I’m just finishing reading “Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain”. Thank you Miiko for the suggestion. It has been a fantastic read. Ratey layers medical, psychiatric and psychological research atop his own anecdotal evidence. The focus of the book is on rewiring the brain with physical exercise. As such, this book, and Tara, have inspired me to join Tara’s running group, West Coast Road Runners, which is intended to prepare one for running the Rock & Roll Marathon. In 6 months the program works you up to a 20 mile.

I don’t intend to run the full Rock & Roll this July, maybe the half. Primarily my interest in joining the running group is to diminish the negative effects my ADHD has on my life; both personal and professional. “Spark” offers compelling medical evidence that regular exercise provides significant benefits to folks like myself with ADHD. Moreover, when I’ve exercised regularly in the past I experienced a significant difference in my ability to focus, organize and relax that i simply wasn’t completely cognizant of until reading “Spark” and reflected.

In summary: read “Spark”. It just may change your life in 2009. 🙂

This is apparently a very popular song in the UK during Christmas-time; it’s been on repeat for me today. A belated Merry Christmas to you all!

And embeds The above Pogues music video of “”Fairytale of New York”. I’m a huge Pogues fan. They’re so young in this video. I’ve seen them in concert a few times. In fact, the best show I’ve ever been to was The Pogues with Joe Strummer (RIP) standing in for Shane McGowan. Yes, sorry Joe Strummer was way better than Shane. It’s Joe @#$%ing Strummer. The show was at First Ave in Minneapolis.

I hadn’t seen this video in probably ten years. It makes me nostalgic. I think it does especially so because I’m currently in Duluth, MN. I moved here 15 years ago when I had just turned 18. I listened to the Pogues intensely back then and it was in 1995 (I think) that I saw the Pogues live for the first time.

I took this photo in 2006 at the Fillmore. I found it via
Zemanta, not at my Flickr account, but at Wikipedia. I love
when this happens.

Times were very different for me back then. I was broke. I mean broke. Not a dime to my name, I was briefly homeless. My only possessions were a few boxes of books, some notebooks for writing, a backpack and sleeping bag for camping. I remember I slept on duct taped couch cushions on the floor for a couple years. My furniture was constructed from Leinenkugel cases. It was actually a happy time for me. I was only concerned with getting laid, reading, writing, backpacking and camping. All of which were enjoyed in abundance. 

I’m of the mind one should “Remember, Be Here Now.” So, no. I do not miss this time of life, but it’s nice to reflect on who I was then and the firends I had. Many of which are still good friends. In fact, I’ll be seeing one of these old friends, Scott Graden, later today. Scott owns Scenic Cafe, which is probably the best restaurant in northern Minnesota.

It’s been a great Christmas. Ashby was the big winner this year with so many gifts it finally became a chore for her to open them all. It wasn’t Tara and I responsible for this, rather it was her grandparents. I got some new underwear and socks. Sweet! One of my most favorite gifts this year was from my brother-in-law, Toby. Check it:

 

Awesomeness! He recites Bible passages when you press his back. This is from One2Believe.com. I want every toy this company makes. I am confused why the site has Samson wrestling Goliath though. Weird. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a religious action figure series? Buddha, Abraham, Zorasta, Jesus, Mohammed, Joseph Smith, Bahá’u’lláh, etc… Wouldn’t you want to collect every one? Check out the full Jesus photo set.

As is our tradition for Christmas, I made Beef Wellington with Brenda. We made a walnut ham pate’ as an alternative to the liver pate’ to go with the mushroom duxelle that is used to insulate the tenderloin and I made a mushroom bordelaise with a mix of oyster and button mushrooms. Brenda (my mo-in-law) prepared twice baked potatoes, creamed spinach and a broccoli salad. Delicious. 🙂

I’m packing this evening for a flight to Duluth, MN with Tara, Ashby and Roe (still in uterus). We’re spending the next several days with Tara’s family north of Duluth on Lake Superior. It’s a four hour flight to Minneapolis and another forty minute flight to Duluth. What are we packing for Ashby?

• Books – Ashby got some great new books from Roy, Steve and Brigette in the last couple days that I’m packing.
• Silly puddy
• Stickers
• Crayons, coloring books, notebook
• Little People
• Snacks

These are our usual standbys and are capable of tiding Ashby over for hours. But, I’ve got some other goodies I’m excited about.

Tara and I got Ashby a Tag Reading System from Leapfrog. I’m super excited to work with her on phonics and reading with Tag. It has solid reviews. I already played with it tonight and downloaded the audio for another book I bought with the Tag  that didn’t come pre-loaded. It was quick and easy peasy. 🙂

Then I’m also preparing for the flight with the free video podcasts from Nick Jr and PBS. Yup, that’s right, free educational video podcasts for kids. We have a Philips 8.5” DVD player with iPod dock that is going to come in handy. And the following video podcasts are now loaded on my video iPod and ready to roll.

• Super Why 
• Dragonfly TV
• Sesame Street
• Diego
• They Might be Giants Friday Night Video podcast for kids
• The Goodnight Show

I haven’t watched but a few of these yet, but it seems they’re mostly one to six minute excerpts from the show. Super Why is the full episode. By the way, I love the theme song for this show! Oh, and I couldn’t resist buying some Sponge Bob on iTunes. I know, Tara hates Sponge Bob too, but I think he’s awesome. And c’mon people. I grew up watching Tom and Jerry and Loony Tunes. I’ll bet you did too. That stuff is raw violence and brain rot with no redeeming quality.

Postscript- I love how I find my own photos using Zemanta, not on my Flickr account, but via Wikipedia. See first photo of Lake Superior.

Human gestation is 10 months not 9 months. Yes, really. It’s your standard off by one error. Stupid non-programmers. What a newb mistake. No, I’m not kidding. 40 weeks = 10 months. You count from 0, duh…

Perinea massage is not massage at all. Whoever dubbed it “massage” was sick and twisted and should be slapped around vigorously. It’s more akin to taffy making, but not at all fun to watch.

There are three phases of labor. Each phase is more terrifying than the previous and it builds to a crescendo of horror during the transitional phase at which time the woman releases a sustained shriek that is like nothing you’ve ever experienced. You can feel it in your sternum. This is also the smelliest phase of labor. 

Women giving birth do not remember much about giving birth. They’ll say: “it wasn’t so bad”. This is because natural selection has allowed the female gender to evolve a remarkably selective memory to the circumstances pertaining to birthing.

In short, unless you’ve seen some really twisted crimes against humanity, birthing is likely the most horrifying event you will ever witness. However, in the end, when you gaze upon your pointy headed co-creation you will ball your eyes out uncontrollably with joy and be filled with a sense of awe and wonder that can not be felt under any other circumstances. Lastly, you will have a new found respect for your partner that should sustain you through the first year of child rearing.

 

I grew up with a skateboard. It was solely transportation for me. And where I grew up in Morgan Hill, CA the street conditions did not lend well to skating. I recently bought a very short board with a Russ Pope design; although it’s aesthetically appealing the trucks and wheels on it suck for street skating. Or perhaps just suck period. I’ve attempted to skate the 2.5 miles to work a couple times and invariably I jump on the bus about half way there. I’ve been meaning to outfit it with more suitable trucks and wheels, but mostly I was planning/hoping to get a longboard.

Needless to say, I was touched and blown away when I was gifted a longboard from everyone at the office. Frickin’ sweet! 🙂 With my new board I ventured out and skated Mission Hills and Hillcrest this weekend..a few times.

If you look closely at my leg in the photo above you’ll detect evidence of my lack of experience.

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When I post a photo to Flickr ~10 views in the first 12 hours is pretty good. I posted this photo of Tara last night:

And it racks up 150 unique views in the first 12 hours. What the hell? I know she’s hot, but is there that many people on the Interwebs with prego fetishes?

By the by, Tara is 7 months pregnant with my son: Roesevelt David Fulkerson. I snapped this photo a few days ago after Tara’s morning run. Yes, she runs and yes. it does get a lot of looks through Mission Hills and Hillcrest.

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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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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