mmrobins.com

When I tell people that I’m fasting on my birthday weekend they look at me like I’ve said something sacriligious. “What about drinking and cake?” they say. I’m happy to pass that up to feel healthier. Besides, I had plenty of cake and pie last weekend and I eat pretty much every day, so I won’t miss it a for few days – much. (more…)

I used another one of my coupons from the awesome Chinook Book for a 2 for 1 massage at the Ayurvedic Health and Massage Center, which is really just one guy named Andy Warren. I haven’t had a professional massage in forever, but boy does it do me good. He does kind of a Swedish – Ayurvedic style massage, which is relaxing and seems to go by too fast, but what massage doesn’t? I think I prefer a deeper and less gentle style, but I’ll have to get one professionally to find out. I know that I like it when Kim walks on my back, so I imagine that it would be hard to get too deep a massage without wearing out the masseuse’s hands.

Kim’s also getting an Ayurvedic consultation since she’s become interested in that since we went to Kripalu. She’s also been reading some books by Deepak Chopra. It bothers me to hear it called a science, but it certainly is a way of life that’s been around for a while and I’m sure is a healthier lifestyle than most Americans practice today.

Stealing the Network: How to Own the Box makes reading hacker literature fun, and you learn a lot about computer networks while you read since the scenarios presented are all realistic down to the screenshots of the tools that are used. (more…)

October is a busy month for birthdays in the family. Kim and I drove back to Spokane on Saturday morning to go to a birthday bash for Dave, Grandma, Dad and me, as well as celebrating Dave and Sue’s anniversary. As has become the norm for long car trips, Kim and I listened to an audio book the whole way to the drive didn’t seem too long. We listened to “The Secret Life of Bees”. Haven’t finished it yet.

We arrived at Grandma’s and I setup an old computer for her so that she could start using email. It’s setup to use NetZero, so we’ll see if the free internet service is worthwhile for doing just email. I also showed her my blog so hopefully she’ll be reading this soon.

The party was at Dave and Sue’s house which makes for a very cozy gathering. My parents, Dave and Sue, Gwenda and Larry, Joyce, Sara and Sierra, Grandma and Dave and Sue’s niece were all there. The food is always to die for. Sara spent most of the day helping Sue cook Chinese food which turned out awesome. I ate myself silly and then ate pie and cake for dessert.

Kim and I played foosball with Sara and Sierra and had some pretty good games, even when Kim and I took on Sara and Sierra. Then we played a card game whose name I can’t remember, but whose biggest challenge seemed to be remembering to draw a card at the end of your turn.

It went late for a family gathering, I think around 11PM. After the party Kim and I spent the night at Grandmas. The next day we had a nice breakfast and Grandma and I went through a few lessons for how to get online and check email. It’s all very new to her, everything from the mouse to email, so I’m hoping it sticks. The weather was nice so we all drove downtown to take a walk through Riverfront Park and ride the carousel. Kim loved the carousel. I was a little bummed that the garbage goat wasn’t working.

Then it was time to get back in the car. That’s a lot of driving for 2 days, but it’s nice that it’s just a drive to spend time with my family.

• aktt_notify_twitter: no

I’ve got a nasty, nasty cold and Alka-Seltzer Plus Effervescent Cold is the only thing that I’d found that helps. I think it’s the bubbles. However, either it doesn’t work as well as I remember, or this cold is tougher.

I never would have expected this musical tour combination. It seems like too much of a coincidence considering that I’ve been listening so much to both Mike Doughty and Erin McKeown lately, and I’ve seen them both perform recently after not going to any concerts for a long time. (more…)

I went to see Serenity at the theaters and am glad I did. (more…)

I enjoyed this book much more than I anticipated. (more…)

I just finished watching the 1927 film Metropolis and I wasn’t that impressed considering that this movie was so highly rated on the top 250 movies of all time. I’m sure it was very poignant at the time with communism vs capitalism, proletariat vs bourgeois being such a big deal, but it did’t do that much for me. It’s interesting in terms of what was possible with big budget films at the time, and it’s historical significance probably can’t be underestimated, but it seemed drawn out for it’s message. I haven’t seen a lot of silent films either, so I suppose I could be biased based on that. See it for it’s historical significance, but don’t expect to be entertained in this day and age.

I helped Kim staff an Eco Encore booth in front of the PCC in Kirkland for a few hours. It was mostly just to get the message out about Eco Encore and what they do, but we got a few donations too. Afterwards we were driving to the Mariners game and guess who we ran into? Someone who lives in Kirkland… Give up? Okay, it was Jake, out for a bike ride. We chatted a bit and then took off for the game that we were already late for.

Gabe and Jacob were already there since I got all four of the awesome company seats and was able to invite friends. I suppose that could be because the Mariners kinda suck this year and nobody wanted the tickets. In fact, I think that they have lost every game that I’ve gone to see this year. True to form, they lost this one too. They were ahead when we got there and Ichiro was 3 for 3, but after we arrived they fell behind and Ichiro went hitless. Oh well, baseball games are fun anyway, especially when you get such good seats for free.

• Reading: "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L Friedman
• aktt_notify_twitter: no