Upper Quarry

The western end of the Upper Quarry at UCSC is a little-visited treasure. I love its mixture of broken stone and soft lines of deciduous trees. It was once the focus of industrial activities but now is one of the most wild places in the campus core. Last week and this I've spent my most of my lunch hours there, watching the colors change in the trees and enjoying the quiet. I took a few snapshots that don't come close to showing what it is like here, but I'll post them anyway. More...

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New Arachnids

At the end of the last few summers, very large orb-weaving spiders started showing up in our yard. I had never seen them before, and they aren't an animal that you soon forget. Don't be scared, but here's a photo. More...

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Sure You Do, Until it Happens To You

I watched these "Laid Off" cartoons and laughed and laughed.

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Break Key Combinations

Here's a list of the keys to press when breaking into network devices. Yes, this is something people need to do, because if you buy used equipment on eBay, it rarely comes with the passwords. And let's not mention what happens to the gear that you actually own already. I'd never before read such a complete explanation of what "break" is. Interesting. I'm amazed at how this stuff actually works sometimes.

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Oklahoma and America's Promise

This week's cover story in the Santa Cruz Metro is written by Richard von Busack. Woody Guthrie's home state has accepted the hobo singer with a portrait in the state capitol, and Richard has made peace with his Oklahoma ancestors. A wonderful essay from one of my favorite writers.

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Here's Art I Like

It is Open Studio season in Santa Cruz and my first invitation arrived this week. Andrew Purchin is participating this year. I've known him socially for years; I have a vague memory of attending his Senior Show. I hadn't seen his recent work, until last night when I visited his website. I can't wait to see it in reality. Don't you love it? So innocent and beautiful.

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Color Matching

Here's a cool tool: Color Palette Generator. More...

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Autumn is for Endings

When the heat ended with the month of August, the breezes returned. The sea and the mountains breathed together in the afternoons, and at night the just-turned leaves whispered rumors of winter.

This weekend is the Autumnal Equinox, the Wiccan Thanksgiving. We celebrate the warmth of friends and family, and reflect what we have been given in this life. We also exchange presents, which makes sense when you think of it. More...

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Ivan from Space

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day has a great photo of Ivan.

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Apartment Tours

I attended the Open House events at the UCSC "Infill Apartments" project last week. Mostly I was interested in finding the locations of things like this: More...

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I Remember The Tea Cup

In the previous entry, I used a photo I found at a fansite for a band called "Cracker." Cracker apparently wrote two songs that mention Santa Cruz locations, and this site thoughtfully provides annotations and maps so that Cracker fans can visit the same places as the the musicians. More...

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Historic Location: The Red Room

My favorite bar in college was the Red Room at the Santa Cruz hotel. I haven't been in there in years, but I know that all the Miss California relics are gone, as are the heavy velvet curtains and the heavy hand of John the Bartender who simply made good drinks, and didn't bother to card the regulars on the City on a Hill staff. We drank there every Thursday night, celebrating the end of another week. More...

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Sidewalk Symbols

Here's something one rarely sees anymore: More...

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Free Cab Rides

The Cruz Cab was on my street last week. More...

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Icon on Cedar Street

I don't know about YOUR Farmers' Market, but OURs had one of these last week: More...

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Tit for Tat

A few weeks ago I was called by a doctor's office to remind me to setup an appointment for a checkup. I put off calling back for a few weeks; they didn't call again, and finally I scheduled a half-hour for 9:45 on a Thursday morning. More...

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Tales of Two Screw-ups

I bought the Rolling Stone this week because of the story about pot heads at UCSC, but I was surprised by what I found... More...

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Clinton: Back at Work

In a story about Bill Clinton's heart surgery, I saw that he is already back at work on the Presidential Campaign:

Mr. Clinton, ever the loyal Democrat, reportedly also took time out for a 90-minute phone conversation with Sen. John Kerry, giving the Democratic presidential candidate advice on how to win the election.

If anyone has the answer of how to kick Bush's ass its Bill Clinton. Kerry better not listen to the idiots who ran Gore's campaign. Gore should have wiped the floor with Bush four years ago by the middle of October.

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Civil Crimes not Sex Crimes

The city of San Jose has sued the owners of a suspected brothel in civil court rather than prosecuting them for crimes. Why should a government prosecute nuisance-business owners and pay to convict them, jail them, and then put them on probation; when we can sue them, take their money, and put them out of business? This is a brilliant strategy and I'd like to see more government-entities doing this. Citizens can individually sue nuisance businesses, but I'd like to see governments take a leadership role.

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When Technology Wore a Face

It is rare for a network magazine to carry a story about 90-year-old art, but as far as I know, no one has tried to create a scupture that captures the excitment and promise of the TCP/IP network protocol stack. But in 1914, Western Electric commissioned a statue now called "The Spirit of Communications" and it survives, still owned by AT&T, and displayed at the corporate headquarters in New Jersey. You can read an interesting article about it in Network Weekly. More...

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The Plane and the Pentagon

I remember reading a long article more than a year ago explaining why no airplane was found at the Pentagon crash of 9/11. It made a lot of sense, and I passed off the French website about the "missing airplane" as people who just don't understand science. More...

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We're Not Buying It

(Utica, NY) - On the eve of a Republican National Convention invoking 9/11 symbols, sound bytes and imagery, half (49.3%) of New York City residents and 41% of New York citizens overall say that some of our leaders "knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act," according to the poll conducted by Zogby International. The poll of New York residents was conducted from Tuesday August 24 through Thursday August 26, 2004. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of +/-3.5.

The charge found very high support among adults under 30 (62.8%), African-Americans (62.5%), Hispanics (60.1%), Asians (59.4%), and "Born Again" Evangelical Christians (47.9%).

via 911truth.org
That would be enough for Bush to lose the election right there.

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Don't Put That Stuff in Your Eyes

People have too much money. And don't get me started on eye jewelry.

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Earth Observed

I just learned about NASA's Earth Observatory site. I just don't have enough hours in a work day to look at all of these images of our planet from space. (ha Ha, just kidding. This will have to cut into my South Park watching time.)

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Seventy Years Ago Today

Monday was my birthday, so I took the day off from work and did one of my favorite things: looking up newspaper stories about the people who lived in my neighborhood 100 years ago. And because it was my birthday, I printed out the edition of the Santa Cruz News for August 30, 1934, 70 years ago. More...

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