DanRochman.com

Whew. Flew back from Japan on Sunday - we left Narita at 16:50, and arrived at SFO roughly 8 hours *earlier*. Spooky. That’s why there haven’t been any posts in a long while - things were crazy leading up to vacation, then it was too much of a hassle to get online while in Japan (and a good break for me as a net-junkie), and now it’s crazy again upon our return. Plenty of work to do, and some jet-lag to get over besides. But I wanted to get a post in before the web server actually started to rust…

I *did* start a travel-blog while in Japan, but it’s unfinished, and I *do* have a bunch of photos to post, but they need to be cleaned (a bit) and captioned, so I’m thinking that one day this weekend will be devoted to that, and content will be sparse in the interim. For now, it suffices to say that Japan was amazing. A logistical nightmare (mostly my own fault), but amazing all the same.

Right now, I have to sign off to avoid procrastinating - 9:00 to 10:00 PM is supposed to be “study time”, currently for my upcoming Microsoft SQL Server Administration exam. But before I do that, HUGE cheers and support hugs to Arnon (aka Northbard) for taking the plunge and quitting smoking. Huzzah!!

Oh yeah, one other thing. I swapped out my wireless access point, and signal now reaches the “library” from the “office”. Turns out it wasn’t the singal booster (which I have therefore decided not to return after all) but the AP. The new AP works properly with the booster, which is to say that the booster now BOOSTS the signal coming out of the AP. Hurray. Laptops in the library are now getting weak-to-medium signal strength, so that’s all good. The PS2 (connecting via a DWL-900AP in client mode) in the same room is still iffy, but it’s hardly urgent, and must be on the client side - I’ll figure that out when I get back from Japan.

…for I have sinned. It has been six days since my last blog.
A very busy six days, though - I swear it. Here are some of the highlights:

1. Monday night our friend Sarah came over, and we drank tea, and she showed us pictures from a recent trip (very nice)
2. Tuesday night we went to Berkeley and saw an *AMAZING* concert - Mike Marshall and Chris Thile playing mandolin like you wouldn’t believe
3. Wednesday night we went to a comedy benefit for 826 Valencia, one of the coolest places in the world
4. Thursday night we had a break and stayed in, did chores and homework and the like…
5. Friday night we did dinner and a couple of DVDs (see below)
6. Saturday we went out in the morning, and at night we went out to dinner with Jebavare (Janna + Seb + Ava + Re) at Moki’s (yum)
7. Sunday (today) we started with breakfast at a friend’s place, then Em and the ladies went to see a movie (some Bollywood pic), and Joe and I played SOCOM and The Getaway on PS2 like true nerdboys

End of day today, Em and I returned some DVDs (prepping for our Japan trip, we rented/watched In the Realm of the Senses and Princess Mononoke) to the amazine Le Video, and then ate dinner at Park Chow across the street.

Now I must to bed, since I have to get up early tomorrow and drive to a client site in Sacramento. Yikes.

Okay - I gave up. Mostly. I returned the WSB24 (Wireless Signal Booster) I bought from Amazon, and bought another at Best Buy, because the one from Amazon just *had* to be a freakish dud. But no, the Best Buy unit exhibited the exact same behavior. That is, I hooked it up to my WAP11 (Wireless Access Point), and the signal strength actually DROPPED throughout my apartment. Yes, DROPPED. As in the OPPOSITE of “Boosted”. What’s got me most upset is that I can’t even come close to explaining how that could happen. I’m no electrical engineer, but…

Anyhow, I returned the second unit to Best Buy (Linksys should hate my guts by now), and then went out and bought a great big (low-tech) DRILL BIT. I’m gonna run CAT5 through the fresh holes in my walls. I’m still going to run wireless, but this should let me get the access point WAY closer to the current Dead Zone that is the Library. We’ll see… It’ll be a few nights of toil (at 30 minutes of toil per night, methinks) to get the cables run and test things out.

On the plus side, it still managed to be an amazing weekend. The weather was fabulous - especially because as a transplant I *really* appreciate being able to go the beach in early March, which we did.
Let’s see… Saturday we slept in, then went for breakfast at the Ebb-Tide Cafe. Yummy. Then a couple of errands, then off to Baker Beach to just sit on the sand and look at the Golden Gate Bridge, and be thankful we’re not back in Toronto. Well, that sounds harsh - Toronto’s great, but the weather and scenery at that moment *definitely* couldn’t compare. I took my camera along (except to the beach), and took pictures - mostly of the Mission district (where we live), and the strip of cool shops/clubs/restaurants on nearby Valencia Street. The pics are up the in the gallery, under the “San Francisco Photos” album.

Today was nice, and low-key. More sunny and mild weather. Some work (as in Tectura work), some ice cream from Maggie Mudd’s on Cortland, some errands (like returning the second WSB24 and picking up a Sony Clie for Em), and then off to see City of God, which was simply amazing. Now it’s (almost) time for bed…