Archives for July, 2005
Surfing Walk of Fame Inductees
Yesterday was the annual Surfing Walk of Fame induction that the HBISM plays a big part in. Unfortunately, work had to take priority, so I wasn’t able to be there for the ceremony and lunch afterwards. Major bummer.
This years’ inductees are:
- Buffalo Keaulana - Surf Pioneer
- David Nuuhiwa - Surf Champion
- Carl Hayward - Local Hero
- Kim “Danger Woman” Hamrock - Woman of the Year
- George Greenough - Surfing Culture
- Dr. Paul Morrow - Honor Roll
I’m honored that I’m able to be even remotely associated to these luminaries in the surfing world. Thanks go out to all for their selfless contribution to furthering the “Sport of Kings.”
While I’m at it, I’d like to take this time to publicly thank Dr. Morrow for his undying dedication in running the NSSA Juniors Division. If it weren’t for his efforts, there’d be a lot of lost kids in SoCal, including mine, since he’s also the Principal of our local middle school. When we moved to HB a little over 5 years ago, I’m positive his influence helped our oldest son, Kyle, adjust to the radical uprooting and replanting we forced onto him. Thanks again, Doc.
Getting Back Into The Swing
Man, it’s been a hectic couple of weeks. I’m wiped out, and have nothing productive to show for it really.
We’ve finally gotten settled into the new place, except for the final 10 or so boxes left in the garage, which will be attacked this Saturday. It always takes me 3 or 4 weeks to adjust after a move. I just don’t feel like I’m “home” until I’ve been there for a while, if you know what I mean. There’s something about getting the feel for the way doors swing, cabinets open & faucets flow. I know, it sounds strange…
On top of that, I’ve had to deal with getting my car into the body shop. Some knucklehead pulled away from the side of the street in front of my office without looking as I was passing by him a couple of Fridays ago & took out the passenger side of my 4Runner from the front door to the rear quarter-panel. If there’s one thing I hate more than working on Windows, it’s having to deal with insurance companies. Fortunately, this dude has a reputable carrier, so my car is being fixed at no cost to me, and I wound up with a decent rental for the duration, again, at no cost. But still, it’s just not my “Little Red Wagon.”
I think I’ve finally gotten past the network issues that were causing trouble for those trying to access the site over the past couple of weeks. I run my site with an old B&W G3 450 on OS X Server 10.3 tucked under the desk at home via a dedicated cable connection. With the move, there were some signal strength issues that the cable company had to come to the house to solve. Plus, it turns out they basically rewired the entire neighborhood during the last two weeks too. That caused some “mandatory outages” as they call them. Since then, we’ve seem to be trouble free, as far as I can tell.
I’ve begun the preliminary stages of creating a new version of Yasu (2.0) this week. It’s still in the specification stage, so don’t hold off downloading the current version in favor of waiting. It’ll be a while yet before alphas are even available. I’ll be sure to post progress on my work as it progresses. My biggest goal is to make Yasu distributable as a single binary for OS X 10.2 - 10.4 and beyond again. It really bugs me that I have two versions to choose from. It just feels unprofessional.
And finally, my left arm has been out the cast for the last week now. I’m supposed to be keeping it in a sling as the last bit heals, but, being left handed, that just isn’t feasible. I must say it’s nice to be able to eat properly again, as well as brush my teeth. If you’ve never tried to go about life using your passive hand, give it a shot. Frustrating as all heck, and comical to boot. I’ve got one more week to “go easy” on it according to the doctor. I still can’t quite bend or straighten it all the way (which bugs me). I’m hoping physical therapy will help get it back to normal before too long.
Will the Real Yasu Please Stand Up?
There’s something to a name, be it product or person, that will often tell you right off the bat whether your time is worth investing in it, or them. You can call it hunch, gut feeling, clairvoyance, whatever. The fact is, you simply know without having to say why it is you know.
When I named Yasu (Yet Another System Utility), I didn’t have to think about it. The name just popped out of my mouth when the first person asked “What do you call it?” There was something about the name that said to me it would easily be associated with reliability, stability and just generally being known for getting the job done.
It turns out there was something to my hunch, because the real Yasu is known for just those qualities himself, existing as the personification of my humble little utility.
Meet Hisayasu Tsuji. You can just call him Yasu. Everyone else does. He’s the lead editor and colorist for “disaster” over at Solvent Dreams, a film and animation studio located in Los Angeles.
I was stoked to hear the story I got in an email from David Davidson, Director of Solvent Dreams, a couple of days ago letting me know just how similar their Yasu is to mine…
Yasu is short for Hisayasu. Nobody calls him that, though. Yasu is very yasu. This person works so hard that he’ll stay all night until the next morning to make sure something works. He’s a dedicated editor, colorist, filmmaker who will go the extra mile. He has his own way of figuring things out, which look spurious, pedestrian and unworkable at first, but “if left alone” he will finish no matter what. When we put Yasu on the job, we know it is going to get done–provided we leave him alone to do it.
If we didn’t have Yasu, we would not have our business. He’s a mini-celebrity; unassuming, polite, good-natured and sharp as a tack. Every client requests him not just because of his many talents, but his warmth and friendship with anyone.
Coincidence? Chance? I think not. Like I said earlier, there’s something in a name that just tells you “that’s the solution to my problem.” Yasu, both of them, are exactly that.
Heart - Then and Now
Last night, Pam and I went to see Heart at the Pacific Amphitheater as part of the Orange County Fair. The thing that made this evening potentially notable for me was the fact that Heart was the very first super-group I saw in concert. When I say “in concert,” I mean full on sports arena type venue with thousands of screaming fans. I was 13 or 14, and it was at the Jack Murphy Sports Arena in San Diego.
From what I can remember of that show (hey - it was 27 years ago), it was phenomenal. Though I was a major KISS fan back then, I was blown away by how well the voices of the Wilson sisters mixed. I think that show was a major catalyst in opening my mind up to other genres of music besides hard rock and heavy metal.
Fast forward to today. The venue is not quite as big, holding maybe four to five thousand. I look around and realize most of the people around us are in their forties & fifties. Then it hits me. Though I like to think that I’m still young, the truth is that I’m getting up there in years. I think the fact that our daughter turned 20 last week helped me realize it.
Anyway. For the most part, this show was good. The Wilson sisters still harmonize as well as they ever did. But I’ve gotta say, who ever their sound man is, he (or she) needs to have their hearing checked. At the start of the show, the bottom end (bass) overall was so hot that it eventually blew out the P.A. Once that happened, levels never really got back to where they should have been. To me, the sound was very tinny and thin on the high end, and muffled in mid to low range with the kick drum the only driving sound at the bottom end. Bad mix.
Then, I just have to say this, because it’s one of my biggest musical pet peeves. Being a bassist once myself, having played most of the clubs on the Sunset Strip in “the day,” I’ve just got to point out how gross I think it is for performers to spit (hock loogies) while on stage. I’m speaking specifically of the bassist, who — to me — didn’t seem to fit in with the other, more mature, band members. He looked like some Hollywood castoff type from the late 80’s who’d simply gotten lucky enough to land the gig. The dude must’ve hocked at least 20 phlegm balls up into the air over the course of the show. Sorry dude, this ain’t no Guns & Roses show — so act like it. Yech! Otherwise, as far as I could tell (due to sound issues), musicianship all around was fairly good.
All in all, it was a nice evening out with Pam, even if the show didn’t blow me away as much as the first one did. But then, being out with Pam is what’s most important to me anyway.
Yasu Updated to v1.3.2
A new version of Yasu has just been released and is available for immediate download.
This update fixes a minor issue that would prevent Safari browser cookies from being deleted, as well as adding some new System Cache cleaning routines which are specific to Tiger.
Head on over to the Yasu page to get your copy!
