I was trying to find my Google social profile tonight. Side note: It’s a shame how Google killed Ringside Networks. It would have been nice to have this all open source. Yes, that was a little evil. Anyway, I couldn’t find my Google profile anywhere. Were it not for a Brogan post that provided “a link to your profile here” I may have just given up.

In Brogan’s post he makes an interesting point that I had already suspected. In fact, this is why I was looking for my social profile. You see, when one uses any Google property, let’s say to write a review for a business, your social profile is linked to from your review, comment, whatever… This has the benefit of carrying some social capital a person, or company, can benefit from. As Brogan points out, you should tidy up your profile.

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Ashby has been attending swimming classes for a few months. She goes once a week with her mother. Ashby loves it even though her instructor pushes her to do things she would rather not. I had the unique pleasure of attending one of these swimming classes today. It was great! Ashby was almost as excited to have me there as I was to be there.

As for the quality of the swim school. I can testify that the staff were friendly and professional, the facilities well equipped and clean. Moreover, the cost is significantly lower than other schools Tara assessed.

Note: Read my previous post for the complete back story about the ECR Project.

Ricky Montalvo sums up the project quite well:

The El Camino Real Project is a photographic journey down “The Royal Road”, also known as The King’s Highway, the 600-mile (966-kilometer) California Mission Trail which is now a stretch of California road that consists of small businesses, homes and various motels. From So. San Francisco to San Diego, El Camino Real has a rich visual history. We aim to capture it.

Visit the ECR Project Flickr Group.

I just finished “John Adams” by McCullough. It was a great read. McCullough layers you with facts and clearly cites potential conjecture. After reading the book I’ve found a new perspective on the immaturity of America in those early days. It has made me less cynical for the absurdity of our times. Also, the read makes me more optimistic for our current national crises. Most of all, I’m thoroughly impressed by Abigail Adams. What an amazing person. I was far more impressed by Abigail than I was by her husband, who clearly was a great man in his own right.

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I love you squid.

The Bush Administration has been hurriedly cramming through last minute regulation changes in the form of executive orders.

…loaded firearms would be allowed in national parks, uranium mining would be permitted near the Grand Canyon and many injured consumers would no longer be able to sue negligent manufacturers in state courts. Other rules would gut the Endangered Species Act, open millions of acres of wild lands to mining, restrict access to birth control and put local cops to work spying for the federal government.

via Bush’s Final F.U. : Rolling Stone.

These executive orders focus squarely on benefiting the bottom line for Big Oil, Coal, Agriculture, Pharma and apparently anyone who has little concern for the well being of their workers. Read the full story and do a little research for yourself. Regardless of political affiliation it’s pretty appalling.

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Ricky Montalvo tweeted last Thursday that he had an idea for an El Camino Real photo project. Recently I too had been thinking about the King’s Highway after visiting a local San Diego Venture Capitalist; specifically, about the significance of the highway to the colonizing Spanish, the rich history associated with it and how it has changed so dramatically over the last 239 years. I thought it would be nice to travel the highway over a series a trips and shoot photos. So, when I saw Ricky’s tweet I direct messaged him a note and asked what he was up to.

Ricky Montalvo wrote:

Between So. SF & San Carlos, on El Camino Real are some of the best retail exteriors and motels I’ve seen.  The idea I has was to simply go down that particular section of ECR and photograph the modern w/ the not so modern.  Maybe even a “day in the life of” type journal. 

Example: http://flickr.com/photos/rickymontalvo/2917159913/in/set-72157607781991439/

Although this is a processed image of mine, I’d like to approach it with more of a neutral look and color.  Almost like this: http://www.lizkuball.com/southofcota/work/southofcota_13.jpg

I think you could do the same with your particular section down in SD and then we can publish it and ask the Flickr Community to fill in their parts, since ECR duns over 100miles of urban sprawl. 

Thoughts?
-Ricky

Now, Ricky is an amazing multimedia artist and photographer. I, on the other hand, am not. I’m not afraid of embarrassing myself. So, I responded to Ricky with:

That’s awesome! I’ve thought for some time I would like to shoot up and down El Camino b/c it’s quintessentially CA. I had some ideas about the bells, but I like your idea better. Let’s do that. So the point to focus on the particularly urban sections, correct?

Ricky’s final response:

Correct.  Nothing OFF El Camino, try to do a contrast of new and old.  Get traffic, shops, motels etc.  Give it that sense of urban sprawl and 70’s vintage with modern strip malls.

I’m going to take a stab at it this weekend.  Let’s compare/colaborate via Flickr.  I’ll create a private Flickr Group for us.

-Ricky

I asked Roy Kim, MindTouch VP of Engineering, to join me and Ashby (in case you’re new, that’s my [almost] 3 year old daughter) and we set out this morning. The El Camino Real begins in San Diego at Mission San Diego de Alcalá. This was the first Spanish Mission in California and was founded in 1769. While El Camino Real starts at the mission, in what is now called Old Town, San Diego, the highway breaks up quite a lot in San Diego County and doesn’t actually take shape until past La Jolla near Caramel Valley.

What we photographed will surely be very different from what Ricky shoots this weekend, but we had to capture the start of El Camino Real. We started at the Father Junipero Serra museum in Presidio park. The highway is supposed to begin at Taylor St. and Presidio St., but we found a bell, which are used to mark El Camino Real, above this spot closer to the museum. This must be the southern most bell on the Kings Highway.

After shooting around the Father Serra museum we shot in Old Town itself. Now, the fact of the matter is, today this isn’t El Camino Real, but the shots in Old Town were taken pretty much where the original El Camino Real would have been. The next outing I plan to shoot on El Camino Real near Caramel Valley, which is a suburban landscape with rolling hills and canyons.

I shoot with a Nikon d40x that has a stock 18-55mm lens. The Nikon d40x is a decent camera, but the lens I use is not that nice. Ashby shoots with a Fisher Price Kids’ Digital camera. I do not recommend this kids’ camera.  Other than it being nearly indestructible the thing takes terrible photos and is actually difficult to use. For kids, I think a key chain digital camera is a better choice.

The conditions were pretty bad for photography. It was 68 degrees F and overcast with occasional drizzle. Alas, I wasn’t going to change plans on Ashby and we had a lot of fun. Ashby took it all very seriously. She framed her photos and was very excited to show me the shots. “Look at the steps I took a photo of.” “I took a picture of some leaves. Look. Look.” It was frickin’ awesome.

My Photos:

 

Ashby’s Photos:

For the record, Roy is a much more experienced photographer than myself; so, I’m interested in seeing his shots. And most of all, I can’t wait to see what Ricky comes up with.

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When I think of House undergrad library at UNC I’m immediately filled with exam anxiety and thoughts of how hard my life was back when I was a working student struggling to make ends meet. I remember the endless cramming, the sleep deprivation, the stress…errg…

Now, here’s how I’d like to remember House Undergraduate Library:

 

TARHEELS! TARHEELS! 🙂

I think the bst part of this pose is how he’s kicking up his foot in a frolicking manner. I think “frolicky” would make a good word.

P.S.-

Where are you Roy?

Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower class of people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.

via John Adams Thoughts on Government.