Ballroom. Midlake is something of a 70’s-inspired indie-folk-rock band that are perfect for chilling in the yard with a beer, or driving along a foggy coastal road. They have some really great tunes with some brilliant lyrics (though they also have some so-so tracks). I like ’em when I’m in a chill-out, introspective mood. Anyway, the show was really good, both because the band was good and the audience (a 21+ show) were polite and relaxed. That could have been due to weed (smelled some outside the venue), but all in all a good evening, and a good way to end a nice day in the sun.

  • Max Raabe & Palast Orchester

    Tonight I attended a show put on by the Oregon Symphony (at the Schnitz): Max Raabe & Palast Orchester (more on them at Wikipedia).

    Kelly organized a little ‘dress up’ event (involving local vintage clothing shops) to get as many people as possible to dress in 1920’s/1930’s outfits to attend the show. I played my part by buying a fedora, a tie (gasp!) and a new fancy trench-coat from a local haberdashery. There were about 30 of us that met at Nel Centro for some drinks before walking together to the Shnitz. We got lots of looks and smiles from other guests, and since we were instructed to wait until the last minute to walk to our seats our group even got a little bit of applause on our way to our seats. Pretty funny. Oh, the group was also taken backstage during the intermission to have a photo taken with Max.

    The show itself was a lot of fun. Not only does Max Raabe himself have the perfect voice to perform these period tunes, the band was fantastic and fun to watch. A little over half of the songs were in German, one was in Spanish, and the rest in English. While I didn’t recognize most of the songs it didn’t matter because the music was great, Max’s banter between songs was hilarious, and the crowd were loving it. A thoroughly enjoyable evening.

    Here’s a little sample (performing ‘Cheek to Cheek’). Fun stuff.

  • A very Spring-like February weekend

    The weather here in Portland, unlike the East Coast or northern Europe, has been very spring-like the past several days. Yesterday the temperature reached 61 I think, with sunny skies. It’s hard to believe it’s mid-February.

    Taking advantage of this weather, I spent the past couple days outside working on my yard; Pruning, raking, edging, trimming, and filling several yard debris bags. Things are starting to shape up. I’m exhausted, but I’m having what I believe is the best tasting pint of Guinness ever, sitting on the front porch in the sun.

    Oh yeah, related to my previous post, I picked up the new keg yesterday. Had I known the old one had so much left in it before Friday I wouldn’t have babied it all week. Sheesh!

  • Valentine’s and Vendetta

    Last Sunday was Hallmark and chocolate maker’s day (aka Valentine’s Day). During the afternoon while Kelly attended a work event, I spent the day working in the yard and cleaning the house. Later that evening Kelly and I went to dinner at Bernie’s Southern Bistro on Alberta (mmm, meatloaf).

    Last night I met up with some friends at Vendetta for a couple of pints. Had a great time catching up with JB, T, and MB. Later Kelly met up and we (along with MB) went to 5th Quadrant for dinner (mmm, burger).

    Tonight has been a fairly relaxed night at home. And to my surprise, my keg ‘o Guinness wasn’t as empty as I thought it was; I’d expected to pull one or two pints and have so far pulled five. Hooray(!?), except I’ve ordered a new one to pick up tomorrow so I’m hoping the keg blows soon. Otherwise I’ll be in a bit of a quandary tomorrow. Or I’ll just have to keep drinking. I guess there are worse problems to have.

    Oh, and the weather has been positively Spring-like the past week. It was 60 and sunny today. It’s mid-February! WTF? I’ve got flowers blooming and Tulips coming up. It seems way too early for this. On one hand, it’s really nice to have some nice, sunny, warm weather, but it’ll mean a very flowerless Spring in my yard.

  • Storm Large with the Oregon Symphony

    Tonight Kelly and I (along with our friends M & B) went to see Storm Large play with the Oregon Symphony, and it was a blast. Kelly & I have seen her perform before at Dante’s (years and years ago), and I did see a few clips of her when she was on the reality show Rockstar Supernova (check this), so I was familiar with the tall, blonde, kick-ass, rude, beautiful, and powerful rock singer doing rock songs, but I wasn’t prepared for what she was capable of with a full orchestra backing her. She started out doing a few standards, including an awesomely spooky rendition of I’ve Got You Under My Skin, then moved on to some of her own material (including a ‘classic’ Storm song, I Want You To Die).

    She managed to keep her rudeness mostly in check throughout the show (cursing only three times, hehe), and her short monologues between songs were hilarious. The crowd (a mixture of old and young) all seemed to thoroughly enjoy the performance, and even songs (like I Want You To Die) where I expected to see the silver haired in the crowd to wear confused or disgusted expressions all seemed to eat the whole thing up. It was a lot of fun, and if she comes back to so something like this again, I highly recommend you buy tickets (and early, this one sold out).

    After the show I got to take advantage of one of the little perks of having a wife who works for the Oregon Symphony, and was taken with a group of contest winners back stage to meet Storm. She came into the room wearing her black velvet dress, holding a martini and instantly came to meet the 8 of us in the room. She was very friendly and chatted with the guests for a few minutes before the contest winners got to have their photo taken with her. After that, Kelly and I got our photo taken with her. She’s very tall and she decided to lean on Kelly and give me a goofy look. Makes sense, I’m kinda goofy lookin. 🙂

    Anyway, it was a really fun evening.

  • A long week & The Road

    I’ve been very busy this past week with work. I’ve spent many late nights trying to clean up code and finish features (including a marathon on Monday, working until 4:30 AM; I was on a roll and couldn’t stop). I’ve managed to get a lot done, but there’s a lot more left to do. It’s probably going to be a long couple of weeks. C’est la vie! (Ou, c’est la travaille).

    In my breaks between working, Kelly and I spent a couple hours at our old haunt Moon & Sixpence on Wednesday for a few pints, and then last night we caught The Road at Living Room Theaters. For anyone who hasn’t read (or seen) The Road, it’s a post-apocalyptic story of a man and his son struggling to survive in a lifeless wasteland. It’s depressing, somewhat scary, and very touching. Kelly hadn’t read the book, but since her reaction was very similar to mine after having read the book, it’s a good indication that the film did a good job adapting the story. Worth watching (or reading).

    We’ve also continued to keep caught up with Lost, Heroes, Fringe, and Psych. That’s about it for now.