Between the Lines

Weekend Water Escape

I have been moving the past week to Central Oregon in Bend, luckily some friends convinced me to escape the boxes and house projects, to go paddle boarding for a half day and have some fun. I really needed that escape from moving and the fun time in nature on the water. Read more →

Hot Summer

If you are on my side of the equator, in the Northern hemisphere, you are no doubt in the middle of summer. And chances are if you are on the west coast of the U.S., a hot one due to a high pressure induced “heat dome”. In the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., where I live, it has been hit with unprecedented heat and shattering records up to 119 degrees F or 48 degrees C. The Pacific Northwest is known... Read more →

Weekend Snapshots – Walla Walla Win95

I was in the Walla Walla Washington region the past weekend, and went flying practice one my 97mph FPV drone over some nice open fields. In one photo taken during a flight, it looked similar to the old Windows 95 screen background image. Read more →

Ducks and Lambs Oh My

The past few days I have been moving after recently selling my home. For some strange reason animals have been drawn to my house including wild baby ducks under my deck and a baby lamb.Perhaps it was the way the neighborhood was saying “good bye” to me. On Wednesday I heard a “quack” out my window while in a work meeting from home, but we get ducks and geese flying over this area often and thought nothing of the random... Read more →

What a Garden!

Last weekend I attended a small gathering for a bonfire and party. I was taking some aerial photos of the event and the most amazing private garden I had seen, and in my neighborhood. I hope to get a nice tour in the near future of this amazing and peaceful and uniquely designed space. The small building located in the center, is a greenhouse. Several birdhouses around the garden, a pond that was covered, and small houses on the peripheral.... Read more →

Throwback Thursday- What a Long Strange Trip It's Been

Fun historical Autodesk fact. The singer/guitarist for the band Grateful Dead Jerry Garcia once visited an Autodesk office. Read more →

I'm Vaccinated!

(above) Photo of board where people placed their stickers they had to wear with their waiting times after vaccination. I have had both vaccination shots of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. While I had some minor side effects like low energy and aches in joints on the first vaccination, with the second I really hydrated myself for the second and had virtually no side effects other than minor discomfort in my arm for 24 hours. I do hope you too get... Read more →

Spring Break on the Oregon Coast

I just returned refreshed from disconnecting and enjoying the beautiful Oregon Coast for spring break. The time was restorative with sunny fresh ocean breeze days watching the ocean waves, exploring tide pools, adventures, and watching sunsets. I also received my COVID first vaccination yesterday. Cheers, Shaan A low tide hike into the Devils Punchbowl. I love sunsets. Read more →

One Year Ago

One year ago, we gathered in Zoom for a Digital Happy Hour to deal with the quarantine and isolation together to laugh,to talk about the fear, to toast, and mostly to connect. We had no idea it would last this long and those that we have lost in the past year. I will never forget rewarding with ice cream a young daughter of a participant to present to all of us on her LEGO architecture. Here was my invite text:... Read more →

And I am Back on the Internet

I have been without power, internet an phone for almost 9 days due to a severe ice storm last week in the Portland Oregon area. The weight of over an inch of ice on all the trees caused many large trees to fall taking out all utilities for hundreds of thousands of people. Everything has been restored as of late Sunday. Not much has stopped me in 17 years of blogging, but that was almost a complete block of my... Read more →

Portland Ice Storm Got Me

I live in the SE Portland Oregon area between Milwaukie and Gladstone up on a hill. It’s an urban –rural translon suburb of Portland. Last Friday we were hit hard with about 4 inches of snow and then several days of freezing rain on top of that. Portland doesn't normally get snow, but occasionally we will or the occasional freak cold storm that comes out of the Columbia River gorge. The recent storm was a Polar Vortex out of the... Read more →

Throwback Thursday – Dinosaur Mornings

After almost a year out of my work office, I am really missing my colleagues, the offices, and the creativity that goes on there. Google Photos reminded me yesterday, of a morning 10 years ago in San Francisco Autodesk office when I walked in early morning, and what I witnessed. A giant inflated dinosaur in the office walkway. After deflation The inflatable fabric dinosaur was created using a prototype software that would take 3D models and generate a 2D pattern... Read more →

Starting 24

Today is my anniversary of joining Autodesk from being an Autodesk customer and ended up moving down to the San Francisco Bay area. I had thought a couple years leaving industry as a mechanical designer using Autodesk software would be for a couple years improving the products I used and then back to the design, fabrication and construction world I would go, but I stayed at Autodesk. What kept me was the amazing colleagues, great company, the best customers, and... Read more →

Happy New Year - 2021

Like most Autodesk employees I have just returned from our annual week of rest and holidays, plus a bonus few days this year courtesy of our leadership wanting employees to relax after a challenging 2020 which felt like never ending Zoom meeting and unpredictable situations in life and work. I'm grateful that Autodesk thinks about the challenges of their employees and those that have been cooped up for months with many challenges as well as the mental exhaustion and feelings... Read more →

Thank You cough cough

My heart goes out to all of my fellow western united States residents dealing with the concerns and fear due to unknowns and unsubstantiated conspiracies circulating on the internet, and some experiencing the loss of homes and life due to the unprecedented wildfires. I wanted to thank those that read my previous post about the fires including one that was 1.5 miles from my own home and several sending private offers of assistance and a place to stay if evacuated.... Read more →

Vacation and NW Fires

I took last week off of work to drive from Oregon to see my 3 adult kids that live in Utah, including one that is attending the University of Utah as a senior in engineering. I also got to see my cute sweet granddaughters. Due to Covid 19, I haven't seen my kids and grandkids since January. We had a couple dinners in parks socially distanced with masks since my daughter in law is currently pregnant. It was so good... Read more →

Saturday Cooling Off

I got away on Saturday this past weekend escape my house, 104 degree weather in Portland (rare we get that hot) and go hiking on the Oregon Coast which was also unseasonably warm but was only 82 degrees and the water a chilly 55 degrees. It was an easy choice at 5am until the crowds arrived in the afternoon as I was out on a stand up paddle board. After that I packed up and headed back into the furnace... Read more →

SE Washington and NE Oregon Social Distancing

Last weekend, I explored the Walla Walla Valley and enjoyed time outdoors on the water an the country roads. The region is well known for being a wheat belt, famous Walla Walla sweet onions, and the award winning wines. There are also amazing outdoor adventures from bike rides, stand up paddling boarding on rivers and lakes and the geography from warm temperature dry lower valleys to the Blue Mountains with their temperate forest and amazing small wild strawberries. These wild... Read more →

The Weekend – Forest Therapy

With the forest and some county services opening where I live, I am once again taking off into the forest this weekend.I hope you too find something that clears your mind and makes you smile. This photo was from the famous Pacific Crest Trail “The OPCT” last Saturday near Little Crater Lake in Clackamas County Oregon near Mount Hood. Some photos of nature seems like a well needed and perfect way to end the week. Looking towards Timothy Lake via... Read more →

Poor Mervin Learns an Important Construction Safety Lesson

An Autodesk colleague Justin Taylor spent time teaching his 6 year old son the importance of construction site safety using a small tomato named “Mervin”. “I combined work and home schooling with my 6 year son today – the topic this lunch time was safety on the construction site. I showed him: The importance of proper site planning The importance of PPE How to capture an incident on a phone And how useful kitchen roll is for cleaning up accidents” Read more →

Evil Scammers – Be Aware and Be Vigilant

Be aware there are many scams out there trying to take advantage of the challenging COVID-19 and economic uncertainty and confusion with very convincing phishing emails to get you with a fake Amazon or bank email to give up your login and passwords on a fake sign in page. Another scam is criminals taking advantage of the overwhelmed unemployment system as I found out when some criminal fraudster filed a unemployment claim using some of my details. I have had... Read more →

Thank You

Thank you to all the medical first responders doctors, nurses, hospital staff, and researchers battling the COVID-19 pandemic head on in a heroic effort. I worry about my friends who are doctors and nurses every single day. Also a big thank you to store workers and delivery people that without them so many would not be getting things they need to get by. So many good people out there helping so many with their hard work and risk. To my... Read more →

Volunteer Design and Make Projects to Help People Breathe

Yesterday an acquaintance I know Gui Cavalcanti was recognized for participating in a volunteer open source effort to design breathing ventilators for those that may need them due to the COVID-19 virus. Its a blend of makers and engineers creating mechanical designs and the 3D printing parts. The Futuristic Solutions the Internet is Crowdsourcing to Cure Coronavirus – Newsweek “A Facebook group called Open Source COVID19 Medical Supplies, which consists of over 13,000 members, is trying to find solutions to... Read more →

Digital Happy Hours – We Must Stay Connected

We held a Digital Happy Hour via Zoom last evening with 6 amazing people. This is just something of an experiment to connect and support each other and raise a glass and laugh. It was good and we all needed to laugh, share what was going on in our lives, and interact while most are working from home isolated and keeping social distances in real life. In the end it was unanimous to hold it again and several indicated others... Read more →

We All Need a Happy Hour – You In?

With so many working from home or feeling anxious and isolated due to COVID-19 uncertainty, I thought it might be a good thing to get together at least digitally to talk about tech, life, laugh, summer plans, and just socialize. We must not get isolated and sad and instead find new ways to reach out and connect and support each other. What do you think, would you join a free Zoom video call to connect? It would be a Happy... Read more →