Survive Travel to the Dark Side: Yoda Does Voice Commands for TomTom GPS
TomTom has a new campaign featuring “celebrity” voices for their turn-by-turn GPS systems. Choose from a Yoda, Darth Vader, C3PO and coming soon…Han Solo. What? No Chewbacca?
Cowboy Cooking with a Dutch Oven
Not for the ultralight crowd, though I once ran into some guys who hiked into Tassajara with heavy cast iron cookware, a dutch oven lets you prepare gourmet meals you wouldn’t think possible at the campsite. Casseroles, fresh baked bread — it’s all possible with with a humble cast iron pot and some red hot…
Coyote Encounter of the Third Kind
So yesterday I took Mr. Moose out for our weekly run in the lemon orchard. Typically we go about a mile and a half, I take the tennis ball launcher and Moose gets double or triple the mileage out of the deal. Very rarely we might see a runner or another dog walker on these…
Playing a New Game
This is just a quick update my regular readers know that I’ve started a new blog, specifically oriented to games, play, and fun in a youth ministry context. If you’re interested please feel free to hop over to Mud Pie Games and join the fun!
Five Days to Perfect Orderliness
I used to go backpacking with a friend who was kind of a schlump in daily life but on the trail he was in prefect control. His backpack was amazingly organized – everything had its place. When he needed anything it was instantly at his fingertips. I made a vow, “someday, somehow, I’m going to…
Project Trail Dog: Kentucky Fried Hands
I guess I didn’t think this through all the way. When a 75 lb. dog hits the end of a 50 foot yellow plastic rope at a full flat-out run, guess what happens? The force of the jerk knocks him off his feet and he tumbles in the grass. This isn’t as bad as it…
Free Bird (for Bird Watchers)
If you want to know more about where you live, and thereby know more about who your are, you can start with the birds. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has the most amazing site, All About Birds – and like some of the best things in life, it’s free! The site has everything from Birding…
Tinderbox: Mapping the Interior
In his book The Size of Thoughts, Nicholson Baker talks about some of the unexpected advantages of library card catalogs over databases: fingerprints for instance. Dark smudges of body oil can tell you at a glance which topics in the catalog are the most popular, something that would take a complex structured query to achieve…
For “Mind Like Water” Use a GPS
Last week’s trip to Seattle and Portland was the most enjoyable time I’ve ever spent driving in two unfamiliar cities. Nevermind the list of crazy place names: Tukwila, Puyallup, Newaukum, Tigard, Tualatin to name just a few. I was at peace. I had achieved mind like water. Apparently I use a lot more brainpower than…
The Price of Certainty is $25
I ordered a GPS unit from Amazon ahead of a trip to Seattle. But then the estimated arrival date slipped to the day after departure. Dilema. On one hand it seemed like the USPS should be able to deliver the parcel in time. On the other, I really wanted the unit to help navigate a…
What’s the Big Idea Behind TEDxConejo?
Buckminster Fuller believed that power and potential came from opposing forces. Fuller’s geodesic dome, an enclosed space with no need for interior supports, made use of this principle. But Fuller felt that the clash of opposites could do much more than keep buildings aloft. He saw in these forces the potential to end world hunger.…
Why I Stopped Blogging
I started this year with a goal to better focus my writing and blog every day. I did a pretty good job of it until February 15…and then I stopped. Why? My attention shifted. The things I’m interested in at the moment don’t necessarily fit the theme of this blog…which is loosely defined as “things…
Project Trail Dog: Training the Perfect Hiking Buddy
A good trail dog needs to be calm, confident, alert to danger but not easily threatened, and most of all…focused on his owner. This does not describe Mr. Moose, the German Shepherd (Greyhound?) mix that I am training to be my trail buddy. He does very well with people he knows, and he’s more plenty…
Bucket o’ Links #3: Tips, Tricks and Hacks
General Remove rust with a potato Reduce clutter: buy fewer but better tools Make your own no-kill mousetrap Information 10 tips for using del.icio.us Use Gmail to manage multiple email accounts (Read this about Gmail, Buzz and privacy first) Use Facebook like a pro Productivity Getting things done with kaizen Boost productivity with multiple positives…
What’s in Your (Survival) Backpack?
Jaymi Heimbuch puts together an industrial-strength survival pack, the sort you might need to survive a Haiti-style disaster. There are plenty of good resource links here, plus lots of chatter in the comments. Heimbuch’s main complaint? This first aid, survival kit tips the scales at 30 lbs. (Hint, go with LED flashlights and lose the…