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Going to the theater

Friday, Jan 8th, 2016 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

I typically don’t spend a lot of time in theaters, for either movies or plays. Aside from some obvious exceptions, I’m not a big movie person.

This was turned on its head over the past month, with a total of five visits to theaters in the past month!

It began quietly, when I had a friend in town and she suggested we make our way over to The Castro Theatre to see The Nightmare Before Christmas. We’d both seen it dozens (hundreds?) of times, but it’s a favorite and I adore that theater. It’s an older theater with substantial adornments throughout. They regularly have an organist playing as you are getting settled into your seats along with slides of upcoming events. A much more relaxing and entertaining experience for me than a giant screen with a series of loud of commercials. The theater also sells snacks and drinks (alcoholic and otherwise) that you can take to your seats. The movie itself was full of the usual charm, even if the copy they had was older and had a few instances of skipping where the film had probably torn or otherwise been degraded. We took the streetcar home, rounding off a wonderful evening.

The next theater was the A.C.T.’s Geary Theater. This is where MJ and I saw Between Riverside and Crazy a few months back, the first play I’d seen in San Francisco! Since it was close to the holidays they were playing A Christmas Carol and we picked up tickets for the high balcony seats. Another one of the old style theaters that is intricately ornamented, I love simply being in that space. Staring up at the decorated ceiling, inspecting the private boxes. I had never seen A Christmas Carol live before, and in spite of it not being a holiday I celebrate these days, it’s still a story I love. They did a beautiful job with it, I loved their interpretation of the various spirits! And there was no getting around falling in love with the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge.

Then there was Star Wars: The Force Awakens! MJ managed to get us tickets for opening night down in Mountain View with several of his colleagues. I may have dressed up.

And gotten a commemorative cup.

It was at a Cinemark (no beautiful theater to look at), but the theater did have big reclining seats. It was also the 2D version of the movie, which I much preferred for the first time seeing it. The movie pulled all the right nostalgic heart strings. I laughed, I cried (more than once) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A few days later I made my way over to the Sundance Kabuki theater to see it again, this time in 3D in their eat in theater! We got there early to have dinner up on their balcony next to the theater. From there we picked up our 3D classes and settled in to the big, comfy reserved seats. And I didn’t partake, but they did have a series of amusing cocktails to celebrate the release.

Next I’ll have to see it 3D in the IMAX!

And then there was last night. I made my way over to The Castro Theatre yet again, this time to see a live Rifftrax performance to kick off SF Sketchfest. I’d gone to one of these back in 2013 as well, so it was a real treat to yet again see Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett and Michael J. Nelson joined by Mary Jo Pehl, Adam Savage and others to riff on a series of old shorts films. The theater was packed for this event, and so my friend Steve and I tried our luck up on the balcony, which I barely knew existed and had never been to. It was a brilliant decision, the balcony was really nice and gave us a great view of the show.

As I try to be less of a hermit while MJ is out of town next week, I’m hoping to see another proper in theater movie with a local friend soon. I hardly know myself!

Filed under: events, san francisco

Celebrating the 1915 World’s Fair in SF, the PPIE

Sunday, Jan 3rd, 2016 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

I’ve been fascinated with the World’s Fair ever since learning about them as a kid. The extravagance, the collections of art and innovation, the thrill of being part of something that was so widely publicized worldwide and the various monuments left over when the fairs concluded. As I learned about past fairs I was always disappointed that I had missed their heyday, and struggled to understand why their time had passed. The fairs still happen now called Expositions and 2015 marked one in Milan, but unless you’re local or otherwise look for them, you typically won’t know about them. Indeed, most people don’t realize they still exist. No longer does the media descend upon them for a flourish of publicity. The great companies, artists, innovators, cities and countries of our ages no longer make grand investments in showing off their best over acres of temporary, but beautiful, pop up cities.

In 2015 I learned a lot more about the fairs and how times have changed as San Francisco celebrated the centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) of 1915. As I spent the year reading about the fair and walking through various exhibits around the city, all the things I knew about 1915 became so much more real. The first trans-continental telephone call from New York to San Francisco was made just prior to the fair opening. Planes were still quite new and it was common for these early pilots to die while operating them (aviation pioneer Lincoln J. Beachey actually died at the PPIE). Communication and travel that I take for granted simply didn’t exist. When I reflect on the “need” for a World’s Fair, I realized the major ones took place during a special time of intense innovation and cultural exchange but where we didn’t yet have a good way of sharing these things yet. The World’s Fair provided that space, and people would pay to see it.

I began my learning when MJ bought me Laura Ackley’s San Francisco’s Jewel City: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. I read it cover to cover over a couple months, providing a nice foundation for exhibits I visited as the year went on. The first was the “Fair, Please” exhibit at the SF Railway Museum. The museum talks about the exhibit in their 1915 Fair Celebration blog post, which also links to a 2005 article that gets into more depth about how transit handled the increased ridership and new routes that the PPIE caused. I enjoyed the exhibit, though it was quite small (the museum and gift shop itself is only a single, large room). While I was at that exhibit I also picked up a copy of the Bay Area Electric Railroad Association Journal from spring 2007 that had a 25 page article by Grant Ute about transit and the PPIE. Predictably that was my next pile of reading.

Back in September I attended a panel about transit and the PPIE, which Grant Ute was a part of along with other transit representatives and historians who spoke about the fair and touched upon the future of transit as well. I wrote about it in a post here, excerpt:

I spent the evening at the California Historical Society, which is just a block or so away from where we live. They were hosting a lecture on City Rising for the 21st Century: San Francisco Public Transit 1915, now, tomorrow.

The talk [by Grant Ute] and panel were thoroughly enjoyable. Once the panel moved on from progress and changes made and made possible by transit changes surrounding the PPIE, topics ranged from the removal of (or refusal to build) elevated highways in San Francisco and how it’s created a beautiful transit and walk-friendly city, policies around the promotion of public transit and how funding has changed over the years.

In October I bought the book Jewel City: Art from San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition in preparation for an exhibit at the De Young museum of the same name: Jewel City: Art from San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition. It’s a beautiful book, and while I didn’t read it cover to cover like Laura Ackley’s, browsing through it at my own pace and focusing on parts I was most interested in was enjoyable. In early November we made it out to the exhibit at the de Young Museum.

From the Exhibit website:

To mark this anniversary, Jewel City revisits this vital moment in the inauguration of San Francisco as the West Coast’s cultural epicenter. The landmark exhibition at the de Young reassembles more than 200 works by major American and European artists, most of which were on display at this defining event.

No photos were allowed inside the exhibit, but it was a wonderful collection. As someone who is not very into modern or abstract art, it was nice to see a collection from 1915 where only a tiny sampling of these types were represented. There was a lot of impressionism (my favorite), as well as many portraits and a small corner that showed off some photos, which at the time were working to gain acceptance as art. The gift shop gave me the opportunity to pick up a beautiful silk scarf that has a drawn aerial view of the fair grounds.

In December I had to squeeze in a bunch of exhibits! On December 1st the Palace of Fine Arts’ Innovation Hanger opened their own exhibit, City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair. The first time I visited the Palace of Fine Arts I didn’t quite realize what it was. What is now Innovation Hanger used to house the Exploritorum and was the only indoor space in the area. The Palace of Fine Arts was otherwise an outdoor space, colonnades around a beautiful pond, culminating in a huge domed structure. Where were the fine arts? It turns out, this was an on-site re-creation of the Palace of Fine Arts from the PPIE! The art for the fair had been featured in galleries throughout the also reconstructed old Exploritorium/Innovation Hanger. As we entered the exhibit it was nice to think about how we were walking through the same place that so many pieces of art had been featured during the fair.

The exhibit took up a section of the massive space, a bit dwarfed by the high ceilings but managed to make a bit of a cozy corner to enjoy it. A few artifacts, including big ones like a Model T (an on-site Ford factory producing them was a popular attraction at the fair) were on display. They also had a big map of the fair grounds, with the Palace of Fine Arts show raised as the only remaining building on site. Various sections of the exhibit talked about different areas of the fair, and also different phases, from planning to events at the fair itself to the much later formal reconstruction of the Palace of Fine Arts. I picked up the book Panorama: Tales From San Francisco’s 1915 Pan-Pacific International Exposition, which is next in my reading pile.

MJ’s cousins were in town, so it was also a nice opportunity to take a peaceful walk through the grounds of the Palace of Fine Arts. It’s a beautifully stunning place, regardless of what you know if it’s history.

More photos from the exhibit at the Palace of Fine Arts here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleia2/albums/72157660512348743

A couple days later we went to the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. They opened their own PPIE exhibit, Garden Railway: 1915 Pan-Pacific in November. Flowers, trains and the PPIE? I’m so there! Their exhibit room isn’t very large, but they did have a lovely recreation of part of the joy zone, the Palace of Fine Arts and, of course, the Palace of Horticulture.

From their website:

In an enchanting display landscaped with hundreds of dwarf plants and several water features, model trains wend their way through the festive fairgrounds, zipping past whimsical recreations of the fair’s most dazzling monuments and amusements, including the Tower of Jewels, Palace of Fine Arts, and more. Interpretive signs, memorabilia and interactive activities throughout help visitors to understand the colorful history of the grand fair that signaled San Francisco’s recovery from the 1906 earthquake.

Model trains are fun, so the movement they brought to the exhibit was enjoyable.

The center of the exhibit featured a recreation of the Tower of Jewels.

More photos from the Conservatory of Flowers and their PPIE exhibit here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleia2/albums/72157662883839265

On January 31st MJ and I went to the closest of PPIE exhibits, at the California History Museum which is just a block from home. The museum was colorfully painted and you walked through 3 separate rooms, plus a section at the entrance and a large main area to explore.

I’d say this was the most comprehensive visit with regard to history of the PPIE and artifacts. I really enjoyed seeing various kinds of keepsakes that were given away at the fair, including various pamphlets put out by countries, companies and the fair itself. Collectors items of all kinds, from picture books to spoons and watches were bought by fair goers. At the end of the fair they even sold the Novagems that covered the Tower of Jewels, many in commemorative boxes with certificates of authenticity.

They also had a massive scale model of the main areas of the fair grounds. Produced in around 1938 for the Golden Gate International Exposition on nearby Treasure Island, it was brought out of storage for us to enjoy in this exhibit. It’s really nice that it’s been so well preserved!

More photos from the California History Museum exhibit here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleia2/albums/72157662962920716

As the year concluded I am even more in love with these old World’s Fairs than I ever was. As such, I’m still sad that I missed them, but I have a new found appreciation for our lives today and the opportunities we have. In 2015 I visited 3 continents, spent my days working in real time with people all over the world and had immediate access to the latest news in the palm of my hand. None of this was possible for someone of my means 100 years ago. As much as I think it would be a wonderful and fascinating experience, it turns out that I don’t actually need a World’s Fair to expose me to the world and technology outside my home town.

Filed under: events, reflection, san francisco

The adventures of 2015

Friday, Jan 1st, 2016 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

I wasn’t sure what to expect from 2015. Life circumstances meant that I wanted to travel a bit less, which meant being more selective about the conferences I would speak at. At the same time, some amazing opportunities for conferences came up that I couldn’t bring myself to turn down. Meeting new people, visiting countries very foreign to me, plus a new continent (South America!), there was much to be excited about this year! Work has gone exceptionally well. I hit some major milestones with my career, particularly with regards to my technical level, all thanks to support from those around me, dedication to some important projects and hard work on the day to day stuff.

There were also struggles this year. Early in the year I learned of the passing of a friend and local open source advocate. MJ and I navigated our way through the frailness and loss of a couple family members. I was forced to pause, reflect upon and ultimately step away from some of my open source involvement as it was causing me incredible emotional pain and stress. I also learned a lot about my work habits and what it takes to put out a solid technical book. The book continues to be a real struggle, but I am thankful for support from those around me.

I’ve been diligent in continuing to enjoy this beautiful city we live in. We went on a streetcar tour, MJ took me to a Star Wars Giants game for my birthday and we went to various Panama-Pacific International Exhibit commemorative events. I finally made it down the bay to the Winchester House and to see a 49ers game. As friends and family come into town, I jumped at every opportunity to explore the new and familiar. I also spoke at a few local conferences and events which I wrote about: San Francisco Ubuntu Global Jam, Elastic{ON} 2015, Puppet Camp San Francisco 2015 and an OpenStack Meetup.


Enjoying San Francisco with a special tour on the Blackpool Boat Tram

At the Bay Bridge with visiting friend Crissi

Star Wars day at AT&T Park

At a 49ers game with visiting friend Danita

Visiting one of several PPIE15 exhibits

Health-wise, I had to go in for several diagnostic tests post-gallbladder to see why some of my liver levels are off. After a bit of stress, it all looks ok, but I do need to exercise on a more regular basis. The beautiful blue sky beckons me to make a return to running, so I plan on doing that while incorporating things I learned with the trainer I worked with this past year. We’ve also been tracking Simcoe’s health with her renal failure, it’s been 4 years since her diagnosis and while her health isn’t what it was, our little Siamese continuing to hang in there.

And then there was all my travel!


Manneken Pis in Brussels, Belgium

In front of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat, Oman

Beautiful views from the OpenStack Summit in Vancouver, Canada

With MJ in obligatory tourist photo at Machu Picchu, Peru

Kinkaku-ji (golden temple), Kyoto, Japan

Space Shuttle Discovery near Washington D.C.

I didn’t give as many talks as I did in 2014, but I felt I took a stronger aim at quality this year. Speaking at conferences like FOSSC Oman and Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing exposed me to some amazing, diverse audiences that led to some fantastic conversations after my talks. Exploring new places and meeting people who enrich my life and technical expertise are why I do all of this, so it was important that I found so much value in both this year.


Speaking at FOSSC Oman in Muscat

As I kick off 2016, my book is front and center. I have an amazing contributing author working with me. A Rough Cuts version went up on Safari at the end of 2015 and I’ve launched the book website. As I push through final technical challenges I’m hopeful that the pieces will soon fall into place so I can push through to completion.

Most of all, as I reflect upon 2015, I see a lot of cheer and sorrow. High highs and low lows. I’m aiming at a more balanced 2016.

Filed under: EOY, life, reflection

Simcoe’s November 2015 Hospital Checkup

Sunday, Dec 27th, 2015 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

It’s been quite a season for Simcoe. I mentioned back in September that the scabbing around her eyes had healed up, but unfortunately it keeps coming back. The other day we also noticed a sore and chunk of missing fur at the base of the underside of her tail. She has a dermatologist appointment in the beginning of January, so hopefully we can get to the bottom of it. It would be very nice to know what’s going on, when we need to worry and what to do about it when it happens. Poor kitty!

This December marks four years with the renal failure diagnosis. With her BUN and CRE levels creeping up and weight dropping a bit, we decided to go in for a consultation with the hospital doctor (rather than her great regular vet). The hospital vet has been really helpful with his industry contacts and experience with renal failure cats, and we trust his opinion. The bad news is that renal transplants for cats haven’t improved much since her diagnosis. It’s still risky, traumatic and expensive. Worst of all, median survival rate still lands at only about three years.

Fortunately she’s still acting normal and eating on her own, so we have a lot of options. One of them is supplementing her diet with wet food. We also had the option of switching her subcutaneous fluid injections from 150ml every other day to 100ml daily. Another is giving her pills to stimulate appetite so her weight doesn’t drop too low. We’re starting off with the food and fluid schedule adjustments, which we began this month. We bought a small pet scale for here at home so we can keep a closer eye on her weight and will likely start weekly weigh-ins next week.

During the checkup in November, they also ran her blood work which is showing the trend continuing for the most part. Her BUN levels went up a lot, but the doctor was more focused on and concerned about CRE increases and weight decreases (though she did put on a few ounces).

CRE dropped a little, from 4.8 to 4.4.

CRE graph

BUN spiked, going from 54 to 75.

BUN graph

She’s still under 9lbs, but drifting in a healthy area in the high 8s, going from 8.8lbs to 8.9lbs.

Weight graph

We’re thankful that we’ve had so much time with her post-diagnosis, she’s been doing very well all things considered and she’s still a happy and active cat. She just turned nine years old and we’re aiming for several more years with her.

Filed under: simcoe

Days in Kyoto

Saturday, Dec 26th, 2015 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

As I mentioned in my post about Osaka, we spent our nights in Osaka and days plus evenings on Friday and Saturday in Kyoto. Since our plans got squished a bit, we didn’t get to as many sights as I had wanted to in Kyoto, but we did get to visit some of the key ones, and were able to keep our plans to go to one of the best restaurants in the city.

On Friday we took a Japanese Rail train up to Kyoto early so we could make our lunch reservations at the famous Kichisen. This was probably the best meal we had on our trip. They serve the food in the Kaiseki tradition with their beautiful and fancy take on many of the traditional Kaiseki dishes. Upon arrival we were greeted by the hosts, took our shoes off and were led into our private dining room. We enjoyed tea as the courses began, and were impressed as each course was more dazzling and delicious than the last.

After that very long and satisfying lunch, we made our way to Kinkaku-ji, the Golden temple. Being the height of autumn tourist season it was incredibly busy. In order to get to the best views of the temple we actually had to wait and then work our way through the crowds. Fortunately the photos didn’t reflect the madness and I got some really great shots, like this one which is now my desktop background.

The temple complex closed around five and we made our way to over to the Kyoto Imperial Palace complex. It’s a massive park, and while we didn’t have tickets for a tour inside the palace areas, we were able to walk around it, explore the trails in the park.


Outside the Imperial Palace

We also enjoyed finding other little temples and ponds. It was a beautiful way to spend time as the sun set.


Another small temple in Imperial park

From there we went to the Gion district and walked around for a while before stopping for some tea. We had a late evening dinner at Roan Kikunoi, which was another Kaiseki-style meal. This time we were seated at a bar with several other patrons and the courses came out mostly at the same time for all of us. The dishes were good, I particularly enjoyed the sashimi courses.

Saturday morning was spent in Osaka, but we made it to Kyoto in the afternoon to go to Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Temple. The temple is not silver, but it’s called that to distinguish it from the Gold Temple across town that we saw the day before.


MJ and I at the silver temple

It was a nice walk around the grounds of the temple, and then you climb a series of stairs to get a view of the city of Kyoto.


View from hill at silver temple

We had reservations at Tagoto Honten for dinner on Saturday. We once again had a Kaiseki-style meal but this one was much more casual than the day before. By this time we were getting a little tired of the style, but there was enough variation to keep us happy.

I’m sure our whirlwind tour of the city hardly did it justice. While we knocked out some of the key attractions, there are dozens of smaller temples, a castle to tour, plus the imperial palace and I’ve heard there’s a long climb up a hill where you can see and feed monkeys! A dinner with a geisha was also on our list, but we couldn’t make those reservations with our time restraints either. We’d definitely also work to reserve far enough in advance to stay in Kyoto itself, as while the train rides to Osaka were easy and short, all told we probably spent an hour in transit when you factor in deciding a route, walking to and from the stations. On the topic of transit, we ended up taking cabs around Kyoto more than we did in the rest of Japan, partially because we were often short on time, and otherwise because the rail system just isn’t as comprehensive as other cities we went to (though buses were available). It was noteworthy to share that the cabs are metered, very clean and all had friendly, professional drivers.

We don’t often make solid plans to revisit a place we’ve been to together, as there are so many places in the world we want to see. Japan is certainly an exception. Not just because we missed our segment in Tokyo, but because a week isn’t nearly enough time to enjoy this country I unexpectedly fell in love with.

More photos from our adventures in Kyoto here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleia2/sets/72157659834169750

Filed under: food, travel

Shinkansen to Osaka

Friday, Dec 25th, 2015 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

As I mentioned in my post about Tokyo, it’s taken me a couple months to get around to writing about our journeys in Japan. But here we are! On October 22nd we landed back in Japan after our quick trip back to Philadelphia and took the NE’X train right to the high speed Shinkansen which took us all the way to Osaka (about 300 miles) in approximately 3 hours.

Before getting on the Shinkansen we took the advice of one of MJ’s local colleagues and picked up a boxed meal on the railway platform. We helpfully had a translation explaining that we don’t eat pork, and the woman selling the boxes was very helpful in finding us a few that didn’t contain any pork. We were grateful for her help, as I made my way through the box and had no idea what I was eating. It was all delicious though, and beautifully presented.

Our original plan had been to stay in Kyoto, but we booked later than anticipated and the reasonable hotels in Kyoto had already sold out. With the beautiful weather and changing leaves, autumn in Kyoto is only second to the spring (when the cherry blossoms bloom) as far as being a busy tourist time. Staying in Osaka worked out well though, especially since there was a lot to do there after things closed in Kyoto!

We stayed at the beautiful, if incredibly fancy old style European, Hotel Hankyu International. It was just a quick walk from Umeda Station, which made getting around pretty easy. We took trains everywhere we went.

Most of Friday was spent in Kyoto, but Saturday morning we began exploring Osaka a bit with a train ride over to the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. I had read about this aquarium before our trip, and learned that it’s one of the best in Asia. As a fan of zoos and aquariums, I was glad we got to keep this visit on our agenda.


Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan

The aquarium is laid out as several levels, and you begin by taking an elevator to the top floor. The top floor has a natural light forest along with river otters, crabs and various fish and birds. As you go down through the aquarium you see penguins, seals, all kinds of sharks and fish. For me, the major draw was getting to see some massive whale sharks, which I hadn’t seen in captivity before.


Whale shark

After the aquarium we needed some lunch. MJ is a big fan of okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake that’s filled with vegetables (mostly cabbage) and your choice of meat or seafood. We did some searching near the train station and found Fukutaro. It was crowded, but we got a seat pretty quickly. It’s also hot, since they prepare the food on a big grill at the front of the restaurant (which we sat near) and then there is a hot grill in front of you which they deliver the okonomiyaki to so that it stays warm as you eat. It was the best okonomiyaki I’ve ever had.

From there we made our way to Kyoto for the rest of the day and dinner. We came back to Osaka after dinner and went back to the area where the aquarium is to go up on the Tempozan Ferris wheel to see the bay at night! The Ferris wheel was all lit up in blue, and since it was later in the evening there was no line, we even had no trouble waiting for the transparent car.

Sunday morning we had to pack up and head back to the Shinkansen for our trip back to Tokyo. After some false starts in finding lunch (it was terribly tempting to get okonomiyaki again) we found ourselves at a mall that had a tempura restaurant. We did a several course meal where they brought out an assorted selection of tempura meats and vegetables. My life is now complete that I’ve had tempura pumpkin, it was amazing.

Our train ride in to Osaka was later in the day so it was mostly dark. I fully enjoyed the daytime train ride, we passed lots of little towns and lots of solar panels!

More photos from Osaka here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleia2/albums/72157659829244819

And more photos from our trip on the Shinkansen: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleia2/sets/72157660421552335

Filed under: animals, food, travel

Fragmented travels in Tokyo

Saturday, Dec 19th, 2015 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

Back in October I flew directly from the Grace Hopper Celebration in Computing in Houston, Texas to Tokyo to begin a vacation with MJ. As I wrote about here a death in the family made it so we had to cut our trip short, but we were able to enjoy some of Tokyo.

The Tokyo side of travels began with a flight into Narita airport and a ride on the N’EX train to Shibuya station. Thankfully MJ had done research beforehand for me, so I was well-prepared for what tickets I needed to buy, train to take and station to arrive at. So far so good.

Leaving Shibuya station is where things got tricky. It was my first experience in a Tokyo station and Shibuya is a big one. I had a big backpack and suitcase and in the crowd of people I instantly got lost upon leaving the station and as I began looking for the hotel. After some false starts, I did eventually make it to Ceruleantower Tokyu Hotel. I ordered some room service (sushi!). I was later joined by MJ, whose flight came in about 6 hours after mine. We planned our flight back to the US for the funeral and spent not nearly enough time sleeping before we had to check out the next day.

Lunch before our flight was had at one of the several restaurants in the hotel, Kanetanaka So, where we had a wonderful, multi-course Japanese lunch.

My travels in Tokyo didn’t properly resume until after returning from the US and then going to Osaka and Kyoto (which I’ll write about later). So fast forward 6 days and we’re on the Shinkansen high speed train on our way back to Tokyo. MJ and I spent the evening with a trip to Tokyo Skytree, the tallest tower in the world as of completion in 2011. From it we’d at least get a 450 meter high view of the amazing city we had to cut from our travel plans.

A very popular, destination, the way tickets to Tokyo Skytree work is you go ahead of time and get a reservation to buy tickets for a time later in the day. So at 7PM we got our reservations for 8:30PM ticket window. In the meantime, we were kept entertained with a visit to the nearby Sumida Aquarium. They had penguins!

We then waited in a very long line to buy our tickets for Tokyo Skytree, including time spent waiting while the elevators were shut down during some strong winds. Fortunately we did finally make it up to the 350M level, and when there bought the additional ticket to go up another 100M to the top at 450M. The observation decks provided 360 degree views of the city, lights stretching for miles around us. And with a steady incline in the upper level, you slowly make your way to the peak of 450 meters before taking the elevator back down.

It was nearly 11PM by the time we completed our visit, which was too late for anything in the mall surrounding the tower to be open for dinner. Instead we took a train over to the Roppongi district and found some late night sushi. As the only customers in the sushi bar, we had a lovely time chatting with the manager and sushi chef who was preparing our fish in the perfect way, including adding the appropriate amount of soy sauce to each piece for us. I need to find some fatty tuna again, it was delicious!

The next day we met up with some of MJ’s colleagues for lunch back in Roppongi before I saw MJ off for his flight home. For me, the next 4 days were filled with the OpenStack Summit right there in Tokyo. I wrote about it and my evening activities in Tokyo each night here, here and here.

Come Saturday I was on my own. My flight wasn’t until the evening, so I spent the morning in beautiful Ueno Park and then at Ueno Zoo for a couple hours. I’ve been to zoos all over the world, and Ueno was a first class zoo. Their animal stars are the Giant Pandas, who I was delighted to see. I arrived at opening time, so the crowds weren’t too bad and the pandas were awake and eating their leafy breakfasts.

It was a pleasant walk around the zoo, enjoying key attractions like the lions, tigers, polar bears and sea lions, along with all the smaller ones. Time was running short when I hopped on their bright and colorful monorail that took me to the other side of the zoo where the penguins and a few other animals lived. I had to depart around noon.

Lots more photos from Ueno Zoo here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleia2/albums/72157660680854861

From there I took a train back to my hotel to pick up my luggage and take the N’EX train back to the airport. I took a lot of trains while in Japan, it seemed like the most reasonable way to get around. Frequent, clean and heavily used, it was fascinating to see how well they operated and with my phone (I had a data-only SIM for my phone) I had routes in my pocket so I could make sure I was getting on the right train, and if not that at least I wouldn’t get lost. Their excellent train system goes beyond just the capital city, we took trains in Osaka and Kyoto as well. San Francisco has pretty good public transportation for a US city, but I find myself now frequently pining for what we saw in Japan.

In spite of all the traveling I do, I’ll admit right away that I was a bit nervous about this trip. I was worried it would be too foreign and I’d get lost or simply be afraid of all the crowds and in-your-face pop culture. I was wrong. It certainly was crowded, but Tokyo was amazing, and everything was so cute. I bought a pile of cute animal note cards, stickers and post-its at the zoo because it so well fit what I loved. Seeing Nintendo characters around and being there during Halloween compounded it all, I grew up on and loved all these things! Instead of it all feeling foreign, I felt comfortable and so many things made me smile. There were also enough English speakers and signs in English where we went to make me feel like I usually knew what I was doing. I want to go back.

More photos from generally around Tokyo (including more trains!) here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleia2/albums/72157659829235239

Filed under: animals, food, travel

Thanksgiving 2015 and family

Sunday, Dec 13th, 2015 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

Back in September I wrote about a trip to Philadelphia where we were visiting an ailing relative. That relative was MJ’s grandmother and during that trip we spent time with her and met with her caretakers. In mid-October she passed away. I’d known her for several years. Before MJ and I dated, I was still local to Philadelphia while MJ was in California and I’d routinely go over to her apartment to help her with various electronics, from phones to televisions. And even after some initial surprise (“You’re dating the phone girl?”) I believe she ultimately welcomed me into the family when MJ and I got married back in 2013.

I learned about her passing when I was in Tokyo. I had just arrived at the hotel and saw messages from MJ, who found out during a layover on his way to meet me there. When he joined me in Tokyo we immediately made plans to return to the US for her funeral the next day. It was a sad, difficult and exhausting time. To make things worse, when we did make it back to Japan after her funeral we learned that another relative had passed away. It was almost too shocking to believe. We continued our Japan trip, mostly because I had to be in the country anyway for a conference. If I’m honest, part of the reason I haven’t gotten around to writing about it yet is because of the such intense, mixed feelings around it all.

With this stage set, MJ’s sister told us she was going to host Thanksgiving at her new home in Philadelphia. We initially said we couldn’t make it, but as we thought more about it, we concluded that we deserved a happy trip back east with family. It also gave us the opportunity to take care of some things for MJ’s grandmother, including moving her final possessions out of the nursing home and into storage. We flew to Philadelphia on the day before Thanksgiving, on what turned out to be a surprisingly easy trip, in spite of a layover and it being the busiest travel day of the year.

Given the logistics of our trip, we decided to stay at a hotel in downtown Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing. This gave us some beautiful views of the city and Penn’s Landing itself, especially at night. We also didn’t bother renting a car, instead depending upon cabs and inexpensive daily rentals that lived inside the hotel garage (so convenient!).

Thanksgiving itself was really enjoyable. Gathering together for a festive holiday, eating lots of great food and enjoying a couple bottles of Sonoma Valley bottles of wine. Given our travel schedules, the holidays tend to be when we stay home, choosing to visit family during less chaotic times. When I looked back and realized the last time I had spent Thanksgiving with family was back in 2010 when I traveled to New England to visit my side of the family.


Thanksgiving! Thanks to Irina for posting this!

I also watched a bit of Mystery Science Theater 3000 on the morning of Thanksgiving at the hotel, traditional “Turkey Day” celebrations. Good times.

We were only in town for 3 days, so the rest of our time was split between meals and visits with family, a couple trips to storage and a final meal with just the two of us on Saturday night at Moshulu on Penn’s Landing. Moshulu is “the world’s oldest and largest square rigged sailing vessel still afloat” (source) and I’ve wanted to visit the restaurant it contains for years. Our stay on Penn’s Landing gave us the perfect opportunity as it was just a quick walk down the landing from the hotel to get to it. Dinner was everything I expected and the quirkiness of it being on a ship made it that much more enjoyable. There may have been several hot spiced bourbon cocktails, and a Graham’s Tawny Port flight which included 10, 20, 30 and 40 year samples (we shared it!).

Sunday morning we took a couple of flights that finally brought us home. This trip concluded my travels for 2015, it was nice to end things on a high note.

Filed under: family, philadelphia, travel

Pandas and Historical Adventures in Washington D.C.

Saturday, Dec 12th, 2015 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

Time flies, I’m behind on writing about my recent trips! Back in November, when was already in Washington D.C. for the LISA15 conference (which I wrote about here), I decided to take some time to see the sights and visit with my friend Danita who came down for the weekend from Philadelphia.

It was great meeting up with her, we stayed at The George hotel on Capitol Hill, which was just a brisk walk away from The National Mall where all the Smithsonian Museums are. But first, there was the National Zoo!

I’d been to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo before as a youth, and on this trip I actually went here multiple times since the LISA15 hotel was less than a mile away. I had a drizzle-filled adventure on Tuesday when I got in, where I walked the whole zoo. That’s the day when I took most of my photos, including all the lions! Unfortunately I only got a quick glimpse of a panda right before it went inside to escape the rain, so I went back on Friday during a conference lunch break. The Friday trip gave me a chance to see a sleeping panda. Danita arrived Friday evening, so on Saturday morning we decided to go back together for one last glimpse, and that’s when I saw a very awake panda! I took a bunch of pictures of the panda eating, walking, playing with a toy. Lots of fun.

More photos from the zoo here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleia2/albums/72157661018394046

After swinging by our hotel to drop off our bags, Saturday continued with a visit to the National Museum of the American Indian. It’s one of the few Smithsonian museums I hadn’t been to, so I was really excited to see it. I had also recently read an article about The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire exhibit that I really wanted to see.

We took the advice of a friend and many guide books and first had lunch in the museum cafe. They had a wonderful assortment of native american dishes spanning both continents – a far cry from most museum food! The permanent exhibits are worth the visit, but I also really enjoyed the Inka exhibit. We made it in time for one of their complimentary afternoon tours of the exhibit, where our tour guide Jay walked us through Inka history and geography throughout the incredible roads they created and were recently made a world heritage site.

The rest of the afternoon was spent over at the Air and Space Museum. A classic, but one I barely remembered, so it was nice to go back. While I was there I also peeked in on the Art of the Airport Tower exhibit and picked up the book. I also picked up a new appreciation for airport towers and on subsequent flights (over Thanksgiving) have made a point to check them out upon landing. Our evening was spent at an Irish pub behind our hotel, where I had a whiskey and hard cider cocktail (it’s not “mixing” if they mix it for you!).

Sunday morning we were up bright and early to go to Ford’s Theatre. The theater itself is a nice one, and they still have plays in it, but of course the major draw is getting to see the presidential box where President Lincoln was shot. After exploring the theater and seeing the box, you go downstairs where they have a surprisingly thorough museum for the basement space it’s in, walking through Lincoln’s presidency with various artifacts, videos and stories.


Ford’s Theatre, presidential box

After the theater, the museum continues across the street at the Petersen House (a boarding house) where he actually died. You first see the downstairs rooms, where all the furniture was sadly unoriginal (contemporary and near contemporary collectors took pieces after his death) and the room where he died, along with a recreation of the bedspread and wallpaper painstakingly created from the only known photo taken at the time (see this article for the photo). Then you take an elevator up several floors to another museum that gives you an immersive and dark tour of the days following Lincoln’s death, including his funerary procession and a large section devoted to the hunt for his assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

As we walked through the gift shops at the conclusion of our tour I was forced to admit to my companion that Lincoln is not one of my favorite presidents. When reflecting on the powers our current presidents use in times of conflict, it’s frightening to think of them going as far as Lincoln did to preserve the union. Many argue that the ends justified the means, but I’m sure it was a terrifying time to be someone who didn’t agree with the government, regardless of north/south allegiance.

Speaking of our founding fathers, our next trip was a visit to the National Archives Museum where the Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the United States, and Bill of Rights are all housed. Before getting to the trio (known together as the Charters of Freedom) we explored the rest of the museum, which was surprisingly large! Even in the time we spent there, we only scratched the surface of what the various American-themed displays showed, and I’d like to go back and resume the adventure some time. We were also surprised to learn about their Spirited Republic: Alcohol in American History exhibit, which provided a glimpse into how alcohol and laws around it influenced the history of America, as well as our habits around consumption. Fascinating stuff. When we finally made it to the Rotunda to see the Charters of Freedom, the main draw of the museum, it was clear we picked the right day, there was no wait to get in and we only had to wait behind a person or two in order to see each of them.


The National Archive, D.C.

After grabbing some lunch we made our way over to the National Museum of Natural History. Another one of my favorites, the museum is full of taxidermied animals and nature-focused exhibits spanning the globe. Their dinosaur/fossil section was sadly closed for major renovation, but they did create a temporary dino hall where a got my selfie with a tyrannosaurus rex. Awesome. Our evening concluded with some pizza and movies back at the hotel before Danita had to drive back home. I spent my final night in DC at the hotel.

My flight on Monday wasn’t until 3PM, so after getting a bit of work done in the morning I packed up and headed to a place that about a half dozen friends recommended when I mentioned I’d be going to the Air and Space Museum in downtown DC: The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. A relatively new (opened in 2003) addition to the Smithsonian collection, it’s huge series of hangers with dozens of planes, helicopters and space vehicles of all kinds. It’s also the final resting place of the Space Shuttle Discovery, which looms large over the other space exhibits in the hanger. The museum also notably has an Air France Concorde, an SR-71 Blackbird and historical planes through the years, and I love old bi-planes. Since I had a flight to catch, I only had a couple hours to enjoy the museum and this is one you could spend an entire day in. It’s really convenient to Dulles Airport, where I was flying out of. I was able to stash my luggage (just carry-on size) in one of the lockers at the museum and then take a local bus that runs a circuit from the Metro to the Museum and then the Airport – easy! And only cost a couple bucks. Highly recommend swinging by before a flight or upon arrival, I certainly will make plans to go again.

And with that, my DC trip came to a close. My travels home were a bit of an adventure, with a late departure out of Dulles and then storms upon arrival in Dallas. The storms were so bad that they shut down the air train, and with only a short time to make my connection I dashed across the airport on foot. Exhausted and sweaty I made it to the gate in time, only to then sit on the plane with the doors closed for nearly 3 hours as the storms caused more delays, and ultimately made us have to go back to the gate to refuel so we could take a longer route home. I did finally make it home though, if a few hours later than I had planned. Fortunately I had scored complimentary upgrades on both flights, so as stressful and long as it was, there was at least that much comfort.

Filed under: travel

Giving Tuesday (and every day) to support Linux in schools

Monday, Nov 30th, 2015 by pleia2 | 0 Comments

The Tuesday following Cyber Monday has been designated Giving Tuesday. Whether you observe charitable giving on that day or any other day of the year, the following are organizations I’ve worked with and/or given to that promote one of my own passions: putting Free/Open Source Software into schools and others in need.

Partimus

I’ve been on the Board of Directors for Partimus for the past 5 years. In that time we’ve done projects in public charter schools, after school programs and a library. This year our focus has been work at a homeless shelter in San Francisco. See an interview with Elizabeth Pocock, our on site contact responsible for the oversight of the Partimus computer pilot project here.

This is also the non-profit that gets a donation from Boutique Academia for sales of the Ubuntu necklaces and earrings. So purchase a shiny gift for someone this holiday and help out Partimus too!

Partimus is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. We’re also always looking for volunteers, so if you’re familiar with Ubuntu (or Linux in general) and are looking for a way to give back, please contact me at lyz@partimus.org. We’re especially looking for technical talent to help us organize and deliver on some of our technical goals, like creating custom ISOs for our schools and developing solutions to make it easier to deploy them and keep them updated (PXE boot servers, local proxies, etc). You can also hop on our tech-partimus mailing list and browse our archives if you’re interested.

Giving Tuesday post: On Giving Tuesday, help us give computers to low income shelters

Donate here.

Computer Reach

Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Computer Reach not only does work in their region, but has deployed Ubuntu-based computers all over the world. This is the organization I went to Ghana with in 2012. Their counts page details the Linux and Mac computers provided to organizations worldwide.

Giving Tuesday post: #GivingTuesday

Donate here.

Reglue

Based in Austin, Texas, I Reglue met founder Ken Starks several years ago at a conference and his work has always been an inspiration for Partimus. They recently completed a successful Indiegogo campaign to continue their work, but like all of our non-profits they can always use more funding to focus on their core efforts.

See sidebar on the main site to donate, they also accept hardware donations.

And Beyond

This is just a sampling of organizations doing this work. If you want to donate or work locally, I strongly encourage looking in your area for computer recycling programs using Linux, for both donation and volunteer opportunities.

Filed under: partimus, tech, ubuntu planet
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