The Hitchings Post

A New Day

2009-01-25T11:12:00.000-08:00

Erica and I agree that this might be our favorite line from the speech:

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.

How I Spent My Morning

2008-11-04T07:03:00.001-08:00

Connecticut In The News

2008-10-10T09:07:00.001-07:00

According to the Globe, the Connecticut Supreme Court has "legalized gay marriage", although I feel as though the wording there might be a bit strong. Haven't they simply "illegalized" the state's failure to allow gay marriage? Maybe those things are the same, I don't know. I wish I knew a lawyer.

In any case, what jumped out at me was the following quote from Justice Peter T. Zarella's dissent:

If the state no longer has an interest in the regulation of procreation, then that is a decision for the legislature or the people of the state and not this court.

So in his view, regulation of marriage is equivalent to regulation of procreation? Is there any part of marriage law that actually deals with procreation? It seems to me as though it's all about property rights and taxes and whatnot. There has certainly been government regulation of procreation (albeit largely unenforced), but I didn't think it was tied to marriage laws.

[Update 11/21] See Terk's smart-assed reply.

Anti-Elite?

2008-10-10T08:16:00.000-07:00

I've spent a fair bit of time recently ranting about the anti-elite tone that the Republicans take, as embodied by the choice of Palin. David Brooks' column in the Times today is a good read on the subject. This section, which is admittedly without citation, surprised me:

The Republicans have alienated whole professions. Lawyers now donate to the Democratic Party over the Republican Party at 4-to-1 rates. With doctors, it’s 2-to-1. With tech executives, it’s 5-to-1. With investment bankers, it’s 2-to-1. It took talent for Republicans to lose the banking community.

Todays Thoughts

2008-09-23T12:56:00.001-07:00

1) Hurricanes...Galveston is apparently asking for $2.2 billion to clean up after hurricane Ike. I'm all for the government coming to the aid of those in need, but it seems as though each year brings more and more big storms. At what point does it become pointless? Do we enter a continuous loop of rebuilding and evacuating? Will people simply move away from the region if things continue like this for another decade? How often can the cable news stations use the phrase "storm of the century" before you start to believe in global climate change?

2) The Electorate...It's hard for me to grasp why this election is so close, but I felt the same way about the 2004 election, and we see how that turned out. Is it a simple matter of the declining size of the blue-collar middle class, based on our rapidly disappearing manufacturing sector?

3) Morality...Today's On Point had a discussion of the book Moral Clarity that I encourage you to listen to regardless of your political views. It brought to the surface a sense of outrage that lives inside me, and probably a lot of progressives, and stems from the right's claim to sole possession of issues related to morality. Maureen Dowd and Aaron Sorkin express a similar outrage in an imagined discussion between Obama and Jed Bartlet:

BARTLET That was a hell of a convention.
OBAMA Thank you, I was proud of it.
BARTLET I meant the Republicans. The Us versus Them-a-thon. As a Democrat I was surprised to learn that I don’t like small towns, God, people with jobs or America.

I have some very concrete ideas about right and wrong, and I surely love my country. I am more than willing to believe that 99% of Americans feel the same way about themselves, and though our specific ideas of right and wrong may vary, we're probably not that far apart, so ... what the fuck?

How I Feel About That

2008-09-18T13:04:00.001-07:00

It's the Economy, Stupid

2008-09-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

The New York Times quotes Henry Paulson as saying that despite recent events, Americans can “remain confident in the soundness and the resilience of our financial system.”

On the one hand, I think that he's factually correct in the long run: our financial system isn't likely to completely fail us, and there will be better days ahead.

On the other hand, he's trying to manage consumer confidence, and it strikes me as a hard sell to tell the average American that despite the declining value of his or her home, stock portfolio and retirement savings, declining real income, and increasing unemployment, they should be confident and go spend those greenbacks, since that's the cure to the problem.

Lil' Sis

2008-09-08T07:36:00.000-07:00

Is now, without a doubt, all growed up.

Why, Microsoft? Why?

2008-05-07T09:47:00.001-07:00

While flipping through a new set of MSDN DVDs that arrived in the mail today, I came across one labeled Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server Workgroup. Having absolutely no idea what any of those words meant when used in conjunction with one another, I looked up the product. Here's what Microsoft has to say:

Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 is an integrated Application Life-cycle Management (ALM) solution comprising tools, processes, and guidance to help everyone on the team improve their skills and work more effectively together.

Wow, sounds nice, doesn't it? I want to improve my skills, and there's nothing wrong with working more effectively together. However, on a practical level, I STILL HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT THIS PRODUCT IS OR DOES.

What's In a Name - Part III

2008-04-10T09:42:00.000-07:00

Jason and I were discussing one of my favorite books last weekend, and this article in the Times reminded me of it:

“My wife thinks I’m nuts,” said Jason Captain, 32, of Fort Worth who left the Navy last November, walking away from $75,000-a-year lieutenant’s pay for flying military brass in and out of Guantánamo Bay.

If only he'd waited until his next promotion to retire from the service! I bet I'm the first person to ever make that joke.

The Omnivore's News

2008-04-09T07:51:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of The Omnivore's Dilemma. I know I'm a little behind in my reading, but I'm trying to catch up, so here we are. One of the things I find particularly interesting is how the material I read in the book one night tends to show up in the news the next day. Here are two pieces from the Times that I came across in the last few days.

As Prices Rise, Farmers Spurn Conservation
Grains Gone Wild

Here's another good one: Bring on the Right Biofuels

Should we stay or should we go?

2008-03-26T12:15:00.001-07:00

The New York Times quotes John McCain:

“We have incurred a moral responsibility in Iraq. It would be an unconscionable act of betrayal, a stain on our character as a great nation, if we were to walk away from the Iraqi people and consign them to the horrendous violence, ethnic cleansing and possibly genocide that would follow a reckless, irresponsible and premature withdrawal.”

I think this touches on how I feel about Iraq right now. I can't choose a side in the "stay or go" debate, but I'm quite sure that it's nowhere as clear-cut as either side makes it out to be. McCain's usual win-at-all-costs rhetoric bothers me, but so do people who say that our time is done, and the Iraqis must choose for themselves whether they want war or peace. I would argue that we relieved them of that responsibility when we invaded their nation and systematically dismantled their government. Like it or not, we caused their current situation, and to blame them for not pulling themselves out of it seems two-faced.

Of course, I also don't support keeping 140,000 US soldiers in Iraq for 10,000 years, either. That's the problem: there is no simple answer, and maybe not even a very good complicated answer.

Happy Anniversary

2008-03-19T09:03:00.001-07:00

It has now been 5 years since the day that I sat in my sad cubicle at Vignette and read, on the front page of Boston.com, "This will be the front page story if and when we go to war with Iraq. This will be the front page story if and when we go to war with Iraq." To commemorate the occasion, the Times has published an excellent set of reflections on the war. Be sure to read this one.

Can Someone Please Close the Retard Window?

2008-03-04T12:54:00.001-08:00

Papelobon speaks about his current contract status:

At the same time, I feel a certain obligation to not only to myself and my family to make the money that I deserve, but for the game of baseball.

Man, if he doesn't get that big contract...it could spell doom for the 'ol national pastime.

One in NINE?!

2008-02-28T11:27:00.000-08:00

According to a Times article on a recent Pew report (PDF), more than 1% of US adults are incarcerated. That's disturbing, but 1 is a small number, so it's easy to shrug off. This, however, is harder:

Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.

More than 10% of black male young adults in the US are in jail?! Good lord, what does that say about race in our society? It certainly seems to help explain all of those fatherless black children that Bill Cosby likes to talk about. I think we have larger problems than the war in Iraq or the mortgage crisis...

I'll Take the Incandescent, Thank You Very Much

2008-02-26T08:55:00.000-08:00

There's been a lot of hoopla about Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs recently, first about how they're going to save the world, then a reaction about how their mercury content may be a problem, and then a reaction to the reaction, downplaying the risks of the mercury. Of course, most of the "don't worry about the mercury" arguments assume that we'll all be good eco-citizens and recycle our dead CFLs instead of throwing them in the trash. Good luck with that. Once again, we find that as much as the government and media want one, there's simply no magic solution to most of our problems.

Personally, I'm going to stick with the technology whose broken-bulb cleanup procedures have fewer than 5 steps. My favorite part is this one:

"As a precaution, consider discarding throw rugs or the area of carpet where the breakage occurred"

Secure? You bet!

2008-01-25T09:33:00.001-08:00

Last weekend, Erica and I flew from Boston to Newport News, Virginia on AirTran. We left on a Friday night, and after a busy week of work and wedding planning, I was dreading the air travel circus. I had a small roller bag with me, and rather than carry a second bag through security and onto the 717, which has tiny overhead bins, I decided to just toss my laptop into my suitcase. Originally, I intended to carry the bag onto the airplane, but after checking out the security line and realizing that I had no 1-quart Zip-locks with me, I decided to check the bag. The flight was direct, and my plan for the 90 minutes we'd be on board was to sleep. Besides, Erica was checking a bag, so there would be no extra delay at the other end. You know what happened next, of course. When I retrieved my bag in Newport News, it was a little lighter than expected. Open it up, and ... no laptop! Insert sinking feeling here.

I spent the weekend trying to figure out how to go about reporting my loss. AirTran's employees were very pleasant, both in person and on the phone, but they had no idea what should be done in the case of theft. By the end of the average conversation, I had to remind the person that I was talking to that no, I had not lost a bag, the bag had just lost some of its contents. Eventually, an AirTran customer service representative in Boston told me that I needed to fill out a pilferage report. It took the AirTran folks in Newport News a while to locate the required form, but eventually it was filed, with assurances that a thorough investigation would be performed. For good measure, I filed a police report with the Newport News police.

Upon returning to Boston, I stopped by the AirTran counter and met the customer service representative who had spoken to me on the phone. He was nice, but offered little hope that the laptop would show up. He did, however, tell me that after an investigation to rule out fraudulent reports, the airline usually compensates passengers for lost items. The next day, I spoke with a supervisor from Newport News who told me in no uncertain terms that, although my report had been filed, little action could be expected, and that the airline never pays for lost or damaged electronics, no matter what.

As you can guess, my employer wasn't super happy with me for losing the machine. Not only was it an expensive piece of company property, it also contained the source code for some of our software, and most of the email that I've sent and received in my 4+ years here. It turns out that our previous CEO's brother had a similar experience at Logan, which I read about in 2006 and, apparently, promptly forgot to take a lesson from. So now I'm doing software development on my 4 year old Dell desktop, trying to piece together what was lost, and calling every AirTran and TSA number that I can find.

What's really scary about all of this, loss of company secrets and person information notwithstanding, is that the person who took my laptop was working inside of the secure area at one of our nations' busiest airports (let's just assume that the theft happened at Logan, and not Newport News). If a TSA screener or AirTran baggage handler can open a bag, remove an item and take it out of the facility, what's to stop them from smuggling something dangerous into the airport? Neither AirTran nor TSA seem very concerned about the theft of electronics, which is apparently commonplace, so I guess it's OK with them that there are felons screening and handling luggage. I guess with security, as with everything else, you get what you pay for.

Are They Trying To Tell Me Something?

2007-12-20T07:56:00.000-08:00

I received my "AARP Membership REGISTRATION" in the mail last week. Old people like capital letters, it seems. Or maybe REGISTRATION is an acronym. TLA, the twelve-letter acronym. There's a prize for the best acronym submitted as a comment. Anyway, the first line of the form reads:

Our records show that you haven't yet registered for the benefits of AARP membership, even though you are fully eligible.

Now, I've always been a little confused by AARP, since I don't think that retirement is a prerequisite for membership. Is it now also the case that you're fully eligible once you're within a stone's throw of 30? Maybe 29 is the new 50. Or maybe we should just be suspicious of their record keeping abilities.

Which Once Again Proves My Old Theory...

2007-12-11T08:29:00.000-08:00

...complex problems don't have simple solutions.

Ned sent along an interesting article from the Times today. Apparently the solution to the Omnivore's Dilemma (disclaimer: I have the book, but have yet to actually open it) is not simply to purchase more locally grown foods. There may, in fact, be more to it. This falls into that "what if growing, transporting and refining all of that corn-based ethanol requires more energy that it produces" category. The issue is a serious one, but what I really liked was how the article concluded:

In the meantime, Ms. Feenstra said, the research has already led her to one conclusion: Don’t drive your sport utility vehicle to the farmers’ market, buy one food item and drive home again. Even if you are using reusable bags.

Be Afraid

2007-11-07T08:31:00.001-08:00

Lest you continue to wonder whether Rudy Giuliani is, perhaps, not all that bad in the greater scheme of things, this news: he has Pat Robertson's endorsement.

What a month!

2007-10-31T06:46:00.000-07:00

October is normally a great month in New England, with the leaves changing color and temperatures that are brisk but still allow you to spend time outside. This year, though, October really outdid itself.

1. The Patriots entered the month 3-0 and won 5 games, outscoring their opponents 217 to 92.

2. The Red Sox entered the month as American League East champions and holders of the best regular-season record in baseball, 96-66, and went on to win the World Series, going 11-3 in the post-season. I managed to make it to 5 of those wins at Fenway, including the two World Series home games.

3. Erica's sister got married, and we had a fantastic time over the course of the wedding weekend. My parents were even there, so we got to do some advance scouting for our wedding!

4. The weather has been great. We got to go sailing on Boston Harbor on October 27th, under beautiful sunny skies, in 20+ knots of wind, and were perfectly comfortable.

So, here's to an equally great November!

Circus!

2007-10-09T20:16:00.000-07:00

Even though the circus was at the ~~Fleet Center~~ TD Banknorth Garden, I was expecting the beer concessions to be closed. After all, the average age of the audience was probably around 10, and most of the concessionares were hawking glowing spinning thingies. I was, to say the least, pleasantly surprised to find my expectations incorrect.

What's In a Name - Part II

2007-09-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

When I started this "blog", I used the first name that came to mind, "The Hitchings Factor," and put a note in the intro seeking input on non-dumb names. Months later, we've got a winner (well, really the only entrant, so he wins by default)!

[12:35] Scott: yo
[12:35] seth: howdy
[12:35] Scott: "Oh, and bonus points for suggesting a blog title that isn't dumb!"
[12:35] Scott: i got one
[12:35] Scott: ready?
[12:35] seth: set....
[12:36] Scott: The Hitchings Post
[12:36] Scott: :D
[12:36] seth: !
[12:36] seth: I like it
[12:36] Scott: come on, that's friggin perfect

Done and done.

What's In a Name?

2007-08-13T08:09:00.000-07:00

The head of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration is Richard E. Stickler. Unlike many of Mr. Bush's appointees, Mr. Stickler seems to have actual qualifications for his job, and not just his last name.

We're Back!

2007-08-10T09:29:00.000-07:00

After a week of post-bar-exam relaxation in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, we're back. Many more photos will follow; here are two to get you started.

Hurry, to the storm shelter!

2007-07-16T06:43:00.000-07:00

Is nothing safe?!

Dangerous Java flaw threatens virtually everything
By Liam Tung, ZDNet Australia
Friday, July 13 2007 04:01 PM

Huzzah!

2007-06-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

Take me out to the ballgame...

2007-06-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night Erica and I went to the game with Katie, Hilary, Cindy and Lydia. It was the first game of the Giants series and the energy in Fenway was fantastic, the crowd unified in their distaste for Barry. The Sox pounded the Giants; by the middle of the game it was locked up and we ended up watching the second half with the girls in the right-field grandstand, where the folks around you aren't quite as uptight as they are in our seats. Erica got some great photos, see if you can figure out the theme.

Home

2007-06-05T08:44:00.000-07:00

I realized today that I never downloaded photos from the last few days of our trip. Here's Erica in Memphis.

Nothing interesting happened between Memphis and Cambridge, so here's Erica arriving at home!

Higher Learning

2007-05-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

While riding home from work on the T today I spotted an ad for Suffolk University with the tagline "No goal is insurmountable if you take the right route". I considered pulling out a pen and replacing "insurmountable" with "unattainable", but I didn't have a sharpie, and it seemed like overkill. Still, a university should know better. Not saying a lot about themselves, are they?

Fast forward a few hours: on the way home from Shrek the Third, Erica pointed over my shoulder and said "do you agree with the edits to that ad"? Someone else had pulled out their pen and done what I had failed to do, with the annotation "to surmount is to climb over". My thoughts exactly.

And Here We Are

2007-05-21T19:24:00.001-07:00

After 12 days on the road and about 4,100 miles driven, we finally made it to Cambridge around 12:30 this afternoon. It's so nice moving into a furnished apartment, you don't end up sitting on the floor for the first few days!

Memphis was fantastic. The BBQ competition was amazing, with hundreds of barbeque "teams" from all over the south coming with their cookers (and kegs) to compete. It had the feel of a giant fraternity party combined with a huge county fair. Unfortunately, something disagreed with my stomach, so we didn't quite get our 12 hours of driving in the next day. This left us pushing to complete the final 15 hours of driving yesterday, and awful construction traffic in PA and NY finally destroyed any chance we had of getting it done. We bunked down out near Hartford around 1AM and finished the drive this morning.

So, we've moved! We'll be posting a lot more pictures over the next few weeks, but that's basically it for our cross-country details. Thanks for playing!

B-B-Q

2007-05-18T13:58:00.000-07:00

Without knowing it, we've managed to vist Memphis on the weekend of the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, which means that tonight's activities are all planned out for us. Huzzah!

On the way to Memphis we stopped in Little Rock, Arkansas and walked around the park surrounding the Clinton Presidential Library. Very nice indeed. Lots of fun bumper stickers in that parking lot. We even saw a car from Massachusetts and some old folks in Sox hats.

Okajima!

2007-05-17T19:26:00.000-07:00

As hoped, we were able to use my air card to listen to the last 3 innings of the Sox game while travelling down I-40 in Oklahoma. Isn't technology great?

We stopped in Oklahoma City for dinner and Erica found us a fantastic steak house, Cattlemen's, which happens to be directly adjacent to the stockyards and in a neighborhood known as "Stockyards City". Dinner was great :-)

Onward to Arkansas!

Somewhere in Oklahoma

2007-05-17T15:48:00.000-07:00

Day 8: Santa Fe, New Mexico to Alma, Arkansas via Amarillo, TX and Oklahoma City, OK

A few days ago I published my first post on a blog ever. Now I am publishing my first post while traveling in a car down an interstate! We are currently in Oklahoma; Seth is driving and I am typing and checking my email on his laptop, conveniently making use of his Verizon data service. The connection has been a bit spotty, but it is quite fun to surf the internet and IM with friends while on the highway.

Anyhow, thus far we have exited New Mexico and passed through Texas, and are about 45 minutes outside of Oklahoma City. Today's highlights have included: a free contintental breakfast at our fancy Quality Inn hotel, a view of the largest tires I have ever seen riding on the back of a flatbed, a quick trip through Bushland, TX on the interstate, and (as of 1 minute ago) a stretch limo pickup truck with no less than 7 passenger windows per side. Everything truly is bigger out here.

In Oklahoma City, we hope to find a good steakhouse and then continue on a few hours to Alma, Arkansas. That should position us for a short drive to Memphis tomorrow. We may even be able to catch the Sox game over the internet this evening while driving.

Have a great evening! Email me!

Santa Fe

2007-05-16T22:13:00.000-07:00

Day 7: Santa Fe & Taos, New Mexico

After several days of waking up for sunrise or hiking, we both enjoyed a lazy morning here in Santa Fe. We made our way to downtown Santa Fe (we stayed out in the cheaper area) and strolled around having coffee and checking out the adobe-style buildings. We ducked into a few shops and museums, but then hopped back in the car to head for Taos.

We took the scenic "high road" which meandered through several old Hispanic villages; these towns were so isolated and depressed that it was hard for us to believe they were in the U.S. In each town, the most modern building we saw was the U.S. Post Office; most others were run-down and appeared to be abandoned. It seemed like the only business in each town were the handful of artist studios run out of dilapidated houses. These places gave me a new understanding of the term "small town"; at one point, I missed an entire town in the time that it took me to reach down and pick something up on the floor of the car!

We were ready for some grub by the time we reached Taos, so first filled our stomachs with flautas and tamales at a local restaurant (thanks AAA guidebook!) & then went to visit Taos Pueblo. This gave us a small glimpse into the traditional lifestyle of the Taos people and an appreciation for their efforts to remain faithful and connected to their past. There are 20-30 families that permanently live in this village (which intentionally does not have electricity or running water) and others that do so seasonally. We took a tour and then walked through the village, ducking into the many open art and jewelery shops. We couldn't help but think that it must be a bit weird to live your life on display to this degree; they clearly welcome the tourism but it must be a double-edged sword.

After leaving the Pueblo, we wandered through a few more galleries and stores in the town of Taos before heading back to Santa Fe for a very scrumptious and very filling Southwestern dinner. It was one of the few times in my life that I have only finished about half of my meal! I was so full that I did not order dessert despite the amazingly perfect looking pie we saw on the way in.

Now we are at the hotel and aiming to get a good nights sleep; tomorrow is a full day of driving to Arkansas, hopefully with a stop in Oklahoma for a good steak.

Sorry, no pictures today. Not sure what we will see between here and Memphis, but if there is anything good, we'll put them up.

Good night!

Arches

2007-05-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

Day 4: Bryce Canyon National Park to Arches National Park
Day 5: Arches National Park
Day 6: Arches National Park to Santa Fe, NM

View more photos from this part of the trip!

Wow, we've done so much and seen so many amazing things since our last post, it's overwhelming to think about summarizing it! After posting from outside of Bryce on Sunday, we started down Route 12, a national Scenic Byway, en route to Arches. 12 goes through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the Dixie National Forest, which were absolutely amazing. We had no idea what we were in for. Here's a scene from Grand Staircase, although photos just can't do the area justice.

From Route 12 we took Route 24 east through Capitol Reef National Monument, another hidden gem that we weren't expecting. In Capitol Reef we hiked to Hickman Bridge, a huge natural bridge, and checked out some ancient petroglyphs. Erica also found some fun places to climb.

From Capitol Reef we moved as fast as we could through relatively empty desert and got into Arches National Park just before sunset. The Devil's Garden campground sits at the far end of the park, 18 miles from the entrance, and high atop the landscape. From our campsite we looked east over desert and plateau at the snowcapped La Salle Mountains. When we arrived, a lightning storm over the mountains was illuminating the horizon.

On day 5, which happened to be my birthday, we hiked the Devil's Garden trail, visiting many of the most famous natural arches in the park before returning along the appropriately-named Primitive Trail. The area was amazing, with huge fins of rusty-red sandstone towering hundreds of feet in the air over us in all directions. Here's a view through Partition Arch with Erica in the lower-right corner.

After a birthday ice cream cone in Moab, UT, we hiked up to Delicate Arch, the most famous of the park's arches, for sunset. The time of year and clouds made the color less than it apparently can be, but the area was surreal and the overall experience fantastic. We had cheese and crackers, snapped some photos, and hiked back out in the dark. For scale, notice the person on the left.

On day 6, we got up early, packed up our campsite, and headed out for my birthday present: a guided canyoneering trip in Arches' famous Fiery Furnace. We spent the morning with one other visitor and our guide scrambling, chimneying and rappelling through the maze of sandstone boulders and fins that is Krill Canyon. The trip culminated with a rappel through the appropriately-named Rap Through Arch. Here I am on our first rappel, about 60' down into the base of Krill Canyon.

After repacking the car we headed out for the 7 1/2 hour drive to Santa Fe, which took us out of Utah, through southern Colorado and into the New Mexico desert, where we visited an Apache casino and won $8.40 on a single slot machine play! We finally made it to Santa Fe around 10:30pm where we showered off 4 days of outdoor activity and slept comfortably in a real bed.

Now it's off to see Santa Fe and Taos. Talk to you tomorrow!

Bryce Canyon

2007-05-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

Day 2: St. George, Utah to Bryce Canyon National Park
Day 3: Bryce Canyon National Park

View more photos from Bryce!

Day 2 marked the start of the fun part of our trip. Our drive from St. George to Bryce Canyon took us through Virgin, UT and into Zion National Park, which was beautiful. After an hour or so of picture-taking in Zion we headed for Bryce, passing through Orderville on the way (those Mormons like order). Here's a shot from Zion.

We got to Bryce around 3pm and set up our tent and hammock at Sunset Campground, then headed out for a late afternoon hike on the Queen's Garden loop trail. The first time you see over the rim of the plateau and down into the "canyon" is breathtaking. This place is like nowhere else on earth, absolutely amazing. In the first two days we took 365 pictures, including these.

On day 3 we slept in a bit and had a leisurely breakfast at the campsite, then headed out around 11:30 to hike the 8-mile Fairyland loop trial, which starts at Fairyland point on the rim of the canyon, dives down into the canyon, loops along around a maze of hoodoos, then climbs back up the steep rim of the canyon to Sunset Point, where you hike the Rim trail back to Fairyland Point. The things we saw on this hike defy words...you'll have to look at the pictures. After our hike we stopped at a bunch of the drive-in vista points along the rim, then made dinner and headed back to the rim to catch sunset at Paria Point.

This morning (day 4) we got up early and watched sunrise from Bryce Point. It was pretty cloudy, so the color wasn't spectacular, but you can't complain. Now we're sitting in Ruby's Hotel just outside of the park, taking advantage of their free wireless and cell phone coverage. You have to talk to Mom on Mother's Day!

On the Road!

2007-05-10T23:32:00.000-07:00

Day 1: Palo Alto to St. George, Utah
664.7 miles

4 states: CA, NV, AZ, UT

View all of today's pictures!

One full crate, one overloaded car, and two sad people headed out of Palo Alto this morning at 11am. Still full from our yummy pizza goodbye party last night, Seth and I said our goodbyes to our fantastic neighbors and friends (including their dogs) and hit the road (of course, after a good hour of running errands in Palo Alto).

We went down California's Central Valley, over the foothills, across the Mojave, through Vegas, across the pitch-black northwest corner of Arizona and into southwestern Utah. Tonight we are in a special town, St. George, UT; our beloved Spencer grew up here!

Along the way, we got some local snacks:

Saw a bit of green amidst a lot of desert:

Saw a plethora of sheep and windmills (at the same time):

And passed 60K on the Jetta:

Now we sleep! Tomorrow: Bryce Canyon.

p.s. I hope that you enjoyed my first blog entry ever.

The Move Begins

2007-05-07T14:05:00.000-07:00

Although we don't leave Palo Alto until Thursday, our move began today with the arrival of our shipping container, which will be responsible for safeguarding all of our worldly possessions on their way to Cambridge. The best part of the container arriving was, of course, the three-wheeled forklift that they use to move it around.

The Great State Roundup

2007-04-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

When planning a long road trip, it's important to understand how the trip will affect your state list, that is, the list of U.S. states that you have visited in your lifetime. Erica and I recently spent an evening planning our move from Palo Alto to Cambridge, after which I lay in bed, unable to sleep because I was trying to name all 50 states in alphabetical order in my head, along with when I visited each one. I wasn't terribly successful, but I think that I have discovered the opposite of counting sheep.

Our planned route cross-country will add three more states to my list: New Mexico, Arkansas and Tennessee. Here's the list of states that will remain unvisited after the move.

Iowa
Kentucky
Michigan
Nebraska
North Dakota

Michigan is a pretty glaring omission; the others don't seem to cry out to be removed from the list any time soon. Knocking off Alaska last summer was a huge milestone.

Sketch YOU!

2007-04-04T13:12:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I decided to use Google Sketchup see how much of our crap would fit in a shipping container for the big move east. It took a little while to get used to the interface, but in the end, I found it quite powerful and not overly complicated. Here's my result.

All That the Market Will Bear

2007-03-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I went to a presentation by Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickled and Dimed, on how the US is systematically abusing its working class. I couldn't imagine a better example of Barbara's arguments than the following:

Circuit City has announced that they're firing their highest paid sales staff and replacing them with lower paid workers who, if they do well, will presumably be promoted until they reach the level of "too expensive", at which point they'll be fired as well. Cut staff will have the option to apply for lower-paying jobs after a 10-week waiting period.

When I was a kid and the Soviet Union was still that giant pink blob on the map, I remember arguing that Communism in that form would never work because it removed the incentive to work hard and differentiate yourself from the pack. It's sadly ironic to see this becoming a problem for a market-based system. I propose that, since they'll clearly have the worst customer service staff, we all stop shopping at Circuit City. Oh, wait. We already did. That's why they're in this mess.

BSoD

2007-03-27T23:02:00.000-07:00

Tonight, for the first time in four or give years, Windows gave me the gift of the Blue Screen of Death. Silly me, wanting to eject my iPod so I could take it with me on a trip. I guess I should have known better. Although in this case, I'm inclined to blame IBM/Lenovo over Microsoft. Their general strategy with the Thinkpad seems to be:

1) Find features present in Windows.
2) Reimplement them, but slower, more confusing, and less likely to work.
3) Profit.

And You Think It's Bad Here?

2007-03-22T14:55:00.000-07:00

Before you rush off to the left-leaning haven of Europe, where Kyoto ain't just a city in Japan, consider this from the New York Times:

A German judge has stirred a storm of protest here by citing the Koran in turning down a German Muslim woman’s request for a fast-track divorce on the ground that her husband beat her.
In a remarkable ruling that underlines the tension between Muslim customs and European laws, the judge, Christa Datz-Winter, said that the couple came from a Moroccan cultural milieu, in which she said it was common for husbands to beat their wives. The Koran, she wrote, sanctions such physical abuse.

WTF?

Going Green

2007-03-21T16:14:00.000-07:00

Al Gore may be enjoying his newfound celebrity, but don't worry, he hasn't really gone Hollywood on us. If he had, you wouldn't see pictures like this on the front page of boston.com:

Now, does that look like the face of the guy who invented the internets?

Support the Troops!

2007-03-13T21:28:00.000-07:00

Most rational people in the US would admit that having a debate over the war in Iraq does not constitute lack of support for our troops. Even the President admitted it recently. Many Republicans in Congress still seem to rally around this fallacy, though. There's an excellent Op-Ed piece along these lines in today's Times. The final paragraph summarizes the point quite well:

One final debate-stifling claim deserves mention: the argument that even to debate our troops’ mission in Iraq somehow undercuts and endangers them. Surely this has it backward. Four years have passed since the Iraq war resolution was passed, in very different circumstances for purposes no longer relevant. We certainly owe those who put their lives on the line every day a renewed determination of whether their continued sacrifice is necessary for the national interest.

The same sentiments, expressed by William Ellery Channing during the 19th century, have lived on my homepage for some time.

The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should therefore be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated. If the doctrine be admitted, rulers have only to declare war and they are screened at once from scrutiny ... In war, then, as in peace, assert the freedom of speech and of the press. Cling to this as the bulwark of all our rights and privileges.

Two thoughts jump to mind. First, our current problems are neither new nor unique in history. Second, we sure don't seem to learn from our mistakes.

Ask not what your city can do for you...

2007-03-11T14:05:00.000-07:00

There are advantages and disadvantages to living in extremely wealthy towns. On the downside, the cost of living tends to be quite high. On the other hand, you often receive top-notch services. Yesterday's mail contained our copy of the Palo Alto City Pages, "a publication of the city of Palo Alto". You can imagine our excitement when, under the headline City Wins Prestigious Awards, we found the following:

Excellence in Garbage Collection Services

It's going to be hard to leave this sleepy valley town that's rated in the 97th percentile for garbage collection services.

Family Values

2007-03-08T16:25:00.000-08:00

I don't claim to have the answer to America's immigration problems, but I'm quite certain that it isn't to go round up all of the undocumented workers in this country and ship them back from whence they came. It's one of the few things that the President and I agree on. That and a love of fishing.

This story is especially ironic because the workers in this story were making products used by our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

O'Hare Again

2007-03-01T13:38:00.000-08:00

This time it's my parents connecting through O'Hare on their way to visit me; their connecting flight is delayed about 3 hours. The FAA's web site explains the delays thusly:

Due to WEATHER/LOW CEILINGS and RUNWAY/HOLE IN RUNWAY, there is a Traffic Management Program in effect for traffic arriving Chicago OHare International Airport, Chicago, IL (ORD). This is causing some arriving flights to be delayed an average of 3 hours and 1 minute. To see if you may be affected, select your departure airport and check "Delays by Destination".

You really have to wonder what caused the "HOLE IN RUNWAY". Also, watch out Mom & Dad, United says you're having the same meal that I had last time.

I Like Airplanes AND Software

2007-02-28T16:10:00.000-08:00

And I sure am glad that my airplane doesn't have much of any software keeping it airborn.

Mmm, Tastes Like Science

2007-02-28T11:31:00.000-08:00

Oh to be a 21st century ichthyologist! Gone are the long, lonely nights at sea and the perils of the deep. Now all you have to have is a passion for shopping in dank, smelly spaces.

ps. I suggest that all future studies on global climate change be conducted at the beach.

pps. I got to use the word ichthyologist in a sentence. That's 5 bonus points.

Wheeeee!

2007-02-27T17:19:00.000-08:00

Apparently the Nintendo Wii is a porn portal. I wasn't planning to buy one, but now it seems irresistible.

If At First You Don't Succeed

2007-02-27T13:17:00.000-08:00

Today's Fresh Air has a captivating (and terrifying) interview with Seymour Hirsch on the administration's Iran policy. My take-away so far is that politics in the middle east are so convoluted that there is absolutely no action that we can take that doesn't somehow contradict our national interests. Of course all politics is compromise, but these situations are serious enough that they would seem to argue for us to step back and disengage on many fronts.

Among the interesting things that I learned while listening: when they invaded Iraq, the administration allied with the Shia, which makes sense because Saddam's Baath regime was predominantly Sunni. Some intelligence analysts warned that because Iran is a predominantly Shia state, there was a risk of Iraq falling under Iranian influence. The administration, on the other hand, believed that the memory of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s (in which we openly supported Saddam and the Iraqi Sunni) would keep the Iraqi Shia closer to the new Iraqi government and away from Tehran. As we all know, the administration has now changed course and is telling anybody who will listen that Iran is fomenting terrorism among the Iraqi Shia. This seems to me another case of the administration creating a theory and making plans under the assumption that it was true, rather than using any sort of real-world evidence. Remember being "greeted as liberators"?

Another interesting tidbit: members of the Joint Staff have threatened to resign if the administration does not remove the "nuclear option" from its contingency plans to bomb Iran. In fact, the Times Online has reported that there are a number of top military leaders who have threatened resignation if we even attack Iran. Good for them, I wish I had some leverage to get my voice heard. Hey, Phil: if CoreStreet attacks Iran, I'm going to quit.

Watch My Life!

2007-02-25T14:03:00.000-08:00

If you feel like knowing what happens in my life even before I do (or if you want to see all the photos from 3 years ago that I never bothered to post to my web site), you can subscribe to my Flickr photostream here.

FREE Super Saver Shipping

2007-02-23T14:06:00.000-08:00

or, You Always Get What You Pay For

In late January I ordered a new Canon SD700 IS camera to replace my venerable SD400, which died an unpleasant death over Christmas break. As usual, I ordered from Amazon, and not being in any particular rush, I chose their free Super Saver Shipping option. I've had good luck with Super Saver Shipping; some packages arrive within a couple of days. This one, however, did not.

A couple of weeks after ordering, I checked the shipment tracker at Amazon and was amused to find that my camera had been shipped promptly from an Amazon warehouse in California (the state that I live in), and that the next tracking record had the package arriving in Minnesota (nowhere near where I live). The package went out on a truck in Minnesota on 2/13 and after that, silence.

A few days ago, tired of waiting, I notified Amazon that something was fishy. They decided that the package was lost and shipped me a new one, this time via UPS and not USPS. The replacement camera arrived yesterday and seems great. More on that later.

Today, the original shipment finally arrived, looking slightly the worse for wear:

Here's the final shipping route from USPS.com:

Delivered, February 23, 2007, 12:49 pm, PALO ALTO, CA
Enroute, February 23, 2007, 12:31 am, RICHMOND, CA
Enroute, February 13, 2007, 1:32 pm, SAINT PAUL, MN
Enroute, February 08, 2007, 12:55 pm, RICHMOND, CA
Electronic Shipping Info Received, February 05, 2007

I'm glad that the replacement arrived first; I wouldn't have been too happy to see my expensive new camera in that state. One can only imagine what happened during shipment (theories are welcome).

NPRcasting

2007-02-23T09:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Sean blogged about his increasing reliance on podcasts to pass the vast amounts of free time that he has now that Flurry is on cruise control. Short on listening material, he asked for suggestions, and I felt compelled to come to the rescue.

This American Life is far and away my favorite NPR program. It can't really be described (try explaining Blue Man Group to your mother), but it's well worth your time to check it out if you're not already a regular listener.
Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is a great way to entertain yourself and to test how well you've been paying attention to the week's news. My favorite section is always the limericks.
Car Talk, sadly, isn't free. Yet.

Of course both of these programs are produced weekly, so they're not going to fill your morning commute every day of the week, but they'll make your Mondays happier.

Yukon Ho!

2007-02-22T08:49:00.000-08:00

A mere 6 months after returning from Alaska I have managed to get my photos online. I haven't done any retouching or removed any of the terrible ones, so you're seeing the complete, unfiltered trip as recorded by my trusted SD-400, which has since gone to sleep with the fishes.

Photo Sharing 2.0

2007-02-21T11:15:00.000-08:00

I broke down last night and spent the $25 required to upgrade to a Flickr pro account. I've been torn between continuing to use my own personal web site for photo albums, or moving towards a sharing service. In the end, despite all the infrastructure I put into place on my site, it's just much easier to work with a service, and I've found Flickr to be the best, so I made the move. I still plan to use my site for my favorite shots, maybe a gallery of actual quality photography vs. simple photo sharing. We'll see how that goes.

For now, let's explore some of the features of Flickr that I could never hope to replicate on my own. Today, we'll discuss different ways to explore my photos.

Tagging. You can't be Web 2.0 without supporting tagging. Want to find all of my photos that I tagged lighthouse? There you go!
Geotagging. While this feature isn't unique to Flickr, it's the first time I've used it, and I think they've done a great job with the implementation. Want to see all the photos I've taken in Maine? No problem!
Calendar. Want to see all of the photos that I took in February, 2007, laid out in a nice, clean calendar? Sure!
Combined. Sure, geotagging is neat. And yes, viewing on a calendar is great. But what if I want to combine them and see where I took photos in February, 2007? No problem, Flickr does it!

Now of course, tagging and geotagging require me to put in some effort when I upload my pictures. Tagging is probably going to stay that way, but camera manufacturers are already beginning to embed GPS receivers in their devices, so automatic geotagging is becoming a reality! Unless you take pictures in the subway. Then you're just hosed.

If you're actually viewing this blog, and not reading this post in an aggregator, you'll always be able to see my three most recent Flickr photos over on the right. If you're using an aggregator, why not add me as a contact and subscribe to your Friend's Photos?

I fought the weather...

2007-02-15T14:25:00.000-08:00

...and the weather won. I'm stuck in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, trying to get back home to the bay area. There are no seats available today or tomorrow, but hey, waiting standby for a dozen flights promises to be a good time. I'll keep you posted.

United's detailed description of the first flight I'm trying for is as follows:

Time enroute: 4 hour, 38 minute
Meal: null
Entertainment: Movie

I guess I'll need to get dinner before we leave if I get on this one...

Oh Tony...

2007-02-04T19:23:00.000-08:00

Three Super Bowls in four years, and Bill Belichick didn't credit God with any of them. Hooray for the separation of church and football.

That's Me!

2007-01-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

While sitting in SFO waiting to fly to Boston this afternoon, I encountered the following clue in a Boston.com crossword puzzle that Erica was kind enough to print out for me:

Adam's third son and clockmaker Thomas

Now if you're religious, you might get the answer from the first part. If you're into clocks, you might get it from the second. If, however, you happen to have been named after the aforementioned clockmaker, and even better, happen to have grown up with a giant picture of him in your living room, then you're going to be pretty excited. That's right, the answer is Seths, and it marks both the first time that I have used my given name in a crossword puzzle and that I have seen a crossword clue make reference to a relative of mine. Talk about a red letter day. I think I may have to retire from puzzling.

No, I did not finish the puzzle, although I fought the good fight until the in-flight movie started. Quick, I need a five-letter word for "Bikini Blast".

ps. Although I knew that Seth was Adam and Eve's third son, I didn't know until tonight that Eve believed him to have been a replacement for Abel. Thanks Wikipedia. I'm still relatively sure I was the first child.

Making Radio

2007-01-11T12:15:00.000-08:00

When we were in college, Sean and I had the great privilege of running the nation's premiere student-operated commerical college radio station. I have a lot of great memories from those days, but none is more important than this, originally available as a radio dispatch, which is why I was recently overjoyed to find out that I can still enjoy such high-quality programming.

The Strategy Revealed

2007-01-10T23:17:00.000-08:00

I just decided that one of my New Year's resolutions is to blog periodically. Not because I think you care what I have to say, but because it might help me to keep my writing sharp. Here we go...

The New York Times has a good response to the President's lackluster presentation tonight of his new plans for Iraq. Here's what I decided after reading it (plus a less damning piece at the Washington Post):

When President Bush unveiled his new tactics for Iraq tonight (and I think that any relatively unbiased observer would agree that they represent, at most, a shift in tactics, not strategy), he unwittingly confirmed for us his actual strategy, which I believe he settled on some time ago. The President has concluded that, given the current state of affairs in Iraq, the only logical thing to do is to look as though he's trying his best until January of 2009, when the problem will suddenly belong to someone else.

The idea that Bush can't bring himself to change course in any meaningful way is interesting: is he absolutely resistant to change, or simply unable to make the move? After reading David Rose's recent article in Vanity Fair, in which the leaders of the neocon movement lament Bush's mismanagement of the war, I'm fascinated by the view among neocon insiders that Bush, the self-anointed decider, is anything but. Here's an excerpt in which in which Rose recounts a discussion with Richard Perle.

Yet Bush "did not make decisions, in part because the machinery of government that he nominally ran was actually running him." That, I suggest, is a terrible indictment. Perle does not demur: "It is." Accepting that, he adds, is "painful," because on the occasions he got an insight into Bush's thinking Perle felt "he understood the basic issues and was pursuing policies that had a reasonable prospect of success." Somehow, those instincts did not translate into actions.

You really have to read Rose's article, it's fantastic, and it hammers home a point that I have heard sporadically in the past: the President isn't dumb, in fact he's quite smart. Unfortunately, he's never been a successful manager of anything, and right now he's foundering at the top of the largest bureaucracy in the world.

I'll leave you with another piece from Rose (the link is mine).

The most damning assessment of all comes from David Frum: "I always believed as a speechwriter that if you could persuade the president to commit himself to certain words, he would feel himself committed to the ideas that underlay those words. And the big shock to me has been that, although the president said the words, he just did not absorb the ideas. And that is the root of, maybe, everything."

Ooh, Shiny!

2006-12-20T19:55:00.000-08:00

If I don't blog I can't be one of Time's persons of the year.