2008
- Heading to the pool again.
- Fathers Day cake? Sure! Fathers Day cake!
- Black Cherry Mojito at lunch. Yum!
- I wish there was a way to rid the world of Comic Sans MS.
- Left Mandalay Bay and ventured down the strip. So far, a mistake.
- Todays mojitos: Black Cherry, Watermelon and Apple.
- 11:42 am: Heading to the pool.
- 4:21 pm: Trying to figure out best Fathers Day activities in Las Vegas. Any suggestions? Thinking of Hoover Dam visit.
- 7:44 pm: Walking to The Four Seasons to get Mazie macaroni and cheese.
- 8:01 pm: Found my way to Four Seasons after several wrong turns.
- Mac & Cheese from Yum!
- Lion
- Chocolate Cake
- Mango
- Ralph’s World
- Charlotte’s Web
- Curious George
- Elmo
- Water
- Playing in Water
- Green stuff on her Mac & Cheese
- Milk (except chocolate milk)
- Stopping Play to go to the bathroom
- 9:56 am: Leaving Monterey for our next stop, Las Vegas!
- 12:37 pm: Paying $4.66/gallon for gas.
- 3:33 pm: Starting to cross the Mojave Desert. 103 outside.
- 6:50 pm: 107 °F outside. Scared.
- 7:12 pm: Paying $5.50/gallon for gas. No joke. 60 miles outside Las Vegas.
- 11:05 pm: Super happy with our room at Mandeley Bay. Great setup.
- 11:11 am: Heading to Carmel this morning.
- 1:48 pm: Amazed with Carmel. Blue Dog gallery is dangerous.
- 4:34 pm: Left Tammy in Carmel for the afternoon. At house with Mazie for nap time.
- 4:55 pm: Ugh - carpenter starts drilling in room right underneath where Mazie is napping!
- 4:58 pm: Theory that we may be the very first guests to stay at this rental house is being reinforced. Not bad. But very uncoordinated.
- Driving down CA-1 to Big Sur. Listening to Jack Johnson. (12:29 pm)
- Feet have sand on them (12:41 pm)
- Amazing morning going down the coast. Early lunch stop at Nepenthe. (1:19 pm)
- Amazing lunch with unbelievable view. Wow. (2:38 pm)
- Possibly the best day of our trip yet. Big Sur and surrounding areas are great! (7:13 pm)
- 12:03 pm: Leaving San Francisco, headed to Monterey for next stop on Summer of Love.
- 2:08 pm: Pulling into Monterey, CA.
- 9:13 am: Anybody know the best, sourest, densest sourdough bakery in San Francisco?
- 11:19 am: Really good breakfast at Savor in San Francisco.
- 4:42 pm: Never realized before how impossible it is to park in San Francisco.
- 6:02 pm: After bricking my Linksys WTR-54GS travel router, I am back on the air with an AirPort Express (and with 802.11n and WPA2).
- 7:05 pm: Really happy to not be in a hotel for this stop on the trip.
- 1:24pm: Stop at Ramone’s Bakery in Eureka, CA.
- 1:46 pm: Having a very nice stop in Old Town section of Eureka.
- 2:18 pm: Mazie and I playing with the pigeons.
- 2:51 pm: Resuming leisurely drive down 101 to San Francisco.
- 8:06 pm: Ate at In-n-Out Burger for the first time. Yum!
- 3:01 am: Mexican at Torero’s in Crescent City, CA.
- 10:55 am: Breakfast at Good Harvest in Crescent City, then out to see the Redwoods.
- 3:56 pm: Giant Redwoods are awe inspiring. Majestic.
Take a Lap in the Lazy River
Have a couple of minutes? Join us on the Summer of Love for a trip around the Lazy River at Mandalay Bay. Mazie’s very first time in a lazy river.
Summer of Love Day 28 Log
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The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
A while back at one of my book club meetings John Riedl mentioned the author Tracy Kidder. I expressed my ignorance and he was dumbfounded. “You haven’t read Kidder? Soul of a New Machine? You have to read it.” His conviction was strong enough that I figured I needed to read it and rectify this horrific literary gap. I finished it today, and really enjoyed the book.
To start with, Soul of a New Machine is not a technical book. You do not need to know anything about computers to read this book. Also, this book was originally published in 1981. This is a time when “super-minis” were just coming out and the computer industry was jumping to 32-bit architectures. This is four years before the introduction of the first Macintosh computer. I would recommend this book to my technical friends for the same reason I would recommend Steven Levy’s Hackers (1984), Cliff Stoll’s The Cuckoo’s Egg (1990) or Out of the Inner Circle (1984). There is a great depth of history and culture in this book that is worthwhile and reminds us of the roots of our profession. We still see these roots playing out today in nearly all computer related industries. Thirty years ago it was displayed by wire-wrapping boards to make CPU’s, today it’s shown in mashups. The world of programming and computer engineering, despite what many might think, is filled with passion and creativity.
Soul of a New Machine chronicles the development of a new 32-bit computer from Data General called the Eagle (or the Data General Eclipse MV/8000). Kidder does an excellent job of telling a compelling story of how this machine comes to life and dives into the stories of the people that make it. He concludes that a computer isn’t just a machine, but represents the ideas and personalities of those that create it. He’s spot on.
Kidder illuminates the culture that has filled computer labs, computer science departments, technology, and now Internet startups for years. A born-desire to solve the unsolvable. The unstoppable desire to know how something works.
As I read Soul of a New Machine I could draw parallels to products that I had worked on in a variety of different roles. It was amusing to see that while almost all the tools have changed, so much of the “how” and the “why” has stayed the same.
Happy Fathers Day 2008!
This year marks something that will not happen again until 2014, when Mazie turns 9. Father’s Day is the day right after Mazie’s birthday! Father’s Day is always the 3rd Sunday in June. After 2014 it won’t happen again until 2025, on Mazie’s 20th birthday. Now, I know what you are all wondering. When will Mazie’s birthday be on Father’s day? Never. It gets to the day before, and then flips back away because Father’s Day moves back due the third Sunday thing.
I love being a Dad and as the years pass I realize more and more that it’s the most important thing in my life. Your job changes, your hobbies come and go. Your family is always your family. Your kids are forever your kids. Taking this summer off has provided a luxury that I’m so lucky to have. To be able to spend all my time with my family. Completely unrelated, I was reading The Soul of a New Machine today and this passage seemed so fitting for the day (p. 279).
During that summer, West suddenly remembered bike rides he’d taken with his father on Sunday evenings, and he found time to reassert that tradition with his oldest daughter. Suddenly, it seemed, he realized that his children were growing, and apparently he intended now to guide them on their way. He said one evening: “That’s the bear trap, the greatest vice. Your job. You can justify about any behavior with it. Maybe that’s why you do it, so you don’t have to deal with all those other problems.”
I like to think that I’ve kept my priorities in order, but I think the “bear trap” reference is appropriate. Its good to remind myself what is important and where priorities lie. I’m grateful to have this summer for that, and to have Father’s Day every year to reflect on it.
See also: Father’s Day 2006
Summer of Love Day 27 Log
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Daddy's Girl Turns Three
Today my little girl turns three years old! Happy Birthday Mazie!
Mazie has been blowing my mind lately. This morning she told us “my birthday is June 14.” I know I easily suffer from being an overly Proud Papa, but she is making leaps and strides in so many areas. Clearly we are witnessing geometric growth. Perhaps this all comes at the expense of some other development. She did just figure out how to jump not that long ago.
In addition to her big jumps in vocabulary, her turn to three has also brought with it some gaming. Now whenever I tell her she can’t do something or cannot have something, apparently “Daddy is saying bad things.” Mazie is clearly establishing her own ideas and opinions and deciding what she wants to do and may, if she feels like it, take some input from you.
In return for this I now get a wonderful “Love you Daddy” at bedtime. I melt on the spot. She’s a little sweetheart with her super grin, chipped front tooth and all.
Mazie is getting to celebrate her 3rd birthday in Las Vegas. We planned this stop on the Summer of Love so that she could have her day. No driving. Morning in the pool. Chocolate cake. Presents. Whatever she wants to do. She’ll have great stories to tell her friends. Most people don’t get a Las Vegas birthday until there 20s.
Happy Birthday (Maze / Sweetie / Pumpkin Pie / Goofball)! I love you! — Daddy
Some of Mazie’s Favorite things:
Some of Mazie’s Unfavorite things:
Summer of Love Day 26 Log
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Driving to Vegas
After days of beautiful scenery and amazing vistas our view today is all blacktop. We are on our way to Las Vegas for the next stop on the Summer of Love. We’ll be driving through the scorching Mojave Desert on our way. We are just getting close, and it’s already 103 °F out.
$5.50 Gasoline
We’ve happened to take our longest road trip ever during the most expensive gas prices ever. We’ve been hitting gas in the mid $4 range for a while now, but today as we were nearing the Nevada border we set a new high.
$5.499 for a gallon of gas. Ouch.
Summer of Love Day 25 Log
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Summer of Love Day 24 Log
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The traveling family is taking the 4th week of the road trip to eschew a restaurant, and I’m making pasta! Yeah!
Summer of Love Day 22 Log
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Expansive, Powerful and Majestic
Our Summer of Love trip was never intended to be a camping or hiking trip. We booked all of our visits in hotels and motels and have stuck to restaurants.
We have had three stops in national parks on the trip and they made a big impact on me. Each one of them represented another facet of nature, facets that we too often forget.
Glacier National Park: Expansive
Mount St. Helens: Powerful
Redwood Forest: Majestic
Humbling.
In line at Tartine Bakery.
Sounds of the Redwoods
While we were walking with the big Redwoods I stopped for a moment to do a quick field recording. This isn’t pristine. You’ll catch a moment of wind noise, and if you listen really, really close you may hear a truck in the distance very faintly. Mainly though, you hear the birds and majesty.
Summer of Love Day 19 Log
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Summer of Love Day 18 Log
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Walking Among the Redwoods
It has been a few days since we were up in Crescent City communing with the big trees. The Redwood Forest was one of the most amazing places I’ve been.
We were limited in our Redwood experience. We didn’t hike for hours in the woods. We stuck to kid friendly areas that were well travelled. However, the force of the giant redwoods is so powerful that it takes you aback the second you see them.
There was a word that kept going through my mind as I looked at them and walked amongst them, majestic. These were the kings of trees. This was, in a way, its own Valley of the Kings. These giant trees that can grow over 350 feet tall and live for as long as 2,000 years tower over you emphatically highlighting the scale of yourself. I couldn’t help but think of what has happened in this world in the lifespan of these majestic trees.
I don’t have the talent to express in words the experience so I’m going to leave it at this. I think these photos do a better job.
Summer of Love Day 17 Log
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