Necessary, but not sufficient
I seem to be a little behind in my updating, so here's what's happened over the last few weeks.
The Wedding
Had a brief and mellow spring break. The last weekend of spring break found me and several friends from college at a lovely resort on Orcas Island for two nights, to attend the wedding of two college classmates of ours. I went to high school as well as college with the groom, and realized I've known him for 17 years. Weird. We're friends, but have never been super close. I dated the bride for nearly all of 1992, and will always have a soft spot in my heart for her. She was the first of three (so far) of my serious relationships with Canadian women.
On saturday morning, about 30 of the guests went out on a boat for a whale watching trip. We didn't see any whales, but did see a few Dahl's porpoises and harbor seals. The guide on the boat said the orca watchers call the seals seal twinkies, because of the way the orcas eat them like snacks. They're also vaguely twinkie shaped.
The weather was glorious, with an outdoor ceremony and reception. The ceremony was pleasant, and suited them nicely. It was fun seeing all of the old gang, dressed up no less. I wore a tie from that bachelor party I went to last year (ask me the story), a nice orange dress shirt, and pressed wool pants. I think people were impressed.
Jer
One of the other wedding attendees was one of my very best friends, Jer. We met the very first week of college, in the fall of 1991, and were naked within 3 hours of meeting. To be fair, everyone else in the room was naked too.
Jer was, like me, a physics major, and we ended up doing our homework together for most of 4 years. I've seen more sunrises with him than any lover. We have a ton of fun hanging out, inventing things in our heads, and generally goofing off. Often in college, we would find ourselves hitting on the same woman from opposite sides.
Like me, he's a designer and thinker about usability, the environment, and related issues. We complement each other quite well. We think enough alike that we can brainstorm and riff off each other very effectively, but also maintain enough differences to make significantly different contributions to the topic at hand.
He's been living in California for most of the last 8 years, so I usually only see him a few times a year. We camp together at Burning Man, and he's been attending Passover at my cousin's place in Oakland for the last 3 years or so.
Anyway, he's got a few months off while he is waiting to see if he'll be heading to England for a contract. In the meantime he'll be staying in Seattle. It's nice having him around. We've had much fun already.
School: Spring Quarter
After the wedding, school started up again. It's not bad. My classes are tolerable, and my students seem decent. More details will become evident soon enough.
On Monday, the first day of school, it was nearly 80° in Seattle. Imagine if you will, hundreds of undergraduate cuties lounging and flouncing in tank tops and short-shorts. Very distracting.
Also of note. wasta came over one night and we worked on our bicycles together. Mine is finally in good shape again. I've been riding every day. It's lovely.
The Value-Sensitive Design class will be interesting enough, though there are about 3 undergrads in the class who are either arrogant or muddled (or both) to the point of grating on my nerves every time they say anything. Most of the rest of the undergrads are pretty sharp, or simply don't say much. The grad students are good, and the prof seems excellent so far.
The Medical Instrumentation class is a little heavy on the electrical-engineering content so far, mostly amplifier circuits, but that looks as though it will change. Of the 45 or so students, about 7 are women, and maybe 10 aren't EE majors. The bulk of the class is generic 19 year olds with baseball caps and bored looks, slouching silently in their chairs. The instructor isn't very good, and isn't helped by the fact that the class hasn't been taught before. It's pretty disorganized. Eh, it's only one quarter.
For that class, my homework and lab group is pretty good. We've got a good distribution of majors and skills, with myself, a BioE major, and two EEs. I find it amusing that of the 7 women in the class, 2 are in my study group, and I didn't initiate that particular configuration.
Recompression
Last friday, a week after the wedding, Jer and A and I drove up past Vancouver BC to the Vancouver regional Burning Man event: Recompression. It's a weekend retreat at a YMCA camp, of all places. Very fun people, very mellow scene. Saturday afternoon, after 24 hours in close proximity to both of us, I asked A what she thought of Jer. She said. Oh my god! You two are exactly alike! I took it as a compliment.
Passover
Sunday night, after getting home from Canada, my mother called and asked if I was going to a passover seder this week. Not having plans, I emailed a bunch of my Jewish friends and almost immediately got an invitation to attend a seder at a friend's parents' place. It was fun, and interesting to go to one with a different family.
My email also inspired another friend to offer to host one next week. She and I will be running it. That will be fun too.
Happy Passover, everyone.
Sushi and Bunnarchy
Yesterday after class, I spent the afternoon hanging out with amare. We lounged in the back yard while she read comics and I answered email from my students. After that we went back to her place and cooked up a lovely impromptu sushi dinner with qatsboi and their cool roommate. She fed me my first fresh wasabi ever. Delightful.
After that it was off to Bunnarchy. It's like Santarchy (aka, Santacon), only with bunnies. This particular event was an awareness raiser for the Billion Bunny Bash. I wore my new boots.
Best part of the evening: Bunny Hannah, who kindly loaned me some ears for the evening, quietly singing to herself
And I aaaam a bun-arch-IST!
And I aam the bun-ny-CHRIST!
Iiiiii, wanna beeee, BUNNARCHY!
Today has been mellow. I slept in, sat on the porch and ate poached eggs and read the newspaper. I've been tidying my room in anticipation of saucygirl's visit, and did most of my taxes today.
And speaking of taxes, if I get a rebate anywhere near as large as I'm expecting, I'm going to treat myself to a new digital camera. Probably a Canon S400/410 or S330. Woo.
The Wedding
Had a brief and mellow spring break. The last weekend of spring break found me and several friends from college at a lovely resort on Orcas Island for two nights, to attend the wedding of two college classmates of ours. I went to high school as well as college with the groom, and realized I've known him for 17 years. Weird. We're friends, but have never been super close. I dated the bride for nearly all of 1992, and will always have a soft spot in my heart for her. She was the first of three (so far) of my serious relationships with Canadian women.
On saturday morning, about 30 of the guests went out on a boat for a whale watching trip. We didn't see any whales, but did see a few Dahl's porpoises and harbor seals. The guide on the boat said the orca watchers call the seals seal twinkies, because of the way the orcas eat them like snacks. They're also vaguely twinkie shaped.
The weather was glorious, with an outdoor ceremony and reception. The ceremony was pleasant, and suited them nicely. It was fun seeing all of the old gang, dressed up no less. I wore a tie from that bachelor party I went to last year (ask me the story), a nice orange dress shirt, and pressed wool pants. I think people were impressed.
Jer
One of the other wedding attendees was one of my very best friends, Jer. We met the very first week of college, in the fall of 1991, and were naked within 3 hours of meeting. To be fair, everyone else in the room was naked too.
Jer was, like me, a physics major, and we ended up doing our homework together for most of 4 years. I've seen more sunrises with him than any lover. We have a ton of fun hanging out, inventing things in our heads, and generally goofing off. Often in college, we would find ourselves hitting on the same woman from opposite sides.
Like me, he's a designer and thinker about usability, the environment, and related issues. We complement each other quite well. We think enough alike that we can brainstorm and riff off each other very effectively, but also maintain enough differences to make significantly different contributions to the topic at hand.
He's been living in California for most of the last 8 years, so I usually only see him a few times a year. We camp together at Burning Man, and he's been attending Passover at my cousin's place in Oakland for the last 3 years or so.
Anyway, he's got a few months off while he is waiting to see if he'll be heading to England for a contract. In the meantime he'll be staying in Seattle. It's nice having him around. We've had much fun already.
School: Spring Quarter
After the wedding, school started up again. It's not bad. My classes are tolerable, and my students seem decent. More details will become evident soon enough.
On Monday, the first day of school, it was nearly 80° in Seattle. Imagine if you will, hundreds of undergraduate cuties lounging and flouncing in tank tops and short-shorts. Very distracting.
Also of note. wasta came over one night and we worked on our bicycles together. Mine is finally in good shape again. I've been riding every day. It's lovely.
The Value-Sensitive Design class will be interesting enough, though there are about 3 undergrads in the class who are either arrogant or muddled (or both) to the point of grating on my nerves every time they say anything. Most of the rest of the undergrads are pretty sharp, or simply don't say much. The grad students are good, and the prof seems excellent so far.
The Medical Instrumentation class is a little heavy on the electrical-engineering content so far, mostly amplifier circuits, but that looks as though it will change. Of the 45 or so students, about 7 are women, and maybe 10 aren't EE majors. The bulk of the class is generic 19 year olds with baseball caps and bored looks, slouching silently in their chairs. The instructor isn't very good, and isn't helped by the fact that the class hasn't been taught before. It's pretty disorganized. Eh, it's only one quarter.
For that class, my homework and lab group is pretty good. We've got a good distribution of majors and skills, with myself, a BioE major, and two EEs. I find it amusing that of the 7 women in the class, 2 are in my study group, and I didn't initiate that particular configuration.
Recompression
Last friday, a week after the wedding, Jer and A and I drove up past Vancouver BC to the Vancouver regional Burning Man event: Recompression. It's a weekend retreat at a YMCA camp, of all places. Very fun people, very mellow scene. Saturday afternoon, after 24 hours in close proximity to both of us, I asked A what she thought of Jer. She said. Oh my god! You two are exactly alike! I took it as a compliment.
Passover
Sunday night, after getting home from Canada, my mother called and asked if I was going to a passover seder this week. Not having plans, I emailed a bunch of my Jewish friends and almost immediately got an invitation to attend a seder at a friend's parents' place. It was fun, and interesting to go to one with a different family.
My email also inspired another friend to offer to host one next week. She and I will be running it. That will be fun too.
Happy Passover, everyone.
Sushi and Bunnarchy
Yesterday after class, I spent the afternoon hanging out with amare. We lounged in the back yard while she read comics and I answered email from my students. After that we went back to her place and cooked up a lovely impromptu sushi dinner with qatsboi and their cool roommate. She fed me my first fresh wasabi ever. Delightful.
After that it was off to Bunnarchy. It's like Santarchy (aka, Santacon), only with bunnies. This particular event was an awareness raiser for the Billion Bunny Bash. I wore my new boots.
Best part of the evening: Bunny Hannah, who kindly loaned me some ears for the evening, quietly singing to herself
And I aaaam a bun-arch-IST!
And I aam the bun-ny-CHRIST!
Iiiiii, wanna beeee, BUNNARCHY!
Today has been mellow. I slept in, sat on the porch and ate poached eggs and read the newspaper. I've been tidying my room in anticipation of saucygirl's visit, and did most of my taxes today.
And speaking of taxes, if I get a rebate anywhere near as large as I'm expecting, I'm going to treat myself to a new digital camera. Probably a Canon S400/410 or S330. Woo.