I'm trying to put notes together for Greg's service tomorrow, these are rough, if anyone wants to suggest fixes I'd love that. Needs to by 10AM PST, the service is at 11AM. --lm The theme is Greg was a ninja, I'm only just realizing it. I've got lots of stories but they all involve me so if I'm taking up too much time or boring people all I need to see is one person waving their hand like "move it along" and I'll wrap it up. I can wittle it down to just two stories but here is the list. Ninja Greg does music (have to do this one, I have pictures). Ninja Greg bitch slaps the government with Larry Ninja Greg takes Larry to the NSA, Larry ends up staring at pissed Marines Ninja Greg gets Larry a wife Happy Greg lifts a log (have to do this one, I have pictures) Ninja Greg does music --------------------- This is a funny story, I moved to the Santa Cruz mountains and my buddy Bob took one look at my place, and the new tractor with a backhoe and said "we're doing the pig roast at your place". Bob did a pig roast when he could, which was when one of his friends was doing landscaping and they could dig a hole. I've got 15 acres, a hole for the fire and the pig was no problem. It was mostly Bob's party at my place but I got my invites out, Greg was on the list, and that got me thinking lets have some music. I put it out there that we should have some music, I knew Greg was down, Kennan plays guitar and he was down, and this guy named Andy said he could do keyboards. Cool, we have a band. The guys show up, Greg sets up his drums, Kennan plugs into an amp, and Andy sets up his keyboard. Greg sounds great, duh, Kennan is tuning up and sounds great, Andy has a keyboard. They start playing and it is obvious that Andy is out of his league. Greg is world class, Kennan doesn't suck. So here is the first ninja move. I don't remember what Greg said, I asked my wife and all she could say was "he was so smooth". Ninja Greg said something like "can I show you something?" and slid in behind the keyboard. And things started sounding good. My buddy Otis stepped up to play the drums, I just learned that that was the first time he played with a group. He wasn't great but he could hold a beat and it was fine. Ninja Greg bitch slaps the government with Larry ------------------------------------------------ When I worked for Greg one of the big projects was a government thing where they were imaging the earth. This was roughly 1994 and on a clear day they could resolve stuff from a satellite to 3 inches. So a really big newspaper headline they could read from space. It was a big project, Cray was in it, DEC was in it, and SGI was in it. SGI had the storage and data transfer part (more about the data transfer later). I was super into performance at that part of my life and Greg knew that. I've always told this story as it was just me but looking back on it, I see the hand of Ninja Greg. I had done a pile of performance work, figured out that the disk drives had a problem, made Seagate redesign their drive mounts. Whatever, that doesn't matter. What matters is Greg was negotiating the deal, SGI needed to get paid, and this is just me looking back on it but it all makes sense, he sent me into a meeting. I should mention that I was a super cocky engineer, I was at the top of my game and I didn't really like the people that were working on this contract, they seemed stupid to me. I should also mention that I loved to stake and at SGI there were lots of places to strap on some rollerblades and go skate. Somehow Greg sent me into this meeting. As it so happened I was on rollerblades and I was fresh off of figuring out the that the disk drives had a problem. I fly into the meeting, look at the presentation, say "that won't work" and go grab a sandwich and was heading out and they say "why not" and I go into a pile of actual data, factual data (they had nothing but simulations) and it is super clear that I'm right and they are wrong. I've always thought that meeting was all me but looking back on it, I think Greg knew exactly what he had, he sent me in when he needed to remind everyone that SGI had a clue, it was some Ninja moves. Ninja Greg takes Larry to the NSA, Larry ends up staring at pissed Marines -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the middle of that program to image the earth the government realized that they liked me. So they wanted me to get security clearance and Greg said do it so I was going down that path. Those of you who know me will laugh at the idea that I could keep my mouth shut (I can but there has to be a really really good reason). I went about 80% of the way through the process and realized this was all for them, there was nothing in it for me, it was so they could tell me stuff and I could help them but I'd have to shut my mouth. For stupid reasons. So I balked and the NSA put pressure on Greg to bring me around. Greg knew that I liked smart people, I'm so-so smart, I like being around people who are a lot smarter than I am. His way of getting me to complete the clearance process was to take me to the NSA and introduce me to some scary smart people. An aside: this was a long time ago, mid 1990's. The NSA that I saw then is nothing like the NSA of today. They used to have ethics, that seems to be gone. Anyhoo, we get out to Fort Meade and check in and Greg tells me "stay close, they don't like it if you wander around". Yeah, yeah, Greg, whatever. We were walking down a hallway and I see something through a doorway and go "that's cool" and I pause to take a look. I'm old so maybe I'm making this up, but my memory is that I had three guys with rifles pointing at my face, and those guys were ninjas. I never saw them, they just kind of appeared and had me on the ground. Too long, don't read: if Greg says stay close, stay close. Ninja Greg gets Larry a wife ---------------------------- I did some work for SGI to move data around really fast. I can't claim any credit for this because people before me had done all the hard work (page flippin and wire speed TCP on HIPPI). Their work was 99% of the effort, all I did was realize we can move data fast through the file system and we can move data fast through network, how about I plug these two big firehoses together and now we can move data fast through the network file system. What I did was very small but it was useful and SGI wanted to ship it. So how did Greg get me a wife? I have no idea if he intended this or not but I was a hot commodity at that time and I had built something. Greg could have found someone else to do the grunt work to move it out the door but he sent me to go see Beth. Looking back on it now I really wonder if he saw something that Beth and I didn't. Whatever, Beth shipped all software, I had to go meet her, had to go to the patch meeting where she said "Oh, good, Larry's here, we'll talk about his thing" and I shot back "we're not talking about my thing in this meeting". Silly me, she did want to talk about that and we ended up getting married and have two great kids. If Greg did that then go him. Happy Greg lifts a log ---------------------- Greg and I talked after I left SGI, mostly about woodworking because we were both into that. But we didn't talk as much as we should have given how close we were. About a year ago Greg wanted to come up and chat. He felt like he might be beating the cancer that was the result of the treatment of the cancer he had 22 years earlier, he was thinking about buying a place up in the mountains like I did. He also wanted to geek out. He and I have very similar views of the industry we are in, we are both very old school. We sat around on my back deck and talked geek stuff. His mind was 100%, I wish I was that sharp. We also talked about his new cancer, he told me how he couldn't eat anything because his throat was toast, he was super happy that the docs let him eat tiny chunks of ice, but that was it. Everything else went into him through a hole, he more or less pumped baby food into himself. I watched him do it, he just shrugged and said you do what ya gotta do. I have a thing, I do this for anyone who is not 100% or doesn't feel strong, I put them on my excavator. I told Greg when he wanted to come up and chat, cool, but you have to drive excavator. He sort of wound down and wanted to leave, 3 hours of geek talk will do that, and I said you have to drive the excavator. He was not thrilled but I got him on it. It's like that game where you try and pick up stuff and if you pick it up you get a prize. Except the excavator wants you to win and the thing you pick up is a 1000 pound log. I got him on it, he got frustrated, but then he got it. I've got pictures and my all time favorite picture of Greg is that grin he sported when he got the log. That's Greg. I love that grin.

I agree with Dave on his comments and will add a couple of more if you don't mind. Timing and order is important, as my sportscaster brother points out, also engage. I'm not as good as he is at this, but looking at the audience and trying to make them feel you are talking to them particularly for each of these stories will make them even more powerful. So Dave's comment about practice is spot on. But for timing and order, I might rethink the sequence you have might be more effective if you change them a little. The last one might be a good one to lead with it. Say something like one of my most wonderful remembrance was a recent one, his expressions and reaction we 100% Greg and I'm lucky to use to anchor our relationship.... then tell that story. that will get people's attention. Then build up with some of the others over your life with him and close with the story of his most important legacy for you being your family. My thoughts - do wish I could make it, but I think it's not possible. Clem On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 1:31 AM, Dave Horsfall <dave(a)horsfall.org> wrote:

On Thu, 2 Jul 2015, Larry McVoy wrote: I love that Fender Stratocaster! Taste, pure taste... One of the finest guitars ever made, along with the Telecaster, the Precision Bass, etc. And of course, the Gibson Les Paul, ES-50, SG, Firebird... Yes, I'm a bit of an axe-man myself :-) -- Dave Horsfall (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will suffer" http://www.horsfall.org/leapsecond.webm - The talking clock for 2015 (9MB)