What’s Up with Paul Oppenheim

I’m in the middle of a very large project at work, I apologize if I have been unresponsive or uncommunicative lately. I hope everyone is doing well!

I finally finished David Allen’s Getting Things Done . I bought it in early 2005 I believe, and have been reading it slowly since then. A whole segment of the population swears by this book, and I think I can too. I don’t think I follow the whole process that well (despite taking my time doing so), but my life is more positive from the new habits I have gained from this book, and the lifehacker movement. I think I’ll be starting my second read of it next month.

Hack on.

Rachel and I have moved to Sunnyvale, California. Sunnyvale is best known for holding all sorts of technology companies, and boring suburbia. And now it holds me, YAY! I’m not going to post my address, but let it be known I’m no longer in San Jose. Rachel and I have two other roommates now, and we live in a large wonderful house. All kinds of hectic, that’s all for now!

If you buy music online, I hope you know about emusic. I have been a subscriber for almost 3 years now, and in April I noticed that my downloads didn’t refresh on the 6th of the month like they should. I sent another of my irate customer support emails which I dread reading when I am no longer angry. I got this awesome response:

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I had a slightly harrowing digital privacy experience recently, and it has been overwhelming my ability to post.

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Ahh! Babies!

My cousin Stefanie just had a son, Taylan. Welcome to this world, Taylan!

I’m looking for a fourth roommate for an awesome house in Sunnyvale. If that sounds interesting to you, let me know! If that sounds like it might be interesting to someone you know, please give them my email address!

Oh, embarrasment. I need to update this at least once a month, or I’m fired.

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I’m busy these days. There’s a release at work, and that means finishing everything I promised that I would several months ago. I’m actually far better at time estimation than I thought, which is terrible because I originally thought I was underestimating my herculean abilities.

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I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, but my sister Beth has cancer.

Well, had cancer. We hope. She had surgery on Wednesday, March 15th, The Ides of March. We found out back at the beginning of November last year. It has been tense since then, radiation weakening her, killing enough of the cancer to make her operable.

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I was writing another blog entry about my life to keep all you happy family memebrs up to date, and this stupid blog deleted it. How can software possibly be this bad, I wonder? I have a lot of work ahead of me in this life.

What can you find in San Francisco on Christmas Eve other than crazy political street preachers and equally crazy Scientologists? That’s right, street performers. Or, as luck would have it, street opera singers. I enjoyed the John Cage-ish contrast of hearing delicate opera ruined by traffic, fire trucks, loud conversations, and other street performers. But enough about that, here’s the link to the hilarious phto caption gallery from the day.

Happy new year friends and family, merry chrismas, happy hanukkah, fevstive solstice and all that as well. I’m sitting with my new Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop and a glass of port enjoying my day off work. I’m also configuring debian linux on this bad little boy.

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I’m having account issues with my hosting / domain registration company, and I may be switching servers soon, so my blog (and websites!) may be offline in the near future. Just letting you all know! And a transcript for those of you who also host with Dreamhost (and I know there’s a few of you) follows…

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This is just a quick post, but many of you know I broke my Apple Powerbook 15″ laptop a few months back. It has been serving me well as a desktop, but I really need a laptop. Last night there was one of those special fire sales…

Dude, I’m getting a Dell.

This makes me a Switcher, or as some would have it, a reverse-switcher. However, I’m not planning on using Windows, I’m planning on using Linux.

I got it at $700 off, so it really was a one-time deal. That’s about all for now, more when I get it. Feel free to discuss my impropriety in the Comments.

A simple update to reaffirm everyone’s suspicion that I’m Not Dead.

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That was a quick week. I planned every minute of my week in Metro Detroit, and I sure used them.

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So I caught a few spare minutes. I’m waiting for some potatoes au gratin to bake for the company potluck tomorrow, and figured I’d get a word in. My computer works somewhat safely too now. For all of you waiting with baited breath, yes, I reformatted with Tiger. For those of you who don’t understand that, you’re leading a more fulfilling life than any of us who do :)

Anyhow, I’ve already made my first post, and more are to follow all rapid-fire-like. They won’t be the most cogent things on earth, because I’ve just finished two days of Halloween partying. Read, leave some comments, and let me know how you’re doing!

+ paul 

Rachel turned 24, and celebrations were in order. Our weekend of fun can be related much better by the woman herself. There are also a few pictures from our adventures in San Jose, Monterrey, and Santa Cruz. I love you Rachel, and hope you had a memorable time.

I’m almost to the summit of the first mountain of things to be done. The codex is emptying. Those in the know can feel me on this one. As they say, you’ve got to get organized! Once again, an update with substance is forthcoming.