Category: General
Southern Catskills
Another year, another fall, and as September was passing us by I was beginning to think our fourth annual hiking trip wasn’t going to happen. Eventually David was able to tear himself away from the ‘computer to plate’ implementation at the paper. After driving all day he rolled into my driveway at 10pm on 9/19.
On Thursday we drove to Middletown to get provisions and to go to Alto Music. We ate at Johnny Rocket’s in the mall, and then headed over to Gander Mountain. It’s not the best place to get hiking gear, but they do have freeze-dried food and some other essentials.
Next stop, Alto Music — this is a very cool music store. It is very big; they have a lot of good brands; and in general there is a lot to look at. … Read More »
Camping Bike Tour
Ah Maine, I don’t know what it is, but I really like this state. I’ve been a few times now; My first time we went to Camden for a Wind Jammer cruise back in 1998, and it was hands down the best vacation I have ever had in my life.
Our most recent adventure in Maine was through L.L. Bean’s Outdoor Discovery School where we did their Camping Bike Tour, or as I was calling it the Yuppie Bike Tour. The reason for yuppie is because of the camping part — they provided tents, cots, Adirondack chairs, running water (showers and toilets), etc. I’m used to rugged camping and this felt like cheating. Of course, Ali was thrilled with the amenities, and probably wouldn’t have even suggested the trip otherwise.
The program was just an overnight with two days biking around the … Read More »
Wii!
So Ali and I bought a Wii a few weeks ago — this thing is absolutely amazing! It comes with Wii Sports, which has golf, bowling, tennis, boxing, and baseball.
So if you haven’t heard, the thing works via natural movement using an accelerometer and motion sensors. When playing sports, you actually perform the movement you would just as if it were real. This last sentence just popped a reference to War Games into my head:
David: Is it a game… or is it real?
Joshua: What’s the difference?
David: Oh wow.
This dialog is very apropos. With the Wii, what is the difference?
One of the biggest benefits of the natural motion thing is that Ali is on a somewhat level playing field with me. In the past she has shunned games because she isn’t very good at them. … Read More »
Back / Forward
One of the browsing habits I’ve formed over the years is using the right-click (or context) menu for back and forward navigation, i.e. to return to the previous page I was on. I’ve found this to be fairly efficient; I don’t have to care where my mouse points is — I just right click, and then click ‘Back’.
I switched to Firefox a couple of years ago, and I’ve been really happy, except … There are certain times when the ‘Back’ and ‘Forward’ options disappear from the context menu. The biggest annoyance is when text is selected on a page they get removed. I would often go to a page; using find to search for text on the page; get what I need; then try to right-click to go back only to find the option was gone. … Read More »
Alias
So Nate, whose blog is so defunct it is embarrassing to link to it, turned me on to Alias a while back. I’ve been getting the seasons through Netflix, which is how I view all TV these days. Anyway, I’m on Season 4, and I’m watching the “tech” guy Marshall, who normally works from the safty of his office. In this episode, he has to act as an agent, and he inadvertently killed the person he was trying to get information from. It just so happens that the data is encrypted with a bio-metric retinal scanner. So now Marshall is tasked by a “real” agent to cut the guy’s eyes out. Marshall says, “I don’t think I can do this.” To which Jack Bristow, a senior agent talking into Marshall’s ear replies, “Sure … Read More »