Do we get special presents for palindrome years?
32 was a good year. Got married, went to Jamaica, moved into a kickass position inside Yahoo!, duckiehunt.com has taken off.
I’m not sure what 33 will hold, but if the amount of facebook notifications I got wishing me a Happy Birthday, then it will probably be one of much celebration and appreciation with friends.
P.S. My B-day gift from Kathy is helicopter lessons. Bad Ass.
Yesterday, I did something I do only about 2-3 times a year, but would like to do more. I lead a Tech Talk which went very well.
It was a discussion on how to scale MySQL so that you can support 10-100x your current traffic load. Adding more webservers is a non-trivial task, but I tell ya, you’ve got to know your stuff to make sure that your Databases are able to handle a huge traffic onslaught.
I also have to thank Dave Stokes and Jason Ragsdale for their support throughout the talk.
Here’s the link to the talk I presented.
–Snoopykiss feels geeky. And proud.
Yes. I’m married. It happened.
It’s become obvious to me that a number of people still relate to me as my old party/bachelor-esque lifestyle.
“I thought you’d never marry.”
“Last chance. I’ve got the car running if you want to bolt.”
“I was starting to wonder about you.” — My Dad.
“Wha-wha-what? Can you back up 3 sentences?”
I don’t think of it as much as no longer having the wild and crazy parties. I think of it as having found someone whose company I enjoy in between the “New and (Mostly) Family Friendly Soirees”.
She’s quite a gal. Anyone who’s met her can attest to it. Anyone who hasn’t can probably imagine since she’s putting up with me.
— Snoopykiss now has a ring. But keeps forgetting it.
P.S. When we came back from the honeymoon, some friends invaded our house with ~1000 duckies. It was awesome. Except for the one under the pillow. I’ll get you back, Neil.
PICS!
Honeymoon
Duckie Invasion
Wedding
I truly have some of the most amazing friends. I don’t know really know what I would have done without them.
And now that I’ve discovered what they’ve done to the house while I was gone, I’m really not sure what to do with them!
Duckies. Duckies EVERYWHERE! 300 of them on the bed, about another 100-200 at work. Inside the cabinets, underneath pillows, in the shoe cubby, etc. There’s supposed to be ~1000 total, I figure that I’ll still be finding them till 2012.
Pics forthcoming.
The updates…they are a-flowing.
I’ve created a Wedding Website to answer all of your questions. Â Like when we actually decide on a date, color and style.
I think that my ideas for having a huge raver party complete with glowsticks has been properly shot down. Â I’ll see if there’s a way I can sneak in the midget tho.
Simply a beautiful movie about the spirit of humanity through the hidden bedroom act of Air Guitar. It inspires, it laughs, it entertains, it embarrasses, it opens your eyes.
I now want to compete. All that’s left to do is get my Funk and Soul Monthy Dance going and get the competitions going, babye!
–Snoopykiss wants to party like an Air Guitar Rockstar
Every time I come back from Denver, I rave about how I want to move there. After Germany, it was the same thing. Now San Francisco.
One of the benefits of working for a big company is training. That benefit is especially kickass when it involves a city that has good dancing (Lindy and Blues) every night of the week. A city that complains when it hits 78 degrees! This is my type of place!
Unfortunately, it’s everyone else’s place too. 1 bedroom apt (1/3 my current sqft-age) costs twice my mortgage. Dammit.
Meanwhile, they passed on me for jury duty. I’m somewhat relieved, but would have enjoyed the experience. I think the breaking point for me was when they asked “Would you be able to enforce the maximum penalty (1st degree felony 20-99 years) if you knew it true?”
“99 years for selling (less than 200g of) drugs?! That’s longer than the average life expectancy! A better question is what could possibly be that bad to enforce that type of punishment?”
Yahoo! continues to treat me well as I continue to become an even greater techie badass. (And possibly move to CA. 🙂 )
— Snoopykiss is currently re-building a Star Destroyer. But he plans to use his powers for awesome.
I’ve barely been here a week and already so much has happened. Good lord, this is not a boring adventure. (I never took a shower until the 5th day.)
After spending about
…Ok, the fire alarm just went off…some Spaniards just burnt their meal.
Not a boring adventure at all.
After spending over 16 of my first 24 hours on this trip traveling, I found myself in Edinburgh. Screw England. I wanted to see Scotland! I want hills! And lively music! And meet women who can drink me under the table! (Yes, they do have Smirnoff Ice here, but I’ve restrained myself from buying any.) But only after taking a leak in the “Lou of the Year”.
This is the time of year when Hen Parties (Bachelorette Parties) emerge. The happiest, Pissed, Mad Women you’ll ever meet. I made friends with a few and they loved hearing the stories about Texas and having an uncle with an alligator farm. Apparently, arse slapping is just as common here as it is in America.
I then jumped on a tour bus, guided by Duncan, through the Highlands of Scotland, the 23 mile long Loch Ness, sheep, sheep, sheep, and enough whiskey to make you go blind. The bus returned and I knew that I had to go back.
Who knows how many pints later, I jumped to Inverness. A beautiful city with a lot of character, a small castle in the middle of the town and Scotland’s largest music pub (3 stories with different music in each story). A Hen Party later, I made a few more friends and even met another guy from Dallas, Texas. Back at the Hostel, I hung out with a few Spaniards that almost had me fall off the top bunk bed laughing. (Ask me the difference between Regular Porn, and Asian Porn.)
One of the best lessons I learned from Rick Steves was that if you want to enjoy Europe the most, chat up with the locals. I constantly asked them for their recommendations and everyone kept pointing back to the Isle of Skye. The next day, I did one of the craziest things so far.
Long story short, the best place to see a sunset nearby was back at Eilean Donan Castle, about 8 Miles back. The bus driver told me that it would be too long to wait for the next bus, and that I should hitch it.
…
“Hitchhike?”
“Yea.”
“Is it safe?”
“Sure. I hitched 500 miles one time.”
“… Um. … Ok.”
So, I started walking and threw my thumb out. (Sans towel) About a mile later, I got picked up! It must have been pretty creepy for them as I was absolutely beaming because this was such a new experience for me. But they were fine with it. The driver used to hitch all the time when he was young. I got dropped off right at the castle, next to another hitcher who I swapped out with.
I got my pictures, learned some history, even chatted with a set of English kids to seemed quite taken by a Texan that would talk to them. I got back to the hostel and chatted with some friendly Germans who were driving around the Isle of Skye and next thing I know I’ve got plans for a day-trip with them tomorrow.
The Isle of Skye is the epitome of what I imagined Scotland to be. Sheep, Beautiful mountains, jagged cliffs and tiny roads. Most of the roads are only fit one car. So, they have humps so that one car can pull off to the side. Crazy.
Tomorrow morning, I take a bus to Glasgow to see some more beautiful cemeteries and the end of my Scottish trip. Next to Switzerland, this is my favorite. So many wonderful, friendly and inviting people. It’s almost like my Grandmother raised everyone of them to be so great. I haven’t tried on a kilt yet, nor have I tried haggis. I’m adventurous, but not with my meats.
Traditional social standards tell me that I should have had a beautiful day in the park with my kids and maybe gone see a movie with my wife.
Instead, I found that downing half a liter of Rum and Honey while throwing beads to hundreds of drunk strangers and excited families, then going dancing and party-hopping afterwards made for a much better story than identifying with “The Pursuit of Happiness”. That’s just me.
I’m sure one day I’ll get to that point. But till then, I’ll keep going to rock shows and living by what I believe to be true.
— Snoopykiss knows a good thing when he … ooh shiny!
As a white guy, why do I love the Funk so much? Maybe it’s because it’s got a hard bass. Maybe because it’s a reason for me to shake my groove thang. Or maybe it’s because I get to see outfits with as much color as some of my bedrooms.
I just can’t help myself. Like Richard Roundtree on Blacksploitation movies, or a Gun on Pamela Grier, I love me some funk.
And I got to attack that booty from the back at the MezzJelly Lindy and Soul Exchange. With a rollerrink, house party, soul food, hot DJ’s and a hot tub, how could it go anyway but DYNOMITE!!!
High 5 to Ami and Jered who helped make this possible and all of the DJ’s who kept it groovy.
— Snoopykiss feels good. And he knew that he would.
