Hi everyone! I’m starting book reports! They’re really fun. Here’s an example.Well tomorrow I will show you my first book report I wrote.

My mom is visiting for a week. This is her first time in California in a couple of years, so we have a lot of catching up to do. Today we headed out to the coast.

First stop was the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, a hotspot for tidepooling thanks to its extensive reefs and rocks at low tide. It was blustery, but lovely, as you can see from this shot in the beach:

I also got this fun panaroama shot from the same bench on a bit of land which stuck out in between two bays:

Next stop was the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, where we enjoyed a delightful brunch from a table overlooking the ocean. Mom even found a single dish that combines two of her favorite foods: Eggs Benedict and Dungeness Crab!

We then walked along the bluff at the Ritz for a few minutes, before retiring to the deck chairs in front of the hotel for an hour of pleasant conversation overlooking the 18th Green of the Ritz’s Old Course:

Afterwards, we drove down the coast and stopped at San Gregorio Beach to drink in a bit more salt air. We sat on a bluff above the beach for about a half hour, enjoying this great view:

Finally, we headed home for a well-deserved nap!

For my birthday party I went to a mini golf and arcade games place called Golfland.  When we got there, we went and got golf balls and clubs. Then we did 18 mini golf holes. After, we ate pizza and cupcakes. Then we went and played at the arcade game center and got our prizes. Then we went to drop off our guests. It was a awesome birthday party and I felt excited.

Go Warriors!

I’ve been having trouble “disconnecting” as I ease into my sabbatical, spending too much time on my computer. So, after a few days of cleaning up personal paperwork and a busy morning today helping my Mom with some of hers, I decided to take “disconnecting” more literally:

My laptop is in the shop (aka at the Apple Store) getting new parts installed to address some Retina display issues and a side of wonky USB-C ports). And my 27″ high resolution LG 5K monitor is on its way back to LG to get a retrofit with some extra shielding that wasn’t in the first set of production items.

And I’m on my iPhone for any “work” and mostly just reading on my iPad. Ahhhhh nice.

Our journal topic tonight was emoji, and both girls just described their favorites. I’ll tell you mine, but first a word on emoji more broadly. They started off in the late 1990s, used by a Japanese communications company, NTT DoCoMo, to differentiate its i-mode mobile internet service. As mobile phones have grown along with international multi-lingual texting, they became universal. The name itself comes from Japanese:

絵 (e ≅ picture) 文 (mo ≅ writing) 字 (ji ≅ character)

Emoji are currently “managed” by Unicode, a standards organization that defines character encoding on modern computer systems. Before emoji, it was pretty obscure (even for a global standards body). Since emoji, its work has become widely known and appreciated even if the organization itself has stayed pretty low-key.

Emoji are defined in general terms with a description and a rough line drawing. Each platform then implements its own interpretation of them. For a complete list of all current emoji, and their different implementations across Apple, Google, Facebook, and other products, see the latest full emoji list from Unicode. For example, here’s the first row in the food-vegetable category which shows the various images associated with the avocado emoji:

Every year or so, Unicode releases a new set of emoji. Here’s a list of all emoji broken down the year they were added. 2015 brought the burrito and pink unicorn which became instant classics in our household. And, to finish the emoji theme Claire and Juliet started, 2016 brought my current personal favorite:

Do you like loving presents/gifts? Well if you do you will like this emoji 💝! I like it because it is a heart. 💝💝💝

My favorite emoji is the donut. I like this emoji because it makes hungry for a donut. I also like this emoji because it is so colorful.  🍩🍩.

A sabbatical is great though it’s taking some time, after running at full speed for so long, to find a lower gear. I’m missing the satisfaction of thinking through — and solving — a lot of work issues each day. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to settle into a more mellow pace where I get as much reward relaxing for the day with a book as from solving a dozen puzzles at work.

Do you like pools? Well if you do you will like pool parties! Today I had a soccer pool party with my team to celebrate the end of the season. It was really fun.😍