The story I had always told of my name is wrong: I had thought my mom adapted the Scottish name “Gaelen” into “Gay Lynn” after discovering the name while browsing magazines at the dentist’s office. I had always imagined it was some swashbuckling swordsman, Gaelen, a dragon-slayer perhaps, whose story was told in some glamour magazine. I imagined a real hero’s tale, accompanied by some type of captivating historical illustration. His lyrical name repeated over and over in the story, echoing even in the last line of story…

A couple of years ago the topic came up at dinner with my mom and Troy. Turns out, Gaelen was a football player whom my mom remembered as dying young from cancer, in a Reader’s Digest story she flipped through at the beauty parlor.

I decided to look up my namesake on the internet recently and there were no Gaelens in the NFL. After a little research by both mom and me, it turns out I’m named for Gale Sayers

Is it strange to know you are named after a football player? Yes, especially if you a a girl. At least I was named after a Hall of Famer, whom Mike Ditka said is the best player he’s ever seen, and who still holds the record for the most TDs in a game (6 v. the 49ers). I just wish I would have known it when I saw “Brian’s Song” in 8th grade.

Mom said she liked the name because she thought it would work well if the adoption agency came through with either a boy or a girl. Troy’s not sure if he is remembering this wrong, but he remembers seeing Gale Sayers as a walk-on in a “Brady Bunch” episode where he explained that kids made fun of his name, because it was a girl’s name. So I guess that is something else Gale Sayers and I have in common, though I suspect that a boy Gale Gilmore or Gay Gilmore would have been teased more than a girl Gay Gilmore, but for completely different reasons. That said, I think boy Gale Gilmore could have better leveraged being named for Gale Sayers.

Are you named for someone?

2 Comments »

Our friend Kiernan’s father passed away last week. Coincidentally, Elizabeth’s father died last month. Perhaps our blogroll is cursed. Perhaps people just die, when you least and most expect it.

No Comments yet »

David Cohen of RoadCycling.com says that Armstrong won’t win the Tour this year because the other riders are younger and more motivated to win. I don’t buy it, they were younger last year and why weren’t they motivated to prevent him from winning his 5th or the record-breaking 6th?

Outdoor Life Network did their final “Road to the Tour” yesterday and Phil Liggett was sure favoring Armstrong and proclaiming that this year’s Discovery Team is the strongest team Lance has had in the Tour. He even said disagreed with Lance saying that Andreas Klöden, a strong contender, is “riding like a sack of potatoes”.

T-Mobile has the second strongest team, in my opinion, but whether they’re all motivated to help Jan Ullrich win is the question. Vinokourov could be better than Ullrich. And Ivan Basso is another threat.

Regardless, it should be a good Tour this year!

No Comments yet »

Steve Jobs spoke at Stanford’s graduation last weekend. For someone who is famously private, he’s surprisingly candid about his life and career. Here’s some good advice:

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

When I was a kid and accidentally discovered how much fun I had making software, I watched Apple become a great company (the first time) and saw Steve Jobs as a true visionary. His recent return to Apple proves it all over again. I’ve always admired his ability to get to the point in his businesses and deliver great stuff. After reading his speech, I admire his ability to do the same with life.

No Comments yet »

This is a shot on the ferry leaving Vashon and going to Seattle, where we attended the wedding of Gay’s cousin Saturday night.

No Comments yet »

On Monday, we checked out of our hotel in downtown San Diego and went to the Hotel Del Coronado on Coronado island.
Continue Reading »

No Comments yet »

We flew to San Diego Saturday morning so Gay can run the Rock & Roll Marathon Sunday morning. She’s been training for it all year long, running 5-10 miles a day during the week and 20-25 mile runs on weekends.
Continue Reading »

2 Comments »

A Seattle coffee shop cut off their free Wi-Fi on weekends only last week because customers sat there all day with their laptops. Of course, some customers didn’t like the decision:

One poster referred to Victrola management as “Wi-Fi Nazis”; another accused Victrola of “trying to increase turnover to get more proï¬�t per table”-the implication being, of course, that businesses should have other interests than proï¬�t in mind. “People have talked about how we’re horrible capitalist pigs,” an exasperated Strongin says. “They think we’re sitting in our Victrola mansion laughing about all the extra cash we’re making.”

I know how they feel. And I bet there were more than a few people with the old “I paid $1.29 for my coffee, you OWE me free Wi-Fi!” completely ignoring the fact that they got a coffee for that $1.29. As usual, those who take the proper perspective realize the truth:

Meanwhile, supportive customers, who outnumbered opponents on the blogs by at least two to one, have noted that businesses like Victrola have every right to expect customers to pay their way. Caffe Ladro, down the street, offers free wi-�, but only for one hour; Starbucks, the only other coffee shop on that stretch of 15th Avenue, charges $29.95 a month.

No Comments yet »

Google’s Summer of Code offers students $4,500 to work on open source projects this summer. Very cool. That’s $1,500 for each of three months of the summer, or $9.38/hr. When I was in college, I worked as a night security guard in an office building (which requires doing absolutely nothing, so I got paid to do homework) and was paid $9/hr. Granted, that was 1990 dollars, but if I could have been paid to work on Apache, Mono, Subversion, Nmap, etc., wow.

No Comments yet »