Yep, it’s one of those “I haven’t been blogging” posts. I like to think of them as the blog equivalent of the sitcom “clip show”. Remember when….

• Over on the Dilbert Blog, Scott Adams blogged about a comic called Basic Instructions. I’ve really been enjoying go back through the archives. Some of my favorites include How to write a self-evaluation, How to explain a plan, How to use the universal comeback, How to create and wear a memorable Halloween costume, and How to pitch a movie idea.
• The new Matt Nathanson album Some Mad Hope came out yesterday (well, today, but yesterday is when my preorder arrived), and it is just fantastic. It has been in constant rotation ever since I opened it.
• I also bought Bubba Ho-Tep (Hail to the King Edition) from Best Buy. I love that movie ("They dyed me this color!"), and the packaging is excellent. The DVD box has a sleeve that looks like the Elvis shirt in the movie. Also, there’s a commentary of “The King” himself (Bruce Campbell does it in character). Fantastic.
• The new job is going great. I checked in my first files, which is always an exciting milestone. Also, my Mac is so very sexy. We have a fully-functioning development environment set up, so I can work even without internet access. Very nice.
• While working on this blog entry, I won $40-something playing online poker. I would have been more, but I let my focus slip while making some of the above links and made a dumb play. Still, it’s nice to be reminded that I’m okay at poker when I’m running bad and not playing as much.
• Of course, none of these things even hold a candle to Peru. Rachel and I leave in about 16 1/2 days for our 18 day trip. We’re both a little crazed with final plans and shopping and such things, but it’s shaping up to be the experience of a lifetime. If you want a postcard, make sure I have your address before I leave!

Jason has tagged me with this, and I can never resist a good tagging, so I thought I’d play. Some of you probably know some of these, but I don’t know if most of you know all of them. Not that they are especially secretive, as this ended up more of “8 facts that define me” than “8 things you didn’t know”. The result of rambling while so tired, I guess. And away we go:

1. I have a tattoo on my right upper arm that says “Winter Pays For Summer” in a Celtic font (picture here In addition to being the title of the Glen Phillips album containing the song, the phrase comes from the song “Duck and Cover”. The line is “One way or another / Winter pays for the summer / Won’t get what you wanted / What you got’ll be good” (full lyrics here). It very much reflected what I had learned in 2005 about the unexpected nature of change, but that good can come of just about anything.
2. Related to my tattoo, I do my best to not regret in life. I will make mistakes and/or be the victim of unfortunate circumstances, but I can’t find a single decision in my life where the weight of the negative repercussions can even begin to approach the positives. This sounds very strange when I type it, but it has served me well.
3. When I was in high school, I formed a rogue organization to revolt against the dictatorship of the computer club. We were called P.R.O.Z.A.C., which was the People’s Resistance to Over-Zealous Andy Chow. We were quite an eclectic cast of characters and had our ultimate victory when I was elected president of the computer club when Andy graduated. I ran on a platform of “I don’t like Andy Chow.” I was removed as president by the adviser a few days later (who though my platform was a cause for concern).
4. I have had two knee surgeries, and have the ACL from a cadaver in my left knee. I like to think this makes me “undead”, even if only in a small percentage.
5. I want to spend at least one year of my life living somewhere that has 4 distinct seasons. I have yet to work out the logistics given that the bay area is where all the jobs are, as well as most of my people, but some day I’ll figure out a way to make it work.
6. I am what Butch Walker called "slow-convert pescatarian" (vegetarian + fish). Originally, the decision was for health reasons after reading The China Study and Eat to Live. I’m starting to come around on the moral aspects of it as time has gone on. I just wasn’t ready to process that at the time, but now it’s starting to sink in. I remember when I couldn’t imagine a day without meat, and now I don’t miss it. Even fish is something I eat less and less.
7. I plan to name my first son Raisin so that his nickname can be “The Roof” (Raisin “The Roof” Kujala) and my first daughter will be named after Meadowlark Lemon, my favorite Harlem Globetrotter. (Okay, so this one isn’t true, but who actually thought I could go this long without making one up?).
8. I’m leaving Yahoo! on Friday. (Look how sneaky I am, combining two blog entries into one!) I’ve accepted a job with Shipwire and start next Monday. It’s a very small company, which is something I’m excited about after being at a big company for the past two years. I’ll be working on the frontend of the site and will be reporting into Evan, my manager for my first year at Yahoo! I am sad to leave the Autos team behind, but I am excited about my next adventure.

Those who I wish to tag next: Rachel, Steph, and Katie

Occasionally, I get a spam comment, and I’m reminded I have one of these.

So what’s new? First, the trip to San Diego with Rachel was really great. Highlights include:

• I got to see Pure Yellow Colour not once, but twice, including a fantastic rendition of the St. Urho’s Day song that I requested be written, which also featured Josh on the toy accordion and Rachel, Robyn, and me on percussion. We rocked. Not as much as Pure Yel and Low Colour, but that’s not surprising.
• The conference’s opening night party was on the USS Midway, a decommissioned aircraft carrier in the San Diego harbor. There was food from the areas around the Midway’s old ports of call (Asia, Mediterranean Sea, and San Diego), and we were able to find a decent amount of veggie options, plus a far more extensive collection of desserts. When I was living in San Diego, I hadn’t been aware of the Midway’s existence, so it was a fun surprise.
• Conference amenities at the Hyatt were awesome. And not just because they were free (but of course that helped). The food was yummy. There was a bit of a problem with the staff not knowing the vegetarianity (shut up, that’s totally a word!) of the salad dressing and otherwise not recognizing our little vegetarian cards as meaning “don’t give us meat”, but otherwise the vegetarian entrees were great. It wasn’t just the meat dishes without the meat. Mmm, it makes me hungry just to think about it all. It also made for some interesting table conversation with the meat-eaters, ranging from looks of panic that came when they thought they’d have to eat what we were eating to people who had dated or been married to vegetarians in the past.
• Mmmm, yummy dining out. We had a fantastic dinner at Spread, who call their food “nouveau comfort food” (and don’t you dare ask me to explain “nouveau” to you). It’s all vegetarian/vegan food, made with fresh ingredients found at local farmer’s markets. We had a Thai pizza, vegetarian tacos, and yellow curry oatmeal. All delicious, but that oatmeal was just amazingly good. Mmmmm. Spread is known for their peanut butters (they have 100+ varieties), so the dessert was a chocolate peanut butter with fruit and bread to dip. And they have a bubble chair. San Diego people who are not afraid of non-standard foods, you must eat there. Which may have just ruled out anyone who might read this. Sad. We also went to Pokez, which has some cheap and tasty vegetarian Mexican food, and Royal India, which made us one of the few people eating Indian food on St. Patrick’s Day. Rachel is a pro at finding good places to eat.
• We also got to see a bunch of people who I hadn’t seen in a while (or, in the case of Sean, who I hadn’t seen in a while when I made the plans, but then saw two days before I left for San Diego), which is always fun.
• Pictures!

As for what else has been going on, I’ll tell you later, since this has been half-written for way too long. See, Kathy? An update.

Comings: Steph and Rachel came to play this weekend. I’m still too tired to elaborate on the details, but it was a fantastically fun weekend. We made some adventurous sushi, including PBJB sushi (peanut butter, blackberry preserves, and banana), and sushiritto (refried beans, raw onion, cilantro, and olives, then topped with a dollop of salsa and a leaf of cilantro). We went to Haight-Ashbury and shopped, and I think we all ended up with something we were excited about. Mine was the L.E.O. album I’ve been meaning to buy for a while, as well as the copy of the Pernice Brothers‘ “Yours, Mine, & Ours” which I have been listening to obsessively on Yahoo! Music and can now use to convert other people to the band, and also a couple of other CDs that I can’t remember right now. Thus is the curse of Amoeba, where I buy more than I can listen to immediately. All in all, an excellent weekend. 17 more days until Rachel and I invade San Diego. Mwahaha.

Goings: After it being a hypothetical plan for over a year, Rachel and I are making our Peru trip a reality. She and I both have the clearance for the vacation time. We’ve narrowed down which volunteer program we are interested in. We have a rough timeline of what we want to do while we’re there. Que excitante

Because I enjoy messing with Penn Jillette (and because I try to do whatever Rachel does).

A bunch of things, since I’ve been forgetting to post lately:

• Vance Degeneres has joined Cowboy Mouth to replace the recently-departed Paul Sanchez. It sounds like the Mouth will be in California early next year. It’s been far too long since I’ve seen them, so I’m excited.
• Exercise last week was a complete success. So far, I’m also on track for this week. I’m contemplating training for either a marathon or a half-marathon. My joints and I need to have a long talk about whether or not it’s worth it.
• Yahoo! has announced a big reorganization. I don’t know much more than what’s in the press. I’m sure Valleywag knows more than I do (or at least thinks they do).
• So far, my holiday time has been booked with spending time with Allison’s family, running to the airport to meet Ashlee during her layover on Christmas Eve, then heading to Minneapolis for New Year’s. If anyone else wants to see me, book your time now. I’ve a very busy guy.
• Recent music purchases of Brian Vander Ark, Paul Sanchez, Pete Droge, and Minibar have all been pleasing on the ears.

This was written on the plane, but I just now got it off of my Treo, so the tense may be a bit off. Deal with it.

Another visit to Rachel and Minnesota come and gone. Too quick, as always. We did manage to pack it full of cooking, eating, concerts, a dancing toddler, furniture shopping, exercise at the gym across the street, Peru planning, and great conversation, so I have a hard time complaining too much.
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“Do not use Jesus as an excuse to be a packrat.” - Rachel

Wait, baby, stop yelling. I haven’t been seeing another blog, I swear! No, I’m not using my LiveJournal or MySpace. I haven’t even posted that much on MoreCooler! You know you’re the only one for me. Hey hey, put down that frying pan. Let’s talk about this. I promise I’ll come see you more. Once a week? Okay, I can do that. No, really, I can. Give me a chance. Okay, let me explain where I’ve been for the last couple of months.

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So I know I haven’t been updating much lately. And I feel bad. No, really, I do. Sure, not bad enough to do anything about it, but when I’m not sitting here writing for both of you to read, I’m feeling guilt. Despite that, I have found a scapegoat. Rachel. Now, hear me out. We send many an e-mail, and they’re quite detailed. This post is not an exaggeration of how specific our daily recaps are. It’s actually a bit of an understatement. So once I’ve told every mind-numbing detail of the last 2 hours of my day to Rachel, it seems wasteful to come over here and post the same details. I contemplate just cut and pasting from my e-mails to Rachel, but the archives of this site will make it apparent that I rarely do that. So what have I been up to? Well, let’s see.

• Work- Things have been busy. Our first partner, CamaroZ28.com has starting using our vBulletin-based event calendar plug-in. We spent a lot of time (and headaches) getting this working, and I’ve learned far more about the inner workings of VB than I ever wanted to. It’s really exciting to see it live, and I’m looking forward to seeing the new features rolled out soon on this and other sites. Also, I’m going to be working on another Autos project starting mid-September for a few weeks. It’ll be fun to get back to building new pages for a change after working in more of a maintenance mode lately.
• Travel- Earlier this month, Allison and I flew back east to her family reunion. So on top of meeting the parents, I met about 20 other people as well. I’m proud to say I even know who at least 40% of them are. There were kids to play with, which was fun. We also did the ever-popular Mentos and Diet Coke experiment, which led to my YouTube debut (more of a cameo, but I’ll take what I can get). I think they liked me, or at least pretended to. Allison says that, much like Kix cereal, I’m “kid tested, mother approved”.
• Poker- I’ve taken a liking to the game over the last few months (based on our weekly game after work) and have started playing regularly on UltimateBet.com because they had the best new player bonus (I’m MaskdAvenger on there, if you want to come play with me). I’m about even, but have seen some improvement in my playing lately. I still do stupid things, but it’s all in the name of learning.
• Other stuff- Yahoo! company picnic, where I won a stuffed monkey. AppSig company picnic at the Santa Cruz boardwalk, where I ate horribly unhealthy food and went on rides. Helping Allison move, which could easily be confused with “Sitting on her couch using her laptop to write this post” to the untrained eye.

I think that’s the highlights. Now I’m just killing time till it’s time to pick up Rachel from the airport. I’m sure she’ll come defend herself before the 48-hour statute of limitations on “defending your honor on the Internet” ends. Otherwise my accusation of responsibility becomes fact. At least that’s how it works on The O’Reilly Factor.