Anti-Fat-Bastard-Cream there ain't
Lots of things have been vaguely LJ-worthy in the last few... month.
Cereal shots:
1) At Greg's dinner party months ago, Colleen suggests combinations of cereal and alcohol to be taken as shots. I take the bad idea to the extreme, and suggest "151'ios". >75% alcohol by volume AND good for your cholesterol.
2) At Uno's last weekend, Colleen has a tiny box of Cheerios but they have no 151. Carlos and I are disappointed.
3) At crew party last night, ~8 people shove a handful of Cheerios in their mouth, throw a shot of 151 in there with it, and hold on for the ride. Fewer than 50% get it all down and keep it down, some go through multiple cycles of up and down. I was succesful in one pass, but I'm not sure that was a good thing in anyway. What Trilogy was for theatre, this was for alcohol- no show drink can ever scare me again.
4) Oh yeah- OMG JFC don't ever do that! Unless you're at a Guild crew party, in which case it is a long standing, well recognized tradition handed down through the ages.
5) There were just no warning signs.
Laptops:
My Give-One-Get-One OLPC XO Laptop Christmas present from Colleen finally showed up about three weeks ago, just before life got really hectic.
It's adorably cute. It's tiny, but the screen resolution and viewing angle are awesome. In almost every way, it looks and feels like it was engineered with the attention to detail you'd expect from... looking around my apartment doesn't find anything to compare it to. The fit and finish is just awesome, especially because it's bright green plastic so it's like some sort of super-toy.
Sugar is cute. I think the included mini apps would be great if I were 5-13 years old. I can't figure out if there's documentation hidden somewhere (the web pretends to have documentation, but... not really) or if you're just supposed to be able to figure everything out. Maybe figuring out would be easier if you didn't have habits and expectations from OS X and Windows to confuse you. Or maybe it really, really needs superior built-in documentation. Sometime soon it will probably start dual-booting Sugar and Ubuntu off an SD card for further experimentation.
The one glaring issue is the keyboard. Based on the care that obviously went into the hardware design, I have to assume that the keyboard encompasses the right compromises for children with smaller hands, who don't touch type, who live in places with lots of dust and who are going to spill liquids on their computer. For me, however, and any reasonable adult, the keyboard just sucks a lot. If I'm really adventurous I might even consider a homebrew hardware mod to rip out the keyboard and replace it with something (smaller than ideal to be able to fit, but still) a little more usable. The trackpad, however, is great. As a user of Apple hardware, I find almost all PC laptop trackpads disappointing (including my new Thinkpad, which seems generally pretty well engineered), but the XO trackpad is on par with Apple's.
Full Monty:
Designed lights. Wrote software to help with same, and by end of prod week was huge help (though at beginning of prod week was almost more of a time sink). Need to do some more work and make it available to the world.
Giant light up "Full Monty" sign went well. Couple days of Dan Perez's life went into it. Both he (ALD) and Cheesy (ME) were very helpful and made the LDing experience pleasant, as did the TD, stage manager, producer, and lots of other fun people in the cast and crew.
Also got to (had to?) help with sound, sets, etc., about as much as expected. All turned out just fine, especially with smaller emergency backup sound engineer second weekend. Full Monty really involved a lot of my padawans becoming masters with reasonable success.
Work:
Employment with Artemis Health Inc. officially ended a few days ago, after a trip to San Francisco to help set up some equipment in the new lab.
Don't tell anyone I told you, but I think they're pretty fucked. I bear no (well, little) ill will, but along with any other decisions that management/investors have made in the last two years that I might question, moving to California and hiring all new staff... I just don't see how that's going to fix anything. But best of luck to them.
I'm now happily chugging along working a few days a week for the Circulating Tumor Cell isolation project for the MGH BioMEMS Resource Center, in the Charlestown Navy Yard. I'm working for several of my favorite people from Artemis, they're using hardware and systems that I'm pretty closely in-tune with from years of futzing with the same things at Artemis. So for right now, I can partially just coast along re-implementing things and partially jump into fun little new hacking projects. It's not clear how much of it is sustainable, either in terms of them paying me or me enjoying it, but it works for now.
If anybody is a student or recent grad with some wet lab (bio/chemish) experience looking for a summer or long term job very soon, we need to hire more pipette-monkeys, probably with lots of room for possible promotion. Fun people, cool project, pay is probably meh.
San Francisco:
As part of Artemis flying me out to set up a Bioview, Colleen came along and did touristy stuff (and I took one extra day to be touristy) and we got to see some of our San Francisco friends (the ones who were NOT in New Zealand).
Neither of us have spent much time traveling in general (US or beyond) and very little time on the west coast. The verdict: San Francisco freaks me the hell out. The landscape just plain feels weird. You'll be driving along, and then THERE'S A MOUNTAIN. Right there, in the middle of stuff. No warning.
Had dinner with Rob twice. He should move back to Boston for increased shenanigans and hooliganery and such. And he should light the pilot light in the living room heater. But Colleen and I lived through the night. Mostly.
Had dinner with Melissa and Usama. They're soooooo yuppie. Or maybe Gen X. Or Y? They're very something anyway. I'd say they should move back to Boston too, but they seem pretty suited for their San Francisco lifestyle and Apple jobs.
"Goat cheese cake". I can only say "Goat-cheese cake" or "Goat cheese-cake", but the waiter made it one smooth three-word item. And it was very good, not at all like either of the hyphenated versions.
Also, there are some big trees in Muir Woods, the Golden Gate bridge is pretty cool and we got souveneir safety glasses from a poor guy in a basket a few hundred feet above us AND west of us when he dropped them, and the WWII submarine at Pier... well, near Ghiradelli square somewhere... is one of the coolest things I've ever toured, 'cause you can actually touch almost everything and it's all chrome and steel and shiny and electrical wires and knobs and valves and torpedoes and stuff.
That's life.
Cereal shots:
1) At Greg's dinner party months ago, Colleen suggests combinations of cereal and alcohol to be taken as shots. I take the bad idea to the extreme, and suggest "151'ios". >75% alcohol by volume AND good for your cholesterol.
2) At Uno's last weekend, Colleen has a tiny box of Cheerios but they have no 151. Carlos and I are disappointed.
3) At crew party last night, ~8 people shove a handful of Cheerios in their mouth, throw a shot of 151 in there with it, and hold on for the ride. Fewer than 50% get it all down and keep it down, some go through multiple cycles of up and down. I was succesful in one pass, but I'm not sure that was a good thing in anyway. What Trilogy was for theatre, this was for alcohol- no show drink can ever scare me again.
4) Oh yeah- OMG JFC don't ever do that! Unless you're at a Guild crew party, in which case it is a long standing, well recognized tradition handed down through the ages.
5) There were just no warning signs.
Laptops:
My Give-One-Get-One OLPC XO Laptop Christmas present from Colleen finally showed up about three weeks ago, just before life got really hectic.
It's adorably cute. It's tiny, but the screen resolution and viewing angle are awesome. In almost every way, it looks and feels like it was engineered with the attention to detail you'd expect from... looking around my apartment doesn't find anything to compare it to. The fit and finish is just awesome, especially because it's bright green plastic so it's like some sort of super-toy.
Sugar is cute. I think the included mini apps would be great if I were 5-13 years old. I can't figure out if there's documentation hidden somewhere (the web pretends to have documentation, but... not really) or if you're just supposed to be able to figure everything out. Maybe figuring out would be easier if you didn't have habits and expectations from OS X and Windows to confuse you. Or maybe it really, really needs superior built-in documentation. Sometime soon it will probably start dual-booting Sugar and Ubuntu off an SD card for further experimentation.
The one glaring issue is the keyboard. Based on the care that obviously went into the hardware design, I have to assume that the keyboard encompasses the right compromises for children with smaller hands, who don't touch type, who live in places with lots of dust and who are going to spill liquids on their computer. For me, however, and any reasonable adult, the keyboard just sucks a lot. If I'm really adventurous I might even consider a homebrew hardware mod to rip out the keyboard and replace it with something (smaller than ideal to be able to fit, but still) a little more usable. The trackpad, however, is great. As a user of Apple hardware, I find almost all PC laptop trackpads disappointing (including my new Thinkpad, which seems generally pretty well engineered), but the XO trackpad is on par with Apple's.
Full Monty:
Designed lights. Wrote software to help with same, and by end of prod week was huge help (though at beginning of prod week was almost more of a time sink). Need to do some more work and make it available to the world.
Giant light up "Full Monty" sign went well. Couple days of Dan Perez's life went into it. Both he (ALD) and Cheesy (ME) were very helpful and made the LDing experience pleasant, as did the TD, stage manager, producer, and lots of other fun people in the cast and crew.
Also got to (had to?) help with sound, sets, etc., about as much as expected. All turned out just fine, especially with smaller emergency backup sound engineer second weekend. Full Monty really involved a lot of my padawans becoming masters with reasonable success.
Work:
Employment with Artemis Health Inc. officially ended a few days ago, after a trip to San Francisco to help set up some equipment in the new lab.
Don't tell anyone I told you, but I think they're pretty fucked. I bear no (well, little) ill will, but along with any other decisions that management/investors have made in the last two years that I might question, moving to California and hiring all new staff... I just don't see how that's going to fix anything. But best of luck to them.
I'm now happily chugging along working a few days a week for the Circulating Tumor Cell isolation project for the MGH BioMEMS Resource Center, in the Charlestown Navy Yard. I'm working for several of my favorite people from Artemis, they're using hardware and systems that I'm pretty closely in-tune with from years of futzing with the same things at Artemis. So for right now, I can partially just coast along re-implementing things and partially jump into fun little new hacking projects. It's not clear how much of it is sustainable, either in terms of them paying me or me enjoying it, but it works for now.
If anybody is a student or recent grad with some wet lab (bio/chemish) experience looking for a summer or long term job very soon, we need to hire more pipette-monkeys, probably with lots of room for possible promotion. Fun people, cool project, pay is probably meh.
San Francisco:
As part of Artemis flying me out to set up a Bioview, Colleen came along and did touristy stuff (and I took one extra day to be touristy) and we got to see some of our San Francisco friends (the ones who were NOT in New Zealand).
Neither of us have spent much time traveling in general (US or beyond) and very little time on the west coast. The verdict: San Francisco freaks me the hell out. The landscape just plain feels weird. You'll be driving along, and then THERE'S A MOUNTAIN. Right there, in the middle of stuff. No warning.
Had dinner with Rob twice. He should move back to Boston for increased shenanigans and hooliganery and such. And he should light the pilot light in the living room heater. But Colleen and I lived through the night. Mostly.
Had dinner with Melissa and Usama. They're soooooo yuppie. Or maybe Gen X. Or Y? They're very something anyway. I'd say they should move back to Boston too, but they seem pretty suited for their San Francisco lifestyle and Apple jobs.
"Goat cheese cake". I can only say "Goat-cheese cake" or "Goat cheese-cake", but the waiter made it one smooth three-word item. And it was very good, not at all like either of the hyphenated versions.
Also, there are some big trees in Muir Woods, the Golden Gate bridge is pretty cool and we got souveneir safety glasses from a poor guy in a basket a few hundred feet above us AND west of us when he dropped them, and the WWII submarine at Pier... well, near Ghiradelli square somewhere... is one of the coolest things I've ever toured, 'cause you can actually touch almost everything and it's all chrome and steel and shiny and electrical wires and knobs and valves and torpedoes and stuff.
That's life.