In Which I Surf Naked

 Musings of Portable Computing and a Life Long Passion for a Hot Bath

From my early teens and into young adulthood, I loved to read the San Diego Evening Tribune in the bathtub. I would let the hot water trickle in slowly until it was just a few inches deep. I then would drain the water and start filling that old tub all over again. I had my numerical flipping (remember those?) clock radio on the vanity playing the sultry sounds of KGB fm. I remember my Dad complaining that I was ruining the hot water heater taking baths like that so frequently. Somehow the slow trickling water was damaging... well, something.

After leaving home for an LDS mission in '83 and years of college life into the late '80s, good working and, most importantly, private  bathtubs at my own residence were in short order. From time to time I had a chance to read and study in a real tub, but not many opportunities presented themselves to me. Sure, I did plenty of hot tubbing in my formidable college years. However, there were no books and  no mobile computers around while enjoying those bubbly, jetted tubs. Just a lot of attractive coeds wearing BYU approved swimming attire. Those were dark years.

Marriage in 1991 to a singularly exceptional woman (that is another post) brought an apartment with only 1 roommate and a tub. Bliss had returned to my life. Then, in 1992,  my wife and I bought our first (and only) home, in which we now live. It had a small tub (regular size actually, but I am quite a large man) and I made full use of it. Oh did I make use of it! I made a desk and did quite a bit of my schoolwork in the tub while finishing up my Computer Science degree at BYU.

Edited for content

I wrote many term papers, did math and engineering assignments in that tiny tub. Back then, moble computing was not what it is now. Impatient for laptops to be practical and affordable, I rigged up my 486 on a wheeled cart, strapped on an amber monochrome monitor, a 9600 bps modem and I had Provo's first mobile workstation! I used to wheel my high tech go cart into our tiny bathroom with the tiny tub and it was awesome! My geekiness  knew no bounds. I wrote many many thousands of lines of code right there in that tub. I would also dial into my favorite BBS's (no accessible internet back then folks) and had lively discussions and chats with my online friends for many hours.

You can see my wheeled workstation in the background of these photos.

 (That's Debra in the foreground)

Debra used to love playing her Mickey Mouse memory card game

I don't remember when, but my mobile workstation eventually found a more permanent, but accessible home on a coffee table in the living room.

Finally, we finished our basement and I got to pick the bathtub. It's big! It's beautiful! I've logged more hours that I care to admit in this tub. Can you blame me?

Recently, I've been working on office connectivity and, of course, real mobile computing. I've gone though laptops over the years, but I must say... I am very pleased with the current state of my geekdom. This little red netbook (in the photo above) was originally used by the family upstairs in the living room to surf the web and do homework and such. The main desktop is downstairs in our library and is a little out of the way. For reasons I later discovered, the little red netbook lost favor and was sitting on a shelf, neglected. About two months ago, I saw it on the shelf and wondered what I could do with it. I could never imagine the places I would take that little red netbook. Really! I take it everywhere now, and it goes everywhere too. Let me explain...

As I stared at the little red netbook, buried under cables, papers and books, I thought I could use the little guy to learn Linux. I use Linux at work a lot, but I remain quite ignorant of it and usually only learn what I need to know to get my job done.  I decided to give it a try, so I pulled little red from the shelf and found that the reason it had been so neglected (other than it came with Windows Vista and was dog slow) was that the power adapter had been damaged. I ordered a new power adapter and an uber long life battery. I installed the Ubuntu 11.4 Linux distribution and started my journey. As some of you know, getting everything just so with a Linux distro on a netbook is an adventure. I started with v 9.4 then went through some intermediate versions and finally landed on v. 11.4.

I have only recently arrived at the apex of my geek-o-rama and have quite a nice setup I must say. My little red book, named Phineas btw, (after Phineas and Ferb of Disney channel fame) runs Ubuntu Linux 11.4, as I said, and connects to our wireless network when we're at home. In addition to browsing the web and coding in Java and Flex locally on Phineas, I use Cisco's AnnyConnect vpn to connect to our office network. From there I can ssh into our data centers in San Jose, Oakland and Dallas, or more typically I use the Windows remote desktop to connect to one of my three workstations in the office.  At this point, little red is just a terminal and I have all the power of my quad core Xeon workstation at my stubby finger tips. Mind you, I'm still in my bathtub!

We don't just hang around the bathtub, however. I recently posted about my man-purse on facebook. One of the things I carry everywhere I go in my murse, is little red. Phineas travels with me everywhere I go. When I find myself with some down time, I've got a little red book in my pocket. If there's no network available, I read my real books or, more accurately, my Nook (also in my murse), or fire up Eclipse and work on some coding projects. If there is a wireless available (either public, or just un-protected =:) I whip out my little red and I can go anywhere and do anything!

I've come a long way both with mobile computing hardware and my bathing hardware. From those humble days, during the Carter administration in the '70s and my low-tech newspaper and a griping Dad, to the 21st century where the world is literally at my fingertips anytime, anywhere... especially when I'm surfing naked.

btw, I've had the same water heater for over twenty years now.

If you haven't noticed, that is one mean shower head!

Btw, I actually have surfed naked. Real surfing... At Blacks Beach, then a nude beach, in San Diego back in the early '80s. But that's another post. 

I admit, I photoshopped out some of the hard water stains. 

P.S. Any guesses where I was when I wrote this post? =:)

An update on an old friend

Many moons ago I told the story of an old friend getting older. Well things got worse... Much much worse. Remember those oil leaks I described? I let my friend down and let those leaks get the best of her. On a long drive with my Dad around West Mountain south of Utah Lake, the oil gage began to twitterpate. Long story short, the rings were burned out and my Jeep lost a great deal of compression. I could barely get up to 50 mph on the freeway.

I contemplated for a long time, the fate of my precious automobile. I had been watching Chip Foose on Overhaulin and was inspired. I decided to have my engine rebuilt. And so it was, after several frustrating rounds with Gleggs Auto to get a leak free engine, I finally have it. My Jeep now has lots of power, which I take advantage of frequently, Especially on my many drives up Provo Canyon. Zoom zoom!

Update: On Sunday on one of my zoom zooms up the canyon to see my brother Kimo, my Jeep stalled at Kimball Junct. The fuel pump, whining loudly for many months, overheated and puttered out. It is currently in the shop in Heber. One more aging piece needing some tlc.

After Which I Devolve into an Unsupervised Adult

For 5 days each summer I've fallen into an irresistible habit of becoming an irresponsible bachelor. As my wife and older girls go off to young women's camp in the beautiful mountains of Utah to experience spiritual growth and to work on becoming mature young adults, I find myself drawn towards behavior, normally reserved for adolescent young men, which I otherwise suppress. For example, one summer I took a day off work, got a room at the La Quinta inn in Orem, threw my two youngest in the pool for two days while I indulged in reading in a beautiful little garden nook near the pool. I bought a Wii and played video games with my little girls after the pool closed in the late evening. (see my post on this adventure here)

Earlier this year, while my wife and Karen were away on a ballroom team trip to San Fransisco, I went and bought two ducklings. I had, and still have, no idea what we are going to do with them. They can't fly away as they are domestic breads.

What is it about being the only adult around that brings out this behavior? Is it an innate program burned into the secret parts of brain? Is it a genetic defect related to the Y chromosome? I'll never be sure I guess. Anyway, I've got to cut this post short. I'm on my way out to do something... irresponsible.