Plum Island in Late Winter

Last weekend, my friend and I wanted to get out of the city, so we decided to drive up North and go for a hike.  On our way north we checked the weather and saw that it would be well below freezing, so we decided not to be that ambitious and to instead detour towards the ocean and do a non-elevation hike along the beach.  Earlier, on the car radio we heard on WBUR that some houses on Plum Island (whose owners had basically built them on a pile of beach sand) had recently fell into the ocean.  We chose that as our destination.  We found that the tourist season had not yet fell upon Plum Island.

We first climbed over the rocks of a storm barrier...

 then ventured into the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge.

Bored with Quel

A Diptic of photos of Quel

Wellfleet 2011

Some pictures from weekend stay in Wellfleet over Labor Day

The parking lot of the Wellfleet Town Beach.

This is how to travel to the beach

The dune outside the Beachcomber

Crabs at the Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary

Seattle - Trip 3

In Late August, I traveled to Seattle for a friend's Wedding.  Since my cousin also lives in Seattle I decided to crash at her place, and since she is adventurous we decided to partake in a motorcycle tour of the Olympic Peninsula, including camping in the rainforest.  I was promised that I would get back to Seattle in time for the Wedding.  So I rented a KLR650 (nicknamed "squirrely") and packed her with all the necessary camping supplies and we took off on our adventure!

The first stop was on a ferry which took us over to the Olympic Peninsula.  This short ferry ride cut out a lot of boring roads, and gave us some spectacular views of the Peninsula we were about to visit.  If you squint your eyes you can see the Olympic Peninsula behind me.

As soon as we hit shore, we gassed up and started riding.  I wish I had a camera on the front of my bike because in the first hour there were two magnificent views. The first one was encountered while riding over a long bridge where the first half was bright and sunny and the second half was saturated with fog for the whole span of the scene from left to right.  The bridge was lengthy so you could really take the view in.  The second magnificent view was experienced while descending a long decline into a valley of thick fog.  I had to convince my brain that the road continued through the fog.

View Larger Map

I was a guest on this moto ride and new to the area, so throughout the trip I had no idea what the plans were or where we were headed or when the next bathroom break would be.  Above is a map of the area I explored.  Our first destination was Neah Bay.  Below is a picture of the riding group. 

The twisties (roads that twist a lot) to and from Neah Bay were amazing.  Next time I will invest in a moto cam for my bike!  From Neah Bay we took the ~50 trek towards Cycle Camp.  The rules at Cycle Camp are simple: There are no rules except Respect.  I justified having a dual purpose bike by riding over a few tree stumps at Cycle Camp.  After we pitched our tents we were all starving so we decided to ride into Forks, WA to grab some grub. 

When we arrived in Forks we drove straight through the town and kept going.  I was a little perplexed because my stomach was starting to eat itself, and 30 miles of more twisties later we arrived at Ruby Beach.  It was definitely worth skipping lunch/dinner.  In the picture to the left I can be seen reclining on the beach, with the beautiful view behind me.

When we returned to Cycle Camp we made dinner out of snacks, then sat around the fire until partway into the morning.  The picture below sums up the night.

Since we decided to camp in a rain forest, everything was wet in the morning.  I fell asleep with my feet and socks accidentally hanging out the tent, somebody else didn't make into their tent, etc.  It seems like whenever I camp I always wake up to the sound of a rooster wherever I am.  We all survived and were back on the road by 11am.  We took a different route, still full of lots of twisties, back to the ferry.

  Here I am arriving back in Seattle and ...

 ... here I am already taking my much-deserved nap!

... and here is proof that i made it to the wedding reception on time.

All in all it was a fun weekend.  I didn't see any evidence of the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus but I saw a lot of other wildlife. 

Branchline Bicycle Storage

If you are in the market for sculptural bike storage you should check out Design Milk.  My favorite is the Branchline design, displayed above.

podcast: The Critical Path

There are some interesting conversations on the podcast "The Critical Path". The podcast looks at the causality, success, and failure in mobile computing, using Apple as a lens.






Episode 2 is title "Synchronized Failure" and it looks into why big companies (RIM, Nokia, etc.) are failing. The conversation at the end of the episode sums it up for me:

"Execution is about running a tight ship ... but where is the ship going? Some companies, if they think they can execute very well, then they can always say 'well, we'll just follow another ship'. But sometimes that ships starts to fly, and then you are in trouble. I think Apple is good at both. At the following, and they only fold things in when they are ready. And then sometimes they just completely say that being on a ship is the wrong thing altogether, and say 'let's make an airplane'.

If you want, you can download the podcast here.

Huron Beer Tasting

This Spring, my roommates hosted their annual work party at our apartment. It started out good with a make-your-own fajita station, then lulled out, but then everyone was surprised when it turned into a surprise beer tasting party.

We sampled 13 excellent beers in addition to a special appearance of Benlap IPA, which set the baseline for the scoring of the beer tasting.

This was the Beer rating system:

A - Annie would drink this, while pregnant, in Germany, in 1910, if she was there.
B - Tad would drink this, with work to do.
C - Coifable (Quaffable?)
D - Duncan pre game
F - Fit for Yale (My roommates went to Harvard)

In the end, Stone Brewing Company's Double Arrogant Bastard won with a B rating.

The True Cost Of That E-Book

I recently read a short article in the Boston Globe that referenced a study by the Virginia Quarterly Review on the true cost of reading an e-book. One of the paragraphs reads:

In fact, the human and environmental impact of mining for electronics is huge. The pace of innovation in electronics is so fast, with many devices getting replaced after only two years of use, that electronic reading is actually far more costly, in energy terms, than paper reading. If you take all of the resources that go into making iPad-like devices and gather them up, "the nearly ten million e-readers expected to be in use by next year would have to supplant the sales of 250 million new books" each year for the transition between paper and paperless to come out even. Reading a book on an iPad uses almost 50 times as much energy as reading one by electric light.

So, from their math (250M / 10M = 25), if each e-reader is used to purchase 25 books, then paper and electronic-paper will come out even? That sounds easy to do, and it doesn't even take into account e-magazines and e-newspapers. Also, I want to see the math behind their claim in the last sentence.

New Year's Eve 2010

For New Year's Eve 2010, I went to the Boston Aquarium with a few friends. I compiled the photos and videos that I took at the Aquarium into a YouTube video.

After the Aquarium, we went to Panera Bread and had lunch under this piece of art.

After lunch, I was forced persuaded to shop at Marshall's. One of the good thing about that store is the mural at the entrance.

After Marshall's, we went to look at the Ice Sculptures. They were not that impressive so we left.

Without a Car - Day 6 and 7 (weekend edition)

This weekend I took public transportation to a faraway (1500 miles south) city. I am still following the rules because I didn't bring my car with me! and I took public transportation to the airport. This trip involved a 20 minute walk to the Red Line train, a 20 minute train ride to the Silver Line Bus, a 20 minute bus ride to the airport, and finally a 250 minute plane ride. Saturday was for traveling, Sunday was for jetlag/workweek recovery.


I plan to go car free in Boston next weekend.

Without a Car - Day 5

TGIF. I made it through the work week without a car and I get to go on vacation next week.

Today was a normal commute (bus to and from work), plus a lot of walking in the evening (look at the map below).


View Larger Map

Without a Car - Day 4

Over 50% of the way through my car-free week.

My challenge today was to take a picture of something I usually would not see if I was driving. I made the collage below. Counter clockwise starting with the building: (1) one of the three tall apartment buildings overlooking Alewife and the Fresh Pond area, (2) road sign that I usually don't have time to read/understand, (3) the T symbol outside Alewife, and (4) a large bird which might be a turkey.

Without a Car - Day 3

Day 3 of not using a car went smoothly.

I walked to Kendall Square (mystery time + 20 minutes), hopped on the [insert workplace] Shuttle (45 minutes), went about my [insert] work (8 hours), walked over to the gym (15 minutes), played vball (60 minutes), walked to the bus stop (20 minutes), took the bus back to Cambridge (45 minutes), rode the Red Line to Harvard Square (20 minutes), ate a double peanut butter bacon cheese burger with salad at Charlie's Kitchen while watching the first 1/4 of the Celtics Game (1 hour), walked to the Hair Cuttery (1 minute), got my mullet removed (30 minutes), and walked back to my apartment (25 minutes).

Below is a picture of the empty bus that I rode home on, although if you look closely there might be a person sitting in one of the front seats. It's dark so I can't tell.

Without a Car - Day 2

I survived Day 2 of not using my car.

Last night I took the Purple line to Waltham so that I could vote in the morning. In the morning I realized that I had to find a way to work without using my car. I thought of 3 options: (option 1) Take the Purple Line from Brandeis to Porter Square (20 minutes), then the Red Line to Alewife (15 minutes), then the Bus from Alewife to Lexington (45 minutes) for a total of 1.75 hours according to Google and taking into account the time standing around for the public transportation, (option 2) walk from Brandeis to Lexington for a total of 2.75 hours according to Google, or (option 3) carpool with my Dad down 95 for a total of 20 minutes. I took the road more traveled with option 3.


Following my work day I took the Bus from Lexington back to Alewife in Cambridge. The walk back to Huron Village took 20 minutes and I was able to snap a photo of typical traffic that I am usually stuck in.

Without a Car - Day 1

Day 1 of not using my car.

My inbound work commute involved a cold walk from Huron Village to Alewife (20 minutes), waiting for the Bus (15 minutes), then taking the Bus out to Hanscom Field (30 minutes). This inbound commute usually takes me 30 minutes by car, 20 of which are for the 1.5 mile drive from Huron Village to Alewife. My outbound work commute involved taking the Bus back to Alewife (40 minutes), hopping on the Red Line and riding to Porter (15 minutes), then transferring to the Purple Line and taking it to Brandeis (25 minutes). I have to be in Waltham to VOTE tomorrow morning, so I decided to do that commute tonight instead of tomorrow morning. Usually, I would have done this commute by car, and it would probably cost me the same in Gas and Time.

Latitude 42: Tech For Transit

A few weeks ago the Livable Streets Alliance told me about a chance to go car free for a week by participating in a research study put on by Latitude on the future of transit in metro areas. The long term goal is to help create better urban transportation experiences and a more sustainable transit system. I was also offered a chance to discover my city in new ways and a 1 in 10 chance of winning an iPad.

Some of the rules for entering include:

• Must use car regularly (no car-share members)
  
• Must live and work within the Boston metro areas
• Must be able to carry out normal, everyday activities without a car by using alternate transit methods (walking, biking, public transit, ride-sharing, etc.—anything but driving)
• Must be available for the study (willing to not drive a car at all) from Monday November 1st to Sunday November 7th
• Must be willing to participate in surveys and interviews before, during and after the week of the study

Over the next week I will be posting my progress in a private Facebook Group and here at this blog.

Weekly Lunch Menu From My Work

This is an actual lunch week menu from my work for some week last November. They had an efficient way of using steak.

Monday: BBQ Steak
Tuesday: Beef Fajitas (Steak from Monday cut up)
Wednesday: Steak and Onions (Steak from Tuesday cut up more)
Thursday: Meatloaf Wellington (Steak from Wednesday ground up)
Friday: Chop Suey (Reused leftovers from the week)

Road Signs in Massachusetts

How to read Road Signs in Massachusetts

Stop - Yield if you want
Speed Limit - Speed Minimum
Speed Minimums - ?
Merge ---> Stop
One Way - If you want to go the other way, just put the car in reverse
Lane Markings - Drive wherever you want

I knew the Hadron Collider was a bad idea ...

How did this sinkhole happen? Global warming? Experiment at CERN gone wrong? Accidental divide by zero somewhere? Someone forgot to pour foundation? Giant sandworm from Arakis? HAARP at work?

A better question is where did all the stuff go? The bottom looks empty.

An even better question is how do you fix this? Throw all your municipal trash in it as a convenient landfill option? Can they just put a large metal plate over it?

Mavizen TTX02 Electric Superbike

First motorbike in the world to ship with integrated IP connectivity. Runs open source Linux with USB for peripherals. Where can I buy it?