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We have 21 feeds
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| | Disaster Movie In The Making |
| My friend, Robby, pointed me to this article about a possible mass extinction brewing in our Gulf of Mexico. I don’t want to belittle the seriousness of the oil spew occurring in the Gulf and I don’t want to let … Continue reading → |
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| High Fructose Corn Syrup Vs. Pure Sugar – Is One Worse Than The Other? |The Good Human |
| “You know what it is they say about High Fructose Corn Syrup.” “No, what is it they say? That it is just like sugar?” “Well, no, that’s what the corn lobby would have you believe. What THEY say is:” In … Continue reading → |
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| Riding My Bike |
| I’ve been doing a little bicycling lately. It’s moving from being an activity I like to an activity that I’m passionate about. My goal with this is to finish a century in the next year. I’m not yet capable of … Continue reading → |
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| Picking a place to live. |
| Over the past several months I’ve been working in Chattanooga through the week and going back home to Lawrenceville on weekends to be with my wife. This has lead to the some discussions between my wife and I about the … Continue reading → |
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| Equality |
| Let me talk a little about gender equality. I actually prefer saying it this way rather than calling it feminism because I personally see inequalities being detrimental to both sides of the gender gap. I think that to say we … Continue reading → |
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| Made in Chatt |
| meuon: Transformus Burn Video, made in Chattanooga by Andrew Nighat 509 East Main Street. I used to be 745 East Main, must be some karmic vortex in the neighborhood.
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| Corrections needing corrections |
| Dan Lyke: New York Post fouls up a correction(via Scott Rosenberg). Interestingly, along with the errors they make in the correctly, they state that the original bad information came from the NYPD. Why's the NYPD seeding the Post with bad info? |
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| T-shirt vendors |
| Dan Lyke: how US Intelligence Actually Works: A Chart |
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| Automata |
| Dan Lyke: I could rip links out of this MeFi post about Karakuri ningyō, mechanical automata sculptures, but I'd just build a list of links that are already compiled there.
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| Woodworking tool porn |
| Dan Lyke: Woodworking tool porn: Heinz Tools |
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| Bondage club fire |
| Dan Lyke: A Flutterby reader forwarded along a man found dead in a bondage club fire. The club was Passive Arts Studios, and today's Nic Buxom has a few words in memory of "Sharky".He cared about people and he cared about our community and he cared
about us girls. He was proud of his business and he'd made it what
it is. And he offered me the best job I'd ever had. PAS wasn't even
a job to me, it was getting paid to do what I love. I was given a
community of strong, and wonderfully unusual women to call my
friends and I was given a place that would change my entire life,
for the better. ...
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| Fools Gold |
| Dan Lyke: Fools Gold: Inside the Glenn Beck Goldline Scheme |
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| Facebook hate |
| Dan Lyke: Violet Blue: My letter to Facebook about removing the Our Porn, Ourselves page |
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| Non-Profit profits |
| Dan Lyke: New York Times: Lawmakers Seeking Cuts Look at Nonprofit Salariestalks about, for instance, the president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Americamaking a million bucks a year. Philip Greenspun has some additional commentary.This past year Charlene and I have been fairly active in volunteering and giving, but we've been trying to be personally involved, and to give money only to organizations where we understand the compensation structure and costs involved. I think it's important to remember that "non-profit"is a tax status, and you should read the Form 990 of the organizations you're giving to (see Guidestar.orgif you can't find it otherwise).I think some of the real eye-opener is looking at how much some of these charitable organizations that are out asking for our money are already pulling down in tax dollars.But this also leads down to some other questions: I accept it as a given that eventually every organization will switch from trying to solve the problem it was formed to solve into self-perpetuation mode. I also see that a lot of charity ends up helping in the short term, but perpetuating the cycles that it claims to solve in the long-term. I'm happy, for instance, to help provide outlets and activities for the underprivileged (for what that word means) kids in my community, and to help some of their parents achieve better lives for themselves, but unless these activities change the cultural context, encourage these low income families to have fewer (or no) kids, have the expectation that women will be able to make a way for themselves in the world without relying on men (who may skip out on them, or end up in prison, etc), we're not solving the problem. In fact, we're probably, long-term, making the situation worse.Related to that, Scarleteenhas just lost their Google AdWords revenue.
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| Routing around censorship |
| Dan Lyke: Magazine: Whores and Other Hackers, how the war on Craigslist erotic services is endangering sex workers.Aside from Blumenthal, there are two things right now that conspire to keep us in this position. First, a lack of mass political capacity as a workforce—but let’s not despair entirely. What workforce canclaim mass political power these days anyway? The second obstacle is the media machine’s continued confusion about where technology and sex converge. Addressing the political fight is one for the long haul, and for multiple generations of sex workers and our allies. But this internet thing, I think we can fix.Via MeFi.
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| Politics in Mexico |
| Dan Lyke: Who Is Behind the 25,000 Deaths In Mexico?No one asks or answers this question: How does such an escalation benefit the drug smuggling business which has not been diminished at all during the past three years of hyper-violence in Mexico? Each year, the death toll rises, each year there is no evidence of any disruption in the delivery of drugs to American consumers, each year the United States asserts its renewed support for this war. And each year, the basic claims about the war go unquestioned.Via MeFi |
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| Women and careers |
| Dan Lyke: Stubornella on women in technology.... I mean, just take a look at the fastest growing careers for women. We are veterinary technicians not veterinarians, dental assistants not dentists, medical assistants not doctors. We like to believe we have evolved, but the data speaks to something else. Being a home heath aide is dirty work with bad hours and heavy lifting — but it is a career women can imagine, whereas, right now, they clearly can’t imagine themselves coding. I want to understand why not…Via Lyn, Scott, and others.Last year when we got new cars, Charlene and I asked a few of the folks we know at COTSif there were deserving people who could use our old ones. Mine got given to someone who promptly fell off the wagon, left the shelter and the program and abandoned it in Truckee, where it was towed and sold at auction.Charlene's got given to someone we've kept closer ties with, and who's doing fairly well, but she used it as leverage with a mechanic for another vehicle, and it apparently bounced around a bit, and we recently got a knock on the door from the translator for a woman who'd bought it for cash without all the paperwork in order at the fair. So Charlene's helping her get the paperwork in order.Anyway, yesterday Charlene spent some time at the DMV helping square things away, and one of the discussions was about kids, these low-income, undoubtedly undocumented, people who speak little or no English have fairly large families, but the translator was talking about not driving. Apparently her mom had been teaching her to drive, and her husband, or perhaps at the time future husband, had said "stop that".Of course now said husband is in jail, and the translator is needing to pick up a whole bunch of skills fast, and will probably end up regretting some of those kids.While I'm glad the guy is in jail, although, unfortunately, viewing women with that particular disdain isn't yet an incarceratable offense, I'm afraid that culturally this is a symptom of something that doesextend all the way up to the higher financial and social tiers. So it's worth reading that essay.
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| Who Goes Nazi? |
| petronius: An interesting historical piece from Harper's Magazinein August of 1941, during those last golden months before the US entered WW2, but Hitler stood on the English Channel, at the Gates of Egypt, and was still chasing Stalin across the Ukraine. Dorothy Thompson muses during a Manhattan cocktail party as to which guest would collaborate with the Nazi's is push came to shove, and which ones wouldn't. While Thompson's own bits of snobbery are sometime's visible, there's some canny reading of the internal psychology of fascism going on here.Of course, when the war came the America Firstersand other isolationists, right and left, disbanded. Many who wanted to stay out of the war gave their life during it. But many of the attitudes before it still haunt us. |
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| RIP John Callahan |
| Dan Lyke: Cartoonist John Callahan has died. Via a MeFi entry that has more.If you ever found yourself starting to laugh at a crudely drawn cartoon, then stopping suddenly, shocked, and saying "that's not funny!", it was probably a Callahan cartoon.
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| That is *so* gay |
| Dan Lyke: Sonoma County is the #2 "gayest"area in the U.S.!We're #2, so we try harder...
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| | Appropriation Art and Walker Evans |
| Appropriation Art appears to be the topic du jour. Mike Johnston at The Online Photographer devoted two posts to what James Danziger had called “the biggest photographic mystery of the 2008 [US] election”: who took the original photograph that Shepard Fairey used as the source for the Obama HOPE prints? [edited for clarity] Reading the [...] |
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| Cotoneaster Berries |
| Campbelltown, 1984
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| Petals |
| Windsor, 1984
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| Travelling on Foot |
| In my teenage years, desperate to bridge the gap between hope and fear, I would walk long distances. When I “should have been studying”, I would walk for hours. Perhaps, if I had been more willing to participate in team sports, I might have been too sore and weary to be so deeply troubled by [...] |
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| 300 |
| As I sat in the theater a few nights ago with my friends, G and P, desperate for 300 to end, I kept thinking of John Robb’s description of the film as absolutely amazing… So unrelentingly great that it has earned a permanent place in my top 10 movies of all time.
Wherein lay the “greatness”, [...] |
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| Hello world! |
| It’s been two years to the day since my last post.
I’d intended to come back to weblogging before this–especially since Dave Rogers predicted that I would “post something” before the end of 2006. For, even though I wasn’t writing for my own weblog, I never stopped reading weblogs. In fact, weblogs have been my primary [...] |
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| | Can I get more emails like this? |
| I mentioned this last week on Twitter, which then automatically goes to Facebook, but I didn't put it up here on the blog (which, come to think of it, also now goes automatically to Facebook). So for those of you... |
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| Apple Needs a Web Evangelist |
| This week is WWDC, so I've been doing a lot of reading about Apple's announcements. Last night I drove into SF, and spent several hours talking to attendees to hear their thoughts. My takeaway: Apple, more than ever, needs a... |
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| In which avian payment is proffered |
| I've dealt with so much medical stuff over the years that I've gotten to be pretty decent at diagnosing myself, and often things going on with Dori, too. Sometimes it's for things that I've had before, and other times for... |
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| Two Steps Forward, One Step Back |
| Tom’s back in the hospital—it turns out that he caught some kind of infection post-op, and it’s turned septic (note that this is not the same thing as septic shock, which he had four years ago). They’re pumping him full... |
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| A Picture of Health |
| Today, it's been three weeks since my surgery for kidney cancer. I thought that I'd put down how I'm feeling, as well as memorializing here on the blog what's been going on since the hospital. It's been on Twitter and... |
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| How to Follow My Progress |
| My surgery is on Friday April 9 around noon (if you don't know why I'm going under the knife, see here). We expect that I'll be 3 hours in the operating room, followed by a couple of hours in the... |
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| Personally, I thought I already had enough character |
| A week ago, I wrote this on Twitter: I've had one of those days that I understand are quite character-building. I was alluding to that old chestnut, "Adversity builds character."And what made me think of that was a phone... |
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| Oscar Blogging 2010 |
| Multiple Oscar winners: The Hurt Locker: 6 Avatar: 3 Precious: 2 Crazy Heart: 2 Up: 2 For those who are unfamiliar with me doing this, you can find previous year's Oscarblogging at: 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009... |
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| Avatar, two ways |
| Here's my report of two competing 3D systems, using Avatar as the test subject. First, some preliminary reading: This report from the 3D Vision Blog is a rundown of the three 3D systems in widespread use in the US. Right... |
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| Fixing a bizarre iWork and Pages problem (with the SFWordProcessing plug-in) |
| Earlier today, I was using Pages '09, and I attempted to open a document that I'd opened many times before, though perhaps not since upgrading to either iWork '09 or Snow Leopard. Boom. Pages crashed (that's what happens when programs... |
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| Why the iPad doesn't (yet) have a camera |
| Because the iPad is meant to be held in the hand. The main reason for the iSight cameras on Macs or Apple monitors is to do video iChats (yes, I know about Photo Booth, which people use once, go "Huh."... |
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| My (current) opinions on HTML5 |
| There's been a lot of screaming and ranting lately over the current state of HTML5—what is it, what's in it, who controls it, who will implement it, and so on. There's no shortage of good essays, and here are some... |
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| Very limited time discount on my Macworld Expo MacLab |
| I'm doing a two-hour, hands-on session on iWork's Pages application at Macworld Expo on February 9: Building Better Documents with Pages Pages, part of Apples iWork suite, makes it easy to create great-looking documents, whether for print or electronic distribution.... |
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| Home, Ten Years On |
| Today marks a big milestone for us: we've lived in this house for 10 years. We moved in December 23, 1999 (only four months later than the builder's original promise!). Dori reminded me of the original site we did... |
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| Excellent Thanksgiving dinner, good wines |
| Last night, we had Thanksgiving dinner with friends here in Healdsburg. We were tasked to bring the wine, and I'm pretty pleased with the selection of local wines. I'd recommend them all. I'm doing this post as a record of... |
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| | Use Your Words: a free instrumental EP |
| BEHOLD! Today I’m releasing Use Your Words, a free digital EP of instrumental tracks. You can grab it now at Bandcamp.
Awhile back I was digging through files on my older recording computer and came across some instrumental mixes I had been sitting on for so long I’d forgotten about them. I think the idea was [...] |
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| Kirby Krackle at Phoenix Comic Con |
| So poor Kyle had to go down to the San Diego Comic-Con this weekend without the full Kirby Krackle lineup due to scheduling conflicts. I hear he’s performing solo at their booth at the top of every hour, so if you’re at SDCC make sure to swing by and tell ‘im his bassist said to [...] |
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| Weekend reading IV |
| Holcombe Waller interview. Really great interview with the Portland OR artist with a lot of chewy ideas that really resonate with me:
“Releasing tracks iteratively feels in line with a modern, Facebook/Twitter-shaped multi-threaded experience of reality.
“Digital rights management tried to forge an economy of scarcity in the digital realm. These schemes all failed. I think in [...] |
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| Earlove |
| I’ve been using Earlove earplugs ever since Megan bought me a pair a few years back. They are great.
For years I never liked wearing earplugs during rehearsals or shows for the same reason other people don’t wear them: the sound gets muffled and it’s hard to hear any detail. Sponge earplugs tend to filter out [...] |
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| Awesome elsewhere |
| Some stuff orbiting my brain recently…
Kyle Stevens (current Explone guitarist and Kirby Krackle alphageek) has released two digital singles on iTunes, “Matches In The Walls” and “Vouch For Me”.
Seattle band Born Anchors are trying to raise funds for a vinyl pressing of their new record. They’re using a Kickstarter campaign and only have a few [...] |
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| Explone CD release pics + video + iTunes |
| The Explone CD release show, let me show it to you.
(You can also read Patrick’s account of the show here.)
And you can now find find Dreamers/Lovers at iTunes. Yay hooray!
“St. Yesterday”
“Arms Around”
“It’s Complicated”
“Girl w/a Black Eye”
I think that’s enough Explone-related stuff for awhile. On deck: more secret songwriting project, Kirby Krackle at the San Diego [...] |
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| Dreamers/Lovers release show this Thursday |
| This Thursday 6/17 is the big release show for the new Explone album. We’re returning to the Crocodile with guests Sirens Sister (ex-Vendetta Red guys) and The Admiral’s Club.
Are you local? It would be great to see you there. Here’s the Facebook event and here’s where to get advance tickets. Come, let us rock you. [...] |
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| Facebook perplexes me… |
| …in that everyone I know is on there.
No really, everyone. People who looked at me cross-eyed ten years ago when I tried to explain to them what a “blog” was are now busy “liking” stuff and posting on walls. Friends and family who never bothered with email accounts — or if they did, only checked [...] |
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| Dreamers/Lovers, the new Explone album |
| Big news today: the new Explone album is finished, it’s called Dreamers/Lovers and it’s coming your way on June 15th!
Think fast, here it comes:
To celebrate the upcoming release, we’re offering a free download of the first single “Michigan” to the web at large in exchange for a tweet. Listen and find download instructions here.
“Michigan” has [...] |
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| Secret 2 |
| [See post to listen and download song]
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| Useit.Com: The Power of Defaults. Users rely on defaults in many other areas of user interface design. For example, they rarely utilize fancy customization features, making it important to optimize the default user experience, since that's what most users stick to. |
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| | Hey I'm (almost) a Kindle author |
Hey just for fun I tried looking up Scripting Newson Amazon, and look what came back.This is obviously the provisional page for the "book"I uploaded yesterday.Keep your eye on it. Maybe you can be the first to "buy"one.  |
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| Virginia Heffernan and the science bloggers |
After reading the NYT magazine piece by Virginia Heffernan about the plight of the science bloggers, I'm left wondering...Virginia Heffernan: The Uses and Abuses of Science Blogging.You could fiskthe article line by line, and ask the questions it raises, but instead I'd rather ask just a couple.1. To me, it seems it totally matters who you're blogging alongside. She says journalists deal with this all the time, if so -- there must be reporters at the NY Times who are on the payroll of corporations whose work they're writing about. If true, is this adequately disclosed? I'm pretty sure she's wrong, and that what happened at scienceblogs.comhas never happened at the Times. If it has, that's a front page story. It seems more likely, however, that she simply doesn't understand what happened with Pepsico and the science bloggers. The science bloggers were very right to be concerned with how much disclosure there was going to be about the Pepsico bloggers. And of course if they want to resign and find a new place to blog, in what way isn't that their right? If Ms. Heffernan thought the NY Times was no longer a good place for her to write, who could blame her for moving on? Does anyone need a better reason?What Seed Mediadid is very much like the way conference promoters, these days, deal with sponsorship. I've run four conferences in the last few years, and each time when I sought sponsorship I was told that I'd have to accept speakers from the sponsor companies, and I would not be allowed to tell the participants these were paid-for speakers. I would never do that, though I'm sure I've been to a number of conferences that do. I was an advisor to a conference that did it. When I found out, I did what the science bloggers did -- I quietly left. You can't keep your integrity while standing with people who would do this. You're lending your name to something disreputable. In this piece Ms. Heffernan damaged the reputation of the Times, every reporter there, and also other pubs and their reporters. It seems the Times needs to explain what she is saying. However, based on past experience, I don't expect the Times to take a question from Scripting News seriously. So if you're a reporter at a publication the Times doesrespect, I hope you'll raise the question. It deserves an answer. 2. She provides a few out-of-context quotes from blogs that I, and I assume most of her readers, are not familiar with. What are we to think these quotes mean? We should believe that science blogging is a sham, has little to do with science, and is mostly people who are making it up. Okay. However beyond the quotes, she doesn't provide any evidence. Probably the most disturbing thing about the Heffernan piece is the lack of respect for her readers. Why should I believe what she says if she isn't prepared to offer anything serious to back it up? The Times is at its best when it gets us to think. If we're to think, we need a respectful presentation of facts that when, taken together, are puzzling or interesting or important. Heffernan's piece only gets us to think about her and her editors and why this piece is in the Times. I don't have a clue about that.For the record, I am not a science blogger. I've only started reading their blogs recently. To help me understand what they're doing I wrote an aggregatorwhich I'm sharing with anyone else who wants a look. I wrote a couple of pieces about their plight. That's the extent of my involvement with science blogging. I would love to read a similar disclosure from the Times and their reporter. |
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| OMG, Twitter is suggesting people to follow?! |
Isn't it funny how when Twitterdoes something that others have been doing for ages it's still innovative? But it is.So look what just showed up in the right margin on the Twitter home page... Follow TechCrunch and Stevin Berlin Johnson. Good ideas!But wait a minute -- holy guacamole -- it looks an awful lot like -- omg -- could it be -- the dreaded, evil Suggested Users List.Has it returnedfrom the dead?It looks suspiciously like it has. Haven't seen one ordinary person in there, after about a dozen refreshes. They all look like either Friends-of-Ev or celebs with big MSM names. Or reporters that write sweet nothings about Twitter, Inc.Only this time they aren't just targeting newbies, the kinds of people who sign up, see nothing interesting and then disappear. I already follow 1323 people, and I've been on Twitter since 2006. According to GoogleI've blogged about it 3490 times (not including this post). What could possibly be the rationale for asking me to follow Tim O'Reilly or John Battelle. How about instead suggesting some people for me to unfollow. (I'm not kidding, I suffer from tweet overload.)Yeah they totally suck.Why don't they write some software down there at Twitter and stop nominating their friends for awards.Where's my opt-out of this? I want to get rid of this thing. Now.Update: They've bloggedabout it, but it sure doesn't sound like what I'm seeing. They don't mention the user interface on the Twitter front page.Update #2: Here's how you opt-out. Just click on all the X's next to all the names as they pop up. Once you've killed them all, the feature just goes away. |
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| Starbucks and free wifi, continued |
 Follow up to the pieceearlier this week.You may not like Starbucks coffee, it's not my favorite (that was kind of the point) -- but I'll go there over other choices because of the free wifi. It's funny because I have other choices because I have Verizon Mifi. And the freeness of Starbucks shouldn't matter either because until recently I had AT&T Internet service (at the house in Berkeley) and therefore Starbucks wifi was always free, for me. There's a funny thing that happens, maybe some psychologists can explain, when something is free for everyone -- that makes it more valuable for you, even if you don't really care if it's free. Anyway, some free advice for Au Bon Painand all the pizza joints near the Starbucks on Astor Place, figure out how you can provide free wifi too. I bet it's going to make a diff in your business, pretty soon. It'll be like offering your customers a free glass of water if they ask for one. |
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| On my way to publishing a Kindle book |
 This morning I published a book for distribution via Kindle. I took the full content of Scripting News for 2009, formatted it according to their rules. That was the hardest part. You have to render it as simple HTML and all the images have to be included in the zip archive you upload. That meant writing a parser that went through the text, pulls out the images, downloads them locally, and patches the URL in the HTML.I couldn't figure out how to price it at $0. The lowest price was $1.99. Hope that isn't a problem. Of that, I will get 35 percent or about 70 cents. I don't expect it to amount to a lot of money.I want to write a book, and I have some people I'm brainstorming with. By starting to publish to the Kindle, even in a rough format, I start to get my feet wet. For me, a veteran bootstrapper, this may be a necessary first step.Anyway, it may take a few days for it to make it through their approval process. When it's available for purchase I'll post a pointer here. If you want to download it now, here's the archive.http://static.scripting.com/misc/2009.zipLet me know what you think (and please think before you comment). PS: Wonder if I'm going to have to pay $1.99 to see what my stuff looks like on a Kindle? That would totally suck. |
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| Got me some DOCSIS 3 |
I splurged and upgraded to Time-Warner "wideband." Everything about Time-Warner, the company, is smarmy -- but the connection is very nice and fast (but not symmetric).$99 per month, $40 to install.I'll keep you posted on how it goes. |
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| DO YOU THINK BEFORE YOU COMMENT? |
| I KNOW IT'S JARRING THAT THIS PIECE IS IN ALL CAPS BUT I WANTED TO SEE IF IT MADE A DIFFERENCE. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES THAT THE COMMENTS HERE MIGHT IN SOME WAY BE RESPONSIVE TO WHAT I SAID, RATHER THAN JUST BE RECITAL OF PARTY LINE STATEMENTS THAT INVOLVE THE KEYWORDS IN THE PIECE. FOR EXAMPLE: ADOBE, FLASH, APPLE, HTML 5. GO AHEAD TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK.THERE ARE MANY OTHER EXAMPLES. IF I SAY "THE IPHONE 4"I WILL BE LABELED IN OTHER WAYS.ANYWAY I'M TIRED OF SCREAMING AT YOU. HAVE A NICE DAY. |
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| science.newsriver.org |
 Earlier this month I reportedon bloggers leaving scienceblogs.org because the publisher sold a presence on the site to bloggers from PepsiCo. One of the rationales for bundling all the science bloggers together in one place was the synergy that comes from aggregation. Of course, with RSSyou can achieve the same effect, without putting them all on the same server. So I put it on my to-do list to set up an science blogs aggregator, and yesterday I had some time to do it, so here it is.http://science.newsriver.org/As always, the OPML for the site is publicso if you want to feed it into your aggregator you're welcome to. You should reimport the OPML from time to time, or ask your aggregator developer to do it for you -- because that list will be updated dynamically as the site grows.And if you know of science blogs that should be included in the list, please post a comment here. |
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| Ole and Lena ride again |
Some people don't care for them, but I love Ole and Lenajokes.Here's a good one.Ole was going on a business trip to St Cloud but it was cancelled at the last minute cause the Minnesota Twins made it to the playoffs. He's lying in bed before going to sleep when the phone rings.He listens, gets up to look out the window then returns to the phone.He says in an irritated way: "How should I know, it's a thousand miles away!"and hangs up.Lena asks: Who was that Ole?Ole: Oh Sven yust vants to know if the coast is clear.  |
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| Kindle is OK |
 The iPad with its Kindle app got me interested in reading on a tablet again.But it's summertime, and I'd rather read in the park, or on a bench looking out over the Hudson.The iPad doesn't work for outdoor reading if there's any sun at all.Further, I have a backlog of unread books I bought on Amazon, and I don't see why I should replace them (or if I can) using Apple's store.I already buy a lot of stuff from Apple, and I don't like how they pusharound app developers and content companies. We're talking about First Amendment stuff here. So I vote with my dollars, and feel good about it.So a couple of weeks ago I bought a Kindle DX, and I think it's a great product. When I readon tech blogs that Kindle is a goner, I think these people must not read very much. Reading isn't about tech prowess or the shiniest gadget. The Kindle is lighter, works in more places, has longer battery life, better connectivity, and has the biggest base of content. Plus they have been very smart about making their content available on every device known to man, including Apple's.Bottom-line: Don't worry about the Kindle. |
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| We'd probably survive a 500-character limit |
 Xcv comments: "At the large tech company I work at there is an internal micro-blogging tool. The limit was recently increased from 140 to around 500. "People are still writing concise things. It is just incredibly refreshingto not have to abbreviate things. And also you can include full links instead of shortened crap."Interesting story. |
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| Starbucks'free wifi is the deciding factor |
 In the neighborhood around NYU we have a million places to get coffee, and many of them have free wifi. The ones that don't, like Au Bon Pain, which have better food, can't compete. And most of the free-wifi places have inferiorwifi. So this morning, when I was looking for a place to work for a bit, there was no choice but to find a Starbucks, get an iced coffee, and sit down. Not sure where they're going to go with the free wifi, I hope they add some features, and I hope they find a way to make it pay. But right now, it gives them the advantage over all the other places. Working, free wifi is a big deal. |
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| What's the point of the magic trackpad? |
On Twitter, Dossywonders why the new Magic Trackpadfrom Apple. Come on guys get with the program. You're in the middle of a bootstrap. This is the next step.Apple has a new operating system called iOS. It's what runs on iPods (which they are phasing out), iPhones and iPads. What doesn'tit run on? (Yet.)Why not? Wellllllll. Cause for one thing, the Mac is built around a mouse as a pointing device and iOS is built around fingers as the pointing device. So if you want to run iOS software on Mac hardware don't you need a little new hardware? Just a little? Come on, this isn't that hard. It's Software Evolution 101. |
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| Will the 140-char limit drop next? |
| From Mashablecomes news that Twitter is adding pictures and video to the tweetstream. Verrrrra nice.So....How about dropping the 140-char limit too? And please spare me how it all has to fit into an SMS package because I don't know, maybe a video takes up a bitmore than 140 bytes. |
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| A hybrid of Google Calendar, Foursquare and Flickr |
| Let's say I'm having lunch with Andrew Baron next Tuesday at a local restaurant. We both put items on our calendar. Link those two items, and then link both of them to the location we're having lunch at.When the big day comes, I whip out my iPhone, which of course is synched to my calendar, and take a picture of Andrewand he takes a picture of me. The pictures automatically are linked to the calendar entry and to the location.Now, someday anyone (since we made this public, why not) who's just trawling around wonders if we ever met, they not only know where and when but what we looked like that day.Of course the right way for this to work is if it isn't a hybrid, but just nicely interconnected. |
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| Add this to Twitter's to-do list |
| Sheamus wrote a listof 5 things Twitter should do ASAP.I have something to add to that list.I want to be able to delete a tweet from my @replies tab.So if someone sends something unpleasant to me, I don't have to block them to get rid of it.Just the ability to hide one tweet. Please. |
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| Dancing in the Streets! |
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| Inception is to The Matrix as... |
 A lot of people seem to like Inception. Many of them are very smart. I don't get why they like it. I found it disappointing. I really wantedto like it. I need a movie like The Matrix, which was one of the most inspiring movies of all-time, a movie I still quote, more than ten years after it came out. But Inception is to The Matrix as Dan Quayleis to Jack Kennedy. Inception is actually worse. Try this out. Inception is Fat Albertand The Matrix is Jack Kennedy. Hey hey hey!Inception is a sloppy movie that gives great trailer. Think about it. All the great visuals in Inception are in the trailers. After the great visuals, what is there? A plot so grandiose and sloppy that the characters spend half the dialog explaining how it works. Okay that could be interesting. But it's not. I had the feeling of being in a movie theater watching a long boring movie, enjoying the air conditioning and popcorn. Thinking about what I'd do when I got back to work. Believe me, nothing like that happened the first time I watched The Matrix. Or the second, or third, or fourth, or fifth. I could watch it again right now and still love every line of dialog. Inception? Maybe it had two or three ideas that made you think. The rest of it was slop.Okay so let me put my stake in the ground. David Weinberger saysit's going to be nominated in 12 categories and win most of them. I say Inception is Avatar. It won't win any of the big awards. If it's the best movie of 2010 it's going to be a very very very bad year. |
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| Zero-tolerance for mindless Apple advocacy |
| I'm taking a page out of Apple's playbook. If you can't stay on-topic, I'm not only deleting your comment but adding you to the blacklist. I'm trying to improve discourse on my blog in a way similar to Apple's wanting to improve the apps on the iPad. This feels very symmetric to me. |
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| Apple's Flash policy is a breach of Postel's Law |
 I was browsing the web today on my iPad looking for the lyrics to a song I heard yesterday on the Jonathan Schwartzshow on WNYC. It's a show tune, that started off not-too-interesting but by the end the lyricshad me choked up. It was a beautiful story, and I not only wanted to hear it again, but I wanted to share it with others. I eventually found a rendition of it on YouTube, but during my exploration I came across a Flash thingie (what are they called) that promised to have some info about the song, but of course since Apple doesn't like Flash, my iPad can't "see into"it.Aside: The song I was looking forturned out to be Life Story sung by Lynne Winterstellerfrom the play Closer Than Ever. It was at this point that it hit me that what Apple is doing with Flash is dangerous, for reasons I hadn't previously considered.Deliberately throwing out content that might have useful information in it, that's not too wise, imho. Better to keep as much as we can, and stop worrying too much about whether we like the format or not. And what Apple is doing violates Postel's Lawwhich says you should be liberal in what you accept. Another reason Postel was wise. It helps keep the web from breaking.A reminder that now that Apple's market cap is bigger than Microsoft's we have to think about what it does differently. If Microsoft had decided to outlaw a popular format, no matter how much we may not like it, we'd look at that as an anti-competitive move. Why should we look at it any differently if it's Apple?Update: You can view what Apple has done as linkrot, but on a massive scale, and it was deliberate. Linkrot is usually accidental, but this was deliberate. If Microsoft had done this, the very same people who are defending Apple so fiercely would be (virtually) marching on Redmond with torches threatening to burn it to the ground. |
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| In Washington it's all public relations |
 The banking reform bill is all smoke, I hear -- from people who know.An analogy.We've noticed that in the summer buildings get hot. Sometimes they get so hot that people die! So we've just passed a law that all buildings must have air conditioning. But you don't have to turn on the AC until the temp gets to 150 degrees. Oh that does a lot of good. (Not.)Obama signedthe bill, hailing it as the most significant banking reform legislation since the Great Depression. Will it do anything to prevent the kind of meltdown we had in 2008? Nahhh. That would spoil the fun. How can the bankers soak the last bit of life from the US economy if they're regulated. Forbes saysObama is anti-business.Obama calls him up to say thanks. Now he can get re-elected.As if we'd vote for Mitt Romney.As if it would make a diff.Bonus: How to remove Obama bumper stickers. |
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| Apple as Captain Queeg |
 If you've never seen the movie, this is how it goes. Captain Queeg, played by Humphrey Bogart, is a career naval officer, in charge of a ship that drags targets for battleships to practice on. It's part of the huge Pacific fleet during World War II. Queeg is a mid-level guy, not going anywhere. It being wartime, most of his officers are draftees -- college kids, smartasses, in one case a coward (played by Fred MacMurray). There's another career officer on the Caine played by Van Johnson. The captain is way past his prime. Mediocre. A failure that they've kept around because no one had the time to retire him. The same story for the Caine. So it tries to stay out of range when the other American boats take shots at the targets it drags. Queeg does all kinds of stupid shit, like navigate over the towing line of a target the Caine is towing, thus losing it. He's weird, he likes to play with steel balls. When he discovers that some of the frozen strawberries are missing from the pantry he starts an investigation. He says it's about time they had some fun on the ship. He believes they were stolen by some of the officers. He's reliving a victory of his early career. This is too much for the college kids, so they convince Van Johnson to depose the captain, in the famous mutiny that the movie and the Herman Wouk novel are named after.Classic movie, with some great performances. And somehow the story comes up all the time in real life, especially in the tech industry. Anyway, just when it seems the rest of the world is ready to let Antennagate go, here comes a Youtube videofrom Apple, dragging the Droid-X into the mess. Now Apple's competitors get to look aloof, like leaders, puzzled why the captain is making a federal case about the strawberries.  The users just got their emails telling them how to get their new cases. The thought occurred to me that Apple could have given us a nice present anyway,even if there hadn't been a PR mess. Wouldn't that have been classy. We appreciate that you're an early supporter of our products (knowing we're the ones who always get screwed, we know it, but they don't have to say it). So here's a nice gift. It's really nothing, but it's our way of saying we appreciate you.Instead, they're taking stupid cheap shots at the upstarts, making themselves look stupid and cheap. They so totally don't need to look that way.Now I don't think for a minute that Apple is Captain Queeg. It's not some marginal character in a big war. It's more than an aircraft carrier, it's a whole fleet. So why are they acting like a burned out captain of a mine-tower who thinks he's found the missing strawberries. |
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| My "Hello World"post |
| I have to test this app every time I do a fresh install. Please excuse the digging. |
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| About Flipboard and reading surfaces |
 A few days ago Scoble posted a tweet saying that he had seen the Excel or Pagemaker for the iPad platform. It turns out that product is Flipboard, from Mike McCue, who I know from Netscape days. Mike went on to found Tellme which sold to Microsoft. I haven't been able to use Flipboard yet, their servers are too busy, but from Scoble's videoand their website, I think I understand what the product is. Prior art: Pointcast, Netscape's initial RSS aggregator, Daylife (a NY company I have invested in). If subscribes to your Twitter and Facebook feeds, grabs links to pictures and stories your friends point to, and presents them in a visually appealing way. Behind the scenes there's a lot of RSS (hence the connection to Netscape's RSS aggregator), but it's not a River of News, it's a "magazine style"reader. It is initially appealing, but I'm not sure whether it is useful over time. Scoble says he's been using it for hundreds of hours and still likes it. That's a point in their favor, Scoble really works this stuff.Normally I wouldn't write a piece until I'd had a chance to use a product, but this time I want to put a question out there about the architecture and plumbing, and see what comes back. With no disrespect, Flipboard is a scraper. It takes content flows that weren't intended for this kind of presentation and repurposes them. How could they do otherwise, it's a chicken-and-egg situation. Right now there is no content that is specifically designed for a Flipboard-like environment. But now that their product exists, it seems we have one half of the puzzle in place, why not put out a proposal to the content tools vendors (of which I happen to be one) and say this: If you want to produce content flows that look beautiful in our environment, here's how to do it. Let us either put hints in our source code for you, or create new renderings of our source code specifically to be viewed in the new environment.I want to get this idea out there as soon as possible. Mike is a smart guy, and I'm sure he has hired some smart people. I don't doubt that they've thought of this. The question is -- have they done it?And more broadly, there certainly are others working in this area. How can we all work together to boot up a great new level of reading and writing, on the iPad and elsewhere?I want to be clear -- I'm on the authoring tools side of this. Aside from my small investment in Daylife, I have no stake in the reader side, at least not at this time. For background, I explained this ideain a piece earlier this month. |
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| How to do open development work, Rules 1 &2 |
 Last night, at a NYC dinner party, a reader suggested I write a Ten Commandments of open development work. Even though it reeks of hubris, it's probably a good idea. I've been involved in a lot of open development work over the last 30 years, and some of it has worked, but most of it fails. When it fails it's almost always because some group of people violated what I will call Rule 1.Rule 1: All meetings must be open to anyone who wants to participate.This is important because it means that any control anyone is exerting is visible to anyone who wants to see it. And that visibility tends to limit the control.As soon as you have an invite-only meeting, someone is going to have to take your word that the process is fair. And the process isn'tfair. So, if you say it is, you're lying. And lies are a terrible foundation to build on. I think SOAP died when it became clear that Microsoft and IBM were having private meetings.It's why so many of the supposedly "open"formats that Google is promoting have no chance of working in the market. I can't read minds, so I can't tell you why they do it. But it never works. A lie is a lie, even if you work for the largest company in the universe.Rule 1 is the mechanism whereby small developers, even the ones who aren't blessed with invitations, have a chance to compete in a world ruled by the large companies. (And by the way if you get an invite it doesn't mean they like or respect you. You're probably the fig leaf they'll use the "prove"the process was open, even when it wasn't.)But a pragmatist might say -- if we made the meeting open to all, and announced it publicly, 1000 people would show up and we'd get no work done. True. I've been in those meetings. And listened to one boring speech after another, and during all that boredom I figured out Rule 2.Rule 2: If you have a choice, ratify defacto standards instead of reinventing them.When it came my turn to speak in the 1000-person meeting, I said we could all leave the room this day with a standard if we just ratified RSS instead of trying to create something new that does exactly what RSS does. Even though what I said was true, no one could refute it, we didn't do it. And here we are eight years later and the defacto standard still rules.The great thing about both these rules is that even if you break them, they still rule.If you have an invite-only meeting then your work is for nil, and the people who aren't at your meeting will route around you, and if there's value in an open standard, it will be created in the haphazard way that open formats come about, naturally.If you choose to reinvent a defacto standard, you will still have to support the defacto standard, and it will grow while people may implement your competing format, but lots of people will wonder why they should bother, and won't. |
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| Very occasionally, walking the dog offers me the chance to see some drama. This is such a story.It was mid-day, our shorter walk normally, and I'd been letting Strega play in the creek that runs alongside the cemetery. There was a funeral going on in there somewhere, a fact I knew only because they'd been driving in behind the hearse as I got close to it. I'd just about decided it was time to go when I noticed a couple walking down the street. He wore the requisite baggy short pants hung low on the waist though thankfully without revealing if he wore boxers or briefs and a sleeveless shirt. Dark hair and a light tan over a stocky frame, but not a fat one. She had uncombed red hair, a spaghetti-strap tank and shorts, slender build and stood maybe an inch taller than he. They were unremarkable at first, then I noticed him trying to remove her hand from him. She started yelling. "Don't you hit me! You hit me and it's over!"to which I heard him calmly respond "I haven't hit you, I'm just trying to leave.""You have a home!"she cried, sobbing and emotional "Just come back, how can you do this to me? I won't let you leave!"He didn't reply, just tried to step away. She glued herself to him. He turned suddenly, trying to shake loose and she body blocked him."I won't let you go! I'll follow you! You can't leave! What about our son?"He kept trying to dodge her. She kept grabbing him. He started walking again and I could hear her wailing. He tried to shake her again and she again started yelling at him, this time challenging "go ahead and hit me! I'll follow you till someone calls the cops so go ahead and hit me!"He'd made no move to hit her or said anything to her. I contemplated the scene as I was now forced to follow in their wake with Strega. She slapped at him, he blocked but did not respond. He looked at me pleadingly across the street, then went on with trying to extricate himself. I... pulled out my cell phone and started looking up the phone number for the local police. I didn't know when, but I decided this little game would eventually get ugly. Just as I got dispatch on the line, I saw him jump up a small retaining wall and dart into some woods beside the cemetery, heading towards the funeral. She wailed louder, yelled "is this what it's going to come to? I'll still follow you!"and off into the woods she went. I could still hear her yelling, wailing and moaning as I told dispatch what I saw and where. A police unit drove by while I was still on the phone, and shortly I stuck my head in his window. He'd pulled into the church lot across the street and my suspicion he was there for my call was confirmed. I explained where the couple had gone and what I'd observed and left him and another officer to see if they could find the star-crossed lovers before someone, probably him, got hurt. It was a first for me, calling in a public disturbance. I can't say it was the right thing to do, but it sure seemed a good idea at the time.I also programmed the local non-emergency police number into my phone, lest I need it again. |
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| YMCA! |
| Yesterday I went to the Y for a "pump"class. I knew it included weights and it would leave me sore. Beyond that I didn't have a clue what to expect. Well, apparently I had the "weights"and "sore"right. I arrived and the instructor confirmed that I was new. She told me what to get prepared. A barbell with 5lb weights was the recommended dose, some hand weights, two 2.5lb bell weights unattached and a riser. I gathered it all up and wondered what we'd be doing with relatively light weights that would hurt.I learned.We did some motion exercises to warm up, marching in place, squatting marches, stepping up and down on the riser... then up came the 2.5lb weights that we fanned out and back enough times that I thought about putting them down and going with just my arms followed by pushups. Now, I can do some ten pushups, but then we did it all again only winding with 15 pushups, then 20, then the barbells with pulsing and... well sometimes the weight seemed insanely light on my muscles, and then we'd change to a different set of muscles and for THOSE the weight was just at liveable knowing I was going to be going right back to pushups after about every set. I wound up pretty quickly doing knee-pushups and felt insanely weak. The leg workouts were nothing to me, but my arms are right at sore today. In watching the instructor and some of the other women in that class, I really started to miss having some upper body strength. I imagined the smooth muscles under my own arms, back, shoulders and torso and decided this was something to do more often. With age, loss of flexibility occurs. Hence the yoga. Also with age, muscle loss starts. I could run and run or bike and bike day after day and I'd lose muscle tone rather than gain. It's what happens as we age and why adding a some weight training becomes important. I think I just found my weight training. I think I found another piece in the "what I want to do"puzzle for the upcoming year. I think I want to regain some upper body tone. Perhaps I'll shorten the running and cycling time to add in the body building and shoot for a more well rounded fitness. It might even help my horsemanship. |
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| Horse thoughts |
| Yesterday's time with Bubba was interesting. When I got out there to get him I found he'd lost his halter. No other halter at the barn fits his big draft head, and I figured maybe the owner had removed it from him for some reason unbeknownst to me, so I put the lead rope around his head and took him out. Well, no halter means he figured he'd just stop right there and graze. I pulled his head up and he looked at me, but did not move forward at my urging. A second later he put his head back down to graze. I picked it back up and made a makeshift X halter over the ears and nose with the x under his chin and tried again. No ma'am, he said. Ain't budging. You got nothin on me. I shifted him side to side to unstick his feet and got one step forward and refusal. So, I got beside him and pointed at his hip and got him breaking at the hip in circles for a minute and tried again. He walked forward about five paces and stopped. I turned him in circles the other way a few times and tried again. This time he followed me without argument. I got him to the barn and asked where his halter went and the owner said "it as on him this morning.... I don't know!"We found a rope halter that nearly got on his big head, just enough to give the illusion of a halter, and I got him groomed and dressed to ride.Once dressed though, I didn't immediately hop on. No, I took him in the ring for a game of "follow me."If he stopped to graze or didn't follow me, I worked to get behind him with the lunging whip and made him move. It wasn't long before he was following like a puppy. That accomplished I hopped aboard and headed out to the trail. For some reason, yesterday had him spooking at everything. The world had become a scary place overnight I guess, and he just wasn't sure about much of anything. Actually, he was more sure of his footing going down-slope than he'd been in the past, but everything else was startling. He also seemed to be favoring one leg when I asked him to trot (head bobbing, dead giveaway) so we stayed at a walk, giving him more time to get distracted by everything going on around him. He even spooked at a man walking down the street, something he's never minded in the past. I soothed and reassured and on we went, but it was quite a different feeling off him than I'm used to. We didn't stay out long, I think we had about an hour ride time at a walk, but it was very educational for both of us I think. |
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| Yoga |
| Yesterday afternoon I finally got my tuchus back to the yoga class I'd started attending before the sewage explosion forced me to move. I knew I needed it. Heck, I needed it two weeks ago, I just hadn't been able to get back till now. Let me tell you, I wonder if it's too late. Oh it was good for me and helped a lot with some areas that had tightened up, but my back is all tore up and painful. I get random pain in my left foot now that I suspect is related to a back out of place and I just can't seem to loosen it up enough to get it back right on its own, nor can I currently afford to see a chiropractor every week. Not till I get myself caught back up from all the emergency fund drainage that's been going on lately. It's so frustrating to know that I make enough I should be able to relax and yet I keep finding myself getting behind this year. Seems like every time I turn around another "oh crap"moment is snatching another couple hundred dollars out of me, making it seem impossible to catch back up. If this keeps on I'll have to let Bubba's lease go till I can get back on my feet, and that's not an option I like the sound of.Maybe I'm just restless. Anyway, I must make the yoga classes for the foreseeable future if I'm going to have a hope of getting my body back to anything like operating painlessly. For a workout I never really enjoyed, I'm finding my advancing age requires it more and more. Guess I'll have to start doing weights again too. |
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| It's HOT |
| The heat and humidity have finally gotten to my seasonal urge to quit running. Yup, it's officially now hot enough that I come in from walking the dog in the morning all nasty with sweat, and the idea of running has lost it's flavor. So, it's back on the bike with me. I hit a few rides in the past week to feel my legs out, realized I have some muscle to rebuild for it, but enjoyed my time.Meanwhile, yesterday I joined some friends on at the Battlefield for a trail ride with Bubba. He was not sure he wanted to go at first, he wanted to go wait for his food to be delivered. I got him out the gate though, and we waited at the horse loading area for Becky and the girls to arrive. I let him graze while we waited and that seemed to improve his mood dramatically. He was even happier to discover we would be riding the trail with other horses, and all mares at that! Bubba was happy to be the big man with his mini-herd consisting of Sweet Tea, Zena and Muskie. He quickly recognized Zena as lead mare and was comfortable being either in front or behind her. He didn't want to be behind the other mares though, that was too far back for his blood. The benefit to riding with them is that Zena is a very solid trail horse. We hit downhill grades that Bubba normally balks at while looking for footing, and Zena would head down without a problem. So, Bubba followed her without question. It was such a pleasure to see him so relaxed about that.I discussed him with Becky during the ride. He wings his feet at the trot and has weak pasterns. He's gotten quite thin and she recommended a supplement that might help with that, Kombat Boots. It essentially adds yeast to help horses digestion so they put more of their feed to use. It's main purpose is hoof health, but fur, mane and tail and weight also are improved. I'm seriously contemplating getting some for him to try. I hate how his hips have started to show and I haven't been able to convince the barn owner to increase his feed. His hooves could use the help too, they obviously went a while without trimming before finally getting shoes on those front feet. This is one of the issues I have with the new barn, and some of the reasons I'd not consider buying Bubba even were he for sale. He's a good boy, but he's not worth the price tag she's put on him. If ever I buy my own horse, and I can't currently manage the time and money to do that... well I don't know how I'd manage it. Honestly, I just don't know that it would be possible. |
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| Barn time |
| It was hot when I decided to head to the barn, so instead of jeans I wore shorts with my boots. I decided to just see what it felt like. Well, when I got there I noticed there was a bareback pad on one of the racks in the tackroom and obtained permission to try it. It took a minute to get Bubba to let me climb up on the stoop to hop on him like that, but with no stirrups that was the only hope I had of mounting! Anyway, once on his back we headed into the ring for some laid back work. At first, I just wanted to see how he'd behave without the saddle, not to mention get used to the feel of riding without it myself! It took a bit, but eventually we started to get comfortable with it and I decided to ask for a trot. In the ring he usually trots Very Slowly and smoothly, where on the trail he extends out a lot more. We weren't sure about the first few steps, but then it was smooth sailing. It didn't take long actually for him to start getting impatient with being in the ring doing "boring drills"as I can almost hear him complain. This time though, I did not take that as a reason to move on out and into the yard. I kept him at it despite his head tossing and occasional balking till he understood he wasn't getting his way. THEN we stopped.All in all, a very comfortable day. My confidence in bareback riding is also coming back now, thanks to my big monster of a boy! If I could just get on his back from the ground by leaping... but his withers are as high as my chin. I'm not quite up to slinging myself up quite that far. |
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| Sadie |
| Well, it looks like someone has her and posted her as a lost dog on Craigslist. I've sent them a message admitting to knowing her and telling them I was looking to find her a good home, so if they've fallen in love we could work something out or I can take her and keep looking.I have so been enjoying NOT having her around! I really, really hope whoever these people re that they do want to keep her. |
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| Kayak Support for Waterfront |
| Last year I raced, but this year I volunteered once again to take out a kayak to support the swim segment of the Waterfront Triathlon. I borrowed a friend's sea kayak this time rather than using my own too-small kayak, thinking it would make the time spent more comfortable for me.As it turned out, no such luck. While there was more room for my legs, my back still protested sitting for so long. So there I was, on the river in this big boat watching swimmers make their way to transition area and shifting about trying to relieve the tension building in my lower back. I was more than happy when the last swimmer climbed out of the water to dock the boat and head up for a snack from the volunteer tent and to check on the Vixens booth. Oh, I should have known. The Vixen manning our booth that morning sat and chatted with Dee and I for a bit (Dee joined me in kayak support), but soon she had to get on out of there. So, we agreed we'd man the fort till whoever was supposed to come relieve us showed up. Little did I realize, as volunteers had been cobbled together by me with constant and desperate statements like "I need ALL time slots covered, just COME!"and other such that no one would show up till around 3pm. I was hot, miserable and hungry. Tired and grouchy, and we still had to paddle back across the river to our cars. When relief arrived I was quick to tell them we might as well pack up to go. We were there next to Outdoor Chattanooga, and I asked the manager of OC if he could let us store the Vixen gear at their place for a bit. He agreed and in fact told us to just get everything put together and he'd load it up since our tent was the anchor for the temporary power supply. Well, I was just relieved to be getting my sorry carcass back across the river. Oh but the kayak was HOT from sitting in the sun so long! It burned my hands and thighs getting in it despite splashing water into it to cool the seat. The breeze on the river felt good though, once we got moving, and I simply tried to enjoy the feeling. It wasn't to be though, we got to the dock we'd launched from and found the gate closed and locked. Crap. Now how are we getting these kayaks to the cars?I looked at Dee, and Dee at me, and I said "I have an idea. How about the stronger paddler tows the other kayak to the Coolidge Park launch while I drive your car with trailer over to meet you?"(Yes, I phrased it that way, leaving no doubt who I meant by "the stronger paddler)She agreed and we tied my borrowed kayak to the tail of hers, got her back in and launched, then I worked my way around the gate and to the cars. Thankfully, we'd not been towed away in the interim! Timing worked out nicely. I'd just gotten her car and trailer turned around and parked when she pulled into the dock. I went down to help haul the boats up to the car and get strapped down, then she drove us back to my car where we transferred the boat to my roof rack and... I was so damn tired all I could think of was air conditioning and food. We agreed to meet at Greenlife for a final repast before the end of the day.It was then that I realized... I never want to do the kayak support for this event again. |
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| Moved |
| Well, I'm moved to the new location and I have to say, I love it. Ok, it might be spending half my day camping out at Greenlife Grocery for the free WiFi till my own internet gets hooked back up, but I think it's more than that.My current running schedule has me out three weekday mornings. Previously I had one direction I could reasonably go and feel any sort of comfort or safety. Now, I have multiple directions I could head off in. My most recent running directions either followed a route the track club uses or went over the ridge and down near the river along what is now called "Northshore"and back up over the ridge. The vast majority of that route is on sidewalks, and the few parts that aren't have so far featured drivers with a modicum of polite distance to avoid k k k killing me.There's only one problem that's really sprung up so far, and it's about Sadie PigPig.When I moved I discovered Sadie had pooped under my bed a few times for reasons unknown. I knew I couldn't punish her then, I had no idea when she'd done it, though I had suspicions, so I cleaned it up and off we went. Now though, I keep the bedroom closed off during the day rather than waste energy cooling the space. So, Sadie couldn't go poop under the bed in a fit of pique. Instead, I found a time or two some poop on the hardwood floor I decided I really really like. The first few times I cleaned it up and tried to take her out more often. That didn't help apparently. I came back the other day and found yet another Sadie Present right near the door to the bedroom. This time I knew it was spite. There was NO WAY she'd had an accident with the timing of things, and this time I pushed her nose into it against all dog-training recommendations, smacked her butt and put her outside. After all, nothing from the dog training recommendations had been working, and I KNOW she's potty trained. This was pure spite, much like her choice to poop under my bed and no-where else.A few minutes later I let her back in, and she behaved perfectly for the next 36 hours. We seemed finally to be making some headway. Then yesterday she decided the same routine we've had for the past many months wasn't what she wanted. As per usual, I got up in the morning, got my first cup of coffee and took her outside to the yard to take care of business in a nice, low-stress low-key environment. No forced morning march for her, she struggles enough to do the distances and speeds Strega demands of us both during the rest of the walks. She did some business and after I was done drinking and waking up with her, we went in and I got Strega for our 6mi run for the morning. Went to the door and Sadie tried to follow. "No girl, you stay. We run."She barked defiantly at me, I held up one finger and gave her the "I'm the boss"look and she hushed. I should have known by the look in her eye...I got back from running on the second hottest morning of the year tired and dripping. I went directly to the shower without pause to strip out of the nasty clothes and clean off. When I got out I saw Sadie's comment on things. She'd pooped in front of the TV and peed on the floor in front of the couch, right where I usually sit.She'd JUST been out, and irritation pegged into the red. I grabbed her, showed her the problem, opened the door and plopped her down without so much as a by-your-leave. Then I cleaned up the mess and had some breakfast. After all, I was HUNGRY after that 6mi run and Sadie had already proven she knew where home was and isn't prone to wandering. When I finished breakfast, I opened the door to let her in so she could get her breakfast with Strega and... no Sadie. I gave a call and... no Sadie. Hmph. "Well fine,"I thought. "You wanna play that you can do without breakfast."A few minutes later, I tried again. No Sadie.I had to go get some work done. Still no Sadie. I got back, no Sadie. So I started asking the neighbors. No one admits to having taken her in. I've told them that if someone did help themselves to adopting her that they can keep her, I just want to know she's ok. I went down to the nearby doggie daycare and asked them to keep an eye out for her as well. Again, I don't really want her back any more than I think she wants to be with me (though she does like Strega just fine). I just would like to know what happened to her. |
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| I don't have a lot of time to post an update, I need to go home and walk the dogs, take a shower, rest, walk the dogs again and go meet a friend for movie time. Meanwhile, yesterday morning I took a nice little route over the ridge and back over it again for a good long run in the midst of which some dude in an older model car asked me if I had a lighter. He looked to be up to no good and it wasn't the best of neighborhoods, so I initially ignored him. He yelled "I guess you don't smoke"and I yelled back NO as Strega and I kept running. The rest of the run was uneventful beyond the entertainment of running in a different area with some interesting things to look at.This morning I saw members of the track club running past my place, so I got out there and headed the same way. Strega demanded run time anyway. We danced around, seeing other runners on their return trips for most of the 40 or so minutes of jog time I took. Then I grabbed some food for my belly and headed to the barn. It's been a week, Bubba did not come to the gate. He was close, but he did not come to me like he did last time. I got him anyway and took him out for a nice, LONG trail ride. Actually, once we got onto the trail he perked his ears right up and got interested in going. I hardly got an argument from him during the whole 2.5hrs of trail time we put in, and he gamely trotted out most of it. Towards the end he was getting quite tired if his back end slipping more often was any indication and I didn't push him too hard on keeping at the trot. Frankly, my legs were pretty worn out too, and I was getting a burning/numbing sensation in my right foot. I've had that before on long bike rides. Someday maybe I'll find out what causes it. Regardless, I was very proud of him. He was totally game for the whole thing and even seemed to be enjoying himself. Now I'm done eating at Greenlife and checking a few things online, it's time to go home and walk the dogs again. They're quite spoiled, and I simply don't trust Sadie to not decide she's waited long enough. |
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| Quick note: I've not had time or energy to post or read up on everyone. The Good: I'm let out of my lease and am moving to a new place on Wednesday, packing has commenced while my dogs remain in daycare and I crash at a friends. I'm sure your average person that doesn't know what happened here wouldn't notice anything amiss, but I imagine smells now in the kitchen as well as the bathroom and the spare room. I can't sleep here.The Bad: I really don't have the dough to be boarding dogs for this long. It all will have to go on the credit card, which I was expecting to use to pre-purchase tickets to Mom &Dad's wedding anniversary. Will have to call them with the new address at some point and work something out.The Ugly: Today, at the very end of a trail run, I tripped and gashed my knee open. It hurts like crazy, is a deep cut and probably should be stitched but I'll be damned if I want yet another emergency room bill to go deal with. Screw it, I'll doctor it myself and muddle through. I might take a picture later to post.That's the goods. I'm gonna finish a few more things and escape this crap-hole for the night. |
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| Talked to the landlord a little while ago. Trip said he wasn't going to clean that carpet till he knew what I planned to do (oh, really)? I said I could not accept his version of "clean"and wanted him to sign a letter of intent from me that I was leaving and for what reasons. He said he wasn't signing anything but would look at the letter. I think this is about to get UGLY. |
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| Crap |
| My fears met reality yesterday. The toilet overflowed due to an attempt to get some laundry clean. I'd finally gotten it to flush and hoped that meant I could move on with the day. Oh. My. Gods. No.I came in from a quick dog walk and the smell hit me like a ton of bricks. Sewage. I looked and it was pouring into the air vent. I grabbed my spot cleaner to suck up as much of it as I could as I could at that moment and got three tanks full off the floor, but it still was quite clearly RAW SEWAGE and I called the landlord to get him on the cure. Then I sat down to try working with the bathroom door closed, but the smell got to me. I arranged with a friend to come by where he was staying for a bit to wait it out till the landlord could get by with the plumber and at first planned on leaving the dogs at the house in the backyard. On the way to drop them off I thought of how hot it was outside and instead took them to daycare. I can't afford the bill to board them, but damn if they're going to get sick from sewage OR heat exhaustion. This way I knew they'd be safe and fed till this is over. Then it was off to hang with Justin Thyme and see if I could get some things finished printing and off to the client for signature, then dinner. While at dinner the landlord called back to say he hadn't gotten the plumber out yet but that he was on the way. He said he wanted this fixed finally so I didn't "run off"on him. I grunted. I've already found a place I'd like to break lease and move into for the remainder of the year. I told him he needs to also clean up the sewage off the floor and out of the air vent. He called again at 9:30 to say they finally found the clog and ask if I'd flushed baby wipes. "No, I don't have a baby and wouldn't flush such as that anyway.""Well, someone did at some point and that's the problem.""Call me when it's clean, don't forget the air vent. Oh, and did you see the rainwater I've been collecting from the leak in the spare room?""Yeah, I saw that. I'm saving up the money to replace that roof with a tin roof.""I'm sure that'll sound nice."Yeah, it's been six months he's been "going to"fix that leak in the roof."Says he can't find where the water is coming in. Whatever dude, it's a room I can't fucking use, I'm now unable to use the entire place and I'm about through with this. I have to spend some time searching for my copy of the lease. I need to check my termination clause. |
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| Crap |
| Up to now, I could at least count on the toilet flushing properly after 10pm till sometime around 9:30am or so. Not so much today. I am in fear of the neighbor running a load of laundry as it might cause my toilet to overflow again, and I've not yet been able to get a true flush going. The idea of literal crap overflowing onto the bathroom floor where it would be guaranteed to spill into the air vent... and then blow that stench back out every damn day after... as it is I've had that happen with dirty laundry water. If I weren't trying (and failing) to get this lease document to print I'd take my laptop out to Stone Cup, where at least the toilet's flush.Oh, I'm scared to take a shower too. I might have to go to the Y later, JUST to clean up.This is beyond insane. Landlord said he's got to call the city about it, says he's snaked out the pipe 75'out from the house and can't do anything else. Then again, this is the same man that's allowed the roof to leak into my spare room for six freaking months. |
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| I love you Dad. Thanks for everything. |
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| Craptastic |
| Tomorrow is the Memorial Service. Today I ran sweep for the first day of the Chattanooga Stage Races (three days averaging 20 miles each day). Well, I ran the last half of the stage, actually. Well, more like I ran 3/4 of it. We'd given the three last people quite a head start down the trail while we waited on another possible racer to go through. We finally decided if he was out there he was over time limit and could get a ride in from the aid station. I ran it though to carry Lucy's spirit as best I could, since it was something she could never do in life that I could give to her.Meanwhile, I realized belatedly that I'd used the wrong damn card to pay for my car service. Result, some overdraft charges from hell with two weeks till my next paycheck since this is when they decided to change our pay schedule from every two weeks to twice monthly. I really did NOT want to have to dip into the emergency funds... the hit later will be nasty. Yeah. It's a rough year. |
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| I have so much to say and so little interest in saying it. Lucy is dying. Lucy has always been dying. In all the years I've known her, Lucy has been fragile, sick and dying and rarely seemed to put in the effort to take care of herself to slow the process. Or at least that's what we all got mad at her about. Actually, we got mad at her about many things. That was just one thing.Lucy, also known as Ladyhawke to some, had a stroke this weekend. Honestly, that isn't how I thought she'd go. I figured she'd go into kidney failure (again) and be unable to get another kidney transplant. I figured she'd not avoid enough gluten, having just a year or so ago been diagnosed with Celiacs which explained ALL her many, many other ailments that were slowly but surely killing her. The diabetes was the first symptomatic disease. Treated, but the cause never recognized and hence she never stood a chance at really treating it properly. Of course, she also wound up with multiple related problems, though I can't right now remember them all. I know she had chronic fatigue, I think rhumatoid arthritis, possibly lupus... All are diseases often found in symptomatic celiacs that aren't diagnosed early. There are even more diseases related, including anemia (oh yeah, she WAS anemic), osteoperosis, in children ADHD and autism symptoms are prevalent... oh and cancer.We also got mad at her for other things. If Lucy has done nothing else, she's lived her life wide open and as full throttle as her body would allow. Everything she did, she did with passion. From falling in love to falling out of love. She was hard to live with, and many of her relationships have been toxic. She also hasn't been responsive since her stroke. Oh at first her husband said she was writhing and seemed to be trying to talk but couldn't seem to get more than a groaning sound. Mel said she seemed to be tracking her in the hospital one night when the nurses came to turn her. Still, it's understood that it's a matter of time at this point. Less than a week, and since as of this morning her breathing became labored and shallow, probably now a matter of hours. It's something I seem to have trouble processing. Lucy was always so passionate that I partly thought she would outlive us all JUST to spite us all. After all, we kept telling her to take better care of herself so she would live to see grandchildren. A part of me is screaming in sorrow. She's my sister dammit, she's not supposed to go! Part of me is happy to think she'll not be in pain anymore, and that I can take her spirit with me when I do so many of the things her frail body wouldn't allow her to do, like running. Mostly, I'm becoming a little numb. Spending time with Bubba yesterday helped. I spent an hour just grooming him before deciding to saddle up for a bit. It took an hour just grooming him and stopping to kiss his nose and laugh when he reached down and grabbed a safety cone to play with to feel like the weight of things was off my shoulders and I was light enough for him to carry. I took that lightness on into this morning's run. I wasn't able to run yesterday. I was too heavy. The call this morning telling me her breathing has become labored... left me heavy again.I think I'd like to play hookey. I actually am halfway there. I've leave to skip the phone calls to give updates. I'm just not able to concentrate long enough for it. I told the boss I'm in maintenance mode right now, I expect it's a matter of hours anyway and don't want to tie up the phone. I emailed all other updates yesterday and told him what's changed since. I'm just waiting for that call. |
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| Overheating |
| Well, my suspicion that it was more than just a stuck thermostat proved right. It's a leak in the intake manifold gasket. Of course, the place I take my car for repairs dealt with the '01 Chevy Malibu for the city for a looong time, so they're familiar with the common problems. This happens to be a very, very common problem for the Malibu '98-'03 so it's one of the first things they checked. I can't say I'm surprised, by rights I should have faced this problem 100,000 miles ago. Seriously, most of the Malibus out there started getting this leak at around 70,000 miles. I remember around that time is when I went in and said "hey, gimme a complete radiator flush, ok?"This was done and probably kept me from facing the issue till now. Sadly, I didn't think to flush it out again 10,000 miles ago. Oh well, next time maybe I'll be quicker on the spot. For now, I've got the shop fixing the problem. It'll cost around $500-$600 bucks. That's still cheaper than a new car, though I think I need to really start being good about putting money aside for a down payment. I suspect I'm getting very close to NEEDING to replace the old beast.Hmm, makes me wonder about spending some time finding a nice little hot spot to sell a tower location for some extra cash. Maybe I should moonlight in billboards after all. Do a little side work in the industry equivalent of a used car salesman. Or not.I hate billboards. |
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| Ouch. I headed up to Signal Mountain today hoping to find the right trails to Mushroom Rock somehow during my planned 8 mile run. I failed. I did find a pretty overlook (pictures on my facebook page) and the Cumberland Trail, which I followed for an extra bit in hopes that I'd wind up at Mushroom Rock somehow (the rock is on the Cumberland trail, it wasn't a far fetched idea) but mais non. I'm sure if I'd not turned around I'd have found it, but as it was I had already gone far enough that turning around would net me an extra mile above what was on the program, and I didn't have enough water with me to risk being out much more than that extra mile.Sadly, the problem is still there with my ankle hurting like crazy after about that distance on trail. Since getting back to my car it's been shooting pain up my leg at regular intervals. Things got interesting on my way home. I was driving down Hwy 27 heading to Morrison Springs road when I heard the "ding"of a warning light. Now, usually that means my abs has decided to yell at me, or the car once again realized "oh my goodness, there's no washer fluid!"but this time when I glanced to confirm it was as usual one of those two issues, I discovered instead that it was overheating.Crap.I immediately pulled over and shut the car down. The gauge had it already pegging up to 260. Stay there for any length of time and I could blow a gasket. So, there on the side of the road I started calling friends. Generally male friends that I suspect or know have a clue about cars and giving preference to ones that lived nearby or were likely to come help. Roulette with the calling netted me Kelvin. I probably should have started with Kelvin, but I was hot, tired, hungry and having trouble thinking who to call (heck, I called my ex-beaux too even knowing he's clueless about cars, figuring at least he lives close). Of course, I kinda thought Kelvin might be out on his bike, so I think I can be forgiven for not thinking to call him first.I explained to him I needed some water for the radiator to at least get me off the highway and he assured me he was on the way. While I waited, I popped the hood and took a look to see if I could discern a leak. No luck with seeing a leak, but about then one of the roadside assistance trucks appeared. The man came, looked in the overflow tank and proclaimed it empty, then poured some water in and followed me off the highway. I met Kelvin at the nearest gas station and, after some conversation, had him add more water and follow me to the service station where I left it so I'd not have to figure out a way to get it there in the morning. He then drove me home. Meanwhile, three of the other folks I'd called for rescue called me back to make sure I was ok. I'm lucky to have so many wonderful friends. |
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| Good Barn Days |
| Some days just turn out to be fantastic. Today was one of them. I decided to see if Bubba's feet were feeling better before saddling him and took him into the round pen. He trotted around when I put pressure on him, but did NOT understand the "turn and go the other way"part at all. He was frustrated and did what he does when he is frustrated and doesn't get it. He stopped and stood still. I finally walked up, took his halter, turned him and sent him in the new direction. He never got the hang of it though and he was starting to get pissy, so rather than let myself get frustrated with him I simply stopped what we were doing and told him it was ok and led him out. I'd learned he wasn't favoring that one foot, and that was the main thing, so I saddled him up and took him into the ring. I dropped the jumps down so they were on the ground like ground rails, mounted up and walked him around. This time, I barely had to use the reins. He was so responsive I was finally able to get out of his mouth and ride! Oh I was so pleased I started praising him right there. Then I asked for a trot and he didn't even balk, just started moving out! Holy Crap, who is this horse?! He even added a slight hop over one of the ground poles, like he was starting to get it! We went to them from a couple directions, then did a few smaller circles and I just kept encouraging him to take the poles at pace instead of slowing down like he'd done before and praised him wildly as he did it right. Then, before he could get too bored I took him out of the ring to see how he'd do if I tried to either take him just down to the gate or even out the gate to the park. He hardly balked at all, he even went out the gate and into the park. So, I took a chance on seeing how he'd do if we went a bit further on the trail and into the woods. Last time he fought for every five steps forward. Today, he willingly went into the woods and onto the trail. I was thrilled! He was interested and engaged the whole time. I wish I'd had more time I could have played with him today, but he got two apples when we got back in for being so incredible all evening. |
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| Soddy Segment, Hotwater style |
| Yesterday I was scheduled to run and determined that run would be on trail. After all, the longest run of the week should be on trail... it's good for the body, good for the soul. So, in the morning I hauled myself out of bed, walked the dogs, ate breakfast and headed out to run.Now, recently when running alone I've been going to the guild trail as a good, safe location that's traveled enough that if I ran into trouble there'd be someone along to help. This time, I decided to enjoy a more remote trail. I parked my car at the trailhead on Hotwater road and headed off. This particular stretch of trail isn't too terribly technical, but it's been raining so all the rocks were slick. For the first 1/2 mile of descent I had to be cautious for that reason, but soon I was trotting along comfortably and enjoying the beauty and silence of the woods. I felt far better than last Sunday when any incline left my glutes and hamstrings crampingly tight and trotted up and down most of the hills, except the steepest of them. All seemed to be going well till something grabbed my toe. Actually, my toe just somehow hung up on a rock and down I went. I landed on my right side that time, no harm no foul but it got me paying attention. Not enough though. I never saw the vine a little ways further along that grabbed my left foot, but it did it's job. I flew like superwoman once again, and as my hands reached out to catch my fall my brain went "NO! Don't break that wrist again!"and I somehow shifted more weight to the right and allowed that hand and arm to collapse with the fall. I got up, paying close attention to my body and realized I was uninjured. So, I went on to finish my run but thought "what if"for a bit. I had my phone with me though, and I had service, so I realized I'd be ok.When I reached the turnaround point I had another surprise. I turned and started back along the trail and discovered two dogs had been following me. I've no idea how long they'd been on my back trail, but when they saw me coming back towards them they took off! "hmm"I thought, "that's interesting."They were around for about half a mile of my return trip. I'd round a curve and find the tan one on the side of the trail. He'd see me and run off with tail tucked. To say the least, I was more aware of the trail and surroundings on the return than I had been on the way out! |
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| The Professor |
| Yesterday after spending some time at the TN/GA/AL Wireless Association joint meeting, I headed out for some barn time. I had very low-level items I wanted to work on. I went with the belief that Bubba would have gotten shoes on Thursday as planned and hence I'd be able to take him into the park to ride today (Saturday) with some friends. Unfortunately, I learned upon arrival that for some reason he had not actually gotten his shoes, but I decided to go ahead and work on the things I'd had in mind anyway so he'd know what was expected of him. One of the items was as much working on me as him, so that's what I decided we'd start with. That item? Him standing still while I attempted to (and hopefully succeeded in) mounting without the aid of a step-stool. Mind, the step-stool makes the process easier and more comfortable for both horse and rider. After all, when you mount up you're putting all your weight in one stirrup for a while, pulling the saddle on that side and.. well imagine if you were wearing something like that on your back and someone was scrambling up onto it from one side while it dragged down and you can get the idea of how it might feel for the horse. Is it any wonder most horses don't care to stand still for it? Well, the first time I tried for it I had trouble getting my foot up to the stirrup (which is already set to my leg length when in the saddle). I'm relatively flexible, so that might give you an idea how tall this horse is, but to give a better idea, I'm 6'and his whithers are pretty much at my chin level. Since my leg wasn't wanting to stretch up like that just yet, I lowered the stirrup as far as it would lower and then swung into the saddle. I've learned with The Professor (that's his real name) that mounting at all is about the angle of approach. He won't stand still if you approach the mount from his shoulder facing at 45 degrees towards the back as is the usual position for mounting a horse. He prefers to be mounted by someone starting at his hip. You don't get as much swing to the right leg to get up and around, but at least he mostly stands still for it. So, I got into the saddle, then had to get him to stand still long enough for me to re-adjust the stirrup (I'm so glad I ride English seat... ) and then we went around the ring just a little bit before I swung back down and.. without removing my foot from that stirrup, right back up again. We did this a few times till he was staying pretty still for it, then I took him out of the ring and did it again. No problem, his only action was to see if he could get away with getting a mouthful of grass.So, that accomplished, it was time to see if he'd walk to the end of the driveway.The driveway is rather long and he would have to pass two pastures. The first features three ponies and three llamas. The second features one llama and a herd of sheep and goats. The owner had told me that her horses in general behaved as if the llamas were T-Rex out to kill them, or at the least aliens from another planet to be feared. I figured practicing going by them to the gate at the end of the drive, dismounting and re-mounting would be a good, easy exercise to get him desensitized to as well as important steps towards our enjoying time together. Well, he was eager to start, but once we got to the end of his pasture and he was looking down the drive past his own usual home turf, he stopped and took a moment to ask if I was sure we were still going ahead. I reassured him, then urged him on. He walked cautiously, head up and watching till we got to the first pasture. The first pony he saw he jerked his head up and stopped in his tracks. I breathed calmly and said "it's just a pony. See? Pony. You're ok."and asked him to go forward. He took another half second and started taking tentative steps forward. Things went on this way till halfway down that pasture he angled in and I allowed him to go sniff noses with the ponies. No llamas were yet in view to scare him further and I figured it would help him to know "ah, these are my kind, not dangerous"for future reference. Well, we took some time but we got to the end of the driveway. The sound of occasional cars on the road stopped him a few times till he saw what it was and that it wasn't immediately dangerous and then he'd move forward more. For the first try, I did not repeat the dismount, mount. I simply turned him back up the drive and immediately had to hold him back from his attempt to trot right on home. No boy, we walk home. No barn sour charging allowed.Once at the top, I turned him around to try again. He was still reluctant, but it went easier till he saw that first llama. Once again, stop dead with a snort and stare. One more round of reassurance. One more round of letting him watch it move a few times. Eventually, we got back to the bottom and I dismounted, this time foot all the way out of the stirrup, patting his head and nose, then back up into the saddle and hold him still till ready. He tends to want to dance off as soon as I'm on his back. Then it was time to let him know we still don't run home. On the third trip it was even easier to pass all the strange animals in their respective paddocks, though he was no less reluctant to leave his home pasture area. This time at the bottom during dismount/mount, the truck and trailer with Diane the owner arrived. I held him there, despite his dancing, shucking and jiving to say "lets go home now"till she'd pulled the truck and trailer into the drive and past us, held him back from rushing after it to check out the new horse, then when she stopped it to come close the gate walked him past. A bit later I stopped him again in the grass at the side while she drove past again, getting him used to relaxing while large vehicles pass. Another trip down, he was more impatient at the bottom trying to immediately take off up the drive rather than wait till I gave him the go-ahead. He tried to move around till he found himself stepping down into a gutter. I let him look at where he'd put his feet (good thing his version of dancing is pretty low-energy or that could have been quite painful and damaging to him), then backed him out of it and still did not let him immediately set off up the hill. After he'd calmed some, we went. The last time he must have gotten tired. He didn't move when I went to remount (though by this time my re-mounting was more hauling myself up into the saddle than pushing myself up into the saddle), and he didn't try to trot up the hill, so I decided it was an excellent note to end the session on. He didn't even argue about going back to the ring area so I could remove all his tack as he'd tried to do previously. After I'd removed saddle and bridle and given him his "good job"treat, I decided on a whim to see what would happen if I took him off his lead rope since he was following me so well without prompting otherwise. So, I led him into the ring again, put the gate up and then removed the lead rope. He stood calmly while I rubbed his face, then I turned and started walking. He followed like a dog. I stopped and told him how good he was and rubbed his face, then walked again, this time weaving some cones. He followed, though he sniffed each cone. I stopped and praised and loved him again. Then I hopped myself over a jump. He stopped at the jump and looked at me. I called "come on Bubba!"and made a kissey nose. He stepped over the jump instead of going around! This got me excited with praise for him. Of course, it was right about then as I figured "ok, time to let him go back to pasture"that he realized there was some grass in the ring over there and he lost interest in me completely. So, I got the rope back on him and led him out with a great deal of joy and pride. In one short week we've gone from him being unsure he wanted much to do with me to this! I have no doubt anymore, he's a much better match to my personality (horsinality?) than Regal. I think I'm in love. |
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| Storms to Sunshine |
| Yesterday afternoon the storms were threatening. In fact, they weren't just threatening, they hit hard just a little ways north of me. They just didn't happen to hit me where I was walking my dog and listening to the rolling thunder.I used to hear the voice of gods in the thunder. Now my head is so filled with so many things that I think I hear that voice, but it's drowned out so often by the mess in my mind that I'm not sure what he's saying. I tried to listen though. It did have me wondering if I should go to the barn with all the random and severe storms raging about, but in the end I decided to go. I'm glad I did. We didn't get rained on at all. Bubba met me at the gate and came out happily enough. Of course, he was looking at the mouthfuls of grass he knew he'd get while I closed the gate again, but that's ok. He mostly stood still for grooming but looked a little surprised when I came back out with the saddle. "OH, we're doing that?""yeah buddy, we're going to trot around the yard again."He behaved better though. It took a minute to get him situated and standing still while I mounted. Apparently, it's all in the angle of approach with him. Once up though, he surprised me by not immediately walking off. He WAS angled slightly towards the rail so that might have had to do with it, but I'm glad he stood still. He walked when asked as usual and did fine in the ring, then I got him trotting and he did ok. He wasn't sure about going between the jumps (they weren't set up, more like ground poles) but after the first few times walking him through he started trotting through too. Then we went into the yard to see how he'd behave. This time, he was much easier to direct properly. He still tried to go his own way at the same point in the ride, but he didn't fight nearly as hard or often. The second pass in each direction had him shooting pretty straight with me, so we proceeded to work on hill repeats, trotting up the hill, turning and I tried to trot him down it a bit to help build his front end as well. Again, after the first few passes he started being more willing to go between the trees and turn when asked. I feel like we've made some amazing progress in just a few days. He's getting shoes today, I hope to hit the trail for a little bit on Saturday. Nothing too strenuous, he needs to build his strength and stamina, but if I'm not mistaken he's as eager to go explore as I am. |
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| Food |
| Sadie, I have no idea what you're thinking girlfriend, but my getting lunch, a drink of water, or whatever else from the kitchen is not a cue that you're about to get a treat no matter how much you beg. It might, on the other hand, get you growled and snapped at. Seriously, take a hint from your larger packmate. Notice he doesn't get up and follow me to the kitchen entry? Notice he doesn't beg for my lunch? Notice you don't get any anyway?? Oh, and that begging on your hind legs thing? I'm sure it works on most people, but I just find it annoying. You can sit your tail down on the ground like a big dog.Love,The Human that cuddled you at naptime |
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| Bubba, or no Bubba? |
| This morning I headed out with my mind on spending time with Bubba. First though, I had to swing by the old barn and catch up with Becky as well as get a girth, stirrups and pay for the saddle. It threatened rain while we chatted and all seemed good for me going to ride, but then I realized I'd forgotten my boots. Ride in sneakers? Well, I'd have to think about that.When I got to Mahada to get Bubba the sun was shining and bright. I thought "well, maybe I will ride..."and got Bubba. I started brushing on him and he stood like a champ till a big ole horsefly landed on him. He started dancing, I stood to look, saw it and waited. It landed down again on his back where he couldn't get at it with his tail, but I was ready and smacked that thing dead. Bubba turned his nose to look at me and then stood even more still for the rest of our grooming session. By then though, it was starting to cloud over and I decided it felt like a storm coming. So, I checked to see if he'd like Wintergreen Lifesavers (he's not sure) and just loved on him, petting his face and neck. He lowered his head down and just stood happily while I loved on him, then I gave him a few carrots and took him back to the pasture. It started to pour right about when I headed to the car, but I somehow doubt it was a waste of time. |
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