Category: travel

Posted on

catching up


I apologize for my website of late, the performance is horrible. The page either loads incredibly slow, or times out altogether. I have no idea what’s causing this, but am fairly certain it’s nothing of my doing. I’ve been running the same pages with the same scripts for quite a while with decent performance… and all of the sudden things are gummed up. I’ve narrowed it down to any page which accesses one of my MySQL databases (as both this page and my gallery pages do), so it seems the problem lies there… somehow. I have noticed a sharp increase in the amount of spam comments the blog gets, up to about ~3000 per day now – and that might be the culprit. I wrote to my host’s tech support – but so far they’ve only offered me an upgrade package to a dedicated server (rather than the virtual slice of a server I now share with others). This sounds appealing to me, but also ticks me off… I should be able to expect my pages to work. For crap’s sake I only have a measly three databases and a handful of scripts that call them. So, dear reader, I’ll do what I can to fix the situation – but until then I apologize if your experience here is frustrating.

But, just to make it all the more frustrating – here’s a link to Keaton’s gallery, where I’ve uploaded some annotated snaps from our weekend in Oregon which you’ll read more about below. Oh yeah, today’s entry is mad disjointed… and I make no apologies, as it was written in fits over the last week, often for entries not posted (as the gaps in writing last week make evident).

Let’s get started with random paragraph #1.

The other night on TV 20/20 ran a story about a girl who had to have half of her brain removed, due to a rare brain disease that was causing her to have debilitating seizures. Yes, it was a storyline on a popular medical drama recently. Anyway, they showed video footage the girl’s family took when she was a baby – and cut to her parents saying how happy they were when she was born that they got a “healthy baby.” Yes, aren’t we all… it’s what we all hope for, a healthy child with ten fingers and ten toes. But, when this family’s little girl turned four – something went wrong. I think about that all the time, how things can look so normal and right for so long – and then, seemingly out of the blue, go so terribly wrong. I think about that with our daughter, how perfect she is, how healthy and happy and beautiful. Watching a show like that before Keaton tugged at my heartstrings, watching it now that I have Keaton – it full-on hooked my heartstrings up to the Concorde and took flight.

Continuing with random paragraph #2.

Showering at my folks’ place these past few days, I noticed that their guest bathroom is stocked with a bottle of “body wash” instead my preference a bar of soap. I never did get into the “body wash” thing, just doesn’t equate to a bar of soap to me… leaving my skin feeling all slimy when I draw my fingers across it, instead of the squeaky clean of soap that I like. Anyway, I picked up the body wash to check it out – and read the following off the back label:

We know how special your bath or shower time is…a place for you to be private, reborn, where creative thoughts visit.

Reborn? For me, my bath or shower time is more like a time for me to wash the stink off my ass, sweat off my balls, and grease off my face (although not necessarily in that order). Who are these people for whom bathing is a religious experience? Although, I guess, I can’t argue with the “creative thoughts” coming to visit part – as this whole bit was indeed inspired by a shower…

And, random paragraphs #3 and #4, written last week but never posted.

Why are large conference/meeting rooms always unable to cool themselves properly? It seems like every time I find myself congregated with a large group of folks in big conference room, I’m sweating balls. You’d think that engineers designing these big conference rooms for hotels and the like would take this into consideration and install cooling that could handle capacity. Ugh… now my face is greasy and I’m getting sleepy, thanks a lot hot conference room.

The trip to Oregon has been a huge success thus far. Keaton must have her dad’s genes because she traveled like a seasoned pro – making nary a peep and sleeping the entire time. Last night Sharaun and I slept with her lain betwixt us, which we’ve never done before – partly for fear of rolling over onto her mid-sleep. Well, we didn’t roll over onto her, and I really enjoyed the experience. It may sound dumb, but I loved waking up in the middle of the night and seeing her sleeping face just to my left, her little pink-clad arms flung up above her head just like dad does when he sleeps, her little chest rising and falling and making soft breathy sounds through her tiny nose. I want to describe it as “intimate,” but that sounds kinda pedo… so maybe I won’t.

Let’s end this mess just as randomly, shall we?

I’m so excited about the news that Thom Yorke is doing a solo record, I can’t wait to see what he does with his “spare time.” I certainly love the woodcut-esque flash animation on the frontpage of his solo-centric webpage – I the imagery there is in any way representative of the album’s vibe, I’m down. I’m also excited because the new Sufjan leaked… a full two months in advance of the album’s official release. I’ll write more about it once I’ve had the time to properly digest it.

Well, today (Monday) is the 1st of my two Lasik consultations, with surgery possible as early as this Friday. I’m so pumped folks, so pumped. Talk to you all later, Dave out.

Posted on

and thus was slain the king of the weeds

Sunday
Great weekend. Took advantage of Saturday as a “comedown” day from the Germany trip – not that I truly needed it. Laid around the house and did nothing of significance. Well, I guess I did some stuff, just not significant stuff:

1) I uploaded some more pictures from the Germany trip – including snaps from the beer festival and our visit to Dachau concentration camp (the new pictures begin here, if you want to skip the older ones). Pat also posted his pictures, which are essentially the “raw” set from which I drew mine (we shared his camera), but with nicer captions. What a great trip, ranks up there as one of the best “working” trips I’ve had in a long while.

2) I redesigned the pharaohweb.com splash page, removing my music pages from the links (a bittersweet thing for me) and replacing it with the “media” page. I wanted to do another imagemap with rollovers, since I loved that cloudy/sunny thing I had before – but I think I may have been too ambitious, if I hate it too much I’ll take it down.

3) I spent a good deal of time working on a completely new layout for sounds familiar (one with fancy web 2.0 rounded corners). The stylesheet looks good, but there’s a few more finishing touches I have to make before it’s ready to go live. Occasionally, over the course of the week, you may get sneak previews as I work. But, don’t get too excited, it’s still going to be two-column and green.

4) I booked our two upcoming vacations to Oregon and Florida, so Keaton can meet her grandparents, extended family, and friends. With the miles earned a day earlier on my return flight from Germany, I had enough to comp the two tickets to Florida, and I combined a work-visit to Oregon for me with tickets for Sharaun to get that one on the cheap too. All told, ended up spending about ~$250 for both vacations.. not bad at all.

Yeah, Saturday wasn’t a total bust I suppose. Sunday, after we’d paid our respects to a jealous and avenging God, a God that takes vengeance and is filled with wrath, I decided to exact my own vengeance and wrath on the weeds in our backyard. Now, sometimes when I do things like pull weeds, kill bugs, mow the grass – anything that, to me, happens at a level I’m safely above – I like to pretend I’m a supreme being, lording over those who are unfortunate enough to be down at the level where my actions cause chaos. The ladybugs rent to pieces in the blades of my massive death machine; the green caterpillars left without their weed-foodsource lifeblood; the wasps kicking and seizing as my poison attacks their nervous system…

Whoa, let’s rope this back to the stuff about weeding. Anyway, here’s the proof – I’ve slain the weed kings and their court:

... and thus was slain the the king of the weeds ...

Tuesday this week (tomorrow, as you read this) I’m off on a quick jaunt over to Silicon Valley, doing the customer tour again. Not an overnighter, thankfully, but a long day with two flights, a rental car, and a presentation. Next week, I hit the skies again – with Pat again, no less – North Carolina on Wednesday, Oregon Thursday through Sunday. Sharaun and Keaton will meet me in Oregon Wednesday night, after Keaton’s first flight – a thing which Sharaun, unfortunately, has to do solo. I wish I could be there to lend a hand, but at least we’ll get to fly back together. I can’t wait until Keaton gets to meet her yet-unmet grandfathers – I want to see their reactions.

Before I go, I thought I’d drop this link that my dad sent me, as it’s pretty rich: Christians Against Hip Hop (possibly not safe for work). Good stuff.

Goodnight folks.

Posted on

fo rth e skae of th bolg


Beeeeerrrrppp Pfestttivaaal!!! Tlonighjt my went ot the beer ffestiveal in Germany!!! Oh people, I had such a grea time in the beer festivea;. IUt really was aewesome to tbe bone. Yoiu gon’e take to me about nthe beer festiveal, becauese it was something so good.. that ytou woudl have to be their to be able to talk to me abiut it. Right’ now i’ts in the AM time in Gernamay and I just got balc from the festivitues. Pat and i dtanlk a lot of enbeers and had a realy,. tood time. Now i”ve somc home to the hotel and I am ready to go to ebd… but I wanted to post a Dridat enry before I did. So, here is what I wil post – some was weritten before the beer festival, some was bwtiiten after the berr fersive. Enogu.

Since I like to be honest with those of you who donate precious minutes of your time reading this page, I’ll tell you straight-off that this is only Friday’s entry because of WordPress’s ability to schedule entries. I actually just pressed “publish” on Thursday’s entry – which won’t go live until 2pm PST on US Thursday, and immediately began drafting this entry for a midnight Friday auto-post. Not a bad way to blog an entire week in a condensed way. I’m sitting now in Pat’s hotel room (I don’t like to link Pat’s name to his site, ’cause it has my last name on it and I strive to keep that off the web – hey Pat, fix that), which is infinitely bigger than mine, listening to some Built to Spill on the iPod and contemplating taking a dump here instead of going to my own accommodations – his room has a bidet. It’s still Thursday morning in Germany as I write, and my belly is still pretty full from breakfast. We plan to head down the cobblestone street for a lunch outdoors, accompanied, of course, by some beer – y’know, to prep us for the 3pm customer meeting… get our minds nice and limber and whatnot.

Tomorrow we leave, but not until something like 4pm, which puts us in San Francisco around 6pm – a mere two hours later. Since we have most of the day free, we’re planning to stop over for a tour of Dachau, which I’m sure will be a sobering experience.

If you couldnt/ tell, those tw apragraphs were rtinne berfore the beer frestival – and this paragraph and the opener were wtrittn after the beer festival. The beer feasstialv was sooo awesome. Pat and I had soe much berr, that we ceased to know how mhch eer we actualle had – and ckept treindking beer depstitea out ob vious frunkeness. I want you to know that this entry was a bithc to sprrell-chjeck cbaezues I prupsoely left the drunbken fat-finerge erros intact for comedic reason.s I trulyu hope ytou enjoyed my writings from ermane. It’s like 1ma here nand Pat just called me from his hotel room (rone foloor benath me) to tel me he was “fdrunk.” CNo craop Pat, we’re both frunk…. we were, after all, at the same beer fieagvl. Until the USA poeople, I love you … please forive me.

Thhis is no koek… I really am stpyting this wayu b ecuae os the b eer. The beer has done nast y thing to my coordingaton… my finger are not doing waht my brain is telling themt o di… althog I will akdmote that I’;m playing it uup (jsut a little) fo rth e skae of th bolg.

O(MFG this new Sufjan dong is carrygin me through Germanbu… one sogn can make an entire trip… this song is sooo good.

I love tou all and I miss you alll… going to bed now.. Dave is… ooooooooooooooooty.

Posted on

all mod cons


Y’know, were I in the US and staying in this hotel room, I’d likely be complaining about it. It’s small, cramped, and very European-feeling to me. A tiny cot-like single bed, a shower like a vertical glass coffin, and nowhere to set down my bathroom kit aside from the toilet with the lid down. To be fair though, it’s got all mod cons – and I don’t really need much more than a small cot-like bed, or a shower that can accommodate me. So, rather than complain about it, I’ll instead dub it “quaint” and say it’s “practical.” It does suck though, that you’re allowed to smoke in the rooms – as the person next to me tends to fire up around 6am each morning, filling my room with the stuff. I actually didn’t think I was going to be able to post today, but, as it turns out, Pat and I got a reprieve from going to the customer this morning – only being required attendees after 3pm. That gave me back my morning, and is the reason you’re reading this now.

Sharaun’s making a solo trip to the baby-doctor with Keaton tomorrow, time for her two-month set of shots. I’m pretty bummed that I won’t be along with her for it, and I know she wishes I could be there too. Poor little Keaton, having to get pricked. Monday, as we were walking around Munich city center, my eyes couldn’t help but wander onto the babies being pushed around in prams – wearing little pink outfits enjoying the German sun in the shade of the Glockenspiel. Made me miss that little girl of mine – and I guess it’ll only get worse as she gets older. The next few weeks are pretty full as well, mostly one and two day travel, short jaunts within the confines of the great nation of America – but time away from home all the same. Pat and I will travel again to North Carolina and Oregon in a couple weeks, and I’ll be trekking over to the bay only three days after returning from Germany. But then it’s over, no more travel for a while – one hopes, at least.

Got the final tally for my CDs from the trade-in shop today: $1185. Forty-two of the discs were deemed “unacceptable” due to scratches (less than 10% of the batch), which I pretty much expected – they were likely ones that Sharaun had borrowed, she’s like a CD shredding machine. I actually expected more, but accounting for the bum discs I feel I made out OK. I still plan on putting the money towards Lasik – which I expect I’ll start shopping around for once I return to the States. I’ve heard about some “next gen” version of the surgery – but have also heard from those with experience that it comes with “next gen” prices – so we’ll see. Despite not having written about it in a while, my excitement at the prospect hasn’t waned – I’m still completely up for the whole thing. Just think, no more worries about not being able to see when I finally do get stranded on the desert island I keep talking about.

Seems like I made Thursday, now if I post Friday I may impress even myself. Until later, peace be with you, blog-people. Dave out.

Posted on

mover and a shaker


Hung over?! Are you serious? I thought that didn’t happen to me; steel constitution and all.

German Dopplebock, something called “Alligator,” if I recall. Not only that, but the dang cigarettes finally caught up with me. I still don’t know what it is about those beastly things that my psyche holds an attraction to – something about looking “Euro” perhaps. I’ll trade this pain in my throat and sickness in my belly for looking Euro anyday though – as is always the case when I try and extend my “cool” via those awful, awful things. I have to give Pat the nod for attempting to contact my common-sense department when the idea to “try some local German smokes” crossed my mind. “Why?” He asked, “Won’t they just make you feel like ass like any cigarettes?” Yes; yes they will indeed. It’s like going to a different country and wanting to taste their version of the shit sandwich – you’re pretty much guaranteed it’ll be just as bad as the one they serve at your local cafe. Enough… let’s move on.

Killed another presentation today, or, at least I thought did. When I sat down, Pat told me I bounce and sway too much. Unfortunately, this is not news to me – it’s been one of the banes of my public speaking skills for as far back as I remember. I suppose, bouncing isn’t as bad as being totally unengaging or dry – but it’s still a downfall. Anyway, I thought the discussion went rather well overall, and was happy with my effort. Still not sure it was worth a week in Germany, but I’m not protesting too much.

Right now, though, it’s close to 7:30am on my body’s internal California clock – but it’s only 4:30pm here and some guy is presenting in a thick German accent that’s making me sleepy. I’m stuck here for another hour at least, I fear. So, I write. I’ve got my iPod plugged into my laptop to charge, but I can’t plug the laptop in for the wacky German plugs and my forgetting an adapter – so it’s really just trading electrons from one battery to another. At least the iPod will be ready for the journey home, that’s all I care about.

The city we’re staying in is actually really cool, and dates back to medieval times (you can still see remnants of the original city wall from the olden times). Our hotel is on a cobblestone street in the older section of town. The whole place feels very “Euro” to me: with its outdoor cafes and tiny cars. We ate dinner at a small cottage-looking place, out on a vine-clad patio as the sun set. The food, and beer, were excellent, and by the end of the meal I’d developed a nice swimmy head from the combination of sleeplessness and dunkel bier. I debated on joining the folks who’d come over on the short UK flight for another round of beer, but my fatigue got the best of me and I turned in around 9:30pm. Had a nice restful sleep and hit the ground running at 6:30am this morning. Now, to catch you up to the present so I can continue writing: I presented, we had more dinner, we went for beer (see the “hung over” bit above), slept, and it’s 7am Thursday here as I write this (I’ll get to sneak this entry in just under the wire for US Wednesday).

Yesterday, I’d mentioned I’d be posting some images from Germany as well as Keaton. Believe it or not, I think I’m going to be able to come through on both. Not having near as many pictures of Keaton as I thought I did, I had actually decided yesterday to postpone my semi-regular weekly-ish update to her gallery. But, talking to Sharaun, she’d mentioned she’d taken quite a few good ones since I’d been gone – so I decided to walk her through taking them off the memory card and uploading to my server whereupon I could retrieve and post them from the other side of the globe. Worked great, and I’m happy to be able to follow through and give you this update to Keaton’s Gallery. But wait, there’s more. I was also able to cobble together a short set of images from our first couple days – even going so far as to produce one of my little movies. You can watch it here: autobahn.unregulated, and check out the rest of the stills here.

And, that’s about it folks – the laptop is down around 20% battery and I didn’t bring the goofy German plug adapter. I’m off to catch the end of this episode of the German Flintstones and grab a shower before a sausage and potato breakfast. Not sure about posting Thursday and Friday US, as most of those days will be devoted to travel for me – but we’ll see.

Good-day to ya.

Posted on

40,000ft: shrimp and wine


Day one in Germany was spent trying to stay outside and occupied during daylight hours to stave off jetlag. After picking up our rental (BMW 318i convertible, gotta love Germany), we headed straight from the airport into downtown Munich, where we parked at a Marriot (for familiarity sake, not our hotel) and asked the concierge for “stuff to do.” We planned to take the subway into city center, get some beer and ‘wurst, and watch the Glockenspiel do its thing. After that, we pushed a planned visit to Dachau off until Friday, as time was short. Checked in at the hotel, grabbed some coffee to try and keep the eyes open, and am now taking the pre-dinner downtime to pen this entry. If all goes well, tomorrow’s entry will include a gallery update from Germany and also an 8-week update to Keaton’s gallery (lofty goals while on a business trip, I know). But… for now… this is it.

Sometimes I wonder about the clientele they’ll book in business class these days. Take for example this kid: iPod hardwired to his ear canals, a ratty, pea-green knit shirt tucked into baggy khakis (the kind with the “cargo” pockets on the thighs), and a pair of overworn brown shoes.. He’s got those scuffed shoes off – I can see him curling his toes within his brown socks, and his drink order was a simple “I’ll have the ‘cab,’” as if he comes from money.. I’d peg him in his early thirties, his thinning crown says not much younger, if any. Exuding a lack of polish: stuffing gobs of lettuce into his mouth from the salad bowl, occasionally re-positioning his crotch with his hand when he thinks no one is looking, picking asparagus out of his teeth with his fingernail. How can this kid fly business class? How can he afford to rub elbows with us, think himself on-par with us?

I’ll tell you how, bitch. I’m that kid in the green shirt, I like it because it’s loose and not “scratchy.”. Oh, and those khakis, they’re comfortable and I can put my passport and iPod in those “cargo” pockets. I’m the change of the guard, motherfucker, and me and an army of kids just like me are taking over. We’re coming to take your job, take your money and your glory. We’ll push you out of your office and into an assisted living facility where you can reminisce about the days of US Steel. We’d punch you in your wrinkled face, but we don’t have a free hand for adjusting our huge balls. Get used to it; we’ll see you on the next flight to Munich, when we look back on you from 1st class. We are the new.

Until tomorrow, auf wiedersehen.

Posted on

the sun kicks into gear


Woke up early Saturday morning, as I had Mr. Mom duty while Sharaun was at an all-day seminar. Keaton and I sat and watched a couple TiVo’d episodes of Andy Griffith while the sun warmed cracking and popping sounds out of the windows. It’s nearing 2pm now and I’ve done a tall pile of nothing all day. Did manage to sneak out and fiddle with the backyard sprinklers, which were acting up when I did my Spring-is-coming test during mowing the other day. Turns out I’ve got some annual repairs to get done before the sun kicks into gear… as there are a couple broken heads and some adjustments needed here and there. Other than that brief spurt of arguably productive time, I’ve been sitting around like a stone… listening to the iPod, clicking through random articles on Wikipedia, playing with the baby when she’s awake, and snacking on some prunes.

Oh my word folks, I’m smitten with this album by Wolfmother. This Australian band is Black Sabbath’s Paranoid reborn in the 2000s, with Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin all thrown in the blender for good measure (really, just check out the band’s webpage if you don’t believe me on the comparison here). Right now, I’m simply infatuated with the entire album, but the standout tracks for me are Pyramid and White Unicorn. Actually, I could see how this album might be lumped with the whole “joke, or not?” metal-reborn stuff that The Darkness kicked off a couple years back – I mean, some of the lyrics literally sound like lines from Spinal Tap or Jack Black’s character in School of Rock. With song titles like Tales from the Forest of Gnomes, rolled Rs, and freakin’ flute solos… this is the real deal. These kids make rock, plain and simple. Really, listen to that song I linked above and tell me it’s not 100% ass-kickin’.

If all goes well, I should be first- and business-classing it over to Munich while you read this. Expect potentially odd posting times this week, I mean… in case you’re charting them. See ya.