This is a crazy Mcdonalds in pasa robles. It has huge neon arches on both sides of the building. There is also this strange little guy - not Ronald McDonald. I saw the McD sign, but other than that, I had no idea it was a McD. I had to take a picture. It's kind of hard to see though. Cameraphone technology for ya.
| | | |
|
This is the best place to get a steak off Interstate 5. It's at the Buttonwillow/Bakersfield/Mojave exit. Usually I stop here for dinner as I head down into the eastern Mojave ranges for camping and BLM exploring. Skip the corn and beans. Amazingly enough they have Green Tea. And there is a Starbucks (argh, yes I know) across the street for the real espresso kick after 4 days of Farmer Brothers. (My preference is Peets, not only because I am a stockholder, but also I love the creamy goodness of their froth, but after wearing 4 day old jeans, I become less picky.)
Photo coming soon of my other favorite desert place - the Wagon Wheel in Needles!
| | | |
|
This is the first photo I uploaded from my cameraphone. It's an ok likeness of moi.
| | | |
|
I'm heading to LA to take a class in Culver City thurs night. I'm trying to get my webloging stuff going so I can blog from there... just got the cameraphone activated. Still some difficulties... Check out my yafro site for uploaded photos.
| | | |
|
And while I'm on the subject of dream jobs, I often think about how my job fits into my life. And then I wonder - do I have the life I really want? And inevitably I ask myself ....
What's my dream life?
How do I see myself living? Who do I see myself as? Who do I want to become?
I've been thinking about these questions a lot the past few months. Why don't you think about them too. I mean, what have you got to lose. It's blustery rainy outside, I can't even see the sutro tower. It's not even inviting enough for me to pop down to Cafe Claddach to get one of the best mocha's in SF (especially on the weekends).
So, think about what kind of life you want to live.
Think about the person you want to become.
And then start living today as the person you want to become.
(What would the person you want to become do?)
| | | |
|
Do you know what your dream job is? If you don't, how will you know when you find it. Write up your dream job today and start living your dream.
| | | |
|
It seems my professional skills are in high demand. I've gotten a slew of calls this week. Why is it companies are hesitant to hire someone part-time? Taking a job is like getting a new boyfriend - except you don't have as much wiggle room with the new job. It's almost more difficult to find the perfect job because you'll spend a LOT of time at it, with people you barely know. It's amazing that anything gets done in business with people's personalities, egos and objectives... let alone those that the company has.
In my few months of time off, I've been redefining my dream job. I've simplified it to an elevator pitch. Here's the current description:
- Working with/for super smart people
- Working on a fabulous product (I'm a product manager)
- Working with people that are fun and down to earth
- Working sustainably (part-time / flex-time as needed / not a 40+ hour work week)
Plaxo has a pretty good write up of characteristics, so I'll steal it from their site (thanks Rikk)
1. are extremely intelligent and analytical
2. think and act for themselves
3. have courage & experience to solve problems
4. do whatever it takes to be successful
5. find ways to make mundane tasks important
6. understand & love very fast & scalable systems
7. hate s/w & system bloat -- love lean & mean
8. prefer small teams over large, complicated orgs
9. enjoy and are good at working w/ smart people
10. can laugh at themselves
So universe out there - where's my dream job for 2004? I'll be out there looking for you - inside corporate HR departments, on job posting websites, on Craigslist (thanks Craig) and through my friends and professional colleagues.
| | | |
|
Yesterday I was driving across the Bay Bridge and I saw a black pickup with a Virginia license plate that said "EVIL ONE". I started to get excited because I have seen the same pick up/plate in VIRGINIA on my trips to AOL. It was probably along 28 near the Dulles airport. I had my camera phone with me and so I snapped a photo. I've yet to upload it (soon).
But it's that crazy fun!
I also remember seeing a license plate in the AOL parking garage that said "666" or something like that.
Wow - in Virginia. I thought all the shockers were in the Bay Area. I sure am wrong.
Here's an article about the evil one vanity plate.
| | | |
|
Marisa Monte is a fabulous brazilian singer. She is contemporary. She is AMAZING!
When I returned to the US in winter of 1995, I was so disgusted to be back in the US. I had left the place of passion. The place I loved more than any other place I had known. I had armagura na boca totalmente. My feet were in snow, when they ached sand.
But I also had Marisa Monte's Rose and Charcoal CD. That kept up my saudade. Si eu nao tenho meu amor, eu tenho minha dor. (If I don't have my love, I have my pain.)
Marisa has released more albums since 1995. Just search Amazon (click the links in my sidebar or go to Amoeba). But none of her recent albums really hit me in the chest like Rose and Charcoal - until I heard Tribalistas.
Marisa has been collaborating with Carlinhos Brown and Arnaldo Antunes on most of her albums. On Tribalistas they finally all share equal billing. This is one of the most amazing CDs I own. It's partly because of the timing - of things happening in my life and this CD.
The catchy hit song (a la Sly and the Family Stone, It's a Family Affair) is - Ja Sei Namorar. Ja sei beijar de lingua, Agora, so me resta sonhar. (I already know how to love., I already know how to tongue kiss, Now all I have left to do is dream. / Eu so de ninguem, Eu so de todo mundo, E todo mundo me quer bem, ... e todo mundo e meu tambem (I am no one's, I belong to everyone, and everyone is fond of me, .... and everyon is mine too)
I'd be having a rough day and driving around in the sunny mission or across the bay bridge and I'd listen to this CD as loud as I could and get tears stuck in my throat. Carnavalia, Passe em Casa, La de Longe - amazing songs.
Go out by these CDs. If you like Brazilian music, (or even if not) prepare to be BLOWN AWAY.
| | | |
|
I make dreams real.
It's what I do. I'm a product developer. I don't build the product. I CREATE it. I have the special ability to take a dream - a wisp of an idea - something in my (or your) mind, and bring it into this collective world we inhabit. I take skeleton ideas and add fleshy requirements, skinny limitations, sensory inputs.
I'm a product shaman. A marketing magician. And I can work for you.
I make my dreams real. And I can help you make your dreams real too.
| | | |
|
I've been listening to Brazilian music for the past few days. Inside the confines of objects - my house, my car, my mind. I travel to memories of Brazil. The beaches in Rio - Ipanema, Leblon, Copacabana. When I think of Copacabana a mix of memories. Myself sitting on the sidewalk getting picked up by a Brazilian at least 20 years my senior, Ann and Willie's stories of sleeping on the beach during the day and out all night long, Lars watching the prostitutes come out at dusk from our apartment.
Always on the day I leave the country, a last dash onto the beach into the brazilian ocean. Atlantico. To write my name in the sand to always return.
There are the other memories. The beaches in Fortaleza. All the people I met. The redwood forest mixed with tree ferns. The 48 hour bus ride from Foz do Iguacu. The moon rise at Jericoacoara. The drama of brazilian boyfriends. Suco de acerola e graviola. Muitas cervejas antes de almocar. Marisa Monte.
Brazil is a hub that connects much of my soul to others. It's a place like no other. It resides not only in the southern hemisphere, but beyond - in memories, passions, dreams, despair. My return to Iowa after living in Brazil was a blow unlike anyother. Leaving the hot vibrant Brazilian summer to return in time for Christmas snow and 90 degree below weather. My Brazilian tan hidden under layers of long underwear, sweaters and coats.
I was at Foz de Iguacu with my brother. We swam in the water falls. It was my second visit to those waterfalls. At my first visit I wanted to throw my body off the rocks into the crashing powerful water. It was the most beautiful and powerful place I had ever been. I could not imagine continue living. Somehow, some part of my will, pull me away from the water crashing over the rock and got me on that bus to Belo Horizante, where I went to the heart of pao de queijo e cafezinho.
I look outside my window. I see the twin peaks tower. I can superimpose my memory of Pao de Asucar on it. And in front of me where the outer mission sprawls, I see the wavy lines of the copacabana sidewalk and the slight waves lapping. I see the barracas and know the waiters before are waiting with cafe con leite (sem leite for Clint).
I'll put on my bikini and some shorts and walk over to Ipanema. Rent a chair on the beach and start reading Pattern Recogonition - the most recent Barbarino borrowed book.
Yes, I think I'll do that today.
| | | |
|
When I was at the blogger dinner I met Mary who is into orange as much as me. Cool. We were talking about how great the Italians do orange and I was saying that it would be great to have orange italian shoes and boom - she has some. Oh my god. She's so cool. Someone else who is totally into Orange too. It's too bad I'm getting more and more into red these days....
| | | |
|
Wednesday night I went dinner with the blogger illuminati. I'm new to this blogging thing (and addicted to it too) and it was great to speak to so many knowledgable people. JD, whom I met at the conference did a great job collecting names and blogs, so I'll just post to his excellent description.
| | | |
|
I am addicted to this great morning drink. Try it. (NOTE: I adjusted quantities when I actually measured this morning.)
1 cup water
1 cup coffee (or use water if you just want chocolate)
6 heaping teaspoons (not a measuring spoon, just your small spoon in the drawer) or UNSWEETENED chocolate powder (like Droste - the richer the better, but Hershey's baking chocolate will work).
3 heaping spoonfuls of honey
Vanilla to taste.
Half/half, cream or milk product of choice
Throw it all into a pot on the stove. Wisk with a wire wisk until frothy. Add the drop of vanilla at the end. Pour into your cup and add your milk product of choice. You may want to adjust the chocolate and honey levels to your taste.
For those who are used to milky, frothy chocolate drinks this may seem a little weak. But I like it because it is fast, chocolatey and not too thick. It's an original de Carson!
| | | |
|
Up in the morning. Drinking the coffee-chocolate and updating the blog. I've been playing with the features of Typepad. Several of my friends have blogs on various systems - including MV on their own servers. I'm kind of thinking about doing that - but it's so easy to use typepad. I used to do HTML coding and soft SW Web Engineering work to "prove" that I am tech savvy enough. Well I understand the code and writing it - enough to get into serious discussion with super smart engineers (all you iAmaze folks ;) ). But frankly, there are other things I'd rather do than install code to my web servers - like for example, ride my motorcycle on this beautiful day. Actually I have to get it started first. Argh.
Today I've made some changes to my blog. I've added a Friends on the Web list. I started by adding a couple friends - and then boom - it exploded. If you're a friend and want me to add you to my list, send me your URL.
I got a cameraphone yesterday, so I plan to play with it a lot more. Gotta activate it today for this blogging dinner tonight. Photo, audio and media blogging beware. Heather will soon enter that realm. All for now.
| | | |
|
What do you want?
It's a question we always ask ourselves. But do we know? Last year I got what I wanted. I achieved all the goals I had set out to accomplish - well more or less. Before I was 30. I accomplished the goals and now what? Am I satisfied with the accomplishment? For a while yes, but that while ran out. And other interests came to the forefront.
So now, what do I want? That's what I've been figuring out. The last few months have been a reconfiguring of Heather. Check off amazing marriage with an amazing person, the half million house in Berkeley, keeping it real in the face of a highly political corporate environment, making huge strides in personal and spiritual development. All that's left it to keep on building upon these foundations. Well, what I want isn't necessarily built upon those foundations. They are not just foundations, they are edifices in their own right, and some that many people never build. Mine live in past. In my memory. I am not tearing down the edifices - that would take far too much work, besides I made them all with the core of my strength. What I build cannot be destroyed so easily. But, I can unravel myself from them. And in doing so, I must tie up lose ends. I am unraveling. I am leaving who I am, yet pulling out every bit of myself from these edifices. It is the test - can they stand without the heathervescenthread? My thread is there, but it is no longer me.
The thread is spinning into some new style - to be woven into a new life - to create new edifices - which one day I will unravel again from. The additional awareness this time, is that as I create these new edifices and make my dreams real, I have the utter knowledge that I will again extract myself from what I build. The cage could be bigger, but I will grow, the cage could be modifable, but I will change in ways the cage may not. And then there is always the cage we all have: our human form. And eventually we break free of that cage and unravel ourselves from this life. Knowing all this, I put every effort into unraveling myself from my realized dreams of the past and manifesting my dreams of the future. This is work done in the present. Done every day. In every interaction.
| | | |
|
I'm not usually into shopping, however a couple times a year I get inspired. I've recently really gotten into the color red. It's been a gradual progression from my fixation on bright orange the past 4 years (from Brown and then Navy with Grey and Black thrown in for good measure). But red, what a vibrant living color. The color of our blood. Lips, strawberries, pink flesh.
It's a color I shied away from for a long time for various reasons. So here I am now, exploring the color Red.
Since I have been back from the desert, I've been looking at furniture. A red chair, red lamp, red pillows, looking at a red couch. Red lightbulbs. It's becoming very warm in here and I really like it. I'm going to be into this red color for a while.
| | | |
|
I'm in need of a coffee boost after driving most of the day through the desert. I'm in Joshua Tree right now. I really wish I had one of those cameraphones so I could take photos and upload them. As well as sound clips. I have seen and learned some amazing things today.
I'm driving down the 10 - east - I'm going to enter Joshua Tree through the south. I'm buzzing along, listening to Jameriquoi and all of a sudden I notice a silver mercedes tracking me on the left. I look over and it is this guy checking me out. He tracks me for a while, until I exit for the first JH exit - not what I planned to do, but what the hell. I detour to Desert Hot Springs where I stop in a strange little thrift store called Gypsy. The woman at the counter, a huge ministry fan, tells me about the William Burroughs theme Hotel, called The Beat, in town. I leave to try to find it, with no luck. Instead I have the opportunity to drive through Windmill country.
Have you ever seen the windmills they use for energy? Well today I drove up close to them and they are really big! Very cool to see.
Finally, I get into Joshua Tree. The southern part of the park could be considered borning next to the northern parts, but still I enjoyed spacing out and looking at the scenery.
Then, it's the big rocks, and Joshua Trees. I was getting tired, so I stopped and took a quick catnap on some rocks. It's about 3:30 and my nap was short in human time, but other things happened while I rested on those rocks. Dreams beyond dreams.
Cutting the curves of the pavement, I drive out of the park and am greeted by one of Mr Horns, horns. Over Christmas, I went camping with Carson in the Mojave. We didn't really prepare that much for the trip and were rained on, it was cold and generally not that fun of a time. As we were leaving the BLM land on Christmas Day, we both saw this tall horned jaunty stanced character in the road shadows. The shadows were flat, but the character was dimensional (maybe not of human dimension????) So, this long slender stick catches my eye as I'm leaving the park, and I'm reminded of the character. So I stop and collect it. Shortly afterwards, I noticed a coyote along the road. I stopped to watch and saw a second coyote carrying some carion in it's mouth.
And now I'm here. In the Beatnik Cafe in Joshua Tree. Beatnik link: http://www.jtbeat.com/
Thanks Beatnik cafe for the mocha warm-up and a chance to update my weblog. I can tell that I'm going to get totally addicted. I'm also going to order a cameraphone as soon as I'm back in SF - which if I fly like the Raven I am, will be in the wee hours of tonight.
| | | |
|
I woke up to the sound of crows cawing this morning. The sun was bright. It was in contrast with the beautiful cool moon of last night. It's been great traveling. I love being on the road.
I've been spending the morning with my Aunt talking Real Estate. There are so many opportunities, it's amazing. I've been thinking about entering the real estate market for a while (as an agent, I'm already an owner). So as I spend time driving today, I'll think about it.
| | | |
|
For the past few days I've been touring southern california. We're not strangers to each other, as I travel most frequently here. This trip has been a couple days in Anaheim for a conference (but not Disneyland) and I stayed at one of my favorite hotels - The Alpine Inn. The rooms are nothing special. I am drawn to the fake snow that is always on the roof and eaves of it. It's totally Disneyland kitsch from way back way back.
After being enlightened, it's further south to visit family. I was driving around Oceanside, a town I have visited for over 20 years. This past trip I was meandering parts of town I had never seen or explored. I caught a great sunset a the beach. I've been going to this beach since I was... 7 I think. I watched the waves and walked in the sand and saw the golden globe that gives us life sink into the blue. There was a family having a picnic with a fire. I was jealous because I have always wanted to have a beach fire out there and never have. I decided that next time I visit, I will do a beach picnic with a fire into the night. The sky turned golden orange and then deeper as time passed. The palm trees were etched in shades of night.
Today I drove up the 15 - inland. I saw the exit for 395. It reminded me of the time I spent most of my day driving up 395 from Four Corners Junction, just outside of Barstow, on my motorcycle. What a hot, dusty, windy road. Beautiful and exhilirating.
I love the rocky landscape. Large hills (are they considered mountains?) filled with scrub and boulders. I am reminded of the Mojave. The rock piles of Joshua Tree. I'm headed east before north tomorrow. I can feel the pull of the desert. I am so close. I keep to 15 and shy from 215 and traffic. I see the river with it's eddies and swirls and a stand of black barked trees. I wonder how the landscape will look when the water dries up. I enter horse country.
Tomorrow, I'm planning on spending a lot of time in the car. I want to make "good time" and reach San Francisco tomorrow night. I don't know if I will. The desert calls so strongly that I will detour to Joshua Tree. I'll probably do the south entrance and then jump on up to Joshua Tree and skirt along Lucerne Valley. I know these roads and love them. The car will be screaming to go into 4wd - but I didn't plan off roading this trip. Well, lack of planning didn't stop me last time.
I'll get into the desert, and then see what happens.
| | | |
|
My friend Eric Ly has been working for this company, LinkedIN. It's another one of these business networking sites. I've been a member of it for a while, but have really gone crazy in the past few days. It's been great finding lots of friends who are already on it.
I'm also a member of Ryze, Friendster, orkut, LinkedIn and Yafro. Click the links to see my pages on each of those sites.
| | | |
|
So, this product that I worked on at AOL for years (yes years) final launched today. It's called Account Linking or Screen Name Linking. I left AOL back in November of my own accord, however it's because of me that this product got built. It was a big challenge, exciting and the reward is that it is launched now. Read the product review article here. Download the beta on the AIM.com website here.
Thanks and props to my old teams at AOL: Jamie, Barbara, Mike, Chris, David, Alexis and those not mentioned here. You guys rock and I wish I was back in Dulles so we could grab a beer at Old Dominion or dinner at Sweetwater. Soon though.
| | | |
|
It's been a day of driving around. I was in the south bay for a job interview. There are some interesting opportunities out there. The right one will turn up and I'm not worried about taking my time.
It was great to be back on 280 driving in the sun, listening to music and speeding. It's funny to remember that I used to spend more than 2 hours a day in the car driving. These days, I spend more than 2 hours at the gym.
Met up with my pal Mike Barbarino and we exchanged more books. Expiration Date for Marriage of Sticks. Lunch at Cafe Barrone. It's a favorite.
| | | |
|
This is my first blog post using movable type. I've been wanting to start a weblog for a while now.
It's an overcast day in San Francisco and I'm about to go to a yoga class I find very interesting. It's taught by Baxter Bell at Berkeley Ironworks, where I rock climb.
As a stick in time, yesterday I did 8 climbs ranging from a 10a to 11c. I really love the stemming techniques. Check out rock climbing in the Bay Area from Touchstone gyms.
| | | |
|
