Between the Lines

Mowing Green this Weekend

In Oregon we have mild winters and as such grass in our yards are green and still grow requiring maintained by mowing. After 20 years of service with Autodesk, I was awarded a credit I could use for various gifts and I chose to green my house with a home improvement gift certificate. I have retired my gas engine lawn mower for a nice efficient Greenworks Pro 60-volt Brushless Lithium Ion cordless Electric Lawn Mower. It was really nice to... Read more →

Hedgehog Day in the Office

Did you know that before the overweight lazy Pennsylvania groundhog predicted when spring would arrive (poor accuracy record btw), there was the hedgehog? Its true, it was actually Hedgehog Day before it was ever Groundhog Day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day “Groundhog Day: is a popular tradition celebrated in the United States and Canada on February 2. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerging from its burrow on this day sees a shadow due to clear weather, it will... Read more →

On This Day 20 Years Ago

On this day a much younger version of me left a design seat as an Autodesk customer and started with Autodesk in San Rafael California. Here is Autodesk customer Shaan Hurley, Mechanical Designer of Oregon Iron Works Portland Oregon in 1997. I was interviewed for the AutoCAD R14 demo CD. Here is my first Autodesk employee badge as well as a photo of me in my san Rafael office. Autodesk was hovering around $6.50 a share price and now is... Read more →

140 Years Next Week

Next week I will celebrate and reflect on 20 years working at Autodesk, or 140 in dog years due to our dog loving culture at Autodesk. I am going to gather up some of my fondest memories and accomplishments for a blog post next week. Autodesk has been a job that I only intended to do for two years then go back into a design seat, but I am still here for several reasons and my colleagues are like extended... Read more →

Happy New Year 2018

I have just returned from the holidays and all rested and refreshed and ready for this fresh new year.I spent the past 2 weeks hiking, snowshoeing, shoveling snow and ice, playing with my dog, and relaxing. I hope you had a great holiday and new year. I want to sincerely thank you for reading Between the Lines blog. Without you there is no reason for the blog. If there is any feedback and suggestions for Autodesk and technology related topics... Read more →

Happy Holidays

This is my 19th year of the Autodesk annual week of rest and planning to be offline until after the new year. I will also spend much of it on trails in the snow and the coast of Oregon this year. Next month I also celebrate 20 years at Autodesk (140 years in dog years). I want to sincerely thank all the readers of this blog, social media, my awesome colleagues, friends and family for an amazing 2017, and planning... Read more →

Cooper the Puppy

I realized how much my 5-1/2 month old puppy had grown this weekend. Just 4 months ago you could carry the little furball in one hand at only 6 pounds. Cooper is a unique Golden Retriever that is slender build long skinny head, and has a deep reddish copper wavy fur. Here is Cooper this weekend while we went hiking at Elk Island along the Willamette River in Portland. Look at his big smile. Here are a couple other photos... Read more →

Found my Lost Phone

A little over two weeks ago I lost my new iPhone and it didn't even show up on the Find My iPhone app meaning a clever thief disabled it, it was run over and dead, or it didn't have cell service. I panicked as the mobile phone has become my portable brain assistant as I don't even memorize phone numbers anymore and come to rely on technology. The last place I remember seeing it was at the Farmers Market before... Read more →

Halloween in Lake Oswego

The Autodesk Lake Oswego office held our annual Halloween lunch put on by the 5 member Ministry of Mischief of which I am a proud loud member. We had food, candy, beverages, and costume and pumpkin contests. We all had a great time for the final Halloween spent in our Lake Oswego office as we move downtown Portland in the spring. We had great prizes for the contests including 3 Amazon Echo Dots, sweet custom socks, Icelandic black death licorice... Read more →

Back Online

For the past week I have taken some time off while traveling to our Sheffield UK office for Autodesk Design Night Sheffield and some Autodesk customer and partner meetings. I spent a couple days in Iceland on a stopover finding out I could save the company over half the airfare doing so and then spending some adventure time exploring Iceland and staying in yurts on my own personal dime and taking in some amazing geography for photography and some hiking.... Read more →

Architectural Changes in Portland

There are several new buildings and upcoming designs that challenge the self imposed low key style of Portland Oregon, but that appears to be changing. Several of the designs being built on the Central Eastside push the architectural design and creative envelope. The building in this photo is named the Fair-Haired Dumbbell and was a crowd funded project by Gorilla Development. The location was once planned to be a Home Depot, but the 2008 recession changed those plans. Now the... Read more →

Northern California Fires

Many Autodesk employees have been affected by the Northern California Wildfires, and a few friends and colleagues that have lost their homes. My heart and love flows out to everyone impacted by this fire as we try to help them. I used to live nearby the burn areas in Sonoma County, and can’t imagine the fear and loss people must be going through. I am now live about 700 miles North of the SF Bay area but if anyone needs... Read more →

Helping Friends Affected by Hurricane Harvey

You may have seen the news of the large Hurricane Harvey that hit the Gulf Coast of Texas this weekend bringing winds around 150mph and 20+ inches of rain causing flooding. If you want to help, a trustworthy non-profit and in the area now assisting residents is the Red Cross. Be on guard for the flood of scams that unfortunately try to capitalize on the good intentions of people helping disasters that never gets to those affected. https://www.redcross.org/donate/hurricane-harvey It’s heartbreaking... Read more →

Between the Lines Blog Turns 14 Years Old

Hard to believe, but this blog has been active for 14 years now. This blog was created August 21, 2003. What a long strange journey and amazing feeling of gratitude for all the readers over the years. 14 years = 168 months and over 14.5 million hits and 2.1 million unique visitors. Sincere Thank You, Shaan Read more →

Meet Cooper the Puppy

I want to introduce you to my new four legged buddy, Cooper. I have had dogs all my life except the past 5 years but have decided to adopt a new best friend into my life. Cooper is a Golden Retriever and is only 7 weeks old and super cute. WARNING: Cuteness overload. I have always raised labrador retrievers, until this little guy. I love my neighbors 7 month old Golden Retriever puppy and decided it was time for me... Read more →

15 'Gracious Professionals'

In the Autodesk Lake Oswego Oregon office (Portland area), we are hosting some regional high school FIRST robotics team members as high school interns in our office this summer. These interns are working hard on the Synthesis software that FIRST Robotics teams around the world use to test and experiment their competition robot software as well as some robot practice driving on the competition field. It’s quite amazing what the high school interns have developed as Synthesis over the years,... Read more →

Camping Hacks

Its summer in the northern hemisphere and here in Oregon that means camping and outdoors fun. We recently held a small contest among employees with a US National Park pass as the prize. employees had a week to submit their favorite camping hacks. the contest was by the volunteer team I am on named the “Ministry of Mischief.” The winning entry was by Michelle Stone who submitted this clever hack for an instant camping lantern using only a headlamp and... Read more →

107 Degrees in Portland Oregon

I am working from home today as Oregon prepares to melt from the record breaking heat today of a predicted 105-109 degrees Fahrenheit 40-43 degrees Celsius. That might not seem like much to someone in the sunbaked desert of Arizona or Texas, but it is extremely high for the green forested Oregon where we have higher humidly, and are generally less prepared for this and little air conditioning. Our normal highs are 70’s and 80s not above 100. I can... Read more →

Oh, The Places She Will Go!

My daughter Katie turned 16 years old today. It is one of those milestones in ones life that bring about change, possibilities, choices, and opportunities. She is smart, funny, beautiful, compassionate, love of thrill and adventure like her dad, and she will do whatever she wants in the world as she gets closer to her opportunity to set out creating a better world. Since she was around 7, she has wanted to be a veterinarian, and what a great veterinarian... Read more →

Solve WiFi Range and Bandwidth Issues

I wanted to share this with readers that might have the same modern day issues. I recently moved into a new house and was battling getting WiFi throughout the house. The house is a 75 year old farmhouse and now renovated, but the layout is odd with many walls and a floor between the bedroom and all the way out to my home office. In the past I had tried the WiFi repeaters and had little success, other than lightening... Read more →

Autodesk This Week

Most of my Autodesk colleagues are off this week, as am I. I am spending time with family and finishing moving into the renovated farmhouse that I purchased in the SE Portland area. My mother, daughter, and me at a Hood River lavender farm. The view looking down the huge Cape Kiwanda sand dune before our annual race to the bottom with my daughter. Post sand dune downhill race photo. The new place to cool down and unwind, the back... Read more →

Kids at Autodesk Day

This has to be one of my favorite days of the year at the office, and I remember my grown children attending back in the San Rafael HQ office many years ago. Our employees bring their children in and each office organizes a series of activities. In our Lake Oswego, Oregon office (Portland), we held our Kids at Autodesk Day last Friday. The kids from young to older teenagers signed in and got their own Autodesk badges and then a... Read more →

Pup on Wheels

Autodesk colleague Lizzie Bennett brought Jackson into the Autodesk office, because we love dogs at Autodesk. Jackson is a Corgi with a degenerative disease requiring him to use wheels for mobility. He is such a happy and energetic pup that loves to play fetch. Read more →

Happy Floppy Ear Friday

I'm in the middle of moving across town and thought I would share video of my new neighbor that has already adopted me. Oakley is a 6 month old Golden Retriever that immediately bonded with me. Yesterday he ran intro my house carrying a stick to play fetch. Here is Oakley and me playing last evening. A post shared by Shaan (@shaanhurley) on Jun 8, 2017 at 8:59pm PDT He tried to get in my car when I was leaving,... Read more →

Wow, I am a Grandpa

This past weekend in Utah I had one of the most amazing experiences by meeting my first grandkid Charlotte, who is just 2 weeks old. My oldest son Chris and his Girlfriend Malissa are the proud parents. Charlotte was so sweet and beautiful. Time to start spoiling Charlotte. Read more →