In 2018, Brendan and Rikki Endsley co-chaired USENIX LISA. I was, as usual, along for the ride, but also managed to pull off a surprise birthday party for Brendan.
Category Archives: bio
Gender, sex, and all that jazz
The transgender “issue” has come increasingly to the forefront of social consciousness in many parts of the world, and I’m baffled at the desperate attempts of some to feel threatened by trans people. My experience of transgenderism (as of so many things) is unusual.
I lived five years of my childhood in Bangkok. My dad and stepmother lived in Thailand again while I was in high school, so I spent several vacations from boarding school there as well. While I never studied Thailand in depth (as I did India), Thai culture seeped into my consciousness, admittedly through the filters of expat life.
Continue reading Gender, sex, and all that jazzYou might also like:
House hunting in Sydney – Part 2
Edwin
Initially, we were on our own in house hunting, and it was all new to both of us. Brendan did extensive research on interest rates, housing prices, etc. – he was taking a very cautious approach to spending such a large amount of money. Because he was tracking the numbers closely, by late last year he was well aware that the housing market was peaking and would be likely to drop 10-20% in 2022 (especially once the Reserve Bank of Australia got around to raising interest rates). We needed a house to live in ASAP, but given these market conditions we weren’t willing to be extravagant. And, as previously noted, having another half to full million to spend would not have given us many more options: there just aren’t enough houses.
Continue reading House hunting in Sydney – Part 2
House hunting in Sydney
We moved to Sydney in December, 2020. Our original plan had been to spend about two years renting while we got to know this extensive and varied city, to figure out where we’d like to live longer-term. We had plenty of savings, and calculated that when the time came to buy we should be able to afford just about anything we’d want – we’re not ostentatious people and would not be looking for a mansion.
In the meantime, we rented a beachfront apartment with incredible views of the sea. I thought I would never tire of this, could not imagine ever wanting to leave it.
Turns out we were very wrong about… everything.
Continue reading House hunting in SydneyYou might also like:
Netflix 100M Party
The Netflix 100M party in 2017 was held regionally, with the bulk of the attendees traveling in buses from all over the Bay Area to San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium (because the majority of the employees work in Los Gatos).
Guests were encouraged to dress to reflect Netflix’s expanded worldwide market – a relatively easy assignment for Brendan and me as we are both comfortable in Indian clothing and had some formalwear from our trips to India together. Many of the Indian women wore saris, and their consorts, seeing Brendan, regretted that they had dressed in western suits instead of churidar-kurta!
Continue reading Netflix 100M Party