vargocity

Benton the Younger

2012-01-26T14:33:00.001-05:00

Parallel posting at Dirty South Beer Club Recently the Dirty South Beer Club pursued its second home brew project, again with the help of the pros at East Atlanta Brewery. The first one was a Russian Imperial Stout that was named for the arrival of the the Breed's first child, Frederick. The making of that brew was freezing and arduous, but the results were delicious. We enjoyed that beer for

2011 Year in Review

2012-01-10T22:58:00.002-05:00

2011 was an eventful year for us. Lauren and I spent last New Year's Eve in a cozy B&B in Woodstock Vermont. This year we were home with our new son and all our pets. Both nights were low key and mellow but a lot has changed between those two nights. A year ago, we were just revealing the pregnancy to family and friends. Now, we are managing jobs with day care and beginning solid foods. Benton is

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T11:02:00.001-05:00

Leafblowers

2011-12-07T10:55:00.001-05:00

If you know my, you know I hate leafblowers. I see no way that these devices do more good than harm. They are noisy (and dangerous? users are advised to wear personal protective equipment, yet they are used without barrier to others), dirty (polluting from combustion, kicking up debris), and inefficient (they most often serve to push one person's undesirables onto someone else's property - or

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T20:30:00.000-04:00

Benton's first Halloween.

Breezy the Breeze Card

2011-10-29T11:07:00.000-04:00

MARTA, Atlanta's transit service is having a contest to promote the agency. It is part of a national competition called I <3 my card aimed at drawing attention to the uses of, and affections for, our local transit services. And... we get to pick the winners. You can vote by 'like'ing the video with the thumbs up button and you can watch all of the MARTA entries here. Below is my favorite.

Transit Oriented Development

2011-10-10T21:03:00.001-04:00

October 10, 2011 12:01 PM Transit Oriented Development

2 months

2011-09-21T22:17:00.001-04:00

I may seem like all I post about, however infrequently, is now related to having a child. Maybe true, but it really is almost the only thing I have been taking pictures of lately, and today was his 2 month check up. It is so fun to head out to the doctor's and get some feedback on how the kid is doing. You get to have a special outing with your child, see other parents and kids, and hear super

Being a parent

2011-08-30T12:04:00.003-04:00

I am a dad now, but am still able to be on the laughing end of moments like this (for now). via smartphOWNED.com

Maternity Leave

2011-08-14T12:57:00.011-04:00

We're almost a month in now and things are going pretty well. Routines are being developed and we are taking on more activities outside of the house, and we've had two grandmas and two aunts visit. Lauren is home until sometime in October and I am getting back into my work schedule. As we began to think about having a kid, figuring out what to do about child care was immediately an issue. Prior

Vargos had a Baby!

2011-07-30T19:38:00.010-04:00

My apologies for the delay in getting the news out through this avenue but many of you have already heard - Benton Gray Vargo was born on July 20, 2011. He was a healthy 8lbs 9oz. For months, and especially for the last few weeks of the pregnancy I had been waiting anxiously and wondering always "what is next?" "how does this go down?" I began to find out just after 5pm on a Tuesday when

New Bike Helmets

2011-07-29T17:11:00.004-04:00

I'm always looking for new bike helmet technology. I'm conflicted by wanting to be safe and at the same time longing for the comfort and freedom that riding without a helmet offers. That's why I'm very excited to present these innovations in head protection technology. First, there is this little number inspired by armadillos. It can be stored and carried flat, and is also very cheap and easy to

What the Frack

2011-07-12T09:41:00.007-04:00

This coloring book is ridiculous but makes me think about what kinds of coloring books I could get behind, or make. Remember Captain Planet? Here are a couple environmental resources for kids. EPA Environmental Kids ClubClean Air Campaign Clean Air KidsNRDC's Environmental Links for Kids

Barefoot and Pregnant

2011-06-15T07:19:00.005-04:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia"Barefoot and pregnant" is a phrase most commonly associated with the controversial idea that women should not work outside the home and should have many children during their reproductive years. It has several other meanings as well. It is a figure of speech.The phrase "barefoot and pregnant" was probably first used sometime in the late 1940s. An article from

Children and Air

2011-06-07T09:11:00.005-04:00

As the summer wears on, the poor air quality days are beginning to happen, and in succession. We're currently in a long stretch of code orange smog alert days, which are forecasts of the air quality and do not actually represent an 'exceedance' under the Nation Ambient Air Quality Standards. With a baby on the way I am interested in how seasonal air quality affects development. I have

Renewable Fossil Fuels

2011-06-07T07:43:00.005-04:00

Energy problems solved by Fake Science

Zion

2011-05-25T19:52:00.014-04:00

We went to Utah with little idea of where we were going to visit. In the weeks prior to our departure, the concentration was on Moab and Canyonlands (where I went two years ago with Lauren). We needed a trip that could be broken into two sections and one where we might be able to go between alpine and desert. We found all of it in Zion (just south of where we went last year). Matt and I arrived

CitySourced

2011-05-25T19:44:00.004-04:00

Check out CitySourced, a new mobile citizen reporting app that lets cities know what residents are coming across that need repair, attention, cleaning, etc. It uses your smartphone's camera and GPS to record images and data about graffiti, potholes, broken benches and other elements that require the city's attention. When you take a photo, you fill out a short questionnaire to let the city know

Where you at?

2011-04-29T08:25:00.007-04:00

The recent exposure of the iPhone's consolidated.db file has raised questions about privacy, piqued research interests, and inspired visualization of personal travel. South Park dedicated the season premiere to the issue. I decided to take a look at my own consolidated.db file using a open source software from Pete Warden, here. Since November you can see our roadtrip up to the NorthEast for the

Great (?) Streets

2011-04-27T09:13:00.004-04:00

Some of you may be familiar with Alan Jacobs' book Great Streets, in which he famously compared the street design and layout of several cities around the world using 1 square mi figure-ground diagrams. I decided to create one centered around my home. It is not that hard and could easily be automated (maybe later) using Google Maps. When compared with several of the drawings from Jacobs' book you

Blue Ridge Birthday Party

2011-04-25T07:45:00.008-04:00

This weekend he headed up to the Blue Ridge Mountains for a night in a cabin with Birthday Girl, Liz. We spent some time trying to fly fish in the murky Toccoa River right behind the cabin and Derek pulled out a small Brown trout. I tried my hand from the shore and only got the line tangled. On Saturday we went to Stanley Gap and hike short trail where we saw some waterfalls on part of the

Blood Mountain

2011-04-11T22:28:00.001-04:00

This Saturday we went north into the Blood Mountain Wilderness to climb to the top of Georgia's 4th highest peak by the same name. It was our second time there but the first trip in a few years. We found a 5.5 mi loop hike that climbs just over 2000 ft from a parking lot just past a popular destination on the Appalachian Trail: Neels Gap. It's a beautiful, windy drive up to the trailhead and a

Soap on a Rope

2011-04-11T22:18:00.007-04:00

I have not been posting a lot lately but several things have happened. One thing I have been doing is trying to get outside climbing while the weather is prime. I've been able to get to Rocktown, GA a few times and have been working on a fun classic there called Soap on a Rope. This photo is when I tried it on Feb 27th. I did not get it that day. But after we went to Cloudland Canyon in March we

Cloudland Canyon

2011-03-14T21:45:00.010-04:00

This weekend we went up to Cloudland Canyon to experience what they had to offer in backcountry camping. There are a number of sites with electric and sanitary for your RV as well as tent pads if you just wanna park and sleep. Previously we've visited their 'walk-in' campsites which are slightly closer to the the car than the backcountry sites. The park is frequented mostly by day tourists outs

GSU Visualization Wall

2011-03-09T11:16:00.004-05:00

Georgia State University's new Petit (read Petite, though it is anything but) Science Center features a 200 million pixel visualization wall that can be used by teachers, classes and student for new approaches to displaying, examining, and manipulating visual information and data. Th whole wall is divided into four parts which can each feature a different piece of the overall presentation or can

Weather Again

2011-03-09T11:13:00.004-05:00

To provide some contrast to my last few post.

Another Day of Work in Atlanta Postponed Due to Weather

2011-01-29T15:40:00.006-05:00

Icelanta

2011-01-12T17:17:00.007-05:00

Atlanta and the Southeast are at a standstill due to snow and sustained low temps (plus no means of taking care of the situation). We can't go to work because the roads have not been made suitable for cars (as you'll see). Many people have ventured out to play in the snow and the news agencies had made a habit of displaying residents mobile picture and video uploads on their websites and

Christmas

2011-01-10T17:40:00.001-05:00

We are finally back from a 10-day, several thousand mile trip up to the northeast to visit with family and ring in the New Year. It was a great trip that allowed us to spend time and visit with a number of people. We stopped in DC on the way up and on the way back down but only saw one of our many friends who live there. We were in Hampton, CT, Newport, RI, Warwick, RI, Pawtucket, RI, Woodstock

Ngrams

2010-12-17T07:08:00.007-05:00

Similar tothis post on Lexicon I was shown a new tool from Google today that can search the texts of over 5 million books going back centuries and in a number of languages. The New York Times covered it here. It goes much deeper than the Facebook tool to examine cultural tends and is pretty flexible for refining your query. The data is even available for download and use by anyone. Below are a

National Infrastructure: solved

2010-11-30T08:12:00.003-05:00

This idea must've been stolen from Georgia. After missing out on all the federal high speed rail dollars,I can see this type of 'progressive' solution being debated on the GA Senate floor. "Bullet buses will make it from the Capitol down to Macon in less than an hour. And their sleek aerodynamic noses will reduce fuel costs." "...retrofitted and modernized for as little as $40."Obama Replaces

Youth

2010-11-24T07:45:00.005-05:00

Great video looking at three generations of youth culture. This is from a Brazilian social and behavioral market ing research group Box1824.Good senior editor Patrick James says:"What stands out most about the Millennials might not be the dissolution of social groups or boundaries, but that we possess an unrivaled propensity for conspicuous navel-gazing. That said, our generation's willful

AJC Heads for the Hills

2010-11-19T07:19:00.005-05:00

The AJC, Atlanta's newspaper has moved its operation to the northern suburbs signaling a change in scope and depth as well. They are evening asking writers to avoid the use of words like sprawl that may offend the readership of its new locale. Below is a faux cover created as part of this story in Creative Loafing this week.

Alternative Perimeter Visualization

2010-11-15T08:23:00.007-05:00

From here; related to this.

Vancouver

2010-10-27T21:39:00.010-04:00

Last weekend, Lauren and I went to Vancouver for the IDSA conference. I had never been to Vancouver prior to this but had made a trip out to British Columbia to do the West Coast Trail. I wanted to get to Vancouver then but didn't have the chance and always hoped I'd get back out there soon. Now that I've visited the city I'm even more eager to revisit the area and spend more time there.Vancouver

Perimeter

2010-10-27T12:59:00.004-04:00

Other US cities in Atlanta's Perimeter

iPhone Photo Oct. 20, 2010

2010-10-20T22:47:00.008-04:00

October 19, 2010 6:53 PMKirkwood Halloween Graveyardnames include:Hannah Montana, MARTA, June Cleaver, Michael Jackson, NPR Fund Drive, voter enthusiasm, Law and Order, Myspace, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Sarah Palin's Career

iPhone Photo October 2, 2010

2010-10-02T16:46:00.004-04:00

October 2, 2010 4:45 PMBehind 'Panty Dropper' on I-85

iPhone Photo October 1, 2010

2010-10-02T11:48:00.006-04:00

October 1, 2010 10:22 AMWoman with a dog in a baby stroller on MARTA

iPhone Photo September 29, 2010

2010-09-29T17:17:00.004-04:00

September 29, 2010 11:36 AMThree blue Porsches at movie shooting on Rogers St.

iPhone Photo September 28, 2010

2010-09-29T16:55:00.013-04:00

September 28, 2010 11:36 AMRollins School of Public Health bike rack

Endless Summer

2010-09-06T19:52:00.017-04:00

Lauren is BACK! After three long months, she has returned from the Phiippines and has been finding her way back into American Life. Over this long Labor Day Weekend I whisked her away to North Carolina for some solitude (with me), rest, and romance as we celebrated our 4th anniversary and her return before she heads back to work tomorrow.First, we headed out to the Shining Rock Wilderness. This

Northern Michigan

2010-08-12T21:49:00.016-04:00

The weather up in northern Michigan was much nicer than last year when Matt and I went up there. we got to enjoy the water without wetsuits and could sit outside in shorts and such. One thing I got to do this time that I had not done before was to take a trip out on the water in the kayak. One still morning I paddled over to the University of Michigan's Biological Station property and sat for

Weekends

2010-08-03T15:01:00.038-04:00

Just about every weekend that I have been in town this summer I have been out of town. Fourth of July I headed up to Jack's River in the Cohutta Wilderness to hang out with Ben, Katy and Adam. We went swimming at Jack's River Falls and hiked out crossing the river so many times we lost count. The week after that I headed up to Panther Creek with Nick to go swimming with the dogs for a day. After

Oh Yeah!!!!

2010-07-16T17:55:00.006-04:00

This was in my inbox today, look who's following me now. Ted Schwartz (BizRealEstate) is now following your tweets on Twitter. A little information about Ted Schwartz: 4727 followers471 tweetsfollowing 4281 people You may follow Ted Schwartz as well by clicking on the "follow" button on their profile.If you believe Ted Schwartz is engaging in abusive behavior on Twitter, you may report Ted

Heat Waves

2010-07-08T18:54:00.004-04:00

The recent heat waves in cities along the Atlantic Coast coincides closely with the publication of some work that I was doing with my advisor and the Urban Climate Lab. The article was featured in Envionmnetal Health Perspectives and I disappointingly received only an acknowledgement. My advisor has been featured in a number of other outlets including interviews on the Weather Channel. For the

Utah

2010-07-06T23:06:00.040-04:00

Recently I went to Utah for a week to go hiking with Dave and Matt. The trip was a great experieince, with time left over to spend in Salt Lake City with Liza upon our return. It deserves more attention than I am giving it here but, as you can see, this is true of the blog as a whole right now. Enjoy the photos.

Extraction

2010-06-11T19:14:00.010-04:00

On Wednesday I had to go into an oral surgeon to have my last wisdom tooth taken out. Please spare me the pain of explaining why one was left in there all this time. Let me only say that it had always been easier to leave it be until now; some dentists thought a cyst may be developing near it and wanted it removed once and for all. My dental history is a long and storied affair with several

Visitor in the Storm

2010-05-24T07:47:00.003-04:00

One morning last week something weird happened to us. At the peak of the storm around 6AM we heard a loud scratching at our door. When I looked out the glass I saw a big black animal clawing at the door and butting its head into the door, pushing it. It was a freaked out dog trying to break into our house. We stood inside for awhile trying to figure out what to do. The dog continued to claw and

Digital Globe

2010-04-30T09:54:00.015-04:00

Deepwater Horizon SpillEyjafjallajokull Volcano, IcelandDigital Globe

Favorite New Saying

2010-04-12T11:10:00.002-04:00

If you wait 'til the last minute, it only takes a minute. (compliments of Dana)

Five thousand, four hundred, ninety-five

2010-04-08T09:21:00.002-04:00

April 7, 2010

2010-04-07T15:54:00.005-04:00

Today is World Health Day 2010. The theme for this year's World Health Day is 'Urban Health Matters' (focused on urbanization and health). As part of the efforts to raise awareness about the day, the WHO is recruiting cities from all over the world to be part of its 1000 Cities, 1000 Lives campaign. Atlanta is represented among 1000 cities because it is opening its streets to the public as part

Social Capital Survey

2010-04-01T08:38:00.002-04:00

County Health Rankings

2010-03-30T16:30:00.010-04:00

A couple months ago a listing of county health rankings was released. It was funding by the Robert-Wood Johnson Foundation and housed at the University of Wisconsin. It offers rankings for all the counties of a state based on one of two composite metrics: health outcomes and health factors. Outcomes focus on morbidity and mortality while factors consider social, environmental, and access

Alone in the Wilderness

2010-03-26T23:37:00.004-04:00

This week on GPB they aired a program call Alone in the Wilderness. It follows, or rather presents, the life of Dick Proenneke, or rather his later life. After retiring at 50 he went to Twin Lakes in Alaska where he built his own cabin in the wilderness. The film follows that first year building the cabin and then braving his first winter. Dick filmed it all himself and kept detailed diaries. He

Repurposed Furniture

2010-03-05T12:27:00.003-05:00

After leaving San Francisco and before moving to Louisville, Kentucky for a job in August 2002 I had about a month to spend in Detroit kill free time. One thing that I did was buy a notebook with unlined paper (I thought I was so cool) and begin to draw sketches of furniture. In college I had assembled a simple rectangle made with 2" think boards of wood to hold a tv in our apartment. It was

Tonight

2010-03-05T00:05:00.002-05:00

This is the next night, no joke. I could make a page-a-day calendar of these. A very peaceful page-a-day calendar that makes you fall asleep.

Evenings at my House

2010-03-04T00:23:00.001-05:00

Shot Down

2010-03-03T10:17:00.013-05:00

During my senior year at Michigan I had the chance to serve on the undergraduate student governing body as a representative of the College of Engineering. I was thrown into a diverse group of students with cultural and political knowledge far greater than my own and we were seen to represent both the student and the local population. I was in way over my head but I think it opened my eyes and I

MARTA's Yellow Line

2010-02-17T10:54:00.011-05:00

Recently a stink has been made about the name given to the MARTA Rail Line formally known as Doraville. The dispute came about from business owners and community members along the northeast line of Asian ethnicity. They were a bit peeved about MARTA labeling the line "The Yellow Line." The yellow distinction was considered racist and MARTA agreed to change the name of the line to gold. This

Motor City Blueprint

2010-02-09T22:56:00.005-05:00

Right now I am watching a show on PBS called Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City. It is intersesting to me growing up there but there is also a lot of not so subtle analogy comparing the city's history to the need to revision a purpose for the country; a purpose that the makers believe to be investment in infrastructure (namely transit and heavy rail). So it's even cooler than a show that

Interpretive Inquiry

2010-02-09T11:47:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, during my course on advanced planning theory I had the pleasure of relating our in-class discussion to a lyric from Notorious BIG's Juicy. We are in the portion of the course dedicated to epistemology and were discussing the Hermeneutic Circle. Specifically, we were illustrating the concept of idea informing observation by discussing how neo-classical economists tend to observe all

New Awesome Randomness

2010-02-03T15:31:00.003-05:00

You'd think after a month I'd have something better than this. But really what could be better. Music video for Dan Deacon's Woof Woof

Holidays

2010-01-07T23:07:00.004-05:00

The holiday season has come to a close and now it's back to work, but it was a really good one for us. First we trekked up to Detroit with Mali to stay with my parents for Christmas Day. We took it easy, seeing friends, but not trying to squeeze in too much. Sometimes it feels like we're running around everyday trying to see everyone and everything around Detroit. This time we had plenty of

Wii Bowling

2009-12-21T10:32:00.002-05:00

One thing I can count on doing when I go home for the holidays is getting into some Wii Bowling. Nearly anyone who's played a Wii knows this game. It has universal appeal to all age, skill, and experience levels. Plus the game comes with the system, so nearly everyone who owns a Wii owns this game. It used to be that my sister had a Wii that made it over to my mom and dad's place for the

SOF - Bill McKibben

2009-12-14T15:53:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I caught this show on the radio. It's an interview with Bill McKibben. He's an author, activist and most recently the head of 350.org. This is an agency that is "dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis--the solutions that science and justice demand." The 350 refers to aiming for atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations of 350ppm. The

Humility

2009-12-09T14:30:00.006-05:00

It's a important characteristic to have and one that comes to mind when you think of our lives on the scale of earth and climate. I think it's a good reason to advocate for changes, or rather less (climate) change. In the same vein, this frightening and prophetic advertisement from the ironically named Humble Oil company found in a 1962 issue Life magazine made me think of it.

COP15 - Google Earth Outreach Showcase

2009-12-08T16:29:00.011-05:00

Yesterday the COP15 talks were kicked off in Copenhagen, Denmark. I took a break from writing papers to follow some links on some of the many sites devoting some time and space to this huge conference. [banner from Grist]One of the coolest things that I found was a series of tours, demonstrated on Youtube here. It's also a bit funny because you can hear about climate change from Ted Danson. From

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T23:40:00.003-05:00

Still pretty busy and not much new. Spent the holiday in Atlatna and went to a Liz and Derek's house for dinner. Pretty standard Thanksgiving. Great food, ate too much, Lions lose. Then on Friday I went climbing at Foster Falls, TN with Derek and Lauren came up to meet us after work along with Ben and Caity. We camped in the cold on Friday night and did some more hiking and sport climbing on

Hip Hop

2009-11-09T13:08:00.001-05:00

I started this post in response to a recent post on a friend's blog about some required listening since 2000. Here is his original postI noticed you he had no hip hop in there. This is a shame. Despite a marked falling off there were a some huge albums in hip hop since 2000. While Outkasts best work came before 2000, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below came out in 2003. I would say Andre's piece is a

It's All Good

2009-10-27T08:00:00.005-04:00

I am out of town for a software training and was having dinner at a local bar/restaurant the other night when I overheard the older couple next to me talking about this New Yorker cartoon which I had remembered seeing and liking. Here it is. Feel free to comment, or not. It's all good.

ASL study

2009-10-23T11:02:00.005-04:00

I am currently taking part in a study to test a new way of teaching basic sign language vocabulary to adults. The study was developed by the American Sign Language Group within the Contextual Computing Group at Georgia Tech. Each day for a week I follow a link from a text message to a mobile website where I go through my ASL lessons for the day. I can complete up to 80 lessons in the week of the

Cumberland Island

2009-10-20T10:40:00.008-04:00

For the Columbus Day weekend we had a trip planned to Cumberland Island, GA. Fresh off finishing the Ken Burns' National Park Series I was ready to see some preservation in action. I went to Cumberland Island expecting to find no cars, no people, and wild horses; a semi-tropical setting in prime season. We drove down to Blythe Island State Park on Saturday with a stop in Savannah for lunch. This

Success

2009-10-09T20:28:00.002-04:00

[update :: in reference to earlier post]We did it!! We blew up the moon.

This bridge over a highway is cooler than your bridge over a highway

2009-10-09T10:06:00.011-04:00

I can't remember if I have written about it before (when commenting on Tech construction) the Fifth St. Bridge over the connector is an incredible conversion. When I started at Tech it was a two lane road with immediately adjacent sidewalks and high-reaching chain link fence that kept you from throwing stuff into the mess of traffic below. Now it's a park where you have no idea that 10 lanes of

CoA update

2009-10-07T09:28:00.000-04:00

Latest College of Architecture temporary installation

Hound Ears 09

2009-10-06T11:42:00.008-04:00

This past weekend I headed north with some friends for the beginning of the 2009 Triple Crown Bouldering competition, with some climbing at Hound Ears near Boone, NC. Ben and I were climbing but we were joined by Katy, Ajay and Christa who explored the cultural and natural beauty of Boone while we were wrestlin' pebbles. We arrived late on Friday night with some rain freshly fallen, but things

The National Parks

2009-09-28T19:49:00.009-04:00

I am completely caught up in the new Ken Burns' series about The National Parks. The weather is cooling and all I needed was another reason to want to get out of town and spend some time in the woods. A 12-hour documentary featuring some of awesome footage of the country's best landscapes is more than just another reason. The documentary actually proclaims that theses places belong to us, that be

Miller Lite Chili Cookoff

2009-09-25T09:41:00.004-04:00

This weekend is the Miller Lite Chili Cookoff at Stone Mountain. Hundreds of booths are set up in Stone Mountain Park, teams camp there on Friday night and wake up early on Saturday to being cooking their chili. The chili must be cooked on-site and you must prepare at least 5 gallons. Ticket-wielding patrons of the event are entitled to all the samples they can stomach. We attended last year and

LTD

2009-09-21T21:19:00.003-04:00

How do you get a Crown Vic on 22"s (even though the wheel wells aren't big enough)?Answer:

Beatlemania

2009-09-18T00:00:00.007-04:00

Recently Paul McCartney came to Atlanta to perform a charity concert for our flagship park, Piedmont Park. While he is a Beatle I just could not pay all the money for the ticket, but still I headed down to the park and volunteered parking bicycles right behind the stage. I could hear pretty well. But last week I got the chance to hear it really well, maybe better than it's sounded before. I came

Labor Daze

2009-09-15T10:01:00.003-04:00

Once i took off the hoodie revealed the faceCop patrol couldn't control the placeI got groupies backstage lined up at the gateThe signs up yellin' "we love your tape!"I'm sorry i took so long didn't mean to make y'all waitBut good things take time to create - Streetlife, Silent Lyrics, (Gza)School has started, summer has ended and I have not blogged. Using school as an excuse for my absence

Double Dippin'

2009-08-11T21:59:00.006-04:00

For two weekends in a row we've made it up to northeast GA for some relaxation and fun. First we went to Dillard to stay at a friend's house and enjoy the local Bluegrass and BBQ festival (warning site plays music) on Saturday. It's actually more a of a competition for the BBQers and some of them let us sample the goods. Just when we thought we were too stuffed to move we all decided to head out

Free Dogs

2009-08-07T08:08:00.003-04:00

If you've been to my house you know we have neighbors two doors down who chain up their dogs and leave them outside. They never let the dogs off the chains or inside the house, or outside of the yard. The code for Atlanta says that you can't tether your dog with less than 30feet and the yard is must be closed off, but our neighbor's yard is open and the tether does not look that long. Dogs from

Atlanta: Top 3 City

2009-08-05T17:25:00.008-04:00

Atlanta finished third in Outside Magazine's most recent listing of the best city's in America. The article in Outside says they kept coming back to the notion of healthy cities with regard to, not only fitness, but economic stability and quality of life. They started with the 100 largest cities in the US and whittled it down from there. There are also listings for best small towns, Ely, MN is

Derailed

2009-08-04T11:48:00.005-04:00

Last night I attended a class on derailer installation, tuning, and maintenance put on by the local bike co-op. All in all it's a pretty ingenious design but the more I learned about it the more complicated it sounded and the more I began to understand the appeal of the simplicity of the fixie. I also found it ironic that I went to learn about derailers at a shop where maybe half of the people

World Science Festival

2009-08-03T15:25:00.003-04:00

Today I have been wasting a lot of time on the internet watching stupid videos and laughing at pictures, etc. But I wanted to pass on this pool of interesting videos captured at the World Science Festival. I guess it's from a discussion of music and neuroscience which featured Bobby McFerrin. If you go to the conference's video highlights three of the four videos feature McFerrin. Watching the

What is it about Bacon?

2009-07-21T08:54:00.005-04:00

I have been hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting a lot lately about bacon. It seems that there is a certain something about bacon that appeals to a lot of people. It's a unexplainable feeling that's visceral and which convinces us if bacon is good, more bacon is better. Similarly we also like to think that everything is better with bacon. I'd like to present a few examples. First, Tony's side of

The Fate of Many a Tomato

2009-07-14T23:33:00.005-04:00

Not a BLT or a homemade sauce, this is the fate of more than 20 of the ripening tomatoes in our backyard. The cause: squirrels. They are systematically picking apart the tomato plants and trying each fruit. If it's not ripe they make a few bite marks and move on to the next. The picture was of the specimen I found today, one I had hoped they would continue to passup due to its size. It used to

The Day Michael Jackson Died

2009-07-11T14:39:00.002-04:00

A lot of press has been devoted to the King of Pop's passing and it will probably be one of those events where people remember where they were when they heard the news (at least for a while). On the day Michael Jackson died I was attending another monthly meeting of The Dirty South Beer Club over in local Decatur. Indeed I will remember for some time how I was greeted at the door with the news

Let's Blow Up the Moon

2009-06-29T12:20:00.004-04:00

Back when I was a kid blowing up the moon was only a dream, but this weekend I heard a story on the radio confirming that NASA was indeed planning to create an explosion on the moon to blow some of it up. Here's an article talking a bit about their plans. It also says that there are people collecting signatures to actually blow up the whole thing. The story immediately reminded me of one of my

Wedding Season (road trips)

2009-06-28T20:48:00.010-04:00

In the last month we've been on the road a lot. We spent a week in Utah, heading to National Parks and hanging out Salt Lake City. But we've put some miles on the car attending some destination weddings throughout the south and east. The first was in Asheville about a month ago. It was the union of two friends I met while at Emory. We headed up to one of our favorite mountain towns early on

The State

2009-06-25T13:42:00.004-04:00

I have been MIA for a bit and there is a lot to catch up on but I am writing a quick post to let you know (if you don't already) that The State is finally coming out on DVD on July 14th. Here's a classic sketch to whet your appetite.

Objectified

2009-05-15T08:26:00.005-04:00

On Wednesday night I went to see a screening and director Q&A for the new documentary about industrial design, Objectified. This is the second film from director (design junkie) Gary Hustwit. The first was an exploration of graphic design centered around the film's namesake typeface, Helvetica.The film interviewed several designers of yesterday and today while showing well placed and positioned

Okefenokee

2009-05-12T15:29:00.009-04:00

This past weekend I took a trip with some friends down to South Georgia for a couple nights of camping in the wilderness. The trip involved a night at Stephen C. Foster State Park near Fargo, GA and then a 9 mile canoe trip through the Okefenokee Nation Wildlife Refuge to camp on a platform, with return to the park and our cars the next day. Nerves were high for this trip because of the isolated

2009-05-11T14:20:00.001-04:00

Lactose tolerent and lovin' it!

Cleveland Part II

2009-05-05T15:28:00.004-04:00

As if things couldn't get worse for Detroit, the Pistons just got swept out of the playoffs by our old/new nemesis, Cleveland. You may recall that two years ago I also released some steam on Cleveland after they knocked Detroit out of the playoffs. Only that time it was teh Eastern Conference Finals and this year it's in the first round. Plus Lebron and company are favorites to win it all,

Quercus nigra

2009-04-29T10:23:00.011-04:00

The HUGE and beautiful tree across the street from us is coming down and I thought I would write it an obituary. The awe-inspiring Water Oak (Quercus nigra) in East Atlanta is being fallen this week. It is an exceptional specimen with an estimated height of more than 120 ft and diameter near 6 ft. Despite some rot (found during autopsy/murder) in an upper limb, the water oak appeared(s) to be

When Pigs Flu

2009-04-28T22:26:00.004-04:00

Anyone else on edge about this Swine Flu thing? I dare say that nowhere does such an event carry more gravitas than in the home of CDC epidemiologist in respiratory viruses. Lauren was telling me about these cases last week and when she noticed that I was only half paying attention she asked "is this sinking in?". I guess it hadn't until I put down what I was doing and imagined The Stand. Is