How I spent too much money.

Lots of things going on right now. I'm half expecting to end up blue by Independence Day because I may not have enough time to breathe before that. Talked my wife and myself into buying a camcorder this weekend. The thinking being that there are certain things that are best captured on film. We're interested in interviewing our grandparents so that we'll be able to keep some of these stories for us and future generations. I feel some responsibility to do that being a first generation American and somewhat removed geographically and linguistically from much of my family. I'm taking a VISA approach to this. Yeah, the camera cost a bundle, but the memories it preserves are priceless.

Catching up a little.

I've been meaning to blog all week (that really is a verb now, isn't it?), but just haven't had the time. Yes, I watched the Spurs win in Game 7 tonight (Congrats to Tim & co.), but that's not what kept me silent. It wasn't my pending masterwork. (I'm on page 10 of my rough rough novel draft if anyone is counting.) It's pretty much been work, pure and simple. My boss is out of town for the week, and instead of being able to steal a moment to contribute to this irregular diary, I find myself buried in extra emails and phonecalls. I had an unexpected report to throw together for one of our customers in a couple hours. It was not fun. But I know most everyone still works harder than I do so I shouldn't complain.

This past weekend I spent a good portion of time with never before met Aussie (pronounced Ozzie) relatives. We exchanged geographic vernacular such as "mall"="shopping center", "gas"="petrol", "trunk"="boot". My primary Aussie teacher was 16 and made me feel like I was 45. Can you believe they don't have Outback steakhouses down there? One of these days I'll have to venture out there anyway.

Diablo

There's an old story about a religious man venturing to the top of a mountain. There he met the Devil. The Devil promised that he would make all the progress stop, all the white men go away if the the religious man would renounce his faith. The man refused and a great battle ensued. Then the man woke up to find that it was all a dream. The mountain top where these two met became known as Mt. Diablo. Other stories say that this mountain is where the world was created.

Ventured to the top of this 3,000 + feet mountain the other day. It wasn't much of a hike. We drove the whole way up. Nice view at the top.

Day 2

In the past few years, I've written a bunch of short stories, a few have even been published. I love short stories. In a brief moment you convey something that is meaningful and is hopefully a complete thought. But last night I ventured onto a new larger project. I will attempt a novel. I think novels takes a different kind of mindset. No longer is being obnoxiously witty enough. Now I'll have to sustain that wit over many many pages. Instead of writing on a whim, I'll need to have a plan. I'll need to focus. I expect this project to consume a lot of my thoughts. But my momentum is swinging the wrong way already. I know Day 2 isn't going to be as productive as Day 1. I'm playing basketball tonight.

Email is public information

Just a reminder that anything you blog about or email about could easily end up distributed all over the internet. Without really thinking about it, I forwarded my parents an email about my little brother the other day that's going to get him in a little trouble. It was pretty much a brain cramp on my part. I'm not really trying to get the entire inheritance.

Viagra for tennis strokes

I had a couple small errands to do during lunch so I found myself taking a little walk around campus. Passed by the tennis court. A couple of really old guys were playing tennis at the Stanford courts. One of them hit the ball into the net. "Where's my Viagra? I can't get it up," he said. No one else there said a thing, so I'm guessing they've all heard it before, but I found it amusing.