2:20 PM - hornline.wordpress.com is up and running!

Just thought I would mention here, since I am still getting quite a few views, that hornline.wordpress.com is officially up and running with seven real posts and other stuff, including my epic tale of being stranded in Kirkwood.

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5:13 PM - This blog is sunsetting

Hi Folks. I have done a lot thinking and soul searching, and I have decided to sunset this blog. I hope I just didn't ruin your day. Like I mentioned, I have started a new blog. Here is the RSS feed so that you can still keep up with the latest in Lauren news.

And! You can also read more blog posts from me at Metroblogging San Francisco! Nifty, huh? Here is my first post.

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5:21 PM - Thinking about moving

No, not to San Francisco. I might start blogging here instead of on MySpace. Don't know yet...

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11:36 AM - Funny stuff

I love the cartoons that I discovered at gapingvoid. They are a nice combination of funny, smart, artistic, and simple.

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9:37 PM - Guess where I was this weekend!

What I learned this weekend: Tahoe isn't always sunny and doesn't always have awesome snow.

What I also learned this weekend: I can have an awesome time in Tahoe even if the sun and snow aren't perfect.

Yes, I spent another weekend skiing at Kirkwood! The weather ended up being the biggest surprise of the weekend. There was yet another storm heading towards California for the weekend. We were expecting to drive up in a snow storm and ski the the first and probably the second day in snow. So you can imagine how surprised we were when we drove under clear skies and on dry roads.

I had gathered all of the skiers and snowboarders I knew at IBM who were up for braving the weather for the weekend. To keep myself distracted from thinking too much about my new job at work, I spent too much time at work last week reseaching rentals and motels, and emailing and chatting with everyone trying to coordinate the trip. I ended up with the following cast: Tom from Kirkwood Weekend #1, Vijay who I met at Kirkwood Weekend #1, Vijay's friend Jessica, Desiree who finally had a germ-free and visitor-free weekend, and Kevin who got me up to Tahoe for the first time and infected me with the skiing bug.

Afer my little chain drama with my Mazda on my last trip, I decided that renting an SUV would be the way to go. There were six of us in two SUVs, so I wasn't expecting us to leave at the meeting time of 4:45 AM on Saturday. However, because of some delays, we didn't leave until after 5:30. Let me just say this: Do not be late and keep me waiting, especially when you are keeping me from the slopes. And if you do, I am not going to be the most understanding if you forget something, especially when I haven't had my coffee yet.

So anyway. Saturday turned out to be sunny and warm. There was no new snow, and it was a tad icy. But we had lots of fun.  We stuck mostly to Cornice Express and the Ruet, and of course we gave the backside the required try before once again deciding it wasn't worth it and going back to Cornice. I guess this was spring skiing. I skied without my hat and jacket unzipped, which isn't quite skiing in a t-shirt, but getting there. The snow was heavy and cakey in some places, and icy and chattery in others.  But really not that bad--I have just lucked out and had perfect snow up to this point.

I talked Vijay, Jessica, and Tom into "hiking" up to the little "cornice" off of cornice express on our very first run. There was much falling, laughing, and getting skis stuck in the snow. And of course I took pictures. Then we decided that maybe this was going to be a groomed run day.

There weren't too many interesting runs that we could tackle, but we took it easy and tired to focus more on our technique and not just on trying to get down the hill. And I think I did improve a bit over the weekend. By the end of the weekend, I was feeling really confident and happy with how I was skiing. And I think I was looking pretty good.

Our accomodations were at the Best Tahoe West Inn, which was closer to the state line, and so I saw more of South Lake Tahoe. But for dinner, it was back to Freshies. Once again it was a group of people who didn't really know one another before the weekend. We were beyond tired (average amount of sleep Friday night for the group was ~2.2 hours), but the food, wine, and ice cream kept us awake enough to talk and share stories and gossip about people we all happened to know. Then it was off to the hot tub before passing out.

On Sunday, the storm that was supposed to arrive Friday finally showed up. As the day went on, the weather got worse and the snow got better. And me in my winter-white outfit became more and more difficult to see. Vijay and I took off on our own and packed in a lot skiing. We exhausted ourselves. I ended the day with my best run of the weekend.

I am meeting the best people on these ski weekends. I am getting to know new fun people, and growing closer to my existing friends. I can't tell you how happy I am that I am finally skiing again after all of these years and with such fun people.

As usual, more pictures are posted on Flickr.

And Tom just sent me a link to this picture too:

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10:32 PM - Blah Thursday

I feel like I should be happier than I am right now. I am just feeling blah, but then I realized that it is Thursday! Of course. I am feeling worn out from the week, and skiing on Saturday still seems to be a ways off. And the weather reports for the weekend aren't cheering me up either.

But it really has been a good day. I got to tell a bunch of people that I finally got the job that I wanted, and got many congrats. I shipped off some crappy doc, but I it is shipped and that is a relief. I chatted with friends, I visited some kids, and I even baked cookies!

But honestly, I am just feeling tired, ugly, fat, and lonely. I know it isn't true, be we all have those days. I am going to read a book, go to bed early, and feel great tomorrow. Good plan!

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10:18 AM - Horray for AIM

So it's almost official. I am moving to the Application and Integration Middleware division as of May 1. I am almost excited about work again.

Now I have a huge pile of work to get done before then to get my current projects out the door and documented. Like today: I have to ship online help off to translation, even though it still isn't done.

My first tasks when I get over there will be to help convert legacy information to DITA, start editing, and for a writing assignment, tackle some COBOL doc related to IMS and DB2. Now stop making faces: COBOL and IMS aren't as sexy as say, XQuery and PHP, but I like this stuff.

Wish me luck!

UPDATE: Ok, now it really is official. Time to celebrate with a weekend skiing trip!

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7:02 PM - Horray for video!

MySpace now lets you post videos! I am quite excited that I can now share my amazing skiing video from Kirkwood a few weeks ago!

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1:34 PM - A few updates

First of all...job interview went well. I liked the people and the projects--very old skool. Now I just have to wait.

Also, I have become an Ethiopian food fan. Went to Zeni Sunday night (on Saratoga south of 280), and it was delicious. I haven't been to any other Ethiopian places around here, so I can't compare, but I recommend it.

No skiing this past weekend, as you can tell from my lack of painfully long blog entries about skiing, but I am planning a trip this weekend! I just hope that the weather clears up a little.

Speaking of weather: this rain is crazy! If it keeps up, we are going to get flooded here at work. The ditches are completely full.

I found a good IA Web site: boxesandarrows. Looking forward to reading more articles as soon as I get the time.

My RSS feeds: I have been going a bit nuts with MyYahoo and RSS feeds. I need a better way to organize them. Same goes for all of my other content-organizing sites I use: Flickr, last.fm, del.icio.us, etc. I need an organizer for my organizers!

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6:11 PM - myspace days are numbered

Not that I am a fan of Javascript, but the myspace ban on it is irritating me. I have managed to find some workarounds, but so many "web 2.0" things depend on it. That and because I am getting to the point where I would like to have more control, I think I am starting to consider getting a real blog! But that will be a while because I need to figure out how exactly to do that. In the mean time, I am wasting time with:

del.icio.us

technorati

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5:18 PM - Proletariat unite! Ban comic sans!

I think that most people have gotten the clue, but just in case, read the anti-comic sans manifesto.

"In 1995 Microsoft released the font Comic Sans originally designed for comic book style talk bubbles containing informational help text. Since that time the typeface has been used in countless contexts from restaurant signage to college exams to medical information. These widespread abuses of printed type threaten to erode the very foundations upon which centuries of typographic history are built."

UPDATE: I can't believe it. I just opened a big Lotus Notes database here at work that we use to track the next release of our product, and of course it is full of bold comic sans! The one thing you can do to make it more unreadable and less authoritative is to bold it.

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4:53 PM - My egoless job as a technical writer

Mark has a great post about being a technical writer.

"...the writer is not important in technical writing. You'll never finish a manual and have your name across the top of the cover, Stephen King-style....Nobody will thank you for your manual, nor give you credit when they quote large chunks of it in another manual...the actual writing has to be as invisible as possible, and the technical content as clear as possible."

I have to admit that I get a bit jealous when I see people's names on white papers and retail books, especially when content that I have written is a part of them. But I understand that this is just part of the job. And my greatest job statisfaction does in fact come from knowing that I am helping other nameless cogs in other corporate machines do their jobs a little easier and faster.

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11:53 AM - In case of emergencies

Sadly, I think this would be useful for my addiction.

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3:55 PM - Labels

I hate being labeled. I know that is cliche to say, but I am feeling especially rebelious against them lately. The one that is bugging me the most: vegetarian. I don't want to call myself one. Why is it that people feel they have to carefully clasify your personal decisions about the food you eat? Why do people feel they have the right to ask you about the reasons you made these decisions, and then argue with you?

Like other parts of my life, the reasons why I eat what I do are complicated and personal. I have rarely questioned other people when they said that they were vegetarian or vegan and non-beef-eaters or whatever, because I assumed that they had their reasons, and those reasons can't be explained in a single sentence. Also, what did it matter to me?

Other labels that I rebel against:

Writer: I don't like telling people that I am a writer because writing is such  a small part of what I do. I have one of those jobs that most people don't even realize exists. Even people in the software industry, who know that there are technical writers, don't really get what is involved in the job.

Girlfriend: Relationships are way too complicated and another one of those things were people feel they have a right to classify you and question you about something very personal. This was sort of annoying back when I was in a serious relationship, and more so now that I am not. (Related annoying question: "Is it serious?" What the hell does that even mean??)

Political and religious labels: Labels in the political and religious worlds are so loaded. People have such strong reactions if I say that I am a liberal or not a Christian or whatever. I like discussing the issues, but I try to avoid calling myself anything in particular.

It isn't that I don't want to talk about these aspects of my life. I am really open in general (why else would I have a blog?) and like talking about these things. But let's have these discussions for the sake talking and sharing, and not just to find out which catagory I fall into.

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4:27 PM - My weekend, a week late

I had all of these plans for last weekend, and then I ended up spending it with my family. So now this weekend I am ending up having the weekend that I planned to have last week. Of course I wanted to go skiing this weekend, I and I still might tomorrow, but if I don't, I'll just go get drunk in the city tonight.

It has been a good weekend so far. I am getting some work done, which is good because I have a deadline on Thursday (last one for a while!), and I am finally getting some chores done around the house. My house and my clothes have a shot of being clean by the end of the weekend! I even took clothes to the dry cleaners. Now if I pay my bills and get my boots and necklace fixed, I will be setting personal records for productivity.

I went shopping for baby clothes today too. I now have cute little outfits for five adorable little folks. I have so much fun playing the cool auntie who gives the cool clothes and toys. And trust me, being around all of these cuties does not make me want to have one of my own yet. I see enough of the reality of raising kids to know that I am still too young and selfish to do it myself.

In addition to fantasizing about renting a little apartment in the city and living the city life, I am also fantasizing about renting a lake cabin for the summer. It is probably really expensive, but a friend and I spent last night daydreaming about spending the weekends in July and August at the lake.

Doing a bit of spring cleaning is getting me excited about summer in general. I am starting to think about camping in Yosemite, hiking at Pinnacles, surfing in Santa Cruz. I miss the Northwest a lot, but California is fricking awesome too.

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