Lots of Updates!

Well, it's certainly been a busy month!

Reno, Nevada

I went to Reno, Nevada three weekends ago with some friends from church. They went to college there and have family there. It was a spur of the moment thing, but I decided to go. We mostly did some errands they had to do. But it was a lot of fun checking out a part of the country I've never been to. There aren't many trees, and the trees that you do see don't seem to want to fit in. That weekend was also Hot August Nights, which is apparently the largest antique car show in the United States. So there were many nights filled with looking at old cars. It was a pretty interesting weekend.

Also, it's not pronounced neh-VA-duh (like the A in cat), it's pronounced neh-VAH-duh (like the A in wash). People from Nevada will try to stone you if you do not pronounce this correctly. So get to practicing.

Palo Alto, California

Work has been going pretty well lately. The company has recently IPO'd, which hasn't really changed a whole lot. Except that we've stopped hiring now. What this means for me is that, for the foreseeable future I'll be pretty much taking the lead on the front-side development. We hired a few people leading up to the IPO, but nobody that's dedicated to helping out with the development I'm doing. There is one new person that might possibly be able to help out, but all that is completely up in the air. So the stress levels stay up, but it stays exciting!

VMWare has its VMWorld conference next week in San Francisco, and I'll be working the booth for our product for a day. I'm getting excited about it, it should be a lot of fun.

San Francisco, California

At the church I'm going to I've been taking over some of the volunteer organization. This past weekend I organized a group to help out a homeless center fundraiser. It was a silent auction event that had a bunch of food. So we showed up early and helped prepare some of the food and stayed afterwards to help clean up. It was a lot of fun. There were a lot of pretty good auction item. Mostly gift certificates to random places around San Francisco. I ended up with a gift certificate for two to the Museum of Modern Art, two tickets to the Exploratorium (science center) and four lift tickets to the Donnerville Ski Resort. All in all a lot of things to do over the next year!

I've also been working hard to get the next set of songs learned for the church band. The set of songs for the next service (this coming Sunday) have increased in complexity. I'm getting a lot better with the bass guitar though. It's been pushing me pretty hard. I'm almost there, but there's one bass solo that moves pretty quickly and it's up in the air if the solo is going to be able to be played on Sunday.

Top-Floor Church

So the church I go to in San Francisco doesn't own a building. We rent out a banquet-hall area in a place called the Regency Center. One of the people that has started coming to the church remarked today, "Hey, this is where I went to prom!" So it's that kind of place.

We've started meeting on the top floor, as opposed to the bottom floor. There's a lot more character on the top floor. There's a pretty decent sized stage-like section with changeable backdrops. Today we got the Greek architecture. Hopefully we'll be able to stay in this location, as it's quite a few leagues above the bottom floor in terms of style. Of course, that means it's a few leagues above the bottom floor in terms of money. We're going to try and talk them down. I mean, who else is using the building on Sunday mornings?

Below are a few pictures I snapped on my phone. One is from the setup before the service; the second is from during the service. My phone's quality is pretty poor, so that really really white part of the picture is actually the power-point screen that is run by the computer. Not some kind of super-bright window.

Also, the band stuff went really. We didn't mess up. Well not too much.

Energy: It's Electric!

In my planning for moving to California I resigned myself to the fact that energy just cost more out here. Gas, electricity, food. Energy in all its forms was just going to cost you a little extra.

And boy did my first power bill deliver.

For a little context: I live in a one bedroom on the bottom floor of a shady apartment complex. It's very rare that I get full sun coming in. I don't have an air conditioner, but don't really need one. I have a heater, but it's summer, so it's not in use.

Ever since my first bill I've watched my electric bill start to nose dive. I have no idea what the cause of this is. My second month's bill was $155. This month's bill was $11!


Since the second month I haven't had a power bill that went up. It's been a steady decline. I assume that next month will end the streak, but I think I remember saying that about last month as well.

So, in closing, cheap power.

Short: I'm also playing the bass in the church band tomorrow. I realized yesterday that it will actually be the first time I've performed instrumentally in public. I'm seem pretty excited right now.

Old, Empty Frames

Wisconsin has come, and Wisconsin has gone. And what was with all the goats?

It was nice to have the family all together. And Anya sure didn't disappoint. She continues to become more grown-up and the people around her continue to grow more child-like. I suppose that's the nature of children. Especially when they are in your genetic line.

She's also very photogenic. She must have gotten that from Matt... (sarcasm!)

I also seem to have fallen into a bizarre hobby as of recently. I have begun to collect old frames from thrift stores. I have no idea what I will be doing with the frames I collect. As of now I have about ten frames. I usually find three interesting frames every trip. You have to space them out you see, to give people time to realize they don't need their old frames, and that they would be better off sold to the lowest bidder. The best thing about shopping at the thrift store is that you know that, despite no signs indicating a sale, you will only be charged half of what the stickers say you should.

Couch!

Well, the day has come. Justin has gotten a couch. Robert and Mary were redoing their t.v. room and were gracious enough to pass their old couch along to me for zero dollars.

It's funny how having a couch in an apartment can make it seem like someone actually lives there. I must say, the past day has been nice. No more laying on the floor for me!

As you can see, the walls are probably the next project. I figure they'll only take me another six months or so.

Santa Cruz

So I got a chance to go down to Santa Cruz this weekend. It sits right on the ocean and is apparently the place for surfing. I didn't do any of that though.

Culture Shock

I'll be honest, since I've been out here I've been anxiously awaiting the moment when culture shock set in.

Let's face it, the San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most culturally diverse areas in the country. There's a large mix of Asian and Indian, with a growing Hispanic group, all mixed in with your run-of-the-mill Caucasian. I was expecting it all to be a little off setting. Not bad, mind you, but certainly unfamiliar and, well, foreign.

But, amazingly, that really hasn't happened. I've met a wide variety of people, and been in some parts of town that feel like you're walking through another country, but I've been more encouraged by it than anything else.

And the food is excellent.

But there was another part of this life that I wasn't expecting. A part that has snuck up on me, leaving me blindsided and a little weirded out. The world of using disposable income.

This has been something that I've been aware of happening to me. (I mean, who else goes six months without buying a couch? Right?) But I think it really hit home today when I bought a few new clothes, something I had been putting off for about six months or so. All totaled it was around sixty dollars, which really isn't too bad, but I almost felt dirty buying them.

Needless to say, I don't know how to live in a world with disposable income. I guess this is what you get after six years of scraping by in collage.

Why don't they teach courses in this?!?

Justin Shorts

I'm still leading the development of the front-end at work. This has caused many nights of frustration and many days of self-doubt. But things make progress and I have a presentation to give two Mondays from now.

I looked at my wardrobe and realized I have way too many black / earth-toned shirts. So I'm currently on a mission for color.

I need a haircut drastically. I'm investigating cutting it myself, but I don't know if I have the resolve.