wiredfool

Right around midsummers, the evenings grow very long out here. Golden Gardens becomes quite an attraction, there being some mystical connection between sand, fire, and beer. Cellphones too, as quite a few people were wandering around with one stuck to their ear. The most overheard conversation was: ‘Dude, where are you?’

Looking out to the mountains, in the fading light of the sunset.
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Looking back to the boats in the marina.
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I didn’t get to see to much of the solstice parade this year, but just to keep the tradition rolling, I did get photographic evidence of cyclists not wearing lycra.

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Although that one did have a tail.

It’s now June, and for the first time in recent memory, the garden is better tended than the website. The peas that went in in march are producing more than we can handle, the strawberries are into their first big peak, and the herbs and greens are still going well. So tonight, we made a dinner salad that was nearly all garden produce.

Fava Beans, blanched (planted oct/nov)
Shelling peas (planted marchish)
Thyme (taking over)
Chives (assaulted by the thyme)
Salad Mix (planted early may)
Spinach (planted early, probably march)
Parsley (planted last year)
Strawberries (going nuts right about now)
Olive Oil, Salt, and Goat Cheese Cheddar, from Trader Joe’s

All mixed together. Olive oil and salt to taste. The Fava beans need to be shelled, blanched, then peeled. The Peas just need to be shelled, then they are good enough to just snack on till the other food is ready.

Last night was pretty much everything we’ve come to expect from the annual fertility rite that is Jason’s birth day show — seeds, a 30 foot asparagus stalk, puppetry, balloons, and some music. Apparently the asparagus stalk made it to freeway park while we wandered up to a local establishment to talk with Mike, Viv and Adam. Michael Hanscom has some pics of the chaos.

We scored packages of Kale, Pumpkin and Squash seeds. I think we even have space for some of them.

In case I have any readers left, Jason Webley is having a CD release concert at Town Hall tonight. Nice venue, comfy seats, and a Jason show. What more could you want?

Well.

The new album has shipped — I got my copy a couple of days ago. There’s a preview at his label. It’s more contemplative than his other releases much more in the style of Counterpoint than the earlier two.

I have a new linkblog.

A couple of months ago, I was looking for a linkblog for those links that would otherwise moulder in one of my many bookmark menus. Of course, it’s not quite like bookmarks, since there are far fewer on the page than on my menus. But that might just be a good thing. I think that the history will wind up being ignored as much as bookmarks my bookmark menus in the long run. But it’s still a personally centralized service, so at least I’m computer independent.
Of course, now that I have it up, it’s the scope has changed and it’s turning into your standard linking type of blog with touch of explanation rather than the very simple thing I thought I was looking for. Guess that’s what happens when you build before you run user testing on a prototype.

The linkblog is running textpattern, Php/Mysql weblogging package by Dean Allen. It’s running on a petit virtual machine that I picked up for backup dns hosting, and is more than stout enough for any websites I might throw at it.

I might be late to the whole bookmarklet thing, but I’ve got a couple of them that do one key command posting of the frontmost browser page, as well as any selected text. That’s one less key press or mouse action than adding a bookmark in Safari, so I think it’s as streamlined as possible. So with these two
links as the first two items in my bookmark bar, command 1 posts the current url, and command 2 posts an excerpt. It works even if the bookmark bar is hidden – my usual mode. Note that these work in Safari, and the getSelection command is different in the usual suspect browsers.

I had the shocking pleasure of driving a rental Chevy compact something or other down to Portland last weekend. It was your basic rental, small, white, and flavorless.

Except that it shocked the driver every single time we exited the vehicle. Sometimes twice. After a couple of times, I started intentionally touching metal with my knuckle or elbow first. When that was hurting too much I started touching it with the key. Quite an impressive display.

After this skinnerian experiment, I found myself touching other metal things with my knuckles first.

I think it’s from the silica instead of carbon black in the tires, or at least that’s what the culprit was claimed to be back when Hondas first started shocking toll booth attendants.

One of the benefits of working from home is that there’s normally a cat to scritch when the need arises. One of the downfalls is extracting your shoes when you need to go out.