Surprise! You've got melancholy....

Yeah, about that. It kind of washed over me today unforeseen, unexpected. School is back in full swing. I have three different student workgroups with four classes and a research project with Dr. Steve Huxley. Last night Elise and I had tasty authentic Tex-Mex food courtesy of Tony and Michael. Tonight we saw "Superbad" the movie.

My grandpa died a few weeks ago and I guess I'm still grieving. My Dad and Patty are essentially isolated in Preston, Idaho, a really small town in the middle of nowhere and his dear old cat died just two weeks after Papa. His side of the family are a bunch of jerks, to make a major understatement. I went to the funeral and spoke kindly of the dead because it felt like the mature, upright thing to do. I had every right to say a lot of less-than-kindly things, but I took the high road. whoopee.

My friends are getting a divorce. I was the best man at their wedding. They were married for only a short few years and seemed to have parted ways relatively amicably, with no kids, few shared assets and mutual economic independence.

I'll be 33 years old in just two weeks. A third of a century. I got my health, some money, an OK overpriced apartment and a loving girlfriend. No career though. I miss my cat Marble.

I have been feeling the sensation of time flowing ever faster. People move around, there is so very little permanence in the things to which I attach. There does not seem to be much to do about it. Learning to sail a catamaran two weeks ago was indescribably apropos; when everything was just flowing along I did just fine and didn't miss the land. Nothing solid, just breeze and waves and navigating back and forth across a high mountain lake in the sun. Avoiding the waterskiers, watching for wind-sign on the water. I could have done that forever.

Dogsitting

Naya the Dog has shared our house for the last four days while her human "JW" has been taking the California bar exam. Today he will come to collect her and I will miss her company. Naya is not the first dog with which I have lived but definitely the first for which I have been responsible. Having a dog makes me wish I lived in the country and had a porch she could sleep under. You know, with eight other dogs, and when it got too crowded she could move out to the rusty car on cinder blocks in the front yard. And then I would yell at someone to get off the ding-dang roof already. Jeez.

There was a skunk in the overgrowth behind our apartment; I hesitate to call it a "yard". Naya caught a whiff and proceeded to stare at it and whine from the window for the duration of its stay. The skunk would occasionally regard us like we were the least threatening creatures it had seen and nonchalantly return to forage through the blackberry vines, Queen Anne's lace and detritus. I shot some video with classic dog-whining and skunk-foraging action, act now and I will rush you a copy for the low low price of "free".

The Coldest Winter

Thank you Samuel Clemens, you had it just right. Another delightful summer day of fog and wind in San Francisco.

So, done with school for a few weeks and I suddenly remember that I had this "blog" thing that I was into back when I had moments of spare time and creative energy. About three months ago Elise and I moved to a nice little apartment with a great view of the city. A whole bunch of friends moved out of SF and I felt rather abandoned. I finished spring semester with a 3.6 GPA then jumped right into summer school at USF. Turns out I took the two hardest classes in the MBA program simultaneously AND in the accelerated summer session, which my classmates unanimously regarded as "insane". In hindsight they were correct, but as I was blissfully ignorant of the insanity of my workload I forged ahead and did quite well, thank you very much, finishing with a 3.53 GPA.
I had my Pelican case bags from the old BMW lying around, and I wanted to see if it was worth fitting them to the new bike. After looking at the expensive and crappy-looking after-market offerings for this bike, I designed luggage mounts for the V-Strom and spent a week fabricating and installing them. They work, are mechanically solid, look good and best of all will be fairly cheap to replace if they are damaged (new Pelican case: $100 vs. new Givi case: $350). I may be on to something with these. Just need to do the same for a top case...

Post Spring Break Break

It's been busy. B-school has gradually encroached upon my time until now it seems like spending an hour writing a blog post is a rare indulgence.

Tomorrow I have a midterm in Data Analysis. So far my grades have been excellent, which is a new experience for me. Spring break was a welcome relief and I was able to catch up on all the other activities neglected in favor of studying and late night drinking. Like early night drinking, and looking at apartments.

I also bought a motorcycle, a brand spanking new 2006 Suzuki DL1000 "V-Strom" in a deep metallic red. It has more fairing than any of my previous bikes and rides higher, and is a "sport-enduro-tourer" which means it is kind of OK at everything. Logged about 400 miles so far and like what I see. It's pretty comfortable for multi-hour rides but is also nimble in the turns and has plenty o' power for two-up riding. Pics to come soon.

Next on the docket is searching for summer employment.

Mas y menos

The Mas: Lovely hiking around Mt. Tamalpais with Transmoocow and Woof (today). An unbelievably cool surprise engagement party last weekend (everyone I know but especially Transmoocow, Nancy and See-Yin. Thank you so much). Awesome West coast weather i.e. middle of February, 75 degrees F (the last few days). Jameson whiskey, even though my current fave is Clontarf (now). Making friends in grad school (ongoing).

The Menos: Network TV, particularly Lost and Heroes. I mean, would it kill them to actually patch the plot holes? Sure it may sound a bit whiney but I love comics and high-concept fantasy and Lost and Heroes do their very utmost to make them as STUPID AS POSSIBLE. There is no reason that sci-fi needs to be dumb, as Heinlein, Farmer, Bradbury, Le Guin, Card and so many others have proven. And I have ultimate respect for pioneers like Stan Lee who make their artistic vision and passion a reality. But let's be honest and admit that Stan Lee imitators like the aforementioned shows are not homages to his spirit; they are committee-led facsimilies of the poorest quality. People sense stupidity, and even if you're a network bigwig computing "present-value" returns on your latest schlock you can probably do the math and realize that making a hit show that lasts more than a few seasons would be a golden ticket. Why does sci-fi have to be synonymous with awful writing when produced for general audiences? I admit that I doubt the sensibilities of "mainstream America" particularly after electing Bush. Twice. But Jesus F. Christ, I know the writers who make these shows are intelligent, and someone who holds power at the networks should in theory have some brains, so it boggles my mind that they could therefore be so damn cynical that they would produce such crap as I witnessed tonight. I guess they know that people will still watch, and their advertisers will still get "impressions" and stupid people are more susceptible to spending money on advertised goods/services so they keep dumbing their product down to maximize their revenue.

On another note, business school is going great.

Pt. Reyes 'n Fog

Over the weekend Transmoocow, Woof and I drove up to Pt. Reyes National Seashore to do a little hiking. We found a fairly short but interesting hike to the top of Mt. Wittenberg, promising "panoramic views". We found the top easily due to the USGS marker embedded in a stone, but the views had been obtructed by overgrowth of young conifers. Judging from their size and counting rings on a fallen one, they were probably planted back in the 1960s as an earnest but poorly planned re-forestation effort. The trees were so densely packed together there was no undergrowth and they presented a fire hazard from uncleared deadfall. The hike was great nonetheless and I got to really break in my new Merrell hiking boots (yay Transmoocow's folks!).

We followed up by eating in a restaurant at Pt. Reyes Station, the local tourist trap town. We belatedly noticed the high frequency of old people in the place and it took us 2 hours to get sandwiches and oyster stew. Next time we will plan better and hit the oyster shops along Hwy. 1 which looked like perfect places to picnic with a large group of friends and plenty of beer.
While studying yesterday I looked outside to see fog flowing by so thickly it resembled smoke, enough so I went out to see if my neighbors had decided to "cash out" their home insurance policy. No such luck.

One week down, Happy New Year

One week of b-school down, and it's not too bad. The classes are small and the professors seem relaxed and professional. My fellow students are friendlier than I expected, a much warmer attitude than the Canuckistanis. I ended up testing out of intro accounting by the grace of the MBA school manager and a last minute cram session, so I will start with financial accounting today and more or less resume where I left off in Toronto. I currently have a very "grad-school" schedule with 7 hours of class on Tuesdays, 3 on Wednesdays, and 2 on Fridays. I can now begin to apply for part-time jobs, yyaaaaaayyyyyy........

One possibly fortuitous event occurred on Friday, when I walked into class 25 minutes early and witnessed the school A/V/IT people troubleshooting a rack of electronics. Since I am Mr. Smarty, I immediately butted in and inquired as to what exactly they were doing with the equipment my former company BBI may or may not have installed. We discussed A/V geek stuff for a bit and they suggested that I send in a resume.

Why it's a Happy New Year: 2007 is a really mixed bag so far. One mysterious death in the family, one dear family pet euthanized, one motorcycle (symbol of freedom) relinquished and one tiny, cold apartment. On the other hand, new fun school and program, healthiness and daily yoga, possible job, new gas stove (replaced the rusty, leaking antique from Before My Time). I don't hold much with "deaths happening in threes" thing but the thought keeps popping up intermittently. Maybe I should look at it as "new stoves happen in threes". Yeah.