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My favorite xckd.

Being the only person in Silicon Valley WITHOUT a Facebook profile feels like being Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

 
A photo of me taken by my old friend Tammy in front of Canter’s Deli on Fairfax in L.A.

A letter to my son Kai, as part of a culmination project for the Mountain School.

Kai,

There is never really enough time to say everything, only moments and fragments in the soft haze of memory that allow us to make sense of it all. I write this letter at a time in my life where you [...]

Actually, I can see my car in Google Maps’ Street View (it’s the silver one on the street). I don’t live at the address listed on the screen; I’m in a cul de sac further back past those houses in the foreground. This is about three blocks from downtown Mountain View. All your house are [...]

Ralph’s World at the Filmore
You know you are getting old when your first show in years at the Filmore in San Francisco happens to be a children’s concert and you end up having an even better time than your kid. We saw Ralph Covert (of “Ralph’s World”:http://www.ralphsworld.com and the Chicago Band the Bad Examples) play [...]

_Learn to face the strain_. I’ve been busy these last few days rearranging my life and daily bread around. I moved to a location closer to downtown Mountain View on Saturday, but I’m sort of off the grid at the moment: my phoneline is not working and neither is my internet connection. So it’s been [...]

I went to Portland last weekend for Dave and Carrie’s Wedding. The city rocked a lot (wish I had more time to explore), the wedding at the AnneAmie Winery was very pretty and I had a lovely time in the process.
Carrie, Dave, Jennifer and Kai

The Band: Peter, Aaron, Laura and Eric

Adriana and Kai

Sunset over [...]

Kai reading a book.

Kai at an outdoor concert. The smudge on his forehead is lipstick.

I’m in Chicago this week and next, so not a lot of activity till I get back to Cali. By the way, for you Illinoisans, WTF is up with how expensivo the toll roads have gotten here?

If you’re trying to figure out what’s going on at the corner of “El Camino and Arastradero”:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Arastradero+Rd+%26+El+Camino+Real,+Palo+Alto,+CA+94306&t=h&om=1&ll=37.410494,-122.123315&spn=0.007891,0.021629, it’s just another “fscking development”:http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/21/RICKEYS.TMP.

Sometimes we think we can find catharsis in the simplest of things: finishing a lost book, revisiting an old place, sending a message and receiving a reply. But then the moment arrives and fades away, and the sense of calm and clarity you envision never fully materializes. You are simply as you were before, breathless [...]

Journey’s Escape still rocks 25 years later.:
The album begins with “Don’t Stop Believin,’ ” a song that just may have magical properties within its opening piano signature. Seriously, lock yourself in a room right now and listen to that keyboard part 35 times in a row. Sick of it yet? If you said yes, then [...]

One of the more interesting cultural details about living in Northern California is experiencing and “preparing for an earthquake”:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/earthquakes/archive/ready.dtl&type=printable. Experiencing one is easy: it just happens, it’s usually over before you know what it is (if you’re lucky), but it’s disconcerting as hell.
The biggest one I’ve felt and was actually aware of was a [...]

I still remember how it was to say “goodbye”:http://sotto.org/archives/2001/11/19/we_love_you_always_sweet_jack/ and even now I cannot but be moved by the thought of you closing your eyes to that larger looming world that we shared for a brief time.
But the dull longing ache that was there like a heaviness in my shoulders is gone, replaced instead [...]

I ran the this 5k race at Crissy Field in San Francisco a couple of days ago. It was absolutely beautiful weather that day: the sun was slowly going down over the outline of the Golden Gate bridge, there was a great looking crowd and it was just really fun to be there.
Unfortunately, I [...]

I waxed nostalgic after reading reviews of “Lollapalooza”:http://www.chicagoist.com/archives/2005/07/25/the_beginning_of_something_great.php in Chicago this weekend. Being sort of a veteran of the early years (1992 and 1994), it’s somewhat hard to come to grips with the idea that it’s been almost 15 years since I saw that first Lollapalooza at the World Music Theatre (at least that’s what [...]

I went camping in Big Sur with the good folks at my day job last week. About two and a half hours from Palo Alto, it’s a gorgeous 90-mile stretch of coast line that starts a little after Carmel. Forests full of gigantic redwood trees, miles of hiking trails (along with tons of poison oak) [...]