My camera is back from the shop!

It's been 5 weeks, but I finally have my camera back. The lens was damaged over the New Years weekend, but all seems to be okay now. Having it back inspired me to add a AC adapter...thanks eBay! Should get some use out of it this weekend...

IFTF has launched a new blog: Virtual China

Virtual China is an exploration of virtual experiences and environments in and about China. Researcher Lyn Jeffery and former intern Jason Li are the two contributors. The blog is part of a larger effort by IFTF to dive deeper into the future of Asia. Good luck Lyn & Jason!

(They Long to Be) Close to You...

...by The Carpenters was the #1 song in the country when I was born. Find out what yours was here. Thanks for the link Carmen!

Blackout last night

A big storm went through the Bay Area yesterday causing some blackouts. My house was affected, with the power off from 6:30pm(ish) until 12:30am. I was in the city playing vball in my Monday night league so didn't have to spend too much time with candles and flashlights. The most exciting part of the storm (for me) occurred after the vball match when some of my teammates met up at the Hyatt Knuckles bar/restaurant. Around 10pm, there was a huge gust outside the restaurant that ripped the 15' x 5' x 5' awning right off the facade. It...all ~500 pounds of it...just missed landing on some patrons who were enjoying a smoke outside. See how dangerous smoking is!!!!

Tab energy!

My co-worker, Jason, just popped open a can of Tab energy. Fizzy, pink and way sweet...so good that it comes in a 10.5 ounce can and not something larger. After a few sips, the sweetness died away, making it drinkable. The color (of the liquid and the packaging) destine it to be more popular with the ladies out there, but who knows...

The New Yorker is writing about it and there is even an entry for it on Wikipedia. Is a Tab energy revolution just around the corner? Is Red Bull scared? If you start to see it in photos of People, then I think the answer to both is, "YES".

Autistic basketball player

This HAS to be the best basketball story ever! I can't imagine what it would have been like to be a student at that school and witness it first hand.

The slow death of newspapers

While walking back from lunch this afternoon, I saw something odd...attractive models, dressed in black, handing out copies of the San Jose Mercury News for free on University Avenue. Is that what newspapers need to do to compete with Craigslist and other forms of online media that continues to claw away at their margins? If so, I feel very sad for them. One of the models even had one of those flashing MGD buttons...perhaps for her gig come happy hour pushing Miller Genuine Draft to the masses. Sadder still...no one was taking the paper from their hands...just a simple "no thanks" from each passerby.

Now I still get the Chronicle delivered every morning...cause it feels good to have the paper on the morning train to work (even though I glance at sfgate.com when I awake) or in front of me on Sunday morning, but mostly because I only pay $0.30 a week for having it deliverd to my door.

I don't see the younger generation reading them on the train. Books and magazines...but not newspapers. How long before they wither away and die?

Valentine's Day SPAM at work

I receive all the info@___.___ email to my employer. This morning I received the one below.

My two favorite lines:

1. Don t worry, it is not the last of pea-time...
2. Do not kill the clock!

-----Original Message-----
From: Erika Reese [mailto:keith@01342.com]
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 4:00 PM
To: Info
Subject: Fucking St.Valentine

What are you to do if you have bad erection? Especially in the forthcoming Saint Valentines Day???
Don t worry, it is not the last of pea-time...
The most simple way is to visit our site, order the medication and that is all you are to do!

Do not kill the clock!

http://ovideadeal.com/

Attending O'Reilly's Emerging Telephony Conference this week

From Tues - Thursday, I'll be at O'Reilly's Emerging Telephony Conference at the SF Airport Marriott. It seems to be a mix of hackers and big companies geeking each other out on the future of communications. Tonight, some of my colleagues are hosting a Birds of a Feather session on Cooperative Mobile Service Ecosystems...think about a wireless world where you could surf the web seamlessly and use third party applications that worked on all handsets and via all service providers. Hard to imagine? Well...we half to start somewhere, right? Hopefully we'll get a good turnout tonight!

My only bad takeaway so far has been the audacity of a couple of guys to answer their phones and have a conversation while a lecture was in progress (evil stares from many towards both). I hadn't seen that in years. Lacking a camera, proper sousveillance of the infractions was not possible. Next time...

35 below...

My boss is going to Russia this week for work.

She received this email today:

Dear XXX,
please, take care: it is terribly cold these days in St.Petersburg and in Moscow, 35 degrees below zero (Celsius) is expected by the day or your arrival.

For us non-metric Americans...that is -31 Fahrenheit!!!! Hope she stays inside the whole time cause it is COLD there!

Gen X-er Memories

This morning, a co-worker sent me to a You might be a Gen X-er if... site and it sure brought back memories. About half of the list is true with me. One *lost* memory was Friday Night Videos. My friends and I would stay up for HOURS watching pre-MTV videos. What are some of your favorite memories?

Winter camping/snowshoeing in Sequoia National Park

Had a great, long weekend with my photographer pal Michael...(here are his flickr pics). We left for Sequoia National Park on Saturday morning and arrived at Lodgepole Village camping area in the early afternoon. After setting up camp (not too far from the car), we set off for Tokopah Falls and saw a total of five people on the whole trail. It being winter, the falls weren't all that spectacular, but I'm sure that they look incredible in the springtime.

Since the sun was waning, we didn't stick around too long and headed back to the campsite. Once there, we chatted and read for a bit and by 7pm popped open a bottle of wine and began to heat up some water...nothing better than dehydrated food when camping! By 9pm we were sound asleep.

Morning came (32 degrees in the tent...25 outside) and we woke up at 4am. The plan was to showshoe up to Moro Rock and take some sunrise pics. However, the weather gods were not with us, so we returned to camp. After breakfast, we headed over to Wuksachi Village to get some batteries at the lodge (the batteries for the digital camera that we purchased the day before were crap). We then headed back to the parking lot at the Giant Forest Museum and chilled for awhile til we got closer to sunset time. The weather kept changing...snow...wind...blue skies...snow again. By 2pm, we decided to shoe it on up to Moro Rock. An hour later we were standing on the shoulder of the Rock and Mike was ecstatic about the conditions. While he was getting in position and taking some black & white shots, I took some pics of him in action.

Unfortunately, we didn't have much luck. After about 20 minutes, the fog rolled in and only got thicker as we attempted to wait it out. After about a half hour, we packed up and headed back to the car.

We decided to head over to the Lodge at Wuksachi Village and have a beer before returning to camp. After a scotch, I took a peek at the menu and we quickly agreed that a steak dinner was much more desirable than another dehydrated meal. We both had a steak and I enjoyed a Sam Smith with mine...I hadn't had one of them in years...very very good!

Filled, we returned to our riverview campsite and were soon asleep (by 8pm or so). Mike set the alarm for 6am. His intentions were to drive down the road a bit and look for good light. By 5:15am, he was motivated enough to get up and go to the car (it was 14 outside and 20 in the tent). I learned that a 20 degree rated bag isn't the best to have in this situation. Next time, I'll have a 5 or 0-rated one. Mike was back by 9:20am and we, rather he, made breakfast and then we packed everything up and headed over to the General Sherman tree (the largest tree in the world) for some pics. Back on the road by 11:30, we made it to the Bay Area by 5pm.

[Update...here are the pics of the trip. Thanks Michael!]

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

I read this book over the New Year's holiday (recommended by my co-worker Jason). I like how a reputation system, using Whuffie, overtakes the money world we now live in. Living forever in a post-scarcity world also has its plusses. It 's a quick read...around 200 pages, so you can read it in 2-3 hours or so. Enjoy! Author, Cory, is one of the four boingboing bloggers.

Long weekend...

If taking off to either snowshoe/camp in Sequoia or explore Death Valley with my friend Michael. Will have an update of what we did in a few days...

Some good websites I saw this morning...

Enjoy!

• How to quiz a telemarketer
• A personal Annual Report
  
• Things learned by kids from watching children's films