CogBlogged from ‘September, 2011’

cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by mr. nightshade Scott Leslie once pined for a conference badge sensor that would light up when a Dust Bunny is in the vicinity. I am sure with some hacking and Arduino skills, this is certainly possible. But then again, Social Media Dust Bunnies look so happy and smug in their photos on their web sites, so maybe there is something to it. If you desire such status, here are some pointers I have accumulated from careful observation ** Be frequent with number dropping your status. “I’m sorry, but with 50,000 twitter followers I cannot respond to everyone”. “I got over 1000 emails a day, I regret that I have an auto responder” Use your own photo/video in at least 3 blog posts per week. After all, why be stingy? You see it every day in the mirror; your readers [...]

I hate to come off as an outdoor snob, but on my trip, what many people describe as “camping” is pulling some giant metal box into a parking lot, unrolling the satellite dish, and sleeping inside. At the campground at Glacier National park, a giant ‘bago rolled in, the lights went on, and no one ever went outside. This is not Camping, this is Kamping. Now, before you start criticizing me, let me start first. I have camped (or kamped) out maybe 15 nights, and most of them have been in developed campgrounds. For me, it is convenience, as I am on a Mad Dash. Maybe consider this a cheap hotel. cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Every night here I have slept out in my tent, on the ground (or on my inflated pad on the ground). Camping you ought to be on the ground, [...]

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog To add to the mix of opening ds106 salvos, inspired by Michael B Smith, Cheryl Colan, and Lou McGill, that was my somewhere near the end of high school. I found it at my Mom’s house; she had a 1982 date written on the back, but I am fairly sure this was junior year at Milfrod Mill High School. Look at me! I have FACIAL HAIR. Ha ha ha. And Big Hair. (and hair on the back of my head, alas). Like Lou, I am wondering who is this guy? I was so ready to be out of high school. After reading Emerson’s Self-Reliance in 10th grade English class, I connected with what would become my core group of friends- we ended up as the non-conformist club, even the Lunch Club. Rather than going to the cafeteria and dealing with [...]

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Kevin and I go back to Mr Murray’s 9th grade Biology class — and so we sat some 34 years later in his home in State College, PA rejoicing a long lived friendship. And what’s best is that only part of it is reliving the old days. So Friday night I gently arm twisted him to do a ds106 radio broadcast. Among our conversations about the old days- how we did that super 8 video production of I am the Walrus in Mrs Tharpe’s English class, we also got to a really interesting part where he talked about his passion for coaching a girl’s high school soccer team. The irony is that we played together in high school, though I bailed after JV, he went on to play varsity. Full circles here. Not to lavish too much, he has been [...]

That is 31 years between a photo of me at 17 in my parent’s basement and just last night in my friend’s son’s basement. Much chnages and miles between. But that blonde telecaster is the same as it ever was, a thing that I just enjoyed holding, then and now. I have written up the story before – I bought this guitar and a Peavey Backstage amp from an ad in the Baltimore paper. I cannot recall how much I spent, maybe $325? But it was my typical suburban dream to play in band, never realized. At some point later, I sold it to my best friend from high school Kevin, with the idea it would reamin “in the friend’s family”. And now fast forward to the present, when the Tele is in the able hands of Kevin’s son, Cal, who really is in a band, and is making some [...]

Today is Sunday, I am reaching for the phone to call Mom (still, forever in my “favorites”), but alas, set it down. My day is brightened. Yesterday while at my friend’s soccer game, I saw a butterfly waft over the field. The #cookielove that started September 4 rolls on — and I keep piling it into my storify. Just listen to this epic mix by Jason: #ds106radio cookie love from @draggin Traktor recording 2011-09-17 20h02m31 by draggin Scott Cookie Leslie is still making and baking and having folks taking cookies: And Serena just blogged her (hye it is NEVER late) cookielove story (love the penguins) and the faces of people she shared them with (pss, please do some creative commons on those photos!) Thanks for the cookie love flow, people from around the world. I feel it all.

This first order of business after arriving at Cole Camplese‘s house (past a huge hello hug) was a trip to Otto’s to fill up the fuel tanks for the evening’s activities… cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Well, actually before all this was a round of play in the front yard with Cole’s kids. I do have my priorities. It has been inspiring to watch and read and follow and partake (running out of verbs here) Cole’s posts about the disaster of floods that destroyed much of his home town in Bloomsburg- he is putting up a strong front to the only source of news, the local paper, who is not allowing their pasts tories to be in the open, as D’Arcy Norman described, creating a “cone of silence”. Some shit is being kicked up, that’s how Cole Rolls. His flickr set of photos are spreading [...]

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Number of days on the road: 84 Miles Driven: 8788 Number of States/Provinces driven in: 15 Number of US/Canadian Border Crossings: 2 Money spent on gas: $2313.36 Photos posted: 1829 (that is an average of 21.7 per day) Number of nights in hotels/B&B: 9 Number of nights camping: 16 cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Number of nights spent in sailboats: 3 Number of “real” New York lunches (ones that last over 2 hours with conversation): 1 (thanks Susan!) NUmber of pieces of CUNY Pie eaten : 4 estimated great lunch with Baruch College pals and Boone G) Number of new forms of transportation: 4 (paddleboard, Jet Ski, 4 wheel Quad, tractor) Best Beach Walk: Batchawana Bay Provincial Park cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Number of Maryland typical summer nights eating [...]

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Readers of this blog know my repeated use of the words “Amazing” and “Stories” — these are actually all around us, and there is nothing finer than when they come unexpectedly. Such was the case Monday. On my route from north of Baltimore to New Jersey, I took advantage of my route going right through Newark, Delaware, where I was an undergraduate student 1981-1986. Besides getting to catch up with friends Paul and Debbie and my old stomping grounds (The Deer Park), I decided to check out Penny Hall, the location of the Geology department where I spent most of my time. The building retains the same classic red brick as the rest of the campus– cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog and walking in the main lobby, it looked and felt eerily like it was [...]

My book report is on this really cool story… I just wanted to continue a log of books read on this trip; my reading volume will likely exceed the sum total for the last 4 years. When I was in Hope, BC, I found a great little book store that had 50% off of all titles: cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog I just finished book 1 on the left, Douglas Coupland’s Microserfs – a good read indeed. For me, having started my career in the time span represented in the book (early 1990s), there was a lot to identify with. The story is told in a sort of burst like vignettes from one of the primary characters, Dan Underwood, of a group of young workers at Microsoft who bail to follow one of their crew to Silicon Valley to work for a software startup. So [...]