Letting Go

I've been having some angst lately about letting go of old friends. It seems that once you have kids, those that don't seem to drift away. Some in a spectacular explosive fashion, some just kind of... never call you back.

Well, no more. I miss you guys (you know who you are) and you are always welcome back into my life but I'm not chasing you down any more. I'm just too tired and have too much else that's really positive going on in my life that requires my full attention. Kids. Family. Friends that are like a part of your family.

As Hiyat often says to me, we have to focus our time and energy on positive aspects of our life. For everyone's sake. I'm sad to see you guys go, but I have to let go. 

Glenfiddich 18 Year

Hiyat got me this exquisite scotch for Valentine's day. It's a very thoughtful gift -- we toured this distillery together with Gabe while in Scotland.

Great stuff. Buttery, sweet, with a hint of the ocean.

Our master craftsmen have created a complex, mellow single malt Scotch whisky from years of patient maturation in casks of the finest Oloroso sherry and American bourbon. It is secreted away in our traditional warehouse, where the cool, thick stone walls and low ceilings mature the whisky to perfection. Years later what emerges is a Glenfiddich 18 Year Old with an elegant nose, faintly sweet, scented with apple and wood. It is robust and full-bodied, yet remarkably soft, rounded and long lasting.

http://shop.glenfiddich.com/shop/prod_ancient_reserve_18.html

Interface

Great book and a very fun read. I think Stephenson co-wrote this book before Snow Crash. For sure before the horrendously long Cryptonomicon and it's sequels.

The story follows US Governor William Cozzano, who suffers a stroke just before he runs for President. A loose consortium of financial interests called "The Network" come together with the aid of a biotechnologist and a spin doctor to embed a biochip in Cozzano's head to recover from the stroke. This it does, but it also allows the Network to control and manipulate Cozzano into becoming the perfect candidate, and one that will work in the Network's best interests.

Very good read.

http://www.amazon.com/Interface-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0553383434

The Science of the Dogon

The Dogon have always fascinated me since I was eight or nine, watching the Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World TV show. This show aired in 1980 or so and featured a short blurb on the Dogon if I remember right.

There's always been a mystery about the Dogon tribe in Africa -- how did they know about the star Sirius being a double star? Later, this mystery has been questionably debunked with the theory that there was some cultural contamination involved.

This book does not focus on this mystery. Instead it focuses on the cultural, mythological, and mystical linkages of the Dogon with Egypt and Christianity and how they link into modern ideas about quantum mechanics, cosmology, and human genetics. Some of these linkages are questionable to say the least, but some are downright odd. Laird Scranton, the author takes several liberties with his ideas but I was left in awe of some of the potential convergences of not only civilizations but modern thought. As the old saying goes, "There are many paths to the top of Mount Fuji but only one summit."

 

http://www.amazon.com/Science-Dogon-Decoding-African-Tradition/dp/1594771332/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203348981&sr=8-1

Cool Rockets

These look very, very sweet. For Gabe or Zack. Sure, for the boys. 

http://www.coolrockets.com/

Repackaged Google Gears For XP

 

 

Rather annoyingly to use Google Gears (Google's offline feature) in XP, you have to have admin privledges. This is because the installer, an .msi package, has a registry tweak so that it works in IE in addition to Firefox.

I don't have admin access but I want gears, so I downloaded GG onto a machine that I do have admin access to, grabbed the files that get deployed, zipped them up, and renamed it to an .xpi (Firefox installer file). And it works!

Here it is: google gears for xp .xpi

http://mitchellfamily.ca/blogimages/gears.xpi