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Saturday, February 25, 2006
Hincapie wins second stage at Tour of California
George is starting his season off on a good note with his second stage win yesterday at the Tour of California. Floyd Landis has the overall lead, with David Zabriske in second and Bobby Julich third. Maybe there's hope for pro bicycle racing in America after all. Even the Washington Post has an article about George's victory on their site. (0) comments Thursday, February 23, 2006
Google Page Creator
I'm anxious to check out the new Google Page Creator. It provides an easy to use method for uploading photos and designing web pages from templates. The results are then posted on the gmail user site, so a gmail account is needed. Since the info about the new service was posted on both slashdot and digg, it may be a while before the server overload subsides. This was known as the "slashdot effect", but now that digg is becoming increasingly popular with the technology news fans, we'll have to add the term "digg effect" as well. (0) comments Monday, February 20, 2006
The Year of Magical Thinking
Just finished reading Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. It's an excellent book about Didion's response to the sudden death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. At the same time her daughter, Quintana, became ill with a mysterious infection that nearly took her life. (0) comments Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Jacksonville
Back from a quick trip to Jacksonville to visit with Mom. It's encouraging to see how spry she is at 84 years old. The bike ride from the Jacksonville Airport on the Bike Friday was pleasant. It was cool, sunny, with a nice tailwind for most of the trip. There was a detour on Pulaski Road that I tried to follow but ended up on a tour of the some residential neighborhoods in search of a route to Heckscher Blvd. I was not in a big rush so I enjoyed the tour. I arrived at around dusk. It was cold in sunny Florida, into the low 30's at night. We accomplished a lot of small tasks and had a good time together.
(0) comments Saturday, February 04, 2006
Cézanne
Viewed the Cézanne exhibit at the National Gallery yesterday. Rode the V-Rex down via the W&OD, Four Mile Run, and Mt. Vernon Trails. I ended up riding in a t-shirt on a spring-like day. Many people were out running and riding. Several of them passed me as I fixed a flat tire near National Airport. I discovered two things; that my spare tube was the wrong size, and that my tire was nearly worn through to the tube. I patched the puncture, hoping it would hold until I returned home. I parked between the East and West buildings of the National Gallery. There are several bike racks located there and it's a very public space, with guards and gallery employees usually standing around. I've never had a problem with theft there. I'm not a big fan of Cézanne. He's not a great draftsman and I've never fully understood his contributions to the field. I enjoyed his earlier, more representational work more than his later, more abstract work. His later work paved the way for the abstract artists to follow, probably one of the reasons I don't care so much for his work. His legacy seems in part to have lead to rooms of huge, lifeless abstract works in empty galleries in such places as the Hirshorn Musuem. Afterwards I wandered over to once again study the prints of Félix Buhot. Buhot was working around the time of Cézanne in a very traditional, representational style. It's frustrating that the gallery has almost no reproductions of his work for sale in their shops. Here are some examples of his work (those links labelled image available. (0) comments Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Philip Greenspun on early retirement
Philip was a 37 year old programmer who sold his company and retired in 2001. His article on retiring early explains his ideas on the experience. Among his time mangement suggestions is: don't read the newspaper or email in the morning because it will scramble your brain with lots of disconnected ideas and you won't be able to accomplish any serious work for the rest of the day. (0) comments
Step-by-step comics
Kazu Kibuishi shows how he draws comics, from the initial rough sketch, to the pencil drawing in blue on Bristol paper, to the final inking, found at Boing Boing. See also how AppleGeeks is drawn. (0) comments |
