Blog Master G

On Saturday my uncle, Michael A_nderson, was involved in a car accident in Jerusalem while filming his latest documentary, “Holy Land: Common Ground,” an effort toward peace in the Middle East. He was thrown about 100 feet from the vehicle and pretty badly injured. Luckily, he’s still alive and hospitalized in Jerusalem. My thoughts are with you, Michael.

Sadly, though, my uncle’s friend and colleague Jaime Kilben, who was driving the car, was killed. His obituary ran in the Chronicle today. My sincere condolences to Jaime’s family. May he rest in peace.

Even though today’s been pretty stressful, there was one part of it that was pretty cool: An email from the woman who’s going to buy most of the furniture that Jen and I are selling as part of the move. Responding to an email I sent her that recapped our conversation and provided her with directions to my place (and, like all my emails, included a link to my Web site in the footer), she wrote the following kind words:

——————————
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 12:31:45 -0800
From: Illimani Negre
To: “”
Subject: Re: furniture

…
I red in your Web site that you and Jen are moving on February 1, 2003
(Same as me and Ty).  By the way, your Web site is brilliant! You are a
very talented (1) writer, (2) modern philosopher and (3) hip computer
kinda guy – as you define yourself.  Your writings kept me engaged for a
while…!
…
Regards,

Illimani Whitehorn.
——————————

Those words are perhaps the kindest I’ve ever received from someone about my Web site and my personage. Thanks, Illimani, for brightening my day!

(I’m also considering using this quote somewhere on my Web site — a bit of self-promotion never hurts.)

Ha! This is great: One of my blog entries is currently the number 5 Google search result for sociopathic personality. I just discovered this while reviewing my referrers in my Web log.

I think it’s funny that someone searching for that phrase might stumble across me.

Today has been quite the stressful day for me and Jen — one we won’t soon forget. We found out that if we are forced to break our current lease in Larkspur we will be responsible for up to a month-and-a-half rent. That would suck. We are trying to incentivize would-be renters by offering to pay half the first month’s rent to take over our lease. So far, nothing. We’re keeping our fingers crossed, though.

One possibility is that my Mom would take over the lease since she’s about to sign one in Southern California and isn’t totally happy there; she’d rather be closer to family. That would be cool.

One important lesson that’s come out of the stress of today: If we were buying a house, this would be a non-issue. A year from now, we will buy. And we will have lived in the city for a year, so we’ll have a much better sense of which neighborhoods we like and those we don’t.

My friend Jonty is featured in a case study by the ASP vendor he uses to run his medical billing business, Medical Partners Group. The story is pretty cool, despite the fact that it’s about the fire that burnt down Jonty’s house and first office on September 18, 2002.

The 31st in the series of state quarters will be those of the Golden State, my homeland: California. Voting for your favorite design has begun. (This page shows bigger images of all the quarters.) My favorites, in order, are 20, 9, 3, and 1. I also like 17 and 11. I just cast my vote for number 20.

We’ll have to wait until 2005 to see which design is chosen, but it’s cool that We the People (supposedly) get to decide.

So far, number 13 is in the lead with 23.08% of votes. Number 20 has a mere 4.99% of votes.

Our move became quite real this evening when we posted a bunch of stuff to sell on craigslist. We keep hoping we’re doing the right thing in this move, since there’s no going back at this point.

San Francisco…private yard…cool neighborhood. How could we go wrong, right?

We also need someone to take over our lease here in Larkspur, so if you’re interested, click here!

It’s official: Jen and I are moving to San Francisco! We just signed the lease on our new place, which we’ll be moving into February 1. The best feature: a private yard, quite the rarity anywhere in the city proper. It’s a great neighborhood — Inner Sunset on Judah between 7th & 8th Aves — and is a block from shop-filled Irving, the MUNI N line, and more.

Now the packing fun begins! (And, of course, finding someone to take over our lease in the next 3 weeks.)

The Google Weblog contains a recent entry with a couple links to stories that examine the possibility of a Google IPO and the company’s ever-growing role as Shaper of the Web. Of particular interest to me is the Wired story called Google vs. Evil, which is a really good read about the company’s role not just in the Web, but in world politics, free speech, and more.

This is hilarious: I recently bought some new ski goggles on eBay. The goggles arrived today and I just opened the box. In the box with the goggles with no explanation is a CD with a home-printed label that contains a small building on a prairie, a blue sky, and a rainbow. There are also the following words on the label:

Our gift to you, God’s perfect word
God’s gift to you, eternal life with Him

1. Theophilos Program
(Complete Bible)
2. Bible Sequence
(Game)
3. Favorite Verses
4. Misc.

A promise you can’t miss out on!

How awesome is that? Now Jesus freaks are shipping their propaganda with eBay merchandise!

I haven’t yet put the disc in my computer, but I’m sure Jen will love it and that it will make for some good weekend entertainment.