This one is sort of interesting. My birthday falls on March 11 , exactly 6 months to the day opposite September 11 . There are a number of tragic events that have occurred on this day:

• 1861 - American Civil War: The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted.
• 1917 - Baghdad falls to the Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Maude.
• 1977 - 130+ hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims were set free after ambassadors from three Islamic nations joined negotiations.
• 1978 - Nine Palestinian Al Fatah guerillas hijack a bus in Israel, killing 34 civilians and wounding 70 before being killed by security forces. The Israelis retaliate by invading southern Lebanon three days later, under codename Operation Litani.
• 2004 - Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid kill 191 people.

Not to fear, some good things happened as well:

• 1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader.
• 1988 - Iran-Iraq War: Ceasefire declared.
• 1993 - Janet Reno is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn-in the next day, becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States.
• 2003 - The International Criminal Court is founded in The Hague.

To round it out, other people who share my birthday:

• 1931 - Rupert Murdoch
• 1934 - Sam Donaldson
• 1936 - Antonin Scalia (eh)
• 1952 - Douglas Adams (yay)
• 1968 - Lisa Loeb
• 1971 - Johnny Knoxville (heh)

Copy & paste is fun for the whole family!

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in June 2006.

Mushrooms. Hated them. Now I still hate button mushrooms, but have a newfound appreciation for chanterelles, porcini and shiitakes. Especially with eggs.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in June 2006.

Going on a Sunday morning fixie ride (probably to Fairfax and back, maybe White’s Hill if I’m feeling ambitious). If anyone wants to meet me, I’ll be at the Bridge at 9:30.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in June 2006.

In the pre-Windowlicker tour, Aphex Twin had giant faceless neon-colored teddy bears dancing around on stage. In place of their faces, they had a picture of Richard James with his trademark evil grin.

I was that character one halloween, in lime green. Kinkos refused to let me use their photocopier to copy the CD cover of the Richard D. James album, but Staples did!

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in June 2006.

Because I’m a sucker for memes, I’ve visited 45 states (88%) and 16 countries (16%) with a woeful lack of Southern Hemisphere.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in June 2006.

As the battery on my laptop runs down, I reflect back on another day at Six Apart and think, yeah, it was good. We did a couple pushes (go Beau!) and everything sits just pretty.

Time to go feed the puppy, cook some dinner, and enjoy the sunset over the low skyscrapers filling up my view. According to Jamison, I should be expecting yet another really tall building (or three) to fill up the view even more in the next couple years. Assuming the Transbay Terminal ever really gets started…

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in June 2006.

Construction in my neighborhood is at an all-time high. A block away is very large hole in the ground that used to be occupied by the Clock Tower building. It was paved last year to make room for One Rincon Hill, which (I believe) will be the tallest residential building on the west coast in California.

Attn stalkers: That’s my building in the lower-left.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in June 2006.

So the project we’ve been working on for over a year (almost two, depending on where you want to start counting) is finally out. This has been an amazing experience. Thanks to everyone who made this possible: Ben, Mena, Andrew, Rachel, Mike, Michael, Barak, Byrne, David, Chris, Garth, Beau, Nick, Kevin, Miriam, Lilia, Winnie, Jamison, Tatsuhiko, Yann, Anil, Jay, Kristine, Brenna, Shelley, Steve, Patti, Junior, Brad, Whitaker, Artur, Mark, Paul, Serdar, Lisa, Harold, Gladys, Scott and everyone else (I know I spaced some people here, and this list is not exhaustive).

I’d like to give a special shout out to the Comet engineering team: You are all awesome. It’s been a privilege working with such a talented, hard-working group of people. This has been by far the product I’ve been most happy creating, from beginning to now (it’s not over yet).

Thanks.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in June 2006.

I’m happy to announce the unveiling of the project that’s been consuming most of my time for the past year: Vox. Thanks to everyone at 6A who made it possible.

Pista’s popular. She loves to play Chase Me.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in May 2006.