I managed to break my holster for my phone last night getting out of my car. I’m not really sure how I did it, but I managed to break it good. I am in mourning. My phone is rather tall, so it doesn’t fit in my pocket well. So tonight, I went by Fry’s, a Cingular Store, and Best Buy, all to no avail. So, I bought one on EBay and it’ll be shipped to Atlanta. I didn’t think that it would be prudent to get it shipped somewhere here, only to miss it, and have to go through the rigmarole (wow, I didn’t realize that was an actual word) of getting it shipped back across the country. So, I’ll be out of a holster for a week and a half. The trusty old thing will be missed. :( In the same vein, I have considered buying an exact duplicate of my current phone, in case I ever destroy it (like I did the last one on the Batman ride at Six Flags over Georgia — good times, good times).

Also, there are ants on my car. Why are there ants on my rental car?

My actual route through Yosemite.

I still haven’t blogged about my general thoughts on California. Must try to do that.

So Maker Faire was pretty neat. But, I think it’s not quite as interesting in person as it appears from pictures and accounts online. Most things presented have a very hacked together feel, and while well designed, most lacked a general sense of elegance. I guess the older I get, the more I feel compelled to engineer things that are exceptionally elegant and serve a larger, long-term purpose, while still using things not quite in the way they were intended to be used. I took some pictures, but as always, I fee like I didn’t take enough. Looking at some of the other pictures that have been posted online, I’ve come to realize that I should have literally shot everything. I had pondered going back today and taking at least 2 pictures of every exhibit. I would have imagined it would have taken me hours to accomplish, but at the end, I think I would have had a good number of good pictures. And would have been quite a good photography exercise. But, I don’t think I’ll head back up there. It’s already mid-afternoon, and it closes at 5pm, so I would imagine that a lot of people will be starting to pack up soon. I was pretty good about taking more than one picture of just about everything, and I tried to mix each up some, trying something different after a couple of shots. I was pretty acutely aware of the amount of ambient light (or lack thereof), as most of the exhibits were indoors. Hopefully next time when I’m in an exhibition setting like this, I’ll be a little more diligent about making my own pictures, instead of just snapping pics of the obviously interesting stuff.

Maker Faire is this weekend! Nobody told me! And I’m in SF! Must… try… to… swing… by…

So, despite all of the Yosemite nonsense, I did make it back to Mountain View. I played around with Google Maps today to see if I could map out my actual path. It was absurd (my actual route, not Google Maps). I half wish I would have had a GPS with me so I could really easily plot my course. In addition, if my camera would also have been GPS aware, it would make it really easy to make waypoints and make an awesome KML file to share the location data of all of my pictures data with everyone. I’ll try and work on that (sort of). I at the very least need to post the pictures eventually.

Chad called me this weekend while I was driving back. Made me think some. I need to post about it soon, before I forget it all.

Holy shnikees. Yay I didn’t die in the wilderness! Ok, let me back up. I had to check out of my current digs at a posh hotel at noon today. I had been playing around with the idea of driving up to Yosemite some weekend, because, well, I should, and who knows if or when I’ll ever be out here like this again. On Friday over lunch, someone from work suggested I go see Lake Tahoe or Monterey. This fit somewhat into my previous leanings. I printed out my plan, to drive up through Yosemite, then up to Tahoe, then back down through Sacramento (my plan). A sort of long journey, over 600 miles, but doable in a weekend, right?

Ok, so the first leg went well. I managed my first U-y and thought it a good sign (as no trip is complete without one). But the directions got a little hairy. By this time I hadn’t gotten a map of California, so I stopped at a convenience store, bought some dp, a full map of California, and one of those cool easy fold maps of Northern California. These would prove invaluable by the end of the day. So just after I stopped to buy the maps and got back on the road, I had a better idea of where to head, I exited and mostly followed the signs. After a lot of forested and windy driving, I arrived at Yosemite. I paid my $20 entry fee, saw some Sequoias, drove around the park, saw the major sites, took a bunch of pictures, and bought a t-shirt. By the time I had done all this, it was getting dark. I had in my mind that I was going to drive all the way across it, and then stumble upon a place to crash. This is where the flaw in my plans started to show. I drove, by myself, under a moonless night, seeing very few cars. Man it was pitch black. And super windy. It would have been better if I would have had a car to follow or lead, but no real luck. Mile after mile I saw no one. I would see parked cars every once in a while, which was unnerving. I would hope they were camping for the night. So that was pretty hairy in and of itself. I dunno why, but my mind was really racing, and I kept having these irrational fears about having an accident or running into a bear or something, I dunno. I finally made it through the park. Every bit more of civilization I saw I relished. The first town I ran into (Lee Vining) was totally booked up. Plenty of No Vacancy signs in the windows at the several lodges in town. Laurie helped me out a bunch and called around to see if there were any free rooms. I started to head south, not really knowing what I would find. The cities seem to be few and small and far between. And they don’t put up too much signage on how far the next town is. They’ll say that Los Angeles is 350 miles away, but not what the next town is. :( Anyway, Laurie had found out that Mammoth would be a likely target. I saw a sign for Mammoth and took it. Every time ventured out, I felt like I was taking my life in my own hands, veering off the beaten path so it were. By this time I still had a quarter of a tank of gas, which would net me maybe 100 miles, but who knew how far I would have to go to find a place to stay, and if I’d have to drive really far, only to have to turn around. Needless to say, I was freaking out. But, my hunch paid off, and I finally saw a city limit sign for Mammoth Lakes. I took a few good turns, and finally found the hotels Laurie had been picking out online. I figured I wouldn’t cut any corners after my harrowing experience of the night, so I stayed with the known, and am writing this from my hotel room at a Holiday Inn. So, I didn’t die. I didn’t run out of gas. I still haven’t had any more supper than my snickers from the Yosemite general store. :( Plus, now I’ve driven through the park, but I didn’t see it! I’m thinking I should just fore go Lake Tahoe and just retrace my steps. Much more the safe way to go. Plus, I’m tired of driving. I’ve gone over 300 miles today. I just want to be home. I’ve been feeling more and more home-sick for Atlanta. Between the added stress of new and more job responsibility, living out of a hotel, having a rental car, I guess it’s finally getting to me. It’s been nice to have an entire room and bathroom to myself at the hotel, but there’s also something nice about having nice cable and having someone around that makes me feel like I shouldn’t get up at 1pm and should try and see the city and stuff. Anyway, I’m rambling and I need to get some sleep, ’cause I have an 11am checkout time. Yay for not dieing in the wilderness!

I’m probably way overdue for an update. If you couldn’t tell from my last post, I will be staying through June 2. Overall this is a good thing for me. As I was getting to the end of my original 3 weeks, I wasn’t really looking forward to leaving and going back to Atlanta. The opportunity to stay was confirmed and then finalized. At which point I almost had second thoughts — mainly between bills and having to make arrangements (which wound up being a pain in the ass cause I didn’t plan far enough in advance) and the newness of the new job wearing off and the eminent repetition starts to set in. Oh well, them’s the breaks. But now I’m over it and glad I’m still here.

I don’t have any real plans for this weekend. The only things I really had to get done were one to do laundry (man I was scraping the bottom of the barrel) and two, to return/rerent my rental car. Budget has some nonsense about not being able to rent a car for more than a month. So, I had to drive back up to SFO, return the car, then rent another. I suppose all is not lost, though. In the trade, I used my Fastbreak status to quickly get a car without a reservation, so that was cool. And, since I had recently signed up for said Fastbreak-yness, I had a cool double upgrade coupon. So, I’m paying less than I was, and I got upgraded from my stupid PT Cruiser to a new Mustang. How cool is that? Anyway, the Mustang will take some getting used to, but having never driven a sports car (if you can call a new Mustang a sports car), it should be an enlightening several weeks.

In these several new cars, I have already come to some enlightenment regarding car design. One of the first things I noticed different about the PT Cruiser was the automatic locking doors once you got past X mph. That’s cool and all that the manufacturer feels like increasing my safety by locking my doors, but what they should do in addition to this is unlock the damn doors when you the thing in park or whatever. I don’t like having to unlock the doors again when I get out. The other thing is about surfing radio stations. I guess I’m pretty spoiled when it comes to the Yukon. The PT Cruiser didn’t have anything for my hand to rest on while pushing the seek button. My hand rests rather comfortably on my shifter in the Yukon… And then, when I started driving around the Mustang, I realized how it’s a travesty when the designer places the seek button and the volume knob so far apart that you have to move your hand. It should not be this way. In the Yukon, my hand can stay in one place, seek forward and backward, and has easy access to the volume knob for all of those annoyingly loud commercials or stations. Anyway, things to look out for in your next car purchase.

I did watch Hot Fuzz the other weekend and Spiderman 3 on this past Friday. Hot Fuzz was awesome. Highly recommended. Spiderman 3 was decent.

Why the hell do I always seem to cut it so close? I managed to get some laundry done tonight, but I missed the important things this week like actually changing my flight. I did manage to get approval to stay, I just didn’t get around to actually finalizing all of my plans. So now I am between a rock and a hard place. Had I managed to call the travel agency during their normal business hours sometime this week, I probably could have just paid the base change flight fee of $50. But now I can either pay an extra $80 to Delta for the privilege or I can pay an “emergency” fee to connect to the travel agent after hours and maybe or maybe not pay the $80 difference in flight price. I’m confused, though, because it’s so far out, I can’t imagine why the flight would cost so much more. Now I’m still procrastinating, because I don’t know exactly what to do… So now, not only have I forgotten to rebook the flight, I’m trying to remember if I’ve missed anything else. I think I’ve paid all of my bills back home, but I’m not 100% sure. I probably should pay off my credit cards, too, and start my expense report. I also really need to get someone to check my apartment. I’ve got to figure out how to kill some time between when I have to check out tomorrow and when I can check in. I need to figure out how to check out. I have to be out of here by noon. I need to extend my car rental. I need to get someone to fix my network at my apartment. Man, I am super scatter-brained.

Update: Wait! There’s hope! Press 5!
Update: No! No hope! Wait forever then get charged out the arse! But Wait! There’s hope! Delta’s much cheaper! Only $130!
Update: No! It won’t go through online! Must call support!
Update: No! Some dude whose first language isn’t English! Who has a hard time understanding me, and me him! And yet! I changed my fight! Huzzah!

A much-needed change of scenery is in store for you this week when wildfires sweep through your area, charring everything visible from your cell’s tiny window.

So I’ve been meaning to post an update since at least Sunday night, if not Saturday or Friday. For this, I apologize. As usual, I was apprehensive in the beginning about the trip, fitting in and all that. Plus some worry about missing the plane or only thinking I had plane reservations or a rental car waiting for me upon my arrival, when in fact I didn’t. Luckily none of my fears were realized. I booked a sane flight time at 11am, which meant be at the airport at 9. I dropped off the Yukon at the dealer beforehand, so several things could be looked into. I called in a favor from a guy from whom I’ve taken to the airport many a time to take me. I ate some healthy Burger King for breakfast, and all in all didn’t have to wait too terribly long. The flight left on-time. I wound up sitting in the middle of a row of three, which wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world. The guys on either side of me weren’t small, either. Somehow my camera bag that normally fits nicely under the seat in front of me didn’t, so I didn’t really feel like I had the best place to put my feet. I slept some in the beginning, but after a while, I couldn’t nap anymore. They had some nifty displays in the headrest in the seat in front of you, but both my airplane and my regular earphones were in my bag, in the overhead compartment. I didn’t really feel like making the guy on the end move, and I didn’t care too terribly much if I could hear CNBC, so I let it be. It was pretty nifty though, that there were so many channels to choose from. I have a hard time believing it was being broadcast in real-time, but I also have a hard time believing they would run yesterday’s news. The times were in sync, so I dunno what to think. All in all the plane trip wasn’t unbearable, but I like never once got up or moved from my seat, and the flight got pretty long after a couple of hours.

Upon arrival, the baggage claiming went quickly, and I returned the call from the dealership. I greenlighted all of the stuff (which wound up being less than I was expecting — yay for being surprisingly less) for the Yukon. I had a Fastbreak rental from Budget, so I pretty much just walked out to the car and left the airport. A pretty straight forward drive down to Mountain View and found the building pretty easily. The problem I ran into, though, was that I didn’t have a cube number, nor had I looked very much at the building layout to see where he sat. I eventually figured it out and got settled. The week has been good and I have been learning a lot of how things work and what to do. All of the people in the group have been really nice and all that, so it’s been good.

There were several guys out from Atlanta doing some other stuff for the first week I was there, so I met up with them some. We went to a steakhouse the first night, which was quite excellent. I’ve been eating mostly on-campus at the cafes, which as advertised is rather posh. I have, though, managed to eat at In-and-Out several times. I can see why I’ve heard such good things about it and why it seems like such a staple out here. I went out to San Fransisco with three other guys Saturday afternoon. We hit a coffee shop, book store, Ethiopian restaurant, and then headed to the Golden Gate. We were trying to hit it just at sunset, but were late. We wound up walking all the way across and back, which is quite a trek. It was nice, though to see the city lit up at night, as well as see the bridge night lit, too. It was rather cold, though, and made me wish I had a little more than the my normal fleece.

The weather has been pretty nice thus far, with a few scattered showers. Just like last time I was here, it can get a little cold, but not too bad during the day, and has been generally nice and sunny.

I thought that I might be able to drop down and see Karen and Chad one of these weekends. Alas, though, California is a rather long state. I pretty much had to rule out the 8hr one-way trip, the 4hr meet-you-half-way trip, and flying down. It is rather unfortunate. I am pondering perhaps a day trip out to some redwood forests that are supposed to be around here. I have taken some pictures, but I doubt that I’ll get them posted any time soon. I did have access to my home network for some time while I was here, but it has since gone away. I’m not really sure what happened and may have to send someone over to investigate. I guess the power went out or something, and things didn’t come up nicely. :(

Oh, and I should mention an oddity with my housing situation. I am in some corporate housing, which means that you stay in one bedroom of a two bedroom apt, sharing with some other person. My person a guy from a European office, who basically brought along his fiancé. This is a little awkward. They’ve been super nice, but still, it is quite odd. For the first several days of my trip, I either didn’t have a roommate, or they would come in after I had gone to bed and leave before me, which worked out great for me. Now, I definitely hesitate some and put off coming back to the apartment.

I did one load of laundry last night, but I should have done two. I also didn’t bring any movies with me, except my Netflix, all of which I managed to watch beforehand. I guess I should change my address and get the next batch to watch. I actually watched a bunch of second rate movies for most of the day on Sunday (including such greats as Under Siege 2), which I haven’t done in forever. I don’t remember the last time I sat around and channel surfed. Probably Christmas at my parents.

I guess that’s enough catch-up for now. I’ve been trying to get to work by 9, which means getting up by 8:15, and leaving by 8:45, since I’m fairly close. Getting up so early though, means I’ve been trying to be in bed by 11pm. Both times are rather abnormal for me, but I think I’m slowly getting acclimated to the subtle shift in sleep/wake schedule.

If you’ve made it reading thus far, you are a trooper! :)

Yeah, so I think this is going to be an odd conglomeration of random thoughts.

1. It snowed tonight in Atlanta. I saw it. Big flakes, too. I said that I didn’t believe it, even though I saw it, because we all know it doesn’t really snow in Georgia.

2. I’m heading to Mountain View for 3 weeks starting Monday. I’ve done like zero planning, so I’m really feeling the pressure of getting all my ducks in a row and being ready to leave for an extended period of time. I’ve got real laundry and a laundry list of things I need to get done, errands I need to run, most of which probably should get done Saturday, since things like the post office and the bank may or may not be open for business for some portion of the day.

3. It is a sad day, because one of the three bamboo shoots from the lucky bamboo Cole and Rachel gave me when I left College Station has more or less died. Much of it is partially black and feeling on it now, it has no strength or substance to it. Hopefully the other two shoots will survive, except I put it outside to maybe perk up its spirits, but then there was a cold spell (see #1) and might have affected the remaining two. I pulled it in, so hopefully no harm done.

4. I didn’t really think that leaving for three weeks would be that big of a deal. In the big scheme of things, it’s not really that long, and it’ll be done before you know it. In true Thomas fashion, I didn’t really spread it around work that I was going, so most people didn’t know, as I just told the people I mostly work with, so they were aware of it. So there was a small group of guys who were all nice enough to say that they were going to miss me. I really wasn’t expecting it. I guess I mean more to them than I thought. And, having them express to me the fact that I would be missed make me start to consider maybe that I would miss them, too. I don’t really like goodbyes. I’m more of an “au revoir/’til we meet again” sort of person. So, now I’m in a mood of not wanting to leave and have this lingering feeling of trying to postpone the inevitable as long as possible. But, I think it has made me realize that I have made better friendships than I thought, which is both a blessing and a curse. I thought that it wouldn’t be a struggle to leave Atlanta to go back to Texas or wherever comes next, but now I’m not so sure. Perhaps I’ve made more roots here than I thought, and I don’t look forward to any time when I would have to say goodbye to these guys for real. As most people reading this should know, loving the people at Wesley for so many years makes it extra especially hard to leave, and I have no desire to repeat that heart breaking experience.

5. Wedding dresses. Ok, now I have no earthly idea why I’m revisiting this. I blame this picture (and to a lesser extent Roman Holiday). I still hold that I don’t like strapless dresses that much. I think it has to do with the combination of a whole lot of skin, up-hairdoos, and little around the neck. I’ve half come to the conclusion that I simply don’t like that combination. I have no idea why. Nor do I understand why I even have what I would consider to be such a well formed opinion on the subject… I do however, seem to like the off the shoulder dresses with large and tight necklaces and up-hairdoos. Again, I don’t quite understand me on this, so it probably doesn’t reason much to ask me why.

6. Since I started announcing to people that I would be gone, I have found out that there will be other people filtering out during my stay, so it will feel a little more like home than I was expecting, which is definitely a good thing.