All posts by johncohn

Wednesday night – network problems

I’m sorry my friends. but my internet connection to photobucket and myspace is not working here in the hotel. I’ve been fiddling with it for abotu 45 minutes that I should have been using for sleeping…
   I’ll post the pictures and news from today tomorow on my way home. I’m happy to be heading back to Vermont.   Heard from Max that he’s on his way back to Vermont, too. It will be so good to see him !. .
  
Today was good… some interesting but difficult work meetings.. then some really nice socalizing with work freinds. We had a great japonese/thai dinner nearby. Being around these folks feels good to me… when I’m hanging out with them I remember why I love my job…

   OK the internet is goign up and down.. so I’ll end here.. Sorry for the tiny post.. Talk to you tomorrow.. Gnite all.. gnite Sam ..
-me

Ps. Sam.. thinking of you here in California.. Here’s Dani California for you

 

From Dani California by Red Hot Chilie Peppers
….
California rest in peace
Simultaneous release
California show your teeth
She’s my priestess, I’m your priest
YEAH, YEAH

Who knew the other side of you?
Who knew that others died to prove
Too true to say good bye to you
Too true to say say say..

Push the fader gifted animator
One for the now and eleven for the later

….

Tuesday night – universal fire

Today’s meetings were very good.. lots of new information.. lots of perspective on our business. I’m glad that I’m here.  There are about 3000 people here from my division… What a cool geekfest !

We were inside in meetings all day… I did step outside for 30 seconds in the middle of the day just to show that I could.. and here’s proof.

Around  7PM they crammed us all in buses and took us out on the LA freeways headed towards Universal studios..

The traffic here is really, really bad.. I couldn’t do this every day !

We did catch a quick glimpse of the Hollywood sign, but that’s about as much sightseeing as we were able to do.

We got to Universal at abut8Pm…  Universal is a combination working movie set and theme park

Here’s a shot of the various studio buildings from above..

They had all sorts of interesting props laying around.. Like this is the real capsule used in the making of Apollo 13…  pretty cool…

Bruce, Brian, Brett  and I took a great back stage tour bus ride. here’re Bruce and Brett

and our very funny trolley guide.

It was hard to photograph most of what we saw.. but much of it involved fire !.. like this wharf fire  scene..

and this car crash scene

Here’s the original Psycho scene..   and look. there’s vacancy !

Here’s one of the sets from the Grinch …

… and a warehouse fire scene… lots and lots of fire !

On the way out we came upon Lisa and Tom getting their characture down… Aren’t they cute ?

We then went on several rides.. the mummy and Jurassic Park.. both pretty good.. Here’s our triumphant splash down after the Jurassic Park log ride.

In front of the ride was this cryptic sign…

Okay my switched children.. time for sleep.. talk to you all tomorrow.  Love you all.. love you Sam !
-me

Monday night 0 the Michael Jackson of Iran

Greetings from Los Angeles.. I’m out here for a 3 day work meeting.. So far so good. I had a busy morning at home before catching the flight out..  Just before I left Diane reminded me to do the organ donation stuff on the back of my new license. It has such meaning for me to do that now..


A I left, I decided that my trusty Canon Powershot that has traveled with me to the four corners of the earth these past 14 months was in need of some time off.. Her (I think it’s a her)  pictures are getting increasingly fuzzy ..  Gabe offered to lend me his camera for this trip while we send the old one in for some TLC.. The old girl has been around the world completely 3 times in 14 months.. plus G-d knows how many other trips. .

The trip out to LA was pretty uneventfull.. I did manage to see some luggage thrown from a trolley in O’hare.. Pretty dramatic.. makes me doubly resolved to only do carry-on.

The trip from Chicago to LA was pretty funny. I was in the back (read non reclinable) window seat next to the lav’s.. .. A little kid came and sat down next to me.. and immediately started talking to me in French.. and pulling at my beard. He was really cute.. but I had no idea what he was saying.. His mother sat down and I learned that they were Iranian .. living in Paris and basically commuting between Paris and LA..   The kid’s name is Milad… and his mom told me her husband, Darisuh Eghbal ,   is ‘the Michael Jackson of Iran’..

 From what I can see on the internet.. I believe she may be right. There’s a ton of stuff on him out there

.. He was a really, really nice guy as was Milad’s mom…

Milad and I had a pretty good time on the trip out.. even though all we had in common were my 50 words of French .. (Gabe.. thanks for helping me study last night .. at lest I could count !!!)

Here’s Milad drawing a picture of me..

And here we are toasting our good flight…  happy cheers everyone.

He stole my camera and took this picture of me with it.. Not bad for a 3 year old !.

We got to LA in 4 hours.. it went pretty quickly .. LA is such a strange thing to fly over.. it’s much prettier close up !

Once we landed, I gave Milad’s mom a Samstone for her to give to her sister to take back to Tehran.. They can’t go back there because they’re considered dissidents.   After those guys left the plane, I found Milad’s spider man…

Luckily I ran into them again in the baggage claim… They were a very nice family..

It was about 6 by the time I caught the bus to the hotel.. The bus guy gave me a handful of popcorn to tied me over..

From there I went to the convention to register.. and caught the tail end of the registration cocktail party. I ran into a ton of friends…   it was nice to see everyone.. A few of us walked back to the hotel and stopped in a bar for a beer… I only hung out for a short bit.. I’m really beat.. I was back at the hotel by 10.. I’m determined not to run myself ragged this trip… And in that spirit.. I’m going to say goodnight.. and which everyone a happy Cinco del Mayo .. Buenos Noches Sam !

-me

Sunday night – Falling awake

Very quiet and uneventful day.. The alarm on my phone went off… accidentally .. at 6:30 this morning. I sleepily dug it out of my jeans and shut it off.. I was determined to get a bit more sleep… I fell back into a light sleep where I dreamed
all sorts of very vivid and realistic dreams.. they were mostly work related.. though family came and went through them. I get occasionally views of Sam in these dreams.. I like seeing him there..  All of a sudden I realized that I was about to wake up.. I tried hard to stay asleep.. but couldn’t resist the 9:30 AM light that was pouring into the room.. I opened my eyes with the last bits of the dreams falling away.. the only part I remember was the phrase “falling awake”… I like the sound of it.. My dreams are often more ‘normal’ now than my waking hours.  
    Jessie called today to tell of of seeing Sam in a dream.. she said he looked happy and well.. He smiled and waved (and then she got reincarnated as batman… but so it goes) .. Let us know if any of you see Sam in your dreams.. If you do, tell him we said ‘hi’.. and we love him ..

     Lesseee.. what did  happen today.. not much.. I did go up to Tim and Wendy’s to see if I could coax their treaddmill back to life..

It did look a little peeked. I poked around in there for a few minutes with my voltmeter.. and voila !.. I found the problem..   The safety switch had broken off inside.

Here’s Wendy stylishly modeling the offending switch.

A bit of cutting and soldering later.. the thing was up and running. As Tim and I closed up the patient, Wendy called us upstairs to see something strange.. Their pet cat had gotten into the terrarium with their pet iguana.. (or bearded lizard.. I forget)   They said the cat frequently gets in there  and sits peacefully.. pretty interesting combo.. dontcha think ?

I came down the hill and worked around the house for a bit, worked on my paper for awhile.. then started procrastinating.. Diane and I decided to take the dogs on a hike.. we took them up to the cliffs behind the Safford preserve.. It was beautiful up there.. You can see all the trees below the cliffs ready to spring into full foliage.. We saw our first black flies of rhe season up tehre too.. it’s definitely spring..

On the hike back we ran into Gary and the twins.. they’d been kind enough to let us park our car there during our hike.

And.. believe it or not… that was the sum total of my day.. Sometimes its nice to have a down day.. this week may be crazy.. but at least  I’m well rested.. Time for sleep now.. gnite all.. Gnite Sam !
-me