jcm's blog

So I got an interesting email from someone who reads my blog – in particular my articles on project “Brave New Jon” have apparently been inspirational, in part because I’ve made a large number of life adjustments in a short space of time. Actually, there’s a lot more to Brave New Jon, but that’s still to come

“Brave New Jon” began as a means to distract myself but it’s become so much more. I mean, for example, I was in the gym again this evening at midnight – something that used to be highly unlikely but I’ve done it twice in a week. This project doesn’t have a definitive end point, though I can say that I expect to be at least 60lbs down on where I was, radically more physically fit than I was, far more active and a lot more that I may mention later. Essentially, I engaged in extensive introspection and identified everything I consider to be a personal failing, then came up with an action plan to address everything at once. It’s encouraging that I’m inspiring others to do likewise.

Jon.

Photo: Obligatory “action shot”.

So one of the things I’ve been meaning to do for a while now is try surfing. Being from the UK, I’m not really pre-disposed toward jumping into the freezing Atlantic for fun (though I know people do surf) and living in Boston isn’t conducive toward surfing activities either (though I have friends in NC, for example, who do). Anyway, this was definitely something I wanted to get out of my roadtrip, so I called up a few surf schools a couple weeks back and arranged an afternoon as I passed through on Highway 1-S/101-S en route to LA for a conference.

I managed to sneak in a quick preview last week in San Diego (the surf wasn’t very good, but we had fun and I learned the basics) and then arrived in San Buenaventura – commonly known as simply Ventura – this afternoon (after a brief stop in Santa Barbara to see the Mission they have up there – most of the towns around here have a Spanish origin and consequently a Spanish mission of one form or another, divised as a means to control the Spanish colonies in the “New World”…Californian history is an interesting sub-topic in and of itself and I’ve spent some time reading up on it recently) just in time to head on over to the beach for my surfing lesson. I actually managed to locate the surfing dude driving down the highway, so I just followed him to the beach and parked up by the side of the road to change into my gear. I enjoy being 40lbs lighter than I was because I don’t look quite so fat in a wetsuit

By now, I can stand and perform some rudimentary manoeuvres on the board. I understand the mechanics/physics involved but that doesn’t make me an elite surfing dude – but it does help figure out what to do. After a few hours, I was absolutely wiped out and had to stop, but I made some progress and I plan to return to the same surfing school a few more times over the summer (basically, whenever I’m in California again this summer I’ll try to swing by as the surf is reasonably predictable and the location is near enough to LA). I’m looking into places on the East Coast to surf but that’s likely to involve flying to Florida or somewhere a bit warmer – still, I have a standing invitation to try in NC.

Decided not to drive into LA tonight and instead am staying at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, better known for its role in the “Little Miss Sunshine” movie. These days, it’s a 4 star hotel with swanky gym, pool, and prime location for a sunset stroll along the pier. I’ve been downtown (filled with thrift stores and funky coffee shops like the Coastal Roasting Co. that know how to make good lattes).

Tomorrow: LA. Tonight: Still deciding.

Jon.

Photo: Ford Mustang convertible. Red.

So I’m lost in the middle of nowhere en route to Yosemite. Or, actually, I know where I am but it’s already dark and I’m hours from the park – but I now have directions thanks to the McDonalds WiFi I’m trying out…occasionally, they can be useful (I bet they’ll McSpam me heavily now they have a fake email address for me tracking them). At least I got the car and managed to get out of San Francisco…now just a few more windy roads in the dark, on the “other” side of the road…and I hope to get to the guesthouse around midnight. As long as I get up early tomorrow, it might work. And if it doesn’t, I don’t really care – I’ll get to see the park and do at least one hike.

Jon.

Photo: Marin County Hiking.

So I’ve been hanging out in the Haight, a cool part of San Francisco, but also a little risque when it comes to leaving a camera on the seat of your car. Mine was sitting there for at most a few minutes (though I’m not even sure it was in the car) but it’s long gone now. Still, it seems that I’m doomed to purchase a new camera every 12 months these days – picked up a new Nikon in Best Buy for a couple hundred bucks (same as the old one, but 7 megapixels, not 4, and various other bits). I lost a few cool shots of San Francisco but was reminded why I like to sync my photos online fairly regularly. I’ve been playing all afternoon since I got it – went hiking in Marin County and took photos of the landscape as we went.

Tomorrow: Yosemite. Tonight: Staying up in Marin County.

Jon.

Photo: Hmmm…so this is surfing?
So the Red Hat Summit was a huge success (I’ll blog about it later when I’m caught up with all that happened while I was there) and I am really glad I got to be there. And, on Friday afternoon, once the Summit had wrapped, we headed out to Mission Beach for some surfing. As you can see from the photos, we had a lot of fun and even though I can’t surf to save my life, I will be working on it.

Photo: Hanging out on the boat.

Photo: HOWTO: Light a fire on a boat.

Photo: KFOG annual fireworks.
After the surfing, Mexican beer, and random cab rides to random parts of downtown San Diego were well and truly fully experienced, I headed up to San Francisco to hook up with friends of mine up here in the Bay area. Last night, we went out on my good friend Sven’s boat, sailed around the Bay (both motor and sail from time to time, depending upon the tide and wind…which you need to realize does change randomly inside the Bay – as I’ve experienced before) and saw the KFOG annual fireworks. Once that was over, we wound up in the Haight drinking beer until sometime after 3am.

Tomorrow: Yosemite. Today: Who knows.

Jon.

A part of project Brave New Jon…

I’m going to take a semi-crazy vacation in California (CA) on the back of a couple of conferences I’m scheduled to be at anyway. I’ll combine a series of road trips with hiking, surfing, lying on the beach, cycling, long walks, sailing, and hanging out with various friends. Other stuff will likely happen too. Here’s what seems to be the semi-final itinerary.

Red Hat Summit, San Diego.

The Summit runs from May 9-11. I fly out to San Diego on Tuesday (UA7780 12:21 BOS -> 13:55 IAD; UA231 14:35 IAD -> 16:54 SAN) and arrive in time for the pre-event party. I am not actually speaking until Friday (my lecture is entitled “Handling Asynchronous Driver Updates in RHEL5 and Beyond”) and will be attending other conference events/working on Red Hat stuff that comes up. I am looking forward to the opportunity to hang out with Red Hat customers and anyone who uses RHEL5 or Fedora and has questions/comments on driver support. On Friday evening, I’m looking to schedule some surfing before I leave San Diego. The conference concludes around 3 or 4pm, so I’m looking to go out shortly thereafter (we’re near the beach anyway). I would go to Mexico, but I don’t want that border crossing experience.

Sailing, San Francisco

I fly up to San Francisco in the morning of May 12 (UA710 11:16 SAN -> 12:43 SFO) with the intention of going sailing with Sven and the guys. I am in town until the Sunday evening, and during that time may also try to head out to meet Bill W. to catchup. I will hire (US: rent) a bike for an afternoon on probably the Sunday and ride around San Francisco and out to the Golden Gate Bridge. I last did that a few years ago. This time, I hope to also be in time for the ferry to Alcatraz, at some point.

Road Trip, Yosemite

I live for random experiences. I’ve never taken a proper US-style “road trip” (unless you count driving down to New York, which I don’t really think counts as a US style “road trip”), so I’m renting a Ford Mustang convertible (hopefully a red one, gotta live that cliche) on May 14 and driving out to Yosemite for a couple days. I’m staying in Fish Camp (Apple Tree Inn – 1110 Highway 41) and will do a day hike in the park, camera in hand – I just bought 3GB of additional MMC/SD media.

After visiting the park, I’m driving back to San Francisco, stopping over at a friend’s place to do a little target practice. Being originally British, I’ve never even held a gun in my life. So the opportunity to try out a little target practice really does appeal to me. At least once. I’m really not a fan of guns in general, but I’ll leave that argument to one side. Once I get back to San Francisco, I’m planning to drive out to Palo Alto to hang out with another friend, who happens to be in town from Dubai.

Road Trip, Pacific Coast Highway

I’ve heard good things about California State Highway 1. Good things. But I’ve never actually driven in California, much less seen said highway or lived that particular experience. So, I’m correcting this immediately by driving the Mustang down from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I’m leaving early on May 16 and aim to cover as much of the route as I can in the first day, stopping over only when it gets late and I find somewhere interesting on the way. There are a lot of great views (therefore a secondary reason for the camera upgrade) along the way and I intend to stop from time to time to check these out.

At some point around lunchtime on May 17 (so again, leaving early in the morning on that day) I intend to arrive at the Crowne Plaza Hotel – the one where they filmed “Little Miss Sunshine” (the option was there, and it amused me somewhat) and then drive over to Oxnard to the Silver Strand Surf School for what will hopefully be part 2 of the surfing. I’ve scheduled an afternoon of private tuition and if it goes well will try to figure out a way to have a few more hours before I leave LA. I need to leave early on May 18 in order to get into Los Angeles before rush hour so I can attend the FreedomHEC.

FreedomHEC, Los Angeles

I am speaking about the RHEL5 Driver Update project and future goals for vendor-managed 3PM (3rd Party Modules – a term that rostedt coined/used recently and is bound to become somewhat popular). The conference is at the Holiday Inn LA Center, and I think I even know where that is (from having been downtown once before – emphasis on once). I will hang out in LA on the Friday evening, and on the Saturday prior to my flight – I’ve got a couple of friends I would like to catch up with.

Camping, Tamales Bay

I am heading back up to San Francisco on May 19 (UA1798 19:10 LAX -> 20:25 SFO) for beer, oysters, and camping in Tamales Bay. I’ll get there late, and depending on my navigation will still be able to partake of beerage and camp before we all head out on the Sunday morning. The site is only accessible by boat, so it’s likely that I’ll need to do a crossing in the dark…which should be quite fun, or at least quite interesting. On the Sunday, I might take a short hop up to PDX to hang out with Deepak and the gang, although this is currently just a “there are a few minutes with nothing planned, so we better plan something, quick!” thing.

Ultimately, I fly back to Boston on May 21 (UA770 12:55 SFO -> 16:28 DEN; UA726 18:33 DEN -> 12:23 BOS) and will then be in the office, working on various followup from conferences and car shopping.

Jon.

A part of project “Brave New Jon”…

I’ve decided I probably will buy myself a car. I got to a bit of a personal low point a few weeks back and went on a re-invention quest in order to help deal with that. And as part of the dealing with stuff, I decided to get an MA driver’s license, finally. As I mentioned before, this turns out to be trivial (read: laughable) and took me a total of 4 days, including phone calls.

Driving turns out to be fairly addictive. Like many other things, it’s something I had never had much time for – I mean, why didn’t I try surfing before either? I’m fixing this with a bunch of lessons, starting next week. But anyway. Back to the driving. It’s addictive, it’s fun, and I drove over 800 miles last week. Working out the cost of rentals vs. just buying a car means that if I’m going to be renting regularly, I might as well look to buy a car. I can’t use zipcar, or stuff like that, because I’ve not had a license for more than a year (though I do qualify on the age grounds…being old and all). And anyway, I’m paying for a parking space in the apartment lot that’s looking a bit empty again tonight.

So. MA want to charge me $3200+ per year for insurance. If I’m going to be screwed over, I might as well be screwed over fashionably, in style, in a car I enjoy driving. I’m looking at the Mazda MX-5 rather longingly at the moment…this can’t be good for me. I know where this goes. It’s not the most practical car – but that makes it even more “me”. I mean, if I’m ever going to do the convertible thing, now is the time to do it. All of this is on hold until I get back from the Summit and traveling, but I will seriously evaluate the options – the green part of me tells me to buy that Prius, but another side of me says “ah, but you could just ride your bike in town” and still another thanks some higher power I’m not into H2s.

I’ll include my experience driving the Mustang in my evaluation. Yes, the East Coast has snow in winter and it’s cold…and stuff. But a hard top nicely handles that – you only get to use it maybe 50% of the year, but I don’t really care. Especially if I can pick one up in time to drive down to the Cape a bit over the summer. Seriously. Got to think about this.

Jon.