Work(ing Title)

of electric bullet train travel with the trip visualizer provided on the California High Speed Rail Association website, which comes laced with sexy CG animations of what the golden state will look like twenty years from now, as well as time, distance, and cost calculations.

Having just returned home yesterday from a weekend in Los Angeles, color me particularly jealous of the future-me. He will be able to visit friends and countrymen for a downright pedestrian fifty-five stones, in exchange for an additional ninety-eight minutes of his future-life over my wasteful jet flight. When I think about the cellular data rates future-me will be utilizing on this Elysian journey across Cali, let’s just say I would like to start putting money aside for the purchase of suspended-animation services once Obama’s second term comes to a close. (via Engadget)

Saturday afternoon I’ll be arriving in SF, and that evening Ms. Cooper and I are interested in a North African Bastille Day celebration. Monday and Tuesday will be sacrificed in an attempt to understand those wild digital teens at the Ypulse Mashup.

Wednesday will be spent traveling to Los Angeles (more on that adventure later), where I’ll stay through the week’s end. Saturday and Sunday (the 20th and 21st) I’ll be in Monterey for the MotoGP motorbike races at Laguna Seca.

Monday will be scattered around San Jose, Cupertino, Mountain View, and Palo Alto before arriving back in SF to remain through the end, putting a cap on this month of July (in the year of our Bond) at Laughingsquid’s Paradise Lost.

In what can only be described as some sort of digital compulsion, I’ve tapped this post out on my Windows Mobile phone. Sitting in SEA-TAC waiting for my flight to Los Angeles, I tried unsuccessfully to get my work laptop to borrow this phone’s network connection, so here my thumbs fly just to remind myself (and the eight of you) of my geek cred.

I’ll be in Santa Monica tonight and then at the California Science Center tomorrow morning for a fairly interesting MSN announcement. The NOE and I will be meeting up in Westwood tomorrow afternoon, and anyone in that hood with something to complain about should ping me to meet up!

This past Friday I hopped a flight to SFO to meet Ryan for a lavish tour of Virgin America’s new A320. I’ve never seen a plane seat so fresh as these, which I suppose can be attributed to the Department of Transportation not allowing Virgin America to operate apparently on account of their minority foreign investment. It’s really disappointing to see how far-reaching our national ignorance really is, though I have faith in the superior travel experience these cats can provide; The market will sort them out.

After a glorious In-N-Out burger with Ryan, I headed south for some catch up with the hometown crew. Monzel, Rini, and I spent an evening flying Target-bought remote control aircraft in the Stanford mall parking lot. It felt good to get up to a bit of the old juvenile nonsense.

The rest of the weekend was a bit blurry, with a quick trip to Ameoba Music with Dan where I bought a proper feast for my ears. Saturday night I through my old house, which will be scraped off the planet early next month. I stood in the street choking up for a few minutes, the realization that I’ll never see ‘my home’ again weighing heavier than I had anticipated.

Sunday I interviewed Ryan for some personal profiles I’m producing for channel 10, and then wrapped up my time with dinner at Los Charros (where I caught my parents, who apparently have been going there as often as I used to). I got to the airport early, though ultimately that proved foolish, as I went to the wrong one.

Monzel was kind enough to come get me and deposit me on his couch for the evening, before getting me on the first flight out Monday, just under the wire I might add. All in all it was one of the most exciting weekends on record, despite spending every night on a different couch.

I came back home this afternoon to eat for free and pack. It hadn’t occurred to me, probably because I hadn’t been drinking until recently, how awesome coming home for lunch can be. Obviously I’m not getting quite as much done as I would on campus, but I can’t get over how nice it is to have a glass of wine and some dark chocolate to cap off my meal. I wonder if these extra-fun chemicals will give me magical abilities once I get to the gym?

Strange as it seems, the mental planning for travel has already begun. Right now the list of possibles consists of Iceland, Rome, the Irish countryside, and somewhere in the Caribbean. While that whole list is a bit aggressive, I think at least two of them should be possible. Hopefully the timing can work out so I’ll be able to spend a fair bit of time in some hot weather. I don’t need warm, I need 90F as an average.

It’s also become clear to me that the need for new glasses is rather pressing. I hate the idea of becoming dependent on them, but I find myself wearing my beat up Oakleys more often. This time round though the style needs to match up with my latest penchants; caps, boots, and vests. Max Fischer had an interesting pair…perhaps those could work.