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August 31, 1999

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August

August 31, 1999—Redwood City, California
I spent a good 6 hours today at the Seybold Publishing Expo in San Francisco. It was one big Mac party, so I obviously had a great time. Walking on all the cement of the Moscone Center is a little tough on the back, and it tends to get harder as one becomes loaded down with all the freebies, but such is the price of involvement here.

Bernard and Liz , just returned from Italy, came over to Mark and Christine's for a pizza dinner and a little catch-up time. Bernard, who knows a lot more about cars than I ever will, poked around a bit and connected some electrical cable that must have come loose in the last 250 miles. Turn the key, and the engine goes Vroom!

August 30, 1999—Redwood City, California
I'm running out the door to Seybold this morning, so I don't have time for a full news bit on this, but I thought it was important enough that I ought to say something: Our offer on the house was accepted yesterday and barring anything unforeseen in the inspections, we'll be home owners by early- to mid-October.

My 11.5 hour road trip down to the Seybold Publishing Expo came to something of an anticlimactic end, as the car died just after I arrived at my sister-in-law Christine and her husband Mark's place in Redwood City. All the electrical systems seemed to function, but a turn of the key produced nothing, not even a click. (Of course, I'm still busy thanking God that this happened in Redwood City, not is some halfway location like Weed.)

August 28, 1999
Well, that was quick. Erin and I found just the right house in just the right location at just the right price and made an offer this evening. We won't know the results until Monday, but we offered the full asking price, so presumably the seller won't see any particular reason to turn it down. (Our offer is, of course, contingent on the house passing all manner of inspections.)

This is an older, 1950s split-level home which has not been updated, so most everything is of that vintage. This was attractive to us since we'd rather do the updating the way we want it, not pay for someone else's preferences.

It's a big house, at 2475 square feet, and there's lots of work to be done over time. Crucially, though, none of this work is structural; it's all cosmetic. The house functions fine "as is," and what we "must" fix is limited pretty much to getting more electrical power to the house and new wiring so we can run modern-day electronics. We'll probably also remodel the upstairs bathroom, but like the rest of the place, it's not essential that we do so, it's simply a matter of preference. Erin and I plan to remodel the whole place eventually.

The home is in an established neighborhood right next to a park with plenty of space for kids to run around. There's also a few basketball hoops and a tennis court. The park almost negates the big back yard of the house, but that's more a problem of abundance than anything else. Aside from some temporary park maintenance (the city is installing a sewer line), it's a very quiet, very tranquil setting. Add to this that the location has excellent access to all parts of Salem and good (though not great) freeway access, and it's easy get excited.

At this stage I'm trying not to get too hopeful, but let's face it, I'm failing. This place meets all our "essential" criteria, and even tosses in a few "preferred" items. Notably, it does it at a price that is lower than we anticipated. And Erin's commute to Sprague? Fifteen minutes, tops.

August 27, 1999
Erin and I continue to debate the merits of different housing options as we drive-by and walk-through different homes. We've yet to find one that works when placed up against all our "essential" criteria, but we remain hopeful.

One thing that's worth noting is that this process is a lot of fun. For me, at least, projecting a future and envisioning options is a great time. If we're still doing this six months from now, of course, you might get a different response. But for right now, I'm loving it.

I slapped the PowerLogix G3 card back into Zeke and he behaved much more nicely today, leaving me somewhat puzzled. My best guess right now is that Zeke's got a RAM-related issue going on, but I'm not sure what it is, since TechTool's RAM tests clear everything. Perhaps I've got some bad RAM slots on the motherboard and changing the RAM around cured things, or maybe this apartment has some electrical problems. (I always have electronics on surge protectors, and, needless to say, so should you.)

Erin and Ginger are busy doing a teacher inservice today for new Salem-Keizer School District employees. Perhaps it was all the moving we did, but this seemed like a very fast summer.

August 24, 1999
Our phone is now working, though the bedroom phone jack is still out of action. This drastically curtails my Internet abilities, but Zeke is still acting wacky anyway, so maybe it doesn't matter that much. I'm worried now that we're talking about a motherboard issue, not a G3 card problem. This will probably be expensive.

At least my newspaper arrived this morning.

August 23, 1999
Boy did this day start lousy. Zeke died first thing this morning. Wasn't able to test anything until the evening, but it currently looks like the PowerLogix G3 card went kaput. It's still under its 3-year warranty, so no killer, but try dropping in speed from a 320-MHz G3 to 120-MHz 601 some time and so if you don't go stir crazy waiting for everything. If I were used to it, fine. It's the difference that's making me nuts.

Despite the computer catastrophe, the day was hardly ruined. In the morning Erin and I met with the very affable Bob Van Deusen, a Coldwell Banker realtor, and went through various South Salem listings. After the meeting, Erin and I drove around and peeked at about 10 different properties, which was quite fun. Of the 10, we liked five and will try to view the interiors of these later this week. [Update: One of the five just sold. Looks like we'll be visiting four properties.]

US West says our phone service will be active tomorrow by 6 PM.

August 22, 1999—Moving Daze
Quick status check:

On the brighter side, Dennis and Carlotta both were able to stay over and help Erin and I unpack a bit. All rooms are more or less functional, but the real bonus is that most of our boxes of junk can stay packed.

We returned the 24-foot truck to Rollins, and when all is said and done, the total cost will be about half of what Ryder would have charged us. Something to keep in mind next time you're looking for a truck rental in the Portland-area.

So far as our new apartment is concerned, Erin and I actually like it a great deal. True, the thing that got us in was $250 off the first month's rent, but it's also spacious (1000 square feet) and quiet. Fairly easy commute to Sprague High as well.

August 21, 1999—Moving Daze
What should have been a walk in the park move from Clackamas to Salem came pretty close to a complete nonevent thanks to Ryder. Despite having making reservations for a 20-foot truck weeks in advance, when Dennis and I showed up at the Milwaukie Ryder shop at 8 AM, there was nary a 20 footer to be found. Indeed, the manager gave me such a look of surprise when I told her who I was and what I was there for that I thought she might go into shock at any moment. Bottom line: No reservation and no truck for me at that location.

So I dialed up Ryder National and waited on hold, thinking all the while, "I have friends showing up in less than an hour, and I have no truck." I was just about to hang up when a national rep came on the line. I gave him my confirmation number (yeah, I had one of those too), and he instantly found me in the computer. I was hopeful for the first couple minutes, but then he informed me that my order was canceled because of "a duplicate order."

Now I didn't call twice, and unless I have an evil twin that I don't know about (Mom? Dad? Something to share?), this was simply a screw up by Ryder. Unfortunately, with no available trucks in the Portland-area, they could nothing to fix the situation and ultimately told me to call a competitor. In other words, they left me high and dry.

So let me put this as plainly as possible without the use of swear words: I will never again use Ryder Truck Rental and encourage you to boycott them as well. Having a confirmed, reserved truck means absolutely nothing so far as they are concerned, and I, for one, have no desire to do business with a company I cannot trust. Ryder is one such company.

So we returned to the apartment truck-less, and Dennis proceeded to call every truck rental company in the book. The book turned out not to be big enough since it only held Clackamas-area businesses, so I borrowed a Portland-area Yellow Pages from Lisa, our apartment manager, and Dennis called some more.

Happily, he ultimately found a company called Rollins who, while they specialize in commercial trucking, also rent trucks for personal use on the weekends. Dennis and I hightailed it out to Rollins, I signed a few papers, and we sped back to the apartments while our friends hung out and ate donuts.

In the end it was a testament to our friends Dennis, Dave, Missy, Garr, Carlotta, Mike, Joy, and Skylar that we finished right on time despite the hour and a half late start. Thanks very much to you all!

August 19, 1999
Went to a seminar at Portland State on Macromedia Flash 4, a relatively new web technology that offers lots of cool features. The event was overly long and rather mis-advertised, but Flash looks like a wonderful tool. With QuickTime 4 supporting Flash 3, expect to see some Flash stuff happening here before too long. If you've not seen Flash animations before, prepare to be amazed.

I also started playing with Adobe ImageStyler, a magnificent web graphics creation tool. It doesn't really produce anything that Photoshop or ImageReady couldn't, but it does a lot of things more quickly and much easier. I'm currently evaluated a 30-day "Tryout" version. My initial impression is that I'll end up buying it, because it makes so many things so easy.

Speaking of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe ImageReady, both upgrades arrived in the mail today. What's a little 2 week wait amongst friends? ImageReady looks excellent, and I assume that Photoshop is as well, though I haven't had time (and probably won't this week) to check it out. Heck, I'm still learning things about Adobe GoLive (though I confess I feel pretty comfortable with it).

I changed ISPs from the excellent Internet Arena, who don't offer dial-up service to the Salem area. Too bad, because I really like them. My new ISP, USAA/Sprint/Earthlink, will be adequate I think, and they gave me a great deal ($13.95/month), but I'm positive that the tech support won't be even close to Internet Arena's. All email and web site address stay the same, in case anyone's wondering.

August 18, 1999
Got Matt and Ginger moved into their new place in Salem yesterday. Even managed to make it back to Clackamas same day thanks to the grace and goodwill of my friend Carol. Carol's also in the process of buying a house so we had a grand time comparing notes and talking real estate on the way back up from Salem. (Special thanks also to Dennis for sharing his knowledge of bikes while we waited for furniture movers. Next bike I buy, I'm calling you first.)

With our own move to Salem coming up on Saturday, the rest of the week looks to be loaded. At least this week's chaos is anticipated and theoretically in the right direction.

August 17, 1999
I'm not really that sore from last night's outdoor soccer kick-around scrimmage with my brother Bret, but blisters on both heels popped in the course of the action, so I'm hobbled nonetheless. Great fun, though.

I spent most of yesterday trouble-shooting some friends' Power Mac 6500/225. It had serious hard drive corruption issues and Apple's GeoPort modem proved to be a somewhat baffling feature, but it's a pretty decent machine overall. Especially with companies like Sonnet and Newer Technology machine G3-upgrade cards for the 6500, this might be a great machine to pick up on the used market. (Note that there are two models: A consumer model with a slightly bigger hard drive and an educational model with 10BaseT Ethernet.)

I'll be helping friends Matt and Ginger move to Salem today—something that should keep me out of trouble for the time being.

August 16, 1999
I sold out of Merck (MRK-NYSE) this morning, an ambivalent experience if ever there was one. Erin and I bought in years ago at the height of the hysteria over Clinton's thankfully ill-fated attempt to socialize the US health care system. The stock was trading at 30 1/4 at the time. After the legislation died, people got a clue and the entire pharmaceutical sector took off like an F-15. Merck climbed to the mid-60s and we sold half our shares to finance our move to California. The stock continued to climb, finally splitting 2-for-1 when it reached 150 or so. It came down a bit after that due to interest rate fears (fears I'd say are meaningless in the long-term), so today's sale was at 64 5/16, providing us with an annualized return of 44.9%. Obviously, I wouldn't have sold without the need for a house down payment.

In this same vein, I rather grudgingly sold out of my longtime position in Hawaiian Electric (HE-NYSE) last week. Hawaiian Electric was my first long-term investment vehicle—their Dividend Reinvestment Program let you pop in as low as $35 a month—and I rode that horse for years. Ultimately, the returns were only adequate, annualizing to a very safe, very steady, 7%. I wouldn't have sold out of this one either without the need for a house down payment, but what do you do? Housing is kinda important.

The question that remains is whether we'll be able to hold on to our American Water Works (AWK-NYSE) position, or if we'll need that to finance a house as well. We've been DRIPing our way in over time, and though current returns are fine (16.5% annualized), I think the big growth lies ahead. Recommend this stock highly in case anyone out there is looking for something to buy.

August 15, 1999
In the midst of some packing for next week's move, I've been working extensively on a new, as-yet-untitled song. Erin calls it "playful," and I don't know of what it reminds me. I'm hoping to get some lyrics penciled in soon, but this coming week is a busy one.

Found a virus on my computer—only the second one in about 10 years of using Macs—and wouldn't you know it, it's an old cross-platform Microsoft macro virus called "WM.Concept.A." It's relatively benign since it's user activated and does virtually nothing but self-replicate, but I was less than thrilled to see it anyway. Given the files which were infected, it looks like it came from the Saint Francis computer network, a bastion of lame PCs. Now I have something else to blame Microsoft for—making these macro viruses possible.

August 13, 1999
I can see why US West gets so many customer complaints. We've been using GTE here in Clackamas, and their people are very customer service oriented. (They even begin every conversation with "How may I provide you with excellent service?") In contrast, the US West guy I talked with turned gruff when I refused to provide my social security number. No wonder, because the rigamarole I have go through now (fax 2 picture IDs) can take up to 10 business days to complete. That means Erin and I could be without phone service and Internet access at our new apartment in Salem for up to a week. Lovely.

Erin and I saw The Matrix again (4 times for me, 3 times for her) at the Kennedy School, a grade school that's been converted into a pub/movie theatre/bed & breakfast/restaurant. Fun place, great movie.

Garr's band, loligo, rocked the Medicine Hat Gallery tonight. For me, it was even more fun than last time I saw them because tonight's set began at 9:30, whereas their last concert didn't get underway until about midnight. loligo's next concert will be September 18, so mark those calendars if you're in the Portland area.

August 11, 1999
I found a wonderful analysis of my favorite movie of the year, The Matrix, at Cleave.com. A notable quote about the film:

This is some of the best film analysis I've read—better than mine, frankly—but I suppose I'm inclined to say that since I loved the movie and they did too. It seems like when one begins to see just how many levels this movie is operating on, it becomes that much more rich an experience. I've seen it three times in the last month, and I'd see it again at the drop of a hat.

August 10, 1999
Little family action today with a surprise morning visit from Dad and a dinner stopover from Bret. Dad was on the way to meet with a client, and thought he'd stop in. Bret was dropping off an Apple StyleWriter 1500 ink jet printer for me to take a look at. Erin BBQ'd up some stuff, and we all ended up chatting and eating, but not simultaneously, because it's rude to talk with your mouth full. Bret's playing a lot of soccer, something I hope to do once Erin and I stop moving around.

Speaking of which, approval came through on the Salem apartment. Not like this was much of a nail-biter, but it's always nice to get confirmation that everything went as well as expected. Can't believe another move is only 11 days away. Man, there's a lot to do before then.

August 9, 1999
Two more good bumper stickers to add to the list: "Visualize...using your turn signal" and "Horn is broken—Watch for finger."

Headed to the Portland Macintosh Users Group (PMUG) Swap Meet tonight where I ditched our LC ("Veronica") and accompanying 12" monitor. In addition, I gave away two dreadfully old Mac books.

I also spent $67, but I'm pretty pleased with the software and hardware treasures I collected. Software first: For $15 I legally acquired Norton Utilities 4.0, the program that saved my rear a few months ago when my 1 gig hard drive crashed. I'd been testing Norton out since then, and I think it makes an excellent complement to TechTool 2.51. I acquired Adobe Acrobat Exchange 1.0 and Acrobat Distiller 1.0 from the freebie pile, along with an older version of PowerPrint in case I ever need to print to a PC printer. For $2, I got QuickBooks Pro 4.0, the last version available for the Mac. (I even was able to order a free CD ROM upgrade of QuickBooks from Intuit to insure Y2K compliance.)

The hardware goodies I picked up included an 8-port 10BaseT Ethernet switched hub for $15, a 10BaseT Nubus card for my Mac IIci for $20, and a Jaz drive SCSI-to-PC serial port connection interface for $10. I think I spent a little too much on the Nubus card, but it should make backing up Erin's files a lot faster than the LocalTalk arrangement I was using. Finally, I bought an Adobe Classroom In a Book for Premiere 4.0 for $5. (Retail when it was new was $45.)

Don't know exactly when the next PMUG swap meet will be, but I'm going again!

August 8, 1999
You might call me crazy—that's nothing new—but at least this time I'm in league with 11,000 others in my insanity. Along with friends Dennis, Joe, Ybeth, Miriam, John, Josh, and Susan, I biked a total 32 miles miles today as we pedalled the bridges of Portland for a charity event. It wasn't nearly as exhausting as I had feared—I think I could have done a longer distance—but that's not to say that I wasn't plenty tired by the end of the day. And yes, my butt hurts.

After the bike ride, Joe came over so we could work up a short educational commercial for a class he's taking as part of his program at the Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU). We dappled with QuickTime and Adobe Premiere for a couple of hours, and by the end of it, we had a pretty impressive little demo running. Nothing like necessity to make you learn how to use your software.

Finally, Erin and I headed over to Matt and Ginger's for dinner, where Matt concocted an excellent Greek pasta dish whose name I can't remember but which sounds a lot like "ouzo." Yummy stuff!

August 7, 1999
Applied for an apartment this morning out in SE Salem near the Battle Creek Golf Course. It's an older complex and the interiors are nothing to write home about, but (1) the setting is peaceful, (2) it's a short commute to Sprague, and (3) they gave us an amazing rent deal. The month-to-month rent is $505, but they're currently having a "special" of $250 off the first month's rent. So our rent for the coming month will be $255, almost $1000 less than we were paying in Mountain View a few months ago.

Were we anticipating a longer stay, even this might not be enough of an inducement (though it probably would). But our dreams tend toward home ownership, and with luck, we'll be able to make that a reality within a few months.

August 6, 1999
Latest night loligo concert at the Ash Street Saloon was a gas. Unfortunately, their set didn't start until midnight because they followed two other bands. That made for a late night/early morning combo which was difficult. Of course, seeing loligo in concert was worth it. (Next gig is August 13 at Medicine Hat; see loligomusic.com for details.)

Erin and I met Matt and Ginger in Salem for a tour of Sprague High School guided by my former English teacher and speech/debate coach, Jane. Nostalgia City for me, new and interesting for Erin. The school has grown a lot, and though it looks a little worse for the wear after 12 years, it's also now packed to the gills with about 700 more students than when I attended. It's still, for my money, the best high school in Salem.

After a brief pit stop at my parents', Erin and I headed out to look for an apartment. The two we looked at today were mixed. We liked the modern interior of the first complex, but vastly preferred the shorter commute and tranquil setting of the second apartment. More searching tomorrow.

Despite the long day, a late afternoon cat nap gave me all the endurance I needed to head for a showing of The Matrix (my third viewing) with Mom. I pick up more stuff everytime I see it, and frankly, this movie alone might be a reason for me to get a DVD player someday.

August 5, 1999
Mom and I went to an Adobe seminar on "Photoshop 5.5 & the Web" at the Lloyd Center yesterday. We watched two Adobe seminar guys demo Photoshop 5.5 and ImageReady 2.0 as well as ImageStyler, GoLive, and Premiere. I'd seen a lot of it before, but I always manage to pick up a few tips and tricks, and this time was no exception. Expect to see some GoLive HTML trickery in the not-too-distant future.

August 4, 1999
I'll bet you missed it, didn't you? Just happily clicked your way to the News section, la-la-la-la-la. Well, you might want to revisit that Main page because I've added a special little Scooby Snack for those of you who want to go looking for specific info located somewhere on Davison Online.

That's right, courtesy of Atomz.com I've added a localized search engine. You can now search the entirety of Davison Online for whatever topic, word, or phrase you'd like and have the results ranked automatically by relevency. Given that I've put more than two and half years worth of brain goobers up for all to see, this ought to make finding things a lot easier. (Now if I could just write coherently.)

For example, let's say we want to see what I've written about that brilliant movie, The Matrix. We could type "The Matrix" into the search box, and get some pretty good returns. But it might be more worthwhile to just search for "Matrix" since I've likely used the word "The" a few million times on the web site, and that's likely to skew our results. Indeed, you'll find that if you just search for "Matrix," the results are perfect.

So let me know what you think and how it goes. I think it's all pretty snazzy.

August 1, 1999
I spent a lot of time today talking with USAA and associated companies about mortgages. Got pre-approved and everything. I'm tentatively going through USAA's Mover's Advantage thing, though I've been told of some unhappy experiences with some of the local reps with whom they contract. Since we know next to nothing about real estate, we'll use a buyer's agent, though we'll only be signing on for a week or two initially. That seems like a good plan to me, since I definitely don't want to get stuck with somebody I don't like.

The pre-approval on the mortgage was fairly interesting since I'm currently starting up my own company. That meant they could only use Erin's salary for qualifying. Fortunately, we have no debt and can put down a relative boatload of money. That plus our spotless credit record basically let the lender to disregard all the normal debt and qualifying ratios.

Me? I'm already trying to figure out how fast we can pay everything off. I have no problem with a mortgage, but rest assured that prepayment is what I see when I look in my crystal ball. Tax advantages of paying interest be darned, I'm about as debt-averse a person as you'll find.

Of course, just because I'm fiscally conservative by nature doesn't mean I'm not open to ideas, suggestions, or comments regarding the home buying process. Any house we buy will be our first, and since we're novices in the real estate world, we welcome any advice. Send me an email.

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