Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Roberta Martinez's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, November 26th, 2005
9:50 pm	He's baaaack So, I'm dealing with finding out my teenaged cousin is a witch with a grudge against a vamp who killed her mother when I get a phone call from a certain person involved in federal law enforcement. I had some useful information to pass on to him, but he also wanted me to meet him for dinner next Wednesday. He may have some curiosity about what I've been up to since he left; being a Nexus Guardian isn't the easiest thing to describe. And what do I do with Nina? (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 13th, 2005
3:51 pm	Summer vacation, what summer vacation? You'd think that being between companies and having enough in the bank to take the summer off would be restful, but you'd be wrong. Yes, I know I'm still technically a consultant to Vampster, but things go much easier if Monique and I aren't in the same place at the same time. So, what did I do? Sure didn't get the new place fixed up. No, instead I spent the summer being a good daughter, sister, and auntie. Between spending time with Mom, babysitting Esme's kids, and trying to minimize the damage my baby brothers can get up to, it's been a wild few months. Tribble-kitty doesn't even get to see Meowmy that much. Thank goodness Ifurita's been nice enough to check in on her, even if she's not much of a cat post-human person. I should be glad that Tomas and Raul haven't required legal intervention, thank all saints and deities above and below. Esme at least spends most of her time sufficiently oriented to reality. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 10th, 2005
4:30 am	Let's see, after losing my house, I've now gotten the crap kicked out of me fighting faerie hosts, talked with the first Evil camping out in my office, and gotten the smarmy patronizing "you're just not coming from the proper class background" treatment explaining why I'll never really succeed in business per the Gospel according to Samuel Devins. Guess what, asswipe? I no longer *care* what you and the rest of the Bushie ass-kissing patriarchy think, and since you're involved in the current thread of events that have added all this pain, I will be more than happy to add my efforts to the cause of taking you down, even though I'm not much good in a fight. I've pretty much gotten everything trashed so far, so I don't feel wedded to keeping the tattered remnants in one place as part of a failed attempt at gentility. Might as well go out in glory. (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 31st, 2005
3:09 pm	the SJ Mercury News is 20 years too late for me What with all the dire stuff going on around this planet, I was momentarily diverted by the SJ Mercury News devoting a large portion of today's business section to the world-shaking controversy around the haircolor of Valley CEOs (male CEOs=gray hair mostly acceptable, female CEOs=gray hair mostly unacceptable). Go get a password from bugmenot.com if you hate registering for newspaper websites. Considering what I've been up to the last couple of years, and certainly considering my most recent debacle with my house, you'd think my hair would have gone snow white. My genetics seems to have anticipated my current life because I had a serious batch of salt and pepper hair by the time of my 10th high school reunion (twenty years ago!), and I decided to start coloring my hair way back then. I will leave the colors not normally found in human pigmentation to my younger colleagues. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 17th, 2005
11:38 am	We still need you at work tomorrow, irishunluck so don't party too hard today. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 16th, 2005
4:28 pm	My head still reels... at being thrown into an alternate universe while a software demo is imploding. The only thing weirder would be to have Spock with a goatee or that really scary Intendant Kira Nerys from DS9 show up. I knew something wasn't right when my connection to the Nexus went off kilter. I just started getting used to the way it usually felt. Then, it was time to find out what our alternate selves were like. At least Carlos and I didn't turn out dead like Chip. I freaked out when I found out I was married to somebody named Esteban; it made me think I hadn't left the barrio (East San Jose or Redwood City). Carlos, it isn't that I'm not comfortable with being Latina, it's more a fear of turning out like my mother (even though I love Mama). Yeah, I have issues. Get to almost Crone status working in the Silicon Valley, and I'd be really surprised if there weren't any around. At least the personal/professional life seemed to be not horribly botched; I hope the other Roberta isn't being a wicked stepmother to teenagers and that being a bigwig at Google is good to her (some things are looking up, yes?). Still, it's good to be back from the land where Kerry won the '04 election and Ah-nold isn't Governator. Maybe some of the high level politics was better over there, but having your friends go all wrong on you isn't. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 6th, 2004
11:25 am	I must be a sucker for strays. My feline owners all seem to have wormed their way into my heart by looking terribly cute and saying with their cat telepathy that I am the human to meet their every need that requires opposable thumbs or interventions with Other Humans. Tribble-kitty is the worst of the bunch, Lady Bast knows. Now, I seem to fallen for a line put out by a post-human (?) stray. Since we started expanding with lots of new customers in the Far East, having somebody around that understands Cantonese/Mandarin/Nihon-go would be a very good thing. Ifurita was staying in the garage and after all hell broke loose a while back, now needs some sort of paying gig that doesn't involve being a lackey for Dr. Ben Evil. The personnel req for a customer service position is a done deal (with some help from Diane), and Ifurita made a persuasive argument for herself. I don't want to know how she manages to get the proper documentation to work in the US; I had enough hell dealing with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies the past few months. Besides, suspicion of la Migra (no matter what cabinet department it's in) is a long standing family tradition, no matter what side of the border my relatives were born on. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 21st, 2004
7:17 pm	Aloha from Maui Even on a Maui vacation (to recover from the party and all the board room angst before that!), I still check in once in a while to see what the gang is up to. You can blame the infrequent comments on the fact that I've got to go all the way into Wailuku town to the coffee shop on Market Street to get online, and that's a three hour drive on a winding road from Hana. I think some of you seem to have a different idea of what rude words are than the FCC does (even though the FCC has a bad case of craniorectal inversion right now). Last time I checked, "party till you puke" does not include any of the words that got Howard Stern or that part time NPR commentator for KCRW down South in trouble. Sheesh, you kids have no sense of history. My behavior at the Vampster party doesn't even make the meter of the scale for Silicon Valley CEOs behaving badly twitch a teeny tiny bit (compare it to Jerry Sanders taking off his shirt to "Do You Think I'm Sexy" at the 1984 AMD Christmas party, which was way off the chart). Have a good time while I'm out and try not to blow up the office or my garage while I'm away (make sure the Jag is parked outside in the driveway before you do any experiments, Max). To quote the Governator, I'll be back. Hand me a mai tai, Keanu, I need a drink. Current Mood: mellow Current Music: Over the Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 22nd, 2004
8:56 pm	damn Just heard from Max; she's holding things together with metaphorical duct tape and prayer. I wouldn't be surprised if there's some sort of ritual being done over the servers to keep things running, although Max doesn't seem to be the type to do the classic black goat offering over SCSI cables (not her sort of magick). She's made a powerful argument for taking the VCs up on their offer. Still haven't heard from the others, but damn it, I think Max is probably right. I only wish I had a way of finding out if these investors are going to be a real hindrance to our slayage (allies? adversaries?) or if they're going to notice what else we're doing besides social networking (are they Muggles?). (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 21st, 2004
12:54 pm	keeping the true objective in mind The VCs got back to me and offered a devil's bargain: They give us the money, they get to name a new CEO/CTO. Now, getting a title of "founder" isn't horrible, but I wonder how much say I'd have in making decisions in the future. I just don't feel right taking the bargain, and then scooting off with my share of the boodle while the rest of the group is struggling to balance the demands of their increasingly corporate day jobs with slayage. If money was my main goal, the decision would be simple. Sure, it's flattering to go on a TV show and get a lot of publicity for our company, but I don't want to go down in tech history as just another wannabe oligarch who bit off more than she could chew and flamed out. It's good to know your limits. I went ahead and informed the rest of the staff what the bargain was; I'm hoping that they'll care enough to work with me on making this decision. I hate to do this on my own. (Comment on this)
Friday, January 16th, 2004
4:16 am	I hab a code. This sucks, but in the overall scheme of things, being awake at 0415 Pacific due to congestion beats holy hell out of those occasional prophetic visions coupled with head-slammin' headaches. Need to schedule one-on-one meetings with the rest of the staff regarding capacity/control issues in preparation for VC bargaining sessions. I don't feel right giving up some control over the company without hearing from the people putting their butts on the line against undead foes. (Comment on this)
4:06 am	Litter box duty I'd say that the person who comes in the latest to the staff meeting gets to clean up after Sam. (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 10th, 2004
7:14 pm	Groveling for dollars I know one venture capital firm that I'm not going to bother contacting about the next round of financing. That snarky comment that Samuel Devins made after we made the appearance on the Yukino Miyazawa show still gets my blood pressure elevated. I'm only hoping that that man's spew doesn't put the Sand Hill Road gang completely off our business plan. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 2nd, 2004
1:44 am	Shit OOC: private I screwed up big time last weekend. I made a huge assumption and asked somebody for a favor I really had no right to. No wonder I spent yet another New Year's holiday alone with the cats. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if in the future I only hear from him in a business context, and considering his profession, I'm sure that I'd be in a very uncomfortable position. I guess I'm proof positive that getting older != getting wiser. (Comment on this)
Monday, December 29th, 2003
8:27 am	OOC: this is private It's pretty awkward to have to explain a 2 AM work-related phone call to a guest, but I suppose it could be worse. I could have had one of those vision/headaches. (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 11th, 2003
7:34 pm	it isn't the size of the pile of money, it's what you spend it on I've been living on the edge for the last month or so. Ever since I first crossed paths with Special Agent Levier of the FBI, I feel like I've been far too close to losing everything I've worked for, and if you're like me and don't have a family heritage of big time money and influence to back you up, these tight spots are way too uncomfortable. La familia Martinez's use of influence tends to focus on the internal politics of the St. Victor's Ladies' Guild, and this experience doesn't help one damn bit when various government agencies start asking pointed questions about the business interests of one of your employees' friends and how it might interact with your company's business and then leaving with the suggestion that it would be in my best interests to tell everything I knew about that person. Ever since T's friend D2 crossed our path at V., I've had this low grade unease about having any sort of connection with the drug trade. Growing up in East San Jose, I couldn't stay completely clueless about what some of the kids around me were getting into, but I wanted to find a way to get away from that lifestyle, and I chose the Path of the Science Geek. I got lucky; I was able to get good grades at James Lick and get into Santa Clara. I worked hard, and got good enough grades to graduate with honors with a chemistry degree, but I didn't have the resources ($) or the temperament to push on to graduate school and become a researcher, so I went to work. The companies I worked for did very well and I had well-timed stock options that enabled me to go into business for myself as well as help support young women with tech careers. I haven't always been lucky (lost $ on i-BS), but I've got a lovely home in Saratoga with lots of room for my library and my pride of cats, and this latest business venture has more than monetary rewards going for it; we're actually trying to actively work for good and if we kick some undead/demonic butt on the way while building a nifty new net application, all the better. Losing all of this for a drug dealer was not an option, but there's more going on with D2 than just that particular business venture. The man knows a whole lot of esoteric stuff, and that's a resource you don't just blow off when you're in battle with vamps and demons and weird anime goddesses. When I saw Agent Levier on the evening news making an announcement about cracking D2's drug ring, my low grade unease went into full overdrive willies because I knew that V's activities couldn't be completely detangled from his. We had gotten a temporary reprieve from the Federal pressure because Agent L's superiors needed our little startup's efforts in the fight against greater evils, but this could end at any time, especially with the variety of whims this current regime follows. When I heard through T that D2 was willing to work a deal to get out of the drug trade, I figured I might be useful in getting the message to our favorite agent. D and M thought I was going premenopausally nuts when I observed that Agent L was the best looking FBI agent I'd seen since Fox cancelled the X-Files (Scully is cool, but Mulder floats my boat) and that he passed my first weed-out test because he knows what Paul McCartney did before he was with Wings. My colleagues don't even *remember* Wings; they think the earliest stuff he did was with that suspected perv Michael Jackson. I also think that most of them were in preschool when Lennon was killed (God rest you John, it's been 23 years now this very week). I made a phone call to my favorite local restaurant; I got very lucky because Sent Sovi had a last minute cancellation by a large party of Japanese politicians visiting the Bay Area and I could have the restaurant all to myself on a Saturday night. I made a call to Agent L congratulating him on his big bust, and invited him to a discreet dinner (lose the black suit and matching government-registered black sedan), turning on as much charm as I could given the ongoing inner willies. He did clean up very nicely, and over a very pleasant meal, I gave him the message that D2 with T watching over him wanted to meet him to discuss a possible deal. We arranged to meet back at my home, and they worked out something that enabled the FBI/DEA to claim a victory in the fight against drugs without having a full-tilt gang war to fill the vacuum that D2's organization's departure caused. D2 gets to hang on to the portion of his assets not linked to drugs, and stay out of prison (at best he might have been roomies with a Mafiosi, at worst he would have gotten McVeigh's old cell at the Federal SuperMax). V. gets out from under the ongoing Fed threat, and we aren't going to be a government contractor in evil-fighting, all hail free enterprise, but if the Feds through Agent L want to make occasional inquiries or pass on possible helpful leads, I don't think it's against our corporate interests to at least listen. On a lighter note, I got a glimpse last weekend on how the really big movers and shakers here in the Valley spend their discretionary income. I've been a bit of a hermit lately with V's startup, but my best friend from college coaxed me out in the drizzle last Saturday to go on a benefit home tour for St. Francis High School. We both felt a bit out of our league with conspicuous displays of wealth just like we did back at Santa Clara (she was a professor's daughter and I was a public-school scholarship brat from the wrong part of SJ). We did have a good time chortling over the wretched excess that a venture capitalist spent his boodle on. This particular estate in Los Altos Hills was a year-old 10,000 square ft. mansion with *12* bathrooms. The basement had more square footage than my house in Saratoga does. There were elevators connecting the three levels, and the wine cellar and home theatre wouldn't have been out of place down in Hollywood. We were giggling about the house needing its own ZIP code and basically saying that if they actually had to do their own housework, there would be no way there'd be 12 toilets to clean. I've got a nice enough place for myself and I don't have to have an army of hundreds to keep it in shape. And, I've got my investment in growing a business that isn't just building another useless widget, we're doing the right thing. Life is pretty good, even if I know there'll be another crisis to deal with in each new work week. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 17th, 2003
9:51 am	coffee is no longer my friend Yesterday was not one of my better days to say the least. Woke up at 4 AM. Had another one of those dreams featuring a gory closeup of a security guard turned undead Happy Meal, which was accompanied by a truly spectacular headache. Got to the office on time despite feeling like dreck. D. surprised us by bringing in some coffee from outside that was infinitely better than the extract of ground street sweepings passing for coffee that comes as part of the office rent package. A couple of cups along with two of my industrial strength Motrins managed to banish the headache. If I only knew then what I know now, I would have just stuck with water to wash the painkillers down. V. seems to have a new employee on-site. Her name is Sam and she has rodent control responsibilities as well as serving as M's familiar. (Note to M.-choice of black kitty as partner is rather stereotypical, but Sam's so cute that we'll let that slide). S. seems to have sucking up to management down despite her tender age. I've promised her some surplus toys that my home pride of leisure and grooming specialists are no longer enthralled by. I forgot how much fun kittens can be. We had a team meeting regarding the level of assistance we can provide T. in her efforts to clean up.. After some poking around, we located a possible contact up in SF that might know how to help. He frequents a prime rib place up in SF, so M. and I went up there for dinner. M. had to settle for a salad as well as watch me eat a nice medium rare cut (I don't get to be a full bore carnivore that often). We tried to discreetly contact A.M. with that buy the gentleman a round tactic, but the maitre'd thought that we were actually trying to solicit some other sort of business. He'd already mistaken me for M's mother when we walked in (bad!), now he thought I was M's procuress (WORSE!), and was going to ask us to leave the restaurant. M. managed to set some tiramisu on fire as a distraction and we were able to approach A.M. for a brief discussion. A.M. let the maitre-d know that we had more legitimate business to discuss, and the restaurant offered us our meals for free (M. and I decided even with the embarrassment that they'd get a really good tip to make up for the mojo-induced fire). Note to self: schedule spa weekend to chill out and hopefully look less like the staff's den mother. Unfortunately, we found out from A.M. that our proposed course of action re: T. would have some really dire consequences. Need a new plan. A.M. wouldn't offer us any other insights and it doesn't look like we'll be able to contact him again for his expertise (unwilling/unable?) On the ride back down 101, I got really twitchy and made M. pull off in Redwood City for more coffee. I didn't realize that Coffee, Now! had this insidious exponential pricing scheme where repeat customers get charged absolutely unholy prices for their next hit. Fortunately, I avoided indentured servitude because I've got really good credit, but my next Amex bill is going to be *huge*. (note: I hear today that C. wasn't quite as lucky--instead of bunking off to Vegas with his latest girl du jour, he got stuck with a barista side job to settle his tab) When we finally made it back to the office, M. needed to help D. and T. up off of Shoreline investigate the disappearance of security personnel in that morass of vacant business parks. It seems that our bumpy-faced "friend" from the Oakland docks and his cohorts were busy. I also got a call from that Federal agent wanting to know what our firm was doing to address the problems in Mt. View; I managed to stop twitching long enough to tell him that we had all of our staff (except for C--I didn't find out about his whereabouts till later) on the case. He noticed that I didn't sound too well, and after I told him about the coffee intake, he mentioned that NIH/CDC were looking into the large increase in coffee intake here in California. The whole state has become coffee achievers. I had already thought that there was something unusual about this brew I suddenly couldn't do without besides the cost, so I asked M. to hide away a half-cup from me to give to my old organic chemistry professor (now retired from SCU). Dr. Pfeiffer is much better at natural product and synthetic organic chemistry than I ever was; my best subjects were quantitative analysis and physical chemistry. I locked myself in my office (too shaky to drive myself home) and tried to calm down despite the incessant twitching. Sam-kitty was my only comfort (she'll get a catnip-filled flannel blankie for a performance bonus). Dr. P came through this morning with his quickie analysis; he found out that Coffee, Now! contained another custom alkaloid that works synergistically with caffeine for a heightened buzz. The Fed labs also tracked the chemical back to BALCO up in Burlingame (it seems they're not just doing sports medicine!). Coffee, Now! seems to have disappeared just as quickly as they popped up; Starbucks is back in the business of rivaling Micro$oft in their quest for world domination. I'm slowly feeling more like myself, but now I can no longer get holier-than-thou with T. and C. I guess that's a good thing. (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 2nd, 2003
9:44 am	Dia de los Muertos! Made a little shrine yesterday for All Souls. Found pictures of my dad and my grandparents in this big old box in the den closet, so I put them up in my room on my dresser. Lit a couple of candles this morning and put a shot of tequila and some chocolate up there as an offering. The folks weren't exactly tequila people, but hey, it makes *me* feel better. Vaya con Dios, I miss you. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 6th, 2003
10:42 am	I'm not sure what's worse... That horrible mindsplitting sorta prophetic dream I had a while back or the last minute blitz on the California recall election. Not only am I getting phone calls and emails from Clinton/Gore/Howard Dean, I got a letter from the Communist Party of the USA (they still exist?) and I got sucked into investigating this dweeb candidate Phil Illuminat to find out why all of a sudden he's the hottest thing this side of the Sierras. I get this call from my acquaintance Ruth (Democratic Party flack) to go up to a rally in the City and check out Phil's great programs for the Golden State and she says he's on Michael Krazny's show and I should go tune in KQED-FM pronto. The man sounds like a total dimwit with even less personality than Gray Davis, and I wasn't sure that was even humanly possible. I blew Ruth off with some sort of comment about how I will probably vote no on the recall and then for Bustamante (who if I understand Mama correctly is some sort of seventh cousin once removed). Camejo also looks good but Cruz is family. D and T got some sort of big package from a law firm down in LA with some leads about mystery candidate Phil and since we all seem to be more curious than what's healthy for us, D and I ended up racing (D drove, she says I drive like an old lady) against T and C down to Big Sur to check out this communications firm that honed Phil's message. [note to self, need to check out nanotechnology connections to a Dr. ben David up in PA] (Comment on this)
Friday, September 26th, 2003
10:07 pm	need industrial strength painkillers Madre de Dios mio, I had the worst headache a couple of nights ago. Woke me up at 0345 and I ended up scaring the hairballs out of Tribble-kitty. The best stuff in the Kaiser formulary (800 mg ibuprofen) may be fine for the monthly torment (may the menopause come to bless me soon!) but it doesn't do jack sh*t for that headache. And let's not even discuss the dream that proceeded before it, Sylvia Browne is dropping in on my subconscious? I don't need this bs, I'm trying to keep the gang at V in one piece without blowing the startup stash on excessive health care and workmen's comp claims. At request of M, I did ok domestic partner benefits. It's the right thing to do. Also filled the intern position to keep D happy. Wonder about whether T might need extra EAP coverage. Need to keep tabs on this, since C probably ought to use the program too. Got a contract for our services finalized, although the choice of venue for the meeting was not optimal. Didn't even get to eat the carne asada super burrito before mayhem and police showed up. One quick job was also started in Mt. View (note: maybe we should stay away from domestic disputes?). Nothing in the Merc about weird appearances in MV? Or is this just a normal weekend after Castro St. pubcrawls? (Comment on this)