Terrible Analogies

Managed to break away from baby duties long enough this afternoon to finally squeeze in a nice trail run.  I decided to hit up Iron Mountain and run Ellie Lane.  It’s been nearly a month since I last visited this trail, and let me tell ya it felt great to finally feel dust under my heels after so long an absence.  

Parking here has always been a bit sketchy.  There is no parking lot, so you’re forced to park along Highway 67, which can be a bit daunting if you’re uncomfortable with cars traveling 70 mph rocketing past you with just a couple of feet to spare (watch out for those big rigs!).  I think the city of Poway has finally taken notice of this danger because I saw quite a bit of work being done next to the trail, which I can only assume is going to be a small parking lot.

Very cool.

Also noted was the damage done to the trail from our recent rains.  I guess this is natural progression of the geology, but it’s a shame nonetheless.  Ah well…

Along with the work being done on the upcoming parking lot, I believe a few new signs have been posted.  It’s nice to see that the sign at the peak of Ellie Lane has been replaced:

After weeks of running around our local lake and attacking the hills near our home, it was nice to be able to stretch my legs on a fun run on such a beautiful day.

Oh, and a belated “Congrats!” to my friend James for putting in his application for the Mt. Whitney lottery!  I hope to either see you up there this year or find some time to share our combined experiences.  Keep an eye out for that permit to show up in the mail in April (fingers crossed!).

It appears that the unfortunate plane crash in Palo Alto yesterday afternoon managed to not only cut the power to several sections of the city, but also affected the offices of Facebook and VMware (among others).

This is a huge deal to virtual companies which rely on such services.  I find it interesting because the company I work for uses VMware (on our own intranet only).  It’s a great product, but I’d hate to be in the shoes of the companies that are reliant on the Palo Alto location for their online presence.  By some accounts up to 240 startups are affected by this plane crash.

PG&E spokesman Joe Molica said the plane crash affected three transmission lines that serve Palo Alto. Power is expected to be restored between 4:30 and 5 p.m.

Meanwhile, downtown Palo Alto is pretty much closed down.

As Palo Alto transformed into a modern day ghost town, some startups set up camp in local coffee houses that offered free wi-fi and (more importantly) electrical outlets.  I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.  Heaven forbid I couldn’t order my swanky new hipster t-shirt just because three people died in a tragic plane crash.

…sorry about that last sentence.  For some reason I’m feeling a bit smarmy today.

Proof that a praying mantis can discern what’s on a computer screen.  Very interesting…

I apologize for such a short post. I’m still trying to catch up on some sleep, but have thus far been unsuccessful. It seems I’ve pulled the short straw and managed to secure the 3am feeding time

With my car in the shop (blown radiator & cracked head gasket), I’ve been driving a loaner for the better part of a week.  When I first started up my loaner POS I discovered that all of the stereo channels had been programmed to various spanish-language stations.  Ugh.

When I got home I grabbed the closest CD I had on hand and threw it into the car, not paying too much mind to which CD I picked up.  Turns out I snagged Soft-Core by My Robot Friend.  This happened to be an album that I hadn’t paid much attention to, but after listening to it on repeat for the past five days it’s become of my favorite albums as of late.

Once you get beyond the whole “I’m a robot and I sing about robots” schtick, the album is amazingly solid.  This is the perfect album to listen to while on a long drive to nowhere in particular.  As for their sound, imagine putting Depeche Mode, LaTour, The Postal Service, and Kraftwerk into a blender and pressing the puree button.  Add a pinch of Datarock and a dash of The Shins and you’ll wind up with a valid facsimile of MRF.  Though classified as an electronica band, there’s enough keyboard and guitar to keep the mellow sound well congealed and defined, so don’t let the “electronica” tag dissuade you.  I think it’s a case of a record exec trying to pigeonhole this album into a category for connivence sake, and getting the category completely wrong.

MRF’s most easily digestible track would unquestionably be “Robot High School”, but I tend to enjoy the vibe of the track “Failure”. 

As the week wore on this album continued to grow on me.  As a whole, I found there’s really not one klunker track in the bunch.  Rare is the album that’s thought out enough that lets you press ‘play’ and simply walk away.

At first glance this album might seem a bit tame and redundant, but repeated plays really brings out its subtle, quirky brilliance.  Plunk down some cash, download the album, throw it into your car, press “play” and take a ride to anywhere but here.  I’m confident that you’ll enjoy the trip.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what the ultimate driving song is…”Twilight Zone” by Golden Earring.  You can disagree, but you’d be wrong

By the time you read this, Karin will have (finally) checked out of the hospital, and we’ll have the baby home and in his crib.  The rest of this week we’ll be busy adjusting to a new sleeping schedule, settling in, and getting used to this new baby thing.

Being pulled in so many different directions at once, I sometimes feel like MacGyver having to come up with novel ways to overcome the demands that baby is putting on us.  Heh…