{"id":1216,"date":"2010-09-22T06:58:25","date_gmt":"2010-09-22T10:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/?p=1216"},"modified":"2019-10-27T07:02:31","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T11:02:31","slug":"miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/2010\/09\/22\/miami\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019m in Miami on work, helping these folks<\/a> bring up a new compute server. They\u2019re one of those truly interesting groups \u2013 a hundred years of plant research \u2013 300 subspecies of mature mango tree on the campus \u2013 that sort of thing. I\u2019ve been told that if I\u2019m good, they\u2019ll send me home with a bag of mangos. \u201cNot those boring ones you can get in every store, either.\u201d Allright, I\u2019ll try to be good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m staying in a nice marriott<\/a> which is undergoing some rather savage renovation. Because of that, I was able to score a \u201cbay view\u201d room on the 15th floor. My hotel room has two full walls of window, looking East across the water. I was awakened this morning at about 7am by the sunrise over the water. Life is hard \u2013 you know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weather is stunning and perfect, high 80\u2019s with an offshore breeze. I got free of work about 4:30 today and seriously considered striking south for Key West. It\u2019s a beautiful drive \u2013 as I remember from when I was about 10 years old. However, it\u2019s also a three hour drive. While a mai tai overlooking the oil slick would have been nice \u2013 I made other plans a bit closer to home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to South Beach, the art-deco southern end of Miami Beach. It\u2019s one hell of a scene. There are little islands ringed with very expensive yachts on the way there. I walked the length of the thing \u2013 from about 5th street to about 14th \u2013 and found a little tapas place<\/a> where I could eat slowly, savor a caiperina, and watch the people. I have no idea how the hostess put up with the crap attitudes of the people walking by. May I never become such an entitled little shit as those tourists. In any event, the ceveche was amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I made the mistake of reading the political news \u2013 something about Republicans and Democrats frantically lying about each other. I briefly wanted to start a political rant titled \u201clisten, dickheads,\u201d but I ordered a glass of wine instead. I\u2019m beginning to despair that democracy is the way out of the hole our country is in. I think we need an enlightened dictator. Yes! A dictator! Barkeep! Just one more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, after dinner I resumed my walk. The streetwalkers, drug dealers, and other hustlers were out by then (nearly 10pm). I bought a cigar (hand rolled, in front of me, by a genuine cuban) from a sidewalk vendor and watched people some more. Slowly, I started to see the grit on the signs. The wrinkles on the guitar players. \u201cStardust\u201d became \u201cdust.\u201d \u201cEssex House\u201d became \u201csex house.\u201d It was time to come back to the hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that was my evening. How was yours?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m in Miami on work, helping these folks bring up a new compute server. They\u2019re one of those truly interesting groups \u2013 a hundred years of plant research \u2013 300 subspecies of mature mango tree on the campus \u2013 that sort of thing. I\u2019ve been…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consulting","category-real-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1216"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1220,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1216\/revisions\/1220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}