Boy this blog is getting old!  Just want to post a link: the 2009 Tannery Pond Concerts Schedule is now up, featuring this program on August 22:

Beethoven: Spring Sonata
Shostakovich: Cello Sonata
Arensky: Piano Trio No. 1

Madalyn Parnas, violin
Cicely Parnas, cello
Christian Steiner, piano

Farewell 2008!

From Where are they now?

Yes, there is life out there! Here's one person still breathing and thinking. What's great about this post is the broad scope and ability to tie multiple ideas together. And of course any reference to Christopher Alexander always catches my eye. Just wanted to help spread the word a little.

Of course there are still things to look at:

Winter has set in and there's not much left crawling around:

Best I could do with my direct-to-disk video camera, and danged inconvenient to get the image off the camera:

My camera is busted :(

Meanwhile, if you ever need a Presidential Candidate, who's your man?

If you ever need a green grasshoppery thing, I'm your man.

If you ever need a hairy moth, I'm your man.

If you ever need a spotted salamander, I'm your man.

At the risk of providing too much of a good thing, here's a slideshow of my excursion on the Hudson River near Stockport, NY.





As befitting a big river, I saw lots of big wildlife: mostly birds, such as Canadian geese, swans, cormorants, and bald eagles. Also otters and their tracks.

Certain parties have hinted that I've been remiss in updating this so-called blog. To placate my so-called readers I present the following illustration of my latest obsession:






I've loved boating all my life but never had a boat! And I've driven back and forth across the Kinderhook Creek for the last 17 years since we moved to Stephentown, and I've always wondered where it goes. Of course, now you can just zoom in and see where it goes with Google Maps. But heck, there's still plenty of things left to discover from frog-eye's view, and for some reason the Father's Day Fairy was particularly generous with me this year, so off I went on my maiden voyage.

The creek starts in the Berkshire hills a few miles to the east of us, passes within a mile of our house, and wanders south and west for another 20 miles or so until it ultimately reaches the Hudson River in the town of Stuyvesant Falls. I put in at the bridge I'd been crossing the last 17 years, a mile down the hill from the house, and set off hoping to reach the falls in East Nassau, which I figured was about 8 miles away.

Three hours and lots of scratches later, I gave up and found myself only about 4 miles away as the Blazer flies. Along the way I struggled over and through lots and lots of shallows, rocks and "strainers" (i.e. trees and branches blocking the way). I had to get out and schlep so many times that I scraped all the skin off the back of my knees getting in & out of the kayak.

But I also saw more woodducks and kingfishers than I'd seen in the last 17 years combined, and indeed discovered an entire ecosystem I never knew existed right in my backyard, so to speak. And I was hooked on kayaking. I've since been out every weekend, and hope to keep at it as long as the weather is nice. Maybe even beyond that.

No foolin', we're in the April issue of Money Magazine. Not because we actually have any, of course! You can see a xerox of the article here, but by all means pick up a copy at a newsstand -- the pictures look much nicer in color. Donations gratefully accepted :->

My two readers have spoken (thanks guys)! The new photo is actually from 2005; I guess I don't spend too much time on that side of the camera. So this is from before I whacked myself in the nose with a long-handled snow-rake. Oh you didn't know about that...huh...OK, I was trying to retrieve the dog's favorite toy from the branches of a tree, and the snow rake wasn't quite long enough, so I chucked it like a javelin...only javelins are pointy and snow rakes are not, so it hit the branches and bounced right back at me. Luckily, we know a good plastic surgeon...

Hey, I'm a new Blogger. Now taking votes as to whether I should update my photo, or whether you would no longer recognize me after 10 years! No matter, without giving away any secrets, I can say you'll have a chance to decide for yourselves in about a month's time.

But now on to more important matters: movie trailers! Omg I am soo excited about two in particular: Spider-Man 3 and, yes, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer! I only just saw Spider-Man 2 on DVD and was bowled over by the faithfulness to the original comic books and the sheer fun of it all. S-M3 features the Sandman, and the effects look, well, Amazing. And I haven't even seen the first Fantastic Four since it got such horrible reviews, but then I stumbled onto the trailer for the new one, and not only saw the Silver Surfer but read that the movie will include Galactus! I mean, Galactus! Keep in mind I don't see that many movies, so I could be easily impressed, but Man, that's exciting! I can't wait for both of them to come out on DVD. (What, pay $8.50 to go see it in the theater? Me? Bah, puny humans not understand)!

[And just how do you pronounce Ioan Gruffudd anyway?]

Can't resist posting this: Bablyon 5 Direct-to-DVD Project in Production! At least it forestalls another 6 months between posts. The thing that scares me the most about it though is that usual shock you get when you see someone again whom you haven't seen in a really long time, and they're just old. It happened with Star Trek, and every other "reunion" TV show and band reunion tour, and I just don't think I can endure it. If a show goes on for 10 years, you can stand it because you age with them. If a show goes off the air for 10 years, forget it, actors just don't age gracefully.

Wow! Last post was February?!? Guess what? No more Juniper. I now offically work for a new startup, Proxy Networks! (No, that's not me in the loud tie). Guess what we do? To quote our fact sheet:

Proxy Networks, Inc. develops, markets, distributes and supports real-time remote control and screen recording products for SMB and enterprise help desks. We acquired our products, technology and staff from Juniper Networks after Juniper's purchase of Funk Software.

Basically, that means Proxy Lives! And I keep eating.

OK, it's February, and I'm a little behind (no jokes, please). But I read a lot of Peak Oil blogs -- The Oil Drum, Energy Bulletin, Post Carbon Institute, not to mention Kunstler -- and frankly, it's hard to be happy. Nearly every day I come across another article that starkly illuminates the next facet of our impending doom.

There were several I wanted to post here, but by the time I got around to it, I had lost them. There was one in particular that included some amazing satellite photos of commerical jet contrails criss-crossing the United States like the crust on an apple pie.

I can't find that one now. But today I found something different -- an article that doesn't drive me out on the ledge. It's about Dean Kamen and his latest venture, and it's really worth the five minutes it takes to read and think about. Yes, I laughed along with you at Segway Polo, and I'm really not a fan of the $100 laptop (I've seen what kids do with computers and I'm not too impressed). So while this could have been a goofy combination of the two concepts, I'm ultimately excited to see this kind of development and I hope it can make a difference.

While there are a number of things that have been on my mind recently, this one just jumped to the fore with sufficent energy that I am forced to create this, my first post of 2006. Slashdot runs any number of silly articles on the latest scientific results from the far corners of the net. But this one struck me as different. The original post entitled "Warp Engines In Development?" referred to a less-than informative article in the Scotsman about an award presented by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics for a paper presented at their annual conference. Digging a little deeper, I found a copy of the complete article, which originally appeared in New Scientist. The paper turns out to have been based on the work of a little-known recently deceased german scientist, Burkhard Heim. Without repeating everything in the articles I've linked to here, suffice to say I'm somehow encouraged by the continued interest in Heim and his work. Encouraged that there may be a future for us after all.

It's official -- we're Juniper now! I feel...different...stronger...faster...maybe it's my giant Juniper coffee mug. I said I would say more when I could, but there's not a lot more to say. Proxy and Steel-Belted Radius continue much as before. I still travel to Cambridge once a week. Life goes on...

Where am I now? For those who missed the press releases, I now (or shortly will) work for Juniper Networks. More when I can say more...

So, after six years, we've finally been dumped by EditThisPage.com. Had to happen someday, I suppose. I'd like to save all the previous content, but I think it involves running a local copy of Manila, which I'm not too excited about spending time on. Meanwhile, my Blogger account, which is even older than EditThisPage, still exists, so I've moved back here and will see how it works out.