10 – Emerson, Lake and Palmer – Lucky Man
10 – Pink Floyd – Us & Them -> Eclipse
10 – Pink Floyd – The Great Gig In The Sky
10 – Led Zeppelin – Ramble On
10 – Joe Jackson – Steppin’ Out
9 – Peter Gabriel – Mercy Street
9 – Youngbloods – Get Together
9 – Loreena McKennitt – The Mummers Dance
9 – Crosby Stills & Nash – Wooden Ships
9 – Joni Mitchell – River
9 – Steppenwolf – Magic Carpet Ride
9 – Rick James – Super Freak
9 – Led Zeppelin – Tangerine
9 – Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane – Heart to Hang Onto
9 – Pete Townshend & Ronnie Lane – Misunderstood
9 – Air – La Femme D’Argent
9 – Emerson Lake & Palmer – From The Beginning
9 – Jethro Tull – Velvet Green
9 – Rolling Stones – Gimme Shelter
9 – Moody Blues – Ride My See-Saw
9 – Michael Hedges – Rickover’s Dream
9 – Leo Kottke – Little Martha
9 – Led Zeppelin – Kashmir
9 – U2 – Running to Stand Still
9 – Seal – Crazy
9 – Elton John – Funeral For a Friend – Love Lies Bleeding
9 – Simon & Garfunkel – Scarborough Fair
9 – Mason Williams – Classical Gas
9 – Harvey Reid – Racing the Storm
9 – Joni Mitchell – Hejira
9 – Paul Simon – Homeless
9 – Kate Bush – The Sensual World
9 – Don Henley – The Boys of Summer
9 – Herbie Hancock – Cantaloupe Island
9 – Neil Young – Old Man
9 – Toad The Wet Sprocket – Walk on the Ocean
9 – Little Feat – Roll Um Easy
9 – Vince Guaraldi Trio – Cast Your Fate To The Wind
9 – Peter Gabriel – Shaking The Tree (w/ Youssou N’Dour)
9 – Leo Kottke – Ojo
9 – Neil Young – Sugar Mountain
9 – Massive Attack – Inertia Creeps
9 – Led Zeppelin – Your Time is Gonna Come
8 – The Romantics – What I Like About You
8 – Yoav – Club Thing
8 – Les Negresses Vertes – Face a la mer (Massive Attack remix]
8 – Elton John – Levon
8 – Edwin Starr – War
8 – Colin Hay – Overkill (acoustic)
8 – The Beatles – Baby You’re a Rich Man
8 – John Cale & Brian Eno – Lay My Love
8 – Taj Mahal – Lovin’ In My Baby’s Eyes
8 – Eddie Vedder – Hard Sun
8 – R.E.M. – Nightswimming
8 – Led Zeppelin – When The Levee Breaks
8 – Orient Expressions – Istanbul 1:26 am
8 – Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood – Can’t Find My Way Home (Live)
8 – Neil Young – Look Out For My Love
8 РAmadou & Mariam РS̩n̩gal Fast Food
8 – Lemon Jelly – Homage To Patagonia
8 – Pete Townshend – My Baby Gives It Away
8 – Ekova – Siip Siie
8 – U2 – New Year’s Day
8 – Jethro Tull – One White Duck
8 – R.E.M. – Drive
8 – Neil Young – After the Gold Rush
8 – The Kinks – Victoria
8 – Donovan – Wear Your Love Like Heaven
8 – Dire Straits – Skateaway
8 – Ray LaMontagne – Empty
8 – TV On the Radio – Things You Can Do
8 – Jefferson Airplane – Embryonic Journey
8 – José González – Heartbeats
8 – Eliades Ochoa – Chan Chan
8 – William Shatner – Common People
8 – Leo Kottke – World Turning
8 – Crosby Stills & Nash – Helplessly Hoping
8 – Ray LaMontagne – Be Here Now
8 – Bruce Cockburn – Soul of a Man
8 – Jefferson Airplane – White Rabbit
8 – OSI – Once
8 – Pat Metheny Group – Last Train Home
8 – Squirrel Nut Zippers – Put A Lid On It
8 – REM – Sweetness Follows
8 – The Cure – Close To Me
8 – Taj Mahal – Take A Giant Step
8 – Otis Redding – (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay
8 – Radio Citizen (feat. Bajka) – The Hop
8 – Bob Dylan – Tangled Up In Blue
8 – Orbital – The Box
8 – Primitive Radio Gods – Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth…
8 – Spoon – Don’t You Evah
8 – Iron & Wine – Naked As We Came
8 – Andrew Bird – Imitosis
8 – Sinead Lohan – No Mermaid
8 – Medeski, Martin & Wood – Mami Gato
8 – Dave Brubeck Quartet – Blue Rondo a la Turk
8 – Men At Work – Land Down Under
8 – Gotye – The Only Way
8 – Erik Satie – Gnossienne No1
8 – Single Gun Theory – From a Million Miles
8 – The Wailin’ Jennys – Take it Down
8 – Slowdive – Souvlaki Space Station
8 – Neil Young – Round & Round (It Won’t Be Long)
8 – Anoushka Shankar & Karsh Kale – Easy (w/ Norah Jones)
8 – Suzanne Vega – World Before Columbus
8 – Kirsty MacColl – In These Shoes?
8 – The Orb – Toxygene
8 – Richard Thompson – 1952 Vincent Black Lightning
8 – Jeff Beck – Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
8 – The Beatles – Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows
8 – Wolfsheim – In Time
8 – Weezer – Island In The Sun
8 – Cake – Rock & Roll Lifestyle
8 – Big Daddy – Money For Nothing
8 – The Who – Love, Reign O’er Me
8 – DJ Schmolli – God’s Gonna Cut You Down
8 – Jethro Tull – Mother Goose
8 – Jane’s Addiction – Jane Says
8 – Imogen Heap – Glittering Cloud
8 – Steve Miller Band – Song For Our Ancestors
8 – Leo Kottke – Pepe Hush
8 – Beach Boys – Good Vibrations
7 – King Crimson – The Court Of The Crimson King
7 – Fleetwood Mac – Oh Well
7 – Ayub Ogada – Kothbiro
7 – Big Head Todd & The Monsters – Drought of 2013
7 – Porcupine Tree – Waiting
7 – Eels – All The Beautiful Things
7 – Midge Ure – Answers To Nothing
7 – Chuck Prophet – Summertime Thing
7 – Kan’Nal – Space Child
7 – Peter Gabriel – The Tower That Ate People
7 – Mich Gerber – By Your Side (feat. Bajka)
7 – Joni Mitchell – You Turn Me On I’m A Radio
7 – Iguanas – 9 Volt Heart
7 – Jerry Garcia – The Wheel
7 – Emmylou Harris – All My Tears
7 – Bruce Lash – Psycho Killer
7 – Greg Kihn – Remember
7 – Bad Company – Seagull
7 – Morphine – Buena
7 – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Hold on to Yourself
7 – Bryan Ferry – Goin’ Down
7 – Ani Difranco – Little Plastic Castle
7 РB̩la Fleck РKatmandu
7 – Bob Dylan – It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
7 – The Call – Let the Day Begin
7 – U2 – Beautiful Day
7 – Patty Larkin – Anyway The Main Thing Is
7 – Te Vaka – Te Namo
7 – Thievery Corporation – Forgotten People
7 – Gillian Welch – Revelator
7 – Peter Gabriel – A Different Drum
7 – Dave Alvin – Highway 61
7 – Vast – Touched
7 – Ane Brun – The Puzzle
7 – Imogen Heap – Have You Got It In You?
7 – Madrugada – Hard To Come Back
7 – David Sylvian – The Blinding Light of Heaven
7 – Hem – Half Acre
7 – The Ventures – Walk Don’t Run
7 – Vienna Teng – 1BR/1BA
7 – Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day
7 – John Hiatt – Cry Love
7 – Eric Johnson – Bloom
7 – The American Analog Set – Hard to Find
7 – Michelle Shocked – Secret to a Long Life
7 – Bird York – Haunting You
7 – Joan Osborne – Man in The Long Black Coat
7 – Marc Cohn – The Rainy Season
7 – Gordon Lightfoot – The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald
7 – Medeski, Martin & Wood – New Planet
7 – Richard Shindell – Confession
7 – Dengue Fever – Seeing Hands
7 – Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter – The Dreaming Dead
7 – Big Audio Dynamite – Rush
7 – Gomez – Detroit Swing 66
7 – Propellerheads – History Repeating (w/ Shirley Bassey)
7 – Joni Mitchell – Jericho
7 – Marvin Gaye – Trouble Man
7 – The Bad Plus – Flim
7 – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!
7 – Iron & Wine & Calexico – Dark Eyes
7 – Jose Gonzalez – Teardrop
7 – Jake Shimabukuro – While My Guitar Gently Weeps
7 – Azam Ali – Endless Reverie
7 – John Lennon – Instant Karma!
7 – Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Trampled Rose
7 – Richard Shindell – Transit
7 – The Be Good Tanyas – When Doves Cry
7 – Sam Phillips – Fighting With Fire
7 – Loop Guru – Single Orphan First Year Camel
7 – Snow Patrol – Shut Your Eyes
7 – Blue Man Group – Mandelgroove
7 – Galactic – Paint
7 – Manu Chao – Me Gustas Tu
7 – Metric – Rock Me Now
7 – David Sylvian and Robert Fripp – God’s Monkey
7 – Donnie Iris – Ah! Leah!
7 – Big Head Todd & The Monsters – Please Don’t Tell Her
7 – Jon Astley – Jane’s Getting Serious
7 – Talvin Singh – Butterfly
7 – Paul Simon – Once Upon A Time There Was An Ocean
7 – Pressure Drop – Dusk
7 – Robert Plant – 29 Palms
7 – Thievery Corporation – Lebanese Blonde
7 – Rolling Stones – Lady Jane
7 – Porcupine Tree – Point 3 (.3)
7 – Bonobo – Between The Lines (feat. Bajka)
7 – Kaki King – Gay Sons of Lesbian Mothers
7 – Tommy Bolin – Savanna Woman
7 – Sufjan Stevens – Chicago
7 – John Hiatt – Cry Love (live)
7 – James McMurtry – Off And Running
7 – Supreme Beings of Leisure – Strangelove Addiction
7 – Kaki King – First Brain
7 – Tosca – Busenfreund
7 – Equation – Not The Man
7 – Cowboy Junkies – My Little Basquiat
7 – Tracy Chapman – For My Lover
7 – Mark Almond – The City
7 – The Verve – Blue
7 – Beck – Beautiful Way
7 – Johnny Cash – I’m Leaving Now
7 – Son Volt – Action
7 – Butch Baldassari Trio – As Far As I Can See
7 – !!! – Myth Takes
7 – Michael Hedges – Because it’s There
7 – James McMurtry – Choctaw Bingo

Pipe the pirate from his perch
Then pin him right in place.
Pinch him till he pees his pants,
And the pitchman pleads his case.

Planetisimal secrets ply
The parlor, cold and dim.
But the peppers in their pot await
The prankster, and the prim.

Monday 7:30p at the Sunnyvale Community Center Recreation Center building, with Loui Tucker. Loui does a focused beginner hour 7:30-8:30 that’s a great way to get started.

Every-other-Wednesday 8:00p couples dance, at Flex-it, also with Loui. Dorit and I are trying this for the first time this week.

Thursday 8:30p at the Palo Alto First United Methodist Church, with Shirley Smith. Current tunes and dances. Email Shirley to get on her mailing list, or subscribe to her Facebook page in the earlier link.

Monthly Saturday 8:30p with Karina Lambert, also at Flex-it in Mountain View. Email Karina to get on her mailing list for dates. Current tunes and dances.

Monthly Saturday 7:30p with Rosanna Horton at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in San Francisco. Email Rosanna to get on her mailing list for dates. More oldies than the other evenings.

There are other dance evenings around the Bay Area (Kensington, Oakland/Berkeley, San Rafael); these are the ones I’m attending regularly.

So I’m not sure what to do with the blog at this point. Fun to have, I guess. Dunno what, if anything, to replace it with, other than maybe a more business-oriented site.

My main response to the ride is mild surprise at how easy and straightforward it was. Granted- I did some training beforehand, with 60 mile weeks and as much climbing as I could fit in, and I have a pretty good bike. But it’s not like I was out riding 6 of 7 days for 150 miles, nor did I prep for more than a few weeks. I’d previously pictured trips like that as only for the studly. Who knew?

Am also a little surprised there weren’t any real issues. Got two flats from the same bit of glass (missed pulling it out the first time). Left my sleeping bag out too late the night of the wine and cheese party and it got wet with dew, so sleeping was uncomfortable. Had sinus issues the last night that made it hard to sleep as well, but not too serious.

Pictures are up on Flickr. Most of the images are of people — it’s not much fun to shoot scenery any more. Maybe the pocket camera doesn’t handle it, or maybe I’ve just taken too many pictures of trees and lakes.

My workout software claims I burned an additional 18,000 calories or so, yet I think I gained a couple pounds. I was intentionally eating more, but… almost twice as many calories as usual?

I’m pretty sure my stuff is being read, like I read other people’s posts. But no references or back-and-forth. Do I even exist? I used to think “I shop, therefore I am.” Then I updated to “I POST, therefore I am.” Much hipper, right? Nah. At least consuming gives you recyclables. Posting only provides self-gratification at the well-turned phrase displayed in a public forum.

Yechhh.

All is flux, nothing stays still.
Nothing endures but change.
Heraclitus, from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.
Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

Big software applications are like living creatures- they have lives, personalities, a dark side. They have surprises. They can delight you and disappoint you. Many of them have a temper, though it’s usually not personal. Few people ever get to know them completely.

Big applications, like FrameMaker, especially FrameMaker, really only live and exist when they’re being used, when there’s a person sitting in front of a keyboard with things to say, a job to do, meaning or information to get across. The application’s personality, what they are and how they feel, is influenced not just by the menus and dialogs on screen, but by how they’re presented, how they’re sold, the language people use to talk about them, the pictures on their boxes. We tend to focus on the application itself, what it DOES, but it’s really many, many different pieces and actions coming together for that person in front of the keyboard.

And, you know, big apps don’t have owners, they have caretakers, people that try to understand them, change them, surround them with meaning. Most big tools have a lot of caretakers during their lives. FrameMaker is no different.

All of you here this afternoon have been a caretaker of some part of FrameMaker, building the product, describing what it does (or should do), telling people why they should get to know it, how they’ll be better off. All of you have had a hand in defining the creature that is FrameMaker, and one of things I want to do this afternoon is express my appreciation for the great magic you’ve done in giving it a life, a public face, an existence for all of its users.

A second thing I’d like to do this afternoon is to note the ending of the group that came together to make FrameMaker what it is, in particular the core engineering team. Corporations like to ignore or avoid acknowledging this, but what we do, the time we spend at work, and the people we do it with is a large part of who we are. We’ve developed into a kick-ass team over the last two years, wonderful people with the capability of working together to do amazing things, and I for one am sad to see it go. I believe that bringing skilled people together, creating tools that will be used by hundreds of thousands to millions of people and making their lives different, is one of the coolest things in the world that one can do.

Now, as you all know, this is a bon voyage party for FrameMaker, a sendoff, as it (rather literally) crosses the oceans and continents to a new home and new set of caretakers half a world away. We’ve been working hard over the last three weeks to make sure it has all it’s things packed, all its bits and pieces wrapped up and sent off, and a proper list of instructions and introductions in place. The new team has been right on top of things, and I’m very confident they’ll have every success in creating new magic for FrameMaker, adding their own bits of personality and life to the creature that is FrameMaker.

So, at this time, I’d like to raise our glasses in honor of the the product and the people that have made it, and salute it and wish good fortune and great happiness for both it and all of us as we move forward into the next voyage and next set of adventures.

As an ending, I was going to come up with some meaningful quote, ranging from Heraclitus to Andy Warhol. But yesterday, I received the following email from Victoria Thomas, a former Frame Technology employee who’s now Senior Director of Information Engineering at Blue Martini Software. She asked me to either read or post the following:

FrameMaker is a great product – really one of a kind. It makes work a pleasure and since I’ve been authoring the book in FrameMaker (which alas, I no longer use in my daily work, although my group does) I’ve reconnected with it. FrameMaker seems to read my mind as I work and you couldn’t ask for anything more. THANK YOU for your dedication to the task of developing and maintaining FrameMaker and for making us all look good on a daily basis!

Thank you, Victoria, and thanks to you all.

Family trust: finished liquidating the rest of my mom’s properties and closed out the trust business. Yay! Have a closing tax return and K-1s to distribute, but there wasn’t much activity in 2008, so it should be straightforward. I’m Really Glad it’s done.

Real estate: I bought my mom’s house from the trust, hired contractors to do the major overhauls. Spent the 2nd half of 2008 doing hands-on reconstruction work, which will last into the first half of 2009. It’s fun and satisfying to swing a hammer and push a paint brush, seeing direct results from my actions (as opposed to managing 50 people two levels away). On the other hand, I’d have been happy with a couple months of that, not the year it’s going to take.

Fungus Fighters Construction removing old floor heater

Dorit & Gil at his 7th birthday party

Biking: bought a new road bike (Bianchi) in April, joined a couple bike clubs, and successfully completed the Chico Wildflower and Wine Country centuries (100 miles each). Don’t know that I’d do the Wildflower again… as much as I like Chico, parts of the Wildflower are tedious, especially the 20mi return through never-ending orchards. The Wine Country c. was excellent, though, scenic and varied. Only rode about half the 4000 miles I’d targeted for this year, but that’s better than 2007.

2009 is undefined. It will take another 4-6 months to finish the building rehab and find tenants, though sooner would be better. I’ll do something with music, still working out what that will be. Am considering returning to the salaried working world- steady paychecks are looking kinda luxurious in these economic times. Will do at least another couple century rides, am resisting the enthusiasm of the Grizzly Peak Cyclists list for double-centuries. 200-mile rides are unnatural.

Have a great New Year!