overt.org

When I started fresh with a new look for overt this summer, I pledged to update everything more frequently. And I’m certainly doing better than I have in the past (i.e., two posts a year). Still, things have been dropping off a bit, and I think I know why.

When I started updating frequently, every week or day had me in a new state or on a new trip or with a new lease or new fundamental plan for my life. Now, I’ve got a plan that’s slightly longer-term. I keep waiting for something worth posting to happen, but it doesn’t because things have settled down.

So I realized what I have to do to keep momentum: start posting boring details about my life. This way, random strangers have access to a more complete picture of who I am.

So on with it! Tonight is Friday night, which as you all know means expensive meat and Japanese beer here at the Greatest Apartment in the World (TM). Today I went with ribeye steak because it cost more than the other meats (this is my level of sophistication when it comes to buying good food). Plus, I have fond memories attached to it and I haven’t had it in years.

Now, I’m waiting for Leslie to come home from her self-imposed torture of grading papers on Friday afternoon. I personally had a great day at work, but, quite frustratingly, I can’t really say why except that I got to see some cool stuff (sense any similarities to working at a three-letter govt agency?). Well, that’s why I took the job, I guess: to play with cool new stuff. I just have to wait for some time to pass before I can point to it and say, “I worked on that.”

I’ve got some other things to blather about, but I’m going to put them in separate posts, mostly just because I’m curious to see how my system handles multiple posts in one day (a pitch of updating frenzy I’ve not previously dared to approach).

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Comments

em — 2003-11-14 23:53:11

So how did the steak turn out, anyway?  :-)

bryan — 2003-11-16 00:50:21

excellent. my memory was to broil, turning it over after 8-10 minutes. we erred on the rare side, and they were scrumptious. of course that didn’t keep us from breaking out the a-1.

Well, another week has gone by. I’m still plugging along at Apple, trying to figure what exactly is the difference between my ass and a hole in the ground. I’m making some slow progress.

I have to accept the fact that unless I start making an effort, my life is going to be pretty boring for the next year. Get up, go to work, come home, fix dinner, sleep. I know the cycle, I’ve done it for internships before. It was easier then because it only lasted for three months. We’ll see how I take to it in the long term.

Up until last week I had been riding my bike to work (it’s about 4.5 miles, maybe 15-20 mins). I was feeling green and self-satisfied, but then my shoulders started to get really knotted (they generally have a propensity to do this, but they were really bad). So I’m trying to figure out what exactly to do on that front. It seems like I’ve outgrown my bike (purchased at the end of high school, yet somehow too small now…). So (according to one bike guy I talked to) it’s cramping up my arms and shoulders. I have no clue; I just know if I don’t figure how to solve the issue I’m stuck driving to work everyday, which is just too Californian for me at the moment. So maybe I’ll try to get my bike adjusted, or maybe get a new bike. I even toyed with the idea of getting a recumbent bicycle, but they are $$$ and it seems like it would be counter productive to save money on gas to buy a minimum $500 bike.

Leslie is in San Diego this weekend at a teaching conference. The weather may usually be nice here, but it’s always nice there. Why did I not go to UCSD again? I guess here the weather changes at least a little, which can be entertaining.

Tonight I’m going to a giant party (~1000 people) that Apple is throwing for all of hardware engineering. Should be an interesting peek into the dynamics of company culture. And tomorrow, I’m running in the iRun (seriously, that’s what it’s called) 5k run they’re having at infinite loop.

And for the usual video-games-that-rock-my-world comment, I found out today that there will indeed be a disk with basically all the old Zelda games (thanks for the tip, cam) on it that Nintendo is giving away later this month (a little birthday present for myself). For those who might have trouble understanding a fascination with video games that persists into my twenties, I simply submit that it could have been a heroin addiction.

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Comments

cameron — 2003-11-06 23:05:48

Yes, it looks like it is time to renew my Nintendo Power subscription that has lapsed since 1996…but it’ll be worth it. NES Zeldas + N64 Zeldas = true happiness.

bryan — 2003-11-07 13:13:53

Heh, I used to get that magazine. But I’d say my subscription probably lapsed in 1993 or so. Looks like I’ll be getting at least another year of it.

shamelessly stolen from cameron via leslie’s blog: http://members.cox.net/impunity/endofworld.swf

I think I should share with all of my faithful readers the joy that is Friday in our little corner of Santa Clara, aka the Best Apartment in the World (TM).

Every week, one or both of us stop at Whole Foods for some joyous yuppie shopping at Whole Foods in Cupertino. Now that I’m working at Apple, I can just swing by on my way home (now you all know the real reason I took the job). It usually involves at least some crusty sourdough bread, some fresh veggies and cheese, and some good fish or beef or lamb. We’ve also taken to rounding things out with some over-priced Japanese beer.

We bring home our booty, maybe go exercise for a bit, then break out the food and make dinner together. It’s so simple… we just steam the veggies, broil the meat, and slice the bread. Then we collapse together on the couch for some movie or a rerun of the west wing. It’s just one of the very best things in life.

I write you now after the exercise, before the eating and couch-potating. Life is good. It’s even better because I got my first paycheck today and very soon won’t been in debt to Les any more. Also, on my way home from getting the steaks I just couldn’t resist dropping by Gamestop to pick up SSX3 (for the blissfully uninitiated, it’s the third iteration of a highly-addictive snow-boarding game that I have an extensive… um… “history” with).

So, roughly 2.2 months into this mostly-unplanned adventure, things seem to have pretty much worked out.

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Comments

Anonymous — 2003-10-24 22:32:55

The fresh loaves of Sourdough bread from Whole Foods are absolutely wonderful.

drunk nun — 2003-10-27 22:59:10

Broil sounds so much more Whole Foodsy than cooking it on the Foreman. (;

You’ll have to let me know how SSX3 is. Although I have a feeling they could repackage any other SSX, change the colors, and I’d still play it.

Anonymous — 2003-10-28 00:00:46

Good stuff dude.

Things could have turned out much worse.

So, the rest of the week went by pretty quickly. Most of my time was soaked up with trying to learn all of the acronyms associated with my projects, and then maybe a few details about them. What was left over was spent choosing a medical plan and setting up my 401(k). On Thursday, apple released iTunes for Windows, and I went down to a little theater on campus to watch a live stream of the presentation with a bunch of other Apple employees. Now, I’ve seen other Steve Jobs presentations before, but it was a unique experience to see it with a bunch of people intensely interested, hanging on every word he was saying. They cared not only because it was their company, but because he might actually say something that would change the projects they had to work on for the next six months (like “we’re going to ship Panther by the end of the year,” which he said this summer).

I’m still totally drowning in new information, and I think I will be for a couple of more weeks or so. But the environment is great, with mostly great people. Apple moment of the week: seeing another employee in his late fifties wearing a grateful dead t-shirt and cutoffs, riding a home-made motorized skateboard across the campus.

And now that it’s the weekend, it’s time for a little Super Mario Sunshine.

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Comments

cameron — 2003-10-19 22:13:59

What do you think about Mario Sunshine? I haven’t liked a Mario game since Super Nintendo, so I’m curious.

You know what game I do want to play…Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Turtle Power!

bryan — 2003-10-21 00:07:32

hrm… well, i like it a lot. *but* i did also like mario 64 so much that i bought an old nintendo 64 just to play it, and in truth super mario sunshine is basically a rehash of mario 64 with new levels on a new platform with the twist of shooting water everywhere. so, if you didn’t like mario 64, i’d avoid it. otherwise, definitely go for it.

ever play any star wars nintendo games? i’m contemplating buying the new rogue squadron when it comes out. i liked rogue squadron on the n64, and the previews for rebel strike look pretty cool.

ah video games. i have no video game kindred spirits now that i’ve left austin (even though les did actually start a zelda game and has played a little mario).

wrt ninja turtles: i’ve got a nice little disc for PS2 i burned that has a nintendo emulator along with every nintendo ever made. it’s a blast. lolo, dragon warrior, maniac mansion, california games, super dodge ball. it’s like being 10 again.