Notes - Page 3

Evergreen notes that (hopefully) improve with age

Links to notes should be unexpected

Niklas Luhmann, emphasizing his notion that the Zettelkasten is a communication partner, stressed that links between notes should point to something you might not have thought of on your own. He talks about drawing on the rich network of ideas in the Zettelkasten to accomplish this. He also usese terms like accidental and serendiptiy. The

The digital garden as an experience generator

Mike Caulfield talks about his collection of notes in his wiki and how they work together as a rich network of ideas. Part of his method is to very carefully describe the relationship between two ideas when he builds his links. These descriptions become ideas in their own right. Caulfield’s links are by nature structure

Origins of the digital garden

Garden of Infinite Possibilities Jorge Luis Borges’ story the “Garden of Forking Paths” is set in an elaborate garden, but the real garden is a book that is structured in such a way as to allow infinite possibilities. The connection between the metaphor of a garden and an early form of hypertext is uncanny. It

Cardhop is a Simple, Yet Powerful, Address Book for iOS

The iOS platform has been hurting for a good address book app and now with Cardhop it finally has one. I’ve posted before about the lack of usable contact management apps for iOS. To some extent you were stuck between Apple’s underwhelming Contacts app or FullContact. FullContact is a very nice contact management app with

thomas fire trail closures

Thomas Fire Trail Closures

NOTE: This post was written in 2018. Some trails have been reopened. Others are closed because of 2023’s high rainfall. To find out more about trail closures in the Los Padres Forest, visit the Los Padres Forest Trail Association’s News link. Along with the loss of life and property caused by 2017’s Thomas Fire, there

off-roading in a sedan

No Jeep? No Problem. How to Take Any Car Off-Roading

So you want to venture into the wilderness but you don’t want to fork out the dough to build an ultimate adventure rig? No problemo. Outside Magazine tips you to what you need to venture off the beaten path no matter what kind of car you’re driving. At the top of their list is traction

How Robots Might Change the Experience of Off-Roading

A road trip is the ultimate journey into the unexplored territory of one’s soul. FastCo Design asks the question “how will that change when cars drive themselves?” Honda invited creative director Morihiro Harano to highlight the company’s autonomous driving tech by talking about his love for exploration: “My inspiration for this project came from a

Jeep Trails: Ballinger Canyon (part II)

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Despite drought conditions this year, the Shrubby Brushweed plants are covered with yellow flowers in Ballinger Canyon. Other flowers blooming in the canyon are Hareweed, Phacelia, and Bush Lupine. It’s a different story in Quatal Canyon to the south where hardly any wildflowers are blooming at all. On this trip to the Ballinger OHV park

Jeep Trails: Big Caliente

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The drive to Big Caliente isn’t challenging enough to be a good Jeep trail, and it isn’t smooth enough to be pleasant. But when you finally make it to the floor of Blue Canyon, you feel like the time was worth it. The canyon is a large meadow area with sycamore and oak with the

Day Hike: Mount Cleff Ridge Wildwood Park

White-tailed Kites are fairly common around here. You often see them hunting in freeway medians. They have a characteristic way of hovering in one spot like…well, like a kite. I saw this fellow hovering at the base of the Mount Cleff Ridge in Wildwood Park. Slowly, deliberately the kite dropped ten feet, fifteen, feet, and

Jeep Trails: Hungry Valley

Hungry Valley is a State Recreational Vehicle Area just off Interstate 5 near Gorman. The park is packed with 130 miles of trails for dirt bikes, ATVs and 4WD vehicles. This might conjure up an image of a nuclear-broiled landscape swarming with jump-suited Suzuki pilots–something like Mad Max meets the Power Rangers. And that wouldn’t

Jeep Trails: Quatal Canyon

Entering from Highway 33, just south of Ventucopa, Quatal Canyon Road is the superhighway of Jeep trails. After several hours of bashing my brains out on the moguls in Ballinger Canyon it was actually kind of nice to be on a smooth dirt road for a change. (I really have to install some anti-sway quick

Jeep Trails: Ballinger Canyon (part I)

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Ballinger Canyon is a high desert Off Highway Vehicle area similar in terrain to Hungry Valley, but about half the acreage. Ballinger has 11 jeep trails interlaced with about two dozen ATV and motorcycle trails. There are two main roads through the canyon, both easy to moderate with a few more challenging connectors. Entrance to

Day Hike: Sisar Canyon

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The Topatopa bluffs run from West to East, serving as a gigantic reflector for the Ojai valley. They are a numinous presence in much of the surrounding county. I can see them from my house in East Ventura. This weekend, however, is the first time I’ve hiked anywhere close to them. To hike the Sisar

Day Hike: Liberty Canyon to Cheseboro Canyon

This particular track starts at Canwood Street just off the 101 Freeway at Liberty Canyon Road. It’s an easy hike over a spur trail out of Liberty Canyon through a shady oak grove and on to Cheseboro Canyon where the trail gets quite wide and flat. If you’re planning on biking then be advised that this first leg gets