Monday, January 27, 2020

Gone too soon

Source: LA Times, 20 June 2000. NBA Finals.
I'm still processing the losses from the weekend. One I had the good fortune to work with early on in my career in LA, an Internet pioneer named Bill Manning. He passed away early Saturday while awaiting a heart transplant. This seems to have been a sudden loss, and I'm sad to hear he's gone.

I was staff support on our Nominating Committee in 2006 & 2007, and Bill served on those committees as a representative from the Root Server System Advisory Committee. He had an office in a building we shared at the time with the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute, and sometimes I would run into him on his way into the office. I participated with Bill on a number of tech policy working groups in DC, and later when he was on the first Security Stability and Resiliency Review Team. We had a number of interesting conversations over the years in random locations, he had an interesting taste in music and was a former roadie with the Grateful Dead. For a long time, Bill ran the B root server operated by USC. He will be widely missed by the Internet community, friends and colleagues around the world.

Yesterday the tragic helicopter accident in LA took the lives of nine people, including Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna. As someone who adopted LA as my West Coast home, my heart aches for the families left behind in this terrible crash, and for the City of Los Angeles. I admired Kobe as a basketball player even when his Lakers beat my Indiana Pacers in the 2000 NBA Finals. We saw him play the Pacers during his career and he will be remembered as one of the League's all time greats. His post-basketball career was just beginning to take off. The loss of his daughter adds to the tragedy, along with the other parents and children. They have been taken too soon.

Sunday, January 26, 2020

Surfer at Sunset

Photo by Patrick Jones. Venice Beach, CA. 9 Jan 2020.

Friday, January 24, 2020

Year of the Rat

Photo by Patrick Jones. CNY decorations, Changi Airport. 15 Jan 2020
The Lunar New Year/Chinese New Year kicks off this Saturday. The photo above shows decorations for Year of the Rat at Singapore's Changi Airport. Decorations were starting to go up around Singapore while I was visiting the office in mid-January.
Photo by Patrick Jones. Year of the Rat decorations.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Sentosa

Photo by Patrick Jones. Ola Beach Club, Singapore. 12 Jan 2020.
Photo by Patrick Jones. Tanjong Beach Club. 12 Jan 2020.

Monday, January 20, 2020

View on the Sunrise Run

Photo by Patrick Jones. Sunrise, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. 13 Jan 2020.

Sunday, January 5, 2020

Reggie Miller Mural

Photo by L. Jones. Reggie Miller Mural, Indianapolis. Jan 2020.
The photo above was taken by my Frequent Traveling Sister during a quick trip to Indianapolis over the weekend. The mural by Pamela Bliss of Pacers great Reggie Miller is located in downtown Indy. We were lucky to catch quite a few Pacers games back in the day when Reggie played for the team.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

The Sphinx & Pyramids, 1987

Photo by L. Reid. Sphinx & Pyramids at Giza. 1987.
I'm at the end of a long Christmas break and looking again at slides converted to digital images. The photo above was taken by my Granny during a trip to Egypt in 1987. I'll try to share a few more of these tomorrow. Travels pick up really soon and time will be limited to go back through these for the next month.

The Old Tavern

Photo by Patrick Jones. Washington, Virginia. 28 Dec 2019.
The building above is the Old Tavern in Washington, Virginia. This is one of the oldest buildings in the town, dating back to 1740. George Washington surveyed the town. We stayed in "Little Washington" for a special dinner over the Christmas break. I had forgotten that distant Thornhill ancestors also lived in this area of nearby Fauquier Rappahannock County around the same time the town was surveyed. I need to pick up the family history research again in 2020.