Every year the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference starts out with a keynote speech and people line up for hours for the 10AM event. It’s the only event that’s not under NDA and has press in attendance as well. Every year I take a picture of the media wall for some dumb reason and this year wasn’t any different.

This year WWDC sold out in less than a day and so I figured lining up at 7AM (a sketchy prospect at best) would be too late. I woke up at 4AM because of jet lag from being in Cambridge for the reunion and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I ended up in line at 5AM. The people ahead of me in line were from the art and IT departments of the Watchtower so I was on my best behavior and they were quite friendly as well. So my week had lots of weird sleep deprivation keeping me going, but I was able to hang out with Megan and Nadeem a couple of times. They took me out to get the best hamburger ever, even better than my old favorite at Laurelhurst Market, at Citizen’s Band on 8th and Folsom. Or 9th and Folsom. I always get it wrong. (It’s 8th and Folsom.)

I even made it to Nelsoen’s birthday gathering and hung out in the hotel bar a few nights, talking to all sorts of random people. It was great fun. The only disappointment was that I didn’t know the band playing at the bash. I’d never heard of Michael Franti and Spearhead, but they were fun. They just didn’t have the name recognition, for me, of the previous bands: Ozomatli, Bare Naked Ladies, Cake, or OK Go.

They did have Buzz Aldrin as the final speaker on Friday. I ended up going to a barbecue on Friday night with a bunch of small developers and flew out of San Jose on Saturday. Once again, I almost missed my flight because I was eating. I was in downtown San Jose buying namagashi for my mom and sister and I checked my flight. It was 1 1/2 hours before the flight and I should have been at the airport. But I had to make one last stop before going to the airport.

That’s right. A double-double animal style.

My computer is still being difficult and it is my own fault, but it’s working fairly well. I have the GM of Mac OS X Lion installed and most of the things I use on a day-to-day basis are working fairly well, so I can get back to my usual routine of breaking things on my own.

Here’s a bunch of pictures from my reunion. When I was training for the marathon, I remember there were three goals to have. A realistic goal, a stretch goal, and one that you’re sure to meet so you aren’t disappointed. I remember those were beat Oprah (4:30), 3:30, and have a good time. For my reunion, I only had a couple of goals of having fun and eating a lobster roll. I hit both those within my first 24 hours. My first night, I had dinner with guys I hadn’t seen for twenty-five years. I figured they still wouldn’t be talking to me, but the stress of senior year at MIT was far in the past and we all got along as well as we did in earlier years.

From the left, that’s Ron Duncan, Dr. Mike Malaska, me, and Dr. Juan Alvarez. Ron works at Synopsys, and Mike and Juan are pharmaceutical researchers. Mike was the guy who I was afraid wouldn’t talk to me but, like I said, we’re not in our senior year at MIT any more.

My other goal was easily met because Legal Seafood is next to the Marriott where I was staying.

Reunion weekend is the same as graduation, and I stopped to watch the parade of graduates come from Kresge Oval on the way to Killian Court.

Kresge Oval was also where we had a barbecue on Friday night, which reminded us all about MIT food. It was expensive ($38?) and awful. But it did give a chance to hang out with even more friends.

There’s Mike, me, Banleng James Toh, Ron, and Henry Woo. Henry’s the only one from the MIT Class of 1986 I’ve seen in the intervening 25 years.

Saturday night was our class banquet which coincided with MIT’s 150th. I didn’t take all that many pictures, but I do have prof that I saw Bobby Satcher, who is now Dr. Robert Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., Astronaut. You can see the MIT 150 on the Hancock Building, or whatever it’s called now.

That’s Mike, Henry Dr. Satcher, me, Randall Nelson, and Ron.

Sunday I left pretty early to make it to Apple’s WWDC in San Francisco. I did have a chance to meet the guys at a café, including Dr. Paul Dimilla before I got in a taxi for the airport.

That’s Henry, James, Paul, and Mike.

That’s all the MIT pictures I have so far, and I think 25 years was too long to wait to see those guys.

In keeping with the new “screw with my computer until too late” theme (same as the old theme) I decided to upgrade my Quicken to something that actually runs on a Mac made in this decade. That is, from Quicken 2007 to Quicken Essentials. What a pain in the tuckus that was. And now it’s tomorrow and I need to get some sleep.

Yes there are pictures. I’m going to do something about them soon.

I didn’t get that many pictures last week because, well, I don’t take as many pictures as I should. And some of the ones I took are AWFUL. But I have a few pictures of the guys I hung out with at the reunion (mostly the same group of guys).

I also have a few pictures from the Apple conference, but mostly of the BEST HAMBURGER I EVER HAD at Citizen’s Band. Oh and another picture of a different astronaut, Buzz Aldrin. Anyway, those pictures would have been up earlier, but I’ve been busy DESTROYING MY LAPTOP or at least trying to install all sorts of beta Apple stuff that I’m not supposed to talk about even though it’s been announced already.

So there you go. I’m still alive, a slight bit fatter, and sort of rested, sort of tired and my pictures are still stuck somewhere on my laptop.

I left sunny Boston this morning for cloudy SF and the Apple WWDC. I did get to see a bunch of classmates who had changed but were definitely still recognizable after 25 years! I even have photographic proof that I saw Bobby Satcher, who is now Robert Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., Astronaut and has incredibly cute kids. Come to think of it, I think a lot of the kids I met were a lot like their parents in many ways. Ron and Kyla Duncan’s kids were as nice and easy going as Ron and Kyla. Dara Foias’ daughter seemed as clever and inquisitive as you’d expect from parents who are Dara and her husband the biochem prof.

I felt like kind of a loser, like I often do around MIT grads. Every chem major I ran into had his Ph.D. and everyone else seemed to be in Investment Banking. What’s cool is how my friends can explain to me what they’re doing without making me feel too stupid.

I just had dinner with Megan and Nadeem at the best Middle Eastern restaurant I can remember going to, Bursa in West Portal (San Francisco). I better go before I lapse into a food coma.

Whee! I made it to Boston today and I met up with three of my old classmates, Dr. Mike Malaska, Dr. Juan Alvarez, and Ron Duncan. I also saw Kyla Duncan, M.S. and Colin Shepard (NRS) who works in Hillsboro (where I do) but I had to wait 25 years and travel the width of the US to see him again. I kept describing everyone as the big cheeses while I’m kind of a disappointment and waste of an MIT education. I also met the kids of Dr. Robert Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., astronaut and Ron and Kyla’s kids as well.

I did meet an MIT grad who was serving ice cream at Toscanini’s. That’s some good ice cream. I will opine, however, that the food is much better in Portland. There, I said it. I’m a Portland food snob.

I’m taking some time off from the gym (one whole extra day, so far) because I may have overdone it last week. Or I’m being lazy. Or I’m really, really, in need of a vacation.

I did spend most of the day trying to hang some curtains. It meant taking down the old curtains, washing them, taking down the old hardware, and then putting up the new hardware and the outdated but hopefully clean curtains. There was 41 years of dust on the curtains, much of it from when my dad smoked and my mom burned incense for the Buddhist shrine we have. After all the trouble, I was almost finished putting it all together when I noticed I BOUGHT THE WRONG CURTAIN ROD. I wanted one with the pull string that opened and closed the curtains, but I got one that just sat there. And it didn’t take rings or slides to let the curtains open and close at all. The goddamn worthless things are the type that make you tie up the curtains on the sides of the window with some sort of rope. Or maybe you’re supposed to get your butler to do it. I mean, honestly, where the hell am I going to come up with a butler?

So, tomorrow, back to the drawing board. At least I got the replacement parts for my grandmother’s old barber clippers and I got it mostly working again. That’s something, anyway.

Perhaps this is another one of the joys of getting older. Going to the gym makes you feel like you got beat up in a bumfight or something. Or maybe a car wreck. Though the few times I’ve been in a car wreck I didn’t feel so bad.

Really, I have very little to add tonight. I still need to juggle my bank accounts and bleed away the money I have socked away for my never-arriving Toyota Prius I ordered back in February. Or maybe I should just say I suggested to the dealer that I have A BIG PILE OF MONEY set aside for a Prius and they should sell it to me for cheap. I suppose it doesn’t work that way. I should just buy a jpeg of it and use it as a screensaver while I drive my broken Civic back and forth and be happy with my lot in life. But lately I’ve been looking in the mirror and wondering why that old guy looking at me is looking so skinny and haggard. I think I need more sleep and a cheeseburger. Probably in that order.

I suppose it wasn’t smart to do as many burpees as I did this week. Tuesday I did them instead of pushups or squat thrusts and since I missed a couple of birthday burpee chances I did 92 (28 for Megan, 32 for Michelle, 32 for Galen, and my math is probably off). Wednesday there were 25 in the workout and I added a few to make it a around 47 because, well, I figured if I could do 92 on Tuesday I could do 47 on Wednesday. Thursday morning I felt like someone stabbed me between my shoulders. Good thing Friday is my day away from the gym.

Every time I try to record a sporting event, the game goes over the set time and the DVR cuts off the last part of the game. What kind of assclown doesn’t compensate for sporting events?

For some reason, my left index finger was numb this morning and my stomach felt like I’d eaten cement for breakfast. I’m just falling apart. I was also incredibly tired after work and considered going to sleep after I got home at 6PM, but I still went to the gym. There were times when I’d stare at a weight, for example, trying to get it to move on its own, but I still didn’t quite wuss out on anything. Even though I felt like I might see my lunch, or what those rocks in my stomach from earlier in the day looked like.

I told myself I’d get to sleep early, but here it is late. And I’m staring at my VISA bill, wondering what I’ve done to myself. That’ll help my sleep for sure.

I’ve had a headache all weekend, but I think that’s really more to do with sinus problems. I’ll spare you the gory details, but I’ve heard from others (including my sister’s running group) that I’m not the only one with sinus issues right now. I’ve been using a Neti pot and my head still hurts. I might just blame it on hay fever season.

Friday night my buddy Il and I went to the new remodeled Ringside for my birthday dinner. We were almost 40 days late, but that’s just sort of how we roll. I’ve had a food hangover ever since. I feel bloated. I suppose when two guys spend $400 on dinner, a food hangover is expected. Ringside hasn’t changed that much from what a diner can see. There’s another room in the back and four more seats in the bar. But it’s brighter, making it seem more open, and there were extensive improvements in the wine cellar, meat locker, and kitchen. The food is still excellent and so was the service.

Today I spent much of the day at a baby shower. My friend (a super Linux geek) is starting a new job. He and his wife went to Australia before moving to Canada. They’re having a baby soon, plus she got her US citizenship. Way to pile on the accomplishments to make guys like me feel inadequate! But congratulations to them for all they’re doing.

I have nothing to say lately except my job is busy busy busy. I try not to say too much because it’s not like I hide who I am or where I work. It’s probably pretty easy to figure who I’m talking about if I were to say anything. And other than that, I go to the gym, and I watch Jay the Contractor work. That’s about it.

This year my birthday made me feel especially old and I figure that’s probably about it for most of the things I should have done in my 30’s. I’m way past the late cutoff for things like having a family or getting married. I just have to be that old cranky guy who lives on the block. A reminder, today, was when I did birthday burpees for someone who is the same age. I’m pretty tired anyway from what we did at the gym yesterday, had meetings all through lunch which meant I only ate a “Builder Bar” out of the vending machine because the cafeteria was closed, and was pretty beat from today’s workout as well. So why did I do 47 extra burpees? Especially since after 15 I took a break and realized I still had THIRTY-TWO to go. Honestly, I kind of feel like I got hit by a truck.

My 25th college reunion is coming up and a few of us are going, organized via Facebook. it’s TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS A NIGHT to stay in Cambridge, but I think I’m finally over being mad about going to MIT. I mean, there’s almost nowhere else a nerd like me could have gone, but that place was brutal. I still wish I could have gone to Stanford. Guys who transferred there said it was a cakewalk compared to MIT. I’m sure it’s still hard, but come on, there are real people who go there, not just supernerds. They even have a football team that WINS GAMES. And I hear Cambridge is no longer a poster child for urban blight and has turned into a gentrified yuppie town. I saw evidence for that when I was there five years ago. We’ll see in a couple of weeks!