Boztopia.com

The latest edition of my weekly updates on my life and adventures in the City of Angels. This one’s a little late, as I had a busy weekend, but I promised to bring you the goods each and every week, and so I do.

• I spent much of this week buying furniture and various items for my new place, and expect to be fully moved in by tomorrow. The only thing I’m missing are pegs for my bed frame, but otherwise I’m in good shape. I snagged a coffee table and dining table with chairs from a very sweet woman who brought them over in her dad’s ENORMOUS pickup, and was introduced to the wonders of IKEA when I went shopping for a couch set. I decided to mix utility with style, and bought a KLIPPAN loveseat to use as my couch, and a SOLSTA sofa bed to use as the loveseat. This, combined with the spare bathroom, will make it very easy to entertain guests, so anyone who wants to visit, holla at me. (This was also where I ran across Claudia Christian shopping for furniture with her man. She still looks fantastic at 45, and interestingly, was born in Glendale, which is not far from Burbank, where the IKEA is located.)
• The amount of natural light I get in my place is incredible. I never need to turn lights on, ever, until 6pm at the earliest. It’s amazing and invigorating. The building itself is run-down, but the place gives me the three things I wanted more than anything when I moved here–space, sunshine, and community. Can’t ask for better.
• After much soul-searching and hand-wringing, I decided to go with Time Warner Cable as my Internet option. Much as Comcast and Verizon have the DC/MD/VA market monopolized, so too do TWC and AT&T out here. I will never, ever, ever do business with AT&T, and a good ADSL install would have taken another two to three weeks to set up, so TWC was the least worst option. (Notice that it’s always one telephone and one cable company–how’s that for competition, eh?) Still, I have to say I was hella impressed with both the professionalism and quick turnaround of the cable install, and the quality of service I’ve been getting. The HD channels all look great, and the number of on-demand options are staggering. This probably won’t last, of course, but I intend to enjoy it while I can.
• In the meantime, once I have space set aside, I may order a Neuros Link to beta test and see what it can do. Or I might get one of these babies….
• Since it’s mentioned on the CaptiveWorks site, the big thing I did this weekend was go to the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE). It was nerd heaven, I tell you–all these passionate programmers, sysadmins, and the like expounding on open source and how it can be used to make the world work better. As a front-end guy, I was WAAAAAAAAAAY out of my depth when it came to some of the discussion topics, but as Leslie Hawthorn and Cat Allman pointed out in their seminar, there are needs that people can fill to help open-source at all levels, from marketing to testing to bug fixing to evangelizing. I also walked away with a metric ton of free swag (including Ubuntu’s 8.10 iteration) and became a full contributing member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I’ve been a fan of EFF and the incredible work they do protecting digital freedom for years, and have regularly donated, so now seemed like the time to mount up.
• It’s funny how being out here has activated (or reactivated) parts of me that I thought were dormant or never knew existed. As most of you know, I’ve struggled with my weight for many years and have made progress, but never to the degree I’d like. But just being out here has helped me eat healthier, be more active, and really embrace a fitter lifestyle. I’ve lost a few more pounds and have completely changed my diet. I even deliberately picked my new pad because it didn’t have an elevator, knowing that walking up three flights of stairs every day would help me build endurance. I find myself paying attention to the importance of design and aesthetics as much as substance, all part of the realization that here, in this new place, I don’t need to play any roles or follow any preconceptions of how I am supposed to be. Here, I set the rules and I decide how I will be perceived, free of history and anyone’s opinion but my own.
• I still miss you all, though. Terribly at times. But I absolutely will not let loneliness or fear isolate me or force me into a shell. I’m here, my life is here, and I intend to live it as fully as I can.