December 30, 1998
Returned today to the 60 degree and sunny climate of Mountain View after an extended holiday visit with family and friends in the frozen tundra of that land known as Oregon. We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to see so many of our friends. Our apologies to those of you we missed this time around. Hopefully we'll be able to connect up next time.

Thank you all for helping to make our holiday season a great one.

December 28, 1998—Salem, Oregon
Played some Rook with Grandma and generally hung out around the house. I'm sorry to say that I've picked up my annual after Christmas cold, something I hope which doesn't blow up into a big "sinuses clogged on the airplane" nightmare. We'll see.

December 27, 1998—Salem, Oregon
After dropping Dad off at the Oregon City Soccer Center for an indoor soccer tourney, Erin and I headed over to Bret's to (1) borrow his VW Golf and (2) make final arrangements for meeting with people throughout the day.

Our first get-together was a Red Robin-based lunch affair with my college friend Jenny and her husband Todd. Since Erin and Todd had never met, and I had never held an extended conversation with Todd, this was a great "get-to-know-you" opportunity. (The clam chowder wasn't bad either.)

Following lunch, Erin and I headed to Powell's City of Books, a city block sized building that is the world's largest bookstore. (Apparently, the store will be demolished in January to make way for a four-story Powell's structure.) Here we met with Carlotta, another friend from the UP days. (I was also able to check out Powell's tech books and pickup the latest Dilbert.) After an hour or so, we traveled to Janzen Beach where we perused heavy jackets for Erin (as she's been wearing the same jacket since 8th grade) at REI, and I made a quick pit stop into CompUSA to look at Mac software.

We had been scheduled to meet with friends Darci and Scott following this, but an unfortunate set of airport delays caused them to fall hopelessly behind in their schedule, and we were forced to cancel our dinner plans. Instead, we took my brother Bret and his girlfriend Amy out for Thai food, a novel experience for me since I consider any dinner beyond a burger and fries to be adventuresome.

We returned late that evening to Salem with Dad and Grandma.

December 26, 1998—Salem, Oregon
Did a little after Christmas shopping, and sure enough, prices had dropped like a rock.

December 25, 1998—Salem, Oregon
Merry Christmas!

December 24, 1998—Salem, Oregon
Did some last minute shopping. Watched Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, better known as "the one with whales." At the time, it was considered among the best of the series, and even now I think it holds up well.

December 23, 1998—Salem, Oregon
Borrowed the family mobile again for a trip to Eugene. Here, we met with my friend Dave, his wife Melissa, and their son Jacob. (I dare say that Jacob, still less than a year old, was cuter than the lot of us combined.) We got the chance to review pictures from Dave and Melissa's wedding, where yours truly served as best man, and Dave and Melissa even gave me a few as a gift. Now granted anyone can look fine in a tux, but this is the best I've looked in years—which only adds to the reasons I will treasure the pictures.

After meeting with Dave and Melissa, we headed across town for a dinner with another set of newlywed friends, Terri and Jim. Since they were heading out to California the next morning, we snuck this meeting in just under the wire.

December 22, 1998—Salem, Oregon
We held "Macapolooza 98" at Matt and Ginger's place with Dennis, Joe, Carol, me, Erin, and Bruce as the guests. I brought up my PhoneNet network so we could hook three Macs together and play some Quake, but I was more fascinated by the infra red connection we got going between Ginger's and Joe's PowerBooks. Joe and I connected them simply by pointing them at each other and changing the AppleTalk Control Panel to "IR Talk." And I dare say that Quake played faster via IR than it did through regular cables. This was definitely cool!

Prior to this IR connection, I upgraded Fauna, Ginger's PowerBook 5300cs, from MacOS 7.5.5 to the much more stable MacOS 7.6.1. Note to all those who are on MacOS 7.5.x: Upgrade to MacOS 7.6.1. You won't regret it. (I've not yet heard from Ginger about the success or failure of Fauna's upgrade, but Fauna did not crash once while I used it after the upgrade and Ginger indicated at the time that even a few hours use without a crash was an improvement.)

We also got the chance to do things unrelated to Mac, such as play Beyond Balderdash and look through Matt and Ginger's wonderful wedding picts. Ginger also was kind enough to cook up some grub for the attendees, but as great as the food was, to my mind it simply could not top her awesome gingersnap cookies. I could eat these by the dozens, and I don't even have much of a sweet tooth.

After the party, Erin and I had the chance give Bruce a lift to his parents' place in West Salem. What a wonderful day!

December 21, 1998—Clackamas, Oregon
Borrowed the Ma 'n' Pa mobile for a jaunt to Portland to see friends. Erin heads over to see Jen and Este while I hang with Garr, the painter/musician/friend extraordinaire. Garr was kind enough to give me a three-song tape of his band, Loligo, and the rough mixes sound great. No telling when the actual album will come out, but more studio time is schedule for mid-January.

My experience has been that Oregonians are the best of drivers, but nothing turns them into potential demolition derby champs faster than a little snow. Portland had about 2 inches with a little ice today, and the result was almost total gridlock. It took us over 2.5 hours to get from North Portland to our friends Joy and Mike in Sandy, and most of that was just trying to get out of Portland. So ours was a slightly truncated visit this time around, but it was great to see them nevertheless.

Instead of making a late-night journey all the way to Salem, friends Matt and Ginger—who live in Portland—were kind enough to let us crash at their pad for the night.

December 20, 1998—Salem, Oregon
Shop-until-you-drop day at the Davisons, as we run about the city attempting to snatch up items that various family members might want. You just know these things are all going to be 50 percent off on the 26th.

December 19, 1998—Salem, Oregon
It was 70 degrees and sunny in Mountain View just two days ago, and now, flying via Alaska Air into the Portland International Airport, it's only a happy, distant memory. With wind-chill, the temperature at PDX is in negative numbers. Thank God Ma and Pa came to pick us up at the airport.

December 19, 1998
Ah, what a day for the political junkie: President Clinton is impeached (something I've been predicting since before the 1996 elections), and speaker-designate of House, Bob Livingston, resigns under the weight of his past extramarital affairs. Good grief, they're dropping like flies.

I won't go over the Clinton escapade again since I've done that repeatedly already, but the Livingston situation is intriguing. Here is someone who did not violate any law but, because he violated his marriage vows, decided he was unfit for political leadership. What does a marriage vow mean in a political context? Is that a suitable standard for our politicians (most of whom would fail miserably, I suspect, if it were)?

Minority leader Dick Gephardt, in calling for Livingston to reconsider, termed this standard "unattainable morality," which sure sounds like a cop-out to me. Is it really that hard not to cheat on your spouse? Is it really that tough to not tell a lie when you take an oath not to do so?

I guess I'm in the minority on this one (what's new?), but I think Livingston may be right to resign. I wouldn't necessarily call him unfit for office and I wouldn't lead a drive to kick him out of office, but the obvious question is this: If you can't trust what the man promised his wife, how can you trust him on what he says in the day-to-day?

Now there's a marvelous capacity of change and growth in the human animal, and I do think that over time a person can win back lost trust. It takes a commitment to honesty, to integrity, and to insuring repeated experiences of "doing the right thing." Livingston, from all the accounts I've read, seems to have a good track record in this regard (unlike someone else we all know). Perhaps his indiscretions are far enough in the past that who he was then is not who he is now. If that's the case, then resignation is a mistake. If that's not the case, it's a lot harder to be an effective leader.

I'm placing the web site "on hold" for the next week or so while Erin and I enjoy the holidays. Expect the next update, which will include my year end message, on December 30. Best wishes to everyone for a great holiday season.

December 18, 1998
I watched Deep Impact, a disjointed disaster flick starring a host of good actors. On top of solid performances from Robert Duvall and Morgan Freeman, huge amounts of screentime is given to the incomparably beautiful Tea Leoni. Her drop-dead great looks save her part of the picture because otherwise the father-daughter storyline she's involved is the boring enough to make you want to drill holes in your head to relieve the tedium.

The space stuff is cool, though the standard caveat about annoying Hollywood liberties being taken with science certainly applies. If you passed 6th grade science, DO NOT put your brain in "engage" while viewing this movie.

Why is Elijah Wood in this movie? I didn't think he was as terrible as a lot of people seem to think, but God knows the screenwriters must have been smoking something potent when they constructed his absolutely-pointless-and-has-nothing-to-do-with-anything subplot. I won't even say what I thought about the his marriage. (Yeah, you heard me right.)

Overall, this is a movie that should've been a whole lot better. I think the faults are primarily in the screenwriting, though I don't discount the possibility that the director, Mimi Leeder, is in way over her head since somebody who knew what they were doing could've made this into an excellent picture.

December 17, 1998
Okay, so tonight was pizza night. Since Erin's away (and my cooking tastes like burnt styrofoam), Papa Murphy's Take 'n' Bake comes to the rescue.

To counter the boredom, I rented the Bruce Willis/Richard Gere thriller The Jackal. I thought it was a little more gruesome than need be (the could've toned it down pretty easily and gotten a PG-13 instead of an R), but it was well-made and well-paced. If you like action flicks, this is tolerably good. It's not terribly original and there's better stuff out there (almost all the Bond flicks and Val Kilmer's The Saint come to mind), but it could've been a lot worse. I realize that's not much of a recommendation, but there you have it.

Don't know that it helps, but as a bonus you get to see Apple's product placement guys work their magic once again. Macs show up everywhere in this movie with the notable exception of the computer attached to the Jackal's big gun. Since this weapon is designed to kill lots of people I guess Apple figured they didn't want people thinking "Macintosh computers = dead people." Smart call, though I did notice that the keyboard of the nameless computer is a PowerBook one.

In other news, it was sunny and 70 degrees (that's no typo) here in balmy Mountain View. Yesterday's temperatures set all kinds of records, and I couldn't be happier. This is terrific weather to play soccer in.

Of course playing is better when I'm not positioned at goal keeper. I jammed my left thumb playing goal keeper at soccer practice yesterday, and despite the ice and Advil therapy combo, it's still a bit sore. Sure makes playing guitar a lot harder, too. Not to worry: This is nothing compared to my back injury of last year; a bum thumb will hardly keep me in bed for a month and a half.

Today's St. Francis soccer news is loads better than Tuesday's.

December 16, 1998
I've updated the Opinion section with the first in a series of random reflections on recent events. I call it "How Few Thoughts A Brain Holds."

I'll be bach-ing it for the next couple days while Erin's off on a school retreat. Soccer alone is providing me plenty to do while she's gone, and I'll probably use this as my #1 excuse when she returns for why I ordered pizza every night. Excuse #2 will be that I'm a terrible cook. I think either will suffice. (Actually, I ended up not ordering a pizza tonight, so maybe I won't be in the dog house after all.)

December 15, 1998
I've successfully used Amazon.Com for several orders of X-mas gifts and such, and I'm prepared to announced—assuming I've not already done so—that here is a company that understands the power of the web. Ordering books, CDs, and videos has never been easier.

At the same time, however, I'm hardly one to recommend you buy shares in the company. What I hear is that Amazon actually loses money on every sale since they're aiming for brand recognition and on-line marketshare. This is a gamble that may pay off over time, but I prefer my investments to be a whole lot less risky.

December 12, 1998
We opened our WCAL Boys' Soccer season against Sacred Heart today.

Erin and I watched Bill Murray's Scrooged yesterday, a seasonal comedy with good ideas but which falls down a bit in execution. Murray is okay, but he's done better work in Stripes, Caddyshack, Groundhog Day, and Ghost Busters.

December 10, 1998
Today's soccer game against CCS Champs Leland ended in a disappointing 0-0 tie.

I've been playing—believe it or not—a lot of guitar in the last few weeks. Since my fingers are on the short and stubby side and that's hardly conducive to good guitar playing, I've long shied away from even attempting the instrument. Even now it's just a fun little experiment with different chords and rhythms. I'd be quite surprised if any of it amounted to anything that will appear on the album, but I suppose I'll say that you never know. In the meantime, I'm just enjoying the sound. (If you play guitar and have some tips for a beginner like me, be sure to email.)

December 8, 1998
It remains cold here in Mountain View, a terrible annoyance to those of us who like the Bay Area for its normally milder climate. I'm hoping that we'll see some higher temperatures over the course of the next few weeks, but I'm not optimstic.

I've updated MacAdvocacy with news of the latest MacOS upgrade.

Today's soccer game featuring the mighty Lancers of St. Francis High School can be found in Sports.

December 7, 1998
Did the video thing yesterday, watching Emma Thompson's adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, Bruce Willis' latest action flick Mercury Rising, and Steve Martin's all-time classic romantic comedy Roxanne.

Because Erin and I were introduced to Austen's work through the six-hour Pride and Prejudice series, Sense and Sensibility seemed rather truncated in its production. This is not to say that it wasn't well-done or engaging, just that it could have been much longer and been perhaps even more enjoyable. The climax in particular did not seem well-paced, though I concede that the acting was excellent throughout.

Less successful was Mercury Rising, an action flick which takes giantic liberties with the science of crypography in order to string its plot together. Overall, it's sort of like The Fugitive but with an autistic boy as a sidekick. Highlights include a heavier-than-I've-seen-him-before Alec Baldwin playing the bad guy, and a hitman who throughout the movie makes one blunder after another. I'm afraid there's not really much screenwriting depth here outside of the whole autism schtick, and that's certainly not enough to drive this story no matter how well-acted.

Steve Martin's Roxanne is, of course, another matter entirely. It's really one light comedic bit after another, but the story is coherent and touching. Even now, I think this remains Martin's best film, and I highly recommend it.

December 5, 1998
I've been endeavoring to advance my knowledge of CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, an HTML programming enhancement which helps with consistency of design among other things. It's slow going at this point, but I'm making progress and learning a lot. (Anyone out there who's fully-versed on this stuff should email me with hints, however.)

The Christmas cards have started arriving. Erin and I are hopeful that we'll be able to get our holiday letter out by Monday, but don't be surprised if it takes a little bit longer. (Of course if I can get all the addresses printed on Avery labels instead of manually running each envelope through the laser printer, it'll save an enormous amount of time. We'll see how it goes.)

December 3, 1998
It's been rather cold and rainy this week, but we played today's game against San Jose Academy anyway. It wasn't much of a game, I'm afraid, but the gory details are available in Sports nevertheless.

I've started fiddling withe Kai's Power Tools 3, the $10 steal-of-a-deal that I picked up a couple days ago. It offers an amazing number of options, and I'd definitely recommend it as a plug-in set for anyone who uses Adobe Photoshop. (KPT 5 was just introduced, but KPT 3 has tons of power too.)

December 1, 1998
Well there's nothing like finding really inexpensive software to really make a guy feel good. At least this guy. I discovered a store down on Lawrence Expressway called "Software & Stuff!" which carries slightly older software at rock-bottom prices. Selection is hit or miss, but here's a sample of what I picked up: Macromedia's Extreme 3D 2 for $32 (retail $399); Kai's PowerTools 3 for $10 (retail $100); Activision Infocom Adventure Collection for $10 (retail $45); and Access Software Links Golf Library Volume 1 for $5 (retail at least $20). Prior to this I found an Adobe Classroom in a Book for After Effects at CompUSA for $15 (retail $45). Life is good!