Dang it. I wrote this days ago but my CMS screwed me.
Anyways, here it is: We're on Kauai and yesterday it rained like crazy so we went to the Walua River Hawaiian Village to check out the various structures. The Hawaiians have a house for pretty much everything. Today we're going to kayak the river to the waterfalls and Fern Grotto. It's interesting how much lower the prices are for me if I break out the kama'aina pigeon.
As well, for the 2 of you interested in either ukulele or skateboarding, I just found out that A'ala Park, known as a bastion for the homeless in the song Manuela Boy, is also the place that Christian Hosoi used to practice.
Well, off to live. If it weren't for the awful wireless connection, and the fact that my family is borderline insane, I probably wouldn't set foot back on the mainland.
We went to Lawrence Lessig's book launch party months ago, but I'm only now cracking the book to read it. For once, I'm really enjoying my morning commute.
In Remix, Lessig calls on his readers to consider the amateur. He writes, "If you want to respect YoYo Mah, try playing a cello." He talks about how important it is to create culture rather than simply consuming it.
This leads me to my preachy point. Intrepid Theatre, host of the Victoria Fringe Festival and original home of One Man Star Wars, is looking for a new board member. (I used to be one) If you've got abilities as a promoter, social media marketer, event planner, designer or just plain networker, get involved. Email them. There's only 1 meeting a month, you meet cool people, and you keep early-stage Canadian comedy and entertainment alive. You can also try your hand at writing your own play through their Petri Dish competition.
Angelina Jolie cannot be the only person making culture, for God's sake, it's not like she can adopt all of us.
Wow. Yesterday we didn't do any work at all. Instead, a limo was waiting to take us all to Napa for wine tasting and a seven course meal. I almost fell asleep between the fifth and sixth course. We went to Castella de Amoroso and my love was nowhere to be seen.
This morning someone Twittered about the shallowness of SF tech and I laughed. It's not because 140 characters produce a shallow expletive. Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams were masters of the succinct and profound. No no, I found it funny to think that cocktail parties are substanceless. Pun intended.
I think we've officially transitioned into depression territory. Now more than ever, it's important that we remain civil and pleasant. Think of America as the Titanic, and a job in this economy is sort of like being in a tiny teetering lifeboat. The person who insults everyone is sort of like Fran Drescher. While she may be good enough for a U.S. Senate seat, you sure as shit don't want to share your lifeboat and dying moments with the Nanny's nasal voice ringing in your ears. Be nice, it's almost Christmas.
Drunk Santa, Shiba Inu & The Spirit of Christmas...
I stayed home from work sick on Monday and caught up on Top Chef after a particularly fun and chilly weekend in Sonoma. Today I returned to work to hear a terrible rumor that the Shiba Inu Puppies have all been adopted and that their channel is going away soon. These dogs get me through tough times. This is almost the saddest thing ever, but not as sad as Drunk Santa live stream. This man is half cut and exactly the reason kids are afraid to have their photos taken in the mall. That being said, while I don't like drunk Santa, "Scared of Santa" remains a hilarious look at sticky-handed bandits getting what they deserve.
The 1.0 release of Mozilla-based open source media player Songbird has finally arrived, and trust me, as someone whose true love has worked on this from the beginning, no one has wanted this more than me. I'm too close to know what people are going to say about this, but in 2005 they were calling this an open source iTunes killer - difficult shoes to fill with a primarily volunteer workforce and a player that still can't rip CDs or sync to your iPhone. So let me tell you what it does have - WinAmp-esque skins (feathers), concert touring info, a LastFM extension, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY - heart.
WHY SWITCH FROM ITUNES TO SONGBIRD?
Logical Argument: Honestly, most of us just want to play the music we love whenever we want. Multi-device compatibility and cross format file support is really only important when you've got a party full of people and a device full of unplayable files. Listening should be seamless, and it isn't with iTunes or Songbird. The Songbird guys are the first to admit it. The difference is that iTunes and even the iPhone are purposely built to be incompatible with everything unApple. Meanwhile, Songbird's 35 employees and 4,500 volunteer community members are trying to fix this. Hell, if it really grinds your gears, you can fix it.
Emotional / Ad Hominem Abusive: You like us right? You want us to stay in America right? Well it's pretty hard to stay in the freaking country when the smart one doesn't have a visa. Get Songbird.
