Mark L. Van Name's Blog, page 271

On the road again: San Francisco, day 8

Another work day, another bunch of interesting stuff I can't discuss. Nature of the job.

I can mention that I got to eat lunch at one of my favorite burrito joints, the Pancho Villa Taqueria in San Mateo. I enjoyed their al pastor burrito and one of my all-time favorite beverages, their mandarina.

We kept lunch short so that I could briefly indulge in another favorite activity: browsing the shelves at the lovely M Is For Mystery bookshop. I managed to keep myself in check almost entirely a...

On the road again: San Francisco, day 7

Beyond work, which was interesting, today's highlights included a very tasty sushi dinner at the wonderfully named Blowfish Sushi or Die. Everything we sampled was at least good, and some of it was downright excellent. A few of the online reviews faulted the service, but ours was quite good: fast, friendly, and knowledgeable.

Dessert was at Bi-Rite Creamery, where the ice cream was as delicious as always.

On a completely unrelated note, I've recently received multiple messages saying tha...

On the road again: San Francisco, day 6

Snapshots from another day here:

Lots of work that, of course, I cannot discuss.

Best recent line: "Me, not fun? I'm more fun than a barrel full of whippets on crack." I'm not actually clear on whether such a barrel would be fun, but it certainly would be active.

Lovely Italian dinner at Pazzia Cafe and Trattoria with some work colleagues from another company. All the dishes seemed authentic and were definitely tasty.

A later treat of ice cream at Humphry Slocombe. Many of the flavors are ...

On the road again: San Francisco, day 5 (and an appearance announcement)

The conference I'm attending is the Intel Developer Forum (aka IDF) at the Moscone Center. It's always an interesting event, and it makes enough news in techie circles that you can follow it easily enough online. That, though, is about all I can say about that.

Dinner tonight was at Oola, a fun little restaurant where the food was tasty and the portions on the large side.

I promised an announcement: In about fourteen months, on the weekend of November 4, 2011, I will be the Toastmaster at ...

On the road again: San Francisco, day 4

Work and the conference are ramping up, so I will be able to discuss less of each day for the rest of this trip. Today's non-work portions included some time walking in the Haight, which was a pleasant break in the afternoon. We enjoyed a good lunch at Cha Cha Cha, where the Cubano was as good as any I've had in a very long time.

The temptation of ice cream was too strong to resist today, so we hustled over to the Bi-Rite Creamery for some of their justly famous ice cream. I wouldn't rank t...

On the road again: San Francisco, day 3

For the second day in a row, I slept quite a bit more than my usual four to five hours, and it was a delicious treat. After some work, I headed out to indulge in one of my favorite San Francisco treats: the Ferry Building Farmers Market. Just walking among all the produce and cheese and meat, taking in the smells, tasting the samples, and simply viewing the amazing array of fruit is a wonderful experience.

Lunch was at 4505 Meats, where I sampled both the bacon-stuffed, all-organic hot dog (...

On the road again: San Francisco, day 2

Morning and into the early afternoon was work, as was most of the evening, but between those two times my friend, fellow writer, and blog comment poster, Griffin, led a private walking tour of parts of San Francisco that he knows very well. Along the way, we got to spend some time visiting with friends Alan Beatts and Jude Feldman of the wonderful Borderlands Books and the equally lovely Borderlands Cafe; I could happily spend all day in those two places.

Lunch was at the Ti Couz Creperie, wh...

On the road again: San Francisco, day 1

There's no way a day can start well when I have to get up before eight a.m., as I did this morning to begin my travels. Once I hit the airport, however, everything went absolutely as well as one could reasonably expect: quick check-in, good bandwidth in the Admirals Club, first class upgrade, bandwidth on the plane, and, amazingly, landing and taking off from the same gate in DFW. That never happens.

I scored an exit row seat for the second leg and again had bandwidth, so I worked almost all...

The American

I somehow managed to skip Monday's blog entry, so now I feel as if I owe you. To repay this debt, I'm going to do two posts today: this movie review, and then my normal one, which will address my travels as I begin a nine-day California trip.

Warning: spoilers ahead.

When the studio didn't offer previews for The American until only a few days before its release, many wondered if the film was a dud they were trying to hide. The real answer, as many critics have observed, is that this movie i...

You are strong, and you are not alone

The lessons from a militarized childhood and the entries about child abuse have prompted more than a few messages from readers who were themselves abused, or who served in the military, or who got PTSD in other, usually awful, ways. I've answered all those messages, of course, but for them and for those in similar conditions who haven't written, I wanted to say two simple things.

You are strong.

You really are. You may not believe it, but you are. The proof is that you are alive, working, ...