The life and times of a history nerd in a tech geek's world

Please be warned, despite the title, this post might not be quite so happy.

Did you know that all it takes is a mere 20+ hours of traveling, delays, waiting, and a night spent near JFK airport to earn an upgrade to business class? If you’re lucky, you might even be switched from an airline that doesn’t support WiFi on many flights (such as Continental), to one that does (such as Delta). So here I am, sitting in my comfy seat with a blanket, my feet propped up, a lovely, aerial view of American farmland, rivers, and highways to my left, my laptop neatly placed in front of me, and all the frustrations of the previous day nearly forgotten.

The past 10 days have included moments of frustration, joy, exhaustion, sadness, and relief. It began with a red-eye flight from SFO < EWR, a morning spent in a dated airport hotel, and a reunion with my 80 year-old, Northern Irish grandmother outside customs in Terminal C. The purpose of our meeting in this way, was to accompany each other upwards to Nova Scotia to visit my great aunt and her sister. Aunt Sally lives in a nursing home and suffers from Alzheimers and the loneliness that comes with long-departed relatives and friends, as well as the long distance from her native home.

For my grandmother, who we can refer to as "Granny," this was a necessary and much longed-for trip. She feared that if she did not go when she did, that her sister may no longer recognize her or that she (Granny) may not be fit to handle the cross-Atlantic flight. For me, it was an opportunity to meet my great aunt for the second time and to spend time with Granny when she most needed it.

In a few days, once I've had the chance to upload all my photos, I'll chronicle our adventure in fuller detail. For now, I just need a place to enter some of the many thoughts and emotions that came with it all.

Nova Scotia was hardly the place I remembered it being from the sole journey I had made about 15 years earlier. Instead of finding hearty seafood meals and charming mom and pop shops, we drove through run-down towns and ate microwaved "baked" potatoes. Granny remarked on the absence of shops she remembered and the bizarre drop in population. However, the landscape, with its many rivers, hilltops, and inlets, remained unchanged.

We spent our days between our country road motel, neighboring towns, and Aunt Sally's nursing home, Grace Haven. On our first visit, Aunt Sally instantly recognized Granny but had trouble making conversation and resorted to frequently discussing the blue sky and nice green grass. Each day she returned more and more to her old self - making jokes, laughing, informing us of where old friends once had lived, and commenting on how it was high strawberry season. Her mobility levels appeared to coincide with her mental capacity for remembrance and recognition. The more she chatted, the less she complained of her sore legs.

Granny's mood also fluctuated with Aunt Sally's behavior, as to be expected. Watching the two sisters reconnect as Granny told her sister stories of when they were children and as Aunt Sally poked fun at Granny for spilling ice cream down her top, was incredibly moving. Realizing that Aunt Sally had slipped back into confusion when she asked when we would take her home, was heartbreaking. As a mostly silent onlooker, I wanted to be able to take this woman I barely knew, yet with whom I share so much, into my arms and tell her that someday we would come to take her home for good.

I am still unsure whether Aunt Sally truly understood who I was. She knew me as someone she could trust, but whether she saw me as a relative I suppose I'll never know. The important thing was that she always knew and smiled at her sister. I imagine she's forgotten by now that we were ever over to spend time with her, but I'd like to think that she feels a bit happier and doesn't feel quite so alone.

It is easy to adopt a sense of relaxation when promptly prepared meals and endless servings of tea are brought to my small table, 10,000 feet above the ground. Today's situation sharply contrasts with yesterday's feeling of being stranded at the Halifax airport, and then at JFK, the abrupt goodbye shared between Granny and myself, and the sadness of knowing that neither of us will probably ever see Aunt Sally again.

Only 2 1/2 hours to go until I reach San Francisco. I just need to be home.

I’ll try to withhold the puns from now on…

March was somewhat of a busy month for me. First I recovered from a whirlwind of Northern Irishness after my cousin and her friend came to stay for a few weeks. Then I went to London and Northern Ireland for two weeks to visit family and friends, as well as surprise my grandmother for her 80th birthday party (she was shocked, if you must know). I came back to San Francisco, collapsed in a heap, then ventured off to wine country for a weekend of silly pillow fights, hot tubs, and – you guessed it! – wine.

Below I’ve included quite a few photos from the last few weeks. Some of my favorites come from Londonderry/Derry, a part of Northern Ireland long troubled by pro/anti union troubles for years and years. It also contains old walls surrounding the city, which are interesting to walk around. Although my father had walked the walls before (he was born and raised in NI), he didn’t think he’d ever actually walk the city streets (wait a minute…this sounds like the start of a U2 song). Many signs in the area, whether pro or anti union, are still covered with paint (probably from paint guns) and intimidating murals featuring schoolgirls accompanied by AK47s face busy streets.

A lot of the other photos are just silly.

That sure is a lot of photos!

Boring blog post about nothing in particular because I’ve been a bad blogger

Some days words come without me barely having to put forth an effort and others the mere thought of coming up with a decent blog topic is a challenge. As I enjoy posting to my blog somewhat regularly, I’ve got to push through and allow myself to have a few horrible blog posts.*

I just looked through some older posts, hoping to find a bit of inspiration, and stumbled across my *not* resolution post from the very beginning of this year. I must say, without trying too hard, I’ve done a pretty good job of doing the things I’d hoped to do:

-To get into an awesome law school and to not have that kill me.
So far I’ve only heard from one school and it was good news. It may not be at the very top of my list of where I’d like to go, but it’s decent and they’ve offered me quite a bit of money. Even if I wind up getting rejected from everywhere else I’ve applied, I know that someone wants me. After a year of rejections, it’s nice to finally feel gratified after months of studying, writing, and wondering. Hopefully I’ll hear back from some other schools soon!

-To find an internship and some more contract work.
Sigh. Still have to get cracking on this one. But I’ve been keeping myself busy with Twilio stuff and lots, I mean lots, of guests!

-To design my own website.
This is another thing that’s going to take some time. But thanks to my friend Brendan and a CSS book filled with lots of tutorials, I now have an idea of what this CSS stuff is all about. I still get easily confused but I think I’m just about ready to jump in and try my own thing.

-To visit another new state and country (or international city)-this is pretty much my goal every year.
This one’s going to be tough. Not sure if the country is going to happen as it looks like the rest of 2011 is almost entirely planned out, but a new state could possibly happen. Perhaps I’ll plan an adventure to Seattle before the end of the year!

-To get back into martial arts.
Success! I have joined the Okinawan Karate Club of San Francisco and I absolutely love it. My only gripe is that the only two class times are on Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons. I’d love a third class on Mondays or Tuesdays! The other people in the club are really nice, they keep things traditional, which means they focus on self-defense and history rather than competition. I have to start as a white belt again though, which is a bit weird since I have a brown belt in my old style, but I suppose it’s good to brush up on my basics.

-To reconnect with other old friends who I have been horrible about keeping in touch with.
I’ve definitely been slightly better about this, but there’s still more I should do. But hey, as I mentioned before, I’ve had a million guests here!

-To properly visit the East Coast.
Still hasn’t happened.

-To keep being happy.
Still doing pretty good on this front!

That’s it for now. I’ve just discovered that there’s an Android app for Words with Friends (gasp! A Zynga product, noo!) so I’m going to challenge a stranger. If you’re on there, you should totes be my friend (username cedickie).

*I admit, there haven’t really been any good blog posts for a while, whatevs!

Sometimes I feel like a boat in the ocean, then I realize there are much bigger things, like giant boats, out there (hey, don’t get mad at me for not making sense, you’re the one that made it this far down the post!).

Hangin’ at a dojo, but sadly not the martial arts kind.

It’s Saturday afternoon and instead of partaking in a Santa themed bar crawl (Santacon 2010), I am sitting on a couch at Mountain View’s Hacker Dojo for Super Happy Dev House. I’m pretty sure I’m one of 10 females here- I’m guessing there are at least 100 people here overall. The picture I’ve included of the other C is sort of supposed to be a representation of the geekery here, but I’d say he’s a bit cooler than the rest (just a bit).

At least it’s supposed to rain so I shouldn’t be too sad about spending the day on my computer. My goal is to learn something awesome so I’m not such an internet n00b anymore. While everyone else here is discussing iPhone apps, language code that sounds kind of like qoeiurfsrerery, and probably Star Trek, I will be reading CSS: The Missing Manual. I will possibly update later if I figure something out, or am not feeling horribly lazy.

Attempting to amp up the nerdery while C is out of town.

Maybe I should start driving again

Perhaps I shouldn’t complain about BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) because it does run fairly often and covers a good amount of ground, but it can be sooo horrible sometimes! Honestly, BART, what is your deal? Some things about you and stuff related to you just don’t make sense!

Examples:

1) Sometimes it feels like you don’t care too much about people who travel towards Richmond, especially on a weekend. When my Pittsburgh/Bay Point train arrives in Oakland, why must the Richmond train pull away before my doors are open? There isn’t another train coming for 17 (17!) minutes, which leaves me waiting in the cold listening to your dumb announcements about trash cans. Would holding up an extra 10 seconds really have hurt anyone or have screwed up your schedule?

2) Who designed these BART machines? Out of all the subways I’ve taken around the world (which is quite a few), your machines are by far the most confusing. What is this “Print $20 card” nonsense? What if I only need $4 worth of BART value but have $.4 remaining? Then I have to press “Subtract $1″ and then subtract however many cents (or leave those $.4 on there) until I get to my desired amount. What on earth? Why do some machines accept credit card but others will only take debit? It’d be one thing if you only ran through commuter destinations, but you head to the airport and some of the more touristy spots in the city! Poor foreigners.

3) The regular BART machines aren’t even the worst. It’s those Add Value things that are the worst. Maybe I didn’t realize that I was lacking the extra $.4 I needed on my BART card and don’t happen to have cash on me or any bills smaller than a $5 note on me (these machines only accept cash in the form of $5 and $1 notes). Now you’re telling me I have to exit by a side door, go to an ATM, go to a change machine so I can have my perfectly acceptable $20 note changed into multiple $5 notes, go back through the side exit, add $5 to the machine to deal with those pesky $.4, and get everything back in change? Meanwhile, the bus I need because the Richmond train left before I could get on it is speeding away. Good grief.

4) Freakin’ Clipper Card, man. Freakin’ Clipper Card. It’s an awesome idea and it does work pretty well, for the most part. However, it’d be nice if the whole add value ordeal was worked out. Great, my card is out of money and I didn’t realize this because the website doesn’t properly update my balance. I can’t update it at the BART station because that would be way too convenient. Instead, I go to my computer, update my card, and get the message that it might “take up to 72 hours” to work! What?! Didn’t Clipper Card just come out this summer? Isn’t this new technology? Don’t we live right next to Silicon Valley, the world’s center of technology? WTF? So now that I’ve added money to my nifty little card, I wait a couple days, try to tap in on BART, get the stupid little “See Attendant” message because it hasn’t been updated yet, make everyone behind me irritated, then try my luck with the old BART card in my wallet. It’s only got $.4 on it so I go to the machine and subtract money until I get the amount I need. Without doubt, I will eventually wind up on an impromptu journey to Berkeley without any $5 or $1 notes in my pocket, meaning that I will have to go through the terrible process mentioned in Example 3.

5)I HATE the stupid little scrolling board of “info.” This place should never be reserved for advertisements or info about how to use BART to get to certain “super fun” events. That’s what those spots on the wall for advertisements are for!! I don’t want to wait 5 minutes to figure when my train is coming because you want to let me know I could text the word “relax” to 12345 in order to maybe win $3 to Jamba Juice! Also, it’d be nice to have some sort of update about what train is coming next while the current train is in the station. That way, when I’m running late due to Examples 2 and 4, I will know whether the Richmond train I need is coming in 1 minute or 17 minutes.

6) What is up with the escalators? Sometimes they go up, sometimes they go down, sometimes they don’t go anywhere at all. Would it really have been so difficult to have built escalators going in both directions? There is usually space for two escalators. Perhaps you should have considered putting the money into fixing up those, rather than have wasted it on those bum toilets elevators. Yes, I realize they’re meant for handicapped users, but if they (the elevators that is) never work no one really wins now do they?

Okay, I’m done…for now.

I am probably too angry.