Monthly Archives: March 2010

When your time is up

Posted on by
Reply

If it were not for the fact that my sister lives in Hilton Head, South Carolina, I might not have clicked on the link to this story:

Woodstock jogger killed in Hilton Head beach emergency landing

Robert Gary Jones was a pharmaceutical salesman on a business trip, looking forward to getting home to celebrate his daughter’s third birthday. He was enjoying a moment to himself on this resort island, jogging on the beach and listening to his iPod.

Officials say the Woodstock, Ga., man neither saw nor heard what struck him from behind Monday evening: A single-engine plane making an emergency landing.

But now that I have, now that I have read about this most freakish of freak accidents, I find myself utterly preoccupied by a whirlwind of thoughts that it stirred up.

First off, I’ve been on a beach on a business trip. There but for the grace…, and all that. Our jobs eat up enough of our lives, keeping us away from our families way too long, and sometimes they keep us away permanently.

For some reason, this story reminds me of a time, it must be 20 or so years ago, I was on a beach in Santa Monica, California with a friend of mine, we were out in the ocean swimming, and suddenly we heard and even felt a powerful whoosh directly over our heads, the whoosh of three large pelicans doing a fly-by within inches of our scalps, and we watched them zoom away in a perfect V formation, like Blue Angels, thinking they could have really hurt us badly if they wanted to.

Naturally, because I’m an iPod owner, an iPod owner who also happens to be a jogger, the fact that this particular jogger was using an iPod leapt out at me.

Would he have been able to hear the plane in time to dive out of its path if it had not been for the iPod?

It’s not clear:

The Lancair IV-P aircraft, which can be built from a kit, had lost its propeller and was “basically gliding” as it hit and instantly killed Jones, said Ed Allen, the coroner for Beaufort County on the South Carolina coast.

“There’s no noise,” said aviation expert Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general for the National Transportation Safety Board. “So the jogger, with his ear buds in, and the plane without an engine, you’re basically a stealth aircraft. Who would expect to look up?”

And what about the fact that this jogger’s last name was “Jones” (emphasis added)?

Well, you walk into the room
Like a camel and then you frown
You put your eyes in your pocket
And your nose on the ground
There ought to be a law
Against you comin’ around
You should be made
To wear earphones

Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

–Bob Dylan, from Ballad of a Thin Man

Meanwhile, can you imagine being the pilot of the plane? You narrowly escape your own death, but you accidentally kill someone in the process?!

“I’ve got a lot of issues going on right now,” Smith (the pilot) said. “I’ve got a plane that’s all torn up. And I’ve got a young man that I killed.”

I think we can all forgive him his having mentioned his torn up plane first.

Just.Plain.Sad.

Laptop Blues

Posted on by
2


As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my beloved PowerBook fell from a height of five feet onto a very hard tile floor. As it turns out, it did not survive the fall, and I have not replaced it yet.

This loss, while painful,…

  • partly explains the infrequency of my posting here
  • serves as chance for me to wrestle with the level of attachment I have to a material object such as a computer
  • provides me with an opportunity to evaluate my relationship to the internet

Adherents to the notion that the universe sometimes sends us messages might say that this purposefully happened at a time when funds are not immediately available to buy a new laptop. And while I like to think that my lifestyle is a healthy one, including ample time participating in outdoor activities such as hiking/backpacking, cycling, skiing, and most recently jogging, and that I’m not in danger of being addicted to technology and the internet, I won’t lie…

…I’m experiencing significant withdrawal.

As I think about this, I come up with an interesting assortment of ideas, and it’s rather difficult differentiating between reasonable assertions and rationalizations.

Here’s a few, in no particular order:

  • Using the term “withdrawal” is a dramatic overstatement, introducing the suggestion of addiction before any real analysis has been conducted.
  • If my use of a laptop were limited to senseless chatter via email, Facebook, Twitter, etc., especially considering that I have an iPod Touch with which I can easily do all of those things, then my having a hard time without a laptop should raise some questions about whether or not I have a healthy relationship with the internet. However, since this blog, and my previous blog, which I wrote for five years, are Exhibit A, definitive proof that my relationship to the internet isn’t just about frivolous nonsense, and, rather, represents an essential creative outlet for me, it’s only fitting that I would experience adverse side effects when this creative outlet is severely restricted.
  • I am on a computer at work for the majority of my 40+ hours per week at my job, and one of the ways I used my laptop was to prevent going stir crazy in my office. Up until now, I could take my laptop and go to any number of wi-fi hotspots on campus and enjoy being around other people as I did my work. For that reason alone I didn’t feel like I was suffering from spending so much time on a computer, because I was able to stay connected to the outside world in real terms rather than just virtual terms.

And so I continue to shop online for a replacement, regardless of not having the money now, in hopes of figuring out some kind of solution, and knowing that the more time I research and shop the better decision I’ll make and the better laptop I’ll end up with. The most difficult part of that process is being at a starting point where I for sure won’t be able to afford my preferred option, a new Apple MacBook. I’m not a Windows hater by any means, heck I’m on an PC 40+ hours per week at work, but I just love the Apple experience so much.

As of now, I’m actually leaning towards a netbook, specifically the ASUS 1201N, and I’ll admit to being partly drawn by some of the stylistic similarities it shares with the aluminum MacBook Pro. And yet, the 1201N gets overwhelmingly positive reviews by consumers and journalists alike, and it’s half the price of the MacBook Pro.

Looks aside, it’s an apples (pun intended) and oranges comparison, so you won’t find me saying that the 1201N is a better deal. But it just might be the kind of device that I can enjoy, not just because I save a load of money, but because it is a pretty darned good machine in it’s own right.

Video Fridays: The Shins

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s my new favorite song. I LOVE the beautiful simplicity of this performance.

Drums. Guitar. Vocals.

A great song can stand to be stripped down like this.

I keep daydreaming about teaming up with a drummer, and this video reminds me why. You can always add other players some time in the future if the foundation is good like this. But you could take a guitar-drums duo and play out in small venues and sound great as well.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Shins, with Gone for Good.





Share

Stuff We Don’t Need: Solitaire Rock-Paper-Scissors

Posted on by
Reply

Back in December, I wrote a post declaring my appreciation for graphic and industrial design, stating that they represent one of capitalism’s few redeeming values.

I still stand by my comments in that post, but as I browse my favorite websites featuring design, particularly prototype or new product designs, I come across many items that elicit the reaction, “Who the HELL needs something like that?”

Listen, I try to be open-minded and non-judgmental, but some things just seem to cross some kind of line, where any honorable creative elements seem overshadowed by frivolity, superfluousness, banality, or triviality.

And so, I’ve decided to start a new series here at Fish & Bicycles titled Stuff We Don’t Need (aka SWDN), because a thing can be simultaneously utterly pointless and funny at the same time.

For the inaugural SWDN post, I bring you the Rock-Paper-Scissors Glove:

Per the inventor, Steve Hoefer (via Gizmodo):

This is a glove that plays a very competitive game of Rock Paper Scissors against the wearer. It learns how they wearer plays and plays to their weaknesses…

It remembers how you play so that if you always open with Rock it will tend to open with Paper. And if you tend throw a Paper after a Rock it will counter it with Scissors. The glove’s current record for best-of-five matches against me is 71 wins and 62 losses.

Well, ok. I don’t need one. You’ll have to decide for yourself.

Regardless, you know you want to check out the video of the glove in action!

…and the earth moved

Posted on by
Reply

Chile Earthquake Moved Entire City 10 Feet to the West

The magnitude 8.8 quake that struck near Maule, Chile, Feb. 27 moved the entire city of Concepcion 10 feet to the west.

Precise GPS measurements from before and after the earthquake, the fifth largest ever recorded by seismographs, show that the country’s capital, Santiago, moved 11 inches west. Even Buenos Aires, nearly 800 miles from the epicenter, shifted an inch. The image above uses red arrows to represent the relative direction and magnitude of the ground movement in the vicinity of the quake.

–via Wired.com

I don’t know what’s more amazing, the fact that this entire city moved 10 feet, or that scientists are able to know that it moved 10 feet.


Share

The Marvelous Magnolia

Posted on by
3

From my office window, I’m incredibly fortunate to have a view of a variety of trees, with two notable standouts: a sequoia and a magnolia.

While I get to enjoy the massive, evergreen glory of the sequoia year-round, once a year, right about now, the magnolia bursts to life with the most beautiful, luscious flowers.

There’s something incredibly sensuous about the magnolia flower. The petals are large and thick and remind me of some of the succulent cactus species. They feel saturated with moisture and life.

I’m not sure if they are edible or not, but I do have this strong urge to bite into one whenever I see them. And, you know what? Since it’s lunch time right now, I’m half-tempted to go right out there and try one!