GIGO: words unreadable aloud

The Pacfic Crest Trail: Escape to the Wilderness

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 06:59:33 GMT

Ann and Myron Sutton I bought this book at Powell's in Portland, the first week of August. I read it since then. Published in the early 1970's it has an interesting perspective on the PCT and wilderness hiking. The Wilderness Act (of 1964) was only 11 years old. More later...

July Dinkey Lakes BP and Grass Valley visit

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:49:28 GMT

Backpacking trip (Dinkey Lakes) was great; approximate map: http://is.gd/OsO . Through Madera and up to Prather, the car thermometer was reading 111 degrees! Cooler at the 8200-foot trailhead. Serious mosquitoes bothered the susceptible at the lower lakes. We did a couple miles of cross-country up to beautiful Fingerbowl Lake. Ben and Annalise scrambled up to the top of the Third Sister! We got an impressive hour-and-a-half heavy (for the Sierra) thunderstorm, but our tarp and groundcloth kept us dry. Hiked out through another hour-and-a-half of heavy rain, lightning, and thunder, this time with hail for added drama! The next weekend, I didn't go to Mammoth -- went instead to our group's offsite at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Shouldn't have. Got nasty food poisoning. This past weekend, drove up to Grass Valley for Cliff's 80th, and we got some great Doughty family photos taken at the Empire Mine State Park. I hope to have figured out a photo place to put some of them up on the web, some time soon.

Uneventful June; July plans

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:17:02 GMT

Matanzas weekend (on a budget, so we stayed a Motel 6; won't be doing that again -- they seem to be going downhill fast). On the way home, we got another visit with Jordan, now a month old. Smoke from all the fires seems to be dissipating -- the sky is still the wrong color around sunset, but the sun looks great with this unfortunate natural filter. Got some good photos Monday or Tuesday. Looks like I'll be away from work every Friday this coming July: on the weekend of the 4th, my cousin and her family (and my mother) will be visiting; I have a backpacking trip on 10th to the 14th; may visit said cousin in Mammoth the 17th and/or 18th; and the 25-26-27 weekend may call for a visit to Grass Valley for my father in law's 80th birthday celebration.

Under the wire

Sat, 31 May 2008 23:54:22 GMT

Well, it's been busy here at GIGO central. At work, I'm a part of four different (though related) projects in testing technologies. And the couple of 20% ideas I have are finally about ready to commit to. At home, it's looking more and more like a hillbilly hangout, with a washer outside and hanging stuff up to dry much of the time. In between, I've been riding the Gbus in from Scotts Valley, which, paradoxically, gives me more time to work while simultaneously making the commute take longer. It does get me out of the house earlier than I have been used to. I have a new niece, born today, my wife's brother's daughter. The picture I put here is not related. I hope I don't let this old weblog slide for so long, next time! ("Under the wire" refers to narrowly avoiding two entire empty months.)

Overheard at Bruno's

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 05:26:29 GMT

Mom: What are you giving up for Lent?

Earnest five-year-old girl: Pink.

Leap Day Posting

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 07:37:09 GMT

Woo Hoo! In the six years I've had this weblog, I've never done a February 29th posting before. An indication of my mental state, though, is that I dutifully checked in the GIGO Table of Contents, examining the end of February for each of the five earlier years, before realizing that there was only one to check. In other incomplete stories, the Pinnacles trip was great, and led to making some connections with some of the other music-makers at the big G. And Ben and I hiked Uvas County Park, saw a bunch of waterfalls, flowing well.

The Segway Programming Language

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 22:41:38 GMT

On LtU, Koray Can writes about Paul Graham's recent preliminary release of Arc:

It seems to me that the only people who are talking about it are those who have followed Paul Graham's writings over the years and wanted to see what it, the thing, the real deal would look like.

I call it "Segway", due to the difference between the hype and the (current, pre-alpha) reality. Note that the hype mostly did not come from PG. My earlier guess was overoptimistic by three years or so.

Winter camping at the Pinnacles

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 06:42:09 GMT

So, there's the tradition of an annual winter trip. In the past, I hear, it's mostly been a ski trip. Something different this year — Disneyland, or camping at the Pinnacles. No contest for me, despite the possibility of weather. Seems that somewhere under ten percent of the trippers chose to go camping with me, the other several thousand are going to Disneyland. I plan to take some pictures. Current forecast is for a spate of dry weather for a change! Keeping my fingers crossed.