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My Year in Cities, 2009

John — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:35:31 +0000

Inspired by Jason Kottke, I thought I'd make the list for myself. Funny that I don't feel like I've traveled much this year, because the list seems to show otherwise. Some of these are the same trip, though: Dublin/Belfast, Dublin/Cork, and London/Perth.

London, England
Perth, Scotland
Dublin, Ireland *
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Blue Ridge, GA *
Orlando, FL
Cork, Ireland
Houston, TX
St. Simons Island, GA *

One or more nights were spent in each place. Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.

A few reasons the ’00s didn’t totally suck

John — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:24:24 +0000

Lots of lists out this time of year, and lots of those lists have reasons why I'll be happy to see this decade in the history books. But this Medpage Today article reminded me that good things did and continue to happen. Here's the executive summary; hit the link for a few good paragraphs on each bullet.

Human Genome Discoveries Reach the Bedside
Doctors and Patients Harness Information Technology
Anti-Smoking laws and Campaigns Reduce Public Smoking
Heart Disease Deaths Drop by 40 Percent
Stem Cell Research: Laboratory Breakthroughs and Some Clinical Advances
Targeted Therapies for Cancer Expand With New Drugs
Combination Drug Therapy Extends HIV Survival
Minimally Invasive and Robotic Techniques Revolutionize Surgery
Study Finds Heart, Cancer Risk with Hormone Replacement Therapy
Scientists Peer Into Mind With Functional MRI

How to destroy a hiking boot

John — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:58:55 +0000

Battle-scarred and weary looking, isn't it? These boots have been through a lot, and are going into well-deserved retirement. I'm pretty sure I got these boots while I was in grad school, which would make them about 18 years old (ouch). After 11 states and two countries, they have finally given up the ghost.

Chance and I were on our first backpacking trip, up to Tray Mountain on the Georgia AT with his boy scout troop. We started near Indian Grave Gap, climbing about three miles to our campsite at the AT shelter just past the top of Tray Mountain. Our group of younger scouts took the easy hike - the older scouts did a strenuous 5+ miles, beginning with a 1200' climb from Unicoi Gap.

With the exception of Saturday night, the trip was an absolute blast. The views were gorgeous and the weather was outstanding. The mountain laurel and rhododendron were still in bloom, plus there were several different kinds of trillium, lots of Solomon's Seal, and even a bit of leftover flame azalea. Blackberries and wild strawberries had started to bloom, and I saw several other wildflowers I didn't recognize. I'm sure we missed the peak wildflower season, but I've never been this high in the Blue Ridge in the spring - I tend to do my hiking in the fall, so I really enjoyed the flowers.

There were many more songbirds than I expected too, although they were very shy and I only saw a few juncos.

As I'm strolling around the campsite after setting up my tent, my foot starts dragging and I saw the toe of my boot sole had completely delaminated from the upper. I scrounged some duct tape from a better-prepared ASL (which narrows it down to, err, everyone), wrapped the toe, and decided I'd better stay off it as much as I could until the return hike.

The only thorn for the trip was the weather on Saturday night. It got colder than we expected; not horrible, but the wind! It was incredibly loud, and felt like trying to sleep next to an active runway. Like most others I slept lightly and little, finally throwing in the towel about 6:30 as the songbirds were doing a good job of competing with the wind (the quality of the problem, but still).

About halfway down the mountain on Sunday, my heel started flapping. More duct tape, just visible near the heel, held it the rest of the way down, although you can see how the entire sole started sliding forward. After getting home, I had to cut the tape off to take off the boot.

Overall, a good trip, but I'm going to have to figure out how to sleep better on these campouts to be super-enthusiastic about them. Yes, I'm getting soft in my old age, but I'm comfortable too.

I am a geek ubergod

John — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:51:18 +0000

All hail my geeky greatness.

Fingertips Favorites of 2007

John — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:08:45 +0000

In September 2006, Lifehacker published an article on using wget to grab mp3 files from music blogs. That article was based in turn on Jeffery Veen's article, and that's where I found out about Fingertips Music. Every week, the editor of Fingertips publishes mini-reviews and links to three free-and-legal mp3s of indie bands. The criteria are simple: 1) there has to be at least one free and legal MP3 available from it somewhere online (but not on MySpace!); and 2) he has to like it a lot.

I used my newly-found wget skillz to grab the Top 10 list, and I was hooked. This was music I'd never hear on the radio, and even on Sirius I wouldn't hear more than a few of these.

And now, the editor's posted his top 10 favorites of 2007, his 22 best that he's posted in 2007 (the second-tier top 12 is up there too).

Given that my alternative on a Saturday night was to work, I thought that I might review the Fingertips music I downloaded, and generate the same kind of list. Mine, however, is a more-expansive Top 24, although the order is more of chronological posting on Fingertips than best-to-worst. Basically, I went through my playlists, and grabbed the ones that I'd listened to at the expense of others on the list. So, without further adieu:

And I leave you with the first posted picture taken with my new D40, of the Beaghmore stone circles outside of Cookstown, NI.

Cars and User Interfaces

John — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 01:46:38 +0000

Tim Bray writes about Cars and User Interfaces, and makes the great point that the old chestnut. I'll just add my own little note that not all cars even get the cut/copy/paste right - witness the 2007 PT Cruiser, and try to roll down the window while simultaneously pulling out my wallet and trying to get in a lane that takes cash. All after being in the car for about 30 minutes, all highway time.

And in case you're wondering, the window controls are in the center of the dash, right below the clock. BMW's iDrive may have met its match.

Are you lookin’ at my money?

flickr — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 15:22:45 +0000

Are you lookin at my money?, originally uploaded by SuperCoop.

Paxton was named "most likely to be a financial analyst" by his teacher this past year. Lately I'm inclined to agree - this kid has been absolutely fixated on money. We started a bank account for him, and he's been asking to check the balance every few days to see if he's gotten another penny of interest. I think the concept of interest to him has certainly translated as "money for nothing". He's started a notebook of his bank statements, which he regularly reviews.

Most telling, perhaps, is his recent entrepenurial venture. He decided he needed some money. So, with his friend, he decides to start a basketball washing business. You never knew there was a market in that, did you? Well, the little tycoon managed to find three basketballs to wash - six or so bucks for that, and he's definitely feeling the buzz.

So they branch out into dog washing and walking - and end the day up about $20 bucks. Not too bad, eh?

He's taking a page from the 37 Signals philosophy (although it may have originated elsewhere, that's where I remember it from) of offering tiered services. So not only is there a market for basketball washing, there's apparently folks out there who need the deluxe wash.

I love lefties, too

John — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 15:13:20 +0000

Tyler Cowen comments at Marginal Revolution on a recent paper correlating earning ability to left-handedness. My personal experience is, unfortunately, rather to the contrary, but I think I'm a little outside the curve there anyway.

My sister and I are both left-handed. There's a high percentage of lefties in both sides of the family tree - mother and maternal grandmother, paternal grandmother in particular - but I suspect it's a little unusual to get two lefties from a rightie-leftie (at least if I remember my Mendel correctly).

My sister is much more strongly left-handed than I am, but I'm not ambidextrious - I do similar things with different hands. Eat and write left, brush teeth right. Golf and bat right, shoot and fish left. Throw a ball right, throw a frisbee left. Tennis and raquetball right, ping-pong left. About the only thing I'm strongly left- errr, "handed" at is kicking.

What the teabag wants

John — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 12:39:56 +0000

It's indicative of what a weird place my mind is. I'm making my tea this morning, and I notice there's one teabag left in the caddie. Being the good samaratin I am, I pulled out another handfull of bags from the box. And being the over-analyzing strange person I am, as I filled up the caddie I thought, "if I'm a teabag, would I want to be left behind, or used up?"

Let's set aside the obvious fact that teabags aren't generally thought to have specific wants or desires or life-affirming goals, and consider the more subtle possibilities of teabag motivations.

And for the humble teabag, what? If I'm left in the caddie, I'm a teabag for longer. But I am, perhaps, potential unfilled. Is it my destiny to be steeped in hot water, to have my essence diluted, sweetened, and digested? Of course. And so knowing my destiny, I desire it, and human again, I scramble through the caddie (dumping most of the new teabags across the counter in the process), pull out the last-but-now-first teabag, and fulfill a destiny.

I don't know if I'm having too much caffeine or not enough.

Centennial Park Fountains

flickr — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 17:59:11 +0000

Centennial Park Fountains, originally uploaded by SuperCoop.

Brian Hohing, Ginger's friend from way back, visited this summer. We did the Atlanta tourist thing, and took the kids downtown and let them play in the fountain. Brian got some great action shots, then handed me the camera and got soaking wet himself. Then came the thunderstorm, when we ALL got wet.

Oh, and for Atlanta mint juleps, don't go to the Sundial, they can't make them.