Ian's blog

I had a big grin on my face last night. I got up early to get the bart to the airport where I picked up a rental car. I drove out to yosemeti park which took about 3 hours. yosemeti is beautiful. I hiked up the mist trail to the vernal falls then on to the nevada falls. these are real water falls not like the great falls in MD/VA. I got close to the top and I was about ready to turn around because I was tired, but I met an indian guy who promised that I was only 5 mins from the top. it took me about two hours to hike 3.5 miles I went up about 2000 feet. I hiked down with a school party from fresno. I didn’t get back to San francisco till midnight which was to late to get the bart back. that’s why I have a big grin on my face

back from my bike ride all hot and sweaty and in search of a beer

I biked to bunker point. which is up a very steep hill. I am now sitting in a cafe in sausalito

I just crossed the golden gate bridge on a bike. this is bringing back memories I had forgotten. the last time I was here I had a nextel phone issued by strategy.com and I just finished listening to a conference call talking about the first round of lay offs at strategy.com. I remember coming out on the trip knowing that I had a job for at least a little longer. I think I made it through two more rounds before they decided to shut it down cometely

Location: san francisco

I had a free plane ticket I needed to use up so I decided to come to san fran. I am staying in the union square area

I saw Pixars “Cars” on monday night. I highly recommend it. I also found this article that talks a little about how the movie was made

https://www.personaltechpipeline.com/news/189501146

For me the most impressive shots were the racing ones where you see debris on the road vibrate and move as the cars speed past. I also like the camera shake as the cars sped past. Lots of little jokes, watch out for the flies. Also wait till the credits are finished they have some extras just before the end of the movie.

I haven’t posted in quite a while, which is good since my new job is keeping me busy. I wasn’t being kept busy or challenged in my last job in all honesty I  gave up when my magers first response to everything I did was to say no then having to flight to convince him that my ideas had merit. You know it is time to leave when  your manager wont even take the time to walk the 50 feet from his office to your cube repremands you and instead decides to do it over IM. Even then I was being repremanded for taking initative and getting the task done but not doing it exactly the way he would have done it.

I am now in a far better environment. I feel I have something to contribute to the group and I have a voice. My manager treats me like a human being and his door is always open. All the people in my group are in the same building and on the same floor and are 2 seconds walk away. My Co Workers eat lunch together most days. The interesting thing is  that I am doing almost same tasks as I was at my last job and enjoying it. Currently I am doing IT Security project reviews. I am also involved in discusions of using VOIP.

So if I haven’t been posting on LJ what have I been doing. Well the first thing is that I have moved to Virginia.  I did a quick cost benift analysis and it made sense to be paid in VA. I think I will gain at least a $1000 benefit in taxes. My Car insurance will half. Two year of tags in VA is about half that in MD so even if I have to pay property tax on my 96 Golf I still end up saving a few hundred dollars. My car needed a new exhaust, rotors and pads. I knew the brakes and rotors were in need of replacing but I have been putting it off. Nothing like a state inspection rejection sticker to motivate you. So after some quality time at the DMZ on Friday and a few minutes at the Arlington County building my car is now registered in VA with a County decal. My parking permit should be in the mail in a few weeks. I was happly surprised when my number was called at the DMV and I went to counter and asked if I reuse my old personalized VA plates from 4 years ago and the gent “YES”. That save me a few $$. The one downside is that they only gave me a one year drivers license since I am still on visa 🙁  but they only charge me $4 for a 1 year license.

I have relocated the myself and two cats to arlington. Curly spent the whole trip meowing.

I have also been a geek. My web servers and email servers are still in baltimore but i have been able to up a VPN between arlington and baltimore so I have a secure tunel to my machines. In fact right now iTunes is playing from mp3 files on my file server in baltimore. I have been working on and off for the last few weeks to rebuild my dev environment for my firewall so I can test out some new snortui code.

I have decided that the only channels  need are the broadcast channels th sfi-fi channel (DR Who and Battle Star Gallatica) and possibily BBC America. With the merging of WB and UPN I am  going to have to delete my Everwood Season Pass, I also lost West Wing, That 70s show and Malcom in the Middle. I am still hooked on Lost, Battle Star Gallatica, Family Guy, American Dad, mmm *caugh*  East Enders.

I am keeping an eye on housing in VA. from the look of it house prices are coming down.

We are still moving along with the marriage stuff. looking at wedding invites and menu optiosn this week. I also need to book our flights I am going to take a couple days in Reykjavick on the way back from scotland.

Any long post and I have decided that this keyboard needs to go since the shift keys keeps sticking

Bike to Work 2006 Photos from Baltimore’s Bike to work day ride from light street