A journal and sounding board for a geek girl in Silicon Valley.

Well, my Friday night was near a complete bust. We had bad train connection karma ju-ju, so we didn't get there till 9pm or so, by which point we'd missed my friend Enkhyl. So I still have all of Enkhyl's stuff. When we got there, I got to talk to Dan and Jason, and meet some of Cameron's other friends. Generally the "usual crowd" was very cool, but several people brought several other people, and so it was this huge mess of around 20 or so people. And of course, these new people threw the law to the wind and decided that the posted notice that they couldn't smoke inside didn't apply to them. I ended up going outside, where the smokers looked at me funny because I wasn't smoking. When I said it was because I can't deal with lawbreakers smoking in enclosed spaces, one of them looked at me and said, "Oh, you're one of THEM." Yes, I am, got a problem with that? While I was still outside, an argument broke out between a bartender and a guy complaining that his friend got served until she "couldn't walk straight". Then, it was time to go home - no dinner, and four Morgan and Coke's made for me wishing the train ride'd go quicker. Cameron promises me that that's not the way it usually is, and having been there once before when it was drastically different, I believe him.

Part of the reason I missed Enkhyl at the bar was due to the fact that my cell phone's hosed. It doesn't charge, it doesn't power on, even with the charger attached nothing happens. So Mirella's going to take me to Cellular Warehouse this afternoon, after dinner, to get me a new battery and maybe a faceplate and some other accessories. The promise of toys is enough to make me almost forget the crappy night I had last night. Of course, once it works again, I have to call back to Cellular One to get it reprogrammed. Oh well.

My Shoutcast stream, as I mentioned in an earlier entry, is named "Ciannait's Celtic stuff and chick rock". The only problem with this moniker is that most of my Celtic music was not in the SoundJam Master Playlist. Whoops. I added those back this afternoon, for those of you visiting wanting some Celtic tunes.

Tomorrow Dr_Stein and I have volunteered to hang out at the Netscape booth at the Mountain View Arts and Wine Festival and be pleasant and cheerful and likely answer questions about Netscape 6 and Mozilla and the like. I predict at least one geek will try and get us into a little "Netscape 6 blows!" flamewar. But hey, we get free Netscape polo shirts out of the deal, so it's not a total waste of time. ;)

This morning I woke up to find the most interesting spam I've ever received. "For females this is the chance of your life. Show yourself to the Net. Take part in the PORNO STAR INTERNET Contest where a lot of men will see you." Woo hoo, just what I always wanted! Apparently the top prize is $100,000. This spam goes into all sorts of detail, including rules and eligibility. And if you're a guy, you can BET on the would-be winner! What an opportunity!

It's been a strange weekend, and it's only just beginning.
posted by Ciannait at 4:27 PM

Yay, my adopted dad (I adopted him) called me tonight! It was likely spurred by the fact that the Dept of Education called him regarding my student loans *ahem* but I got all of their information, and left them a voicemail, so hopefully they'll stop harassing my friends. :) It was really good to hear from him, though, and find out how he's doing. (He has more goats to get rid of! Do you or anyone you know want an angora goat? :)

I nearly got run over again tonight by an inattentive driver. This sort of thing prompted last night's eaten entry about the craziness pedestrians endure. One of my crosswalks intersects with a left-turn green arrow that happens at the same time - which means I got honked at, nearly run over, yelled obscenities at, etc. This time it was a cute little Honda Accord that wasn't paying attention. Maybe I should use a different crosswalk - but I don't want to. My current path takes me past the ultra-cool Netscape fountain and some shade trees. Plus, my current path takes me across fewer crosswalks. And I don't have to deal with the Veritas construction zone.

I'm currently in an argument over whether Jesse Ventura sucks or not. I personally think he's an awful governor. He's not doing jack for the state of Minnesota - his entire term so far has been a bunch of self-promotion. Most governors who are getting things done for their state usually don't do it on a sound-stage, taping an episode of "Late Night with David Letterman", promoting their new book, "Jesse Ventura's Enema Recipes". Of course, the twit I'm arguing with then says, "Well, Clinton takes a lot of vacations too!" Last I noticed, those were much shorter and much fewer in general. When it was clear that an actual Minnesotan might have a better handle on the governor than him, he threw out this gem: "Why do you think anyone gives a fuck about Minnesota?" Oh, right, that's why you just spent 15 minutes arguing a point about Minnesota with me. People are dorks.

Turns out Jon's alumni association from Yokohama International School are organizing a trip to Hawaii in early November, for a huge discount. I told him to sign us up - a trip to Hawaii, hotel, etc, for less than $1000 total? I'm liking that idea. I need to lose weight, though, so I look better in a bathing suit.

And my poor coworkers are still stuck at work, for a site rollout. I'd feel sorry for them, but I'm too busy laughing at them instead.
posted by Ciannait at 10:20 PM

I had a nice long entry about pedestrians, cars, and walking in general, but Netscape ate it.

I'm too grumpy to type it in again right now.

Deal with it. :)

In other news, I finally get to see my friend Enkhyl in San Francisco this week, I think. Nearly every week Mouse goes up there to hang out at a bar, play pool, and do dinner with some of his friends, and the place they go near Haight and Divisadero is pretty close to where Enkhyl lives. Being that I haven't seen him in nearly six months, I'll be excited to again. Granted, last time was a little strange, but I count him amongst my good friends. (He has a Volvo I can drool over, with any luck, and I've been promised a tour of his new house.)

My ex-boyfriend Matt started emailing me again. (Hi, Matt! *wave*) It's a good thing, he's one of the few ex-boyfriends I still remember fondly. I was much younger and sillier, and so was he. It was largely because of him that I ended up in the Twin Cities, which as anyone who knows me will attest, I still love. He gave me the URL to this silly personality test at thespark, which I took, and it came up "Judge" (DICT). I'm opinionated, what can I say. :P~

Hooray, Gilbert's having a housewarming party! I don't think Jon's car'll be working by then, so I'll have to bum a ride off of someone (likely my boss or one of my coworkers). The evite was adorable - it took me a few glances to realize that the SimHouse pictured was their SimHouse. I recognized it from staying in it for a few days the weekend of my accident. (In a Vicodin stupor I remember reading Towing Jehovah and listening to Orbital.)

And finally, my nose is peeling. Being that I live in California, I should really pick up some sunscreen, since I don't tan, I burn.
posted by Ciannait at 9:43 PM

Just got back from A la Carte A la Park in San Francisco. I could really care less about San Franciscan restaurants, as I hardly ever venture up there. (It's hard to do when transportation up there is either impossible (car) or scary (Muni).)

No, what I was really interested in was seeing one of my favorite musicians, Willy Porter, play live. Apparently he's done this festival before, so I'm already looking forward to going next year. The show, as always, was phenomenal. Being that Willy's based in Wisconsin (Madison I think?) he plays in the Midwest a lot. Having moved to California, I was despairing at having a chance to see him live. I think in the end it worked out perfectly for me.

This particular festival is based around food, where restaurateurs in SF gather to show off their wares at a reduced price, in the hopes of getting people to go to the actual restaurant and spend lots of money. There's also, however, entertainment located at a central stage, and that's where I got to see Willy play.

It was basically a stage in front of a grassy area, so I grabbed us (me, Jon, and RoomieNeal) seats right near the stage. The last time I saw him was when he opened for Tori and I had decent but not terrific seats, so it was nice being right up there. (A little deafening, but that's okay. :)

I pretty much sat there in awe for the entire hour or so that he played. It was amazing to see how deftly he handled his guitar, retuning it on the fly, by ear. It was also great how much he obviously appreciated the audience, including those of us dorks right up front. He told us some stories about some of the songs, including how "Tribe" was written about his grandmother, and "Paper Airplane" was written about this woman in another apartment... Apparently Willy could see into their apartment, and vice versa, and one morning this woman was standing there, buck naked, in front of the window, staring at him with her hands on her hips - just daring him to make something of it. He even did his traditional inspired songwriting stint for us - this time it involved a girl named Lily, proctologists, vodka, and nude beaches.

After the show ended (too soon!) he graciously sat at the KFOG booth across from the stage, sold copies of Falling Forward and then signed them. I already own one copy (which I promptly but accidentally lost after buying and ripping to mp3 - personal use ;) but I felt just fine buying another. I try to make a point to always support great, but relatively unknown, artists. (It's the same reason I buy Mac games.)

We then wandered around the festival some more, ordered a couple of drinks from the Stoli booth (the first time I've been able to drink vodka after my infamous Drambuie Incident), ate some food (some of which I managed to end up wearing instead, typical me) and then hung out for a bit listening to The Young Dubliners, whom I think my dad will appreciate very much if he doesn't already. :)

Finally, after an afternoon of food and music, it was time to head back. It was a wonderful time, and I have the sunburn to remind me for a few days, until next year... :)
posted by Ciannait at 6:53 PM