An Essay On Geek Culture

Wake Up Geek Culture, Time To Die

and the rebuttal:

Nerd Culture Is Thriving, Patton Oswalt Is Old

This is like the Klein Bottle of nerd essays!

Kit Car, Art, or Other...

There is car customization and then there is car customization. Behold, the Fiura.

Tyler's Fiero

Tyler's Pontiac Fiero via carlustblog.com

Evolution

The Evolution Of The Blogger, via flowtown.com



Flowtown - Social Media Marketing Application

Rumors Of Snow

The week of Thanksgiving is soon upon us. There are rumors of snow among the various forecasters. Of course, i am looking forward to that powdery possibility.

Interesting how all of the geese decide to bail before the weather gets really bad...

The Ring Taxi

http://jalopnik.com/5678750/this-woman-is-the-fastest-taxi-driver-in-the-world

What Your Phone Says About You

http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/04/iphone-android-blackberry/

Rain.

The rains have begun. Most forecasts are reporting rain for seven days straight.

Playing guitar is a good idea for those rainy days, yes?

Things i Learned About Hawaii From Watching Hawaii 5-0

Here is what i've learned so far from the first two episodes:

Hawaii is an Extremely Dangerous Place! For God's sake, Don't Go!

Selective Fire Weapons practically grow on the palm trees there, it's true i tell you.

Detectives drive new Camaros, or ride Sportbikes. Helmet and Seatbelts are optional.

Super Hackers live in Ka'a'awa or Kahala.

Apparently only three members of the H.P.D can speak. The others, sadly, are mute.

There is only one Shave Ice place on the entire island of Oahu and it is run by a militant racist with an eating disorder.

Locals, born and bred, cannot pronounce Kalakaua.

Sunset

A picture of the Sunset. Gaston, Oregon

Tyler Shipman

The Tyler Shipman Memorial Fiero Car Show

via Jalopnik

Fall Has Fallen Upon Us

The geese make giant "V" shapes in the sky. The winds change direction and bring a chill to the valley. Things don't always turn out how you would like- but the seasons are a constant. Forward to something.

How Fo Tawk

Sometimes you do miss this sound...

9/11/01

Another Orbit

Another Orbit around the sun has been completed.

Summer Shirts Stained by heat cool in a dark tank,

wet and without complaint.

Tumble dry, low heat.

The grass always comes back, without fail.

With or without anyone there.

Scabbed hooves push dust high into the sky,

as the abode of the worms grows then moves...

only to start anew.

Now i feel the music in my wrists-

and it needs to stop.

What's That Noise?

Hark! The sound of a BaseBoard heater fills the morning air! O Summer, we barely knew ye...

ToolBoxes

Workflow and Tools are interesting:

http://www.usesthis.com

Whoa. A whole month?

i guess it has been more than a month since the last posting from F.O.B:Y.F- i blame the recent heatwave, the economy, little green men, the vast ambidextrous conspiracy, Zuul, the slow moving Torb, Patrick Star, picks that aren't the right gauge, overcooked salmon and overcooked fingerling potatoes (GVB, i'm looking at you), the Internet, the internet, the Interwebs, the Net, the Intertubes, open source, windoze, pinakbet, taco trucks, the lack of taco trucks, and especially the lack of BALANCE in Cooking.

With this in mind, i present this article on How to Make Home Vinegar via the fine site, thepauperedchef.com

Balance... it's a good thing.

I Write Like...

Do you write?

"I Write Like" might just interest you.

The Coming Infrared

The baseboard heaters have kicked on this morning; it's 44F outside.

In what seems like an incredibly long winter (Spring, did you ever make it to the party? We missed you!) The occupants of F.O.B: Y.F are preparing for a week of temps that will bring highs of 90F+ to the Willamette Valley. i have heard from some of the long time locals that on one season, what people would consider "Summer" lasted all of one week.

Ice pack? Check.

Shorts? Check.

Humor in the face of summer heat? Please help.

The Stars And Stripes Forever

July 4, 2010

 IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776  The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America    When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.  Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.  But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.  To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.  He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.  He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.  He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.  He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.  He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.  He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.  He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws of Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.  He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.  He has made judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.  He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance.  He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.  He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.  He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended legislation:  For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:  For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:  For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:  For imposing taxes on us without our Consent:  For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:  For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:  For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:  For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:  For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.  He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.  He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.  He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the Head of a civilized nation.  He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.  He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.  In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms:  Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.  A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People.  Nor have We been wanting in attention to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here.  We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.  They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.  We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.  We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.  And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. 

Grass Growing Blues

With June almost over, and the Fourth of July looming large, i am still awaiting Spring. Most locals will grudgingly admit that this Winter (Spring?) has been wetter and colder than most. This makes the possibility of a week long Summer a very real possibility.

The plus side? Paddock areas that are freshly seeded or in rotation will get a chance to get a little more rain before the full Summer Sun onslaught.

It is a little odd not having my charges to take care of, but it is all for the better...and temporary.

We at F.O.B:Y.F hereby declare this the great SPRUMMER of Aught Ten, or would that be SUMMERING?

What does any of this have to do with guitar? Absolutely nothing, nothing at all.

Lambos

The "I Sold Everything To Buy A Lamborghini And Drive Across The Country" story

via Jalopnik

Memorial Day, 2010

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

-Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

Ford Focus

Not Just any Ford Focus

Spring, revision 112010a.2 v3

It hailed yesterday, leaving a thin carpet of 1/4" icy B-Bs all over F.O.B:YF, and the rest of Yamhill.

It's going to be summer soon right?

Typewriter Standoff

From the NYT:

Last Typist Refuses to switch to laptop, gets boot from Writers Room in Greenwich Village

1) Last typist? Really?

2) Refuse, Resist!

Godspeed, Ronnie James Dio July 10, 1942-May 16, 2010

Im a wheel, Im a wheel I can roll, I can feel

And you can't stop me turning

Cause Im the sun, Im the sun I can move, I can run

But you'll never stop me burning

Come down with fire

Lift my spirit higher

Someones screaming my name

Come and make me holy again

Im the man on the silver mountain

Im the man on the silver mountain

Im the day, Im the day

I can show you the way

And look Im right beside you

Im the night, Im the night Im the dark and the light

With eyes that see inside you

Just look at me and listen

Im the man, the man, give you my hand

Come down with fire Lift my spirit higher

Im the man on the silver mountain

Im the man on the silver mountain

Im the night the light The black and the white

The man on the silver mountain

Thank you, Ronnie...

One May

One may forget to post in ones' blog/online journal/digital diary/web enabled rant machine from time to time. Perhaps it is due to dealing with actual life on F.O.B:YF that causes large posting rifts? Perhaps i am busily crafting an epic post that will change your life, cure disease, reverse polar ice shelf melting, make windows easy to use, drop 40 million dollars (U.S.) out of the sky directly in front of me, and make the flowers grow. Or not.

So instead of singing Puccini-esque arias to my purported genius, get thee to the toob or the Internets. It is derby day. If you'll excuse me, i gotta see a man about a horse...

p.s. it is still too cold for shorts and t-shirts. Spring, indeed.

iPad

The NSA chief loves his iPad

Before Enlightenment...

"Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water." ~Zen proverb

The Great Lie of Spring...

To say that it has been raining since January would be bordering on hyperbole. However, i have just typed those words into the Internets, so it must be mostly true.

Life on F.O.B.Y.F has been a struggle recently, but we solider on. The search continues, chores must be done, horse must be appeased.

i'm beginning to wonder if staying positive is a mutually destructive dance of optimism and insanity?

IV 4 20 Ten

i would be grossly understating myself if i were to say, "times are tough".

So i won't.

Happy Easter.

Food, The Internet, and You

On the days that it might be too expensive to eat ( yes, you read that right ) one can turn to the Internet or TV and live the life, vicariously of course, through foodie bloggers and wayward chefs turned Tube personality.

• Cheap ( if your electricity, TV and/or Internet are still on...)
• Zero Calories.
• Incredibly Satisfying to the appetite.

Here are three blogs of note:

eGullet

Opinionated About Dining

Off The Broiler

Presentation

An important article on Plate Lunch Presentation 101 from The Tasty Island

as for me, i am a fan of the "paper plate, cardboard box" method of presenting the Art that is plate lunch...

Food. Part the XXII

Not to hate on the Ceviche culture, i would like Poke' or Lomi Lomi Salmon...

That's all, he wrote.

Bad to Worse. So Let's Talk Food!

While i could blog about bad news, (or write about bad news) i wont. Instead let us venture into the elite realms of Travel and Food TV. In Portland. With Chuck Palahniuk and Anthony Bourdain.

WTF

That was unexpected. Soldier on, i must.

Please Donate To Chile Earthquake Relief

My day today:

BULLETIN TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER  20 NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER EWA BEACH HI 138 PM HST SAT FEB 27 2010  TO - CIVIL DEFENSE IN THE STATE OF HAWAII  SUBJECT - TSUNAMI WARNING CANCELLATION  THE TSUNAMI WARNING IS CANCELLED FOR THE STATE OF HAWAII EFFECTIVE AT 0138 PM HST.  AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS     ORIGIN TIME - 0834 PM HST 26 FEB 2010    COORDINATES - 36.1 SOUTH   72.6 WEST    LOCATION    - NEAR COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE    MAGNITUDE   - 8.8  MOMENT  MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY   GAUGE LOCATION        LAT   LON    TIME        AMPL         PER  -------------------  ----- ------  -----  ---------------  -----  KAWAIHAE HAWAII      20.0N 155.8W  2211Z   0.52M /  1.7FT  24MIN  BARBERS PT HI        21.3N 158.1W  2140Z   0.19M /  0.6FT  76MIN  KAUMALAPAU HAWAII    20.8N 156.9W  2136Z   0.18M /  0.6FT  56MIN  KAHULUI MAUI         20.9N 156.5W  2147Z   0.98M /  3.2FT  22MIN  NAWILIWILI KAUAI     22.0N 159.4W  2151Z   0.28M /  0.9FT  44MIN  PAGO PAGO AS         14.3S 170.7W  2132Z   0.66M /  2.2FT  12MIN   LAT  - LATITUDE (N-NORTH, S-SOUTH)  LON  - LONGITUDE (E-EAST, W-WEST)  TIME - TIME OF THE MEASUREMENT (Z IS UTC IS GREENWICH TIME)  AMPL - TSUNAMI AMPLITUDE MEASURED RELATIVE TO NORMAL SEA LEVEL.         IT IS ...NOT... CREST-TO-TROUGH WAVE HEIGHT.         VALUES ARE GIVEN IN BOTH METERS(M) AND FEET(FT).  PER  - PERIOD OF TIME IN MINUTES(MIN) FROM ONE WAVE TO THE NEXT.  EVALUATION   BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA THERE IS NO LONGER A DESTRUCTIVE  TSUNAMI THREAT TO THE STATE OF HAWAII. THEREFORE THE TSUNAMI  WARNING FOR HAWAII IS CANCELLED.   HOWEVER SOME COASTAL AREAS IN HAWAII MAY CONTINUE TO EXPERIENCE  SMALL SEA LEVEL CHANGES AND STRONG OR UNUSUAL CURRENTS LASTING  FOR SEVERAL MORE HOURS.  THIS TSUNAMI WARNING CANCELLATION DOES NOT MEAN IT IS NOW SAFE TO RESUME NORMAL ACTIVITIES OR REENTER EVACUATED SHORELINE AREAS. YOUR COUNTY CIVIL DEFENSE AGENCY AND POLICE DEPARTMENT WILL MAKE THIS DETERMINATION. STAY TUNED TO YOUR LOCAL BROADCAST STATION FOR THE CIVIL DEFENSE -ALL CLEAR- ANNOUNCEMENT FOR YOUR AREA.  REPEAT - DO NOT REENTER EVACUATED SHORELINE AREAS UNTIL ANNOUNCED BY YOUR COUNTY CIVIL DEFENSE AGENCY. STAY TUNED TO YOUR LOCAL BROADCAST STATION FOR THE -ALL CLEAR- ANNOUNCEMENT FOR YOUR AREA. PLEASE YIELD TO ROADBLOCKS AND UNIFORMED OFFICERS WHO ARE CONTROLLING REENTRY INTO EVACUATED SHORELINE AREAS.  THIS WILL BE THE FINAL MESSAGE ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS ADDITIONAL DATA ARE RECEIVED.

My New Favorite Word

It has been sunny. Sunny every day for the last week. Prior to this bout of mood elevation weather, it has been dark and raining for... a month and a half? Two months? Mud and pooling water begin to invade your thoughts over the winter. One way to keep from going totally bonkers is to bare your soul to the internet. Sort of like peeing in the wind, maybe not as messy.

The word that describes the blue skies and the sunny weather in Yamhill? Glorious.

Roll the "r"; seize the day.

Italian Food In 808

We have a soft spot for Cafe Sistina. The obligatory blogger write up from The Tasty Island is here.

Why do i think it's a cool place? i'd have to tell you in person.

HA 26

Hawaiian Airlines Flight 26 touched down at 2125 PST two years ago. i am glad to be home.

Barbie The Computer Engineer

Meet Barbie the Computer Engineer

Juniper or Cisco? BSD or Sys V?

The Review

2/11. That was my last full day on the island of Oahu in the State of Hawaii. i had to return the rental car and put in my last full day in the office. My desk had been cleared a week ago. The only thing left at home was what i needed to pack for the plane.

Starbucks at 1000 Bishop? Check. Oatcake ? Of course.

An empty house was waiting for my last night on the island, my new home was waiting three thousand miles away.

What, You Hungry?

If there is one thing that unites locals from 808, (or divides them for that matter) it's Ramen, Saimin, noodles... whatever your fix from, curry ramen, to Pho, Hawaii has most places beat in the U.S. when it comes to noodley, soupy decadence.

i am not here to espouse about the joys of eating in 808.

Behold the New York Times Article on Ramen:

One Noodle At A Time in Tokyo

Wonder at the magnificence that is the blog, RamenAdventures:

www.ramenadventures.com

You know, this part of Oregon could very well use a nice little ramen shop. Now where are my chopsticks and that bottle of La-Yu....

2010: The Month In Review

Why it's seemed like 2009 was only a month ago...(or less).

What have we learned so far?

Farm/Ranch projects are always ongoing and will always follow the laws of entropy.
Even if you can keep most of an area dry, prepare for leaks.
It is wet in Oregon.
It is cold in Oregon.
It is wet in Oregon.
If it says "Unbreakable" or "Impact Resistant", it will most likely receive some sort of impact and break.
It is dark in Oregon.
Winco does not accept certain methods of payment.
Socializing your indoor human being is a good thing.
Good car or Cheap car, you can pick only one.

Sometimes, the people that you thought were your close friends will abandon you over:

Political differences
Socio-Religious beliefs
Money
Tickle Me Elmo


hey it happens...

Yamhill is not a Native American word that means "Feel the Excitement"
Sometimes city water isn't all that.
Soon i will reach the milestone of putting the "unt" in "country" for two years.
People from Waimanalo make it to Newberg, Oregon.
If someone says it's spicy, it's probably not.

The fun never stops.

Here's A Thought...

How about a Swedish Steppenwolf tribute band called:

"Bjorn To Be Wylde"

it's ok, you can use that if you like..

1k Awesome Things

1000awesomethings.com

The Beginning of Twenty 10

Rain continues to fall here at F.O.B:Y.F- the dark steel gray Oregon skies releasing an incredible amount of H2O onto the muddy ground. Hyperbole? Perhaps, but you are not here. So there.
Fences, regardless of the weather, will choose the time and place of their next failure. Mud has a tendency to form with or without my input. Solar chargers, oddly enough, need the Sun.

Should i paint with broader strokes? It's not all bleak, it must be a typing impediment, right?

20 Ten

One hour and 42 minutes into the new year, a fence repair was required.

In the dark.

In the rain.

In two inches (or more) of mud.

Only in Yamhill. Happy New Year.

Twenty Ten

2009 came and went, leaving behind a snowy calling card. We hope for a Happy and Prosperous new year.