Olive's Trek Along The River

I’ve mentioned Ann Japenga’s writings before. She has a very nice piece in last Sunday’s LAT, a thoughtful and deeply personal story concerning Olive Oatman, a young girl captured by American Indians 150 years ago. Here’s the link. (Photo courtesy Ann Japenga).

Google: Do No Evil?

One of ten things that Google has found to be true (according to their company philosophy) is that "You can make money without doing evil".

Those bloody hypocrites. To gain market share in China, Google is essentially censoring its services. An Information Week story is here.

This pisses me off.

In 90 seconds of searching, I can't seem to find a decent contact email address for them. So call or fax them and express your outrage: phone: (650) 253-0000 fax: (650) 253-0001

A Gift From Above

My friends chide me incessantly because I don’t wear a helmet when I ride my bicycle. Oh please, just shut up.

Well, I’ve finally discovered the one good reason to wear one. Riding south on PCH today, just past Newport Beach, I was struck on the side of my head with bird shit. Nice.

Maybe a helmet ain't such a bad idea.

Seattle to Portland

Speaking of Seattle, I got a shiny new bike for Christmas. What better way to break it in than to ride the 204 miles from Seattle to Portland on beautiful rolling rural roads? The 27th annual STP Bicycle Classic rolls around in July, and my friend Barb and I will be there celebrating our accomplishment at the finish line at Holladay Park, tired but happy.

So says my Magic Eightball, anyway.

Raining in Seattle - This is News?

I extend my sympathies to my pals in Seattle, who have endured 26 straight days of rain. 33 days is the record, set back in 1953.

What better way to alleviate depression on a rainy day than to curl up in front of a nice warm computer monitor and read some great stories? The 2005 preliminary ballot for the Nebula Awards has been posted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and includes links to many of the nominated stories and novels. Here's the link.

World Press Photo 05

An exhibition of World Press award winning photographs is on display at the USC Annenberg School of Communication. It is the only venue in the U.S. (except for the United Nations in NY) to host the exhibit. Kim and I have got to get over there to check it out; such an opportunity!

Some of the winning photos can (and should!) be viewed at the World Press site here.

Fear Not Frog Leg Soup...

I stole that phrase from a column in Sunday’s LAT Travel section, written by Janet Eastman, in which she lists great travel tips amassed from a collective of 700 students she joined in a Semester at Sea program.

A couple of my favorites:

When traveling in countries with a lot of temples, wear flip-flops to save time taking off your shoes at the entrance.

Carry a fake wallet. In a pinch, throwing this on the ground and backing away can save you a lot of trouble. Just make sure it has enough stuff in it (random papers and a token amount of money) to make it believable long enough for you to get away.

There are many more. A link to the LAT article is right here.

This blog entry is for Ophelia, whose solo treks to far off places such as Croatia and New Zealand are truly an inspiration.

Cell Phone Diary Part 3

Not content with the pitiful, laughably insipid ringtones that came factory-installed with my cell phone, I engaged in a program of research and googling to seek out the ultimate tone, and have achieved success: my phone now has the distinctive ring mimicking the phones of CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) headquarters in L.A., former workplace of Jack Bauer. My work is now complete.

Here’s how: find a WAV file of the ringtone, such as the one at this site. Via Purevoice Player-Recorder, convert it to a QCP file format, which is compatible with my phone. Decrease the sound quality, and hence the file size, to PCM, 8 kHz, 16 bit. I used my SoundBlaster Wave Studio to do that. Upload the QCP file to a mobile phone file site, such as Mobile Phone Uploader. Download the file to your cell. Done.

This, then, shall be the last of my cell phone diary entries. Malevolent forces have obviously hindered my thought processes, and there is no point in trying to document any more of the horrible changes I’ve noticed in myself wrought by that insidious little phone device. Excuse me, I have to take this call…

Happy New Year

"I never met a dame who didn't understand a good slap in the face, or a slug from a forty-five."

No, that's not a quote from Howard Dean, but rather one uttered by a Humphrey Bogart type character in Woody Allen's film Play It Again, Sam.

It just happened to come to mind when I thought of the great Speakeasy-themed party hosted by our friends Chris and Dawn (that's them above) on New Year's Eve. They rule, by the way.

Oh, and here's a picture of me and my friend John. I like it because I look kinda pissed off, like maybe I was thinking about the grim task of trudging back to work tomorrow.