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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It’s a bit chilly tonight here in San Diego. I finished Robert A. Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” this evening. It was a good read. Sex, religion, money, art…cast with a SciFi backdrop. What is not to like?

I’ve also started “John Adams” by David McCullough this evening. I just learned this was the book used to create the HBO mini-series on John Adams. Given my propensity to disdain all things popular I would have selected a different biography of Adams had I known this. Me thinks: great, I’m reading the Britney Spears of biographies.

Truth be told, I actually quite like the book so far. I have recently thought that it important to read about the founders of the United States. For several reasons really. These folks were wildly successful. I figure it could be inspiring. Also, it’s sure to be a nice underdog story and I’m a sucker for the underdog. Moreover, I’m tired of the recent wave of zealotry alleging the United States was founded a Christian nation. I’m curious how true this is and to what religious dogma the founders actually subscribed. Finally, I think when times are rough it’s wise to look back and get perspective.

I’m pretty hesitant to post this. This is really really old (in MindTouch time, it’s actually only a year old) and is a throw back to when MindTouch was solely focused on building community and adoption. Well, we nailed that out of the park and have since layered atop our community-centrism a business and sales unit. Nonetheless, these are our roots and I’m sharing this Microsoft produced video against my better judgment, after all I think I sound like a total wanker…

I should point out that the message in the video about being the best open source wiki is qualitative and stale. In fact, MindTouch is the MOST popular open source enterprise collaboration platform in the world. MindTouch Deki enjoys millions of users and hundreds of thousands of installations…all in less than three years of a public product wow… According to Sourceforge.net (the most active open source repository) MindTouch Deki is the top .001% of all open source projects.

Here is the Bitrock video. I like there video better. 🙂 Daniel and Erica are wonderful…oh and they have a great product too.

UPDATE: For whatever reasons it seems Microsoft took the videos off YouTube. Got me. Here’s another instance of the MindTouch “documentary”.

Audible.com is so painfully slow. Nonetheless, it is the cheapest way to get audiobooks and I love me some audiobooks. Currently, I’m reading the classic “Stranger in a Strange Land” a recommendation from my buddy Darin R. McClure. I don’t usually read fiction, but this has been pretty good so far.

In addition to “Stranger in a Strange Land” I have on my iPhone:

• “Spark” by John J. Ratey, which was recommended by @MiikoMentz
• “John Adams” by David McCullough

I recently read “Guns, Germs and Steel“, which I thought was fantastic. For more information on books I’m reading or those that I have read recently look me up at www.Shelfari.com (I’m Roebot as usual). An interesting note about Shelfari, large parts of this site is actually built on MindTouch. 🙂

This is so funny! I release my Flickr photos under Creative Commons Attribution. Many of my photos have been picked up by various reputable publications including the Wall Street Journal. My new favorite is Building, a publication based out of the UK. The article: “World’s tallest tower to have ‘gravity free’ terrace” used a photo of me from my Flickr stream.

Note the text:

Visitors – or astronauts as the backers of the scheme hope to label them – will need to wear special protective suits

As if this outfit I’m wearing, a child’s NASA costume, were this “protective suit”. LOL. By the way, This is an April 1 article.

Four Noble Truths

1. Suffering exists
2. Suffering arises from attachment to desires
3. Suffering ceases when attachment to desire ceases
4. Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing the Eightfold Path

Three Characteristics of Existence

1. Transiency (anicca)
2. Sorrow (dukkha)
3. Selflessness (anatta)

Hindrances

1. Sensuous lust
2. Aversion and ill will
3. Sloth and torpor
4. Restlessness and worry
5. Skeptical doubt


Factors of Enlightenment

1. Mindfulness
2. Investigation
3. Energy
4. Rapture
5. Tranquillity
6. Concentration
7. Equanimity

I’ve been thinking how odd it is that I’m one of the very few 3rd generation Californians I know. My Great grand parents were Okies that came to California during the dust bowl and lived in the tent cities initially upon their arrival. So, when Sam Lawrence tweeted about Shorpy it was timely.

Here are some choice dust bowl photos.

November 1936. Arvin migratory farm workers’ camp in Kern County, California. “Tom Collins, manager of Kern migrant camp, with drought refugee family.”

“Children of Oklahoma drought refugee in migratory camp in California.” November 1936

“Destitute pea pickers living in tent in migrant camp. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two.” Nipomo, California. February 1936. Photograph by Dorothea Lange. The anonymous subject of this famous Depression-era portrait known as “Migrant Mother” came forward in the late 1970s and was revealed to be Florence Owens Thompson (interview). She died in 1983. Read more here.

Fantastic site. Thanks Sam!

I am SO damn proud of Tara. This last weekend my wife ran the Rock-N-Roll Marathon here in San Diego! I’m so proud of her! Ashby, Brenda (Tara’s mom) and I were there to cheer Tara on. It was very emotional. I freely admit I shed a few tears of pride and joy for her.

I don’t link to Tara’s blog here because that’s personal family content, but I’m going to excerpt Tara’s post about the marathon here.

…

The downtown part was great and more so because our families were cheering us on at mile 6. Aaron had a air horn so it was easy to locate my awesome family with their signs.

Somewhere around mile 11 on the 163 my knees started hurting and my little toe on my left foot was aching. At this point, Jarod and I are still together running and we decide to slow down our pace a little.

Right before segment 3/Mission Bay my knees are throbbing but the vibe from the fans was energizing. I liked the neighborhood feel and the view kept me distracted. Also, I tried a few new things which gave me a burst of energy such as chewing on ice cubes and bubble gum. This was around mile 18 and at this time Jarod was going faster so we split.

Around mile 21 I was HURTING beyond words and I began getting emotional – way emotional. I cut out a picture of Ashby the size of my ipod and had it taped to the back. It helped me to see my daughter however it almost brought a wave of unexpected emotion during this mile. I got it together and just focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Luckily, when I passed the corner I could see the end point way in the distance which gave me energy.

At Mile 23 I realize I passed my buddy Jarod somehow and my competitiveness creeped in (in a good way) which pushed me to the end.

At Mile 24 I walked a few steps, collected my thoughts, and pushed all pain out the door. I ran strong till Mile 25 and at that time I experienced the “runners high.” I wish I could find out how fast I ran the last mile because I would not be surprised to find out that I did it in under 8 minutes. When I made the decision to “haul ass” I looked down and I had goosebumps everywhere and I did not feel any pain whatsoever. I literally hauled ass to the finish line. I heard Aaron’s bull horn and saw the finish line all at the same time. I saw my mom and Aaron and I began crying because I was so happy to see them and to be finished.
I finished with a smile and both hands in the air.

Questions I have asked myself:

Will I do it again? Most definitely.

How soon? In the next year.

What will I do differently? I will build up my quadriceps because I believe my knees hurt so much in the long runs because my thighs are not as strong as they should be to support the knees. (my dad’s advice) 🙂

…

What is my goal? To get faster, stronger, and to finish the next marathon in 4 hours and 30 minutes.

4:50 am (my mom was up with me at 4:00 AM) 🙂

6 Mile Marker

Finish Line – weeping

Relief

Proud Daughter

Proud Husband (mom too but she was taking photos)

My Buds

Dressed for the post-marathon celebration at Jarod’s house – going through posters.

Ashby’s Poster

Aaron’s Poster

Poppa and Mimi’s Poster

The Day After – very stiff but itching to jog on Thursday morning 🙂

Once again, I would never have been able to accomplish this personal goal without my ENTIRE family.

Thank you Tara for inspiring me with your drive and ambition. 🙂 I love you.

I bike to work. Most days anyway. Recently I’ve been sick; so, I’ve not been biking as often as I was. MindTouch is headquartered downtown in Little Italy and I live in Mission Hills. This means I have to bike uphill on the way home. It’s not bad. The bike ride is only 2.5 miles each way and I really enjoy it. However, since I’ve been sick (for damn near 4 weeks now with 3 illnesses I think) I could really use some assistance on some days coming up the hill. Here’s an idea:

Turns out you can buy it on ebay. I wonder if that’s street legal. Probably not. There are several stop lights and signs on the way home. Taking this straight up Laurel Street would be pretty awesome though (steepest street to climb in San Diego).

Brita’s new ad campaign is…well…genius, if you ask me. It reads:

Last year 16 million gallons of oil were consumed to make plastic water bottles.

www.filterforgood.com

Also from Treehugger via the Aesthetic Poet:

“If just one in 10 Americans used public transportation daily, U.S. reliance on foreign oil would decrease 40 percent.”

One would think a stat like that would inspire government and citizens to do whatever they could to enhance and/or develop public transportation within their centers, yet the status-quo persists. In fact, it’s worsening here in Southern California where there is much talk about the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes (carpool lanes) that are being considered for sale to private companies to turn into toll roads. Hrmm…taking publicly funded infrastructure and making it private so a monopoly can be created that will guarantee an inferior product. That makes no sense. Or as his been the case for many years, the state government in California has been trying to pave over state parks to create unnecessary highways in a poorly veiled attempt to open up choice parks to wealthy developers.

Finally, while I’m on a green kick, this comes by way of The Tyee.ca:

North America uses 60 per cent of the world’s paper cups, 130 billion of them per year. Those cups require about 50 million trees and 33 billion gallons of water, which could sequester 9.3 million tonnes of CO2 and quench 550,000 drought-stricken citizens of the state of Georgia, without even asking them to lower their ridiculous consumption rate of 166 gallons per day.

I feel so dirty. I need a nice reusable mug that I can carry in my backpack so when I bike by the coffee shop on the way to work I’m not contributing to this madness.