Lee Paul McKay 1936 - 2008

There have been a lot of changes in our family over the past few months. We moved Eve's parents down from Washington state down to California and then we bought a house together in Scotts Valley. We were settling into a life together but life has a way of changing plans.

I'm sad to report that Eve's father, Lee Paul McKay, passed away at about 1:50 am Saturday Sept 13, 2008. He died in his sleep and went peacefully. He accomplished quite a lot over the past few months and he must have felt that it would be a good time to go. He managed to secure his wife's future and we found a good buyer for his classic 1971 Porsche.

He had been battling intestinal cancer for about 4 years. The latest incursion in March and the subsequent surgeries changed his life in a way that required him to take nutrition intravenously. He needed much more care so the decision was made to move him and his wife to California so that his daughters can take care of them. We have been busy since then: moving them to California, finding and buying a new house, moving in, trying to sell our other properties, preparing our old house for rental and just trying to settle in. Life was busy but we were starting to see the end of this transition process and we were looking forward to settling down and living our lives together.

His condition had worsened over the past week. It was difficult for him to sleep at night. This was probably due to complications from a kidney failure. His feet, face and lungs were swelling with fluid and his doctor had recommended sleeping with an oxygen supply. The machine which supplied the oxygen was really loud so he and I put it in the garage and we ran a line into his bedroom. He wasn't happy about needing an oxygen line and I could tell from his voice that he was getting tired of all the medical issues. While we were working in the garage he was showing me his tools (he willed them to me). It seemed like this was a subtle way of saying goodbye. He died later that evening. Perhaps he just felt that his job was done and he let go of life.

We are very sad that he is no longer with us but we are happy that he died peacefully at home and with dignity. He leaves behind Akiko his wife of 45 years, his daughters Dawn and Eve and grand daughter Jade Leigh.

Lee was a modest and quiet man. He was a veteran of the US Navy for about 20 years and left the service to become an electrical engineer in San Jose. He retired early and moved up to Washington state just outside of Port Townsend - his hometown. He spent about 15 years building a Japanese style craftsman house. He loved to cook. He grew organic vegetables and made excellent sourdough bread and bagels.

During his battle with cancer he was very strong and never complained about his situation. He never asked for pity and never felt sorry for himself. He was a man who loved to work on his cars, bread and house with a level of studiousness and detail that befits an artisan. He is a craftsman from an era in which quality engineering and quality work were an art into itself. He was also my friend and he will be missed. Rest in peace, friend.

Stop Motion Animation

Happy belated New Year! One of my resolutions is not to promise that I'll blog more. There are a lot of stuff I could write about but I choose to be lazy instead.

Anyway, we spent much of the holiday break in Toronto. We visited the Ontario Science Center where we played with stop motion animation in a hands on lab. Jade was really interested in animation and she wanted to do more. I promised her that we could it when we got back to California. When we got back home I looked for a few packages for the Mac and the best one I found was iStopMotion. It's really simple to use (even a 5 year old can use it) and it produces great results. The product has many tiers including a home, prosumer and professional versions. The home version is about $50 and has all the features you need to create stop motion animation. I imported the clips into iMovie for editing and adding the soundtrack.

I experimented with the set up using a crappy Logitech web cam since I didn't have a FireWire cable for my DV camera. Once I figured out how all the pieces fit together, I set up a table top animation studio in the living room. I showed Jade the basics of using the software and let her go. The film above was done mostly by Jade with a little help from me. Jade and I worked on the two characters at the beach but Jade did the other clips herself. Sound track by Buckethead.

10th Anniversary of Living in America

This past April 17th was my 10th anniversary of living in the United States. I celebrated by buying an expensive bottle of Scotch - a 16 year old Lagavulin. I'm not sure what scotch has to do with America but I enjoy it (I'm enjoying it now!) and it's a nice treat for myself to celebrate my integration into my adoptive country. I've been an American citizen for just over 2 years now and I'm proud to be an American.

10 years ago on April 17th, 1997 my long term girlfriend and I had agreed to call it quits. It was long overdue and we had agreed 6 months previous that if our relationship would not progress then we would just go our separate ways. When I got a job with Sun in California we understood that she would not be coming along. It was the dot com boom and Silicon Valley was eager to hire as many engineers from all over the world to build the information economy. Sun took care of the work visa, relocation and organized the move. We had an apartment together and I left most of our shared possessions with her. The movers came that day and had packed my meager possessions: 2 bikes, some tools, a computer, a stereo, a home made plywood desk and a whole lot of books, records and CDs. I was an easy move for them. No car, no house, no wife and no life.

That evening I left Vancouver, British Columbia to fly to San Francisco, California. I used to fly a lot at my old job and I managed to get myself upgraded to business class. This was great since I could drink heavily and use the lounge to take care of some business - like faxing a copy of my work visa to the moving company so they can transport my possessions over the border.

I got on the plane and immediately ordered another drink. I remember staring out the window of the plane and seeing the lights of Vancouver below me with the mountains in the background. As we crossed Point Roberts into the United States I remember the feelings welling up inside me and I wanted to cry. I'm leaving my adoptive country. The country where I was educated, where I got my values, friends, family and great experiences. My one regret was that I never became a Canadian Citizen in 25 years of living in Canada.

Looking back 10 years I'm impressed with how integrated I have become in America. I met my wife, bought a house, became a permanent resident and a citizen. We are raising a beautiful little girl in our little paradise on the central coast of California. I have the means to raise my family and pursue my passions. I'm living the American dream. Life is good.

Despite some of the cynicism one of the most important lessons of America is that it really is the land of opportunity. If you are smart and work hard then you can make a good life for yourself here. America is the most open, democratic society in the world. The opportunities are boundless if you want to pursue them.

This is my home now. I love America!

Snow in Tahoe! it's time for some winter Fun!

My recent posts about climate change have been pretty heavy these days so this is an attempt to lighten things up. I'm in Tahoe right now and we got about a foot of snow in the past day. We're heading out to enjoy it soon.

Last week my Uncle shot some video of Jade enjoying some winter activities. She made a lot of progress last week and she's really looking forward to getting back onto the slopes this weekend to improve her skills (and show off for Daddy).

Jade is learning to ski. This video was shot on the "Lugi" run at Northstar:



Jade is learning how to skate. This video was shot at the ice rink in Northstar village:



Enjoy the snow while you can!