September 19, 2004
Marragies IV
My brother, Jason, got married over the weekend, giving me a sister-in-law. It was a hectic event of happiness and hopefulness -- one of us has proved to survive our family with some degree of normalcy, perhaps others of us can follow suit. The opportunity seems to be opening up with another one of those reunion of sorts.
The ceremony took place at St. Peter's church (website pending) in Haddonfield(?), a standard neo-american catholic church (complete with gravestone on the side as a tribute to the "innocent victims of abortion"). The formal festivities were nice, though, and everyone seems to be happy to see the cute couple get all nice and legally bound. I do have to admit a curious fascination with being able to say that I have a sister-in-law...
We all headed down to the Renault Winery for the old reception dinner and live action DJ announcements. It was quite a relief to have the whole thing handled and fairly mingle-friendly, which let me meet up with some relatives and old family friends that I have not seen in a long long time. At this point, I'm wishing that I could retrieve the pictures I took with my cell phone (bluetooth file transfer with the v600 seems to have broken with one of the Apple security updates). I was able to talk to my Aunt Linda, Uncle Jerry, and cousins Emma and Leanne for a bit of a while, learning all about their goings-on. Their news of the last 10 years includes horse training, veterinary school, and a very cool outdoor life in what sounds to be one of the few bastions of wilderness sanity in the Northeast: Colebrook, Connecticut. Another fall trip will be out to see them and re-unite with a chunk of family that I have been missing.
It is amazing to me how such magical things can happen at a wedding. Gaining a new wing of family that I don't really know is pushing me to get to re-discover the family that I've had all along...
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Further back...
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Previous Trips...
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Hiking Mount Whitney, 2007 
Spring Break in West Virginia, 2005
New Year's in Paris, 2003-2004
Coming to America, 2003
Protesting in Berlin, 2003
Prague Bier-Tour, 2002
Dresden, 2002
Recent Reading
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Stealing the Network
I first bumped into the Stealing the Network series when reading the exploits of Joe Grand, one of the book's many hacker authors.
The 'Stealing the ...' series of books follows a rather disparate group of computer hackers as they help a former NSA spook (many of them unwittingly) gather the money he needs to retire.
The stories themselves are not fantastic fiction. The writing is uneven and choppy, the characters are stereotypical and not very well thought-out. What is fascinating about this book series is the technical accuracy of the exploits (at some points *too* accurate, with screen shots and step-by-step instructions).
It's a great series to read if you're a system administrator, or just getting into the wonderful field of computer security.
Rated 
by reid
on March 06, 2011
by reid
on March 06, 2011
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Close to the Machine
Ellen Ullman is one of those authors that somehow avoided my radar. Until now...
Close to the Machine is less a book than a collection of loosely related personal anecdotes from Ellen's time as a very rare thing -- a successful female bisexual independent computer programming consultant.
In the course of her work and relationship life, she learns hard lessons about programming, running a business, being lonely, and loving the wrong people. I found it particularly poignant being a crypto-nerd with difficult times in relationships and a more-or-less NDA'd, secret work life.
This book is a must-read for anyone into running their own business, programming, or anyone dating a person that is a business-a-holic or programmer.
Rated 
by reid
on November 23, 2009
by reid
on November 23, 2009
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The Long Trip Home
I had the joy of dining with the author in Florida. We went to a little Brazilian BBQ where he spoke with our waitstaff in (what I can only assume was) flawless Portugese.
Brian Wyllie spent 1969-1971 living in Brazil working for the Peace Corps. His recent book outlines his trip back to the United States via Bolivia, Peru, and the Carribean chain, by way of bus, train, and sailboat. The format comes spattered with observations from the modern day, and makes me think, "this must be what John McPhee's journal looks like."
The trip sounded like a fantastic one, but I was left wanting more detail...where did the gun (being snuck through customs in a variety of places, no doubt) come from? And how did Geneve's hair smell? Alas, we'll have to wait for another book to find the answers.
Rated by reid
on April 16, 2009
by reid
on April 16, 2009
wow, that's great. As a marriager myself, I'm all for it. Weddings are fun. Miss you,
Posted by: Becca on September 26, 2004 09:32 PM