Let's face it, it's not easy to make a list of great things that happened in 2001. My mental list of bad things probably could stretch for days, but I dug up a few highlights in an otherwise dreadful year:
- I got to broaden my skills at a variety of employers and client projects this year. Although it wasn't as peaceful and stress-free as working steadily in a single place, being forced to do several different things (usually new things with each new week) has broadened my skills further. I've gotten a lot of new opportunities I wouldn't have gotten unless I was branching out and doing new things.
- Without trying at all, 2001 turned into quite a press blitz for me personally. A phone call out of the blue in January turned into an interview which became the feature article which became me on the cover of a national magazine in May. A few weeks later, my first mention in the New York Times. The month after that, an interview with me and a picture in the NYT. One July morning, the phone rang and CNN wanted to come over 45 minutes later, resulting in this. August brought my third mention in NYT this year, and finally in December, another interview came out in a magazine. I'm not one to brag and boast, but I must say I'm surprised I got that much coverage in a year. There's no secret to it, I just kept toiling at something and one day the random emails and phone calls from reporters started.
- In total, I got to spend almost half the year working from home, instead of a stuffy office. There's added stress with freelancing much of the year, but there's also something to be said about taking a bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge on the few bright, sunny days San Francisco has to offer, getting daily errands done sans crowds, and getting myself to finally start running, biking, and walking again.
This year's xmas, or as I like to call it "that magical time of year when every commercial on TV is for electric shavers," was a good one. I got a warm coat for San Francisco's cold winters (and summers), a fantastic book I didn't know existed but one I needed for research, a nice sweater, and various other small useful trinkets.
I also got to visit my dad, who is doing a little better. He's moved to a rehabilitation hospital, and for the next couple months will be undergoing daily therapy to try and get some movement back. He's got feeling on his left side, but no voluntary movement of his arm or leg. He can speak clearly now and eat solid foods again. It'll be a long road ahead.
Cory has a great article (it sounds like it could/should be a conference keynote address) at O'reillynet about the intersection of internet reliability and the business world. I remember at KnowNow, we used to have a lot of arguments about what the term "reliable" meant to users and potential customers. The people that matured during the age of the web figured "works most of the time" was sufficient uptime for an internet or intranet service, while the people from the software age argued that everything the company did had to be "enterprise class" and it meant paging four people if the network response time varied by more than 100ms. Cory's article discusses the folly of such an attitude.
It also reminded me of an old mantra that could also explain why napster worked, why buggy implementations win out if they work most of the time, and why windows became the dominant OS on the desktop: Worse is Better.
During the whirlwind couple of days we worked on the megway site, we took so many photos and movies, we could almost create a complete documentary of how we did each step. One of the throwaway shots was this one, done in a big security mirror.
I finally got to see The Royal Tenenbaums yesterday and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a dry, witty comedy much in the same vein as Wes Anderson's other works, and compliments Bottle Rocket and Rushmore nicely.
In the Wes Anderson universe, Bottle Rocket was set in a fairly everyday world, populated by everyday interesting characters with the central one, Owen Wilson's character Dignan, being occasionally absurd while appearing so delusional he doesn't know how absurd he really is. In Rushmore, again it is set in an everyday setting, with everyday, interesting characters, but at the center is Max Fischer, a 15 year old that says everything and does everything in absurd ways, essentially taking the delusion to the next level. I think the differences between the two movies are having Bottle Rocket's character being occasionally absurd, and Rushmore's character regularly absurd, and when you compare the two to The Royal Tenebaums, it's basically in the same vein.
You've got the same everyday setting (this time in NYC instead of the previous two being set in some nameless Texas town), with a sizable cast of interesting characters, but instead of a single absurdist figure, there's a whole family of them. Imagine Rushmore with three or four Max Fischers, surrounded by three or four more Dignans, with the central character (Gene Hackman's brilliant Royal Tenenbaum) being like Max Fischer to the n-th power.
The comedy is completely dry, usually subtle, and far from the typical "laff riot" comedies that get made these days. If you didn't think Rushmore was a funny movie, you won't like this one. I don't know what Wes Anderson will do next, perhaps he'll try putting his absurd characters in more absurd situations or places, but his current work stands as probably the funniest thing I've seen all year (although, I don't think this has been a good year for comedy).
Lord of The Rings was pretty good. I hadn't read the first book since sixth grade, so I had forgotten almost the entire story, and yet most all of it made sense. The computer graphics were good, but not great. About 3/4 of the shots look computer generated, and the lighting is pretty bad on a few scenes, but overall it paints a rich tapestry of a fabled land. Of course, it helped to have a level-5 Tolkien geek at my side (Kay) to explain what minor differences existed between the book and the film, and what to expect in the next film.
It was even good enough to get a MIT hack done in honor of it.
Tomorrow I'm off to see Frodo and Bilbo in the most anticipated movie of the year. I'm have high hopes, but I don't think it will disappoint like that other blockbuster did.
Ev recently discovered Netflix, and mentioned they could stand to make a lot of money if they carried adult titles in their catalog.
The first time I checked out netflix (maybe six months ago, when I first signed up), for kicks I looked for adult titles and noticed they had a good deal of porn in the catalog. At the time, a coworker of mine mentioned someone they worked with 2-3 years ago used to love the netflix service, back when it first launched. We guessed it could have been for that reason, that they were renting adult titles.
I figured it was perfect, and I bet it got their business off the ground. How many people actually like going through the double-saloon doors at their local video hut? Even in my loneliest college days, I was too worried about how everyone might scrutinize me, so I never (and still haven't to this day) set foot in that section of a video store. If I was 20 and single, I'd probably be using netflix for porn, just to avoid the public embarrassment of it all.
I noticed tonight after attempting a search, there are no more signs of adult titles, and adult is no longer a listed genre. I still see a remnant, in the actor listings. The fourth result on a search for "jenna" is a link to the popular porn actress, but there are no longer any titles listed at netflix. Also noted by Joe, their robots.txt file asks search engine spiders to skip the /MatureGenre section.
I wonder if there were some problems, with people ordering adult titles on others' accounts, or if they got too many letters from concerned parents.
An excerpt from Cory's book about some crazy future disneyland run amok is online. Too bad the rest of the book isn't being published until a year from now.
Microsoft gets a lot of crap for having software that is often compromised. Some say it's due to weak security inherent in their applications while others counter that since they're the #1 operating system and browser, hackers concentrate their efforts on them. Whatever is the cause for the frequent security holes in Microsoft's products, the company isn't doing all it can to remedy the situation.
I was notified about the last two security holes in IE via their security-minded technet site and list. Last time, while patching a hole in IE, I remember not seeing the update at windows update (the automatic OS update service built into win98 and up), and for the newest IE 6 browser hole, the same holds true. I was emailed about this new patch only because I'm on their security bulletin lists. The patch fixes a very serious problem in IE 6; without it, anyone can create a virus and fool your browser into thinking it is a harmless html file. Just to be clear how serious this is: there exists a bug in IE 6 that allows people to run any code they want on your system, by you just browsing to their site. Before I downloaded it, I did a quick check at windows update and scanned for new files. None were offerred and my system was given a clean bill of health.
If Microsoft is serious about protecting their customers and their brand image, I can't see any reason why they would neglect to inform customers specifically looking to update their software from the very latest and safest software updates. Why would they not help their customers? Is it arrogance? The monopoly thing? Or do they not trust their own patches?
Skills needed: html, flash, animation, perl programming, unix/mysql/php familiarity, some marketing experience, content development experience, and PC maintenance skills.
Oh yeah, and it's for a porn site.
Pay: $12-$18 per hour and they've gotten too many resumes to deal with.
This is what happens when you've got too much free time and some web skills. I re-learned Flash enough to remember why I hate the authoring interface, but eventually got the front page done. I re-learned audio and video apps to get the movie done, and I've got nothing but good things to say about adobe premiere. It's come a long way since the last time I used it, and you can do some amazing video work on the desktop.
She shook him awake and said "Matthew is here."
"There's Thay?" he mumbled out.
"What?" I had to ask.
"Thor thife, thor thife" he said, to clear things up.
"Oh, my wife! She's in San Francisco, has another week of school left to teach and was sorry she couldn't come. How are you doing?"
My mom was perhaps too optimistic when she spoke to me on the phone the previous day. It was far from the speedy recovery she described.
Quick recap
On Friday, December 7th, around 5:30AM, my mom and dad were setting out to begin their workday (They sell food on a lunch truck, a sort of convenience store on wheels that is sometimes affectionately described as a "roach coach." Growing up, I was usually too embarrassed to have such blue collar parents, and would hide it from friends by saying "they're caterers, they do catering, you know."). They were fully stocked and ready for their first stop at 6:00AM, but as my dad sat at a green light, my mom piped up from the grill in the back "go, it's green." My dad slumped over a bit, and she could tell something was wrong. The next thing she knew, he punched the pedal and fell to the right. The truck jumped the traffic island and knocked over a street light, but thankfully within minutes paramedics and firemen were on the scene. My dad is a large man, and it took them a good 20-30 minutes (according to my mom) to get him out and onto a strecher bound for the hospital. He was speaking at the time and reasonably coherent.
Around 10:30 that morning I got a call from my brother. Seeing my caller ID popup with "Michael - Home" didn't bode well. My first thought was "Why the hell is my brother calling me from his home on a Friday morning? This can't be good." He explained the problem and the prognosis. Later that day, I spoke with my mom and heard the same thing, a stroke, probably caused by a clot going up to the brain, his left side paralyzed. Saturday brought better news, that he could move his left foot down a little bit, and his left arm raised up involuntarily when he waved goodbye to someone. I felt powerless at home, didn't know what more I could do down in Southern California, but I headed out late Saturday to get down for an early morning visit Sunday.
The hospital
When I got to the hospital Sunday morning, no one else was there with him in the Neuro ICU, just me standing at the foot of his bed. His body laid almost completely motionless while he slept, with tubes coming out of every possible place, connected to monitoring devices nearby. My thoughts ran to a couple days before when I read a few emails he sent me, and responded to his instant messages. Friday afternoon, I got a package he mailed me the day before. All that was lively just days before now looked empty. A battered machine lay before me, a machine that pumped blood and air and electricity through flesh and bone that used to talk to me was now still. The machine was hooked to other machines, cold, beeping, machines.
My hearing suddenly went into tunnel mode, and my urge to faint was only being held back by my inability to breathe.
Outside, under the trees I sat in the breezy shade for about twenty minutes before my mom walked past.
When she woke him up, he'd look up at us on his right side, and request handshakes. He had a surprisingly firm grip and mumbled a few short phrases to us. Later on, my mom told me about how he didn't recognize his brother or her brother from their visits the previous day but was happy to hear he knew who I was and recognized me. He asked to see the TV, watched it for about a minute and fell back asleep. We stayed a couple hours, following much the same routine. Wake him up, ask him questions, talk, and watch him fall back asleep.
It seemed clear his mental capacity was there, and like I mentioned before, his language centers were probably not affected. He can talk alright, it's just that his muscles seem to be causing the slurring. The damage appears to be physical and after three days, most likely long-term if not permanent. Mom mentioned he had lost 45 lbs on his most recent diet, but that he was up to his all-time high of 380 lbs when he started the diet. Recovery and physical therapy are sure to be slow, as he wasn't much of a walker before the stroke.
the aftermath
I talked with my mom about what big changes this would bring about. They're about twice my page, at 58 and 57 years old, but had figured retirement was still a decade away. Their house is a two-story one, with their bedroom at the top of a long curving flight of stairs and would have to be sold asap. Their business could be sold, and their truck along with it, or my mom could continue doing it with a new driver if my dad recovered to the point he could stay at home alone. She didn't seem to like the idea of her own early retirement or starting over with a job. They had various retirement investments, but she wasn't sure if now was the time to start drawing from them. She hoped their health insurance was good enough to pay for the long stay and post-recovery period. She brought up the problem I had pointed out years earlier, the fact that my dad did all the finances, and how she wasn't sure what bills needed to get paid or where they were at. She had been staying at her parents place (my grandparents) and would continue doing so. My grandmother is currently battling alzheimer's, so there would be two major problems she'd have to deal with on a daily basis from now on. The worst part of this whole thing seemed to be the toll his current absence would cause. They've been married almost 35 years, and during the last 25 years, they've spent almost 24 hours everyday in each other's presence. They slept next to each other, went to work together, worked alongside each other, came home together, ate dinner and watched TV in the house together. I look at my mom and see a woman that is missing something right now. I couldn't imagine what it would be like if he were gone forever.
Shared experiences
I had received dozens of emails from people that had experience with their parents' strokes. The aftermath for each seemed to run the gamut. Some recovered fully in a short time. Some required a few months. A good deal responded to therapy, some in short periods of time, others taking longer. For some, the therapy seemed to reverse the process as the brain re-mapped new ways of controlling muscles, for others, the therapy seemed to simply make the paralysis manageable. A small portion didn't talk about recovery, and mentioned follow-up strokes and their parent's passing. It was wonderful to hear how others felt in the same situation, what I could expect, and what typically happens. Part of me wishes there were someplace to share such experiences online, to be browsed when the need arises.
It still remains to be seen what will happen next, but for now I can only hope for continued stabilization in his vital signs and a possibility for recovery.
I've heard some good news, after a cat scan and an angiogram, they found a clot in one of his main arteries. A simple procedure to dissolve it was a success and apparently he's moving his left leg and arm again. He was speaking before and speaking now, so it seems a speedy recovery is possible.
I heard some very bad news today and it made me realize something somewhat depressing.
This morning, while starting his workday with my mom, my dad suffered a stroke. He was driving at the time, and rammed their worktruck into a pole. My mom is fine and I suppose their truck will be ok, but my dad's left side is paralyzed and he's currently in ICU, set to undergo surgery later today. I'm grief-stricken over that (and what effect this will have on them, as they ran their own business, entirely by themselves), though Kay says a right brain injury is better than a left one as his speech will have a better chance of remaining intact.
I also realized today that since I'm unemployed, I don't have any coworkers to share the news with. I talked it over with Kay and that helped, but it sucks to not be at a job where I would normally be surrounded with four or five close friends. I realize that I always took it for granted that I worked at places where my coworkers could also be considered close friends: at UCLA, at Pyra, and even at KnowNow. No one else currently knows about this because I couldn't tell them, it's a bit weird to email or IM someone to say your dad had a stroke. It's also weird to say it here, and I know it may seem self-indulgent for me to turn a post about my dad's currently grave illness into a reflection on myself, but I had to get this off my chest, to say it somewhere.
I participated in a roundtable (virtual) discussion about writing on the web over at The Morning News. I had something to say about every question asked, but feel bad I didn't devote enough time to answering them all.
Three potential benefits to all, if the Segway takes off and gains full acceptance in this country:
- Whether or not it gets allowed on sidewalks, towns will be pressured to build more bike lanes. Getting more bike lanes isn't easy so if we can gain some lanes due to the Kamen PR machine and funding, at least it will benefit others besides just segway owners.
- If it gets popular, it will reduce the number of cars in downtown areas and the all the associated parking hassles, exhaust, and danger that comes from mixing lots of cars in a small space with lots of people. Downtown areas could be safer to pedestrians and bicyclists.
- I didn't see a demo of it climbing stairs, so if successful, the company behind it might also help and/or pressure urban areas to become friendlier to people with different mobility needs. If you couldn't ride a wheelchair from one end of New York City to the other in the year 2000, you might be able to in the year 2005.
So if you walk, ride a bike, or are disabled, you have a lot to gain if this new mode of transportation takes off.
