Monthly Archives: January 2011

Friday night – Vaguely vegas (delayed post)

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First a quick apology.. I was so sleepy last night that when I sat down to blog last night around 10:30 I shut my eyes for a second.. and the next thing I knew it was morning >  Actually the sleep  was just what I’d needed ..I only had about 4 hours of broken sleep the night before. I was (as always) nervous about the  talk I was giving the next mrning

My talk went fine… it turns out I was really glad to have been invited.. to this event:  the Amphion Forum. It was a very interesting gathering of folks concerned about security in the internet of things space.This cross section of people doesn’t usually get togehter, so it was really interesting heargng what was on folks minds. .. especially scince there were some petty high level peeps there. E.g.  the guy on the left, Ton,  runs Intel’s embedded Atom business… The forth guy from the left is one of the CTO’s of Google, the guy nest to him, Whit just won the IEEE Hamming Award.. and Rich to his left is the CEO of Freescale.

One of the hilights of the day for me was getting to meet and hang out with Ira Winkler.   he’s a security wonk… he gave keynotes at several of the last DEF CON hacker conventions. It was like meeting the mick jagger of the white hat hacker community.. (and he’s a big colony fan !)


Here’s Ira with Hugh Thompsen.. another senior security wonk.. and a very funny man.. It was a really nice geekfest

I didn’t get out of the Amphion meeting in time to do much else with my day.. I got lost driving aroudn Vegas.. but the time I got to CES, it was shutting down for the day. I’m taking that on today. I wasn’t too sad.. I was pretty burned out. I did run in to my freind Mike who I used to work with when I leived in England.. and in Vermont. It was great catching up with him and his son..

I

I went back to the Cosmopolitan and met up with My friend David and his friend Susan and we had a really nice Sushi dinner. It was great hanging outwith them.

I left there about 10, drove to my friend Jeff and Michelle’s’ house. They are kindly letting me borrow their secret lair.. though they are out of town. They are really wonderful peope.. I wish they were here to hang out with. .. and theyhave the most amazing place.. More on that tonight.

I gotta run off to the conference now. More later !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Thursday night – Happy Birthday Satori !

Howdy from the 19th floor of the Billagio in Las Vegas Nevada.. i’m out here for a conference.. which should be fun.. but it did cause me to miss our younger dog Satori’s birthday party !  Gabe and Diane made her a ‘cake’ out of scrambled eggs and cheese..

She just turned 3.. and she’s a really wonderful friend and companion. Her actual birthday was yesterday.. but we kind of spaced out on that. Satori .. which means ‘sudden enlightenment ‘ in Japonese… is a labradoodle-poodle mix… sort of a labrodoodledoodle.. She’s endlessly playful. and very loving.  If you’re in the room. Satori is by your side.. usually with a toy..  She’s a good.. if somewhat pesky little sister to our older dog Chai.. Over the years they’ve become quite close.. I now find them playing together pretty often..  Satori and her sister have been such good warm and loving presenses in our lives..

Happy birthday girl !

Aside from Satoris birthday.. today was pretty uneventful.. an insanely busy work day.. follwed by a loooooong

cross country trip.. Las Vegas is always an interesting assault on the senses.. I’m a lover of Neon.. so that’s one major draw for me.. Here’s a quick impression of the lights on the strip..

I love this place for it’s glitz..

but.. it’s really not for me..

more tomorrow from here..

nte all, nite sam

-me

Wednesday night – that guy

I worked at home all day… and alternated work calls with finishing up a talk I need to give on Friday morning. As part of pulling together that talk, I found  a picture of myself taken about  months before Sam died.

I know this picture well. It was taken when I got my last promotion t work . I slapped it into my tlak.. and didn’t think much of it.. but then a few minutes later I went back and stared at it. … I had this strong sense that I wanted to somehow reach back in time and…. what ? .. Tell him what was going to happen ? .. protect him from what was going to happen .. ? .,, .. It was a strange helpless feelign.. knowing thta there was nothign I could do from this point in the futre.

Instead, I sent this guy as much love as I could.. I wished him healing and strength.. I told him that while it would never be ‘all right .. he would survive.. even go on to thrive..

I am eaming a message to my future self to remember to look back on my present slef.. and do the same thing for me..

nite all

nite Sam

-me

Tuesday night – maitrī

I had a nightmare of a day.. everythign that could go wrong at work did..  by the end of the day, all of my composure and relaxation from the holiday break had vanished.. along with my sanity. It seemed that each new phone call or email brought more bad work news.. On top of that, I have a night full of work ahead of me.. including a major talk to prepare. By the time my last call was over at 7PM.. I was a wreck.. luckily it was time for Diane’s tuesday night yoga/meditation class. It’s a 45 minute quiet yoga class followed by 30 minutes of meditation..   During the first 30 minutes or so, my mind was on my day.. I was convinced that everythign I was doing was wrong.. that I wasn’t working hard enough. .. and that  I was pretty much a jerk… .. but slowly, the relaxing music, the deep stretching and Diane’s  beautiful voice took over..  That’s when the word ‘maitrī’ came into my head.. It’s a sanskrit word that means ‘loving kindness’. It’s a Buddhist tenant you practice first on yourself, then on your loved ones, then on your aquantances, then on your enemies.. and finally on all sentient beings. I was struggling on step 1 there.. I wasn’t practicing loving kindness on myself.. I stopped and said to myself.. ‘hey.. things are messed up.. but.. its not (all) your fault.. and you’re doing the best that you can do..” . actually.. I started repeating that long phrase in my head as a sort of mantra. that put me in a much better place.. After class, I had a nice dinner with Diane, Deb and Gabe (matt and ian are in New hampshire now).. I helped Gabe wiht his math and spanih.. and I’m just now sitting down to what looks like an all nighter.. Things are still messed up, I still have too much to do.. but I like myself better than I did at 6PM..

celibrate small victories..

nite all, note Sam

-me