Burn the Book Burners
This banned book list really pisses me off.
"[I]t's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers." - Judy Blume
Canon 20D Firmware Update
Canon just released a firmware update for the 20D that should fix the lockup problem that many people, including myself, have had.
It can be found here.
Going Back to Cali
I'm going back to Cali. In two weeks I'll be staying in San Francisco for a few days. I'm excited and hope the weather is nice enough to walk around taking photos.
If anyone knows someone in San Francisco that's laid back and might be interested in hanging out or going on a photography excursion, let me know.
Oh, I also need a way to backup my digital pictures while I'm out there, so if anyone has an ideas how to do that without bringing a laptop, I'm open to suggestions. My best idea so far is to go to the Apple store and ask them to let me burn my photos to a cd.
World on Fire
Watch this. Seriously, do it. (Note: you'll need iTunes installed to view it.)
After you're done with that, I urge everyone to rent Lost Boys of Sudan.
It's a very powerful and entertaining documentary that "follows two Sudanese refugees on an extraordinary journey from Africa to America. Orphaned as young boys in one of Africa's cruelest civil wars, Peter Dut and Santino Chuor survived lion attacks and militia gunfire to reach a refugee camp in Kenya along with thousands of other children. From there, remarkably, they were chosen to come to America. Safe at last from physical danger and hunger, a world away from home, they find themselves confronted with the abundance and alienation of contemporary American suburbia." (source: lostboysfilm.com)
Another 20D Firmware update released
Canon just released another firmware update for the 20D, version 1.0.5.
It can be found here.
I want one
A bunch of friends got together this weekend to throw a bachelor party for Jeremy. The coolest part of the day was taking a ride around the Mississippi river trails on Segway scooters.
Like most geeks, I've wanted to ride one since they came out. We paid $70 each for a 2.5 hour ride and it was well worth it. I knew that riding a Segway would be fun, but it was better than I imagined it would be. They handle so well and require almost no learning curve to feel comfortable on.
If I lived somewhere that didn't have a snowy winter season, I'd consider buying one. Someday...
Pod Dreaming
I haven't been sleeping well this week. Saturday night I was tossing and turning until 4:30am. Sunday I was up until 2am. When I do sleep, it's not good. I have vivid dreams and wake startled in a full sitting position.
I know that some of this is stress related, but what's really on my mind is podcasting. Seriously, I can't stop thinking about it. I feel as excited as I did back in the 90's when graphical browsers were introduced. I'm having dreams every night of iPods dancing in my head.
Podcasting is the act of creating audio, posting it on the web and offering visitors a link to subscribe to automatically receive audio files on their music player. It's radio on your own time with endless programming possibilities. What's great is that you can pause, skip ahead, go back, etc. The listener has full control...the way it should be.
At it's core, there is not much different about this from tuning in your favorite radio station via a web link or iTunes. The difference is in the simplicity. There are now ways to subscribe to automatic downloads of audio content, which makes listening much more convenient.
I see this as not only something for talk shows, but also as a venue for artists, both established and new, to get their music out to fans.
The podcasting landscape is still being defined, but one thing is clear, this is going to be big.
Here are a few places that you can get more information:
- Leo Laporte interviews podcasting pioneer Adam Curry about iPodder
- iPodder.org
- How to Podcast
- iPodder podcast receiver
- How Podcasting Will Save Radio
- Podcaster
- Podcasts: New Twist on Net Audio (Wired)
- DIY radio with PODcasting
- Simply Smarter Broadcasting
Note: As I typed this, my geekiest friend and worked out a way to create our own podcast without being in the same location, even though we only live a few miles apart. I'll keep you posted if anything comes out of our experiments.
OPML to the rescue
Lately I've been looking for every excuse to maximize my productivity. I used to be able to take little breaks throughout the day to surf the net and stay on top of news, blogs, photography sites, etc. My new job doesn't afford that luxury. I'm sure that I could get away with more surfing, but to be honest, I really don't want to do that at work anymore. I love my job and am more interested in doing good work while I'm there than I am in keeping up on my personal life.
As I mentioned in my post yesterday, podcasts have become an important part of staying in touch. I can listen to them while working and to me that's a double win. However, I feel like I'm missing out on a lot by not having the time to stay on top of my favorite sites.
For the past few weeks, RSS feeds have helped me immensely. I've spent some time in NetNewsWire over the past couple of days organizing all of my feeds into folder groups. I try to check all of my feeds around lunch time and once in the evening.
I've exported my feeds as an OPML file and linked to it in the right sidebar. This serves two purposes. One, I can share it with all of you. Two, it will help me stay synchronized on my work and home computers.
I'm open to additions to this OPML file, so if you have a favorite feed that would be an obvious addition to my daily reading, please post it in the comments.
noise? what noise?
For me, one major problem with traveling is that trying to listen to headphones sucks. The bass response is usually eaten up by the hum of the plane and audiobooks are hard to listen to at a reasonable volume.
I'm now the proud owner of Bose Quiet Comfort 2 noise cancelling headphones. I was a little hesitant to pay the hefty price, but I have two long flights to take next week and figured I'd appreciate them enough to make it worth a few hundred bucks. I just got my huge T-Mobile rebate check, so this didn't hit my wallet too hard.
The girl at the Bose store let me try them out with my own iPod so I could get a true sense of they sound like. I was amazed at the quality and instantly sold. The bass response is unlike anything I've experienced with headphones and the noise cancellation rocks. They're super comfortable, but they create a little pressure on my eardrums. Based on all of the reviews I've read, this is normal and I got used to it right away. The headphones seem a little big in size, but they fold down and include a slim case that will fit nicely in my carry on bag. This was a huge selling point.
When I got home I plugged them into my electronic drumkit and played for awhile. It was pure bliss. They sound frickin' awesome. I was a little afraid that I wouldn't use these headphones for anything other than travel, but now I know they'll get lots of use. They might even come in handy at work when I want to disappear and focus for awhile.
Instead of dreading my plane rides next week, I'm now pretty excited and will hopefully be less annoyed than usual with an eleven hour travel day.
Off to San Francisco
I'm off to San Francisco in a couple of hours. I'll be making audio posts via my cell phone over the next couple of days.
Stay tuned.
Update: I recorded a few posts over the last couple of days, but each time forgot to hit the pound key. So, this means that my posts weren't actually recorded...and that I'm an idiot.
Back Home / Ableton Live 4.0
I just got home and had a great time in San Francisco. I have a lot of photos that I want to get posted and some stories to tell. However, I'm wrecked from getting up at 4am and in a cab by 4:30am. I'll make a real post later this week. Until then, here's one quick story.
On Friday I spent some time on Haight, checking out Amoeba Music and Kid Robot. Taking the bus back to my hotel I spotted a cool looking store called ROBOTSPEAK. I went in and it was a computer music shop! It was a pretty small place, but it was super cool and the guys were great. I talked to them about the kind of music that I like to do on my computer with Reason and Pro Tools.
They showed me a software called Live that I've heard about, but never really checked out. It looks sweet. Amazon had it for only $299, so I ordered it and should have it later this week. Hopefully I'll be able to figure it out and post a short tune this weekend.
San Francisco Trip Notes
Okay, I don't want to just quickly plow through my San Francisco trip, so I'm going to post about it in two or three parts. Here's part one.
I was excited to get on the plane to try out my new Bose headphones. They were incredible and lived up to all of the accolades. The only problem is that they are a little big and I couldn't really lean my head against the window like I usually do. Other than that, I have nothing bad to say about them.
I got into San Francisco at about 3:30pm on Wednesday, got in a cab and went downtown to the Marriott. The hotel was great and I got to stay free (thanks to the fact that my mom was there for a conference). After I dropped my stuff in the room I walked around the block to orient myself. The Apple store, Virgin Megastore and Museum of Modern Art were all within a block or two. Not bad.
I wanted to go to the museum right away, but it was closed by the time I arrived. The store was open and I knew that they had an amazing collection of art books, so I went over to browse. Before I got in the door I saw a homeless guy with a sign that read, "United Negro Hamburger Fund". I took a risk and asked if I could take a picture of his sign. He stood up right away and held up the sign (and his money cup). I took a couple of photos. Here's one of them in a popup window.
Even after giving him some money he kept bugging me, showing me wounds from Vietnam, crying, etc. I gave him a couple more dollars and swore that would be the last time I approach a homeless person while alone. I wasn't really afraid, but I it could have gotten ugly if he was less sane. I considered it a lesson learned and went back to the hotel to see if my mom was ready for dinner. She was. We ate, drank, walked up some STEEP hills and went to bed early.
Part two will be posted tomorrow, but now it's late and I haven't finished lusting over Delicious Library. It's due out in less than two weeks.
Bad News
I just found out that my dad had emergency surgery last night and is in the hospital for the next week. Details are sketchy right now, but it sounds kind of serious.
I might not be posting for a few days.
UPDATE: I spoke with my dad this afternoon and he's in recovery, but expected to be in the hospital for up to two weeks.
SF Recap Part II
It's been a stressful few days, but all is well with my dad. I visited him on Friday and again today. He seems fine and is expected to be going home at the end of the week. Thanks to everyone who emailed me to express their concern. I appreciate it more than I can express. My dad appreciated it as well.
Now that things are getting back to normal, I'll pick up my San Francisco recap where I left off.
Thursday was by far the best day of the trip. I woke up to perfectly clear skies and knew that I wanted to hit the streets early and enjoy the day. I took a trolley down to Fisherman's Wharf and walked a few miles down the beach to the Golden Gate bridge. It was a great, but I was a little tired from the long walk and took a cab back to the wharf and then walked up Columbus, taking in all the different neighborhoods along the way. I spent a little while in North Beach and at City Lights bookstore. While upstairs I could hear someone playing the flute in a nearby apartment. It was magical and I stood up there for awhile taking it in.
I walked around the area a little more, ended up in Chinatown and ate a Thai place called Bangkok Best before heading back to the wharf to hang out until dinner.
At about 6:30 I met up with Jose Luis, who I was meeting for the first time, at the Museum of Modern Art where we checked out the William Eggleston exhibit. After that we went to dinner at LuLu. It was a great meal and I had a good time getting to know him in real time, rather than through his website and emails. After dinner he was kind enough to show me his office. We played a couple of games of pool there and then his wife came to pick him up and give me a ride back to the hotel.
On Friday I slept in late and had a pretty lazy day. I just hung around the Haight/Ashbury area, checked out some of the stores, took some photos and talked to a few fellow photographers who were out. The coolest thing that happened was running into a guy shooting a music video for a punk group. I know what band it was for, but I'm not mentioning that yet because I'm not sure if I have permission to. I asked the guys if I could take a few photos while they were filming and they let me. Sweet! Here's one of the shots I took.
That night I went to dinner and out for some drinks with my mom. We had a good time. We don't get to spend a lot of time one on one, so it was really nice to do that.
Saturday was pretty rainy, so I just walked around near the hotel with my umbrella and Lomo camera, checking out local stores and taking photos of random things. I'm hoping to get the film developed this week so I can post a gallery.
Overall it was an amazing trip and I can't wait to go back. There are so many parts of that city left to explore. I'm hoping to get back there this Spring or Summer.
Oh, Happy Halloween! I'm going to go watch Monster. I know, it's not really a scary movie, but I thought that the title was appropriate.
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