February 05, 2007
Antarctica Log
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdent/357986458/ (Q6U)
I think I'm finally done gathering up all my Antarctica pictures and dredging up the memories for some semblance of a travelogue. (Q6V)
For the log I've written a little something for each of the days of the trip. Some entries are longer than others. Most contain links to other pages that do not exist. I plan to fill in the blanks with information on the various penguins, the locations we visited, organizing the trip, details on how we ate, and things like that. I may be some time. (Q6W)
January 06, 2007
Antarctica Trip Log
I've started recording some memories of the trip to Antarctica using a Socialtext workspace. Go there for stories and links to pictures. Let me know if you drop by. (Q62)
For direct links to photos: (Q66)
December 02, 2006
Going to Antarctica
Back in December of 2003 I said: (Q5P)
in a posting entitled "I will go to Antarctica". (Q5R)
On December 15th I fly south with friend Sean to hop a boat from Tierra del Fuego to the Antarctic Peninsula to spend nearly two weeks with seals, penguins and about 40 other people on what used to be a Russian research vessel. We'll ride around in Zodiacs, spending some portion of every day on the ice or land. (Q5S)
Sublime. (Q5T)
May 29, 2006
Returned From Kauai
I went to Kauai with some friends. It was, as you might expect, excruciatingly lovely. Being there had a devastating effect on any sense of peace I might have had about my lifestyle choices. (Q3T)
October 04, 2004
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
This weekend was the last weekend of sun I will see. Seattle is preparing to descend into several months of cool foetid dampness. In keeping with tradition, Sabrina and I made way to a wilderness destination. We went to the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, the estuary at the mouth of the Nisqually River as it enters the Puget Sound, bird central, home of somewhere between a few hundred and 97 million billion cedar waxwings (a suave character to be sure) and many other birds. (OJX)
The Nisqually River starts way up on Mount Rainier in the Nisqually Glacier and flows 78 miles to the sound. From the wildlife refuge, one can see the mountain watching over things: mindful, present, and completely untouchable. It's an awe inspiring sight. (OJZ)
Sabrina and I visited Rainier last year. This, if I recall correctly, is the Nisqually Glacier: (OK1)
Its melt flows down the mountain (OK3)
to the estuary (OK5)
and out into the sound. (OK7)
The experience of seeing the mountain from a distance is not that much different from looking at it while upon it. Its upper reaches tower above everything around it. It is always there, always watching you. The only way to get away is to go to the top. I may need to do that. (OK9)
There's a lovely trail that walks a large loop through the refuge. More pictures at NisquallyWildlifeRefugeThumb: more of the mountain, some of me and Sabrina being confused by the camera, a nice little froggie, and a seal pulling a fish from a net in the river. (OKB)
September 14, 2004
RecentChanges
I'm writing from my new home in Seattle. I'm in the midst of miscellaneous boxes delivered by UPS and the post office. The cat, surprisingly, is comfortably asleep in Sabrina's desk chair. Sabrina will be home soon, we'll make some dinner. Je suis satisfait. (NY9)
Tomorrow I will find a climbing gym. I've been to Stone Gardens so I guess I'll go to Vertical World, do some comparing, and make a choice. Later I'll find some chums, and find my way outdoors. (NYA)
Wednesday I start a new job with SocialText, helping a merry gang make the, uh, enterprise world wiki-enabled. I'm looking forward to the learning and doing with a bunch of smart people doing interesting things. (NYB)
I got here after 5 days of driving into the sunset with Sabrina and ThomAsina?. (NYC)
GoingToSeattleThumb has all the pictures, sixty some of them. Read on for some samples with a little commentary. (NYD)
The cat was initially unimpressed with being in the car. But after she realized she wasn't going to the vet and I realized she preferred 75mph to other options, she settled in nicely: (NYE)
In fact, 75mph is better than a non-moving but filled with dogs and other weird smells Super 8 motel in Billings. Here we go cruising along, somewhere in Montana. (NYG)
In Missoula we hooked up with Frank and his friend Dawn for some nice food, excellent company and talk, lots of cats, and a tour of Frank's world. Here he reminds me of a Doonesbury cartoon as he explains why the plants right there are as they are. (NYI)
We made the push from Missoula to Seattle in one relatively quick day. We took a quick break before crossing the Columbia, gazed in wonder at its lovely gorge, and made several not terribly successful attempts at a self portrait. This one's okay: (NYK)
We drove in the rain down down down out of the Cascades, across Lake Washington, and home. (NYM)
June 22, 2004
Olympics in June
Oops, I went to Seattle in early June to visit the lovely poupou, took some pictures, and did not post the pics. Here there are now: SeattleJuneThumb. (90O)
Some highlights and commentary (this is but 12 of over 50 pictures): (90P)
I had a stop in Detroit for the way out. The airport there has recently been redone with all the usual fanciness (multiple terminals, trains connecting things, etc.) plus this fountain: (90Q)
This view doesn't really do it justice. Each little jet of water can be controlled for duration of spurt. A computer somewhere does some magic that causes members of my demographic (somewhat geeky men between 25 and 35) to stand around and stare at the fountain. There was a small herd of us, scrupulously ignoring one another while trying to determine if there was a pattern to what we were seeing. (90S)
SB and I had arranged to take a rental car across the sound and peninsula to the Pacific coast. Seagulls graced the lovely blue skies on our first day: (90T)
We camped on the beach (second beach, near La Push, in the coastal are of the Olympic National Park). After our first night, we woke to a beautiful morning. The tide was out, the seabirds were swarming around their nests on the sea stacks (90V)
and the tide pools were luxury accommodations (90Y)
Our accommodations were less luxurious, but they kept us dry. Note the bear proof food container. (910)
In the night something had come up on the beach, done something and crawled away. (912)
Do sea turtles visit the pacific northwest? (914)
I was visiting with an international movie star. She was slumming with me. (915)
The weather turned a bit sour and we got a lot of wet. (917)
Slugs like the wet: (919)
After a second night in the rain we departed for the mountainous portion of the park. A drive up hurricane ridge led to some lovely scenery (91B)
and lovely flowers (91D)
I plan to move to that part of the world by the end of the summer. It's nice there. (91F)
May 26, 2004
New York Week
I spent last week in New York, attending the 13th Internation World Wide Web Conference. I had promised to blog the conference but I managed to not get around to it. I hope to soon, I learned some good webby stuff. (7EV)
But I learned some other things, not webby stuff, I ought not forget. Full collection of pictures at NewYorkMayThumb. (7EW)
There's some fine bouldering in Central Park. It's late evening in this pic as I look up towards the buildings just south of the park. I'm underneath a boulder known as Rat Rock. (7EY)
I went to the park the second day of the conference after a day of feeling socially retarded and unable to connect. Not only was I feeling shy, I was also feeling little sense of value in attempting to make a connection. (7EZ)
At the park, I'm bouldering alone. It's rained earlier in the day so conditions are less than good. After a while a guy shows up. I ask him to show me a few problems, explaining this is not my turf. We engage in SharedJargon?. We have fun. (7F0)
This represents a fundamental shift in my me. The meaning of which is as yet not fully sussed out. I'm not prepared to associate a value judgment with it quite yet. (7F1)
New York is big. In several locations throughout the place you find skylines that are adequate for reasonably sized standalone cities. This view is out the Southeast corner of the park. Here's downtown (7F3)
viewed from the Staten Island Ferry. (7F5)
I don't consider myself a city dude, but I liked New York. I conclude that most cities just aren't worth the hassle: the benefits don't win when compared with the challenges. The challenges for me are compression, oppression, aggression and apprehension. New York has way more than enough of that stuff but makes up for it in several ways: (7F6)
- The park. The cabbie took me through the park on the way to the hotel. I was thoroughly impressed and felt a relieved sense of "oh, this is here, I'll be okay." The park is a masterpiece. (7F7)
- The subway. It works and is out of the way, at least on Manhattan (which is all I'm really talking about here, I neither saw nor have any immediate inclination to see the less vertical areas of New York). Big minus points to Chicago for putting theirs above ground. Boo. (7F8)
- The food. There's lots to choose from it. Some of it even cheap. (7F9)
- Pretty people that are not fat. This is a major contributing factor. Maybe it would wear off with time but the beauty and variety of the people make you feel like you are somewhere special rather than in a toilet (despite the smell). (7FA)
- Other stuff I'm not remembering right now because this was supposed to be a short entry. (7FB)
So, with all that I found myself thinking: I could deal with this. That's not an entirely new thought: I've often thought in the heart of a giant city was certainly a better option than some random place in a medium city. Grocery delivery would be key. (7FC)
I prefer a slow entry to a place. Get somewhere and then wander in expanding circles, not doing much. I took this approach to my time in New York and liked it that way. As a result I didn't hit all the sites, but I got a pleasant feeling. That's my mode. (7FD)
When I go back, I'd like to get inside the Chrysler Building. (7FE)
I couldn't get past the lobby, but even that was enough to renew my desire to do some Art Deco exploring. (7FG)
When traveling, non stop flights on little jets are the way to go. Exit rows extra helpful. Bring own water. (7FH)
Okay, one conference comment: Semantic Web confederates and cheerleaders are not as crazy as I once thought (the errors of AI are not being repeated, as it once seemed). They do, though, need to come back to earth, focus on today, and let things evolve and emerge concurrent with real-world activity. A great deal of the design activity associated with SemanticWeb? standards is intensely architected stuff. The w3c is turning into the IOETF: InternetOverEngineeringTaskForce. (7FI)
October 27, 2003
Seattle Trip Photos
A while ago I went to Seattle to visit my lovely participant and go with her to Mt. Rainier. At that time I promised pictures and stories. Here are the pictures the WikiPiki way, you can provide the stories. (1FR)
SeattleSeptember (1FS)
September 30, 2003
Home Again Home Again
The good weather left Seattle when I did. As I flew out, the clouds were thick and low. The plane popped out into the sun in time for some nice views and pics of my weekend getaway. Paradise can be seen as the swoop of road and parking lot in the center of the bottom of the photograph. (M9)
I took many pictures of the mountain, and then the great salt lake when it showed. (MB)
So, home now. Something akin to a trip report forthcoming. (MC)
September 26, 2003
In Seattle
Yesterday I flew into Seattle to visit with my lovely and talented participant person.
Today I walked around while she worked. Tomorrow we will go to Paradise Inn on the mountain shown above. I'm extremely excited about this.
More photos and tales forthcoming.
