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June 30, 1997
News
Information about Ty Davison straight from the horse's mouth.
News Archives
Years worth of mind-numbing details, ponderings, and events.
News Links
External URLs that have cropped up in the course of the News history.
June 30, 1997 — Portland, Oregon
Lunched with another one of my long-time friends, Julie. She'd just returned from a big belly-dancing competition and though she didn't win, her spirits seemed pretty high. Apparently the number of available gigs in the Portland area is dwindling, something that has her moderately concerned. Personally, I can't figure why any restaurant owner would turn down free entertainment.Spent the evening at Bruce's place in Vancouver with Matt, Ginger, Joe, Bruce and Bruce's friend Kim. Played a group game called Oodles that was somewhat akin to Taboo. Much fun even though I placed second.
June 29, 1997 — Salem, Oregon
Back to Salem for a meeting with my long-time friend Dave who drove up from his new home in Eugene. Poor Dave has averaged about a move a year (or more) for the last few years—a headache which Erin and I understand all too well. On the brighter side his new place sounds terrific, and it looks like he'll be able to settle there for a while. I'm looking forward to seeing the place.June 28, 1997 — Portland, Oregon
Met with friends Darci and Scott and their hyperactive dog Lunkers. Darci had just picked up the four CD set of Schoolhouse Rock, the 3-minute educational cartoons that appeared on ABC in the '70s. What an incredible blast from the past. I'll probably pick up the videos eventually (read: once Erin and I have kids).June 27, 1997 — Portland, Oregon
Dinner with friends Matt, Ginger and Joe. (Saw Dennis as well, but he had a prior engagement and had to leave early.) Witty conversation, lots of Macintosh fun and a great time. I even snuck in a little piano playing, which was quite out of character since I rarely do anything in the way of public musical performance. Played a really fun Mac game, Warcraft, against Joe who beat me handily and then defeated Matt for the first time. A great game!June 26, 1997 — Portland, Oregon
We've been staying at Grandma's place in Portland and today were paid an unexpected visit by my cousin Karla and two of her kids, Lacey and Quinn. It was a great to see them all again.Speaking of great, we had dinner with our friends Mike and Joy and their new family addition, Skylar. Mike and Joy had been hoping to start a family for a long time, making this new jump into parenthood extra special.
June 25, 1997 — Portland, Oregon
Got back together with Garr who showed me some of the designs his Photoshop students came up with. Absolutely incredible. I've really got to sit down one of these days and start designing stuff myself. I'm missing out on too much fun. Also got a chance to walk the dogs, Be and Oso, with Garr. Gotta get me a canine someday.June 24, 1997 — Salem, Oregon
Erin and I met my friend Gretchen and her husband Chris for lunch. Great to see them both. It was particularly gratifying to finally have the chance to sit down and talk with Chris for the first time. It's always a great feeling to find that a friend has married well.June 23, 1997 — Salem, Oregon
Went back to Salem to see my dad teach an intro to investing class to inmates in the Oregon State Correctional Institute (OSCI). Just passing through the iron gates was depressing, to say nothing of the strip search. We need more women prison guards is all I have to say. Next time I guess I won't make that "marijuana smuggling" joke. No sense of humor at all with those people.The class went relatively well, though the collective I.Q. of the 15-member group couldn't have exceeded room temperature. I think at least half the group were intrigued by what Dad was saying, and perhaps two to four of the convicts will do something with it. Sure beats them getting out and committing their special crime(s) again.
June 22, 1997 — Portland, Oregon
Saw my friend Garr for the first time in months. Continued our artistic, political, et cetera discussions until well past midnight. Garr's teaching Adobe Photoshop at a local area college, and I can only imagine it's terrific. I would love to be in that class.June 21, 1997 — Portland, Oregon
Okay, so yesterday's news was a bit of a white lie. I am updating the web site with Adobe PageMill 2.0, but the real reason there's been no update is that Erin and I took a three week vacation to Oregon. Today, for example, we attended a marvelous 50th anniversary party in Portland for George and Irene, relatives of Erin's. Our own anniversary is July 30, which means in another month and nine days we'll only have 47 more years until we can throw our own 50th bash.June 20, 1997 — Salem, Oregon
Question: Which is a greater problem in the world today, ignorance or apathy?
Answer: I don't know, and I don't care.But what I do know is that I'll be working on updating the look of the web site in the coming weeks thanks to Adobe's PageMill 2.0. So odds are there won't be any major updates of the site until at least mid-July. Patience, Grasshopper, the site will return better than ever.
Update: Spent 11 and a half hours driving from Mountain View to Salem, Oregon. Back is sore.
June 19, 1997
Nothing like a little physical therapy to let you know you're alive. Finished round two. Round three starts in a few weeks. Whew.June 18, 1997
At long last I get in a little bit of soccer scrimmage action. Body seems to hold up fine, though my endurance stinks after the four month lay off. Sprinting still a little iffy, but the back held up through the game's twists and turns, so no complaints. I even managed to score a few goals. Yes, I think it's fair to say that this was the most fun I've had in a long time.June 17, 1997
Another visit to the Oak Theatre, this time for Wes Craven's Scream and Jerry Maguire. If you enjoy horror flicks, Scream is probably your cup of tea. I hate horror flicks, so that ought to enable some pretty fair guessing as to what I thought about the movie. Jerry was interesting. I found it neither as good nor as bad as I'd heard, leaving it uncomfortably perched somewhere in between. It was intellectually deeper than I expected, but in this Gen-X age that makes it a cinematic wading pool. Not enough character or plot to be driven by either device, the film is still worth seeing as light entertainment due to Cuba Gooding Jr.'s performance (yeah, it probably is Oscar-worthy) and the rare appearance of positive values in a Hollywood movie.June 16, 1997
Headed out to the cheap theatre in Cupertino (not two miles from the holy shrine of Apple HQ) to watch the James Bondian, Val Kilmer-starring action flick The Saint. Nothing particularly noteworthy other than the really cool product placement of an Apple PowerBook as the Saint's mobile command 'puter of choice. Solid entertainment, a great way to spend both $1.50 and a couple of hours.House clean-up, now that we've installed the two new living room chairs and dual file cabinets in the office, continues. My back is now almost fully recovered from last week's little lapse in sanity.
June 15, 1997 — Fathers' Day
Witnessed Neil Simon's Laughter on 23rd Street, a semi-autobiographical comedy about TV writers in the '50s. Well-performed and quite funny. I'd recommend it, but the play will have ended its run by the time you read this, so never mind. Just take my word for it: It was a good one.June 14, 1997
Attended friends Marge and Tom's 60th birthday party, a pleasant affair with super eats. Good opportunity to catch-up with some friends, too. Back continues to be less than stellar, though then again, it's not in the tragic condition it was a couple months ago. It's just a little increased discomfort, that's all. Next time instead of helping to lift heavy furniture, I think I'll settle for tap dancing and smashing plates on my head.Planning a big update of the web site—I'm upgrading to PageMill 2.0—in the coming weeks. If anyone has suggestions or comments about how I can improve things, please don't be a stranger. I'm not entirely sure what possibilities are opened up by this next upgrade, but I plan on learning a little HTML to make sure I'm capable of doing whatever needs to be done to make this site better than the rather sparse mental billboard it is currently.
June 13, 1997
Okay, let's talk stupid mistakes. Hmm, here's one: Lifting anything when you've got a herniated disc. Sure, I'm still walking, talking and chewing gum, but my back hasn't been this sore in months. What an idiot.June 12, 1997
Added two chairs and two filing cabinets to the Davison household. Getting stuff setup will take a bit of work since we've got to move furniture in at least three different rooms to accommodate everything. When all is said and done we should have a little more elbow room, though.June 11, 1997
France v. Italy was a disappointing 2-2 tie, with Italy scoring on a penalty in extra time to even it up at the end. After the magnificent Brazil v. Italy on Sunday, this was a letdown. Looking at some more high-level soccer this weekend, but I doubt I'll find anything of Brazil's caliber.Concluded a terrific e-mail chess match with Allen from Florida. Ever the gracious player, Al has kindly given me permission to include his commentary on the game in the Game Analysis part of my new Chess section.
June 10, 1997
The result was a 1-0 Brazil victory over tournament-winning England, but the play was nowhere near as inspired as Sunday's match with Italy. Romario had a pretty goal—right off the inside of the post—but for the most part England's tenacious defense shut down the tricky Brazilians. Tomorrow's France v. Italy.June 9, 1997
Headed down to the local cheap theatre and caught Clint Eastwood's Absolute Power and the Oscar-nominated Secrets & Lies. The latter easily contained the better performances, but the former was far more entertaining. Still, no harm in seeing either of them. Solid, if not particularly captivating, entertainment. Great way to spend a $1.50.June 8, 1997
Just finished watching one of the best soccer games I've ever seen, a 3-3 tie between Brazil and Italy. While Italy may have been the better team, it was clear that almost any player on Brazil's squad was capable of taking at least two Italian players off the dribble. I don't think I've ever seen a Brazil squad that is this offensively explosive. True, their defense is as iffy as ever, and their keeper might as well have a question mark tattooed to his chest, but this is a team that will score a lot of goals in the World Cup next year.June 7, 1997
Repeated failures to connect with A-link's servers in the last couple of weeks have left me pondering a move to another Internet Service Provider (ISP). Overall, A-link's been great, if a touch expensive at $30 a month. But these connection failures simply must stop, otherwise the Davison web site will lose its up-to-the-minute, always-hip panache for which it's famous. Undoubtedly there are worse disasters which could befall mankind, but nothing springs to mind.So far my e-mail chess efforts are meeting with fairly good success. I've won one, I believe I'm winning another, and I'm about to fold against my very talented Germany opponent, Bernd. The game I think I'm winning has been a real nail-biter. My opponent, Allen from Florida, is very capable—if I win it will be because my pawn structure is better in the end game. For those unfamiliar with chess, that's really a very narrow margin of victory. I'm thinking about setting up a Chess section here on the web site, and if I do, I'm going to ask Allen to commentate on some of the games.
June 6, 1997
Discovered the coolest little program, Snapz Pro, from Ambrosia Software. In essence, Snapz Pro lets you create a graphics file out of any screen, window or selected area on your computer screen. (That's how I got the Quicken graph into the investment section.) Ambrosia are the Overlords of Shareware, and once again they've created a low-priced masterpiece.Erin's last day of finals. She'll be working the weekend to get grades in on Monday, but then school's out for the summer, and life's gonna be wonderful.
June 5, 1997
More physical therapy, and, man, is it getting difficult. The number of reps and the length of exercise time have both at least tripled since we started this class a few weeks ago. Just one more way for my back to be a pain. Of course if it weren't for this back injury my web site would be a barren wasteland, devoid (not bereft) of interesting thought and comment. Instead, it's whiny and annoying. Bonus.June 4, 1997
Added an investment section to the website. Thanks to a raging bull market since I started investing in 1991, my returns are respectable. On top of this, of course, I've done a lot of research about investing, and I've acquired some very definite ideas about the right way to invest. (That's right, more rules to follow.) It's been a decided advantage to have a father who's a financial planner; it means that most my financial ideas aren't as far off the deep end as all my other thoughts. Can you benefit from this wading pool-like investment advice? Check out the Investing section and see.June 3, 1997
Met with Dr. Bob, a neurosurgeon at Kaiser Redwood City, to discuss my MRI results and to see whether he thought I would be able to return to soccer and basketball. The good news is that I should return to full-playing ability without the need for surgery. The bad news is that there's no way to tell if that prognosis is accurate, and if it is, just how long it will take. I'm to continue my physical therapy classes and meet with Dr. Bob again in mid-July.Many thanks to those, even the non-believers, who have been offering up prayers on my behalf. The worst case scenario is that you're talking to yourself, but I sure don't think it hurts my chances of successful recovery. Whatever the reason, be it time, prescription drugs, God's intervention, or something else, I'm getting better.
June 2, 1997
Headed over to the in-laws' to meet with Erin's mom, Liz, and discuss socially responsible investing and different investment options. I was delighted to find decent mutual funds available for people like myself who think that the military industrial complex is the world's biggest Excedrin Headache. (A good place to start looking for socially responsible investments is Green Money.)I don't know if there's much interest from any of my legion of fans, but I'm thinking about starting an Investment section here on the Davison web site. I've had good success (up 29 percent) since I started investing five years ago (which is my way of saying "Praise the Lord for the Bull Market"), and I've got some definite ideas about how anyone can invest successfully. Anyone out there interested, or will I take these tips of financial wizardry to my grave? (And what if my grave doesn't want them? What then?)
June 1, 1997
You know, 2:30 AM is pretty late to stay up entering grades into a computer. It's even less fun if the bloody disk crashes after you finish. Fortunately I'm something of a backup freak, and Erin was able to resurrect everything from the backup I put on the school's network last week. Of course it still means I wasted 4 hours of my life, which is the price you pay for not backing up everything correctly (from the open program file, not the disk file!). End of semester is such a lousy time for a floppy disk failure.
