Heya Todd!

My buddy Todd left two comments here and I've just now seen them. I am also downloading the Radiohead song he told me about. Now I am listening to it. It is good.

My Baby Got Stole... By A Bear Holding A Shark!!


Should have bought that t-shirt before they discontinued it.

I am tired. I brought alcohol back from Canada. Kokanee Glacier beer from BC, and Alexander Keith's IPA from Nova Scotia!

A Chris Isaac song came on after Radiohead, and that is just wrong.

Joshua's New MIxes

Playlist

1. Just For Today / The Brian Joenstown Massacre
2. Photograph Taken / Pinback
3. Lazybones / Soul Coughing
4. Me and My 24 / John Vanderslice
5. Crazy Mama / J.J. Cale
6. The Weather / Built To Spill
7. I'm Still Your Fag / Broken Social Scene
8. 4 Minute Warning / Radiohead
9. Melpomene / Kashmir

Playlist

1. Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2 / Neutral Milk Hotel
2. Surfing the Warm Industry / Kashmir
3. I / Andrew Bird
4. Amsterdam / Peter Bjorn and John
5. Stars / The Brian Jonestown Massacre
6. Asleep at the Wheel / Arcade Fire
7. Along The Road / Radical Face
8. pretty mary K / Elliott Smith
9. The First Day Of My Life / Bright Eyes
10. Lover's Spit / Feist

Ontario Chair Academy Mixtape

Okay, when I get home I want to make an 8tracks mixtape for my new Canadian pals. As I write my IPDP, I am listening to my Radio Songs mix, which is really great if I do say so myself.

It's got to relate to the theme of the Chair Academy, and there need to be Canadian artists. Themes: leadership, conflict resolution, work styles, effective teams, personality styles, and emotional intelligence. Ideas so far:

• Looking for a Leader, Neil Young (canadian)
• Nice Work if You Can Get It, Sarah Vaughn
• Communication Breakdown, Led Zeppelin (Jason mentioned this one)
  

Canadian Conference

So, I am up in Canada for a conference, eh?

Ten years ago, I spent a week in Hamilton, ON at hockey camp with Frog. I was recently divorced, and it was a fun thing to do. Frog's daughter watched Murphy. I remember Frog hurt his back and we needed to go to a Canadian chiropractor. It was mildly depressing, for obvious reasons. I'm a bit down up here now; I miss my family, and I really don't like traveling for work. I am looking forward to getting home. I need to mow the lawn. I miss my kids and my wife. I'm worried about my Dad. I miss my Mom a lot--had a really odd dream about her. I should write that down before I forget it.

In my dream, I am riding a train of some kind to Grand Rapids. I stop at a train station, but it isn't a train station. There are little stores in there like the subway stations in Sweden. I go into a store and a young woman recognizes me. Then she says it was my Mom that she remembered. This is the odd thing about this dream. I have never recalled a memory inside a dream. In this dream, I recall a memory about my mother working in this place to get away from her ex-husband. This memory isn't real, mind you, but in the dream it is. The memory comes back to me as I speak with this y0ung woman, who is a cashier. I remember that my mother took this job far away from her home in Metamora, that she drove all the way to Grand Rapids to work in this store, just to get away from Rob. Again, this memory comes back to me in the dream--it felt just the way it feels when you remember something. The only difference is that it happened in a dream and the memory wasn't true. The young woman shows me a deformed piece of candy attached to the register. My mother put it there, she says--my Mom collected things like that. This isn't true either, but in the dream it feels real.

Canada is a cool country.

I am in Innisfil, ON near the city of Barrie. We are right on Lake Simcoe in Simcoe County. A huge battle here is raging over Area 41, a proposed landfill site.

I thought Canadians sent all their trash to Michigan!

Random Observations

• Canadians say "PRO-cess" instead of PRAH-cess. I never noticed how often I say the word "process" until I was in a room full of people who pronounce the word differently.
• Canada is just like Michigan, except for the following: Canadians drive cars with better gas mileage, they recycle more, their cities are cleaner, and they don't act like they are better than everyone else.
  
• There are more Tim Horton's stores in Canada than there are Starbuck's stores in the US, which is saying something.

I bought a pair of Reebok running shorts at the outlet mall today. My left lower leg still hurts quite a bit, so I am giving it a rest--I only ran once (3mi) and I am waiting until it feels better.

James Brown Is Dead

Time ain't gonna cure you honey
Time don't give a shit.
Time ain't gonna cure you honey
Time's just gonna hit on you.
--The Kills

You should probably take it easy on me
'Cause I don't know how to take it.
--The Dead Weather

We got Kathy some new iPod headphones today, and that seemed like a good enough reason to make her a mix. I think I went overboard and put in a few tracks she won't like so much. Well, that's why there's a skip button on those things, eh? I've been listening to a lot of Luna lately, but none of that stuff fit here. Too bad--Kathy likes them. Anyway, check it out:



James Brown Is Dead
Playlist

1. I Love Techno / Soulwax
   
2. Ready for the Floor / Hot Chip
   
3. Beep It / Cornelius
   
4. Superheroes / Daft Punk
   
5. Out of My Addiction to Love / Towa Tei
   
6. One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Barbie Dolls / Pizzicato Five
   
7. Hey Ya! / Outkast
   
8. Gamma Ray / Beck
   
9. I Cut Like A Buffalo / The Dead Weather*
   
10. Tape Song / The Kills*
    
11. Hot Mess / Sam Sparro
    
12. Paper Planes / M.I.A

The title comes from something said in the Soulwax track.

*Todd took me to see both of these acts live in Detroit.

Running Vlog: Interval Timer

It seemed like time to do another vlog. There must be a better term on the horizon for a video-web-log. I thought the nature of this topic--how to use an interval timer--was pretty visual, so I decided to do it. I also think that it might actually help someone. I got the idea when I was showing Bill how to use the darn thing. It took me a few weeks to figure it out, and I am confident that I can get what I know across in about 4 minutes.

Route Planning for Yellowstone

The Scenic Route
4:44 (239 mi)

• I-84 to 167 N
• 167 to 39 W
• 39 to 16 N
• 16 to 30 W
• 30 to Lava Hot Springs, ID
  

The Direct Route
2:54 (186 mi)

• I-84 N to I-15
• I-15 to ID 30
• ID 30 E to Lava Hot Springs, ID

I love planning the routes for these motorcycle trips. It's close to as much fun as taking them. I love maps, I love planning, and this is fun.

Here are some preliminary thoughts on the first day. I think this will be the only day that we have separate motorcycle and car routes.

Picasa 3 Backup

Are your digital photos backed up? If not, get thee to thy hard drive and back them up!

I was relieved to learn that I had backed up my 11 years of digital photos on another drive (I had them on 3 of them in various states of backing up). It was really just a matter of chance that I have them all--hundreds of them could have easily been lost when the WD external drive crashed last week. Yikes!

So currently the computer is backing up 16,290 images to another external HD. Some of these are duplicates--it's going to be hard to sort these out because of the different cameras I've had over the years. But the best place to start is a freshly-backed up set that I can move to a different computer.

HD Proclaimed Dead

Well, I think it's official. The WD MyBook, which was affectionately known as the K drive here at home, has died. For a long time, it was the primary digital photo backup. When it died, I still thought it was. Good news: I switched to another HD inside the PC and have most if not all of the family images. They are a tangled box of X-Mas lights, though. Still, they are there to sort through. Better get at it. Gonna really need to go to town on it!

The WD spent a week in the freezer after it failed to respond to more conventional fixes. There's lots of music on there--I sure would like to have it back.

I need to get more methodical about saving and archiving family photos. I am also going through all of mom's photos, and that's difficult, too.

Picasa 3

Okay, downloaded Picasa 3 in an attempt to get these things in order. I've been taking digital snaps since 1998 when Todd encouraged me to lay down $500 on a Kodak digital camera. I've been through a few units since then--a nice Minolta DiMage A1 which I use at work occasionally and this little Sony CyberShot that I am currently using. I have literally thousands of images to sort through. Ugh! Probably need an external HD just for the sorting, and I really need to back up to other media given the WD crash.

Blog on Vacation

The view from the canoe at The Hochkammer's place near Montague, MI

Not that there are many readers who check in here, but it should be evident that I've been on vacation--and away from Internet access--for the past week and some change. Here are some cool photos. More later. The western shore of my home state is, I believe, the most beautiful place on the planet. We have stayed at 4 different places along the coast.

A classic Lake Michigan sand castle at my grandmother's place near Mears, MI

My Aunt Barb's AMF Sunfish at her place in Grand Haven, MI