T.M.X. Elmo

I've always liked tickle me Elmo and now the special 10 year version is even more fun:

cnn covers more

Penny Alcohol Backpacking Stove

I finally got around to building this beer can stove tonight. While it was fun, I doubt I would actually use it for backpacking. A white gas stove is worth all the extra weight and Esbit is lighter. However it’s not often you get to justify playing with fire and suggest building one for the fun of it anyway.


-rob

Crazy Iceberg

Emily just sent me this link: http://www.crazyshark.com/product_info.php?products_id=11&cPath=2

Anyone with a pool big enough please step forward :-)

Three runs

I ran in three of our teams winning runs. It was a pretty sweet. A pitcher of PBR for me :-)

Photographers Projecting Presumptions

Being a photographer I found this interesting article about a photographer callously misslabling labeling the action in the picture.

Good!

A new upstart magazine called Good looks to be quite interesting. They currently have the following mission statement on listed on the GoodMagazine home page: "Our mission is to simulate a culture of good by creating dialog around thing that matter." I find the website quite entrapping. Good currently has an article about folks painting abandoned homes in bright orange, incidentally before they get demolished. A grand idea by the mysterious vandals. Almost everyone involved with the magazine has earned a pitcher of PBR.

Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer Can Diversion Safe

If I had jewels and cash to hide - this would have to be the way:
PBR Safe

Hanns.b7G-HW-191D

Nineteen inch wide screen LCDs have started popping up for under $200. I picked up this one for $179.99. For the price I’m quite impressed, the LCD isn’t quite as good as my CRT, but the space savings improves the room and saves a little energy. I measured 62 watts vs. 31, not to shabby. I’d offer the engineers behind the hanns.g generic monitors a pitcher of PBR for bringing in a price performer.

Legos + rubber bands + bored young man = Chaingun

Mildly entertaining video at youtube, just don't put out an eye.

Old Crow Medicine Show

Last Friday I got see Old Crow Medicine Show live at Slims-sf. It was a good show, I would buy them a round of PBR, given the chance. Matty and Amber also made the show fun with some beer induced humor. Emily is also sure to blog about Crepe shack across the street, be sure to check it out: EmilyStyle.com

Quake Alarm

At first I thought this was quite silly, since it only gives you a few seconds warning. However what made sense was the alarms ability to tell alert you if an earthquake is actually going on. So instead of wondering is this a start of a earthquake or the couples up stairs are just being rowdy, you know to take cover or just turn up the radio before things get vocal. http://www.quakealarm.com/

Digg.com vs Slashdot.com

It's supper geek tech time! Today Justin my coworker procliamed slashdot.org dead and declared Digg.com the top spot for geek news. Now I've never heard of Digg.com, guess I'm only 1/2 geek, which led to checking it out. Based on a one day comparison I have to agree with Justin. Digg was far more interesting today. At slashdot.org all stories submited go through an moderator. At Digg.com the everyone in the community votes on the news that gets featured on the home page. What's more interesting is you don't have to even log in to vote for a story. I really have to wonder if it might be possible for for slashdot.org to be displaced by a democratized tech website.

Bachelor Party Planning,

Beside getting into climbing shape, my other big project for the coming month is a planning bachelor party for Rich. It's quite a honor and I'll be dammed if I don't pull off weekend that is noteworthy (hopefully plenty of good silly stories). Anyhow here is the flier which was a fun time photo shopping. One notable benefit of planning a bachelor party is you get to look at stripper pictures without getting in trouble :-)

Country Boys

Frontline's new documentary Country Boys is impressive in it's scope. Three years is spent trailing two Appalachian teens through the transition from from boys to men. Many of the issues are typical to many boys in America. However there are glimpses on how that life for these boy's can be harder. Some notable scenes from the first episode include wrestling a pig out from your new trailer home while missing school, Heavy Metal Christian rock, teacher's harping making progress, a drunken dad that barely functions, girls, and bumming smokes off of your mom.

I'll definitely will be watching the next two parts. PBS has also been kind enough to post the documentary online for those who miss the show's TV premier.

What the hell happened to Robs blog!

What the hell happened to Robs blog! Well it was the holiday season, plus I got to go on a Vegas/RedRock and Joshua tree trip. It was pretty fun, I didn't get climb as much as I wanted but did manage to take Trent up Prince of Darkness and got a few classic 5.9 trad leads in. Pretty good for old man Peters.

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.