Everything is packed. The house is cleaned and ready for our renter. I made the mistake of touching up some paint, which resulted in me having to paint a couple very large walls, one of which was 15 feet high. That sucked. I also had to repaint part of the kitchen because a handyman I hired to help get some things done around the house to get it ready for us to leave the state had used the wrong paint, cream not white. That sucked too. Home Depot is like a black hole. Why is it that if I have to make one trip to Home Depot I end up making at least three? I hate that! I can never seem to get what I need in a single trip. I suppose it’s best that the house have fresh coats paint now. It will surely save us money later. It still sucked.

In preparation for the trip I’ve got my podcasts stacked up on my iPod and some new audio books to tide me over during the 30 hour, 2000 mile drive. I have the route planned. If you like, you can review it. If I had more time I would take a route through Wyoming our mover was telling me about that’s mostly 2 lane highways and not much longer. However, I have to be in San Diego Wednesday for a conference on Thursday and with Ashby an all…we’re going to get the drive done quickly. We’ll be sleeping in or near Omaha, Nebraska tomorrow night. I’ve taken this route before. Tara hasn’t. Hell I think I’ve taken darn near every reasonable route one can take from MN to CA. I considered going south to Oklahama City and cutting across to avoid any potentially bad weather. I took this route last time though to California and stopped off to visit Paul Yellowhorse (an old buddy I’ve known since I was about eight) and I’ve trafficked that souther route from east to west most often recently; so, this time I figured I would take the route through Colorado, which I haven’t done for many years nor has Tara ever seen.

I can’t wait to get on the road. It definitely feels like I’m going home. I’ve also been freezing my ass off today. It’s bitterly cold here in Minnesota. Bitterly cold. I mean really freaking cold. Also, my gloves were packed. I think I lost two fingers today.

I just finished reading Cobra II. Well, I say reading, but I use this loosely. I actually listened to the audio book over the last few days as I packed and cleaned the house. Wow, what a book! I suspected Rumsfeld was an incompent and stubborn Secretary, turns out I was right. Great book. Must read.

We’re mostly packed now. The movers load the majority of the Minnesota office tomorrow beginning at around 8 AM CST. After that they’ll load the house. Our route to San Diego is completely planned, but I know we’ll be going through Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada before we reach California. The car is loaded. I would have never had enough room if it weren’t for the new (used) 21″ Yakima Skybox I bought off Craigslist for a less than half price. I’ll try to post as we travel. My BlackBerry acts as a modem to my laptop so connectivity won’t be much of a problem. I’ll be glad when we’re on the road this Sunday.

Search by colors. Cool. Although, I’m not sure how useful.

I thought I should point out that migrating Wiki.com to Wik.is, which has been a monumental undertaking given the number of users and very short notice, isn’t the only thing MindTouch has been up to recently. Take a look at the new web site. And dig the launch of a new product, MindTouch Deki. It’s just coming out of closed beta. It’s very slick and free for the first 5 users. It installs on Windows or Linux in minutes. And as one enthusiastic beta user who leaked a few days ago pointed out: you can carry it with you on a USB memory key if you like. It’s so easy my mom could deploy it. 🙂 Pretty damn cool if I don’t say so myself.

Yes, I feel like I’ve mentioned I’m leaving MN here a dozen times. It’s probably getting tiresome me always talking about this. But this post is necessary because I’ve got to supply a post regarding my going home (un)celebration that we had at the Loring Pasta Bar last Friday. I noticed my depature was mentioned here. I wish I had had a chance to meet or get to know this Garrick guy. I remember seeing him once and thinking: "he looks cool, where did he get that name?" I mean come on, he sounds like a medieval baron or something: Garrick Van Buren. I know he’s into podcasting. That’s cool. Anyway, like I talk about in response to PeteE’s comments I feel like I’m leaving the cities with things not quite finished. I’m not going to mull over that again though. Instead I’ll just share photos of the event and a review of the restaurant.

• Photo set

Learn about microformats, which is what I used to write the above review.

Did you follow events of the National Conference for Media Reform Conference that was recently held in Memphis, TN? If not, your media is crap. It has been well covered by a couple media streams I consume. Namely the wonderful Democracy Now! and On the Media had coverage. It seems the conference is organized by Free Press, which oddly just recently came to my attention as well. I had no idea this conference was taking place. Had I known, I would have really liked to have been there. This was an important event. A very important event. Do you remember that PBS dude? Bill…uhhh…Moyers or something? 😉 Well, holy crap did he give a speech! I’ve been planning on posting about the keynote address he gave at the event. He makes so many points that I feel very strongly about that I had intended on doing a point by point write up. However, his speech was so damn good I would only be doing it an injustice. This was one of the most powerful and important speeches I’ve heard…in my life to date really; at least, due to it’s relevance today. If you have not heard this, you’re doing yourself a disservice. You can hear the condensed version at Democracy Now! and read the transcript or listen to the MP3, which in some ways is more impactful than the video provided below via YouTube (in case you’re a ‘tard, and I know there are a few of you here, you can just click the play arrow below to view the video) Part One:

Part Two:

Finally, watch Amy Goodman’s address. It’s powerful and equally important. It also includes a peculiar fact regarding Rumsfeld.

Kelly Abbott, creator of Dandelife, just brought my attention, in a comment here, that he has some new features at Dandelife and he’s open sourced some of his work. I’ve spoken previously about Dandelife here. Strangley enough, I previously stumbled across this SIMILE project, which is what he’s open sourced, but I didn’t know it was Kelly’s. That’s awesome Kelly! Free knowledge! As previously mentioned, Dandelife is cool. I have to recommend Tabulas (it is Roy’s), then Dandelife if you’re interested in a hosted blogging platform with social features. I would advise using either platform over blogger or other hosted blogging applications. Both are perfectly mainstream and feature rich. Ok, I’m sorry Roy, but I think Dandelife is a tad cooler with the timeline and subtle styling, but only because Roy spends all his time on his full time job. 🙂 However, Tabulas does have a much much larger membership than Dandelife does, so if you’re in it for the community…The only mark against Dandelife is the company Kelly keeps. I defer to my previous comments about self-proclaimed experts on software who aren’t engineers. I guess I generally don’t like trendy hipster doofuses. Now, don’t think this is why I dropped my Dandelife because this didn’t come to my attention until afterward. Anyway, kudos Kelly for open sourcing some of your wonderful application. I’m sure you will continue to grow and be successful. I hope in a couple weeks when I move to your town we’ll go out for coffee or beer. Everyone else who’s reading this, drop your blogger and typepad accounts and migrate to Dandelife. You won’t regret it. Unless you’re a family member of mine because I’m going to launch WordPress MU for us.

I guess I’ve misinformed everyone. Kelly has actually implemented a view of SIMILE and not actually contributed any development to the project. I guess I misunderstood his assertion.

I just saw that the Washington Post ran a story about the NSA “assisting” in securing Windows Vista. Cool, the agency tasked with domestic spying is securing the operating system with 90% market dominance. Good idea. Everyone should install Vista immediately! We should give it away free in China, Korea, and the Middle East. Perhaps Microsoft could get a no-bid contract to do so.

I’m overdue for a family update. First, turns out Tara is 50% Wonder Woman and 55% Hulk (see comments), BrwaaAAAaaa! Last weekend we headed north for our last visit to Duluth before our move. Tara had a chance to spend some time with her mother and I stopped by Scenic Cafe for coffee and a couple Guinness (in that order). Tara was happy to see the in-laws and their undead rat dog. On the topic of Scenic Cafe, if you are looking for dining on the North Shore of Lake Superior this is the place to go. Disclosure: my buddy Scott owns it. Scott is an amazing chef. The place is funky and fun. The menu is eclectic. It has great beer, wine, and coffee, and the food is even better. Plus it is on Lake Superior (between Duluth and Two Harbors).

Ashby is really diggin’ her forts. We set up a blanket and pillow fort in the family room and she goes crazy with excitement! Evidence below. The only other event of significance to report is that we’ve sold the Accord. It’s great to be down to one car. I really looking forward to the office being two blocks from home as it will be in San Diego. I won’t have to drive, less waste! Work has been a tad painful as my office in MN winds down and the office in CA winds up. With all the odds and ends Tara and I have been managing I’m especially out of touch of with work. Living downtown San Diego is going to be different. I know Tara and Ashby are going to love it. Take today for example. It is butt ass cold and snowing outside. Tara and Ashby are trapped in the house all day. Something as simple as going to the store is a huge undertaking and, at best, a two hour ordeal. In San Diego it’s 50-something F. There is a play ground a few blocks away. They can go a couple blocks away for coffee. Walk along the harbor. Go to the zoo. Head out to the beach. Catch a donkey show in TJ, you know whatever. 🙂

I was planning a going-away party for myself last week. Pathetic, I know. As I sifted through my address book it occurred to me that I’ve pissed off a lot of people in this state. Sure some were people I had to fire, or instilled with a desire to quit. Then there was a raft of contractors that I had the misfortune of working with. From the incompetent to the criminal. My favorite contractor in Minnesota was definitely the graphic design firm that incorporated another company’s trademarked logo into the design they sold us. At first they claimed it wasn’t a trademarked logo, but instead a generic graphic. Then they asserted that it was our fault because it was just a place holder image in the design and they never intended for it to be part of the design. That was awesome. And then of course there were droves of people in technology organizations that I suppose I offended by being very vocal and maybe occasionally rude. So, I’m opinionated and I don’t suffer fools lightly. Is that bad? At least you know what I think. Most of my offenses come from me being very candid. I do not like to waste time on prancing about issues and I tend to be pretty direct with my opinions. Don’t get me wrong. I always respect others’ opinions. I appreciate hearing them in fact. Indeed, I find it difficult to deal with people who obfuscate their emotions or are unwilling to candidly share their opinions. It’s painfully frustrating for me. I think this is why I’ve always loved Italy. Southern Italy especially. They scream, they yell. You know what they think even if you don’t speak their language. I like that. As for work, I’ll admit I’m pretty demanding. I know Pete’s woman said something to him when he decided to come work with me along the lines of: are you sure, you know Aaron is impossibly demanding…or something like that. I know I can be difficult to work with, or be married to (for different reasons though I believe). I think it’s because I’m passionate about what I do and I tend to demand a lot of commitment. If you’re not fully committed to something, why do it? Just to collect a paycheck? I don’t want to share my life with people like that. Just going through the motions.

Maybe I’m being too harsh. Most people do just work for the paycheck and have no real interest in their jobs beyond that. Maybe those people are really passionate about side hobbies. Cool, go get paid doing that. You’ll probably be happier. I’m not saying these people are less worthy, I just don’t want to work with them. If you’re not all in, don’t bother, and don’t waste my time.

Ok, my curiosity got the better of me. I’m somewhat embarrassed for participating in this because it’s so dumb and especially trendy. If you know me, you know I hate trendy shit. I can’t help myself, but when a band gets popular, I usually stop listening to them. In fact, I recently started to listen to Nirvana again after more than a decade of black listing them. Damn they kicked ass. Anyway, I took that ridiculous Superhero quiz that’s been floating about the blogosphere for a few weeks now. Turns out, I’m the Hulk.

Your results:
You are Hulk

Hulk 80% Iron Man 65% Spider-Man 60% Superman 55% Green Lantern 50% Batman 50% Robin 42% Wonder Woman 40% Catwoman 40% Supergirl 40% The Flash 35%

You are a wanderer with amazing strength.

Click here to take the “Which Superhero are you?” quiz…