Hey, 2009, see the door? Don’t let it hit you on the way out. Seriously, that was a pretty lousy year, as far as years go. There were some highlights, but like a friend who has overstayed their welcome, it was really getting on my nerves, no matter how much fun was had at certain times. Hopefully, now that we’ve all moved on to 2010, we’ll just stop with all that craziness, settle down, and have a great year.
Car Camping, Camping, Hiking, Backpacking
To me, these are the four flavors of ‘camping’. Car camping is what I did recently, when a bunch of us went up to Cachuma Lake in Santa Barbara County, CA to celebrate some birthdays. The vehicle near by, you just pull out the tent and sleeping bags, haul the cooler in and out as needed and have all of your untidy supplies right at hand. Its fun and easy. It was really easy here, almost ‘not camping’, as we brought air beds, and they had showers; $.25 got you about 5 minutes of pretty warm water.
I haven’ t been ‘camping’ in a while. To me, this means basically leaving the car behind, and getting far enough away you can’t rely on it to hold all your stuff. Hiking, of course, means breaking camp at some point during your trip, and moving to another site, and exploring throughout the day. Backpacking is beyond hiking, moving all day, breaking camp every day; when you’re doing this, you are worried about the weight of everything! Ah, memories of the Appalachian Trail …
Anyway, at this point in my life, Car Camping suits me just fine. You can see photos of our weekend in the Photo Gallery.
Getting My Hands Dirty
Just one of those things that turns out to be more fun than expected, and so I thought I’d share. This weekend we decided it was time to have our annual gardening event. So, we took all of the plants outside, and everyone got new soil, and many of the crew either got a bigger pot, or got split up from their neighbor and into their own pot. All the plants seem happy after their day in the sun.
We also picked up a bunch of perennials and planted them in the planter in front of our place. Our small hand shovel broke, so it was harder than it should have been, but I remember now much I always liked playing in dirt.
Gardening
Southern California can trick you with it’s weather, but I now do really feel like Spring is on the way.
Google Thinks Photography Didn’t Exist Before 1970
I use Picasa Web Albums from Google. I know lots of folks use Flickr, but something about that site has always irked me. (I think it is all the mark up I see on photos, and all that white space in their page design). Picasa Web Albums meets my needs very well for the most part, with a good amount of storage, and a well documented and useful API.
However, whenever I try to set an album date prior to 1970, I get this message:
Album dates must be set to 1970 or later. Please try again.
I have this scanned photo of my Mom and Uncle:
You can see right on the print it was time stamped ‘Sep 57′. So, I want to set the date of the album that contains it to 1957. But I can’t, because:
Album dates must be set to 1970 or later. Please try again.
Sigh.
I opened created a post in the Picasa Web Forum about this (2 years ago), but I guess taking into account that photography existed before 1957 is beyond the geniuses at Google. And this surprises me, because one of the founders went to the same high school as my sister, and I know she understands photographs existed prior to 1970.
Maybe if I had a Ledo’s pizza sent to Sergey Brin, he would get someone to fix this. Having lived in Adelphi, and having graduated from both Eleanor Roosevelt High and the University of Maryland in College Park, he must know this is simply the best pizza in the world, and if I could get one sent to Mountain View, perhaps he would work on the code himself. Come to think of it, getting Ledo’s out here to California might be a better way to spend my time than trying to get Google to acknowledge photography existed before 1970.
Gmail Finally Gets Contact Merge
The Official Gmail Blog has announced four changes to gmail contacts. The only one of these that I really care about is merging contacts. It has been very annoying to have 3 or 4 entries for my friends who maintain work, personal and old email addresses.
The other feature which I can see will be useful, if I ever use Google Sync, is the ability to remove people from ‘My Contacts’, so that you don’t have to carry around information about people who just happened to have sent you email.
I can’t believe it took so long for them to get this working, but as of today, I have a much cleaner contact list in Gmail.
FCC Approves Time Warner Cable Spinoff
The WSJ is reporting that the FCC has Approved Time Warner’s Cable Spinoff. TWC is currently the cable company where I live, and I am not really satisfied with the service. Previously, I was a Comcast customer, but that changed when they divided up Adelphia, and in the process swapped territories to control markets. Comcast had HD OnDemand, and their Internet service was more reliable.
I am really not happy that my only other option is AT&T U-Verse. I would love for Verizon to take on both these guys with a FiOS overbuild in the Orange County market. Or for BOXEE to port their code to the G4 so I could run it on the old Mac Mini I have connected to my TV.
Also, it is interesting to see what Obama’s FCC will allow, as it will be interesting to see what kind branding and market valuation TWC gets.
Coachella 2009
So the Coachella artist lineup is out. The complete list is below, but here are the bands I’m interested in seeing, for sure:
Amy Winehouse, Bob Moud (please play some Husker Du!), Conor Oberst, Morrisey (please play Smiths songs!), Fleet Foxes, My Bloody Valentine (yes!), Paul McCartney (please play some Beatles!), Paul Weller (please sing some Style Council and Jam!), The Cure, Thievery Corporation, Throbbing Gristle(!!!), X and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Ok, I admit I want to see some of these artist perform material form early in their careers, and not so much their latest work. Coachella, though, seems to bring that out, as previous years have shown.
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Random Photos from previous years. Reload the page to get a different random set.
A Place To Bury Strangers, Alberta Cross, Amanda Palmer, Amy Winehouse, Antony and the Johnsons, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Atmosphere, Bajofondo, Band Of Horses, Beirut, Billy Talent, Blitzen Trapper, Bob Mould Band, Booker T. & the DBT’s, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Buraka Som Sistema, Cage The Elephant, Calexico, Chirstopher Lawrence, Clipse, Cloud Cult, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Craze and Klever, Crookers, Crystal Castles, Dear and the Headlights , Dr. Dog, Drive-By Truckers, Drop The Lime, Electric Touch, Felix da Housecat, Fleet Foxes, Franz Ferdinand, Friendly Fires, Fucked Up, Gang Gang Dance, Gaslight Anthom, Genghais Tron, Ghostland Observatory, Girl Talk, Glass Candy, Glasvegas, Groove Armada, Gui Boratto, Henry Rollins, Hercules and Love Affair , Ida Maria , James Morrison, Jenny Lewis, Junior Boys, K’naan, Late of the Pier, Leonard Cohen, Liars , Los Campesinos!, Lupe Fiasco, Lykke Li, M. Ward , M.A.N.D.Y., Marshall Barnes, Mastodon, Mexican Institute Of Sound, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Molotov, Morrissey, MSTRKRFT, My Bloddy Valentine, N.A.S.A., No Age, Noah and the Whale, Okkervil River, Paolo Nutini, Patton & Rahzel, Paul McCartney, Paul Weller, Peanut Butter Wolf, People Under The Stairs, Perry Ferrell, Peter Bjorn and John, Public Enemy, Roni Size, Ryan Bingham, Sabastien Tellier, Shepard Fairey, Silversun Pickups, Steve Aoki, Superchunk, Supermayer, Surkin, Para One (live), Switch, The Aggrolites, The Airborne Toxic Event, The Black Keys, The Bloody Beetroots, The Bug, The Courteeners, The Crystal Method, The Cure, The Hold Steady, The Horrors, The Killers, The Kills , The Knux, The Night Marchers, The Presets, The Ting Tings, Themselves, Thenewno2, Thievery Corporation, Throbbing Gristle, Tinariwen, Trav$DJ-AM, Turbonegro, TV On The Radio, Vivian Girls, We Are Scientists, White Lies, X, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, Zane Lowe, Zizek
Mmmmm, Bacon!
The New York Times recently covered a recipe I first saw on Digg. Basically, these two guys made famous he idea of weaving about $20 worth of bacon together into a ‘cloth’, and then filling it with Italian Sausage, and rolling it up into a loaf.
Bacon Explosions by BBQ Addicts
You prepare this in a smoker for 2 hours. I think this thing has 5000 calories and 500 grams of fat. I’m guessing the NY TImes covered this with the idea that people will make these for the Super Bowl. I can imagine what Tampa will smell like with people tailgating and preparing these, along with a Turducken, in the smoker outside the stadium.
Maybe some day I’ll prepare one of these out back. The original recipe can be found here, over at BBQ Addicts.
Hawaii
I want to get back to Hawaii this year.
Welcome!
Mike Francois
Welcome to the updated MikeFrancois.net. This site has been online for many years, but lately the technology driving it has been a bit of an embarrassment. But all of that will be fixed moving forward as I implement WordPress and some other tools, such as Shashin and Highslide. I am also implementing Facebook Connect, as you can see off to the right.
Things will be a bit rough here as I get all this done.
Note the photo gallery (historically, this sites main purpose) is now accessed at the menu tab on the top right.
