Cafe Bucky

First off, Happy New Year!

I’ll be at Macworld SF next week, at least on Tuesday and another day. I don’t have a conference pass, so I’ll check out the exhibits and get to events to meet people. A couple of events are the TWiT broadcast, and Deb Shadovitz’s Party For The People. Those are on Tuesday. The Netter’s Dinner on Thursday looks like fun.

I’d enjoy meeting up with folks next week at MWSF, particularly if they’re into PHP/web-dev stuff, or photo databases, or splitting things up with Linux (what do you like to run on which platform, etc.) I’d also like to talk to folks that have had success with Ruby on Rails - I’ve read why’s (poignant) guide to ruby [1] and some other Ruby docs, and totally get it. Looks like an excellent thing to learn. If you know of a web-dev gig, check out my resume. If it seems like there could be a good fit, let’s meet up this week, or at MWSF.

[1] which is a bizarre bit of writing, sort of like Hunter Thompson writing a book about cooking. But there is good Ruby info in there.

I don’t want every post here to mention FlexiPhoto, but until I get the word out, and start some momentum on that site, I’ll get ta mentionin’ …

Ok, 2.5a4 (Jamaica) is out!

Now I can get to scary things, like Halloween and PHP Security.

I’d missed the last couple of years of Halloween on D Street in Petaluma. We get 3000 trick or treaters. No, that’s not a typo. It’s insane! We live next to some people who give out cartons of chocolate milk every year (they run a dairy), and everyone that goes there, comes here. 3000 of them. Ask me about my candy bill sometime.

The other scary thing (boo!) can be PHP security. Fortunately, there’s a new O’Reilly book out: “Essential PHP Security”, by Chris Shiflett. I was on the verge of buying the print edition, and was relieved to see it come up in Safari. I know it will help me whip FlexiPhoto into shape.

Updated July 28th, swapping out Columbus for Cleveland …

Aside from OS updates, Mac mini and TiVO hacks, and studying LAMP + AJAX stuff in preparation for OSCON 2005, I’ve had the task of figuring out the route of a cross country drive.

I’ve never driven across America. The move out of NYC gives us a good opportunity, as we’ll have some things to bring back that we don’t want to ship, and it’s a one-way trip. We’ll set off August 11th, and take roughly 12 days. Oh, and by the way, yes, my house is pretty well watched, and booby-trapped …

The preliminary route is like a stone skipping over the urban archipelago. Susan and I are looking at it as a reconnaissance for future trips with more depth.

Aug 11 - NYC -> Pittsburgh (366 miles)
We’ll never leave New York. We’re just saying “bye” for the moment. I’m sure there will be more chapters.

Aug 12 - Pittsburgh -> Columbus, OH (186 miles) — Pittsburgh -> Cleveland, OH (139 miles)
Before setting off, we’ll visit The Andy Warhol Museum

Aug 13 - Columbus, OH -> Chicago, IL (354 miles) —
Cleveland, OH -> Chicago, IL (343 miles)
Stop in Indianapolis.

Aug 14 - Chicago, IL -> Ames, IA (356 miles)
Ames, Iowa, you say? We know someone that was born there, and so we’ll shift (all the more) into documentary mode. Check out beautiful Iowa State University.

Aug 15 - Ames, IA -> Lincoln, NE (221 miles)
This day is a sort of calm before the storm of driving the long stretch to Denver. We’ll stop in Des Moines and Omaha.

Aug 16 - Lincoln, NE -> Denver, CO (488 miles)
Lots of miles. Lots of Nebraska. I won’t drive through Kansas if I can help it.

Aug 17 - Camp out with folks in Denver. Chill out after so much driving.

Aug 18 - Denver, CO -> Santa Fe, NM (391 miles)

Aug 19 - Santa Fe, NM -> Sedona, AZ (410 miles)
Squeeze in desert photography. Try to stay cool.

Aug 20 - Sedona, AZ -> Las Vegas (277 miles)
Quick visit to Grand Canyon. Keep the miles down today. End up in Vegas.

Aug 21 - Las Vegas, NV -> Bakersfield (290 miles)
Desert, Desert, and more Desert. Stay with folks.

Aug 22 or 23 - Bakersfield -> Petaluma (318 miles)
Home stretch. Get Sophia home in time for first day of school on the 24th :-)

A whirlwind, ain’t it!? It would be nice to have three weeks or so to do this. Hopefully this will be well paced.

I’m pretty happy to be back home in California. The echoes of NYC car alarms and other stimuli fade away. I’ll be back there in mid-August for a few days, and then comes the Long Drive West across the Country!

There’s a lot I can say about the pros and cons of NYC and Petaluma. If I were really hip, I could just podcast it in 5 minutes. To write it down has taken longer, and I’m not happy with the result.

The gist of it is that I love both places, but don’t want to spend 12 months a year in either.

A big thing I have learned from the bi-coastal experiment is a new-found appreciation for California, and for Petaluma in particular. No place is utopia, but Petaluma is undergoing a pretty significant change for the better these days. It’s a great place to be based.

Consolidation.

We are going to head back to California in August. I do love NYC. It is expensive though, and that’s something made much more apparent when you’re spread amongst two places and two coasts. In a Walnut-shell, we’re in a tiny place in the UWS (5 of us, counting two cats), and if we wanted something decent-sized, we’d have to rent/sell our house in California (which would be a pretty big project), and use that money to rent in NYC. It works on paper, but I don’t live in origami. It’s not the right chapter, right now, to take on that project.

I won’t detail the next two months here. Suffice to say it’ll involve studying, driving, packing, taking lots of photos, and more driving! I’ve never driven across the country, so I’m really looking forward to that. If anyone has a good lead on how to rent a mini-van for a one way trip NYC -> SF, let me know. I’m well aware of how to do that for $1000 … $500 would be better though :-)

I’ve been mostly in NYC since October 2003, and California has been my escape - the place where I could spread out a bit. The experience has made me appreciate many things about my native state, and my West Coast DNA. I have some experience with the people who live on the Island Off The Coast Of Europe. There really is a New York State of Mind - It’s not just a song. I’ll miss it.

I looked at my camera this afternoon and realized it was talking to me.

“Take me to the track”

What?!

“Take me to the track! I want to take pictures again. I want to get dusty. I want to get into the paddock and see insanely fast cars”

What?!

“Oh man … c’mon. Let’s hit some races at Sears Point and Laguna Seca. It’s been frikken years man! I’m a camera, and you’ve got this zoom blur thing going. Let’s go man!”

(… looking at beer bottle suspiciously)

Ok, cool. That’s what we’ll do. It has been a while, I miss it, and I will be in California for most of the summer. Yeah. Yeah! Let’s get some groovy shots!

“What’s on, then? Where are we going?”

Well, let’s see …

• (Laguna Seca) - Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix (MotoGP / AMA) - July 8-10
• (Sears Point) - Grand Prix of Sonoma (ALMS) - July 15-17
• (Laguna Seca) - Monterey Historic Automobile Races - August 19-21
• (Sears Point) - Indy Grand Prix (IRL) - Aug 26-28
• (Laguna Seca) - Montery Sports Car Championships (ALMS) - Oct 14-16

“Oh boy! 5 races?! Gimme plenty of batteries and CF cards! And can we bring Susan’s Nikon D1x too?”

Hold your f-stops man. We’ll see. At least a couple of races, ok?

“snap snap!”

Happy Easter! Here’s a little detail from the “Petaluma’s Choice” Coca-Cola sign.

In honor of adding a couple of new categories (”WestCoast” & “EastCoast”), I figured it was high time to do a meandering bit on Petaluma. I’m in a West Coast mood today, enjoying the weather and the roar of 100’s of Harleys passing by my study, heading out D Street on their Sunday Ride.

I’m even playing the Dead (American Beauty, currently “Sugar Magnolia”), just to get my California hippie DNA to kick in. Don’t worry, another 15 minutes of this, and I’ll be switching to Frank Black to counterbalance.

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