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The life and times of David Geisert

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Stopover in London

This is the tail end of week 100 and week 101 in London.

We got back from the US trip, and the flight back was rough. We were both having pretty terrible jet lag for a whole week. I managed to still get everything done at work, which was a really long list.

On the day we got back I went to choir to make sure I didn’t miss another week. I was a little out of it, but still was able to sing most everything off book. The Christmas songs are a ton of fun.

Thursday morning was the follow up vet visit for Archer and Lana to get their second round vaccine. I carried Lana on my head again, and she got the royal palanquin treatment. She was still very unhappy the whole time. She didn’t seem to hold a grudge this time, however.

Thursday and Friday were pretty much days of going to work, doing chores, and sleeping. I did play some video games once I finished all the chores. I got back into Hades, and played through it a few more times.

Saturday evening we went to Radha’s birthday party at a pub near her. She hasn’t gone to pubs so she was asking a lot of questions of Mike, the Englishman who came. We also saw Alex and Rachel again, which was nice. Radha showed us around her place, which has an amazing view. The pool was small, but she also has a hot tub and sauna which looked nice, if broken.

Sunday we didn’t do much. We made it to the gym, but that was pretty much it besides chores at home. Monday was a long day at work preparing for a UXR study.

Tuesday was the highlight of the week, where I took off work early to go to Big Ben. We had made reservations months ago to go up into Big Ben. The tour was about two hours long, and we climbed up the small stair to get to the top. It was cold and windy, but we got to see the mechanism run the quarter bells, and then at the top we saw the bells strike 4pm. We then went into the clock faces, and got treated to the lights turning on as we were inside the clock face. It was somewhat magical to be inside the clock face, and I wonder if someone saw my shadow walking in front of the lights on the clock face. Before and after the tour we were in Westminster Hall, the oldest part of Westminster. It was constructed in the 1300’s and still has the original timber roof. It is a massive open hall, and I loved seeing it for the history.

Tuesday evening we went to Little Georgia, an amazing Georgian restaurant near our house. We got two of the big cheesy breads and shared a bottle of wine. It was a lovely romantic dinner, and something we should do more often.

Wednesday was Choir again, but I made it to dive club. Steph wasn’t at dive club as she was meeting with her company’s CEO who was in town from Zurich. I told them about our freediving in Hawaii.

Thursday and Friday were focussed on work, making sure everything will run smoothly while I’m out.

Steph was also gone for those days, so I did a lot of AI fun work.

Over the weekend I caught up on paperwork, as well as more AI fun times, packing, and chores.

Steph got back late on Sunday and we watched Bake Off and Lower Decks.

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Hawaiian Wedding, 2024

I met Steph in SFO for our trip to Hawaii.  She had a martial arts friend who works at the airport meet us at one of the restaurant bars.  They chatted for a while before he got called away. In Hawaii we showed up pretty late at the hotel and immediately crashed.  The next day I did laundry in the morning, then we went to the beach party before the wedding.  It was lot of people and the beach was nice.  We took some of the Hawaiian style mochi that Steph really likes, and it went over well.  The peanut butter filled mochi is especially good.

We left a little early and went to a beach where Steph could snorkel and I could just relax for a bit.  We then headed to Bonnie’s house to help out with the flowers and pupus (appetizers) for the wedding.  Travis had a dozen octopuses that he had shot, and I helped to gut and clean them for the cooking.  It was a lot of salting, massaging, and washing to get them prepped.  Noah joined me in the process and we had a great conversation about him working on an ME degree.  Then we helped fold wontons, which I wasn’t too bad at, but I was extremely slow compared to the others.  

We had to return the ZipCar and I could tell which sandals were mine in the dark, so I just walked back barefoot.  The sandals that Steph had bought for me earlier that day were there, I just couldn’t recognize them, and the tags had been rubbed off in just the one day.

The next day we had our book club call, which was nice.  We lost track of time, which was hard to keep track of given the time zone changes and daylight savings.  Steph then had a call with the Delta Fliers and I had a nice walk along Waikiki.

We took a bus to the wedding, which was at a nice resort.  The venue was gorgeous, and they had done a wonderful setup for the whole wedding.  I got a temporary tattoo that said “No Ragrets” but it was in reverse as well, as all the temp tattoos were.  There were a lot of people doing the entire arm with a temp tattoo, and they all looked really good.

The ceremony was lovely, and one of the songs they chose for it is one we are performing for choir this term: Can’t Help Falling in Love.  

The party was the best wedding party I’ve been to.  The dancing and singing, and everyone just joining in was wonderful.  I got some good video and made a music video with a Suno generated song.

The day after was a little rough, but not nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be.  We went spear fishing and free diving with Travis in the afternoon, where Steph got a fish.

Our last day there we got out early and did some snorkeling and saw a huge turtle.  We then went to the Zoo, which had lots of gorgeous birds.  In the afternoon we hiked up Diamond Head, and got a great view over Honolulu.

In the evening we had dinner with Steph’s cousins and Aunts and Uncles.  Then we said goodbye to Steph’s parents and got to sleep really early for the LONG flight home.

What would be the first part of week 100 in London.

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SF Bay Area, 2024

I got in Friday and went straight to work.  I had a big Demo set for Monday, and I ended up working almost all of Saturday as well.  The demo went really well, and we’ll have to see what comes of it in the follow up.  Saturday night I got dinner with Adam, Paul, Yutong, Michael, and Michelle.  Then we went to play a round of mini golf.  I had a great time, despite being worn out.  

Then Sunday I had a mostly relaxing day doing some follow ups with work.  Paul and Yutong were kind enough to have me over for dinner despite them being under the weather from their vaccines the day before.  Yutong cooked an amazing dinner and we also had some tacos from the place nearby.

I went on a run Monday morning out to the little hill along the bay. There were a lot of other people out, and I saw a coyote there. There was a woman walking her tiny mini sheltie, and the coyote started stalking them. I ran up to them after the coyote got to about 15 feet from the mini sheltie, and it stopped and backed off. It had been looking for rabbits, and I bet the mini sheltie was just about right for a nice brunch.

Monday’s demo went great.  Then that evening we went out to eat as a group.

Tuesday I did some volunteering with StartX, then Tuesday evening I went to George’s for Frosthaven.  I took over Adam’s character, the BlinkBlade.

Wednesday was a good day in BUR and I got most of what I wanted to done.  I then went to the normal Wednesday at George’s where we played a round of Mysterium.  I did another round of work in MPK, then BUR before heading to SFO on Thursday.

This would have been London week 99

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NYC, 2024

I went to NYC for work as part of a three week trip to the US.  This was the first week for a summit about prototyping.  I really enjoy chatting with the other prototypers and listening to the talks.  True to form for me I didn’t go to most of the talks live, instead listening to them at 2x later.

The first night I got in I just relaxed around the hotel.  Monday I went to work, but most of the people I was hoping to meet with didn’t end up coming into the office.  I had a great time that evening meeting Rotem and Evelyn for dinner at the same little taqueria that David took me too the last time I was in NYC.

Tuesday evening was a fun party at a indie arcade game bar.  They also had karaoke, and I got to sing two of my go to songs.  It was great fun watching everyone else do karaoke, and I was surprised at how good everyone was.

I took some time away from the proto summit to go to the accessibility summit, and presented some there as well.

Wednesday evening was great with a simple group dinner, with great conversations about the future of our work and how we were thinking about it.

I did a two hour game jam on Thursday with a partner, Xenia.  We didn’t finish, and I chose the format poorly as the partially completed project wasn’t set up to run well.  It was still amazing to get as far as we did, and I am pretty sure with three hours we could have completed our ambitious project.

Thursday we went to a show called the 20 Sided Tavern where they did D&D based improv.  They had a great crew doing the improv and had good audience participation points.  I had a great time with it and enjoyed getting to chat with the people who were there.

What would have been Week 98 in London.

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Ricardo in London!

I had a really chill week for week number 97 in London. This week was spent close to home taking care of things. On Wednesday we took the kitties to the vet to get them checked up. They are doing well, and I just need to brush their teeth more often.

Giulio joined me for choir on Wednesday, which as great. We went to the pub after with the choir as well and it was great talking to everyone there. I really enjoy talking to people in the choir because they aren’t in tech. It is a breath of fresh air and I get to hear what non techies lives are like.

I ran into the canal cats a good bit this week. There is a new Tortie and the Orange Tabby near Kaki was out and about again. It is also truly turning to fall this week. The trees in the courtyard have gone golden. They are gorgeous, but in a few days they will be bare. Other trees are turning as well, some golden, some red. It is a pretty if dreary time of year.

Saturday I ran errands in the morning then we went to dinner with Ricardo. We then went to Camden and tried to find some live music, but the only major show was sold out. We got a Guinness at a pub and then walked along the canal back to King’s Cross.

Sunday Steph organized a trip to Dover Castle. We had a few detours along the way, but made it there and then toured the castle. It was a pretty quiet day, but the weather was perfect for it. The castle is big, and has a ton of history. They also did lots of period pieces to show what it would have been like in the 1200’s. We walked down to the beach and had dinner by the water.

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Pittsburgh

I went to Pittsburgh for a week to meet with people from the new team. This would be London week 96.

I had a long layover in Boston on the way there, and a short one on the way back.

Pittsburgh was a nicer city than I was expecting, with the wooded hills and rivers it was picturesque with a decent downtown area. The conference center was nice and I got to listen to a number of good talks on the new team. There was a bird stuck in the conference center, but we were able to let it out which really made my day. I got to talk to so many great people and see so much cool tech on the trip. I also really appreciated seeing the people I had known from before and I hope to be able to work with them. I went to a really neat building called the Cathedral of Learning. It was in the style of medieval cathedral, but most of the classrooms on the first three floors were given really elaborate themes around different cultures from all around the world. It was very well done and amazing to see.

Saturday morning I got back and it was a long and rough flight. I got home at 8am and spent the day relaxing.

Sunday we met up with Radha and went to a Spanish Galleon that was on show near the tower of London. It was impressive as it is still a working ship that is sailed from place to place. We then had a great discussion over drinks and hopefully we can work out a project together.

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Choir and Karaoke

London Weekly 95

I did a good bit of singing this week, between Karaoke on Tuesday and Choir on Wednesday. I really enjoyed both. The karaoke was only four of us, Xiaomeng, Giulio, Baha and myself. I found a new team at Meta, and resolved some of the big unknowns I had hovering over me.

On Sunday I took Steph to an afternoon tea at Whiskers & Cream, a cat cafe. It had some really cute cats that were really chill. There were a lot of children that weren’t terribly nice to the cats, so mid visit most of the cats were taking sanctuary in the high places around the cafe.

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Parents Visit

London Weekly 93

This week my parents were in town. They got in early on Tuesday and we had them come to our place. I showed them around the Kings Cross area. It just happened that the British Library was closed that day. But they were able to see it on Wednesday. Also on Wednesday I took them to breakfast at work.

Thursday we had a nice afternoon tea at the Lanesborough, where my parents Irish friends joined us. The tea was really well done, and they had a cute cat named Lilibet that just relaxed around the hotel.

Saturday We walked by the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, then we took the ferry to the Cutty Sark.

Sunday I walked my parents over to the British Museum, and we met up afterwards for dinner.

I had breakfast with them Monday before they headed to the airport.

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Work winding down

London Weekly 94

The team at work wound down and we had drinks after work a few times. I also headed up to Highgate to take care of a cat for a coworker. Overall very little happened this week worth noting. Most of the team transferred to a new group, and others transferred to the US. I did get to go to choir as the new term started. I really enjoyed the group singing and had missed it.

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