Adrienne got me a baby backpack (thunder-bolt-3-slapper) for my birthday this year. So... This Saturday at 6:50 Conrad and I saddled up and headed for the falls in Monrovia Canyon Park, after the compulsory stop at home depot of course. The canyon was cool and empty. Spring is at work in our mountains and the hills are green with scattered flowers. 1.5 miles round trip. On Sunday we felt the need to try it again. This time the Mt Wilson Trail from Sierra Madre found me sweating with my papoose. (They are having a race to Mt Wilson next month, as if) Conrad got to see his first blue bellied lizards, as well as the occassional squirrel and red tailed hawk. We made it as far as 1st water. 2.6 miles roundtrip.

Ran across the Teddy Borg on Ars-Technica. This is a wonderful use of your spare time BTW. I want to make my own now.

Last night I saw the last episode an interesting documentary series on PBS called Commanding Heights. The entire series is up on their site for 30 days. If you want to know where the modern economy is from, and where it is going, I highly advise a look.

Today I am 34.

This guy is making a fully animated movie on his mac. And it looks cool. Rustboy.

Every once in a while I find something on the internet that I just don't have the words for. Check this and supply your own.

Who's hungry?

Some interesting conversation with Christopher Hitchens on The Charlie Rose Show. Its in Real Audio party people.

From the gospel of Calvin and Hobbes, January 19th, 1986. A response to the silliness below.

I think we all know about Eric's banishment of the TV. I think he threw the baby out with the bath water. In this case we might both be right.

Conrad won't sleep. We decided early along on this parenting trip that leaving your child alone in a dark room to cry himself to sleep was tantamount to poking him with a sharp stick. So, we do other things. Walking, reading, and especially driving. Last night on our drive we were on Sierra Madre in Sierra Madre =) when Adrienne points to the center divider and says: "Wax the spring horse" Perhaps more information would be useful... We were listening to John Coltrane and talking about jazz. So here I'm thinking she's making some jazz reference or some free form "jazz-like" word association and I'm desperately trying to figure it out. My mind twirls about this phrase, dissecting it, running it through every iteration, looking for meaning. Finally I throw in the towel, admit my mediocrity, and ask her "WTF does 'wax the spring horse' mean?". Of course she bursts into laughter. She had said something entirely different and I had mis-heard what she had said. Typical guy.

Oh I forgot! Anyone know anyone in Pittsburgh? (sound of crickets) I want to get one of these stadium giveaway bobbleheads of Willie Stargell from the game coming up on 4/10. I think that baseball is falling into a mode of nostalgia, and not actual progression as a sport. I think it about other things now. But Willie Stargell. Even though I grew up in L.A. in Little League I windmilled the bat before the pitch because "that was what hitters do." Later on my Mother who was an occupational therapist working with the handicapped, asked me if I ever heard of a baseball player named Willie Stargell. Turns out his daughter was under my Mom's care. At an event, I got to meet the man, and showing him my windmill, was rewarded with a star similar to the ones on his cap. Email E if you can help.

I had dinner tonight with Eric. This is kind of a joke for his behalf because I said that all bloggers are really about "what happened to me today, and other similar navel gazings." I mentioned these two guys to him again- Christopher Hitchens and Andrew Sullivan. Don't agree with always, especially Andrew with Condoleezza Rice (whom I think is the woman most likely to get us into war, oh wait we are.) but thankful they are around.

I hate HTML. I despise all coding. anything that isn't intuitive is a failure in design. but that is neither here nor there. this quote was sent to me by a friend in the u.k.: "Computer games don't affect kids... If Pacman affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music." B