Category: life

Where's Dave?

For the time being, you can track some of my recent endeavors over on my developer oriented site, dave.ly.

Things to do in 2015...

I should write more and blog more. It's been a long time and WordPress has had some fantastic improvements over the last year.

An ngnomo'

Due to downsizing and restructuring, last week was my last week at DeNA San Francisco (formerly ngmoco). Past ngmoco alum have a special saying for this type of thing: "I'm an ngnomo'!"

The past year or so has been a blast! I met so many great people and I know we'll cross paths again. We did a lot of great work together and had a lot of fun in the process, plus we learned a lot and taught each other a lot too.

Anyway, I'm excited for new opportunities and even bigger and better things to come. Stay tuned! :)

A look back at the last year:

[gallery ids="19989,19991,19990,20006,19988,19987,19986,19985,19984,19983,19982,19979,19980,19981,19978,19977,19976,19975,19974,19973"]

Color Me Rad 5K Run in Fontana

Kerry and I participated in the Color Me Rad 5K run in Fontana today. It was a fun, festive, and very colorful event!

20120915-140757.jpg

20120915-140846.jpg

20120915-140900.jpg

2011 Photographic Year in Review

Grape leaves

What?! Another year in the history books? I say this every year, but time sure does fly. Especially when you're having fun. This year seemed like one of the busiest yet! Let's take a look back at my photographic year in review for 2011.

See previously, my photographic year in reviews for 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2007.

Quick notes: I probably stuffed way too many events and photos in this post. Sorry! Secondly, it's interesting to see how many square formatted photographs (courtesy of Instagram) that I have. It's my primary way of sharing photos these days.

January 2011

I started off the year trying to take a photo per day. Here, I walked town Divisadero in our old neighborhood and shot some random photos of the store front one night. This experiment lasted about 2 days.

5319191268 81120abceb z

Street cars are one of the reasons I love San Francisco.

5323168544 9f7cb6207f z

Speaking of rides in street cars, I kept taking pictures of them / inside them and shot this iPhone panorama.

Street Car Panorama

In early January, Christmas trees are victims in San Francisco.

5347633497 a4b4378c0c z

Kerry took me to the Tonga Room in San Francisco for my birthday. It's a San Francisco classic. Pool in the middle of the restaurant with a boat and a band.

Tonga Room SF Tonga Room SF 2

Our friend Christian celebrated his birthday by scheduling a Mexican party bus to take us around town! Drinks, music, and late night pinatas in the park!

5356334266 dcc20aafd0 z

Walking to and from work each day, I'm bound to stumble upon many of San Francisco's eccentrics. And then document them with my phone's camera (this is a trend I've noticed more and more -- I'm using my serious cameras less and less!)

5371169231 a059859018 z

5463659250 8cc4e404d9 z

I also picked up this rad bearded beanie (because, you know, I can't really grow a beard).

Bearded beanie

To end the month, the group of our friends took off on a chartered wine tour of Sonoma through Terrific Tours.

Wine 1 Wine 2 Wine 3

February 2011

The first weekend of February was Super Bowl weekend! So, we mounted up in our vehicles to head to Lake Tahoe for a winter weekend at a friend's cabin.

5417314728 28df26925c z

5428130557 9fc9322dce z

This means there was also some serious Settlers of Catan games going on.

5428721256 112f357d4c z

5428720106 165b3ef297 z

Also, the Starvin Marvin's BBQ Team decided to help out and provide some tasty treats.

5428723144 441c4b3329 z

5428123919 535001a579 z

5428737684 e953144ed1 z

Thanks to a query from Burrito Justice, I went to the SF Library to dig up a research paper on prehistoric humans found while excavating BART in the 1960's.

5427167160 015ba49a37 z

Mike Daisey came to town and gave an incredible performance on The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. Here's the setup of the stage prior to the show.

Agony of Steve Jobs

Winters in California aren't too bad…

5439890940 bf48ba3017 o

A friend of ours had an 80's themed birthday. Dynamic Dave and Missouri Mike made an appearance.

5440784110 3d45f08739 o

Kinetic Kerry and Dynamic Dave, 80's style.

Kerry and dave

Our cats continued to make me realize how easy they have it. Here, Tegan is thinking about all her worries.

Easy tegan

And a tweet of mine randomly appeared on Twitter's home page. Sweet!

5452307838 a5c974d240 o

March 2011

It's been awhile since we've been wine tasting, so back to Sonoma we went!

Wine march 1 Wine march 2

Proving time and time again that we have the laziest animals in the universe.

Lazy cats

March also means the South by Southwest festival is happening. Off to Austin, Texas!

5520397469 a07a660dc6 z

Rachel and Kerry pose with the mascot from HootSuite.

5525596856 87b25144f2 z

And then pose while riding some cheesy rides…

5525001885 8c7a8212ec z

Austin gets pretty crazy during SXSW.

5525004541 c6ed95eed1 z

The Texas State Capital Building is pretty neat at night.

5546006956 809a54d69f z

The primary reason we were in Austin was for our annual gdgt live in Austin event.

Gdgt live in austin

While in Texas, Kerry and I apparently found one of Austin's classic "love photo" spots.

With love from austin

We extended our stay a few days and had a chance to check out the world famous Salt Lick BBQ outside of Austin.

5532636201 740fa08cca z

Don't forget about all the awesome music! Here, Liam Finn sings some tunes.

5545444695 2bd5003a4d z

After a week in Austin, we flew back home to our fair city.

5545452337 72562e41b1 z

With BBQ season approaching, I hung out with the Starvin Marvin's BBQ Team while they practiced cooking some brisket.

5572201125 ae08a12b39 z

I can't stop taking pictures of the sky!

5643759153 dcf98bc9ff z

April 2011

Baseball season begins!

Att park

Our friends Scott and Marcie ended up getting engaged! So we hung out at a wine bar to surprise them (courtesy of Scott setting this up).

Wine bar engagement party

For our friend Jeff's birthday, we went out to the East Bay and had a BBQ in the park.

Jeffs birthday park

Koa was there to keep us company.

Koa park

In late April, I ventured out to Kennedy Space Center for one of the coolest experiences in my life -- to checkout Space Shuttle Endeavour's last flight for a NASA Tweetup! It was the experience of a lifetime.

Kennedy space center

Here is the new Orion module on display at the KSC Visitor's Center.

Orion module

An full scale mockup of the Shuttle on display at KSC:

Ksc visitor shuttle

Credentials!

Nasa credentials

The VAB! Words cannot describe how crazy huge it is. This is where they put together vehicles that take humans to SPACE. And at one point, the MOON!

VAB

I'm posing in front of the world famous count down clock.

Countdown clock

We also got to go inside the VAB!

Inside vab

Sadly, due to a late thunderstorm and some technical issues that cropped up, the launch was scrubbed and I had to return home. This was the closest I ever got to seeing a Shuttle launch.

Endeavour

May 2011

May was a fairly inactive month for me. Went for a run down to the beach.

Beach

There was also a lot of standing around, as Off the Grid SF started up a weekly event at our office building for lunch!

Bw shoes

June 2011

Masquerade party at our friend's house.

Masks

Kerry and I moved to Oakland! One of the immediate and obvious differences between San Francisco and Oakland was the blue sky. That's right! No fog in the summer, baby!

Oakland skies

We immediately started checking out some of the neighborhood eateries. Our first stop? Homeroom! Specialty Mac n' Cheese!

Homeroom food

And here is some cute art on the wall at Homeroom:

Homeroom wall

I flew to New York City for a gdgt live event. I went a few days early to visit my sister, who had just moved back to New York City from Los Angeles.

Brooklyn summers:

Brooklyn summers

Checking out the High Line.

High line

It was pretty fun hanging out with my sister in NYC. I hadn't seen her in awhile!

Siblings

July 2011

In July, we went out to Yosemite National Park for a wedding for our friends, Meghan and Andy. It was a blast!

Yosemite 1 Yosemite chapel Yosemite Falls

Of course, I had to go for the standard post card shot of the valley.

Yosemite valley

Our friend Marcie took an awesome photo of Kerry and I while there.

Dave and kerry

I also borrowed a new camera, the Fuji X100. I had to test it out, so I used my standard benchmarking tool: the nearest feline.

Tosh

In mid-July, we went back to Austin, Texas for another wedding. This time for Jess and Adam.

Austin 6th Austin river

We end the month with some more baseball -- this time, the Oakland A's: a minor league team pretending to be a major league team.

Oakland as

August 2011

August! This time, we venture to Seattle for a gdgt live event. Before all the festivities, we stopped by the Sci Fi museum to see the Battlestar Galactica exhibit!

Bsg 1

Space Needle!

Space needle

In mid-August, we ventured northward to the Russian River for a good old-fashioned canoe trip!

Canoes Russian river Kerry dave canoe

Seemingly millions of people flocked to the Mission to taste food from a few dozen food trucks. Street Food Fest was amazing. Amazingly crowded!

Street food fest

My parents and grandparents came up to visit and stayed in Napa. So we went on adventure and rode the Napa Valley Wine Train!

Napa train Train view Napa

September 2011

We spend Labor Day weekend on the shores of Lake Tahoe.

Lake tahoe chambers Tahoe chambers Tahoe cabin

The other reason we were in Tahoe? Rib Fest!

Dave ribfest Reno ribfest Reno ribfest2

We managed to sneak in some hiking as well.

Forest Mountains Tahoe above

Off the Grid held an event in the East Bay at Golden Gate Fields. So, we went out and saw our first horse races. It was pretty fun!

Horse races

Mid-September, I went off to Chicago for another gdgt live event. It's such a pretty city!

Chicago 1 Chicago 2

More Oakland A's games! (Admittedly, baseball is always fun to see, no matter who is playing.)

More baseball

Random stuffed animals left around our neighborhood…

Teddy bear

Our friends Katherine and Tony got married!

Kkr tc

October 2011

Sadly, Steve Jobs passed away early in October. I swung by the local Apple Store to check out the memorial that fans and mourners were building.

Apple store memorial

Views from the office building: crazy people.

Crazy people

October means Fleet Week! Scott and I went out on a boat and watched the Blue Angels practice. We had pretty epic front row seats.

Blue angels 1 Blue angels 2

We ventured north to Sonoma for another wine tasting trip with friends.

Vineyards Making wine

For work, the team stopped by the SF MOMA to check out the Dieter Rams exhibit. It was pretty inspiring.

Dieter rams

Besides Fleet Week, October also means pumpkin patches!

Pumpkins

Dramatic mornings on public transit.

Macarthur bart

This is how we hack street signs in Oakland.

Oakland street signs

For our friend's Halloween party, Kerry and I dressed up as friendly TSA agents.

Tsa agents

November 2011

More wine!

More wine

And more Dave and Kerry pics after drinking wine!

Dave kerry wine tasting

December 2011

Santacon!

Santacon

We took a train ride down to Southern California on the Coast Starlight. That was a blast!

Coast starlight

The views were pretty epic, too!

Coast starlight views

Hey, it's been awhile!

I should post some more updates soon. It's been pretty hectic lately with travels to New York City, Yosemite, Austin, and soon, Seattle.

Moving to Oakland

It's official. After living in San Francisco for the last seven and a half years, I'm moving! More specifically, Kerry and I are moving to Oakland. There are a number of reasons: easier commutes for both of us (seriously! BART > Muni), cheaper, and the apartment we're moving into is just fabulous.

Don't worry, I still love you, San Francisco. We're just trying something new for a bit!

Embedded YouTube video

It seems like such a lovely place, doesn't it? ;)

How would you archive your "lifestream"?

Lately, I've been on this crazy kick in looking for some sort of lifestreaming software or application. Basically, I (and most likely you -- if you're reading this and one of my internet friends) create a ridiculous amount of data each day. From my tweets, to my foursquare checkins, to my Instagram photos, to uploading things to Flickr, to blogging, to liking videos on YouTube, and sharing articles on Google Reader.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately for one reason: this would make an incredible diary of my life. I'm not the first to think this (just read the Wikipedia article I linked to -- people were thinking about this in the 1990's), but it's something I've found myself becoming obsessed with.

When FriendFeed was announced in 2007, I thought, "this is perfect!" It aggregates data from nearly every web service you can imagine. I happily started plugging things in and letting it archive all my data. It ended up being awesome for a number of reasons.

"Oh, man! What was that thing I tweeted about 2 years ago, about some guy bunting a home run?" Well, Twitter search goes back about 7 days, so that was useless. FriendFeed to the rescue! I could easily search for things I tweeted about (and [website-verb]ed about) from the moment I started importing things.

In August of 2009, Facebook acquired FriendFeed and proceeded to let the site rot. Since then, there's been no easy way to export your data, and their search function eventually broke, making the site useless for searching archived data. To this day, FriendFeed is happily pulling in everything I do on the internet, but sadly, I have no way to search for it.

Earlier this week, I found a brilliant PHP script by Claudio Cicali. It scrapes your FriendFeed profile and saves all your data to a JSON file.

After accumulating over 3 years of data, I ran the script (which took an entire evening) and it scraped something like 300K different things I've done on the internet in the past few years. The resulting JSON file is over 300MB (now I need to work on a way to parse the data and feed it back into a MySQL database). Incredible!

Sadly though, I don't think this is a tenable solution. It's great for fetching all my past data, but who knows how long FriendFeed will remain around. I'd like something more permanent, open-source, and that I can potentially run on my own server.

Locker sounds like it may be what I'm looking for, but it still has a ways to go. Momento on the iPhone sounds exactly like what I need, but you need to manually kick it off (and it won't pull in data too far in the past).

Anyone have any ideas or thoughts on this?