Blog Master G

Greetings from Upstate New York! Jen and I are here in Kinderhook, NY, where we just returned from the Village 4th of July parade. It was great. The Bulldog drum brigade performed; the Kinderhook Militia marched in playing the flute, then read the Declaration of Independence, and fired their muskets; Martin van Buren on horseback was toted in via tractor; horses and early 20th-Century cars cruised through the Village Square. It’s fun celebrating a holiday in a small town. Had it been San Francisco, the drum brigade would’ve been naked or in drag.

On the way back to the car, we were invited by one of its proprietors into The Van Schaack House, one of the many old historic mansions that line the main street of Kinderhook. Built in 1785, the house is absolutely gorgeous inside and has been converted to a bed and breakfast.

Yesterday we spent an exhausting day in Poughkeepsie, meeting with the Minister and looking at the Chapel. Oh my. The construction scaffolding is worse than I expected. It’s really disappointing, but what can we do? We’re going to suck it up and have people enter and exit via the side door.

I thought I didn’t have this picture since it never showed up among the digital shots or 35mm film we posted following our Italy trip last year. Yet lo and behold, about a month ago I realized there were still a number of photos on my 35mm camera that I had never developed. So I sent the roll to Ofoto and am extremely happy to have found this treasured shot among the bunch. This is the gondola ride on which I proposed to Jen in Venice on Sunday, April 28, 2002 (little did she know how damn nervous I was when this photo was taken; the nervousness was subsequently transferred to her after I popped the question):

Gabe & Jen moments before getting engaged
in Venice on Sunday, April 28, 2002

I’m happy to report that, as of today, I’ve completed work on the new Web site of my friend, fellow Vassar alum, and author Larry Weinstein. I must say that I’m very pleased with the results, and I know Larry is, too. It was a fun project to work on and was collaborative throughout — with Larry providing guidance, content, and feedback along the way. The site includes excerpts from Larry’s writing, including his recent featured story, “Dark Waters,” from The Edge #16. (I read “Dark Waters” last night and thoroughly enjoyed it! Check it out.)

Larry’s site is powered by Movable Type and is architected in such a way that he’ll easily be able to manage content updates and edits, without having to think at all about the HTML or site structure.

Contact me today to discuss how Gabe Consulting can help you or your small business!

Today was the 33rd Annual Gay Pride Parade here in San Francisco. Here are a few photos from the parade, as well as a link to more on Ofoto. (Be sure to check out the Bootylicious photo, which cracks me up.)

Today is Day 1 of 9 days off work! Woohoo! My company is closed for a mandatory vacation all next week. So Monday and Tuesday I’ll be chillin’ around home — working on Larry’s Web site, taking my car to get an alignment, picking up new glasses, playing with the new camcorder when it arrives on Tuesday — then jumping on a plane for New York Wednesday morning. We’ll be there through Sunday night, doing some final preparations for the wedding. We’re scheduled to meet with the minister who’s marrying us, the buildings & grounds folks re: the Chapel, the wedding coordinator who’s going to offer us some tips (but not actually coordinate the day of the wedding), and New York state to get our marriage license.

Two days ago marked the one month countdown. More precisely, 27 days, 10 hours, 54 minutes, and 39 seconds to go.

Oh, and while we’re at it, an update on the recent predictions around total number of guests: We’re now at 123 guests with a handful more expected in the coming days. So Jen’s winning the prediction game — so far.

After much deliberation going back to May 10, 2003, I finally decided to purchase the Sony DCR-TRV22 MiniDV camcorder! Woohoo! From a field that started with 5 camcorders randomly selected from Amazon, I narrowed it down to the TRV19 and the TRV22. With tons of help from the great discussion boards on camcorderinfo.com, I found what I think to be the best deal out there — that I defined based on a combination of price, shipping, tax, and reputation of Sony Authorized reseller — and placed the order today. I ordered from onecall.com and was very impressed by the ordering process. I should receive a shipping confirmation email on Monday and will receive the camcorder overnight (free, no sales tax) on Tuesday, before Jen and I head to New York. Here are the pricing details, which I posted in this message to this thread:

Woohoo! I FINALLY did it. I just ordered a TRV22 from onecall! It’s all about the free overnight FedEx shipping just by saying you’re a member of My Sony (the first guy I talked to didn’t know, but I just called back and they took off the extra $15 I had initially paid for the upgrade to overnight – from the free 3-day). Here are the details of my order:

Sony TRV22 from www.onecall.com
$699 – 10% = $629
scs30 $30 off coupon = $599.10
+$15 overnight FedEx = $614.10
+2 fuji tapes @ $4.82 each = $623.74
+$9 for UV filter = $632.74
$632.74 – $6.47 (1% discount) for oneclub = $626.27
-$15 overnight FedEx (just said I was member of My Sony) = $611.27
(total price for camera not including tapes & UV filter = $593.11, just as sucka had mentioned earlier; can’t beat that)

I’m really psyched and glad I went with the 22 vs. the 19 after all. It should arrive Tuesday by 1pm, the day before I leave for NY for some wedding planning.

-Gabe

Update (7.14.2003): Find this info helpful? Please return the favor by following my links if you order your TRV22 from onecall! (I’ve signed up with their Link Program.) If you call them (1.800.340.4770), please mention my customer ID, 264-6370.

Here in San Francisco we’re spoiled by the weather — a cool 50 to 70 or so year-round. So when the thermometer rises above 70 and pushes to 80 and beyond, San Franciscans barely know what to do — so we sit around in our boxers, drink ice water, and walk our dogs in the park. Jen was shocked to be able to wear a tank top outside…in the Sunset..at night. But she did. Today’s record-high temperature of 97 degrees sent many locals to the beaches, while others of us chose to work from home and keep it cool in the comfort of our garden apartments.

“Records were set from San Francisco (97) to Moffett Field (100) to Monterey (95). The previous record in San Francisco was 89 degrees — set 30 years ago. Gilroy hit 105, tying the record set in 1995.”

All I’ve got to say is that I’m glad I didn’t trek it up to San Rafael today since it was a high of 102 and the air conditioning in my building was broken (I grinned of relief to be at home when I read the email earlier today). The A/C in Jen’s building was also broken, so they bought everyone ice cream.

This Sacramentan has gotten spoiled living in the City by the Bay. I want my cool summer nights and my year-round breeze.

The Guardian: “The Supreme Court struck down a ban on gay sex Thursday, ruling that the law was an unconstitutional violation of privacy. The 6-3 ruling reverses course from a ruling 17 years ago that states could punish homosexuals for what such laws historically called deviant sex.”

It’s about time Texas and the rest of its southern cousins entered the 21st Century. I’m shocked and pleasantly surprised that this conservative Supreme Court actually made a sensible ruling. But shame on Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas for voting to uphold this archaic anti-sodomy law.

With 19,866 miles on the odometer, the Scoob has a brand spankin’ new clutch as of today. And wow, what a difference a clutch makes! The old one had this morning jitters problem wherein the car would jerk when starting in 1st some mornings. It wasn’t all the time, but enough to annoy the hell out of me. I had heard from someone in my WRX mailing list that getting the clutch replaced (under warranty, of course) was like having a whole new car. Was he ever right.

After picking up the WRX this morning, I could feel the new clutch immediately — and it is like having a whole new car. It’s smoother, more responsive, faster, and more precise. And the jerkiness is gone altogether. It’s great. I will be able to haul even more ass now.

I used to be on the first page of results in a Google search for gabe. I noticed today that that seems to have changed. Now I don’t show up until the 7th page of results. I’m not sure why. I recently changed all my title tags from “gabeanderson.com: [content]” to “Gabe dot com: [content].” I wonder if that has anything to do with it. Just in case, I changed it back to how I used to have it.

The only other things I can think of that would have caused this demotion — along with my demoted PageRank ranking, according to the IE Googlebar — are recent changes I made to include daily archives along with individual archives, and my change from numeric individual archive URL to text-based archive URL archives. All the numeric individual archives redirect to the same entry with text-based URL. I wonder if Google just hasn’t picked up on that yet.

It’s a mystery to me. Any thoughts?