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| | Photos |
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| Drug dealing in the free food line |
| Dan Lyke: I wish it went deeper, and I hope that they continue to follow the story, but here's an interesting little article about SF police, community activists, and the Glide Memorial Church trying to negotiate ways to keep drug dealing out of the food line. |
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| Three pony rule |
| Dan Lyke: 'Three Pony Rule'Invoked to Cut Former NFL Player's Monthly $18K Child Support(Via):While acknowledging there are unique problems with determining the reasonable needs of children of high-earning families, the court said trial judges should nevertheless avoid overindulgence -- citing the doctrine of In re Patterson, 920 P.2d 450 (Kan. App. 1996), that "no child, no matter how wealthy the parents, needs to be provided [with] more than three ponies."Interesting note on a court taking steps to reduce child support and alimony payments. |
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| chocolate crucifix |
| Dan Lyke: Okay, this is totally non-seasonal, but come next spring I've gotta remember it. The Planet Karen comic strip muses on the oddities of Easter mythology, leading me to think that I need to get this crucifix moldand do those instead of bunnies.Just to be authentic. |
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| creativity and Monderman |
| Dan Lyke: Mark Hershbergerhas an entry worth reading: Why Create? and how to avoid the black hole of "productivity"which riffs on _why's recent twitter:when you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather thanability. your tastes only narrow & exclude people. so create.And while I'm just ripping off content from Mark, he also linksto winterspeak riffing ona profile of traffic engineer Hans Mondermanwhich noted:They also found, in surveys, that residents, despite the measurable increase in safety, perceived the place to be more dangerous. This was music to Monderman’s ears. If they had notfelt less secure, he said, he “would have changed it immediately.”and“When government takes over the responsibility from citizens, the citizens can’t develop their own values anymore,” he told me. “So when you want people to develop their own values in how to cope with social interactions between people, you have to give them freedom.” |
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| Kinkos wackiness |
| Dan Lyke: A conversation here about printing costs made be try to look up the price to print a document at Kinko'swhatever FedEx is calling it these days. Not only do they not have prices on their web site that I can see, their b0rk3n store locator thinks "94952"is closer to Point Reyes Station than Petaluma, and amidst all of the shipping centers and pick-up and drop-off points doesn't return their actual location in Petaluma unless you check off everything but the "FedEx Kinko's"box.How can a company that generally gets it fairly right be so clueless? |
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| People trade sex for favors |
| Dan Lyke: Anti-news: People barter sex for goods and services:A recent study of 475 University of Michigan undergraduates ages 17 to 26 found that 27 percent of the men and 14 percent of the women who weren't in a committed relationship had offered someone favors or gifts -- help prepping for a test, laundry washing, tickets to a college football game -- in exchange for sex. On the flip side, 5 percent of the men surveyed and 9 percent of the women said they'd attempted to trade sex for such freebies.From the SE entry:As Fleshbot says: it’s called “dating”.Update: that Fleshbot entry. |
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| Whose grapes? |
| Dan Lyke: Setting the record straight on Bottle Shock. George Taber, who wrote the book Judgement of Pariswhich inspired the movie, noted that:... in '73, Chateau Montelena bought "just over 40 tons of chardonnay from local growers"-- about 20 tons from Henry Dick in Alexander Valley, 14 tons from the Bacigalupis in Russian River Valley and the remaining 5 tons from Napa Valley growers John Hanna and Lee Paschich.So, yeah, despite the Napa label, it was Sonoma grapes that turned the world upside down. |
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| Lipidleggin' |
| Dan Lyke: F. Paul Wilson: Lipidleggin'. |
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| Georgia and Kosovo |
| Dan Lyke: I've been trying to wrap my head around the struggles currently happening between Russia and Georgia over the provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Leohad a linkto Stratfor: Georgia and Kosovo: A Single Intertwined Crisis, which describes how the precedents set up by NATO and the United States in dealing with Kosovo are what Russia is looking towards for guidance in dealing with Georgia. Well worth reading. |
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| Kitchen Cabinet Door prototype redux |
Dan Lyke:   Some practice doors mounted to a quick & dirty plywood box, 'cause we're still visualizing parts of the new kitchen design. More here. |
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| Customer service |
| Dan Lyke: Charlene and I have been looking at drawer slides, we've got a few favorites, but two of our cabinets are going to be very shallow, which limits our options somewhat. I posted a query about drawer slides to LumberJocks, specifically asking about drawer depth to width and racking with various slides, and got a response from someone from Accuride. I've exchanged email with him, the short version is that I'm just a hobbyist building one small kitchen, I expect we'll buy about $2k in slides, and Accuridejust went from an also-ran to a front-runner.I'll see how some of those slides feel, but there'll be some test cabinetry along shortly... |
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| Joe Biden |
Dan Lyke: One of the things that political coalition building involves is bringing together disparate points of view. In practice, this often means putting two politicians on the same ticket who are as offensive as possible to my sensibilities while still making me think that they're better than the alternative.If this is the measure of political acumen, Barack Obama![[Wiki]](http://www.flutterby.com/adbanners/lookingglass.png) has hit it out of the park by choosing Joe Bidenas his running mate. Declan McCullagh provides a list of reasons that adding Biden to the Obama ticket is almost enough to make me reconsider the other side. |
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| Prop 65 silliness |
| Dan Lyke: California's Prop 65must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but in practice, the notion that people need to be notified about potential carcinogens in the environment means that there's a "This facility contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer or reproductive harm"sign on pretty much every commercial building, so the notifications have lost all meaning./. reportsthat California's new list now includes gallium arsenide, which suggests that LEDs are now on the list. I can't tell if this includes the finished package, or just the manufacturing process... |
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| Polygamous men live longer |
| Dan Lyke: Polygamous males live longer:After accounting for socioeconomic differences, men aged over 60 from 140 countries that practice polygamy to varying degrees lived on average 12% longer than men from 49 mostly monogamous nations, says Virpi Lummaa, an ecologist at the University of Sheffield, UK.Via. |
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| Wine Spectator Award of Excellence |
| Dan Lyke: What does it take to get a "Wine Spectator Award of Excellence"? Up until Robin Goldstein publicized this stunt, about $250 and a word processor:As part of the research for an academic paper I’m currently working on about standards for wine awards, I submitted an application for a Wine SpectatorAward of Excellence. I named the restaurant “Osteria L’Intrepido” (a play on the name of a restaurant guide series that I founded, Fearless Critic). I submitted the fee ($250), a cover letter, a copy of the restaurant’s menu(a fun amalgamation of somewhat bumbling nouvelle-Italian recipes), and a wine list.Via Dr. Vino, via Polymeme.Of course I continue to be fascinated by how much of our appreciation of food and spirits is subjective, I'm not sure whether this is another data point in that or my notion of what "journalism"is. |
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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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| | Vote for Me (me, Me, ME!) |
| It's that time of year again: the SxSW panel picker is up, and I want to speak there. In order to make that happen, you (and your friends, and your family, and your followers, and your contacts—get the idea?) have... |
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| Proudly incorrect! |
| Well, I said we were probably wrong... So much for our Veep prognostication abilities. But I did predict that McCain was going to be the GOP nominee back in May of 2007. Yeah, I'll cling to that. I'm OK with... |
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| Our Obama Veep Guesses (we're probably wrong) |
| Dori: Evan Bayh."He's not going to outshine or embarrass Obama. Plus he's from a potential swing state, and Obama needs the swing states."Tom: Kathleen Sebelius. "Obama hasn't been doing the safe thing throughout this whole election. It would have... |
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| Surgery? Oh, That Surgery |
| I've gotten a spate of messages over on Twitter and FriendFeed, saying "Surgery? Surgery? Wha'happened???"after Tom made a couple of "Dori's home from surgery and recovering"posts. No, it's not major, and no, it wasn't unexpected, and yes,... |
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| New home theater equipment on the way |
| A week or so ago, I decided that our current home theater setup had reached its End of Life. Actually, that means that it had reached the Tom's No Longer in Love With It stage. It's been a good setup... |
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| Happy Birthday to Dori! |
| I'm posting this a little late in the day, but in my defense, I have already called her. Though I'm working far from home tonight, I hope you'll all join me in wishing Dori a very happy birthday. Yes, I... |
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| Watching her investment? |
| Watching the news reports of the day-by-day campaigning, I noticed something a bit odd. Almost every time you see McCain, you see his wife Cindy with him. She often introduces him. She's always traveling with him. He recently offered to... |
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| 2008 ALA Web Builder's Survey |
| You may recall that about 15 months ago, the good folks over at A List Apart did their first survey of web designers, and at the time they promised that they'd do it again. Now, they have. Whether you took... |
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| Ladies, he's just not into you |
| I've been puzzled for months why women are seen as good bets as McCain voters. He has provided many examples of his lack of sympathy towards women and issues that are important to women, including reproductive rights, contraception, pay equity... |
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| He's just a bad candidate |
| It's been interesting seeing how the McCain campaign has been flailing the last few days, while Obama was on his overseas trip. It's understandable; when the Prime Minister of Iraq undercut McCain's primary reason for running, and virtually endorsed Obama's... |
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| | Song: “You Promised” |
| So hey, I’m releasing new songs on the web again. Yay! Here’s one I wrote early this year, and in an uncharacteristic display of patience, even played live a few times before I recorded it.I’ve had the chorus lying around for years, but it never became a song. One day I was noodling around and [...] |
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| AskMeFi music linkdump |
| A number of music-related threads I have bookmarked over at Ask Metafilter. Some are a few years old but still informative:Why is it so hard to get the B string in tune? I have this problem all the time.Controlling your peaks. I always wondered why my mixes didn’t distort at levels over 0db. Here’s why.How [...] |
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| Duff Man! |
| Last Saturday I went to a friend’s benefit show at the Sunset Tavern, and among the bands playing was Duff McKagan’s band Loaded. Duff played a Les Paul goldtop, which I covet and continue to covet.Fame is weird. The band was actually pretty great, straight up rock. But I have to admit that part of [...] |
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| Up to…something |
| Man, July kicked my ass.My CD release show for Save You From Yourself was pretty fantastic. We packed the house, and Suzanne and Dennis were brilliant. Man, I could totally get used to having a band. I’m waiting on more photos, video and audio so I’ll post a more thorough recap later on. But in [...] |
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| Podcast props and Victory review |
| Thanks to Jessica for using my song More Good Days in her LIS 460 Student Podcast. Remember: if you’ve used my tunes in your podcast, let me know so I can link you up.The July 2008 issue of the Victory Review, a magazine that covers acoustic music in the Seattle area, has an almost frighteningly [...] |
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| Cool! |
| Sam tipped me off to the fact that my new CD is gracing the cover of the latest Disc Makers catalog. I had totally forgotten that I’d agreed to let them do this months ago, but I never thought they’d put it on the cover. Funny thing is, I don’t think I get the catalog [...] |
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| CD release show approaching. Also, don’t go see Batman. |
| Heigh-ho, just wanted to remind you Seattleites that my “Damn, I Shoulda Had A CD Release Show!” on July 18 is fast approaching. If you’re planning on coming (and I hope you are), make sure to call/email to reserve a table, or else you might be seated on the sidewalk.It has also come to my [...] |
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| SYFY word cloud |
| Because I steal all my ideas from Brad, here’s a word cloud made from the lyrics of Save You From Yourself.“It’s?” Really? Huh.Happy solstice everyone! |
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| X The Owl is one dark character |
| (Actual quotes from IMDb.)X the Owl: Are you hurt, Bob Dog?[Bob Dog howls in pain]X the Owl: Does that mean that you are or you aren’t?X the Owl: I don’t think we should call them “bombs”, though. We should call them “surprise treats” or something like that. Bombs are scary things and hurting things.Lady Aberlin: [...] |
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| 10 songs somehow made more awesome during last weekend’s Explone sessions |
| Robert Plant, “In The Mood”Ginuwine, “Pony”Player, “Baby Come Back”Mötley Crüe, “Dr. Feelgood”Mötley Crüe, “Livewire”Snow, “Informer”Neil Diamond, “Heartlight”Michael Jackson, “Rock With You”R. Kelly, “Sex Weed”Ted Nugent, “Stranglehold” |
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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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| | The community system for DEMO |
| When I was in Boulder on Sunday, David Cohen and Brad Feld, the organizers of TechStars, kindly set up four meetings for me with Boulder startups they thought I'd find interesting. It was great fun! Bright motivated people with big ideas, the discussions were interesting and I learned a lot.One of the companies is EventVue, who, like a company I invested in last year, is doing software to manage online communities around physical world conferences. Their customers are the conferences themselves. EventVue helps participants find each other, and gives them tools to describe and share their experinces at the conference. This week they're announcing that they have a customer that you'd think they'd pay for the priviledge of serving, the DEMOfallconference in San Diego, Sept 7-9. But to my surprise, they're being paid for providing the service. It should prrovide some very valuable exposure to this Colorado-based startup.The DEMO announcementis online now, as is a siteScripting News readers can explore to get an idea of how the service works.I hope to write up the other companies as they have stories to tell. I should meet with random startups more often -- I get ideas and get my enthusiasm for tech entrepreneurship is renewed. |
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| Arrest Bush |
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| Anti-abortion protest at DNC |
| As we were going into the DNC this afternoon our path was blocked by a crowd of police, press and a handful of protestors and priests. #1: Roe v Wade survivor.#2: Protestors.#3: Arrests. |
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| MP3s of DNC speeches? |
| David Morrison, via email: "I've been reading your site for a few years now, and couldn't think of anyone else to ask this question to. Are there any feeds or releases of the Democratic Convention speeches in just audio format. I'm traveling out of country, can't sit and watch on a computer, and don't have the bandwith to download video. Been searching for a few days, and can't seem to find anything. Seems amazing that this 'high tech'campaign doesn't have this easily availible." |
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| This is a HAPPY convention |
| Just got a commentfrom Mark Dzmura saying that Fox and CNN are reporting that there is racial discord at the DNC, and I want to say that's absolutely not true. It's bright and sunny and hot in Denver and eveyrone here, including the Hillary people, blacks and whites and every other color, are happy and looking forward to the campaign and election. Lots of smiles, high fives and good nature. It's a much more positive feel than 2004. Glad there are bloggers here to help set the record straight. I'll be uploading some pics soon to illustrate. |
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| First Biden appearance in Denver |
I was walking on 16th St in Denver at noon and saw that there were a lot more people on the street than there had been a few minutes before; all walking in the same direction, fast, reporters with TV crews. And cops, and then down Larimer we could see an entourage of black SUVs with flashing lights waiting. "Something's going on!" So we followed the reporters, pushed our way to the front of the crowd, and asked what's going on, they said "Joe Biden."There were members of his press pool nearby. I asked how long there had been a press pool for Biden, and was told this was the first first event, in fact it was his first public appearance since being chosen by Obama as his runninng mate. A huge crowd gathered -- a few minutes later there was a rush of energy and there he was. I held my camera over my head and snapped picture after picture, a few movies. I didn't get to shake his hand, but I did take in the scene. It was really hot. A lot of excitement and enthusiasm for the guy. He cracked a few jokes about how hungry he was and he was looking forward to the BBQand walked up to the standand orderedsomething. There was even a press crew inside the stand! The place was absolutely crrawling with reporters and cameras.After a while we found a quiet place to upload a pictureand a movie, probably the first pictures of the event to make it out of Denver (assuming there wasn't any live coverage).It was pure luck that we happened to cross paths with Biden's entourage. If we had headed out for lunch just a few minutes earlier we wouldn't have. |
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| Evening pictures |
| I walked through a door I shouldn't have and all of a sudden I'm walking around among all these famous politiicans and news people. Only got a good pictureof John Kerry, and a movie of Sean Hannityand a movie of John Kerry.I also uploaded a movie of the convention floorin motion. |
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| FriendFeed updates |
| I'm sitting in the nosebleedsat Pepsi waiting for Jimmy Carter to speak, and then FriendFeed releases its new beta. Good timing! Gives me something to do while the speakers go on and on and...Not sure what to do with the sub-lists feature, that's going to take some processing, but...I found one hidden feature that's definitely worth calling out.I can read someone else's feed and see what they see. That will, as Bret Taylor says, give us an easy way to show people what FF looks like to us. I'm sure itll be confusing to a lot of people, FF is a rich and complex product even though it has a very simple set of rules. Any way of discovering what its like in all its richness is worth it. |
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| The blogger space at the DNC |
| Here's a quick pictureof the blogger's space at the DNC, and after working here for a few minutes I ache to get back on the road. This is a far cry of the space we had at the DNC in 2004. We were in the nosebleed seats, but we had a constant view of the whole scene, the stage, the floor, and could walk around among the other press. This year we're on the Administrative level, in a concrete bunker, flourescent lighting, and a view of nothing but TV screens. I'd do better in my office at home. I'm going to have to figure out a way to escape these confines or I'm getting on I-70 tomorrow morning and heading west. Update -- that wasn't the blogger room. The blogger loungeis actually much nicer, softer light, couches, nerdiier looking people. I asked why bloggers get better space, no one seemed to know. |
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| Things I'm still trying to find |
1. The Big Tent.2. Google's tent. (Ahh, it's the same thingas the Big Tent.)3. Where the bloggers are hanging out!4. Friends from Twitter, Berkman, FriendFeed, Silicon Valley, etc.5. Fun!  Any help would be much appreciated.PS: Just for fun, here's how the cops get aroundDenver. They're all very friendly so far, even they think it's funny. So far everyone's getting along great. |
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| IRC space for the DNC |
| We clearly need an IRC space for the DNC. So here it is...irc://irc.freenode.net/#dnc08 Hope to see you there!PS: This could be an interesting place for people who are here in Denver to ping each other too. Let's have a Scripting News meetup? I'm definitely up for it. I hardly know anyone here! |
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| The NY Times is using the same tools I am to cover the DNC |
| They have a Flickr stream.And a Twitter feed.. |
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| 5:30PM working inside the Pepsi Center |
| Uploaded a lot more pictures, and am about to upload a 2 minute tour of the inside of the DNC. |
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| 4PM touring the media tents |
| It's super hot outside, but the press puts on a good show. Foundfree workspace, fast Ethernet and power. Happy blogger. Now I'm looking for Google's tent, and the unassigned media tent (which is what bloggers are, officially, at the DNC).Lots of the landscape is familiar, and it was true I'd need to re-experience it to recall the memories. The photos from this part of the day's exploration begin here. |
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| Inside the Pepsi Center at 2PM |
| About to upload some pics and videos.I'm posting regular updates to Twitter.When I set out from Berkeley on Tues morning, this was my destination,. A dramatic entrance(movie) into the Pepsi Center, where the Democratic Convention opens tomorrow.Lots more pictures following. |
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| DNC 2008 sign-in |
| I'm over the first hurdle getting set up for the Democratic Convention. I've got my press credential for tomorrow. Later today I'm heading over to the Pepsi Center to take some pictures. If you're here and reading this let's get together to talk politics and tech.Some pics I took this morning...Security details everywhere, also lots of volunteers offering help. Everyone's friendly and upbeat.Obama-branded merchandiseis going fast.This guylooks like Obama, but...I'm in the hotelwhere all reporters get their credentials. Spotted one or two famous faces. Got my s.w.a.g. bag. |
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| Arrived in Boulder |
Well, pretty much 1/2 my road tripis finished. Drove from SLC to Laramie yesterday, had dinner with Isobel &Brett, then drove from Laramie to Boulder, a quick drive, and back to urban life. Tired but I've got plenty of time to rest before arriving in Denver on Sunday for the start of the DNC, where I will wear two badges. They decided I was a blogger after all, and I am credentialed press.  Meanwhile my iPhone crapped out, it says it has no SIM card. Restarting it made it work, for a while, now it doesn't work at all. I'm going to the Apple store in Boulder this evening to see if they can help.Meanwhile I'm thinking that since I have Sprint EVDO, I could get a deal from them on a cell phone. Anyone have any ideas about that? The EVDO has been working nicely since I reinstalled the software on the Asus, and I've even been getting used to the keyboard. The big question is will I be able to blog the convention with just the Asus, without having to lug around the 17-inch MacBook Pro. The only potential reason not is the keyboard. And it's not a problem if I'm mostly going to do video and pictures, which seems to be my favorite mode these days. That and FriendFeed/Twitter.BTW, people who have been trying to call me and can't get through, send me an email and I'll call you back if I'm near a phone. Life with a broken iPhone, esp just before a major schmoozing event, not fluid.I wonder how this convention will differ from the 2004 convention in Boston. I had a lot of fun there, it was the event that launched podcasting to a whole new level. I'll probably remember more about that convention as I go through the routine again this year. I know I'll look for the press room sooner this year than I did last year. As much as I love being a blogger, the reporters covering the convention have interesting stuff to talk about too, and it's different. Thinking about taking a different routeback to the Bay Area. |
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| XP to Amazon? |
 I had a random thought today as I read the press release about Amazon's new Elastic Block Store. Once again, I wish the OPML Editorran on Linux so my software could take advantage of all of Amazon's innovation. I see the Linux guys having the all the fun and I want to play! I wish there was some way we could install XP on one of Amazon's servers. Now that they're trying to retire it in favor of Vista, I wonder if Microsoft would be willing to cut a deal allowing us to install XP in Amazon's cloud? Even better if they did a deal with Amazon so this is just a checkbox. |
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| This must be stopped |
The WSJ reportsthat the Republicans will have press events in Denver during the Democratic Convention. They even say that the Republicans have found a loophole that allows them access to the floor of the convention. This is not cool. Here's the relevant quote from the WSJ piece: "Some Republicans will do interviews on the sets of television networks operating in the Pepsi Center, meaning they and the staff escorting them will have access to the site." At some point Obama and the Democrats are going to have to fight back, and it better be soon. McCain's involvement in corruption should be handled in a gloves-off way. Wes Clark's statement that being shot down and imprisoned, while sad is in fact not a qualification for President. The age issue ought to be brought up in a personal way -- related to McCain's stumbles and appearance. Question his mental ability, and how it's not going to get better as McCain ages. Question his health, he's a cancer survivor. Question his education, his honesty, how he treated his first wife, how he cheated on his current wife, and her drug addiction, is she paying taxes on all her property? How many McMansions does McCain need? He's had a government health care program his whole life, how in touch could he be with your life as you deal with medical issues without insurance and face the prospect of losing your home. This guy has 12 homes anda private jet. How out of touch can you get!Just getting rid of Republican corruption and incompetence is enough change. Stop taking chances with our future Obama, and hit him back hard. And do not allow Giuliani and Romney on the floor of the convention.Update: He doesn't know how many homes he's got. Excellent. Super-elite andsenile. A perfect ad. |
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| Summer 2008 road trip |
Good morning everybody!This is Dave coming to you from Salt Lake City, UT.I'm on my Summer 2008 road trip. Started yesterday at 4AM, and got me into SLC at about 4PM. Stops include Laramie, WY; Boulder CO and on to Denver on Sunday for the Democratic National Convention. Then four days of watching, listening, talking, and thinking and then backon the road to do it all again! I tried to set up a LAN in my car, to no avail. There isn't much Sprint EVDO on the road between Reno and Salt Lake. No matter, as it turns out there isn't much I want to say to or hear from the net while on the road. I listened to an excellent Gillmor Gang podcastwith Marc Canter and Evan Prodromou of identi.ca. I agree with Steve that identi.ca must do what Twitter does, and the things Twitter stopped doing (like the hugely important XMPP gateway) but no more. If a user has to stop and think whether they should use 140 characters or 250 because this micro-message might go through a gateway to Twitter, well, that's the end of identi.ca right there. Doesn't make it through most people's annoyance filter. Maybe later, when and if identi.ca takes over the world, but it hasn't happened yet, so for now, do what Twitter does -- and no more. Also, Twitter doeshave a hard limit of 140 characters per message. Here's an example. I wrote a scriptto send a 250 character tweet to Twitter. Here's whatshowed up on Twitter. 140 characters and no URL linking to an addendum. Let's try the sameon identi.ca. Good, it works identically. (Hence its name.) Keep it that way!To Steve, there have been URIs for individual twits for a long time. That's not something new with the threading features in Twitter.I loved that Kevin Marks always has one more half-baked BigCo replacement for something we've in the LittleGuy world have had working for years. Evan does an excellent job of taking it up the butt (I mean that as a compliment) -- BOGUis the way of the software world esp when you're being evangelized by IBM (in the 80s), Microsoft (in the 90s) or Google (in the 00s).Marcand Steve have great rapport, as good as anything I've heard in podcasting. And Marc, I left a voicemail for you, but given the way the phone company works, you probably won't get it for a few days. Say hi to Doc for me!  There's something really spooky about listening to a podcast with these guys interspersed with doing Bluetooth cellphone calls to them at the same time! Oh man, technology is amazing.Anyway, I am posting pics to Flickr(and Twitter) fairly regularly.Today I hang out with NakedJenin Salt Lake and might have a meal with Phil Windley and then tomorrow it's back on the road heading into Wyoming. |
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| Oh well. Neither of the old friends from high school that I attempted to reach responded. This is kinda sad to me. They were two of the three best (male) friends I had. Sometimes though, bygones must be made. Besides, its been decades. |
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| After getting caught in a downpour on the bike last night, I headed home and switched to running shoes. It stopped raining in time for me to take that 15minute run with Strega. I wasn't pleased that my bike ride was cut short, but on the good side the rain slowed the men down. I'd randomly decided to chase the hot Bike South men on the fast route. Wet, smokin hot men. MMmmmSorry.Anyway, today the run was to be somewhere between 32 and 35 minutes, but I couldn't remember exactly how long. I thought I had the route picked out that would be around that time. I found out otherwise. Oh well, I got close. I don't know if I shorted myself or not though, somewhere after minute 27 my stopwatch got hit by Strega's leash and reset. It wasn't long after that that I figured it was time to stop. Strangely, I was only just getting tired of running, mostly because I wanted a drink and breakfast. Strega is addicted to morning runs now. I reckon I'm gonna have to keep it up or suffer the hyper demanding dog.Well, back to work with me. |
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| Torn |
| I'm torn. See, Bucky the Wonder Bird is fun, funny, intelligent, and high maintenance. I love looking over and seeing him playing with his toys. I don't mind his demanding attention. I love him and made a commitment to care for him.Here's the thing. I'm not home much. I mean, between work, keeping up two homes, and my workout schedule and walking Strega, I'm almost never here to give Bucky any kind of attention, let alone clean up after him. Today the power went out at the office so we all headed home early. With Strega at doggie daycare I figured I could get Bucky's cage cleaned since its been ages. I rolled it out the back door of the apartment onto the balcony, and as the wheels clattered down the slight step to the balcony surface, three cockroaches were shaken out of them.That's right. Cockroaches are living in the caster wheels of my parrots cage. I can't keep up with cleaning up after him enough to keep the roaches out. I'm never home to give him the attention an intelligent creature needs. So yeah, I'm torn. Some of y'all knew that. I guess I'm looking for some feedback. What would you do if you knew of a good home for a pet, and you were in my position? |
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| High School |
| I have some few memories of my high school years worth keeping, and several revolve around a friend I made named David. David was never a love interest. I had crushes on some of the fellows I knew or hung out with from time to time, but not David. We spent hours hanging out together after school. It was David that introduced me to Karl Prestovich and his fencing class. No, I don't mean picket or chain link (damn you punsters). The last time I saw David was in Richmond after we were both in college. We went to see Tin Menat the theater. I've wondered from time to time how he was doing and where he was.Well, today I saw his name on Facebook. I'm sure its the same David, he's listed for the correct graduating year and the correct school. I sent a message. We'll see if he remembers me. The last "take a chance"message I sent to an old friend from those days has yet to be answered. I may try again, or may not. Its been Many Many years. It would be cool though, to get back in touch and find out how David is doing. |
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| *sigh*So much for the dream of a project in Tennessee anytime soon. I should suck it up and accept that I'll be remote from home for a while. |
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| This morning's schedule held a 45 minute run. I headed to Stone Mountain and hit the trail with Strega.I must say, this dog is a machine. *I* am feeling quite puny at this point with all the running and biking (and I've no idea when or where I'll get my swim in, but I'm leaning towards Wednesday), so I stuck with the program and ONLY ran 45 minutes. Strega however, wanted more. We still had a little trail left to go, and the whole time he was pushing to keep the running pace. Of course, once we got off the trail and he had a little drink of water, he hopped in the car, laid down and relaxed, but I swear if I asked he'd run 10 miles with me.I can't say I loved running today, but I didn't hate it either. I think sticking with the program and not running longer was the right choice. I'm not dreading a 15min run on Tuesday, but if I'd run on I guarantee I'd be dreading it. Now all I have to do for the rest of the day is wonder how my teammates are doing in the criterium today. I hope they kick butt! |
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| Ok, another run this morning, this time around 14 minutes. It was supposed to be 15, but Strega wanted to stop at the dog park. Then I suited up and went for a 45 mile bike ride with some of the local folk. Let me just say, I hurt. I rode, and I was somewhere between the men and the women, but I was tired.Tomorrow I take Strega out to a trail run. Sometime between now and then though, I might have to kill Bucky the Wonder Bird. Seriously. He's now screaming at me when I'm IN THE ROOM with him. Gods what is wrong with this bird? |
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| I need my tennis ball.Its great to put right under my piriformus while sitting. |
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| Yep, I'm getting serious again.Last night I joined the CVS crowd for the Thursday night bike ride. I thought about doing the pizza ride again, but figured I shouldn't push it with my current "run more"plan. Biking is likely going to be at moderate level while I concentrate on getting some endurance in my run.Anyway, I hooked in and was moving along at about the pace I thought I should, trying to keep steady on the effort level going up and down the hills (don't. stop. pedaling.) and not worry about who was ahead or behind for the most part when Brandon Tai joined up. Seconds later, Brandon said he had a flat, so I turned around and went back for him to make sure he had everything. He said he did, we chatted a little more, then I remembered that Brandon is UBER fast and figured I could safely leave him there to catch up without my assistance. I'd more likely need HIS if I waited. So, off I went to see if I would catch the B group (I'd been with the A group, but they seemed to be less A than normal). I must have subconsciously upped the effort level, because I did catch the B group and with only a small deviation from the route, hooked back in with the A group as well. On the backside of the ride, I got cranky and made VERY clear to wheel-suck Harry that he was NOT to draft me. He could pass if he wanted, but he was NOT to sit my wheel. I even made a move later on a hill to make him think there was a race on. As soon as I saw him surge to the front and push himself, I backed down and continued MY ride plan for the day. (I also, at one surge, very carefully maneuvered my bike as I passed him to make it nigh impossible for him to grab my wheel for the free ride. It took swinging wide, then cutting very close to another rider as I swung back into line, so that if he WERE trying to catch my wheel he'd have to brake to avoid the other rider, then surge... he didn't make the surge. That was before telling him he wasn't to do it at all with me that day). Brandon eventually regrouped, but he apparently worked pretty hard to do it. Of course, he was still inserting the new tube when I left him, so he had quite the handicap in time. Amazing though, how generally good I felt to be on my bike.Then this morning I went to the next stage in my "improve running"plan. Yep, I got up early again for a run. I scheduled myself for a 10 minute jog. Strega was right there with me of course, and wondering why it wasn't longer, but 10 minutes seemed just perfect. I finished feeling invigorated and strong rather than puny and tired. From the advice I read on Slowtwitch.com, I think I'll try to run 5x/wk. Two days will be 10min jogs like today, 2 days 20-30 min like yesterday and then 1 day to go long. Not sure if "go long"will mean 1hr on the trail or more, but I'm leaning towards 1hr on the trail this weekend. I don't want to overdo the plan, I want to build myself and my running comfort. Only way to really improve it is to do it. Eventually, I'll put the same kind of focus on swimming. Just, not yet. One discipline at a time, right? |
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| Random note...Hispanic men thought I was hot enough to honk at when I was a 150lb 15yr old.. and apparently they still think I'm hot enough to honk at as a 185lb 39yr old.Funny, I appreciate it FAR more now than I ever did then. |
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| This morning I applied a pry-bar to my fat patootie and got up an hour earlier to run while it was guaranteed to be cool enough for Strega-dog. He's always willing to come for a jog with me, and this morning proved no exception.I, on the other hand, wasn't so sure I wanted to do this. After all, running is NOT my favorite sport, and I am trying to bravely face the fact that I need to do more of it to improve my running endurance. With that in mind, I decided on a minor expansion of my previous "short"route. It probably doesn't really add much, but each tenth of a mile counts. In fact, a quick check shows that in fact, it really did only add about .2 miles to the route. I have GOT to work my way up from this route. *sigh*Anyway, I felt ok for most of it. The final hill is almost .5 miles long and its pretty daunting. Strega, of course, has no problem with it at all. Me... well lets just say that on that hill I feel every extra pound I carry. That's ok though. If I keep running, I'll get stronger, right?At least I have Strega to keep me company when I'm out there pounding the crap out of myself in an attempt to get enough leg to both bike AND run. |
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| I just took an easy spin. No more than 40 minutes bike time, the first half with the Bike South in-town group. Even with the slower pace they were setting, I could tell that I didn't need to ride with them much. I was only a few miles in when I split off on my own. My legs just felt totally flat and it took next to nothing to jack my heart rate up.Of course, I knew to expect that. I was dressed for my slower pace in regular shorts and my River Gorge Trail Run technical T. In other words, I was totally Fred. I didn't care, either. I planned on riding like a fred, I might as well look like one. Shortly I'll take Strega-dog for a walk and hope he lets me get away with another relatively short distance. After all, he got to play at the doggie daycare AND with Cuma-girl today. Cuma's dad was worried at first, remembering how Cuma and Howler got into a bit of a tiff just before... but I pointed out that both were having a grand time, even if they were both play-growling and nipping. Neither was taking offense to the rough play. There was a strange dog-trainer dude at the park this evening. He uses a radio-shock collar in training. He said he uses it at low setting not as punishment but to get the dog's attention. I did NOT like him. At all. He was saying he could do more with a dog than the one Cuma's owner was planning to use for a refresher course with Cuma. We agreed as we left the dog trainer that we were not interested in training the personality quirks out of our dogs like the dude seemed to advocate. Those quirks are part of what makes our dogs unique and wonderful. |
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| I'm dialing back in on my nutrition. I let things slide recently. It started a while back, and got really bad in the last month or so. The hard part about doing so is that now my belly is used to eating junk, and if I'm going to meet my competitive goals I can't afford to keep feeding myself crap. I also could tell during my shorter-than-normal evening Strega walk that my legs are very much toasted. |
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| I'm proud of my accomplishment yesterday. I really am. So why do I still feel like a bloated warthog? |
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| Fall Creek Falls |
| This morning Dreama picked me up and we went to Fall Creek Falls for my first Olympic distance triathlon. I wasn't ready. I veered off course a bit on the swim, but kept at a comfortable pace till the last 300meters when I started to push a bit. I trotted up to transition and had some trouble getting my bike shoe on my left foot, but got it together eventually and headed out.I could tell almost immediately that my legs were not fully recovered from my week in Michigan. I did ok, but my legs felt a bit sore and weak. I pushed through though and made up a lot of the time I'd lost on the swim. Then it was time for the run. I was dreading the run as soon as I realized my bike was weaker than it should have been. I was right to dread it. The first 3 miles weren't too bad, but after that my piriformis on both sides were just flaring up and hurting like crazy. My legs felt like rubber. I started alternating walking and running. I hated it, I was scared I'd get passed by some of the women I'd fought so hard to put behind me on the bike. At about .5 miles to go, I saw a three people waiting for me. Dreama, Michelle and a man I didn't know. As I came along, they joined in, and I met Lance. He's a very good looking man, and Dreama brought him along as bait. Yes, that's right. Bait. He ran just ahead of me, slowed to walk for me when I just couldn't run, ran with me when I could run, Michelle staying right with me the whole way, till the last few hundred yards when Dreama took off to catch my picture crossing the finish line and told him to go with her. Well dammit, he WAS good looking, and about the best thing to look at out there right then. I sped up to try to keep the view and company just a little longer. I ran across gasping for air, every muscle burning and thinking I'd go blind from lack of air. Dreama thought she got a snapshot, but whatever she did, the picture didn't take. That's ok, all a picture would do is let me know how puffy I look. I guess its time to get serious again though. I only got 2nd place Athena in this one. |
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| Picture from yesterday |
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This morning, I met Dreama, Michelle and Richard for a little mountain biking at Booker T. Eventually, I'll pull pictures from my camera and have the one of Richard and I. It was good, even if I did have trouble with one climb. I hit it wrong both times. Of course, I've not been doing much with the mountain bike, so I'm not surprised that I missed it. I'm contemplating bringing the mountain bike back to town with me and using IT for my bike workouts over the next two weeks. This evening I walked Strega down to visit my trail running neighbor, Steve. I was hoping Steve's dog and Strega would decide to be buddies, giving Strega the chance for some play dates. Strega decided Ollie is ok, but not someone to play with. Ollie amused me. He's a good looking puppy, and supposedly listens when in the fenced backyard or in the house, but once uncontained in the front yard, Ollie started wandering to neighbor's houses to explore. Strega of course proved perfect recall, but Ollie... So I talked to Steve about some ways to train him. First I suggested getting a retractable leash and treats. Call dog, pull dog in, give treat. Let dog out, call dog, pull dog in, give treat. He muttered about needing to work with the dog some and that he might do that, got his dog, carried his 60lb puppy back to the yard, then watched him wander off again.This time I offered the "run away and act like you're having fun"idea. He called to Ollie once, ran a bit up the road... and saw Ollie ignore him. Strega (now leashed again) and I ran after him at that point. I called out to Ollie joyfully, got even with Steve, turned, stood on Strega's leash and saw Ollie poking his head around curiously. Steve called Ollie. Ollie didn't respond. I called Ollie in a high, excited voice while stooping down so my butt was in the air, grinning and clapping as he started trotting our direction. I kept calling his name like I was soooo excited, and clapping and going "yaaaaaay!!!!"and he trotted right to me, ignoring Steve completely. I petted him and praised him and let Steve get his dog. Then I explained to Steve why Ollie came to me, not him.I wonder if he'll take the lesson to heart and try being "the fun one"the way I did. It works like a charm.Then again, he did admit to being less skilled at being alpha. |
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| Wow |
| I got something in the mail today. I knew to be watching the mail, a fellow from the dog park told me to expect something. This is what it read:Dear Ms. XXXXXXXXOur foundation, which raises and trains Service Dogs for autistic children, has recently received a very generous donation from Mr. XXX XXXXXX, of Decatur, GA. He has asked that the gift be in remembrance of your much-loved dog, "Romeo".It is always extremely sad to lose a companion, and our thoughts and best wishes are with you. We like to think that the dogs "come back"in future litters, and so we like to re-use names of those dogs that we love. Since we have just had a beautiful litter of eleven puppies, we'd very much like to name one of the three males "Romeo".These pups will be raised by volunteers for a year and will then go into service with autistic children. They provide unlimited love, exercise, a sense of responsibility and a sense of security to the children.I'm sure you can be proud of the work that the little "Romeo"will be doing for these shildren.Kind regards Fran ElliotDirectorThe Hairy Angel FoundationP.O. Box 1074 Sedona, AZ 86339 |
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| Strega |
| It is an indication of how high energy Strega is that, after a 2 mile run (where I rode the bike to keep the pace high enough without hurting myself)this morning, he was still so full of energy that as soon as he was off the leash at the dog park for his morning constitutional he tore off at a gallop to circle around the park. He remained at about that galloping pace for the next several minutes, and upon getting home after galloping the two blocks back, was still bouncing around at the idea of breakfast.Yeah, he's resting NOW, but I bet if I got up and moved towards the leashes he'd be bouncing around in excitement and ready for a 6 mile walk.Yesterday, Bucky came down from his heights to play with some paper under his cage. This caught Strega's attention. Strega walked over to sniff Bucky's back, Bucky turned, gently nipped the bridge of his nose, and climbed back up. Strega watched, then laid back down. Once back down, Bucky climbed back down to play with the paper. My bird is very accomplished at training the dog. |
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| Oh yeah, I'll be recovering slowly from last week. Strega was driving me nuts with his hyper-dobie-morning self, so I decided we could do a 2 mile jog to help take the edge off his being wired and get me started back in running after hardly any all week.I couldn't quite run all 2 miles. My legs just didn't have the gas. That's ok though, I don't really have to work out all week. I figure on keeping it to 2 mile easy jogs and long walks till the weekend. Then maybe I'll have enough leg regained to get me going. Its time for me to start concentrating on getting distance on my running if I'm going to be ready to meet my goals next year. |
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| I'm home.It was a great week in cool weather, averaging 60 miles/day. I met great folks and saw amazing things, but I was not very diligent with my camera. In fact, I'd say I was far from diligent. After the first few days I quit carrying it with me, and even though I intended to take it to Mackinac Island, I didn't remember to pull it out of my bags as we headed to the ferry.A word about what I did see though. I saw white sand beaches that lacked only the smell of salt. One day in Harbor Springs I saw men surfing in the 6'swells that would rival the Atlantic. I saw a field of sunflowers, deer, and stunningly beautiful harbors. On the whole though, the only thing I'd want to return for is Mackinac Island. I would be willing to go there for a weekend getaway. While there, I rented a horse for an hour (about perfect considering how worn out I already was and how rarely I get to ride a horse nowadays... very different muscle group, y'know), and unlike most such places the horses were in good condition. Nor was I hovered over by a guide. The guide got me into the park and sent me down the trail, and Midge the Horse and I took it from there. Midge, of course, was accustomed to all kinds of riders and knew the way, so for me it was just the pleasure of being on the trail in the woods with a horse.As I mentioned, there are no motor vehicles on the island. All transport is by horseback, horse and buggy, bicycle or on foot. I haven't seen that many draft horses in one place in ages. What normally would be a shipment by truck was in a cart pulled by two draft horses. I was charmed. I'm sure there are plenty who would hate it... but I was charmed.Of course, it amused me greatly to see a Starbucks.Anyway, I'm home. |
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| Short library break. Michigan is beautiful. Amusing too, they think 80 degrees is hot. Heh. Some lower back pain going on ruining some of my ride, but at mile 60 yesterday I stopped for about a 1/2mi swim, then finished the 70mi route. Lake Michigan was ccccold, but it felt soooo gooooood. Today I finished the 70 miles, put on my running shoes and started trotting off. Ten minutes in I saw the library and, well, I never liked running much:-D Seriously, I need more food. My biggest concern is finding enough to eat to keep fueled up for each day. Dinners tend to be pretty small for me, what with not being able to eat the spaghetti offerings. Hopefully the bbq place I spotted on the jog here will feed me enough to ride well tomorrow.OH, and surprisingly there are a few hills! Why, there was a 3/4 mile hill today. Two climbs that back home we'd call a ridge, but here they're actually sand dunes that have been overgrown with trees and such. Neat that this area actually has sand dunes, isn't it? Can't even say that about the Atlantic, anymore.Well, my time on this is limited so, I'm off. Later! |
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