Thanks for San Francisco!

I was in San Francisco on vacation the first week in June. I had a great, wonderful time, and I owe that to my friends and my mom. They are all wonderful people, and I want to reach out to each of them. So in alphabetical order:

Barbara http://djangrrl.com

I met her not long before pycon 2009 via the Pinax community. She is a very talented developer, Barbara has the 'luxury' of working in the music industry. She's got mad php, mysql, python, and of course, django skills.

For the trip she found us (me, Noah, Zain) tickets to Spamalot, got us (me, Noah, Zain) into the DNALounge for a Zombie Beach party, gave me a walking tour of San Francisco, introduced me to really @#$%ing great vegan food, and took me to Alcatraz. Her knowledge of how to get around San Francisco is unmatched. The last day as we parted ways she tried to get me to go to more places on my own, but I was wiped out from her boundless energy.

Thank you Barbara!

Dave B http://davidbrenneman.com/

Dave is like me, living in both the plone and django communities. He has done some really fascinating work in both areas. He is bright and smart.

I met Dave Friday night for dinner at a really good sushi place whose name I wish I could remember. We challenged the sushi chef to pick what we would eat since he would have to impress us. The result was a number of subtle but delicious selections. Afterwards we went to his place across the Golden Gate park panhandle and I got to meet his lovely wife. They are expecting their first this year!

Thank you Dave!

Dave S. and Cecille P.

A couple of my DC area friends, they both encouraged me to go on a vacation. They've been great to me this past couple of months. I'll always remember their kindness!

Thanks Dave and Cecille!

Daryl http://yacitus.blogspot.com

I met Daryl at pycon 2008. He's a Canadian but don't hold that against him. He works for vmware in Palo Alto. His python and django skills are crazy good.

Daryl was busy the whole time but put a lot of work into finding things for me to see and do around the bay, since most of the time I was solo. He did hang with me for a bit on Wednesday (June 3, 2009) night and we had dinner at Pluto's. That place is like Chipotle on steroids. Next time I hope to visit his house and let his kids hit me with sticks or something else fun.

Thanks Daryl!

Katie http://elephantangelchild.blogspot.com/

My co-worker and our group's technical lead. Multi-talented, besides herding us cats... err... developers... she can code in php, python, draw, and write.

Katie kept the home fires burning at work. Or rather, she kept the fires from raging out of control and consuming the universe.

Thanks Katie!

My Mom

She used to work for a very scary government agency with three letters and retired at the level of 'bigtime boss lady'. Now she does lots of volunteer work, gardening, and many exercise classes.

Mom made sure I got to San Francisco in ways only a parent can. She also encouraged me to take pictures with me in them, and has happily listened to many of my stories about the trip.

Thanks Mom!

Zain
Last but definately not least is Zain. I met Zain at pycon 2009 in the midst of the infamous Django/Pinax fued. Zain is one of the those annoyingly bright young guys with a wonderful personality. Amongst other things he is doing Google Summer of Code for django core, working to augment the Admin UI.

Zed literally hosted me at his house in San Jose. He fed me, clothed me, washed my clothes, and took a day off from work to go cycling with me around Angel Island. He drives through the hills like a maniac too.

I can't thank Zain enough!

Memories of New Year's by the decade

40 years ago I was crawling on a floor somewhere in Highland Park, New Jersey. I don't recall that time. We were probably getting ready to move to Laurel, Maryland at that time.

30 years ago I was sad that the digital watch I got from Channukah '78 no longer had the same magic. It listed the time and the last two digits of the current year. Until we went into 1979 at 12:34pm, 56 seconds into the minute each day I looked down and saw this: 12:34:56 78. This was now gone from a daily activity.

20 years ago I was at the house of my friend Tony's girlfriend trying to fix her parent's bed. Do the math yourself as to what happened... As for my thoughts, I was dwelling on whether or not I would get to hook up again with the girl I met during the autumn.

10 years ago me and my wife celebrated the last New Year's of the second millenium, and started one more year at Aurora Highlands.

Recap of 2008

• I went to Chicago for the first time. The architecture was beautiful. The local food was quite good, nearly as good as the Neapolitan fare I had in 2007.

• Cycled through New York City and reconnected with old family relations.
  

• Kept up with the martial arts. Competed twice.
  

• Almost up to 5 years without a broken bone!!!
  

• Worked another year with Python and Plone. Started to work professionally with Django.

• Stayed with NASA. Managed to see my team evolve into a group that doesn't make me want to pull out my non-existent hair.

• Launched our big project at work (http://nasascience.nasa.gov)
  

• Got my son into physical fitness again.
  

• Shaved my head.

• Got our finances more in order.

• Helped shepherd my students forward for the most part. I'm so proud of them.
  

• Didn't lose anyone close to me.

Update:

• Worked with Alex Clark to launch Take Back the Tap.

• Helped support Food and Water Watch.

• Lasted another year (4 years) at NASA.

• Had a painful kidney ailment in the spring that was a combination of bruising and dehydration.
  

Quick update

For those who care, here is what is in the Danny news:

• Bought the kid a nice bike as an early birthday present. Money came from his grandparents and us for the bike, and its much better than what I have. Now he easily outpaces me. I am very jealous!
• Jen is off to Calgary over Halloween.
• Saturday I compete in forms for the first time. I'll be doing Koryo, and if I can land the side kicks then I'm certain to win.
• Shaved my head. So far at work for 90 minutes no one has noticed.

Vacation this fall, winter, or spring? Or not...

So my staycation sucked. I guess it could have worked, but really I want to be away from home, be pampered, and see water or something else but this area. Our finances aren't bad right now, so we've teased the thought of doing something fun away from home, and bringing our 16 year old son with us.

We've thought of the cruise thing. They are inclusive, in that that include room, board, and lots of food. I like the sea to boot. The problem is that the local cruises out of Baltimore and Norfolk are not cheap. Its cheaper to fly down to Fort Lauderdale and sail out from there. I've found a couple Royal Caribbean cruises that are six days and five nights that seem very affordable. Then tack on the $10/night per person per day fuel surcharge and the cost balloons.

We are also looking at renting places in out of season locales. Go to the beach or non-skiing mountains in winter, find a nice hotel, house, or bread-and-breakfast and you can get incredible deals. Think $500/week for everyone! However, I'm hesitant. I want to be able to hit a pool, run outside barefoot, and feel the wind on my face. I'm afraid this will turn into another staycation experience. Bleah.

Or maybe I ought to just wait until Pycon and bring the family. Then we can stay at the hotel a few extra days and see Chicago properly. I really did like the pizza there, and the architecture was to die for.

Finally, we might just not do a vacation, or send the kid off by himself, perhaps on a school trip? That would be the responsible thing. Our finances are still not in perfect order.

Hrm...

Fitness update

Me

So I started lifting weights again on my birthday after a month-long hiatus. Had to do it because I didn't like my arms feeling rubbery when I did't flex them. I completely changed my routine, focusing mostly on freeweights, starting with as heavy as I can go on something for a full set and then doing secondary and tertiary sets with lighter weights, with the later exercises including auxiliary muscle work. I'm liking the results a lot.

Now that he's started up again, I train in TKD every time the kid trains. Its nice not to be a teacher and just focus on me for a few hours each week. On the plus side, to get a full workout I need to bike from work (12 miles) then train or the class is too easy. This is a good thing especially since...

As of December 2007 I'm eligible to test for my 3rd degree black belt in TKD. I'm not sure I'm going to do it, but I'm thinking about. I plan to make a decision by the end of this month, August 2008.

As for cycling, trying to do it every day except mapbe fridays. My bike has issues, like a seat that won't adjust, so I may have to get a new bike. I've got my eyes open on craiglist for something nearby that is affordable. Next month I do 102 miles in NYC with JSR and my brother.

Kid

He's going to the gym with his mom for treadmill and cycling work. He also rides his bike a lot. And he has decided in TKD he wants to double test in October. He'll have to work hard or that because that he could fail and onl get one belt.

He has a couple pending free personal training sessions he can use. I want him to do these because he ought to be doing weights. But I'm making a point of not pushing him.

Jen

Cycling and treadmilling plus now circuit training. Woot!

Taught my son yesterday

He's been doing a lot more cycling and has started back up with Tae Kwon Do, albeit from the beginning. So far he's gone with me to one of my teacher's classes on monday nights with me. He really enjoys it, although he has trouble with the warm ups, but that will come with time.

So yesterday, on a Tuesday, he came to my teen class. I treated him like any other beginner, which meant a focus for part of the class on falling. My classes have a lot of falling and tumbling, and also get into sparring and a lot of rough contact. It will be months before he will be ready for that stuff in full, but this is the start.

He prefers the other class. That doesn't surprise me, since my class is limited to just 45 minutes and I have to cook in everything I can in that limited amount of time. Also, the falling part is different and a bit uncomfortable for him.

NYC century bike ride

My intention is to go up to New York City with my good friend James and ride for 100 miles. Thats if I can get a good bike rental I think. Otherwise I might go less. We'll stay either with my brother Doug or with my Mom's cousin Roxanne. Will be much fun!

July should be fun

I love summer. Nothing like cycling next to a river across DC for miles to and from work to make you happy. Each day is different. Just last week during a rain shower I saw a rainbow there that was unlike anything I've ever seen.

So July should be fun.

I love Independence Day. Fireworks, grilling, and flags. Whats not to love?

From the 14th to the 18th I've be in NASA funded training learning stuff I want to learn in order to help support NASA more. How fun is that?

From the 21st to the 25th I'll be on vacation. Nothing serious planned, just being at home with my son while the wife is away. We'll cycle, eat junk food, hit the museums, and goof off like only two guys can do. Might see my mom as well, if not my dad.

Good times.

Quick Firefox 3 review

Firefox 3 rocks. Its super fast and as of several days of running it, very stable. All sites show up just fine. I heard there may be a problem on Hotmail, but who uses that garbage anyway when you have gmail?

So please, family and friends who use IE, convert away. No time has been better.

Get FireFox here!

New water heater

Late last night we finally finished getting our old water heater replaced. What a difference! Went from 5 minutes of lukewarm water that took many hours to recover to a never-ending stream of scalding goodness. Bonus is that the new water heater is much more energy efficient to boot.

This morning I dragged the kid out of bed and pushed him grumbling into the shower. He was not happy when he woke up and there was resentment in the air. He came out 25 minutes later with a glowing smile on his face and said, "Now I see why you woke me up early."

The simple pleasures are some of the best ones.

Flooding sucks

Rain. Mislabeled breaker that turned off our sump pump. Ankle deep water in my basement.

That was mother's day.

And I forgot to call my mom. She ain't happy.

NYC cycling ride part 1

The night before we decided to wake up at 5:30. That would give us time to get dressed, eat, and take a leisurely pace to get to the ride start, south of Central Park. We woke up at 5:45 because I mis-set the alarm in the room, but JSR had also set his cell phone. Breakfast was bagels with cream cheese and a slurp of watered coffee.

We arrived 45 minutes early. It was damp and chilly. I don't like chilly. I grumbled about the cold while JSR took pictures. It was impressive the number of cyclists there. You can get a small sense of what we were in right here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jsaintrossy/5BoroughsRideNYC/

The ride finally started. Except for the first mile or so it was mostly a walk. Heck, in the first mile I probably did 10 beats on the pedals. Everyone had a great laugh at this. Things did pick up, but not until Central Park, which is where Roxanne started her ride.

More to come...

Best NYC trip ever!

This weekend I went up to NYC with a co-worker (JSR) to enjoy the famous 5 Boros Ride. We stayed with my family, specifically my mother's cousin and her husband, Roxanne and Michael. And all of it was great.

Our hosts were wonderful. They made very certain we knew how to get there, and even me with my bad sense of direction felt I could navigate there if needed. Their condo in Harlem was light and airy, large but cozy. Roxanne made an incredible lasagna for dinner the night before, which has spoiled me for life. More family came to share dinner, including their grown daughter Rose (who seems to have inherited all of the positive Aaron traits and none of the negative ones), her sister Diana and her husband Aria, and their adolescent daughter Jordana. It was Rose' birthday so we indulged in her ice cream cake.

The ride itself deserves its own post. Lets just say it was wonderful. More to come...

Pesach and tradition

My family calls it Passover, which is odd for us Jews. But as my Uncle Jeff put it so well, 'Our family tradition is a tradition of breaking traditions.' This certainly sums up things about my family when it comes to certain traditional things.

On the other side of things, my family, when it comes to politics and culture, is very traditional when it comes to being involved in the fundamentals of enlightened society. We have a 60+ year tradition of being involved in civil rights, advocating for peace, and trying to be the nice guy. Nice tradition, eh?

On the other hand, being a Libertarian one thing that grates on me when it comes to the socially progressive is how traditionally patronistic they can be to race X or culture Y or religion Z. For example, recently I was annoyed when someone I know advocated for protesting against over consumption of gasoline, except for Hispanic people. His excuse was that to them overly large vehicles were a sign of 'making it'. To me, this is bigotry, albeit not motivated by malice but rather subtle contempt. Hispanic people are more than able to educate themselves, work great jobs, and have the same successes and failures as the rest of us.

Fortunately, I can't imagine my family getting involved in this sort of crap. They offer equal opportunity to everyone regardless of race, religion, creed, or sexual preference. As far as I understand it, a helping hand is given during youth or in emergencies but then people need to stand on their own.

So Pesach was a blast. I met my cousin's little boy (18 months), reconnected with family, ate great food, enjoyed a beautiful day, and felt thanks for another year of being a Jew in a relatively free country.

Jave, may you rest in peace. We miss you little guy

10th Wedding Anniversary

I got back late on Wednesday, real late. Work on Thursday was mostly meetings. Then I found myself in the gym being really tired and out of shape. Fortunately, for me being out of shape is only being able to go for 3 hours instead of the normal 5.

So Friday was our wedding anniversary. We are saving up for a nice vacation so didn't do anything too fancy. Bikes got fixed, and some time was spent cycling. The evening was a steak dinner that was really nice.

Saturday was sleeping in and doing family stuff at home. The evening was a celebration of sorts with friends that went really well.

Sunday we went to Frederick, Maryland. We means myself, Jen, and the kid. Plus one of my martial arts students who is as old as the kid (both 16). What we did was visit my best friend who now teaches Brazilian Jiu-Jutsu. We did that for hours and it was a nice switch. Back in the day we did some ground fighting but not as focused as this. I'm happy to say that I didn't find it that tiring, although I had to stop because my knees are pretty torn up from the mat. Next time I'll wear gi pants. The important thing is that my son loved doing this, and wants to go again and again. Since its been so hard to get him to do anything beyond play video games, this is an awesome development.

Evening was more family time.

Yeah, it was pretty sedate. Working on cooking up something that is a bit more fun.

Memorial Mass for my Uncle

Yesterday I went with my father to a memorial mass at Georgetown University in order to pick up my Uncle Alex's ashes (he'll be interned in Arlington Cemetary in June in a funeral done in the traditional Jewish manner). My uncle had his body used in anatomy classes for medical students. My uncle was very much a teacher and wanted to keep teaching even when his life ended.

I barely knew my uncle. By the time I could understand what he did for a living, I was the black sheep of the family. By the time I repaired my family relationships, I was getting married and had a kid. I'm still not good at doing the whole family (or friend) thing, so I never talked with him or spent much time with him until he died.

So today I asked my Dad a bunch of questions about my Uncle Alex. He was appointed the Delaware US Attorney by JFK. He worked for the New York Times as a libel attorney and checked their sources. He worked for US News and World Report as the same job. He taught law at Duke and Columbia and UMCP. He also consulted to authors for non-fiction books to protect them from possible litigation.

During my uncle's tenure at both news sources, neither paper was in trouble for slander or libel issues. Considering the issues caused by the Jayson Blair scandal of 2003 and the recent questionable and near sourceless article about John McCain, my guess is that the NYT could use a principled resource like my Uncle Alex right about now. When even McCain's opposition camp (Barack's team) calls foul, you wonder where the NYT has gone. Maybe to the same level as the Enquirer?

In any case, I realized I share a few traits with my late Uncle Alex. When I do a white paper or any kind of research I am fanatical about correct sourcing and dead-on accuracy. I wish I was like that in the rest of my life, this insistence on truth, but I'll take whatever positive attribute I can find.