We’d all be eating steak. At least that’s how the quote goes. Anyway, my time in sunny Sausalito is coming to an end. Friends from Atlanta are going to be helping me make the drive across country, with a brief stop in Las Vegas on the way, with a possible additional stop at the Hoover Dam, since we’ll be nearby.

My time in California has been very educational in many ways. I got to learn about what’s involved in making console games with my work on the Sony Home project for the Playstation 3. I’ve gotten to learn what’s involved in writing games and apps for the iPhone, and started a small company with my partner Zack to do just that. I’ve also gotten to practice making friends and dealing with them moving away, and how to work with people effectively over the Internet. I’ve made several good friendships (an increadible feat in such a short time, at least for me), and I think they’re strong enough to survive this transition. I’ve also learned that ignorance leads to oppression and exploitation by those with power, at least to some extent. I very much disagree with how this state handles its gun control laws, environmental laws, and its governmental cash flow. It’s been very enlightening to watch how a different state handles the issues involved in running their government and policing its citizens. There is a definite big brother atmosphere out here. Either that or I’m paranoid.

So what will I be doing when I get back to Atlanta? In the short term, I’ll be trying to find a house to rent with a roommate or three (rent for my 500 square foot apartment here is about as much as my mortgage payment was in Atlanta), and continuing with my iPhone business plus any side work that comes up. At the moment I don’t have a definite plan to run out and get a 9-to-5 job doing web programming or anything like that. Being my own boss is a very liberating experience, and I’d like to stick with it if I can convince myself it’s economically viable. The company that I came out here to work for has less than 60 days of operating capital left, so I would have been moving home pretty soon regardless of other circumstances that are prompting it now.

And finally, in closing and conclusion, I should be pulling into my parents' house in Roswell on the evening of the 22nd of May, making the following morning (Saturday of Labor Day weekend) a wonderful opportunity to invite you all over to help me unload the truck into my parents' basement and do some grilling! Details coming soon.

I quit my job. More about that in the next news post.

My mom and dad and two sisters and their husbands, a total of six people, flew out to San Francisco to visit over the long Thanksgiving weekend / combined Christmas. We went on a boat tour of the Bay, rode the cable cars, walked through China Town, saw the Muir Woods, went to the Legion of Honor museum, attempted and failed to stop in Golden Gate Park because there were too many people, some of us went to the zoo, we went shopping for Christmas presents, toured Alcatraz Island, saw the Museum of Modern Art, ate a lot of good food and had a great time.

More about other topics to come soon.

It’s that time again. I was a little worried that my voter registration wouldn’t catch up to me in time for the election, but that seems to have been needless. A few weeks after I got my California driver’s license, I received my voter registration information and I registered to vote permanent absentee. This means that when election time rolls around, they mail me a ballot and I mail them my choices. Now, when I moved to California I made a deal with myself not to discuss politics while I was physically located in this state. This may seem a little odd, but it has actually been very beneficial. Instead of telling other people what I think and explaining my reasoning and showing supporting evidence for my positions, instead I just kept my mouth shut and listened as the people around me expounded on their own political beliefs. Most of the conversations revolved around the office of the President, of course. I noticed a few interesting themes among the conversations I heard:

• Most of the comments and conversations were derisive of a particular candidate based not on the candidate’s espoused position but rather on a particular turn of phrase used by the candidate.
• The conversations tended to be derisive more towards one particular political party affiliation than others.
• There were only ever two possible vote choices mentioned, debates were always held between "the" two sides, and no mention was ever made of other entries in the Presidential race, other races, voting without looking at party denominations.

This was an unsettling realization for me. Regardless of which party is being praised or disparaged, I like to think of my fellow Americans as posessing some ability to reason and discern and base decisions on rational thought processes. Granted, I have no idea for whom any of the people I’ve talked with are voting, nor would I ask. The part that unsettles me is the complete void of mention of any other political party or candidate aside from the candidates supported by the official Democratic and Republican parties, and the lack of any substantive discussion about issues and positions on them held by any of the candidates. It’s even more unsettling to me that no one so much as mentioned, not even once!, the senate and house seats in congress that are up for grabs. Do they not realize that the President doesn’t get to make laws or control spending or taxes? All he can do is veto bills, lead the military (but not define its budget), influence foreign policy and appoint Justices of the Suprime Court. Granted that’s a huge amount of power for a single man or woman, but people seem so caught up in the Presidency that they completely ignore the power of congress.

There was no mention of state, county or local government races at all, which I can somewhat concede because they don’t have as far reaching effects as federal level elections, but they are still important and worthy of discussion and reflection and research. The bills and ammendments included on my ballot also got research and reflection time from me, though I wonder if any of those I’ve heard wax poetical about political intrigue bothered to do more than read the summary of the item before casting a vote yay or neigh.

I’m all for voting, but come on. Discuss the topics, have thoughtful discourse, realize that there aren’t just two candidates for any of the positions on the ballot! I don’t know if I’d rather have an American abstain or vote from ignorance, because both are equally insulting to the country that men and women have bled and died for.

In closing, VOTE, and VOTE INFORMEDLY!

Just temporarily. I’m flying home for a few days to see family and friends, and hopefully get some rest in before diving into the next several big projects at work. My own projects are all humming along nicely, and may eventually even see the light of day. Most of my projects don’t, since I abandon them before completing them but after learning what I set out to learn about. As Fred Brooks said, build one to throw away.

Video conferencing is cool, and wikis are a great vehicle for writing documentation. The spell checking in firefox 3 doesn’t work very well, though. And I got some incredible news the other day: they’re remaking Ghost in the Shell with modern animation and sound! I’m so happy I could fart a rainbow. More to come soon.