Since Anne and I have come out of stealth-mode and started telling people that we’re packing up the family and moving to Paris, most people’s general reaction follows this approximate timeline:

1. Shock or surprise that we’re moving out of the country
2. Initial curiosity about how that is going to work
3. More shock or surprise that we’re not going to be working in Paris
4. For co-workers, a jarring realization that we won’t be around to do work for Apple
5. Further curiosity about what we plan to spend our time on.
6. Another realization that they had always wanted to do something like this.
7. A general happiness for us and that we are very brave to be doing this.
8. A kind of pensive look as we part company.

I hope that everyone I work with and everyone I’m friends with in the Bay Area understand that this has been coming for a long time. Way longer than the nine months that it took to plan this trip. I think the first time Anne and I discussed living in some other country was like a decade ago.

How well or poorly work was going had minimal influence on us. This is a big, life-changing experience that we both wanted our kids to have in middle school.

I also want people to know that we do indeed intend to return to the US, to our house in Sunnyvale, and that the current plan is to be back in August of 2014. Now, life has a tendency to change, so I can’t promise anything.

Until then, I’m hoping to be able to update folks here and elsewhere on the Internets as our adventure proceeds.

Au revoir.

A while back, on a trip to Washington, DC we were gathered around in my Mom and Dad’s apartment to meet my sister and her kids. It came out that my sister had been prepping my niece Lizzie about the various members of the family she was going to be seeing and one of the things she was taught was what Uncle Nick likes to eat. It went something like this:

My Sister: “Lizzie, what does Uncle Nick like to eat?”

Lizzie points at me.

Lizzie: “Nick”

My Sister: “Yes, that’s Uncle Nick. What does he like to eat?”

A huge smile would spread across Lizzie’s face.

Lizzie: “Bacon”

Well, I do love bacon, and steak, and pork ribs, and BBQ chicken, and all manner of other tasty meats, but I’m realizing more and more that the combined efforts of the food industry and the weakness of our congress has created a cloud of confusion around food and its healthfulness.

We’re told:

• “Eat a lot of protein, less fat”.
• “Keep your calories from fat to less than 1/3 of your total caloric intake.”
• “Drink lots of milk for strong bones and teeth.”
• “Omega-3 fatty acids are key for health.”
• “Eggs are very healthy.”
• “Limit your carbohydrates.”
• “Moderate exercise three times a week is good.”

Sadly, Americans are fatter and fatter, and sicker and sicker every year. It’s because all this USDA/FDA tiptoeing advice is polished bullshit that’s been filtered through the “profit impact filters” of every corporation and middleman who might be affected by any significant change in the American diet status quo.

Being healthy means ignoring everything that the government or the food industry tells you because they’re both trying to make you sick. And they’re doing a great job of it and it’s profitable.

Bill Maher has an awesome rant about this:

I recently watched two movies and read two books that all point in the same direction.

First, the movies:

Both of these movies are scary yet both present people who watch them with a hard-to-ignore call to action: “Stop eating meat, dairy, and sugar and just eat vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. You’ll be thinner, healthier, and feel whole a lot better.”

Next, the books:

Both of these books could be categorized as “advocating vegetarianism”. The first concentrates on the cultural reasons for eating meat, the production of that meat, and the associated cruelty with eating meat, but in the end, it leaves the reader with no real call to action, instead letting the information settle and people might do the right thing.

The second book is a shocker. I mean “Holy Shit” sort of shocker. And it’s all backed up by referenced scientific, peer-reviewed studies that all shout the same thing:

“Meat, dairy, and sugar are all slowly poisoning America”

It’s that simple, and no one in the food industry or the government wants to change that, because there’s no profit in selling bell peppers.

So, over time, I’ve been ramping down on my meat consumption and increasing my physical activity and I’m now at the point where I’m trying to go vegan. I don’t think I’ll be perfect, but I’m not even really trying for that. What I’m trying for is that on a day-to-day basis, I don’t want to even consider meats or dairy part of my diet. I strongly suggest that everyone watch these movies and read these books, especially The China Study.

I just downloaded Photomatix to try out doing some HDR processing.

Here’s my first. I tried not to go overboard.

The Photomatix tool is pretty easy to use and there’s a nice tutorial on the StuckInCustoms site. There’s even a discount code for Photomatix if you like.

I enjoy Christmas, mostly. However, some years it feels like it’s a beast that is born, must be fed then house broken, then finally grows old and stale, and must be mortally defeated in early January.

Here’s our little Sith Lord giving the Christmas tree what it rightfully deserves.

Last night we had a great party with our traditional New Year’s Eve Fondue Feast.

As this is the time of year to make resolutions, I have to make a comment on resolutions, namely, that most people make them, but can’t stick to them, so they’ve become something of a joke.

That being said, I still feel like January 1st is a day of considering what’s happened so far and what still needs work, so in the style of a status-report, here are my top few:

1. Happiness – I’ve been trying to be happier. Mostly, I want to be happy with what I have, not unhappy about what I don’t have. When you’re scrabbling around at the top of Maslo’s Pyramid of Needs, it’s really easy to forget how good a life you already have.
2. Fitness – I’ve been trying to be more fit. I’ve recently taken up running, and it’s been going pretty well so far. I’m going to try to keep that up. Additionally, Anne and I have recently decided to eat less crap food. We don’t generally eat fast food, but we do get take-out and eat out at restaurants a lot. We’ve started planning family meals together and we hope that we can dial back both the expense and poor quality of our food (I can already hear the whining).
3. Creativity – I’d like to be more creative, so I’m going to be spending more time writing (this blog is a good example), and more time doing photography (so that I have a better excuse to get a Canon 5D Mark III when they come out).
4. Time Wasting – I’d like to spend less time consuming and more time producing (see #3 above). This means I’m going to be dialing back on TV, video games, etc. It also means I’m going to be spending less time reading what’s going on Reddit and Digg. This is also a way to avoid becoming incredibly depressed (see #1 above) about how quickly the United States is sliding into FAIL (see NDAA and The Economy).

I recently found a little site called Hulkort, which keeps track of your commits with a nice little histogram.

You can setup a git commit hook and every time you commit, it does a POST to the hulkort site, which keeps track of your commits. It’s mostly just for fun, but I enjoy looking at it at the end of the day to know that it wasn’t a total loss.

I’ve decided to get my blog up and running again, and I’ve selected Octopress on the recommendation of Matt Gemmell. It’s a statically-generated website from a set of templates that are run through a bunch of rake tasks using Jekyll. Ruby almost always makes me happy.

I’ve also decided to host this blog on namecheap.com after the whole anti-SOPA fervor that surrounded godaddy.com. I think both companies are struggling under the load that this movement has created. GoDaddy is doing everything they can to avoid bleeding-out and Namecheap is struggling to keep up with all the GoDaddy refugees banging down their door.

We’ll just have to see how things go on MoveYourDomainDay. I have feeling it’ll be a little like the scenes from Braveheart with massive numbers of bodies lying on the field of battle and wounded survivors wandering through the fog in a daze.

This is a long and painful hike, but it’s something you should do before you can’t anymore.

Kyra had so much fun turning the prayer wheels that I needed to get a good shot of it. This is from our trip to China last summer.  We were at Puning Si in Chengde.

If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. Kyra and I had a blast while sledding last year in Tahoe.