I picked up a couple more pairs of BDUs for our fishing trip. While going through them, I found that one pair had a curious name inscribed on them:

(click for bigger version) 

Could these be the pants that Casey Sheehan wore?

Google Labs have come out with a product called “Google Transit”. It’s  pretty cool, in that it allows you to map public transportation routes–just like you would map car trips. It’s also smart enough to tell you when you need to walk and when the next bus is (supposed) to be coming. 

Here’s an example that would take Evelyn from home to one of the local art museums:

Above, you can see that it tells you where to walk, the bus route, and when the next bus is due. (According to the schedule, however good that is. Not sure, since I haven’t used the bus down here.)

It even gives you a map, just like the driving directions:

I need to check and see if it works on my Blackberry. If so, that would be really cool. The downside? It only works for a limited number of cities (Chicago not being one of them).

And now a Texas pronunciation quiz: How would you pronounce the above bus line (Burnet/Manchaca)? I’ll leave the answer in the Comments.

My friend Graham borrowed our canoe recently for a trip to the U.P. I was glad to see it get some use again, as it’s been a long time since we’ve used it. Here are a couple of shots, in its native habitat.

   

…an AK-47. When I celebrate my teams victory, I use only the best: The Avtomat Kalashnikova model 1947. Horray! *Bang* *Bang* Horray!

 Though I did think this poll was pretty funny (or sad):

 Iraq won a soccer match! See–our invasion DID work. Har, har, har.

Update: What goes up, must come down.

 

I really wish people would celebrate with their shirts on. Plus, what is that one guy doing? Spraying the cameraman with Raid?

In early August I’ll be heading up to Minnesota with Graham and Company for our fishing trip. It’s in celebration of his 40th birthday and should be a blast.

So, I’ve been pulling stuff out of storage (no small feat) and getting stuff organized and ready. I tried to get at my four-man tent, but it’s buried so deep that it was easier just getting another (smaller) tent. So, now I have a one-man, two-man, and four-man tent.

Hints On Tents: I really like the MSR (Mountain Safety Research) line of tents, especially their “quick and light” stuff. As the name implies, the tents are very light and very quick to set up (especially important when it’s pouring rain and you are trying to get dry). I own their Zoid 1 and 2 man tents. They aren’t cheap, but they are well worth the money.

I had a lot of equipment already, because I was planning on doing a through-hike on the Appalachian Trail. (The complete trail is about 2,100 miles and takes about 6 months to complete.) Though, I did pick up some more clothes and some lightweight (summer) sleeping bags.

Hints On Sleeping Bags: For cold weather, I use Wiggy’s bags. The guy who owns the company is a bit of a fanatic, but in a good way. They are the preferred bag for the U.S. Navy Seals. Enough said. For summer bags, I’m trying out the Marmot Trails bag, which doesn’t have any insulation.

For a 3-5 day fishing trip during the summer, I’ll be bringing the following clothing:

• Two pairs of pants. I choose BDU‘s, since they can take a beating and quick-dry. You can get either heavy weight (good for winter/spring/fall) or “hot weather”, which is much lighter. I usually get used stuff, with the rip-stop material. Make sure it’s at least 40% synthetic. Cotton kills! No denim–it doesn’t dry.
• Three short-sleeved t-shirts. Again, go with 100% polyester, as it wicks away sweat and drys super-quick.
• Four pairs of socks. I’m bringing two synthetic and two wool. You’ll feel stupid spending $15 on ONE pair of socks–until you wear them for 18 hours straight.
• Three pairs of underwear. For treks in the backcountry, I use Wickers, as they dry quick. Notice a theme? Quick drying = your friend. Slow drying = death.
• Rain gear (tops and bottoms, though tops are most important). I hate all rain gear, because I always feeler hotter in it, but that’s just me. Useful if you don’t want to look like a prune. In my opinion, keeping your gear dry (ex. your bedding and clean clothes) is more important than keeping you dry.
• Hats. I’m bringing a baseball cap made of oil cloth and my wider brimed Alf Bush Hat for the canoe.
• Bathing suit. Doubles as shorts. I have a pair from Columbia that stuffs into its back pocket for easy storage.
• Low-rise hiking shoes and Teva sandals. I’ve got an old pair of Merrells that feel good and are broken in. The Tevas are good for the water, though they get too “slimy” for extended hiking (at least with my sweaty feet). The Tevas are fine for the canoe and water work, but I’ll put my faith in a good pair of socks and my Merrells. They may stink, but they have never given my dainty heels a problem.

In addition to the above, I’ll have my usual kit full of gear. Bags, pads, cooking, knives (of course) and so on. I won’t bore you with the details, but rest assured that anyone who hikes with me comes out alive.

Does this photo scare you? It should.

[I received an e-mail asking that a photo of cheese be removed. I can't make this stuff up.]

The Department Of Homeland Insanity has put an APB on cheese products. Especially Processed Cheese.

A couple in Baltimore, Maryland, checked a plastic bag with a block of processed cheese taped to another plastic bag containing a cell phone charger.  …  A passenger in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, had a carry-on bag with items resembling IED components, such as a wire coil wrapped around a possible initiator, an electrical switch, batteries, three tubes and two blocks of cheese.

Why do the terrorists hate our cheese? Are they trying to destroy Wisconsin? And speaking of Wisconsin, wouldn’t it be normal for a passenger to be taking cheese out of the state?

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: Here is a photo of one of the dangerous cheese handlers who tried to take our planes down with taped up ice packs.

Look at those shifty eyes! Look at that radical muslim fundamentalist beard! Oh, wait.

Uh, sorry. Yea, so you carry ice packs because you have a bad back? Oh, ok. And you have duct tape on them because they are old and you didn’t want to throw them away? Uh, LIKELY STORY. WHY DO YOU HATE OUR FREEDOMS, MIDDLE CLASSED WHITE GRANDMOTHER!?!?!?

Here’s a link to the whole story, in case you didn’t yet firmly believe that the TSA is full of fucking morons.

Senior Flagged By TSA Morons

A power outage in San Francisco today took out a whole bunch of sites. Craigslist, Live Journal, and many more sites took a crap when the “365 Main” data center went off-line.

Being a guy who works on data centers a bit, I find this a sad affirmation: I firmly believe that the Internet infrastructure is a house of cards just waiting to be knocked over.

All this talk about “redundant power supplies” and “tested backup plans” and “multiple data connections” is all a load of crap. You’d think these huge sites would maintain multiple data centers. Nope. You’d think that their “world class” center would be able to survive a relatively minor power outage. Nope. Embarassing, to say the least.

And it’s not limited to non-critical stuff like peoples’ blogs. Huge government infrastructures don’t maintain disaster recovery sites. These are entities with multi-million dollar budgets whose sole “plan” for DR/BR is to have employees drive to the office and pick up servers! It boggles the mind.

We all get so worked up about the Big Scary Terrorists and how they will Destroy Our Way Of Life. Trust me, it’s going to be some corporate goon who takes us out, not the Scary Terrorists.

I don’t think I’m going to be traveling to Brazil any time soon. Not that I was planning on it, though checking out the Amazon sounds cool. Their air travel has really been a mess. First we had that crash between the private jet and commerical airliner, and now we have the one of several days ago. Quite horrible.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, their air traffic control radar went out the other night for nearly three hours, requiring turn-arounds and unscheduled landings. To top it off, the authorities don’t seem to know what a “black box” looks like and ending up sending a piece of fuselage to the labs instead of the recorder. Note to authorities: Even though it’s called a “black box” it’s not actually black. It’s either bright red or green/yellow in color. As an airport authority, that might be a good thing to remember in the future.

The timing of all this Brazil news is kind of spooky, because I’m reading not one, but two, books about Brazil. While browsing the local bookstore’s travel section I found one called “A Death In Brazil“. While the author rambles and jumps around quite a bit, it still is a facinating look at modern expat life (he lived there, off and on, from the mid 80′s to 90′s). He weaves in a lot of history in his storytelling; I’ve learning a lot about the country.

A couple of days ago Evelyn picked up some books about Darwin’s travels, including one called “In Darwin’s Wake“. It covers a modern day cruise following Darwin’s first voyage around South America. While I really wouldn’t call this a faithful recreation of the voyage, it is an interesting travel book that covers experiences in 1990′s Brazil.

What I find most interesting is the different experiences both authors had. Actually, it shouldn’t call it different experiences, but different perspectives. Both authors had horror stories about Brazil; the “Death” author seemed to take it in stride, the “Wake” author was keen to get out of there.

Both authors clearly agree that the politics and living conditions down there are pretty darn horrible, at least for most of the people. Places like Sao Paulo are gigantic dens of extreme poverty, with the rich tucked away in their gated communities (taking private helicopters between work and home).

I won’t even get into the plight of the street children, many of whom “huff” glue to make things more tolerable. The movie “City of God” illustrates their story well.  (Though, as an added downer, I learned that the actors — nearly all of of which were street kids — have not been able to escape the life of the favela.)

After watching City of God, check out “Bus 174“. If you aren’t sadded after a double-feature of those two movies, then you might want to cut back on the antidepressents.

I guess that if you want to see what slavery, colonialism, poverty, and miliary rule will do to a country, look no further than Brazil. It’s a clear illustration of how difficult it is for a country and a people to change. 

Poor George had his colonscopy today and here was the file photo that “E Ontario Now” had on their site:

 Where’s that thumb been, George?

Thirty eight years ago today man first stepped on the moon.

Someday we’ll be back. Hopefully sooner than later, as putzing around in low earth orbit doesn’t exactly hold the mystic it once did.