Blog Master G

Jen came across this little gem, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, which has got to be, without a doubt, the oldest blog in existence. At about 400 years old, I’d say it takes the cake. The language is great, although it certainly gives you a feel for how rough life was back in the ol’ 1600s. Here’s a snippet:

From thence to my father’s to dinner, where I found my wife, who was forced to dine there, we not having one coal of fire in the house, and it being very hard frosty weather.

After sitting through way too many of those absurd and over-simplified drugs support terrorism ads, I’m quite pleased to see that a new campaign targeted at the real culprit — the American obsession with SUVs — has been launched. After all, it’s our dependence on foreign oil, not kind bud from Humboldt, which puts money in the hands of terrorists. And what vehicles get 10 miles per gallon, creating a dependence on millions of barrels of oil per day? SUVs. If we’re going to change the world climate, let’s start at home.

Watch the video about the new SUV/terrorism campaign here:

New campaign in SUV battle

Swerdloff.com has a really good point about putting old technology to new use: To solve the medical, nutritional, and dozens of other problems facing the world today.

Google is already doing just this by leveraging the inactive cycles of computers that have its Toolbar installed (like mine). The first beneficiary of this effort is Stanford’s Folding@Home project to understand protein folding and potentially prevent fatal diseases like Mad Cow.

Hmm…perhaps I bought my WRX about a year too early. Subaru has officially announced the 300-HP WRX STI, due out this summer. Any car that comes stock with gold wheels and loses the stereo in exchange for speed has got to be cool. All that and “The large capacity intercooler includes a manually operated water spray feature to provide additional cooling.” Woah.

It’s funny how much things have changed in the Bay Area housing market in the past 2 or so years. According to craigslist, as good a measure as any of the pulse of the Bay Area, there were fewer than 500 or so apartments for rent in San Francisco in July 2000, the heart of the dot-com boom when tenants-to-be had to take whatever they could get and were lucky if their applications would even be considered without a plate of brownies or some cold hard cash clipped to the back. Today there are upwards of 8,000 apartments available — in San Francisco alone. Oh how the tables have turned.

Last night Jen and I looked at a number of places — a loft in Potrero Hill (Tennessee and Mariposa), an apartment in Lower Pacific Heights (Post between Lyon and Baker), and our favorite, a 2-bedroom place in Katie’s building in Western Addition. The asking rent is $1,595. Today I offered $1,300. I got a call back saying the agent would check with the owner, but she didn’t think he’d go that low. I said I would be willing to meet “somewhere in the middle” and to see how low he’d be willing to go. Not 10 minutes later, I got another call: Suddenly, someone was interested in the apartment right now for $1,550. She’d much rather work with a referral, though, so would we be interested for $1,500. I told her I’d consult my fiance and let her know.

Curious that after more than 2 months of being vacant, there is suddenly someone interested at this very moment. We shall see…

This weekend Jen and I hope to look at some more places.

Taking a bit of a distraction break here at work, I just submitted the below owner’s story to My Subaru for possible publication:

The hauling capacity of my WRX Sport Wagon is incredible. I packed it full over the summer with an incredible amount of stuff. Take a look at the last 3 paragraphs on this page (pictures included; note the link to the “Amiral” photo – this is the fully assembled version of just ONE of the many pieces of furniture stuffed into my WRX!):

http://www.blogmasterg.com/life/archives/000066.php

I love my WRX. It meets all my needs: hauling capacity, dog carrier, AWD for cruising effortlessly up the mountain from the Bay Area to Lake Tahoe (I’m an avid skier, so my skis mount easily on the rack), handling ability like nothing else, and, of course, its tremendous speed — faster than an Audi Quattro and Camaro (both of which recently ate my dust), and just about everything else on the road.

It’s 4am and time for another ski weekend! For some reason, I’m always able to wake up at least 15 minutes before my alarm on ski days. Call me sick and twisted, but when it comes to skiing, I like being up this early. I’m due to pick up Pete in Sactown by 6:30 or so, and should be there in plenty of time.

The plan is to hit Squaw today then Alpine tomorrow, to take advantage of the $36 POWDR card day (can’t beat that).

The only bad thing about this weekend will be missing Jen and the dogs, and that it’s time to go back to (gulp) work on Monday. I’d better get the show and the road and enjoy it while I can.

I will have 50 bucks arriving in the mail in about a month. How cool is that? My Dad got a message today from the Treasure Island Marina, where back in 1999 I had wild dreams about one day having a boat and a slip. The woman wasn’t able to reach me at my old number (since it no longer exists), and luckily I had put my Dad down as a contact. She wanted to find out if I’d still be interested in being on the list.

I think the dream of boat and slip ownership will have to wait until I can actually afford it. Nearly two grand in monthly rent, car, and insurance payments alone is enough to keep me busy these days. So I asked for my deposit back. The cool thing is that I had forgotten all about it. (And she was kind enough to agree to giving it back, even though it was apparently supposed to be non-refundable.)

Hmm…what other deposits have I left for things in the past but never claimed? 50 bucks a day wouldn’t be a bad supplemental income. A new project?

Interesting…as I sit at my computer paying bills, making phone calls, planning the weekend, and the like, I have an SSH connection open to my Web server that monitors “live” the activity on my server (using the “tail -f” command on my log file). I often do this during the day at work, too, as it’s interesting to see who and what (bots) hit my site — and from whence they come. Someone just hit my site via a Google search for “gabe jen blog.” Sure enough, my Web site is about 4th or 5th in the results.

So on the results page I see an AdWords ad for bit.ch, which seems to be a pretty cool blog — or “metaboard,” as its author calls it. There are some intriguing links on the site, like this (artist eats a dead baby in a TV show), this (couple arrested because bail money smells like weed), and this (Jesus humor).

One of the many wedding-related accomplishments of the past week was the final selection of bridesmaid dresses. I’ve probably been to the bridal shop more than any other guy in history.