Have Your Cake

My friends Heather and Brian got married Dec. 22. In this photo, they have not yet succumbed to the temptation to smear each other with frosting.

Blue Mounds Climbing October 2004

My photos of three-fifths of the Nebraska contingent's October Blue Mounds trip are now up. More personal details will have to wait until this graduate student has time to write them, likely in 2007. Until then, this trip report on MinnesotaClimbing.com has all the news about the trip most people thought would be too cold -- but actually was perfect.

Great Study Music, for Free

My definition of great study music: Loud enough to drown out the people around me at the coffeehouse/student union/bar, no words. This makes your standard orchestral classical music (or at least the Beethoven and Handel to which I listen) inadequate, as there are too many quiet passages even in compositions like Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

The solution: harps and hammered dulcimers. And it's free anywhere you've got a WiFi connection.

The provider: Magnatune. (Motto: We Are Not Evil.) It's an online source for paid music downloads and free audio streaming that splits album revenues 50-50 with the artists.

The artists: Cheryl Ann Fulton on Welsh triple harp and Jamie Janover on "innovative" hammered dulcimer. Tasty tunes.

Birthday Party

Grad school is hard, m'kay? Javal's birthday party was back in August and I'm just now getting around to posting the photos. Enjoy the slideshow.

Paying Attention Doesn't Pay

Today I read one of the better explanations for American political apathy: It doesn't pay to pay attention.

Time spent on public affairs competes with time acquiring information on more personal matters -- like the price and quality of cars or houses. In these cases, each of us suffers a direct cost for ignorant decisions -- I may buy a lemon unless I am careful to analyze options ahead of time. In contrast, nobody pays a price for voting ignorantly since the outcome of a major election never hinges on a single ballot. ... As a consequence, it may well be "rational" for individual voters to remain ignorant about public matters.

Bruce Ackerman and James Fishkin, Deliberation Day

You can read more on the economic concept of direct costs and the political science and psychological concept of rational choice.

W3 5P3@K 1337

Continuing along the "political scientists are a weird bunch" thread, a political scientist colleague of mine pointed me today to the 1337 Generator, which lets anyone talk like a script kiddy. For example, this post translates to this in leet:

C0N7!NU!N6 @10N6 7H3 "P01!7!C@1 5C!3N7!575 @R3 @ W3!RD BUNCH" 7HR3@D, @ P01!7!C@1 5C!3N7!57 C0113@6U3 0F M!N3 P0!N73D M3 70D@Y 70 7H3 1337 63N3R@70R, WH!CH 1375 @NY0N3 7@1K 1!K3 @ 5CR!P7 K!DDY. F0R 3X@MP13, 7H!5 P057 7R@N51@735 70 7H!5 !N 1337:

Are political scientists extraordinary ... or just weird?

Just as people want governmental services without the pain of taxes, they also want democratic procedures without the pain of witnessing what comes along with those procedures. Political observers have failed to understand this situation no doubt partly because many of us enjoy watching the give and take of politics. In this, we are quite different from ordinary people.

-- John Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, Congress as Public Enemy

Political Science Quote of the Day

[M]ost of the opinions captured by conventional polling are cognitively threadbare.

--Experimenting with a Democratic Ideal:
Deliberative Polling and Public Opinion
James Fishkin, Stanford University

Now that's a spicy meatball.

Western Nebraska, Black Hills Photos

My friend Javal, a much better photographer than I, produced some real gems on his recent trip up to Sturgis. Included in his latest collection are no growling hogs, but plenty of beauty both natural and unnatural. Take a look.

Black Hills Climbing Trip

Photos from last month's Black Hills Climbing Trip are up, finally. ("Finally up" would have ended the sentence with a preposition, and that is something up with which I shall not put.)

The climbing season's pretty much over for me and my lame lateral meniscus. Anyone out there who's succesfully, yet inexpensively, treated this apparently quite important piece o' cartilage?

The Firefox Switch Page

The new Firefox switch site is a good shot at a near-indescribably critical project: Convincing users worldwide to stop using the insecure, user-unfriendly, nonstandard and generally atrocious Internet Explorer, which Micro$haft stopped developing after it won the first battles of the Browser Wars.

Some suggestions for the switch site's improvement, in no particular order of importance:

• Rotate the photos atop the page to include more diverse faces, especially in age terms. That is, more middle-aged and old people.


• Consider creating separate content for "average Joes and Janes" and "Web professionals." Dumb the former content way, way down and make it relevant.


• Create a printer-formatted one-page document with pictorial download and installation instructions. If I ever get time, I might just do this and offer it up for anyone to do with what they will.

Even if they leave the site as is, the Firefox - Switch creators deserve ample pats on the back.

Has Anyone Actually Seen GRIT?

Remember those ads in the backs of comic books for GRIT, the amazing yet seldom-seen publication with which "fellows" could run their own business and achieve happiness and prosperity and earn (probably) chintzy prizes? "Super Marketing: Ads from the Comic Books" has a delightfully superannuated GRIT ad online, as well as scans of ads for favorites like Charles Atlas (where the muscled bully kicks sand on the 98-pound weakling, motivating said weakling to become a muscled bully himself with help from the Charles Atlas bodybuilding system) and Amazing Live Sea Monkeys ("a BOWLFUL of HAPPINESS").

(Seems like happiness was in general short supply, no?)

So I've seen with my own eyes Amazing Live Sea Monkeys and muscled bullies (both really close up, and one more uncomfortably close than the other). But I've never seen a copy of GRIT.

Have you?

Jami's Second Graduation Party

Photos from Jami's Second Graduation Party are now up.

The first party was just practice, as Nebraska Wesleyan University walks its grads just once a year through the coma-inducing commencement ceremony. Wednesday's party was more practice, as Jami finished her final class that day but still doesn't have her diploma.

Coming up as soon as the diploma comes in the mail: The real graduation party. It'll be a humdinger.

Thanks, BugMeNot.com!

BugMeNot.com supplies generic, privacy-saving logins for all those news sites that erect a registration wall between themselves and potential readers. It lets you easily read the odd news article without registering. There's even a Firefox extension that puts a menu item for BugMeNot in your right-click context menu.

Advice Sought on Re-Starting Business

Loyal seven readers, I'd like your advice on an idea I have for re-starting a computer consulting business I let slip into nothingness a while back. I basically just need you to tell me whether you think the price I have in mind is attractive for the service I want to offer.

My old idea, which didn't work, was to charge $50 an hour for on-site computer repair and software training for businesses, and a $50 flat fee for the same services for home users. My new idea is to charge a $35 flat fee for up to two hours of software and gadget training for anybody, and not do computer repair (instead referring customers to a friend of mine). It could be people who need help with office suites and other standard applications, or, more likely, people who need to learn how to use their new digital camera, printer or CD burner and the like.

I think the old idea didn't work because a) the price was too high and b) I utterly underestimated the torturously severe problems people have with their computers. My repair skills weren't up to the task.

So, would you or someone you know pay me $35 to come to your house or office and teach you how to get the most out of your computer or other gadgets? Would you buy a gift certificate for that amount to give as a gift along with some new gadget you're buying for someone? Please let me know, and be brutally honest. No comments about my ancestry, however. The French and the Germans are nice people. :-)

Bush's Polarity Tops Clinton's

And you thought the dislike of Clinton among Republicans and his popularity among Democrats represented unprecedented polar opposition in American politics.

You thought wrong. Turns out the like-Bush and hate-Bush crowds are much farther apart than the comparable Clinton crowds, according to the study reported in this article:

Bush is a measurably polarizing figure. Republican Bill McInturff of the polling firm Public Opinion Strategies uses an "intensity range" to show that public attitudes are significantly stronger on this president than they were on President Clinton in 1996 or Bush's father, former President Bush, in 1992.

When McInturff adds the percentage of Democrats who strongly disapprove of Bush (69 percent) to the percentage of Republicans who strongly approve of him (68 percent), the "intensity range" is 137 percent -- almost double the 72 percent range for the elder Bush. The range for Clinton (in this case, Republican disapproval added to Democratic approval) was 92 percent.

"It's stunning. I have never in my life seen these kinds of numbers on the level of intensity on both sides," McInturff said. "We are seeing the largest gap in American history in approval and disapproval by party. The level at which people are locking in is without precedent."

Urggle.

Loyal seven readers, you may have noticed some appearance ickiness when visiting johnfulwider dot com lately. I blame half of it on Bill Gates and his freakin' incompatible and insecure Internet Explorer browser, and half of it on my poor understanding of CSS and XHTML.

Anyhoo, your favorite Web site will be displaying a safe layout and style for a while. Hope you find it pleasing to the eye and, more importantly, usable.

Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2004

Oh. My. Gawrsh. Not to be overenthusiastic, but presidential campaign commercials from 1952 to 2004 are now online. This is exactly the kind of resource I need to do research about political communication.

It's also a great way for people to understand contemporary debates about negative advertising. Everyone who's read or heard a story about attack ads has heard "the Willie Horton ad" mentioned, right? Critics of the ad say it's an example of Republican race-baiting, as it features a black criminal given weekend passes by then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. Now, thanks to the American Museum of the Moving Image, you can watch the ad, read the transcript, and judge for yourself.

Golden Climbing Trip Slideshow

Just posted: Golden Climbing Trip Slideshow. More later.

Golden Climbing Trip Photos

Javal took a bunch of great photos on this past weekend's climbing trip to Golden, Colorado. Check 'em out.

Back in the Flatlands

The Colorado climbing trip's over and we're back in the Flatlands. Trip report coming for your perusal and enjoyment, along with pictures of Brian sporting the cutest French-braid ponytails you're ever likely to see. And a whole lot more. In the meantime, why not rate the trip using the handy-dandy poll on the upper-left side of the page?

World's Best RSS Reader: Bloglines

Bloglines is the best RSS reader out there, and I'm about to tell you why.

1. It's Web-based so you can keep up with your RSS subscriptions from anywhere. Read a few in the morning from home, and they're marked as read when you later log on from campus or work. You don't need to download a reader application.

2. There's a bookmarklet to auto-discover and subscribe to the feeds on any page you visit.

3. You can e-mail to a friend, "blog this" or clip any article. Clipping an article puts it in your choice of folders for later perusal. It works fast so you need never hesitate to send something off or save it for future reference.

4. It's free.

I'd change just one thing about Bloglines: When I signed up, at least, the "My Blogs" listing of my subscriptions defaulted to displaying the last month's worth of entries. This created a long load time for me and must have been a heck of server load for Bloglines, so I'd suggest changing the default to display the last 24 hours or week's worth of posts.

Bloglines' creator, Mark Fletcher, deserves a pat on the back.

Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function?

The always-handy Ask Yahoo reveals the singer of Saturday-morning classics "Conjunction Junction" and "I'm Just a Bill" was jazz singer Jack Sheldon.

Schoolhouse Rock, that series of catchy TV spots that made learning fun, debuted in the '70s. Ad exec David McCall was trying to find a way to help his 11-year-old son learn the multiplication tables. The boy could memorize lyrics yet couldn't master mathematics, so McCall had the idea of setting lessons to music. The catchy ditties were eventually turned into animated TV spots that ran between Saturday morning cartoons on ABC and taught millions of kids about grammar, math, history, and science.

Well, I don't know about the rest of you kids, but after I finished battling my friend with water guns on the wooden dining-room floor, I was so keyed up on sugar-laden cereals I didn't learn much. :-)

Almost-Final Colorado Trip Details

The climbing trip to Golden is less than a week away. Here are almost-final details about the trip: who's going, who's driving, how many ropes we'll have, where we're camping, how much it'll cost, what I suggest we do after climbing on Saturday.

Who's Going (confirmed):

• Bryant


• Chris


• Devin


• Erik


• Jami


• Jane


• Javal


• John


• Justin


• Shannon


• Tim

Who May Be Going:

• Jihee


• Matt


• Ryan


• Sharon


• Tim

Friends above: Would you please contact me to let me know?

Who's Driving:

Chris, a minivan that gets good gas mileage, leaving at ???
John, a Pontiac Grand Am that gets okay gas mileage, leaving around 4 p.m. Friday
Tim, a Ford Taurus that gets okay gas mileage (I'm assuming, correct me if I'm wrong, Tim), leaving at ???

How Many Ropes We'll Have:

At least three. Brand-new ones owned by John and Tim, and one or more borrowed ones. My intent is to have one rope for every three or four climbers, so everyone gets to climb a lot.

Where We're Camping:

Pepper Pod Campground in Hudson, Colorado. It's just off the interstate right before you enter the Denver area, you can't miss it. Showers and restrooms, but no natural beauty and near-death cliffside 3 a.m. tinkling experiences like on the Shelf trip. You've gotta make compromises.

What It'll Cost:

Camping, gas and food. Pepper Pod will give us a group campsite for $5 per person per night, so your total camping cost would be $10 if you stay there Friday and Saturday nights. Gas you'll split among the people with whom you ride. On trips I've taken, the car owner has paid with a credit card for all the gas, kept the receipts, then split the total at the end of the trip. Expect to pay $20-30 for gas. Food: Bring your own. The dollar store on North 27th Street, by Toys 'R Us, has three flavors of trail mix, granola bars, and more, all for $1 each. It's pretty much the shiznit.

What I suggest we do after climbing on Saturday:

Saturday night, go to Woody's Wood-Fired Pizza (just a few minutes away from the crag) for dinner. $8.53, if I remember right, gets you all you can eat pizza in endless variety, from cheese to pepperoni to vegetarian to BBQ chicken and more. That also comes with a salad bar.

Sunday, split up the group if that's what everybody wants and go our separate ways. The REI outdoor gear megastore is just a short drive away in Denver, the ultra-hyper-mega-cool Neptune Mountaineering is even closer in Boulder (the climbing gear selection, tent displays and in-store mountaineering museum have to be seen to be believed) , and there's always climbing in Boulder Canyon, Garden of the Gods, and, well, just about anywhere you and the people in your car care to go.

Previous Updates:
July Climbing Trip Update #5: Camping for $5
July Climbing Trip Update #4
July Climbing Trip Update #3
July Climbing Trip Update #2
July Climbing Trip Update #1
Colorado Climbing Trip July 9-11

About/FAQ

What in the name of all that is holy is this?

My blog, recording my thoughts both interesting and not so much, displaying my photographs, serving as an outlet for my self-taught and rather lacking Web design skills, and providing links to information elsewhere on the Web I think my loyal seven readers will find interesting and/or helpful.

What is a blog?

Usually, a collection of short posts and links posted in reverse chronological order, so the new stuff's at the top. See also "navel-gazing."

Why do you blog?

So I can be as cool as this guy:

I've been running a personal website for about six years now. You should see the ladies' faces light up when I casually drop that little nugget at a kegger or outside the dressing rooms at Old Navy. Their voices get husky, they twist their frosted curls around suggestive fingers, jot their numbers on my bare chest just in case I need someone to do some "freelance QA work," you know how it is.

Where can I read more about this ... umm ... fascinating topic?

You could start in my Blogging category.

Do you have any other interests?

Yes.

(Exasperated sigh.) Well, what are they?

Rock Climbing, Food, Photography and Travel.

You're just trying to suck me in to reading more of your blog by including all those self-referential links, aren't you?

Yes. It's all about the traffic.

What's your favorite color?

#FF9933.

Adsense Tips for Bloggers 1

On my to-be-read list is Adsense Tips for Bloggers 1 -- and then parts 2-8!

I'm hoping the articles will explain how a blog can overcome this part of the official AdSense FAQ which is, ironically enough, promulgated by the company that bought Blogger:

Place ads on content pages that don't change frequently.

Or else, Google says, we'll run public-service ads on your site and you won't make any money. But have a boring, unchanging site that won't draw repeat visitors, and you can make all the cash you want!

I've made 60 cents from AdSense, by the way. Thanks for clicking on those ads, when they appear.

Update: Whoops, I just found out the Terms of Service forbid discussing how much I make from AdSense. Please forget what you just read. :-)

July Climbing Trip Update #5: Camping for $5

I've found camping for us, with showers and toilets, for just $5 a person. We'll be staying at Pepper Pod Campground in Hudson, Colorado, just east of the start of the Denver metro area. Ryan, Jihee, Shannon and I have stayed there once before. It's a nice place, easy to find, and just 40 miles from our climbing destination, Golden.

It has absolutely none of the natural beauty we experienced at Shelf Road, but you don't have to drive through Denver to get there when you're all tired and punchy. For me, more sleep = better climbing. So I think it's worth a try for all of us.

One caveat: You can hear the Interstate noise from the campground. Bring earplugs if, like me, you're a light sleeper. If you forget yours, I've always got a good supply with me. Just ask.

Previous updates:
July Climbing Trip Update #4
July Climbing Trip Update #3
July Climbing Trip Update #2
July Climbing Trip Update #1
Colorado Climbing Trip July 9-11

Note to Self: Post on Wikitravel

Wikitravel is a free travel guide written by anyone who cares to submit information. I really should add some of my writings about Taiwan, Germany and ... Nebraska.

By Jove, I Think I've Got It!

It's all about the negative margins. I think I'm almost there in making Adam Polselli's rounded corner and drop shadow solution work here on johnfulwider dot com.

Rounded Corners with Partially Transparent GIFs

Adam Polselli kindly told me how he does the rounded corner on his front-page photo:

About the rounded corner… it is achieved quite easily, and without having to do any image work in Photoshop. All it is is a small GIF image on top of the photo. Part of the GIF is transparent, therefore you see the photo through it and get the effect of a rounded corner.

Adam referred me to the page source for more information. You can analyze it, too, just search the source for the filename of whichever photo he has up at the time.

Now I'll have to see how I can implement this solution. Doing the drop shadow and rounded corner without Photoshop is hugely appealing, because I hope to post a huge number of photos in upcoming years from places other than my home computer -- in fact, as far from said computer as possible. :-)

Movies on the Green 2004

Reminder to self: Movies on the Green 2004 runs Thursday nights from July 8-August 12.

July Climbing Trip Update #4

People are sending in their RSVP forms for the July 9-11 climbing trip to Golden, Colorado. So far the following people have confirmed they're coming:

• Bryant


• Chris


• Jami


• John


• Jon


• Justin


• Shannon


• Tim


• Tim

If you think I know you're coming but you're not on the above list, please follow the instructions with the RSVP form and e-mail me your confirmation. Don't worry, I'm not going to turn this into some over-organized, no-fun trip. It'll be <Snoop Dogg>laid back</Snoop Dogg>. Just need to make sure we have enough ropes and cars for everyone to get there, climb a lot and make it out alive. :-)

Previous updates:
July Climbing Trip Update #3
July Climbing Trip Update #2
July Climbing Trip Update #1
Colorado Climbing Trip July 9-11

Jami's Garden

Some more flowers waiting to be identified in Jami's Garden. First person to post a comment with the names of all five plants gets a valuable prize. :-)

First Pictures with My Casio Exilim EX-P600

My Casio Exilim EX-P600 came today and I've got a slideshow to prove it.

These are my very first photos taken mere moments after turning on the camera, so don't expect quality. Yet. :-)

July Climbing Trip Update #3

It's time to get down to details about our July 9-11 climbing trip to Golden, Colorado (which still leads in the destination poll). Believe it or not, it's just 16 days away.

Here's what we need to figger out:

• How many people are coming? (About 20 have expressed interest so far.)


• How many people are driving?


• How are we splitting the available car/truck/SUV/catamaran seats?


• How many people coming have ropes?


• Does everyone coming have the minimum necessary gear: harness, climbing shoes, chalk bag, belay device, locking carabiner?

In order to figger this out, please e-mail me at this address: john@nospamjohnfulwider.com. Delete the "nospam" in the address and you've got my e-mail. To make things all simple and efficient for me, your valued yet humble trip organizer, please copy the following form into the body of your e-mail and fill it out:

What's your name?
Are you driving?
If driving, how many other people can you take?
Do you have a rope?
Do you have the minimum necessary gear?
(Optional) What's your cell phone number?

(If you don't have the minimum necessary gear, please consider buying at Outek, a Lincoln store worthy for at least two reasons: One, it employs three of our friends, Eli, Joe and Kate; Two, the owner, Matt, had the courage to locate downtown (near most of us) when it would have been easier to build out in the 'burbs. You can get a Black Diamond Momentum AL Package, with harness, belay device, locking 'biner, chalk bag and chalk for $77.31. You can also get a pair of Mad Rock Flash climbing shoes for $69.95.

Moose's Tooth is another locally owned store that employs several more of our friends, including Dave. They have a more limited climbing selection, but they carry some sweet prAna clothes that'll make you look like one cool cat.

If you're hard up for cash, as are most of us, some people may have extra gear they can lend. I, for example, have some size 10 1/2 La Sportiva climbing shoes.)

Please write back as soon as you can.

Previous updates:
July Climbing Trip Update #2
July Climbing Trip Update #1
Colorado Climbing Trip July 9-11

Sharing the Road is Safer?

Busy European and Chinese streets where cyclists, pedestrians and motorists share the road with no barriers between them are safer than ones typically designed in the United States, according to this Salon article (registration or ad viewing required):

The "self-reading street" has its roots in the Dutch "woonerf" design principles that emerged in the 1970s. Blurring the boundary between street and sidewalk, woonerfs combine innovative paving, landscaping and other urban designs to allow for the integration of multiple functions in a single street, so that pedestrians, cyclists and children playing share the road with slow-moving cars. The pilot projects were so successful in fostering better urban environments that the ideas spread rapidly to Belgium, France, Denmark and Germany. In 1998, the British government adopted a "Home Zones" initiative -- the woonerf equivalent -- as part of its national transportation policy.
"What the early woonerf principles realized," says Hamilton-Baillie, "was that there was a two-way interaction between people and traffic. It was a vicious or, rather, a virtuous circle: The busier the streets are, the safer they become. So once you drive people off the street, they become less safe."

My two and a half weeks of travel in Taiwan bear this out. It's crowded there, and the sidewalks are makeshift parking zones for the hundreds of thousands of scooters. So pedestrians weave in and out of the street, cars and scooters don't stick to the lanes, and bicyclists go on their merry way. Yet no one gets hit. I saw one accident the entire time, a minor fender-bender involving two cars.

My theory is there's a strong group agreement at play: Worry only about what the person in front of you is doing, and all will be fine if everyone else does the same.

I'd try anything to make the streets here in Lincoln, Nebraska, safer for cyclists. My friend Eric just got his shoulder, collarbone and wrist banged up by a careless driver, and won't be climbing again for some time. I haven't yet been hit, but it's only a matter of time.

Via Boing Boing

Die, DMCA, Die!

From Wired:

Some powerful U.S. representatives are backing a bill that would overturn major portions of the DMCA, allowing people to copy CDs and DVDs more freely.

And good riddance.

In 1998, record companies and Hollywood lauded the DMCA as a way to stop piracy, which they said had accelerated because of digital copying technology. But the DMCA has since evoked buyer's remorse in many lawmakers, who fear they handed copyright holders far more control than intended while eroding Americans' fair use rights. They also worry that the law has criminalized otherwise innocent activities, such as making a personal copy of a purchased CD, or trying to get a DVD to play on a Linux computer.

Those Lying Resumes!

Since so many people are still out there hunting for jobs in this tough economy, I would like to offer a bit of advice based on an unfortunate situation that I was lucky enough to not participate in firsthand: Do not send your resume out to someone with "Track Changes" enabled. It just means your potential employer can actually watch your lies being written in front of them.

From Anil Dash.

Dim Bulbs? Hack 'Em!

This Popular Science article instructs us in the fine, though apparently not terribly difficult, art of turning your dim-bulbed incandescent flashlight into one of those snazzy, and often expensive, LED jobbies. To wit:

You'll also need a resistor for each LED: For a three-cell flashlight, use 30 ohm resistors, 75 ohm for four cells, 130 ohm for five and so on. (Try digikey.com for the parts.) Trim the LED leads to about a half inch (maintaining their relative lengths), and the resistor leads to one-eighth inch on one end, 1 inch on the other. Solder the short resistor leads to the long LED leads. Carefully break the old bulb. Use a soldering iron to heat the bottom of the bulb case until you can push a long resistor lead through it, and clip the excess. Solder the hanging LED lead to the flange of the bulb case. Solder the remaining LED/resistor pairs in parallel to the first and stuff them all into the reflector. Now shine on, you crazy diamond.

I am so going to do this, right after I buy an iTrip and hack it to boost the antenna power. No, FCC bloodhounds, I'm not trying to start a pirate radio station, just making sure my iTunes muzak can reach all the stereos in my home. That's right, I'm gonna use the iTrip for a purpose its manufacturer did not intend: hooking it up to a desktop Mac, as I sadly lack an iPod.

(LED link via Boing Boing, antenna hack link also via Boing Boing)

July Climbing Trip Update #2

About a dozen people are strongly interested in going on the July 9-11 climbing trip to Colorado. I expect to be able to firm up the list of people going tonight at Tim's party.

One of our friends from Colorado, Brian, wrote to raise a bit of concern about climbing at Golden:

Pros: relatively short approach, high concentration of moderate climbing, decent rock, plenty of space, usually not very crowded on weekends.

Cons: It can get wicked hot during the summer (it is south facing and the rock is dark), relatively no camping in the vicinity, it can get really hot.

I'm sure the heat's only worsened by the fact that the Golden crag overlooks the Coors brewing plant. All that beer, so close, yet so far away ... if only I had a really long slackline! I haven't experienced the heat; in fact, on the day Ryan, Shannon, Jihee and I went, we got caught in a hailstorm. I got to look a little cool using my trad gear and ground tarp to rig up a shelter for the ladies, but Ryan was the real hero of the day, cleaning our top rope gear during the storm so we could evacuate.

Regarding the camping, I was thinking about proposing that we all stay at the place Ryan found late one Friday night when we all felt like refried beans and just couldn't drive a mile farther. Pepper Pod Campground is in Hudson, Colorado, just east of the start of the Denver metro area.

Pros: Group camping discounts, well-lit, showers and toilets, extremely easy to find, 40 miles from Golden.

Cons: Not in a state park or other beautiful natural area, 40 miles from Golden.

So, to summarize, we may need to think about everyone's heat tolerance before we settle on Golden. I'm cool with it (groan!), but the Garden of the Gods would be cooler in temperature terms. Jon wrote to note that Shelf Road would be similarly toasty, and he also points out:

Another possibility is Elevenmile Canyon. It's up higher, so it's cooler, and there are a lot of rocks (Arch Rock, in particular) that are not so exposed to the sun. Arch Rock also has a lot of moderate sport routes all in a row.

There's plenty of time before the trip to think about all this, of course, but it wouldn't hurt for everyone interested to share their ideas with me by posting a comment, sending an e-mail, or talking to me in person. Since the wall's closed for freakin' ever, you can find me at Tim's party tonight or Jazz in June on Tuesday.

Previous updates:
July Climbing Trip Update #1
Colorado Climbing Trip July 9-11

And don't miss this classic of Western literature:
Cat Pee = New Circular Saw

Slashdot | Turning Up The Heat On On-Line Registration

Cat Pee = New Circular Saw

From Slate:

"Inappropriate elimination" is the No. 1 cat behavior problem.

As in peeing, not finding your cat with a live mouse stuck in its mouth all the way up to the squirming tail, about to inappropriately eliminate said rodent.

... of the almost 5,000 calls she gets a year, nearly 90 percent are related to out-of-the-box soiling. It is the most common reason cats are turned in to shelters .... At least my situation was not as dire as that of the man who called the hotline to complain that his cat would urinate only on the stove. Whenever he cooked he turned on the burners and ran from his home until the urine burned off.

If my cat ever did that to my 15,000-BTU power burner ...

As I read through the litter literature, I realized the deductive skills needed to analyze the causes of elimination problems could provide CBS with a new spinoff: CSI: Cat Pee. Anything from the purchase of a new piece of furniture, to the owner having a change in work schedule could cause a cat to soil in protest.

I don't have enough time to watch CSI: Miami!

The vet gave me a tip sheet for eliminating the elimination problem. Following all the vet's tips, and combining them with the other advice I read, would lead to a litter-box care program that was only slightly less consuming than embarking on a career as a professional gymnast. ... I should put litter boxes in each place where the cats soiled, to try to retrain them to use the box. This would mean stepping into a litter box upon getting out of a shower, and wearing a couple of litter boxes, like a pair of mukluks, as I stomped around the kitchen preparing dinner. I needed a litter box on every floor because the cats might resent having to take the stairs in order to relieve themselves.

Hey, you know what I got out of my cats' "elimination problem"? A brand-spankin'-new circular saw, with which I cut a hole in a perfectly good steel door for a pet flap. Now they're roaming, and tinkling, on the town.

July Climbing Trip Update #1

We've already got a couple of cars' worth of people ready to head out for some Colorado climbing July 9-11. Even better, three of them know how to lead routes and set up top ropes, so that should mean we'll be able to have at least three ropes going. That way people should have the chance to get in a lot of climbing.

As you can see from the poll results on the right side of the page, Golden is looking like the popular destination. But this trip is (mostly) a democracy, so please vote for your preference -- you could change the result. You should only vote once, unless you're from Texas, where the "vote early and vote often, even if you're dead" tradition is so strong that individuals born there can't be expected to overcome it. Fair warning: I was born in San Antonio, and I'm running the poll, so take from that what you will. :-)

You can find more details about the trip in this previous post.

Slashdot | The State of Urban Wireless

Slashdot | The State of Urban Wireless

Slashdot | Austin Becoming Wi-Fi Hot Spot

Slashdot | Austin Becoming Wi-Fi Hot Spot

Colorado Climbing Trip July 9-11

I'm putting together a Colorado climbing trip for the weekend of July 9-11.

• Who: Anyone, experienced or not


• What: Top-rope climbing


• When: Leave Friday afternoon (July 9), return Sunday night (July 11)


• Where: Front Range, specific crag to be determined


• Why: If you need a reason, delete this e-mail :-)


• How: Very carefully


• Length of Trip-Related E-Mails: Much shorter than Jon's

Please vote in the poll on the top right side of the screen to determine our destination. If you choose "Other" please add a comment to this post specifying where you'd like to go.

Here's info from rockclimbing.com about the destination options:

• Eldorado Canyon


• Garden of the Gods


• Golden (Table Rock Mountain North, specifically)


• Shelf Road

Please contact me by e-mail (john at thiswebaddress dot com) or talk to me at the wall if you'd like to go.

God Bless the Black and White ...

... Cookies, that is. Popular blogger Jason Kottke somehow just discovered them, despite living in B&WC heaven, NYC. He gushes:

Whoa, what a dessert! The black and white cookie is, in fact, not a cookie but a flat, thinly frosted cake, like someone has sat on a cupcake. Cookie convenience, cupcake taste. I am hooked.

Unfortunately Kottke shut down comments on this post before I had a chance to slightly correct the statement that B&WCs are called "Amerikaners" in Germany. There is such a cookie in Deutschland, but instead of two frostings it's just one, a honey-vanilla flavor that's out of this world.

The comments sections contains links to several recipes which I shall have to examine. Previous efforts at "roll my own" resulted in nothing because the recipes were so complex as to require an hour to read and a day to prepare.

Int

Wired News: Car Dealers Feel Net Effect
Edmund's Reed said consumers should avoid car dealers without an extensive website. "If they don't understand the Web, then you don't want to deal with them," Reed said. He warned that although it may be cheaper for companies to sell online, the number of salespeople isn't likely to diminish. "Since they all are paid by commission, it doesn't cost the dealers to have a bunch of guys standing around smoking cigarettes."

Turn your PC into a Mac

Instructions to make your WinXP desktop look much like OSX's. Heretical statement: Running XP Service Pack 2 Beta, I don't mind XP much anymore. Until I purchase a second Mac, it'll have to do.

Free Background Patterns ...

... and high-quality ones, at that, are right here. Right now I'm using Pattern 94.

Some Good PHP Tutorials ...

... are right here.

johnfulwider dot com moves to Boston

A bit ago, dearest seven readers, I told you of my discovery that johnfulwider dot com made its home on a Hong Kong hard drive. I've now rectified that pokiness-inducing situation, having requested a move to the closer computers in Boston. I hope you enjoy the faster load times.

Understanding Histograms

Digital Outback has this article on understanding histograms, which I'd darn well better read before getting my histogram-equipped Casio Exilim Pro camera in a month or so.

So you might think that watching your pictures on that small LCD is a main benefit going digital. Ok, if you try hard you can check sharpness by zooming into the image. The main advantage of this LCD for me is actually to check the exposure of my last photo.
The right exposure is a key to taking quality images.

Automatic Image Rotator

The Image Rotator from Automatic seems to offer the tasty goodness for which I've been looking:

The Image Rotator is an easy way to make an image on your website change every time a visitor reloads the page. The Rotator picks a randomly selected image from a folder you specify and displays it to your visitors.

A List Apart has this article with instructions on customizing the 4k PHP script that makes it all happen.

I've tested out the Rotator and found it works just as described. Now I just need to cook up a whole kettle of same-sized images to rotate, perhaps with the help of another freeware tool from Automatic, Dimensionizer -- a context-menu plugin that fixes OSX's rather glaring lack of easy-to-access image dimension information.

Coffee: The Ideal Single Cup?

I'm coffee cursed. I emit a strange electromagnetic field that interferes with my every attempt, no matter how careful, to brew a nice cup of joe. Until now. I think I've discovered a foolproof way to prepare a decent cup by making what's essentially a Cafe Americano in a slightly unconventional manner. Here's the recipe.

John's Cuppajoe

Equipment Needed:

Low-end household espresso machine
Microwave
Coffee measure
Espresso tamper
Small coffee mug

Ingredients:

Finely ground coffee, preferably an espresso roast
Filtered water

Directions:

1. Put two heaping measures of coffee into espresso machine arm. Tamp it down and attach arm to espresso machine.


2. Fill mug a bit less than one-quarter full with water. Pour water into espresso machine.


3. After tightly sealing all the necessary orifices per the machine's instruction manual, turn the espresso machine to the brew cycle.


4. Fill mug a bit less than three-quarters full with water. Nuke it in the microwave for one minute. Increase nukage as needed to account for any low microwave power or high pain threshold present.


5. Place the mug of warmed water under the espresso machine spout. If your machine is as slow as mine, this should be in plenty of time to catch the first drops of espresso.


6. When the espresso's finished dripping, place the frothing wand in your mug and turn on the frother to stir your coffee.

Ow! My Freakin' Ears!

The MovieWavs Page has just about all the movie and TV show audio-clip goodness you could want, including some of these classics:

TODD: Ow! My freakin' ears!

BOB: Well, it looks like you've been missing quite a bit of work lately.
PETER: Well, I wouldn't say I've been missing it, Bob!

BRIDGEKEEPER: "What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?"
ARTHUR: "What do you mean? An African or European swallow?"
BRIDGEKEEPER: "Huh? I-- I don't know that! Auuuuuuuugh!"

CARTMAN: "Follow your dream. You can reach your goals. I'm living proof. Beefcake. BEEFCAKE!"

PHOEBE: "If you don't meet her now you're gonna be kicking yourself when you're eighty which is hard to do and that's how you break a hip."

HOMER: "So, a graduate student, huh? How come you guys can go the moon, but you can't make my shoes smell good?"

HOMER: "Mmmmm... forbidden donut..."

HOMER: "In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"

HOMER: "Mmmmm... soylent green..."

Warning: Style Changes Coming

Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! It's once again time to make some style changes here at johnfulwider.com, and you, my loyal seven readers, get to come along for the ride. Try the changes out on a test server first? Pish posh! What fun would there be in that?

Anyway, the color scheme and font choices are staying. I'm just moving to a three-column layout to make room for Google ads and an Amazon-powered "what I'm reading/listening/consuming/etc." list.

Bookmark: HTML Resume Template

Wordpress designer extraordinaire Alex King has an HTML Resume Template that I need to include here on johnfulwider.com at some point.

It outputs in valid XHTML and CSS and makes it easy for viewers to print and get a text-only version.

Three Strikes and You're Not Out

So I've been worshipping God outside lately (read: skipping church to go on climbing trips) and thus haven't heard a sermon of any kind in quite a little while. Returning briefly to the fold, as it were, I heard probably the best ever.

The pastor talked about teaching his daughter to play baseball. He bought the biggest whiffle ball and the biggest plastic bat he could find. First he asked her to swing the bat a few times so he could tell where the bat tended to go. Then he threw the ball in that area to maximize her chance of hitting it. Strike one. He moves closer so the ball's easier to hit. Strike two. Moves closer. Strikes three through five. He throws the ball at the bat. PING! (Or is that "thump"?) A home-run hit and she runs the bases -- the wrong way. Dad cheers her on all the same.

The pastor tied this all together by reminding us that even Abraham, the "father of many nations" and a hero of the church, had several strikes against him. He fathered Ishmael with his wife's servant Hagar, laughed at God's promise to enable him to have children with Sarah, and more. Not to overextend the metaphor, but God still gave Abraham plenty of chances at bat. Considering he's now one of the most respected figures in the world's three major monotheistic religions, you might say Abraham hit a home run.

" scooby snack tea parties near 2571 "

... is about the most intriguing spam subject line I've ever received.

Bookmark: National Motorists Association

National Motorists Association

We support more reasonable speed limits, better driver training, improved motorist-to-motorist courtesy, and sensible, easily understood regulations. We oppose heavy-handed enforcement, unfair motorist taxation, speed traps, kangaroo traffic courts, and government edicts that take away your rights as a consumer and user of automobiles. We're working for the establishment of traffic laws based on engineering principles and public consensus.

Church Habits Now Prime Political Predictor

USATODAY.com - Churchgoing closely tied to voting patterns

Voters who say they go to church every week usually vote for Republicans. Those who go to church less often or not at all tend to vote Democratic.
Forget the gender gap. The "religion gap" is bigger, more powerful and growing. The divide isn't between Catholics and Protestants, Jews and Gentiles. Instead, on one side are those of many faiths who go to services, well, religiously: Catholics who attend Mass without fail, evangelical Christians and mainline Protestants who show up for church rain or shine, some Orthodox Jews. On the other side are those who attend religious services only occasionally or never.
... Meanwhile, Democrats haven't reached a consensus on a strategy to narrow the religion gap and regain voters the party has lost. ... [Some] argue that voters who frequently attend church would be receptive to an appeal that recasts some traditional Democratic issues -- protecting the environment as the stewardship of God's creation, for instance.

1. It's no longer the gender gap (basically, women vote Democratic, men Republican), it's the religion gap. As my favorite pointy-eared nonhuman would say, fascinating.

2. It's the Republicans who should latch onto environmentalism as stewardship of God's creation. Here's a quiz: Which two words that describe a) "The protection, preservation, management, or restoration of wildlife and of natural resources" (source link) and b) a major political orientation have the same root word?

(Hint in the form of another question: which Republican president established the US Forest Service, five national parks, 51 wildlife refuges and 150 national forests? Answer)

Curing Human Aging: The Engineering Approach

Bookmark: Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS): A practical way to cure human aging

The simple explanation:

... [O]ur ultimate goal is the availability to the entire human race of technology that will restore them to whatever degree of youth they desire and keep them there for as long as they want. That's a bit stronger than simply "a cure for aging" -- it says that the cure should be available (at a price that they can afford, of course) to absolutely anyone who wants it. ... [W]hat "youth" means for our purposes is physical robustness and vitality.

The less-simple explanation:

SENS is a detailed plan for curing human aging. SENS is an engineering project, in the same way that medicine is a branch of engineering. The key to SENS is the appreciation that aging is best viewed as a set of progressive changes in body composition at the molecular and cellular level, caused as side-effects of essential metabolic processes. These changes are therefore best thought of as an accumulation of "damage", which becomes pathogenic above a certain threshold of abundance. The traditional gerontological approach to life extension, namely to try to slow down this accumulation of damage, is a misguided strategy, firstly because it requires us to improve biological processes that we do not adequately understand, and secondly because it can even in principle only retard aging rather than reverse it. An even more short-termist alternative is the geriatric approach, namely to try to stave off pathology in the face of accumulating damage; this is a losing battle because the continuing accumulation of damage makes pathology more and more inescapable. Instead, the engineering (SENS) strategy is not to interfere with metabolism per se, but to repair or obviate the accumulating damage and thereby indefinitely postpone the age at which it reaches pathogenic levels.

World's First Commercial Spaceflight: June 21

According to Slashdot, the world's first commercial spaceflight on June 21 will send one lucky pilot over 100km above terra firma.

I'm so glad this is happening in my lifetime. Moonbase One, here I come.

Canon EOS 300D Digital Rebel Tips and Tricks

Bookmark: Canon EOS 300D Digital Rebel Tips and Tricks

There's some tips in here that apply to other digital cameras, like using a cheap drugstore ear syringe to replace an expensive dust blower and using cheap cellphone hands-free kits to replace expensive remote shutter release cords.

It's also nifty to read about the firmware hack that nearly turns a ~$800 camera into a ~$1,250 camera, in feature-set terms. I haven't developed my view on this matter fully, but my initial reaction is to say that I don't like companies that create products by crippling existing ones, as is the case with the Digital Rebel. To wit, from Slashdot:

Canon has so far said little on the hack but certainly cannot be happy with its potential effect on sales. This is, however, a reality that more corporations are having to confront. In an era where programming labour is relatively cheap and computer connectivity more frequent can artificial, marketing-driven, barriers between technology products, last?

But then a possibly good point ...

Canon has so far said little on the hack but certainly cannot be happy with its potential effect on sales.

That arguement is rediculous. What part of Canon's market that will shell out for that camera will apply this hack? Probably almost none of it, if they can find it or understand it. So that leaves the likes of the slashdot crowd, and that really isn't a big enough group to put a dent into Canon's sales.

... followed by another, contrasting, possibly good point:

What part of the normal music market will learn to download MP3s off the internet? Probably almost none of it, if they can find or understand them. So that leaves the likes of the Slashdot crowd, and that really isn't a big enough group to put a dent into cultural acceptance. Oh wait...

Ha!

Ooh, I'm Excited ...

... that I may finally have made a good gadget purchase decision. Casio has already released a firmware update for their Exilim Pro EX-P600 camera I plan to buy. Quick firmware updates for brand-new products usually mean the company means to support a particular model (as opposed to just plopping it down in the market), and I'm happy as a clam.

(Via Photography Blog)

iPodding Your Way Past Social Critique

Gizmodo:

Apple's silhouette iPod ads have been far more pervasive than anyone probably imagined, and now thanks to an anonymous New Yorker (or, more likely, New Yorkers) armed with a Sharpie the posters have become a platform for expressing the various feelings of hate, jealousy, passion, and, yes, poetry, that the tropical-hued advertisements and their white audio sperm inspire. Starting with the same argument levied against the iPod's great uncle, the Walkman, the phrase, "The "i" in iPod stands for isolation," was scribbled on the first ad, replicated down the line with "irrational," "insecure," and other iWords taking the place of "isolation." Deep! Ironically, the people that felt the need to parley an mp3 player into social critique are exactly the people we wear headphones to avoid.

Joel Johnson has been getting cheekier and cheekier, and his gadget-lust site Gizmodo just keeps getting better as a result. If he'd just cut the unnecessary profanity (seen in other posts), all would be good and right in the world.

Jon Stewart's ('84) Commencement Address

Jon Stewart's Commencement Address:

It begins:

Thank you Mr. President, I had forgotten how crushingly dull these ceremonies are. Thank you.

My best to the choir. I have to say, that song never grows old for me. Whenever I hear that song, it reminds me of nothing.

Bookmark: Slashdot | Teaching History In Schools With Video Games

Slashdot | Teaching History In Schools With Video Games

I've always thought history should be taught in reverse chronological order -- start with an event relevant to the day's students, then explain what happened on the way there.

Like the New Style?

Do you like the new style here on johnfulwider dot com? Please leave a comment. Be honest and specific. I'm open to changes.

Please also point out any errors you encounter. I've only gotten around to testing on Safari (OSX), IE (WinXP) and Mozilla (WinXP).

Style Credit Where It's Due

Lest my loyal seven readers think I've suddenly become talented at Web design, I have to disclose that johnfulwider dot com's new style is a minor modification of Pink Lilies by Naoko M., which won the first WordPress CSS Style Competition.

I modified Naoko's beautiful background image of pink lilies to omit the flowers so my site wouldn't be too girly. After this, I read this post on Naoko's site:

my design was not generic and it may not be something many people wnat to actually use. Especially guys!

Well, there you have it! I also changed the header to a solid color (safety orange, my favorite) and changed the a: hover and a: active attributes so links would change to safety orange, instead of pink, when selected.

Climbing Slideshow Problem Fixed

I fixed the problem where links to the Spring 2004 Climbing slideshow actually pointed to the Jami's Graduation Party slideshow. Thanks to Jon and Erin for pointing out the error.

Switching to WordPress

I'm switching to the WordPress blogging system. You can watch my progress here.

Jami's Graduation Party Slideshow Just Added

Jami's graduation party (Master of Science in Nursing, y'all!) was a smashing success despite the absence of everyone's good friend Jon, who claimed to be too ill to make even a brief appearance.

To make sure he realized the error of his ways we all called him from different cell phones back-to-back so his call waiting beeped incessantly while he talked to each of us. You sort of had to be there, but maybe you can get an idea just how hilarious it was by looking at the photos in the new Jami's Graduation Party slideshow.

Sorry for the blurry shots, it was dim in there and a 1.8 lens and 400-speed film can only do so much when you're already a bit woozy from Tim's excellent Cranberry Cuervo Jell-O shots.

Captions Corrected in Climbing Slideshow

At my request Jon sent some corrections to the captions in my Spring 2004 Climbing slideshow. Among other things, I described as a couple two people who fit that classification in number only. Sorry, Tim and Shannon! The new captions are now in place.

Douglas Theatres: Time to Add Online Ticketing

Down here in Florida we decided to see Shrek 2 today on this, its first day in the theaters. Back in Lincoln we would have had to drive to the actual theater at which the movie was showing in order to buy tickets at the box office. Here in Florida, where they joined the 20th Century back in the 20th Century, we just went to Fandango and bought the tickets in one minute for a $1 per ticket service charge. Well worth it.

I can't rag on Lincoln's monopoly Douglas Theatres too much, though. They've long supported downtown Lincoln and decided to stay there to build a multiplex theater (PDF), which should get needed warm bodies into the heart of the city. Good for them. But it's time for Douglas to get online ticketing, or at least let you buy tickets for any of their theaters at any of their box offices.

First New Slideshow in a Year!

It's quite literally been a year since I posted my last slideshow. Some photographer I am. Anyway, please enjoy Spring Climbing 2004.

Using Microtek Scanners with OSX

Microtek is one of those flame-worthy companies that puts the Macintosh logo on their product boxes to fool customers into thinking their products are fully Mac OSX compatible. Bungholes. But I've beaten them, mostly, at their incompatibility game.

Their ScanMaker 4850 model, like a lot of consumer-grade scanners, has buttons on the front to perform functions like scan photo, e-mail photo, print photo, etc. According to tech support, the buttons aren't supported on OSX. But I figured out how to make them work:

• Install the latest version of the Scanwizard software, if you haven't already.


• You'll get a ScanWizard 5 Folder. Inside is the application Microtek Scanner Configuration (MSC). Launch it.


• Right-click on MSC and select "Keep in Dock."


• Select the "Scan" tab.


• You'll get a number of options. Here are my settings for scanning the standard 4x6 photos you get from Walgreens and such:
  Original: Photo
  Purpose: Custom Value 300dpi
  Scan Type: True Color
  Send to Application: None
  Scan Frame: Fixed Size, 4x6 Landscape (or Portrait, depending on whether the photo is horizontal or vertical)
  Save In: Wherever you want
  Filename: Whatever you want. It will use the same name each time, and append a three-digit number starting with the second scan. "Scanned Photo 001," for example. So don't scan more than 1,000 photos. :-)
  File Format: TIFF. This gives you an uncompressed scan. You can always compress to JPEG later.


• Without closing MSC, press the Scan button on the scanner (the left-most one). MSC will scan the photo, save it in the location you selected, and promptly crash.


• Hit OK to close the crash notification window, then launch MSC again.


• While MSC is loading, put another photo on the scanner. By the time you've taken the old one off and put the new one on, MSC will be loaded.


• Hit Scan again, rinse, and repeat.

I bet this procedure would work with other Microtek scanners.

Climbers Rise Above the Primates

From rockclimbing.com:

Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo invited five climbers to test out its new ape house and discovered that the "escape-proof" exhibit was not as secure as they'd hoped. The 12,000-square-foot outdoor yard of the exhibit is guarded by a 12-foot overhanging wall. Five climbers volunteered to test the wall and, with bouldering pads at its base, they quickly found six routes to the top, ranging in difficulty from V0 to V4. The zoo now will go back to the drawing board and try to eliminate the small holds on the wall; they've promised to invite the climbers
back in June for another round of testing before the apes move in.

Does Everyone Else Have an Innate Sense of Direction?

The business world discriminates against me, and I think I know why.

Everywhere I turn there are signs explaining how to find something or other based on cardinal directions:

"Please use the west door."

"The automatic hand dryer is located on the south wall."

The first I can somewhat understand. Outside a building, one can rely on the position of the sun or knowledge of the layout of surrounding streets to determine which way west is. But the second example -- c'mon, I'm inside a freakin' bathroom, for crying out loud! I can't see the streets, and I'm dealing with a place where the sun don't shine, literally and figuratively. Why not tell me the dryer is behind me? (Further, why not say it's hidden behind the bathroom stall door?) Why not say, "Please use the door to your left"?

I'm convinced it's because everyone who didn't have a tummyache on the one day they covered cardinal directions in elementary school wants to maintain their hegemony over me. I should grab a big fat permanent marker to edit all those offending signs hither and yon -- but I might not get the directions right.

Flatlands to Face Climbing in Fifty-Eight Hours

Last weekend I and 30 flatlanders from that outdoor-climbing Gehenna of the United States -- Lincoln, Nebraska -- took the classic weekend trip to Colorado. You know, the one where you beg your boss or professor to leave early on Friday, then get back so late Sunday night you're a zombie til Tuesday.

The way too wise Kate pointed out correctly that trips like this are more about the people than the climbing. So in that spirit, this climbing journal talks very little about the climbing that went on (though it was excellent), and focuses instead on the fun times had along the way. For easy reference I use the tried and true "Five F's of Climbing Journals" -- Food, Falls, Funnies, Flippin' Cookies and Fotos. Enjoy.

Food:

After climbing all Saturday at Shelf Road the whole gang went to Pizza Madness in downtown Canon City, where the cheese is so greasy you could stick a wick in it and light it. (That means it was the best pizza cheese many had ever eaten.) The joint's name probably derives from the wall murals, which feature three-dimensional renderings of: a) aliens crashing their UFO through the wall; b) various and sundry odd and scary-looking people, including a demonic-looking cat, feeding each other pizza; and c) gigantic bugs eating pizza.

Great fun was had by all except the staff, who must have recently angered the gods. Our group of 30 (one person didn't come) was closely followed by another group of 30. No kidding. To make matters worse (for them), we seem to have taken the tables set for the other group, by virtue of our early arrival for our reservation. This caused quite the pitter-pattering of managerial feet. Lucky the place had plenty of open tables available for shoving into place while the other group stared at us.

Pizza Madness also offered the day's first access to running water, so the line ran out the door as all the guys took sink showers. Later that night Jami may or may not have paid $3 to get her hair washed and styled at the Super Wal-Mart's beauty shop; if John, Tim or Nate told you, they'd have to kill you.

Sharon made some delicious Rice Krispies bars and, displaying the same attention to detail that keeps her glued to the tiniest toe chip, wrapped them individually in waxed paper. On Saturday she graciously shared them with Jon, Tim, Jami and John, but as her supply dwindled her protectiveness increased. When she was attempting to simultaneously perform a difficult camping-related task and eat a Rice Krispies bar, Tim offered to hold the latter for her. Wisely realizing the bar's mass would be significantly diminished upon its return, Sharon declined Tim's assistance.

Falls:

A Nebraska-like wind blast blew Nate off a Garden of the Gods face climb, his first outdoor lead and his first attempt at placing his own quickdraws on lead. Nate was 10 feet above his protection and about to clip the next draw when the wind knocked him off and almost knocked his belayer, Sharon, down. Nate's left leg caught the rope and flipped him, but he suffered only two jammed fingers on his first outdoor fall. Jami, a nurse, provided half-melted ice in a Wal-Mart sack while John contributed a (clean) sock in which to wrap the whole mess.

Funnies:

Jon achieved a one hour and three-minute telling of the Groovy Little Monks story which, believe it or not, is not his personal record. Bing, bing, BONG!

Flippin' Cookies:

Kevin forgot that altitude triples alcohol's effects so he, after imbibing a quantity of drinks appropriate for Nebraska's elevation, decorated the Colorado elevation with pink piles o' puke. Light sleeper John enjoyed a bit of the hurling before inserting his handy-dandy earplugs and drifting away in comfort thanks to the fine folks at the ThermaRest corporation.

Fotos:

Later on the road to the Garden of the Gods John, leading the way, noticed Ann pulling abruptly to the shoulder. John pulled over to render assistance (well, honestly, he would have stood around while the more mechanically aptituded Nate assisted). He ended up pulling out his camera as Kevin stumbled from Ann's gorgeous late-model SUV to flip some more cookies. John's car erupted in laughter as he snapped three photos of the flippage, then sped away.

Notes:
1. Last names have been omitted to protect the guilty.
2. Written from one person's perspective, this journal can't hope to cover more than a tiny fraction of all the fun that was had. If you were on this trip, please add to the account by posting comments with additional stories or links to stories elsewhere.

Why I Love /.

Two reasons I love Slashdot, known to (some of) the geek cognoscenti by the more efficient moniker /. :

1. I'm a hopeless geek.
2. Quotes like this about a replica of the Back to the Future Delorean time machine: "This thing is clearly a chick magnet, and if you can't get them on the first pass, you can always crank it up to 88 mph and go back in time to try it again!"

Slow Boat to China

Dearest seven readers, you may have noticed johnfulwider.com loading slower than a new climber rapelling off a 100-foot overhanging cliff. Turns out there's a reason for it. I just found out today that I'm hosted on a server in ... drum roll, please ... Hong Kong!

My hosting provider, ICDSoft, would be pleased as punch to move me to a U.S. server on request. That's cool, but wouldn't your hosting service sales script include a little function that puts U.S. customers on U.S. servers? :-)

I'm not dogging on ICDSoft. They've been good to me, answering support tickets in under two minutes, or faster than an experienced climber whacked out on Red Bull and about to do an Australian rappel. Whee!

Can I Achieve 176 Pounds?

Just found out, to my dismay, that I exceed the "average climber" weight the Union Internationale Des Associations D'Alpinisme (UIAA) uses to test climbing gear. The UIAA attaches 80-kilogram weights to climbing ropes, for example, and drops the weights. That's 176 pounds, a full 14 pounds under my present weight. I've lost 20 pounds in a year of rock climbing, but I seem to have plateaued at 190.

Anybody out there measure 6'2" and weigh 176 pounds without looking like a tall, hairy Ally McBeal?

Kill Comment Spam, Upgrade Your MT-Blacklist

Those of you having problems with comment spam should remember, as I did not, to upgrade your MT-Blacklist script and download the latest blacklist. I had a mountain of spam waiting for me yesterday upon returning from a Colorado climbing trip. My frustration drove me to the MT-Blacklist home page, where I discovered I was quite behind on the whole new version thing.

The latest version lets you search your blog for comment spams you may have missed; my search yesterday found 11 spams. Now I don't have to worry about closing comments on my old entries.

Jay Allen, the guy behind this indispensable tool, is asking for donations. I'm seriously considering it.

Happy Birthday, Tucker

My cute little niece just made a birthday present for my cat, Tucker, and sang him "Happy Birthday." The present, a sculpture made from a book, a wad of orange Play-Doh and one of Mr. Potato Head's arms, is just about the best gift anyone could get.

She's speaking in short sentences now, but phrases most statements about herself in the form of questions. Need to get her on Toddler Jeopardy.

Minor Commenting Policy Change

I get about four comment spams a day, so I've upgraded to Movable Type 2.661 to take advantage of its comment spam controls. What this means to you is after you post a comment, you have to wait 60 seconds to post the next one. If you want to comment more often than that, dear readers, you might consider acquiring other interests. :-)

Foolproof Eggs Over Easy

I used to murder eggs over easy before inventing (?) a technique that only dirties two more dishes and produces consistent results. I'd been making them, I suppose, the traditional way: Crack an egg in a pan, fry till the white just gets opaque, then flip ever-so-carefully so the yolk doesn't break. You want the yolk runny to provide both a handy bacteria vector and dip for your toast. (For the record, I make eggs over easy for others, and don't eat them myself. But raw cookie dough -- that's the stuff.)

So I could never flip ever-so-carefully and would always break the yolk. I needed something I could pick up with tongs, but even in my snazzy omelette pan the white spread out too thin to be gripped. Enter my handy-dandy 10-oz Pyrex glass ingredient bowls, without which no kitchen should be. (Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.) Crack an egg in each of two Pyrex bowls and nuke the eggs on high for 35-45 seconds, or until you hear the first pop of the whites exploding and coating your microwave's interior with tough goo. Use a knife to slide the eggs out of the bowls into your frying pan and fry on the non-yolk side for a bit, then grab the egg with your tongs, flip it, and fry a bit longer. Voila! Perfect (and pleasingly compact) eggs over easy.

Small-Market TV News Hilarity

How do small-market TV news staff avoid death by embarrassment during each newscast? They must be heavily medicated, because a story last night on one of Lincoln, Nebraska's two TV stations was a real howler.

A report on research into Vitamin D's preventative effects for women prone to multiple sclerosis began with the anchorperson stating, "Multiple sclerosis is a disease that affects ... (slight pause) ... the tissues." Which tissues might those be? The Charmin? Would squeezing them help?

The accompanying video was the best. Remember, the story's about women taking Vitamin D to lower their chances of developing multiple sclerosis. So who do they show happily tossing back some pills? A man.

Certain Dri: Sweaty Pits Salvation

John: Hi, my name's John, and I have axillary hyperhidrosis.
Support Group: Hi, John!

Today, loyal readers, I'm performing the classic act of self-sacrifice in today's culture: revealing an embarassing fact about myself, in order to help others.

I have, or should I say had, sweaty pits. Frightfully sweaty pits. Not just a light dampness -- a steady drip, drip, drip of cold, clammy nastiness. You can feel beads of sweat forming before they slide, ever so slowly, all the way down your side to your hips.

The condition's called axillary hyperhidrosis, and apparently it afflicts quite a few people (enough, anyway, to justify the purchase of the domain name www.sweaty-armpit.com by a doctor who treats hyperhidrosis).

Any shirt I put on would be soaked through in the underarms in five minutes flat. Wearing undershirts didn't help, whether they were made of cotton or high-tech wicking material; the sweat would just gather in an ever-expanding white-ringed splotch on the outer shirt.
All that's changed thanks to a fairly inexpensive medicated antiperspirant, Certain Dri.

It cost me about $5.50 at Walgreen's. It contains aluminum chloride instead of the aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex found in your standard antiperspirants. You put it on before bedtime and, after some initial fierce but bearable itching, forget about it. It shuts down your armpit sweat glands for days at a time; you don't even have to use it that often. Don't worry, you won't overheat. There's plenty more sweat glands all over the rest of your body.

Believe it or not, you can buy it at Amazon.com, where its sales rank is 93 in the Health & Personal Care category. #5 in the antiperspirants category. Gift wrapping, you'll be sorry to hear, is still not available for this item.

Be sure to catch the glowing and hilarious review from "chatchi," who refers to himself in both the third person and the first person while relating that he (somehow) measured seven quarts of personal sweat output and decided to get help "[a]fter failing numerous job interviews, and scaring away an immeasurable amount of potential romantic companions because of my mind-boggling sweat production ... ." He concludes: "Thanks to Certain Dri, chatchi had the last laugh."

Scirus: Google for Science Sites

I've just discovered Scirus, a search engine that indexes only science-related content, especially that contained in peer-reviewed publications.

The front page and basic-search are Google-like in their simplicity, but the advanced search is where the engine shines, giving you pulldown menu-powered Boolean operators and search narrowing by information type, file format, content source and subject area.

But why should we really use it? Because, "if you search on Dolly, Google finds Dolly Parton, Scirus finds the cloned sheep."

Using Electronic Journal Indices on the Macintosh

Some of the electronic academic journal indices I use for grad school, like EBSCOhost, don't seem especially Macintosh-friendly. Clicking on the link to download the PDF full text of an article doesn't generate a PDF, it gives you "ContentServer.asp," which launches Apple System Profiler. I noticed the file downloaded invariably matched the size of the PDF file EBSCOhost claimed to be delivering, so I just renamed "ContentServer.asp" with a PDF extension and POOF! -- a usable PDF.

Sex Sells ... Popcorn

"Honey, thanks for the Colby Ridge Popcorn. I'll be upstairs."

-- Actual Lincoln, Neb., Valentine's-week radio commercial
I can't make this stuff up, folks.

Can a Blogging Client Overcome My Busyness?

My loyal readers must be groaning in agony waiting for the next pearlescent issuance of wisdom from this, their favorite blog when there's nothing else to read. To satisfy them I've downloaded Ecto, an OSX blogging client I hope will make blogging a bit easier. I'm one of those heathen scum who love Movable Type but don't like the Web interface, at least as it appears in Safari.

Notable in Ecto is a spell-checker whose dictionary contains neither "blog" nor "blogging." "Pearlescent" isn't in there either, but that was to be expected. :-) The first suggestion for blog is "log," for blogging it's "blooding," and for "pearlescent" you get -- nothing. And just in case you think I'm making up that word, here's the definition.

Here are some coming attractions:

• The Stats Cookbook, a collection of step-by-step recipes for statistics equations intended to help those of us who like words more than numbers, and like both better than any equation containing sigma.


• Photos of me climbing at the UNL Climbing Wall. I'm now climbing 5.8+, working on 5.9 before taking the lead-rope class. I have now lost 20, count 'em, 20 pounds climbing. It doesn't feel like exercise and, contrary to popular misconception, upper-body strength is not a prerequisite. You climb mostly with your leg muscles, which are strong in just about any person who's learned to walk.


• An update on my master's degree studies. One of my professors has a great sense of humor, so I'll be posting a few of his gems for posterity.

I should be studying right now. You could kill a reasonably sturdy large mammal with my reading list.

Aiee! Statistics!

Homer Simpson: "Aiee! Cobras!"
Edna Krabappel: "What's the matter with him now?"
Bart Simpson: "Night terrors, ma'am."

Taking POLS836: Public Policy Analysis Methods and Models has me screaming, "Aiee! Statistics!" Unfortunately for me, these terrors come by day.

Reveal Your Stupidity Openly

"To hold your stupidity inside you is to embrace it, to cling to it, to protect it. But when you expose your stupidity, you give yourself the chance to have it caught, corrected, and replaced with wisdom."

-- Captain Dimak, Ender's Shadow
Words to live by, especially when you do something lamebrained like pointing to a "new" outside story concerning a topic you've been blogging and commenting about ... then later find out that the "new" story was the one, linked to on your friend's blog, that started the whole discussion.
That's right, the self-refilling soup bowl story I pointed to in this post on January 12th is the very same one Andrei pointed to in this post on January 4th, which started the whole obesity discussion in the first place.
I must have soup for brains.

Why the Delay, O Funky Fresh Food Reporter?

My seven or so loyal readers (up from four!) may wonder about the fate of my promised "Funky Fresh Food Report." I'll demonstrate my penchant for painfully stretched metaphors thusly: It's simmering on the back burner, having been bumped off the 15,000-BTU Power Burner by a mountain of textbooks.

That's right, valued audience, your humble correspondent is out to improve himself. I'm taking nine, count 'em, nine graduate credit hours at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Motto: Perfecting Bureaucracy Since 1869).

So if you don't see any blog posts from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, despair not. I'm either rock climbing to get the blood flowing for each night's three-hour class, attending said class, or rock climbing afterward to get the old gluteal muscles de-flattened. All three activities are sure to generate stories all of us can relish. Together.

My Cat's Head's Gonna Explode

So I have the ultimate lap cat. Anytime I'm sitting at my computer, he wants to jump in my lap and then occupy his time (and mine) finding a comfortable position.

Today my sit bones are sore from overuse, so I'm kneeling in front of the keyboard. Tucker can't figure out what to do. He's actually walking in circles around me, looking up plaintively.

UPDATE: Tucker figured out what to do. If he can't have my lap, he'll take my keyboard. Right now. sdhiysejklhjfasdlasdfhuafasuelkfhasefelasefuilrgdarghukl

ANOTHER UPDATE: Now he's pulling on the mouse cord, keeping Movable Type's "Save" button just out of reach of the pointer.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Now my knees hurt. :-)

Obesity: It's Those Self-Refilling Soup Bowls!

Andrei Zmievski, Ryan Norris and I have been going back and forth about America's obesity epidemic, offering up various reasons why our collective waistline threatens to slow the Earth's rotation and make long days even longer. Turns out all three of us missed what should have been the obvious culprit: Self-refilling soup bowls.

The University of Illinois researcher has set up several food experiments that show the more people are given, the more they will eat ? regardless of whether they are full or think the food tastes good.

... In the soup experiment, participants come to the lab expecting a taste test. Some bowls are rigged with hidden tubes that keep them full, while others are not.

Over two years of the experiment, students with bottomless bowls tended to eat 40 percent more than test subjects with regular bowls.

"I wasn't aware of it," said Nina Huesgen, one of the students who got a trick bowl in a recent experiment. "That's why I feel so filled up, I guess."

We all knew this intuitively, didn't we? Kudos to the researcher (Brian Wansink) for proving it.

Some might jump to the conclusion that it's only we (allegedly) greedy and spoiled Americans who get such huge portions at home. But my trip last spring to Germany and Italy revealed dishes sagging under the weight of fried meats and potatoes, "personal" pizzas the size of dinner plates and lots and lots (and lots) of pasta. And we shied away from the tourist areas that might presumably cater more to the American appetite. Germans men can have some impressive round beer bellies, and German women can be stocky. But they're not morbidly obese in the classic American sense. Italian men and women -- well, they pretty much all look good.

So what are the key factors here? Absent other information, I'm going to have to blame inactivity, our public spaces' hostility to walking, and bottomless bowls of soup.

Via Rebecca Blood.