Category: Events

Fresh Kill, Twin Peaks Region, CO

Even before moving to Colorado I was invited to join Dan and Cory on their annual elk hunting trip. Around April each year they put in for first season rifle tags in an area Southwest of Carbondale, unit 43. This year they each got an A tag, which is good for any sex elk (cow or bull), along with the 3rd in the group, their friend Josh.

We left on a Friday at sunrise, I on my motorcycle riding from Boulder, and the others in Dan’s truck driving from Arvada. I had wanted to ride to cover the mountains and take the opportunity to ride the approximately 20 miles of dirt roads leading toward the hunting camp. Continue reading “Fresh Kill, Twin Peaks Region, CO”

Laid off!

Apple leadership made the decision to “wind-down” the Titan program. All of us on T172 were told in an all hands meeting on Tuesday, February 27, 2024.

Initially I had feelings of relief, some uncertainty, and excitement. Relief that the leadership finally made a decision and we had clear direction regarding the project’s future. Our project had been furiously working on short term deliverables while having no long term clear direction or vision for almost two years. While it wasn’t the decision I had really hoped for, at least it was a decision. Continue reading “Laid off!”

Max, with help from gpt-2

This post is written with the assistance of GPT-2. Sections written by me are used as model prompts, and the model output is then modified or curated and able to be used again in following prompts.

Beginning of post

August 23, 2021:

[P1] Megan woke me early in the morning around 3am and said it was time to go have a baby, her water had broken an hour earlier. We sprung into action, though with a tiny bit less apprehension than the first time with Jane. After a long day but mostly typical delivery Max Thomas Cosgrove was born. Birth specifications are as follows:

Length: 50.8 cm (1′ 8”)

Weight: 3.15 kg (6 lb 15.1 oz)

Head Circumference: 36 cm (14.17”)

Apgar One: 9.0

Apgar Five: 9.0

Gestation Age: 39 2/7 wks

[S1] Having another baby was the goal, so that we could round out the family and give Jane a sibling. There are a lot of factors that go into any pregnancy. Luckily for us Megan didn’t have any issues getting pregnant. Recently I’ve noticed that it’s really hard for many to get pregnant. This one was a little different than Jane, mostly because we are so busy keeping up with Jane already. The pregnancy passed quickly and even since Max has been here life just keeps rushing on by. Continue reading “Max, with help from gpt-2”

Time off, 11/23/2019 – 01/06/2020

Two weeks into my planned company shutdown / paternaty / sick leave I started to really feel checked out from work. The first week off was company shutdown for the week of Thanksgiving and between the holiday and some other activites it still felt busy. The second week when everyone else was back at work I was still checking in daily and getting a few texts and calls for support. After this though, work communication slowed down and I really got into the swing of being away from work.

A colleague of mine (Foo Hooi Lee) reguallary takes all of his vacation between Thankgiving and the New Year in order to travel back to Malasia for a few weeks each year. In years past I haven’t had the nessesary time banked to pull this off but thanks to Jane and Apple’s paternaty leave policy this year I had the hours. I talked to Behnam about my plan for this back in July and he agreeded provided the AS platform was stable and I had a good software release process established which Hesam or Dan could take over while I was out. The big 2019 demos were planned in mid Decemeber and early January so it would be hard to justify leaving if we still had a fragile software platform. So over the course of the fall I worked a lot with this in mind and in early Novemeber we agreeded things were in a good enough place for me to take the whole block of time.

 

Continue reading “Time off, 11/23/2019 – 01/06/2020”

Half Marathon, Santa Cruz, CA

Race times:

Megan = 2 hr 3 min 46 sec

Jon = 1 hr 50 min 50 sec

Megan set a goal last fall to run a half marathon, her longest distance run to date, before turning 31. She also convinced me to join her. We started training in early November 2016 and the race wasn’t scheduled until April 2017, so we had plenty of time.

 

Continue reading “Half Marathon, Santa Cruz, CA”

Party at the Ritz

This year Apple out did them selves. Our SPG Holiday Party was at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay. I actually almost missed the signup deadline since it was fairly early in November, but luckily we got our names on the list and booked ourselves a room at the hotel for the night as well. 

It turned out to be a fairly decadent weekend. We were coming off of a week of vacation in San Diego for Thanksgiving, and that Friday we were delivered some Dungeness crab from our fish share. We ate up Friday evening and then Saturday we spent the morning relaxing at a coffee shop before checkin. Checkin time was at 4pm and we arrived promptly at 4 in order to take full advantage of our stay at the hotel. Everyone else who was staying had the same plan and there was a bit of a wait in order to get into the valet area but we survived and got our room at the nicest hotel either of us had ever stayed at.

 

Continue reading “Party at the Ritz”

Honeymoon, Portland to Santa Barbara,  12–25 October 2015

Warning: this is a long one, written mostly by Megan… Megan’s words… Jon’s words… enjoy. ( oh, and see if you can find Megan’s head hidden in one of the photos! )

Monday

Our amazing honeymoon started bright and early Monday morning, actually it was still dark out so I guess it was just early. We left Arvada via an Uber and took the shuttle to the airport. As my wedding bouquet was so amazing we brought it with us to strap on the motorcycle and share the journey. We arrived in Portland and lugged our giant and heavy moving boxes into the second Uber of the day and headed to Sven’s house where we would stay for the next 2 nights. Portland was really fun and beautiful. After Jon made the solo journey to the Harley Davidson dealership to commandeer our wheels for the next 2 weeks, we set off to explore the city on a couple of Sven’s bikes. The awesome part about Portland is that there are bike lanes and therefore people on their bikes, everywhere. We eventually made it to the International Rose Garden and were surprised to find out that despite being October, the roses were still in full bloom and looking as beautiful as ever. Peddling our way back home we stopped at a fish market and bought a whole Dungeness crab that rode with me in my front bike basket. Dinner was amazing. Fresh crab, butter, wine.

 

Continue reading “Honeymoon, Portland to Santa Barbara,  12–25 October 2015”

CA – Christmas Party

Last Saturday, Megan (my invited +1) and I experienced our first ever swanky corporate holiday Christmas party. We took an Uber ride and arrived promptly 15 minutes after 6 and were greeted with many open bars, long lines for food, and decorations that reminded me of Vegas. Oh, and they were handing out selfie sticks as party favors… classy.

 

Continue reading “CA – Christmas Party”

Moving to California

Well, we’ve just gotten married and are moving to California. Campbell to be exact, in the South Bay area. I’m actually here already, two weeks before Megan is coming out, living in our newly rented duplex with no heat or hot water, and an air mattress as my only furniture for the foreseeable future. I rode my bike Monday to my first day of work in the pouring rain. 

I plan to post CA related items throughout our first year here to help keep track of things. This should be a great adventure…