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I almost forgot to mention that Starrie and I also ate at Millennium, a 100% vegan and 100% flavorful restaurant, on Saturday night. Amy had declared it her favorite restaurant before, and Starrie and I had to agree that it was pretty awesome. When the cook himself told us to go ahead and ask him any questions about any of the ingredients in our food, we knew we were in good hands.
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.: posted by Vera 
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I am exhausted. After three days of Flash Forward and three nights of clubbing my eyes are on half mast today.
My favorite part of Day 3 at the conference was taking a peek at Dave Yang's code during his presentation. The reason I liked this was because he had his ActionScript highlight colors set to pink, purple and red instead of the conventional blue, navy blue and gray.
Last night Starrie and I went to a Warp Records release party at Bimbo's. The party was for Plaid's new album. I had never heard of Plaid before but their performance was fantastic. It was aggressive and melodic at the same time. We got in for free because we were "with the DJ." Well, kind of. And yes, this was my first time being "with the DJ," even kind of. The crowd at Bimbo's was interesting. Lots of very outlandish and creative outfits. It reminded me of Hollywood crowds. By Hollywood crowd I don't mean celebrities and aspiring celebrities, but the local freaks that would show up if you went to, say, a Gus Gus concert in Hollywood. The only thing I didn't like about the release party was that hardly anybody was dancing. People for the most part were just standing around, watching the performers and bobbing their heads. I was guilty of this myself because I was just too tired from having danced a lot the night before. The only people that were really giving it their all were Starrie and some guy with pink hair.
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.: posted by Vera
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Last night Starrie and I went to Club Six to see Ms. E and Adam Freeland. It was excellent. The only drawback was that I was wearing a shirt that, while very cool and shiny and recycled, is made out of vinyl or a similar material that can't breathe at all, and after two hours of dancing I was not only wearing the shirt but also a thick, solid layer of sweat that was trapped between my skin and the shiny shirt and could not find its way out.
We were supposed to meet up with Sukeban and Dov from Muti Music, who couldn't make it after all, but we might see them tonight.
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.: posted by Vera
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Today is the last day of Flash Forward, and yesterday was Day 2, but I didn't get to blog about it yesterday because I didn't get home until late last night, and I am not privileged or mobile enough to have a laptop and blog live from the conference. Plus, to tell you the truth, I am too lazy to write detailed recaps of all the presentations anyway. But. It was definitely a great and informative day. My favorite part of the day was when Christian Cantrell during his presentation on ColdFusion explained the difference between DataProvider and DataGlue. The difference is really very simple and straight-forward, but it had eluded me before.
I missed most of the Flash Film Festival because I had to pick up the boy from work, but I was back in time for the Flash Forward "After Party" in SoMa. After the After Party, Starrie and I went to DNA Lounge where Halou performed live, and I can honestly say that the Halou singer Rebecca Coseboom is probably the closest to a heavenly creature that I have ever come across, and where Sukeban put on a great set that made us get all jiggy with it. But then I had to leave and unfortunately missed Dexorcist's set, which Starrie said was the best thing she ever heard, or in her words "Oh.my.god."
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.: posted by Vera
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Today was the first day of Flash Forward. I normally don't enjoy sitting through lectures all day, but today sure was fun! I guess the subject makes all the difference, especially if the subject is something you yourself are obsessed about. First I went to Philip Kerman's presentation on Rich Application development. Then Starrie, Tim, Kristin and I had lunch at Golden Era. Then I went to Colin Moock's workshop on object-oriented programming and inbetween I checked out Jonathan Kaye's session on Simulation. Finally, it was time for some schmoozing and boozing on the balcony where I met some people from this fine destination. My favorite part of the day? When Philip Kerman elucidated somewhat the mystery of web services and WSDL. All in all, it was a big success, and I can't wait to go back tomorrow!
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.: posted by Vera
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The boy used a phrase this weekend that I really kind of liked and that I think people in general should use a lot more often: I like it corny.
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.: posted by Vera
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So it looks like I am going to get completely screwed on my taxes this year. And I don't mean screwed as in I-didn't-pay-taxes-all-year-and-now-I-suddenly-owe-$2000-screwed but screwed as in I-paid-Virginia-state-taxes-all-year-and-now-California-wants-to-charge-me-on-top-of-it. All of the money I made in 2002 came from the University of Virginia, so Virginia wants to charge me taxes for all of it. And California wants to charge me taxes for the portion of it that I earned while living in California, which is about 60% because I lived in California for about 60% of the year 2002. It just doesn't sound right to me. I can't be charged for 100% by Virginia and for another 60% by California. Can I? That would imply I earned 160% of what I really earned. I am going to have my lawyer look into it for me. Okay, so I don't really have a lawyer. But I live with one.
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.: posted by Vera
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I got a new T-shirt today. I would like to dedicate this T-shirt to my friend Starrie, Strawberry Shortcake's biggest fan since 1982, and I promise to wear it when she comes into town and we go dancing, and I won't even mind if she stares at my boobs the whole time because I know how much she loves Strawberry Shortcake.
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.: posted by Vera
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 In 1995 I bought this purse. I got it at H & M. It was turquoise. At first I didn't have that much use for it. I was 19 and didn't really carry a purse yet. None of my friends did either. But I saw the purse and liked how bright and shiny and cheap it was, and I had to have it. A few months later I discovered that you can detach the long strap and just carry it around like a lunch box. This meshed better with my style at the time, so I started carrying it around everywhere. It was my last year of school in Germany. I think I was the only girl at my school who brought a purse to school, and I know for a fact that I was the only girl at my school who brought a turquoise purse to school. A few years after I graduated, I went back to my old school to visit my French teacher and he asked me if I still had that turquoise purse. I said yes. In 1999, when it became more fashionable to wear a purse or bag that sits on your hip with a strap diagonally across your chest, I reattached the long strap to my purse and continued to wear it that way. But eventually I had to admit to myself that it was just too worn and dirty and mangled no matter how hard I tried to polish it back up to an unobjectionable condition. So for the last three or so years I haven't worn the purse at all but I still keep it around because I think it's just so damn snappy. I should have bought two back in 1995. What item do you wish you had bought two of in the past?
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.: posted by Vera
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I added three new characters to my cast of Favorite Bloggers: Amy Leblanc, who avoids big name grocery stores and who is currently traveling South East Asia; Jane, who moves around more than anybody I know and who I spotted walking down the street once, which made me feel like a stalker; and Helen Jane, who is getting married soon and will always be remembered as the first paid weblogger. Now go read them! Each of these girls' life warrants a peek or twenty-five.
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.: posted by Vera
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Three pictures from the workplace:
What I see when I sit at my desk and look up.
I'm a sucker for nondescript, unorganic sculptures. These ones I think are supposed to be either trees or clouds since they hang right above this fake golf course.
This is the color most of the walls are. (Yes, I took a picture of a piece of wall.)
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.: posted by Vera
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Some unrelated excerpts from my new 9 to 5 existence:
- One of the guys I work with says Frash instead of Flash. It's the cutest thing I ever heard.
- My feel-good rainbow coffee mug disappeared from the kitchen over the weekend. I'm not happy about that at all.
- Today I found out that one of my coworkers and I are practically neighbors. I know where I'll be going if I'm ever out of milk.
- I am having a hard time adjusting to a new routine. When do I go to the gym? When do I go to the grocery store? When do I read my favorite blogs? When and where do I eat my cereal? When and where do I drink my tea? When and where do I relax? I am used to doing everything whenever I please and most of it right in front of my computer. Now I have suddenly become one of those busy people who makes all her phone calls in the car.
- There is a spot on my commute from which I can see both the tip of this and the tip of this. I felt special when I noticed that while stuck in traffic the other day.
- Today on my commute, in contrast, I had a view of five helicopters circling downtown. It freaked me out because it reminded me a little bit of this dream.
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.: posted by Vera
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Both Adam Freeland and Aquasky will be coming to town within the next few weeks. I am the luckiest girl in the world! Except that while Aquasky does their thing, I will be in the sky myself, anxiously waiting to touch down in Düsseldorf.
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.: posted by Vera
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I hate unimaginatively ambivalent movie titles like Poetic Justice or Saving Grace. And I especially hate ambivalent titles that are ambivalent because they can be read in either the transitive or the intransitive like Judging Amy or, well, Saving Grace. Those should definitely be against the law. Who's with me?
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.: posted by Vera
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For a while in college I worked as a bank teller. For obvious reasons, I wasn't as americanized then as I am now. I always tried to make sure that my boss approved of everything I was doing. I did this by saying "You got a problem with that?" My boss's reaction was always "No, no, that's fine," except for one time where he snapped at me under his breath. I didn't realize how belligerent I was being until years later when watching a scene in a movie where somebody said "You got a problem with that?" and ended up with a black eye and a few missing teeth. How did I keep my job for two years?
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.: posted by Vera
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I have had to bashfully admit to myself that I have a closet crawling with clothes, but absolutely nothing to wear at work. Despite the company's casual - not even business casual - dress code, I just don't think my Power Puff Girl T-shirts, rainbow knee high socks, robotic skirts and raver pants are quite appropriate - at least not yet. So tonight after work I am going to be shopping for some nerdy chic, and I can't wait.
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.: posted by Vera
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The fun part about working with a bunch of other international QA engineers is that each of them has a different accent, and sometimes when one of them uses an expression that you're not familiar with, you have to wonder if it's company jargon or a linguistic quirk.
And the fun part about having a cool manager is that in addition to his Hello Kitty water bottle, he will bring cookies to the meeting.
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.: posted by Vera
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Today was my first day at my new job.
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.: posted by Vera
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Note to self: Pluck eyebrows before your first day of work tomorrrow. Also: Take shower, brush teeth and put on pants that have a zipper and footwear with soles. (Having telecommuted since May, my personal grooming techniques are a little rusty.)
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.: posted by Vera
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This happens to me quite a bit: I hear about something that I have never heard about before, a place, a piece of culture, an event, and then within a very short time period I will run into another reference to it. For example, a few weeks ago I talked to somebody at a party, and he told me that he lived in Livermore. I asked him where Livermore was, and he told me that it's the last stop before nothingness on the way to Los Angeles on the 5. He also told me that it's where all the windmills are, hadn't I ever seen them? I hadn't, not consciously, but later that weekend I watched Pacific Heights, and in it there is a scene in which somebody drives by those windmills towards San Francisco.
And this weekend I was reading BPM Magazine, which had a feature called Who is America's Favorite DJ? and Sasha, the magazine claims, is #3, and when asked what comes to his mind when he hears the term candy ravers, he replied "I think of myself in the hacienda wearing a bandana and having a smiley t-shirt on in 1988." I thought hacienda? Huh. I had no idea what the Hacienda was. But then tonight I watched 24 Hour Party People in which the Hacienda is mentioned and used as a party venue a few times. I guess this type of instant rehash ensures I will always remember both Livermore and the Hacienda. Does this ever happen to you?
P.S.: Another example is that my friend Monica recently went to New Zealand, and while she was there she wrote me some emails. One of the places she talked of in those emails was Wellington. The day I got the email from Monica that mentioned Wellington, I had two people over who had just moved to San Francisco from Wellington, New Zealand where they had lived for two years because they were working on Lord of the Rings I and II.
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.: posted by Vera
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I am now a contributing blogger at GalaxyGoo! This is where I will post the more geeky stuff that I don't want to bore my readers with.
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.: posted by Vera
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So remember when I said that I would set up a live webcam feed with Flash? Well, I have done that. BUT. It doesn't work very well. So far nobody outside my home network has reported seeing the webcam stream. If you want to give it try, be my guest. If you see me or even any corner of my humble office, please let me know. The problem, I am told by the smarties on the message boards, has to do with ports. I need to open a certain port if I want people from the outside to access my stream. Oh. Really. If I knew what a port is, I might be able open it. But of course as soon as I started asking about how to open a port or even how to find a port, people stopped talking to me.
Editor's Note: I am Vera's alter ego and editor and happen to be on the local network in her office. I have seen the live webcam working. This is what it looked like.
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.: posted by Vera
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Hi there. Yeah, you. Do you like this blog? You do? Well, thank you. Do you have your own blog? Yes? Good for you. Do you also have a links section on your blog? Uh-huh? Nice. But why is the Subastral Lilipad not listed there even though you visit it almost every day? Just wondering.
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.: posted by Vera
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I got a brandnew computer today. Since I quit my job, I am going to have to send back the beautiful telecommuting computer with the beautiful flat panel monitor. And since my personal computer gave up on me a couple of months ago, I ordered myself a brandnew one, and it arrived today. It doesn't have a flat panel monitor, but everything else is pretty great. Well, except every time I eject a CD, it crashes. We'll work on that. Anyway, this is the first post from my new best friend! Say hi, everybody!
Things I installed or otherwise brought over to the new computer today:
-Macromedia software
-Adobe software
-All my emails since 1998 (I don't feel whole until all of my emails are safely in my digital back pocket)
-Apache
-PHP
-Anti-virus software
-Textpad
-MySQL-Front
-Most of my pictures
-All my mp3's
Still to go:
-Java
-All of my mediasparkles files
-Most of my other project files
-Webcam
-Printer
-Scanner
-Some cute screensaver
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.: posted by Vera
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If you see my Sitemeter being at 5555 today, please email me a screenshot! Please?
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.: posted by Vera
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My grandpa turns 80 today. I got an invitation in the mail. It reads:
You don't turn 80 every day, and I cannot imagine celebrating this day without you. That's why I invite you to come to bla-bla-bla on April 12, 2003 at 11:00 am.
If possible, bring the boy.
Opa
It just so happens that I will be in the neighborhood on April 12th. Ah, it's going to be fun.
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.: posted by Vera
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Growing up in Germany in the 80's, we thought that America was pretty swell. Everything cool and laid-back came from America, like baseball caps, bubble gum, skateboards, and Knight Rider. When we heard Americans talk on TV, they sounded to us as if they had big wads of gum in their mouths. Those wads of gum, or the English language or whatever it was, precluded us from understanding anything they were saying, but they sure sounded cool. Even their presidents were sometimes cool and handsome, which couldn't be said for Germany. America to Germany was like the cooler, older sister. She ate hamburgers for breakfast, she was allowed to get multiple divorces, and she had a cooler outfit with stars on it.
My grandparents lived in South Carolina for two years, and for Christmas they brought us home some American clothes. I remember them being brighter and more synthetic than the clothes I was used to. My mom I don't think liked them very much. Some of those clothes said USA on them. I said Mom, what's 'Ooza'? When she explained it to me, I thought Wow. Ooza sounds like a pretty cool place. Maybe I'll go there sometime.
I wonder if German children today still think that America is cool.
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.: posted by Vera
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A dear old friend of mine who unfortunately I haven't seen or talked to since, I think, a 95/96 New Year's party, apparently has won the Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Strategy Award 2002.
CONGRATULATIONS, Philipp Kurney!
And please email me if you ever read this because I have no idea how to get in touch with you these days.
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.: posted by Vera
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There is a guy at my gym who sweats too much. I realize of course that everybody sweats, but this guy takes it too far. He sweats so profusely, it should be against the law. It's inhumane. He cries me a river with his sweat. Actually, two rivers, one on each side of whichever machine he is on. In fact, I am convinced he is the reason the gym staff mop the floors every single day.
Today, Sweaty ran by me really fast. I don't know why he was in a hurry. All I know is that I suddenly felt the air around me move violently. When I realized that that air was coming from him, I closed all the orifices in my body really, really tight and prayed that I would not die.
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.: posted by Vera
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I noticed that not a lot of people wear their glasses to the gym. And those that do, are... probably just me.
I also noticed today that not a lot of people stick out their tongues while working out. And those that do, are... probably also just me.
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.: posted by Vera
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I just got home from a party at my friend Monica's house, and I am blown away by how much the world can shrink in just ten minutes. First I met a German girl who is visiting her boyfriend here in San Francisco. We talked for a little bit, and then I found out that she goes to school in Münster, which is where my brother goes to school and where my dad works and where I have spent a lot of time throughout my life because it is only about twelve miles away from where I grew up. So there. That's interesting. The German girl I randomly meet at a party in San Francisco is not from Stuttgart or Leipzig or Hannover or Kiel but lives in Münster, which is basically where I grew up. But THEN. Then I meet her boyfriend who lives in San Francisco and is originally from France. I talk to him for a little bit and he asks me what I do and I say bla bla bla, but I am about to start a new job at Macromedia. And then he tells me that a few years ago he worked at Macromedia as the French QA Engineer for Flash 5. And if you remember, I am about to start as the German QA Engineer for Flash 7 or Flash MX2 or whatever the next version is going to be called. So then the German girl and the French boy and I got into a big hug together and said "Wow. What a small world."
Another observation I would like to make tonight is that in the Age of Blogging, people don't say "I'll call you" anymore. Instead, they say "I'll read your blog." Because that's exactly what my friend Robby said to me when I said my good-bye's tonight.
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.: posted by Vera
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It was a beautiful Saturday in San Francisco. The boy and the girl went to the Golden Gate Park Panhandle for some fun and food with friends, a sonic picnic in the almost-spring time. Drew and Josh spun some records at the foot of the McKinley statue; we had some cheese and wine and bread and grapes, just like Romans, and we even hired some of the local homeless to plop some grapes into our mouths; the boy climbed a tree; and the boy and the girl played catch with a stick. The only disruption came over in form of a homeless guy who complained about the loud music in his living-room. And the whole thing is pretty well documented.
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.: posted by Vera
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Today I saw two things that I had never seen or even heard of before:
1. A Locked Groove record. A record whose grooves aren't arranged in a spiral but in an array of parallel grooves, each containing a different, endlessly repeating (locked) sound loop.
2. An SUV limo. A viler vehicle I have not seen.
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.: posted by Vera
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