Free the Books!

Sorry that I've been to dam busy right now. During the last few days I've done a couple of nights of rock climbing, going out with old TransUnion Friends, another common wealth club event. Etc. So here is a article from salon (will have to watch an add to see it), that presents what I think is a fresh view on copyright law. Copyright copyright laws are holding our society back as the cost of distribution approaches zero.

Richard Clarke

It’s always interesting hearing people speak in person. Richard Clarke comes off far more personal than I though he would. Of course he managed to scare many in the audience with disaster and terrorist scenarios. I though a few of his arguments where a little overblown, but the core of his message was right. We definitely need to change the character of foreign relations to be more diplomatic and secure likely domestic terrorist threats. After hear him speak I promptly bought his new fiction book, "The Scorpions Gate". I also got the chance to have him sign it “To a fellow citizen”, which he seemed to enjoy as opposed to the usual requested personalization.

New Mapoooooo!

Yahoo has just released a beta of a new mapping tool. Boy did they come out throwing dogs back at google maps. The new maps are flashed based and have a very kind interface. Looks like the map wars are far from over.

Toys for Boys!

Just recently I bought a GSP. I decided that the Garmin eTrex Legend C had enough features at a low enough price. It's already been a lot of fun and I haven't even had a reason to use it outside of plain silliness. The only real disappointment is having to go out and buy separate software for anything past the general map. I imagine in a few years GPSs with every map known to man preloaded will be the same price, but I just couldn't wait!

Illegal Soapbox Derby - 2005

Something special happens when a bunch of rednecks decide to build contraptions for rolling down hills. After viewing this slide show I decided, I'll have to try to see it in person next year.

Emily top ropes a 10a on-sight!

This last Sunday Emily on-sighted a 10a top rope climb at the gym. I better start training harder before she starts showing me how it's done.

Beach Blanket Babylon

Recipe for a live 30 years running show, add as many big hats, jokes, celebrity impersonations and a dash of current events. Last Friday night I got to go as part of Emily's birthday celebration. See it, it's fun.

Halloween in the Castro

It's that time of year, just a few blocks from my house hoards of people will ge going crazy. Lets hope Emily and I survive.

iPod that can be your buddy too

If you missed the cool boat by not buying an iPod before your grandma, it's not to late. Here is a truly indie Pez MP3 player at http://www.pezmp3.com/. Take that Mr. Steve Jobs!

2000 fallen

NPR has this segment that includes a mothers experience of losing a son to war. Whether or not one is of the opinion of the validity of the Iraq war, everyone can agree individual losses are are tragic.

CBO at the Veloswap & Sports Expo

My favorite bike shop Cambria Bicycle Outfitter will be at the VeloSwap & SportsExpo from 9-5 this Saturday the 29. If you have some money burning a hole in your pocket the Veloswap sounds like the place to be.

J-E-L-L-O .....A-R-T!

Liz Hickok has gone off into the ether of creativity in her creation of Jello landscapes. I've never been so impressed and hungry at the same time.

GEO Dome

This last weekend in Yosemite was great, in part due to my purchasing a REI 4 season GEO Dome tent. Being half the price of the name brand tents, I was a little worried. But as it turns out the tent was quite study, roomy and pleasant. It also happens that for car camping it fits a queen size inflatable bed.

P.S.If your in the market for an inflatable bed the Wenzel battery powered bed is the way to go.

Equity Stakes

So last night I was pitched an equity stake in a new software startup. Actually, I normally wouldn’t have even opted to hear the pitch, but the person doing the pitch is someone I see getting a company going ground up. Everything I heard during the pitch was reasonable, but unfortunately the software product just didn’t light my fire. So even though I have confidence in the soon to be CEO, I just don't see my self being any were close to as excited as the products I currently am getting to develop. It's good sign I'm happy where I am, but I hate disappointing people.

Climb time }:->

Yosemite climbing will be going down this weekend. You can track some of the old salty climbers from SLO at sites 134, 136, 145 and 148 in Upper Pines (just ask for Ken the shitbag). It’s been a while since I’ve climbed but with any luck, I’ll mange to top out on a few classics

Craigslist Treasure, mate!

Found 1968 Nixon Campaign Poster on Craigslist.org. Really one couldn’t go wrong this little cynical tidbit of history.

Broadband: pillaging America

Salon.com has this article on how America is falling behind due to anti completive broadband practices. I take banking, emailing, blogging, researching and even shopping on the Internet for granted, and can't believe we are pricing so many hard working Americans out of the same opportunities.

Keep sucking, until you succeed

Tonight’s Spike Lee commonwealth club appearance was ok, not great. I actually like that Mr. Lee was a little short with lame questions. Emily wasn’t pleased with his disposition. Unfortunately most of the questions ask where wholly uninteresting. For example one of the open floor question contained the phrase “My grandmother always says, ‘Keep sucking, until you succeed’.” After which a desperate gentleman proceeded to beg Spike to take a look at his script, even after Mr. Lee explained that he only looks at materials through documented agents to avoid lawsuits. From the rather mediocre questions I was able to see that Spike was willing to question our society without questioning every single slight he or others might have experienced. Although I don’t feel like I got my $15 worth, I did discover a deeper respect for Mr. Spike Lee.

Pistol packing preacher

Today I found blackmanwithagun.com today and couldn't resist exploring it. There are a few curiosities such as his own action figure (click cool stuff) or a CD he has produced , “Pistol packing preacher.” Although I might agree and disagree with different viewpoint presented at blackmanwithagun.com I do find the approach quite funny.

Science is great ;-)

Note: this post will receive no explanation

Young again

M.H. de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park be will be free to the general public this re-opening weekend. Trent and Jean have already talked Emily and I into going.

I've been up the tower, which is an exceptional space with a view and look forward to see the rest of the shack ;-) For the local architecturally conservative nitwits I say boo!

Worm in your Apple :-(

I for one am unimpressed with Apples new V-iPod. Who is going to watch movies on such a little screen. Slate happens to agree with this article. What if Apple instead did something truly revolutionary like allow people to buy and install OSX on any PC. But I imagine Apple just isn't willing to play on a level field with Windows XP and will never ship its operating system to work without it's own branded hardware:-P

World Kick Ball Association

Last Saturdays the Kickball prom was held to commemorate the closing of the season. Emily managed to create corsages and bow ties out of kickballs. In fact they worked so well most people at the prom had to be told they were kickball material. At which point they would flip out about how cool they are. For any who would even think of joining a the World Kick Ball Association I would suggest you do so this coming spring, it's a blast!!!

P.S. Emily might be looking to potential investors for fund her indie corsage design company.

Craigslist Treasure Mate!

Posted earlier this week is this dope Vintage Graco 1970's at craigslist.org. If I had all the storage room in the world this puppy would so be mine.

The bold and unrelenting Spike Lee

Spike Lee will be speaking for the commonweathclub this coming Monday. Seeing that Spike Lee is a somewhat a bold and unrelenting director, I'm expecting it to be interesting. Make if you can.

Redbull sponsers wings

I often hate it when people blog about events that happened past tense. But in the case of the Red Bull Air Race you can catch it next year. Last weekend the race during Fleet Week was loads more fun than watching the idealized Blue angles. Instead of top guns doing precision drills you get a bunch of old crockety top guns letting all lose. Numerous loops, spins, flat spins and timed laps all packaged up into one event. Add in one Jumbo-Tron that gives close ups of the planes and cockpit views and you got one entertaining event. So be sure to check next years schedule when it gets posted.

It's never to late for another toy

So as many of you know I've picked up another hobby, skateboarding! Skateboarding never made much sense. However after moving to San Francisco where the urban jungle presents much more skateboarding opportunity and that's before you account for the ability of skateboards to fit on public transit. Plus Trent had me skate laundry up and down the street. Notably superior than carrying your laundry.

Which predictably leads to me buying a huge board that is easy to ride in a strait line, but not so easy to turn. After spending a lovely Sunday in the park with Emily taking turns riding and riding together, yes Emily is learning how to ride too, and yes my board is big enough that both of us can squeeze on it. In fact when both of us are on it we start giving other people epileptic cases of “that's so cute”.

However the true test is if I could skateboard to work faster than riding the bus. And guess what I can! Just for documentation I've include a map of my momentous day ;-)

Doctor Atomic

So a few weeks ago Emily, Jean and I spent a day at Opera in the Park (Golden Gate). Of course Emily couldn't leave without buying some tickets and as it happens we got tickets to Doctor Atomic. We bought the tickets on name alone but now that NPR has a segment about Doctor Atomic I'm sure we made a dandy choice. Also here is a link to the official site of Doctor Atomic.

CSS Hacking, because I can.

So a few weeks ago I put my coding powers to work removing the blogger dashboard/toolbar. It was just to dominating. If you're willing to take the risk bitting the had that feeds you free blogging, just past the following into your template right before the </body> tag.

<script>
   var m1 = document.getElementById("b-navbar");
   m1.style.display="none";
   m1.style.visibility='hidden';
   m1 = document.getElementById("space-for-ie");
   m1.style.display="none";
   m1.style.visibility='hidden';
   m1 = document.getElementById("header");
   m1.style.margin="15px auto 0px";
</script>

SFL on iTunes

Scissors For Lefty has been featured as a staff pick on iTunes. Yet another sign that Bryan might be bedding laddies down on a national level. I also have it on good athority that the show at Bottom of the Hill coming the 12th will be a good one.

Happy Hard Core

One of my coworkers is a high energy geek type. I pretty sure I've seen him drink 8 rock stars in a day. Anyhow to complement his possibly overactive brain he listens to “happy hard core” Which is basically hard core rave music. Even though I'm not partial to high energy of the music you should sample it any way. Besides it gives you acute insight into one of my coworkers.

Last Picture of San Luis Obispo

Right before I moved away from San Luis Obispo(SLO) I managed to find this dandy picture. Of course this picture examines how humans frame, change and affect the landscape we live in.

However looking back on the picture is has even greater personal meaning. In the same way the SLO landscape was drastically changing, my life was in for the big move to SF.

Disaster, ready steady go

Many of you know I'm big on being prepared for disaster, invasion or even an invasion of little green bureaucrats. For those that live in SF, I suggest checking out 72hours.org. Also zombie movies are aways good training videos, since they are usually some kind of social commentary.

Here is a shot list of variations from 72hours.org list.

Things not in my kit:

• toilet paper, really in the event of the big-one I've already shat my self, besides I sure you can find something to use
• radio (maybe I should)

Things in my kit:

• worlds biggest can of pepper spray I wouldn't expect everybody play nice
• laptop, free WiFi has proved more robust than other communication technologies. If you have one grab it on your way out the door
• bottles of booze you have at your house. They keep well and could be traded for other goods

Obligatory meaningless first post

Howdy folks,

Usually most bloggers are articulate. My self I'm only articulate the half of the time, as my brain chooses to function. However if you can bear through the functioning and malfunctioning of the gray matter between my ears, You're bound to find a least a minutia of entertainment.

Cheers,
Rob