Camping with the Cubs

I always thought the idea with the Scouts was that you handed your kid off to them, they went camping and you put your feet up and chilled out. Alas, not so in America. If your kid goes camping, you go camping with them (which is probably just as well, given that Alexander is only 6). And so it was after 20+ years I went camping once again, this time with my son.

The cub scouts borrowed the San Jose Peace Officers camp ground for the weekend, off highway 9 near the summit. Getting there was kind of scary, since the place was a little like a Libertarian stronghold with signs all over the place saying we where trespassers and would be arrested. Still there was plenty to do for the kid and Alexander had a blast.




There wasn't any hiking involved. You just drove up and pitched your tent. Here is our little yellow and gray tent beside our little and yellow and black car.


After a dinner of boiled beef and carrots Alexander flaked out, but was determined to stay by the camp fire until the marshmallows got roasted. Two "Smores" down he finally admitted he was tired and we headed for our tent. "I'm scared!" he sobbed, "What if there is a deer?" I spent some time explaining that deer didn't hunt people and that it was the other way around. Once we were in the tent with lamp on, the outside world disappeared, and he was quite happy. So happy in fact that he woke me up to tell me just how happy he was with camping at 5:00am. Needless to say we where the first ones to break camp and headed down the hills to Los Gatos for a fine breakfast at Gillies, stopping only briefly to look at a deer at the side of the road that took one look at us and bolted.

New Photo Album Site

Sept-06-Fiona and the new lens

With the demise of the server in my friend Johns bathroom cupboard. I have had to find an alternative place to put pictures. Google to the rescue! Click above picture to see a small album. I must say that Google has changed the way I compute. Dena and I now share out calendars there and I moved over to gmail a couple of months ago and never looked back. The Logstick website cost me $15 to implement and the site itself resides with Google. This Christmas we will be moving our contact database to Google as well.

You know you are in Silicon Valley when...

...the vending machines sell iPods.

I kid you not!

A trip to the swamp

From Dallas I flew down to Miami arriving around 10:30pm. As I was arriving late I asked my travel agent to find me somewhere near the airport. The directions the Hertz map computer spat out were meaningless since I had no point of reference, so I took a chance and asked the lady on the gate how to get to the hotel. She was only too pleased to help and produced a map, a set of directions and off I went.

After 30 minutes of driving I concluded that either my hotel was not near the airport or I wasn't near my hotel. The answer was Yes and Yes.

I find the folk down there really hard to understand and they feel the same about me I'm sure. After are rather lengthy to and fro with the desk clerk via my mobile he managed to give some directions that worked.

Alas, when I arrived my hotel was (by my book) a motel. I should have known by the word Inn in the title. Worse than that, the obligatory air conditioning unit in the wall by the door was in bits and squeaked madly from time to time. I took my chances and turned it off.

Morning came and I was awoken by a couple of jets landing as the curfew ended. I paid my dues, showing the lady at the front desk the picture of the air conditioner. As I headed to my rental, a car crashed on the off ramp next to the hotel. It made a lot of dull thuds and then I could see steam coming from where the car lay. I turned round to go back to the hotel and tell them to call the cops but found another couple were ahead of me. I tried to confirm what their intent was, but they like so many people around there they didn't speak English, so I gave up (I knew the lady behind the desk would understand them since she had a hard time understanding me).

Heading up to Jean's place was a nice drive. Big roads, blue sky, palm trees and swamp with a fence between the road and the swamp to keep out the 'gators. Last time I was in Miami I went swimming and there was fence in the ocean to keep out the sharks. Good idea on both counts!
The town where he lived was from what I could tell a nice place. It had big roads, blue sky, palm trees and lakes (aka civilized swamps). I had a good visit with Jean, he seems like really genuine guy and his Mrs was just pure French Candian and lots of bubbly fun. I hope I get a chance to visit again and stay a bit longer.

Backwoods BBQ

Having spent most of the Fall last year in Plano, Texas, if there is one thing I have a hankering for, it's proper Texas BBQ. When Jon and I had chat at DevCon and he told me the next time I was out his way, he would take me for the ultimate BBQ experience.
I arrived at ARM Plano hungrier than an H block inmate having gotten up around 4:00am to travel to Dallas with Marty who was heading on to Alabama. We had pleasant flight, I enjoyed her company. Endless flights alone are just plain lonely.

Anyway as soon as I arrived, Jon said "Let's go!" and we headed out to "Delicious BBQ". It's a good job Texas is a big state, otherwise we would have plain ended up in another state before we had gotten to where we had to be. Despite the distance we got there real fast on account of the fact that Jon had his Ferrari with him.

Delicious BBQ is in St. Paul next to Wylie somewhere in Texas and turned out to be an unpainted wooden shack on the forecourt of a gas station. I mean this place had less charm than a box full of rattlesnakes. I grabbed my phone an started to snap a picture of the outside. "Take one with the Ferrari in front" Jon said so I did. How was the food? "Awesome!" and the place had a kind of rough charm just like an English pub which made me feel right at home. I glanced across the street to Sonic Burger, another member of the Sonic Burger chain which is another member of the fast food chain and I sighed. Why don't people get it? Individual little places like this are where it's really at.

The over zealous fan

The Tornadoes having apparently beaten every team they have played, met their match today on the soccer field. I say apparently because as with tee ball, in the the first year you don't keep score. It all about taking part and doing your best, not thrashing the other team into the ground.

However, one fan was really keen on winning and kept shouting words of encouragement and complaining loudly when the other team went into a huddle and were advised how to play by their coaches. "They can't do that in the middle of the game." the fan shouted.

When the Tornadoes finally triumphed 3 goals to 2 (not that I was counting) the fan was ecstatic. Hmmmm. I think I will buy Dena a scarf, a rattle and a air horn for Christmas!

Dhuloch remixes Banco di Gaia

Finally after several years of procrastination I have gotten round to going public on my music. The catalyst for this event was discovering that acid planet was holding a remix contest for one of Banco di Gaia's tracks- Ynys Elen from the album Farewell Ferengistan.

You can listen to the original track by clicking "Hear original track" on the right hand side of the contest page here:
http://www.acidplanet.com/contests/bancodegaia

I was really jazzed at the idea of remixing a Banco di Gaia track since I have been a fan of his earlier works. However, my enthusiasm soon gave way to depression as I listened to the track I was going to remix. I didn't like it at all! It went on an on with no theme and was one of the most boring pieces of Banco di Gaia I had ever heard.

After a few hours listening to competition entries that all sounded like subtle variations on the original track, I vowed to create a remix that would be completely different and so it is! You can listen to it here:
http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?songs=545211&T=8163

Enjoy!

I seem to be the only one of the contestants who did the research to find where the spoken words come from: the Sound and Light show in Kardak, Egypt (hence the title).

Prue passes through

Prue came round for dinner and was immediately put to work playing soccer with Alexander. The night before Alexander asked me to send her a message saying he was looking forward to playing soccer, but wasn't very good. "Then I can surprise her." he told me proudly.
I think he certainly did do that, and by the end of the game I suspect Prue had several bruises. Still I think she had a blast.

Dena's brother's wife's sister's wedding reception

Yesterday we drove up to Willows where Dena's brother's wife's sister- Jana got married. It was about a 350 mile round trip, but well worth it to be there. People came from all over, some from cities and some from the farming community where Jana grew up, resplendent in their cowboy hats, boots and boot lace ties. Gray noted that some of them found Brie a completely new and interesting experience.
I will always remember Jana and her Mum Jane at our wedding, selflessly managing the guest book and presents for which we will be eternally grateful.

Dhuloch Website Goes Live!

The Dhuloch web site is up, albeit a somewhat minimal site.
Still it is out there and that's what counts!

www.dhuloch.com as you might imagine.

DevCon III

Another year, another DevCon. Another challenge of getting a DevCon bag. I chatted up the Big Cheese and he kindly gave me his. I was well chuffed, until I discovered that this year the remaining bags were being give to ARM employees anyway. Ah well at least I now have my own tee-shirts! The LogStick blog has been so successful the ad agency made up a bunch of LogStick tee-shirts and presented them to me. It was nice to be appreciated.

Ashes to Ashes

We burried their remains under a Fuchsia tree, the children putting flower petals on top of the ash before we filled in the hole.

Last Farewell for Amos and Elizabeth

On Sunday we got together to say a final farewell to Amos and Elizabeth. Everyone turned out as you can see. Alexander of course had to ruin the picture, so I'll be burning the midnight oil with Photoshop before I send the picture round the family.