June 2008 Archives

In the Fervor to be Green and Do Your bit to Stop Climate Change Morality Play that is Contemporary Life (or how to be a good little Green who will go to Arcadia when you Die), the BBC has published an article today on "The Bulb Hoarders". Horrors.

"The government (UK) wants your old-fashioned energy-hungry incandescent tungsten light bulb gone, and gone soon. But some people are willing to go to great lengths to hang onto the lights they love.

Incandescent bulbs - that's the traditional kind to you or me - waste 95% of the energy they use, according to Greenpeace. They calculate that phasing them out in the UK will save more than five million tonnes in CO2 emissions a year.

And yet some households are so attached to them that they not only keep buying them - they're stockpiling them ahead of the day when they're no longer available.

In September last year, the UK government made a deal with major shops for the supply of traditional bulbs to be turned off. Some higher energy bulbs will be gone by January 2009, and all incandescent lights will be off by 2011.

The agreement is voluntary, but other countries have announced legal bans, including Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the US. "

Ok, so the British government has legislated that CFL bulbs are to be sold and that energy hogging incandescent bulbs are to be banned and taken off the shelf. Sounds reasonable right? ((cough cough cough...nanny state... cough cough cough))

But isn't life a give and take? Many of the folks interviewed for the BBC article and who commented think so.

Sun 06.29.08 - A bit too warm for the dogs' taste and more than a bit too boring as the human was working and not walking or playing with the dogs...

All photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95 on Sat. June 28, 2008 at the Ocean Star Restaurant and at the Huntington Library and Gardens.

Sat 06.28.08 - Today Erika and I had the great pleasure of helping Dave surprise Lauren by leading her off into distraction land, so that he could ask her to marry him without her having a clue of what was to transpire.

Over a week and a half ago, Dave emailed me asking if I could help him pull off surprising Lauren, who is the ultimate planner and very hard to surprise. I said yes, I would love to help, but give me some time to cook up a few good options in subterfuge. That day I talked to Erika about it, we decided that we should trick Lauren with a plan to go to lunch and a museum for Erika's "birthday". I was determined that this would go off properly and that Dave's presence in Southern California would be a big surprise.

Today "The Plan" was executed - Erika, Lauren, and I had a lovely dim sum lunch at the Ocean Star in Monterey park. After a good lunch we proceeded on to the Huntington Library & Gardens, where we went to the "This Side of Paradise" Photo Exhibit and to the Main House to visit Pinky & Blue Boy. Much chatter and laughter. Then off to the Rose Garden. Erika kept Lauren busy, while I texted Dave on our progress towards the Japanese Garden where he awaited our arrival.

I won't go into all the details, but let's just say that Lauren had no clue and was VERY surprised to have Dave tap her shoulder while she was taking a photo of a water lily at the Japanese Gardens.

And let's just say that Erika & I were very happy that D&L were very very very happy.

Dave & Lauren:

May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Sat 06.28.08 - Tap. tap. tap...

Can someone please give me three good reasons why I should renew my AIGA Membership?

My first year of $295 - really only good for email spam for events that are completely irrelevant to web design and you have to pay more money to attend the event that the email spam was promoting - AIGA membership has seemed quite useless. At least once as week, I become beyond irritated by either the AIGA mothership or AIGA Los Angeles for sending yet *another* email for the same event that they have already emailed me about four times in the last month.

I have a hard time defending a $295 fee to join a professional organization that is so web clueless. The mothership in New York recently sent me a very designed professional packet on why I should renew, of which I looked at and thought, "Oh, that is where the membership fee is going to... High end printing. Huh."

Where is the web related events? Where are the free events for folks who have already spent their $295 for the year? Where are the just plain networking get togethers?

I am not interested in driving up to LA to see some ultra special human speak on (fill in black here) design and pay $25-40 for the privilege on top of my $295 yearly fee. I would spend $5-10 for a happy hour cocktail party to meet other SoCal designers of all stripes, but those types of events are never organized.

Web professionals who are also AIGA members who don't live in NYC or SF, please tell me why you are a member or remain one after the first rip off year?

If you can't give me a good reason, should we maybe form a professional organization for web based designers?

Everybody has at least one, even if they will never admit to it. Some people have a lot more than one. Most of them are mild and not to life altering or disturbing, but sometimes they can stop life its place.

I am talking about phobias.

I have two phobias: Acrophobia and Parasitophobia.

My fear of heights is not too bad, just an occasional bout of vertigo if I am too close to a ledge or walking across a narrow bridge. I still can ski (go on ski lifts) and rock climb (with harnass & rope) without too much trouble, although bouldering does give me the creeps if I have to leap across a chasm of more than 8 inches.

Basically, I just force myself to just do it and then when I am past the height part, I am fine. Heights do not haunt me. Though, due to my acrophobia, I will not parachute, jump out of a plane, hang glide off a cliff, or bungee jump.

But parasites, well that is another story.

I don't know if anyone else feels the same, but the last few days I have felt more than a bit off kilter. Life is fine, no extenuating circumstances, nothing really wrong (well, other than air laced with smoke from 842 fires in my home state), but I just feel off. My intuition has been lightly vibrating that something(s) is off.

Fires in June, rather than the usual October, check.
Missed communication with several family members, check.
Finding it hard to concentrate to work, check.
Feet feel hot to the point of distraction, check.*
Sleeping at really odd hours, check.

Can I go on holiday to somewhere chilly, slightly damp, and calm?

*****
* While lots of folks suffer from cold feet at the first sign of chilly weather, I suffer from hot feet (quite uncomfortable) at the first sign of warmish weather. Odd but true.

Another odd but true about me is that while may people react negatively to barometric lows with sinus headaches or a slightly depressed mood; I react negatively to barometric highs, I get jittery, can't sleep, and a bit angry. I can tell a Santa Ana wind before it shows up by my lack of sleep and build up of jittery nerves.

Tues 06.24.08 - Eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains as seen while driving south on Hwy 395 between Big Pine and Independence, Calif. The smoke was from two fires in Mariposa County (Yosemite area) and one fire in eastern Sequoia (Tulare County).

Tues 06.24.08 - Wild Irises as seen in a little meadow on the side of the Bishop Creek outlet pond just downhill from Aspendell on Hwy. 168.

Tues 06.24.08 - Looking up Hwy 168 towards Jawbone Canyon and the road to Lake Sabrina as we turn left to go to the little outlet pond on Bishop Creek just below Aspendale.

Mon 06.23.08 - Activity Schedule for Les Doggies at Camp Sue:
5:50am Wake up call
6:00am Running around the property and following Sue around as she watered.
6:30am Dogs barking as Camille drops off 2 canoes.
7:00am Sue throws ball, Belle and Reo catch it.
8:00am Weed the vegetable garden.
9:00am Belle goes in and out of the house following Sue.
9:30am 1st Nap of the day.
11:00am Belle v. Reo in the 2008 Bishop Chuckit Finals. Belle 8, Reo 1.
Noon 2nd Nap of the day.
2pm Watch the Humans.
3pm All dogs climb in old Escape to drive to Rock Creek Lake.
4pm Throw ball and stick, dogs fetch.
4:30pm Walk all the way around the Lake.
6:00pm 3rd Nap of the day
7:00pm All dogs get bathed
7:30pm Dogs fed
8:00pm Humans eat dinner, dogs beg.
9:15pm Last outdoors excursion.
9:30pm Dog lights out.

Update:
1:10am Tick found crawling from Scruffy across bed to Human. Human completely freaks out, uses side of hard cover book to try to kill tick. Instead flushes it down the toilet.
2:38 am Camp Director Sue wakes everyone up to ask then to open windows, as she has turned off the A/C. Scuffy rolls on carpet next to Reo & Amigo, picks up YET another truly disgusting and evil tick. Human again picks up tick and flushes it down toilet.
4:something am Human finally falls asleep, then dreams of 20 foot ticks attacking dogs and humans.
6:10 am Dogs and Humans wake up to find the air filled with smoke from lightning strike fires.

Sun 06.22.08 - 4:09 pm - Have hat, will hike. ;o)

Sat 06.21.08 - 3:31pm - I couldn't stand staying within 10 miles of Lake Tahoe and not going to see it & dip my toes in the lake.

Sat 06.21.08 - 1:49pm - Hoff and Kevron in the midst of their favorite activity.

Fri 06.20.08 - 1:52am - Mike explaining the rules.

Fri 06.20.08 - Driving northbound on the I-5 from SoCal to Lake Tahoe for CampCamp 5.0.

According to the nice folk at the US Navy Observatory, today, June 20, 2008 at 23:59 UT will be the Summer Solstice.

To most North Americans, this is the day we mark as the start of Summer. When I was in Ireland, May 1st was the first day of Summer and today would be considered the high point of Summer. Where ever you are north of the equator and whenever you start your Summer, Happy Longest Day of the Year!

Enjoy it as you will. I will be driving to Lake Tahoe for CampCamp 5.0. I should be on the Interstate 5 driving north at 4:59pm Pacific Daylight Time.

Thurs 06.19.08 - The Bird of Paradise Tree, as seen on Central Street during my morning walk with Scruffy.

Wed. 06.18.08 - The more sedate exterior of Kimberly's glovebox.

Tues 06.17.08 - Two of Grandma Grace's recent art works on display.

Sun 06.15.08 - Scruffy poops out on the McGee Creek trail.

All photos taken at the CARMA Radio Telescope Array by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95 camera phone.

Sat. 06.14.08 - The Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) Radio Telescopes (aka The Ears) in the White Mountains had their annual Open House today. My Mom and I have been wanting to go to The Ears' open house for a couple of years now and today it worked out.

It was a blast. I love all things astronomy and this radio telescope array up at 7,000 ft plus was a true delight, both from the scientific curiosity perspective and then it was just aesthetically lovely perspective. A real treat.

Fri 06.13.08 - As seen in my brother's backyard this afternoon.

Ms. Jen waves at all of you in cyberspace land.

Sorry for the lack of photos here in the last few days, but I have been working on a web design/dev deadline and have not really been leaving the house or doing any dishes. Unfortunately, the dishwashing fairy has not shown up...

But hopefully I will be done with the project tomorrow and will be back on visual line (i.e. walking the dog and taking photos again).

Wish me luck on whipping MT4 to my will or at the very least do a dance in your living room to convince the dishwashing fairy to come and do my dishes!

To start, I will let my Tweets from tonight speak:

"Ever since living in Ireland 2005-06, I have hated text messages. My hate grows worse here in SoCal. Don't send 5 texts when you could call!"

"I won't text back if folks are using it for extensive details rather than calling or email. Officially old & grumpy. Text is for short msgs"

"I wish one could opt out of receiving texts with one's carrier. I would. I don't see why I should be charged to be irritated. F*(ked up."

More of an explanation:

When I went to grad school in Ireland, 2005-2006, it was really expensive to make calls on one's mobile phone but comparatively cheap to text, thus everyone I knew in Dublin texted like mad and never called.

To help the average American understand, my monthly Vodafone.ie contract allowed for a multitude of texts but only 50 minutes of phone calls per month for approx. $74. The worst insult was that I could only get 6 mb of data a month for an extra $30. Every one, young and old, in Ireland texted.

In contrast, my contract with AT&T here in the States gives me 650 daytime minutes of calls a month, unlimited AT&T to AT&T customer anytime minutes, and free nights & weekends. All of this phone call bounty for $39.99 a month. I also have unlimited data and email on my mobile for $24.99 a month. But to send a text it costs me $0.15 a text and to receive it is $0.10 a text.

What this means is that I can send and receive unlimited emails from my phone for no extra charge, but each text - incoming or outgoing - costs.

Also, because it is more important for me to have the best camera available on my phone, I don't have a mobile with a QWERTY keyboard. Thus, texting more than one short message is a pain in the thumb and a pain in the wallet.

I could join the Century of the Anchovy and get a big fat 'ole text plan with 1000 messages or something, but then I would have to start actually texting back and forth to conduct a conversation.

What it boils down to is that for information beyond one idea or detail where one really does need to convey complexity and / or subtly, I will be be calling or emailing. Text (SMS) is my least favorite way to communicate.

Flagship Sony Ericsson Phone May Have 8.1MP Camera (via FastCompany)

Alternate title: Why my next phone will be a black Nokia N82 & not an iPhone...

The iPhone 3G that was announced today during Steve Jobs' keynote at the Apple WWDC in San Francisco and the Apple fanbois/grls were drooling, as well as drowning Twitter into a catatonic state with their drool.

I waited patiently next to my laptop for over 2 hours this morning to see if Apple would add two features to the iPhone that would convince me that it might be a good phone for creators. What two features would that be?

1) An upgraded camera that would make it at least competitive with other phones in its price range, at the very least a minimum of a 3.2 megapixel camera. If Apple really wanted to make creators drool, then 5 megapixels with a good lens that would be competitive to the Nokia N95 and N82.

2) Video recording capacity. My mom's crap little camera phone that she bought 2 years ago for half the price of an iPhone can record video. iPhone's can play video but they can't record it.

So, I wait by Twitter, MacRumors, and Engagdet Mobile. The announcements starting rolling in... $199! 3G! GPS! Approved applications store coming! Thinner! Plastic! White & Black!

Wake me up when the Jobs announces a real camera... snooze snooze snooze...

zzzzzzzzzzzzz....... Twitter dries itself off and comes back online and I notice that none of the fanbois/grls are tweeting about the camera. Hmmmm...

Off to the Apple site I go looking for the new iPhone 3G specs... After 10 minutes of reloading it, the new specs come up just before noon.

Guess what?

1) No new camera. Same old 2 megapixel, puny lensed, blurry non-wonder as last year, only addition is geo-tagging of photos with new GPS feature.

2) No video capture / recording.

The iPhone 1.0 and 2.0 are beautiful mobile devices with a lovely User Interface (UI) but why nearly all consumption and very little creation?

I am disappointed. I wanted to be able to have more than just the Nokia N95 and N82 to recommend to fellow artists, friends, and family when they are looking for a new kick ass camera phone with an easy to use UI, internet, and GPS.

To quote James Whatley, "Meh. Next."

To quote me, "One would think that Apple would have upgraded the phone to at least 3.2 megapixels... As Bill the Cat would say, 'Ack! Pphhhbbbtttt!' "

Unless something better comes down the pipe, my next camera phone will be the black Nokia N82. Nokia, release a North American 3G version of the N82 at $199... Kick Apple's bootay!

Bill Moyer gave the keynote speech at the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis this morning. This is an excellent speech on the importance of a free press in a free society, not a media monopolized by a few corporate giants. Watch it.

Bravo, Bill, Bravo!

***

In other areas of opinion and politics, John Scalzi writes on Hilary Clinton's concession speech today:

"People have hinted that Obama needs to avoid having Clinton as VP to avoid being tied to the Clinton legacy, but it's really the other way around: I'm not sure why Hillary would want to tie herself to Obama's legacy and policies so concretely when she has so many opportunities now to stand on her own. She's was second banana to another man for years; it's not trading up to be the second banana to another. Let Hillary be Hillary now, on her own, in her own spotlight, and let's see where she goes from here."

As other folks have noted, previous to Mr. Scalzi, rather than this being a loss for Hilary, she now has the opportunity to carve her own path.

Now if only Michelle Obama would run for President...

But ever since my last day in London, nearly two weeks ago, I have been sick. There has been only 3-4 days of the sick in bed kind of sick, but every other day since has been the you can get up and do things but you are dragging badly kind of sick.

Yesterday, my neighbor Tammy commented, "You have seemed down this last week, is anything wrong?"

Me, "I have been sick."

Tammy, "Oh, you haven't been yourself."

Me, "No kidding..." [Explanation of details follows, of which I won't bore you with.]

With the exception of last weekend's acute intestinal flu, I have been feeling run down with a variety of symptoms that is very reminiscent of the late spring / early summer of the year in college that I was diagnosed with mono / epstein barr virus type thingy. That was 3 months of no fun.

So, I am taking it slow, eating well, lots of sleep, in an attempt to get better and not feel so run down and achy.

Bah. I want to run & jump & bounce. Bah.

Fri 06.06.08 - Two women painting on the beach as seen this morning while walking Scruffy.

Tue 06.03.08 - Here is a photo from this morning's walk on the greenbelt of my favorite local tree in dappled light. It is a fairly young sycamore (plane tree, for the Brits), probably less than 20 to 40 years old, but already trifurcated and growing in bendy, lovely directions. It will be a glorious tree in 80 - 120 years from now, much like the Wedding Lawn Sycamores at my Uncle John's house or the Sycamores that line Santiago Creek at Irvine Regional Park.

I wanted to spend the time to blog about the Food 2.0 Nom Nom Nom food photo / blogging contest and voting that is going on right now, but I had a long day working on deadline and a very frustrating evening. So, click on the link to Food 2.0 above to vote on the best of the photos & blogging and I will make the blog post tomorrow when I am in a better mood.

Mon 06.02.08 - Scruffy has once again pulled out all of the stuffing out of a favored toy. And he was darned happy about the whole thing.

Now here is a movie I can get excited about, Mongol.

I love all things Silk Road, Ancient travels from East to West or West to East, Eurasian, the art, the cultural exchange, and even the conquerors of the Silk Road: Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, and Tamerlane. It is all Dr. Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis' fault. Well, at least the bug bit me in her Art of the Silk Road class in the fall of 1994 at Boston University.

I have at least five books on the Silk Road in my bookcase and another three on A. Hun, G. Khan, and Mr. TransOxiania himself, Tamerlane.

While Attila was the first, and Tamerlane was the last of the great conquerors to wreak havoc for many thousands of miles on horseback, Genghis Khan was the greatest. He and his army conquered the most land (China to Poland and back), they were known for being incredibly bloodthirsty, and prolific (.5% of the males in the WHOLE world descend from Genghis. If that is not successful breeding, then I don't know what is).

"In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the motorway contractor Mr. Prosser is (unknown to himself) a direct patrilineal descendant of Genghis Khan. This manifests itself in a predilection for little fur hats, a desire to have axes hanging above his front door, and occasional visions of screaming Mongol hordes." - Wikipedia on the Descendants of Genghis Khan.

Basically, a bunch of folks on horseback conquerer the known world. You try it some time.

Who wants to go see the movie with me?