Kestrachern » Thoughts

Wii and the LCD TV

kestrachern — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:20:55 +0000

Some new additions to Chez Kitteh this weekend, a Wii and the LCD TV. The heat and humidity gives a person a kinda cabin fever, keeping you cooped up in an air conditioned environment. I’ve actually found myself putting on some weight in non-flattering places. Enter in the Wii, Wii Fit, and products labeled Mario. It was great fun trying all sorts of new games.. but the old TV was not up to it. Having been something free from Craigslist it was dark and a complication in the media center. LCT TV to the rescue! A quick trip to Best Buy and an hour later a 32 inch LCT TV was on its way to Chez Kitteh. (It would have been sooner but there was this massive storm all across the St. Petersburg Peninsula… kinda scary)

It was amazing the difference the new TV made. Bright, beautiful, crisp, and I fell in love with Princess Peach all over again. One of the collateral benefits was that Chez Kiteh’s media center cleaned up resulting in some excess hardware that I’m all too happy to sell – Two Windows based PC’s Pentium class and one DLP projector. If you need a low budget laptop or video projector lets make a deal.

The only other thing this weekend was a Sunday morning bike ride out to the North Fishing Pier that was the access to the old Skyway Bridge. When the new span was build the old approach was left in place and for $4 a vehicle you can drive out into the bay and cast your net into deeper waters. Biggest fish I saw being was about 4- 5 inches long.

House cleaning, biking, the Wii and the LCD TV. It was a full weekend and getting more balanced. Looking forward to the end of summer when the temperature and humidity fall and I can get back to being outside all the time!

Social Networking – Division of purpose

kestrachern — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:47:53 +0000

Having a presence on every social networking and Web 2.0 service that I can find, has left me wondering the best ways to effectively use each in turn. Some services have easily found a niche in my day to day experience while others seem to langish searching for a purpose in my life. The only common thread at the moment seems one of community and how easily, effectively, and transparently I use each netork or service.

This list will link and grow as I marshall my way through.

Twitter
Facebook
Brightkite
MySpace
Plurk
Kwippy

Moulin Rouge

kestrachern — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:22:54 +0000

A show at the Moulin Rouge was a great way to wrap up my first trip to Paris. The show I saw was called Féerie. Over 100 performers in amazing costumes of feathers, lights, sparkly bits… WOW!

Each show has seating for about 850 people and all you need do is call ahead to make reservations. Well not even that. Show up at the door and say you have reservations and you’ll get seated. (This is for the non-dinner show only) I highly recommend getting the champagne with the show. Tickets are 85€ a person 92€ with champagne. No cameras or video equipment area permitted inside and they are firm and polite but not overly invasive in that request.

Féerie was a crazy amazing spectacle of light, sound, and movement. The costumes were amazing! The performers made the show specifically the four ‘interim’ acts – Juggling, Magic, Giant Aquarium, and Contortionist (kinda) team. My favorite was the last act the Contortionist/strength act performed by a couple. Just Wow!

Across the street from the Moulin Rouge is the Blanche Metro station. One of the unique aspects of this station is the air vent that continually streams high volumes of air up in to the Parisian night. It was much fun to watch people climbing up for photographs by friends and strangers.

If you’ve ever seen Baz Luhrmanns film…there area some similarities in the performance but well you really should go and see it for yourself.

I did catch a few of the performers coming out after the show. I was amazed that the exiting and exuberant crowd seemed not see them at all.

It was a great time at the Moulin Rouge and I would definitely go back for another show.

They come in threes?

kestrachern — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:19:59 +0000

The accepted wisdom is that when celebrities deaths occur that they come in threes. However this past week that holds true only if Douglas Adams is writing obituaries.

Ed McMahon – June 23
Farrah Fawcet – June 25
Michael Jackson – June 25
Billy Mays – June 28

How do we group these? If the deaths were regular and evenly spaced it would be easy, but in their last gasp for drama celebs rarely are so organized. Does that mean Billy Mays the start of a new set? Or do we group by age and Michael Jackson is the beginning of the next new set and we should look for another 50 year old to pass in the coming days? If Michael is the start of the next three who passed before Ed McMahon?
We could also group by sex, but then there are two more females due to pass (at least Patrick Swayze is safe in that case, unless he had gender realignment surgery kept hidden since very early in life)
I’m sure we could find other groupings that might work as well

financial status
area of residence
amount of plastic surgery
chosen profession
or ?

So if it is true that when celebrities die that they come in threes, but maybe it helps if ya just don’t count so well.

I had a date last night

kestrachern — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:04:38 +0000

It was a while in coming (nearly a year)… What began as two acquaintances getting to know one another ended up becoming a grand adventure of the sort that paves the way to good friendship.

With Shelley away for the weekend in San Francisco the perfect opportunity presented itself. After a solo precursor of cookies and film Quicksilver.. I gathered up a few things (bike lights, cash, etc) grabbed the bike and set off to meet St. Petersburg, Florida.

Over the next six hours I cavorted over her streets, sometimes pedaling my way, at others walking to seep in her details. I followed many of the same paths I had on previous encounters but with new and wider eyes. Coffee Pot Bayou, USF campus, The Pier, Downtown, along Central Avenue, Tropicana

She showed me her beauty – A thunderstorm over the bay, while the full moon occasionally eclipsed by clouds still shown brightly overhead

She showed me her dark side – gunshots, police, cruisers, flashing lights and a striking african american male in subtle drag telling his story (relevant or not) to all in the vicinity

I felt her caress – the light and gentle rain, the breezes guided by her structures

I heard her voice – the hums and whirrs… the traffic on brick and pavement, the waves lapping at her shores, the sounds of the creatures that dwell within.

I sensed her energy… watched her as she slept…. as she stirred to wake on the new day

I know her better now. We are on the path to becoming good friends.

A place where a person lives may not explicitly dictate what can be done or how, but it does impose its own quirks on the things you may want to do.

The above image is a cropped version of the only time I stopped to take a photo. Click on it for the expanded version.

Bankruptcy

kestrachern — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:06:15 +0000

This was not an intended result of leaving San Francisco… still here it is. With my income not quite matching my living expenses, never mind my recurring bills, I think it is time to be responsible and admit that I messed up, financially.

I found out that a good friend went through this a few years back and I am very grateful for the advice and perspective their experience offered. Have you gone though this? What was your experience?

Any thoughts on getting a lawyer… yes/no? I’m leaning to Yes to make sure I don’t mess it up and could use some suggestions for an individual in the Tampa Bay area to help shepherd me though the process.

Desired Degrees of Separation

kestrachern — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:29:52 +0000

I’m fairly open on my social networks and will generally welcome any friend request. However there are a few people from whom I’d like maintain a nice buffer.

Using Facebook as an example: I think I have run into my buffer by confirming a friend that is a fairly close coworker (and a jolly lovable outgoing sort of chap) to one of these “Buffer-needed” people. It’s not as if they couldn’t simply google me… but still.

How close have you come? Do you have desired degrees of separation? How is it working for you?

————————
June 7, 2009 Update
————————

Seems that the buffer is stronger/wider than anticipated. Thanks New Friend!!!

Adventure Friday Part 2

kestrachern — Sat, 30 May 2009 06:29:33 +0000

Pictures (and spelling) forthcoming…. but here is the raw update.

Wow!
Part 2 had two sub excursions… both started out in the direction of The Pier and the first went north and the latter found a more southerly direction….

Taste of Pinellas was wrapping up for the day. so we avoided too many entanglements with meandering pedestrians… staying along coffee pot bayou we headed west around 24th ave N and wound our way back to Chez Kitteh.

The southerly excursion Shelley decided to keep the bay on our left and we found the Sea Faire all aglow, and the fish fireworks and some agitated people who didn’t appreciate light being splashed about….

yeah then there was this very awesome sailboat…

I’m sure more will come to mind as the news reports come to light…..

Stay tuned…

At the Redline

kestrachern — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:24:19 +0000

I live here. Not that I am not elsewhere.. but this is the place where I feel most vibrant and alive. I enjoy being at the edge of what I know, what I can do close to the point of failure..
for example I was working yesterday learning to ride my bike backwards or when I choose to produce music.

My greatest fear is well described by Tennyson from his poem Ulysses – “To rust unburnished, not to shine in use.” Like Ulysses in the poem I thrive in an environment of growth. I enjoy the feeling of constant motion. Moving forward in an innovative, constructive, and challenging way, not just movement for the sake of movement.

It can make me a difficult person to endure at time. Chaotic, critical, crazy have all been cast my direction.

I’m working to not be frenetic but more directed; to have more depth on my projects. There is still so much that I want to do.. but more importantly I want to do it well.

Burning Man 2006

kestrachern — Wed, 13 May 2009 01:56:30 +0000

My second visit to Burning Man was filled with the creation of The Prisoner theme camp. It was hard work and lots of fun. Also joining me and my new friends from SF would be Hallie and some friends from Ohio.

For me this event was more about exploring and participating so my camera was mainly at camp in the safekeeping of the bus. Lots of photos of trampolines.. and we had this great set up that started off as a set of three.. but on Sunday one self-destructed with a BANG – sending springs flying off into the twilight playa with a few never to be seen again. So Kosho was reduced to two trampolines one of which slowly failed until by Thursday it was akin to some sort of metal taco….

Morning mimosas and daily does of rum and horchata saw me though the dust and wind to dance at night.

Driving the bus to and from the playa was the best part of the adventure. Slowly up and over Donner pass… parking on the playa.. then a slow trip back to the city!

I’m sure more happened but it’ll take some poking and prodding of the brain to get all of the secrets spilled….