Apple Pi

When I get stressed I often make an apple pi(e). I get the best results from mixing 3 or more varieties of apples together. Both cornstarch and flour as thickeners.

3.14159265

Giant Squid Caught in California

What's this I hear about giant squid fishing in California? 60 pound squid and bigger??

China Objects To Obama Meeting the Dalai Lama

His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be in the US in Feb and May. China has warned Obama about the consequences if he meets the Dalai Lama.

To quote Zhu Weiqun,  "We will take corresponding action to make relevant countries see their mistakes."

Nigga, please. Fuck you. What possible threat do you see in a 74 yr old monk? Probably the most beloved man on the planet. Mr. Love and Compassion himself.

Let me hazard a guess: acknowledging and embracing the Dalai Lama is tantamount to admitting your failures not only in Tibet but to your very core.

Cowards...

Dalai Lama Interview re: China

Oh great. Now Obama's pro nuclear.

We've been had. Barack likes nukes. Wants more. Thinks they're the answer to our energy problems.

Does the term "half life" mean anything to you? How about cancer? Security threat? Wrong solution to the energy problem on every level?

Let me state this again in no uncertain terms: I voted for him but only as my compromise candidate. Oh he's cute, oh he's eloquent but he ain't no progressive. He's nobody's revolutionary leader. That's why it's so funny when the Right calls him "socialist". I wish!

Words of Wisdom

I'll believe it when I can Google it.

Bruce Schneier on Gmail's back door & China hacking

Noted cryptographer Bruce Schneier talks about the backdoor Google built into Gmail that Chinese hackers recently exploited. If this is true, it means Google did a deal with the devil in order to enter the Chinese market.

No wonder Sergy was never comfortable with the deal. It's about fundamental principals of freedom and liberty not profits or stock price.

So GOOG is this true?

Hillary Clinton Speaking on Internet Freedom (& more!)

She speaks for an hour. Eloquently and forcefully at times. She doesn't talk down to us and proves once again, she's on our side.

Watch and listen to Hillary's speech today.

Japanese Hip Hop Monk

L.E.A.D. Uganda & AIDS Orphans

Swedish Proverb as in "Your sorrows"

Are you ready to abandon Internet Explorer yet?

First Germany and now France. Why is it that Europeans are blowing the whistle on Internet Explorer's inherent insecurity and the rest of the world is asleep at the wheel? Let me repeat what's been said before: IE isn't secure. Microsoft has little incentive to make it so. There are better alternatives. You need to be using them.

China hacked Google piggybacking on IE's flaws. Don't get caught in the same trap.

You've been warned...

An Open Letter to Google re: Chinese Net Censorship

Google, China, and Net Freedom

Google talks about China's cyberattacks

"Don't be evil." Beijing are you listening? Google is standing up to you. And now Yahoo! too. Hillary's even checked in.

We're tired of your net censorship. We're tired of watching you oppress your own citizens. We're tired of waiting for you to grow up and act like the global citizen you claim to be. And we're definitely tired of you messing with Tibet. Simply put, we're tired of your sh*t.

Hats off to Google for standing up to the Chinese government. If it means Google leaves China, so be it.

Let's help open the net by providing tools and resources like Tor and FreeGate.

All power to the people!

Lhasa Beer in da house!

Seattle Dharma Punx

I (finally) sat with the Seattle Dharma Punx for the first time tonight. I attended their annual intention setting ceremony. Me? I vowed to love my enemies so that they might teach me.

Fitting, given that I spent today tweaking both of my Tor boxes *and* sent a video to friends in Dharamsala outlining my plans to take over the world with Tor among other things.

I've to two relays running now. I want to play with both bridge relays and hidden services. Squid proxies (for Iran) and OpenVPN too.

"PC" as in political computing!

Netflix: who's watching what where

The venerable NY Times has an interactive map/article Netflix rentals across the country.

So, what are your neighbors watching? How does it map to your viewing habits? Are you surprised by theirs, would they burn you at the stake for yours??

Train Surfing, the ultimate extreme sport?

Try this on *your* bike. I double dare ya!

Garmin Voice Studio

Now, using Garmin Voice Studio, you can hear my voice in your Garmin GPS!

I recorded all the words and phrases which you can download off of JetCityOrange

Get lost to the soothing sound of my voice...

Headlines Motivate My Meditation

If one adheres to Mahayana, then reading the news only serves to motivate me and strenghten my resolve.

French Toast, pancakes, & Waffles

When else do you get to eat molasses? I mean really; how often do you make cookies from scratch?

"The Story of Stuff", The Story of Cap & Trade

Now think about your life(style) and what you can change.

Suicide Bombers in the Middle East

My prayers go out to all in the Middle East. The headlines would have you believe it rains meat in public. Body parts falling from above.

Stop hating & killing. Just stop.

Apple Censors iPhone Apps in China That Mention the Dalai Lama

So Apple appears to be bowing to China's will and censoring iPhone apps that mention the Dalai Lama.

Why? Because he's a military threat? A counter-revolutionary force (odd coming from such unabashed capitalists as the PRC)? Or perhaps because they're afraid of the truth...

My new Favorite Video. Too cool for words!

They need to make a longer version. I don't get to watch long enough.

New Year's, a funeral dirge

2009, good riddance. Go, be gone with you. Away!

Augmented Reality

Somebody, anyody, tell me why I need augmented reality. I have my hands full with the default plain vanilla kind.

Iranian Protesters & Their Cell Phones Show Us Their Revolution

God bless the protesters in the streets of Iran. Talk about "fight the power". Despite the Iranian government's best efforts at net censorship news from citizens in the streets continues to make its way out. Cell phones and especially photos taken with cell phones are everywhere.

Gizmodo has a good piece on this phenomena.

Gotta love it.

phones with keyboards = better language

As more and more cell phones have keyboards, texting and email has evolved from "CU L8R" et al. to real English with punctuation no less. Thank you, thank you.

RC plane w/video camera + fireworks!

OK. Let me get this straight. We've got a video camera on an RC plane with jokers on the ground shooting fireworks at it.


I have only two questions: was the pilot try to avoid the fireworks or fly into them and was beer involved?

Christmas

Any day when people around the world stop, share, and love those around them is a day to be celebrated. A true holiday.

Found While Holiday Shopping

Xmas '09

I'm only partly through gift opening but so far the pocket breathalyzer has a slim lead followed closely by clever tea making setup + mug sporting caffeine molecule etching. If I could only put the breathalyzer online like a webcam...

I hope Santa was as good to you. Now on to the rest of the prezzies...

Christmas Spirit, the t-shirt

Measuring Spoons 1, Jerry 0

Jokes on me: I just read the markings on the measuring spoons I've been using for YEARS. It's a TEAspoon, not a TABLEspoon. Explains some of my cooking results...

HP computers are racist?

Give yourself a holiday present. For free!

When I sat on The Big Guy's lap this year I asked for a SSL/TLS certificate. here's how to get one for free.

Dovetails nicely with my New Year's resolution: OpenVPN

Chrome & Broken Web Sites

Webmasters, fix your shit. If your site doesn't work with Chrome I'm surfing elsewhere. I'm tired of reaching for IE cuz your shit don't work.

My first tattoo

My present to myself. Michael accompanied me.

Dedicated to Mr. Wolf, my elementary school French teacher. When I made a boneheaded comment he took me aside, pulled up his sleeve, showed me his tattoo from the concentration camp, and told me he could never hate someone for who or what they are. This man survived the Nazis, facing some of the worst humans can do to each other, and he transmuted that hatred into love and compassion towards an ignorant kid years later. God bless him.

Take a listen: Thanksgiving Lime Jello Marshmellow With Gravy

I made this a couple of years ago. It's now a family tradition.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Peg Ogle Design 2010 Calendar (free download!)

Peg Ogle Design just released a free 2010 calendar.

We're so excited about it we even did a press release.

Barcode Fun

Barcode and fun, in the same sentence no less. Don't believe me, read this.

BarcodeBeasties reminds me of the old Skannerz game.

Download A Free 2010 Calendar

The Azalea Software 2010 Calendar features photos of industrial textures and can be downloaded and printed for free: www.azalea.com/calendar/

Fur handcuff (sic)

Something I found in the *toy* department of a store in downtown Seattle today. Fur handcuff featuring an anime character.

But hey, they're only three bucks and like the package says "Age limit 6 years old and above." and "For parties or accessaries (sic) for fun".

A tour of Oakland CA

I shot several videos of Elbert "Big Man" Howard discussing historic locations in the history of Oakland CA focusing on the Black Panthers.

Best of YouTube Video (sic)

Charter for Compassion, Nov 12th

I love signs like this

Aurora Ave north of the cemetery

Big Man, Lisa & I at Panther reunion

43rd Black Panther Party reunion
Laney College, Oakland CA, 24oct09

Bobby Seale's Birthday Cakes

Bobby Seale's birthday celebration. Laney College, Oakland CA, 24oct09

Online database of U.S. political prisoners

I finally put together a database of U.S. political prisoners using Google Spreadsheets.

Only a first cut. It needs proofing, but it's a start.

Tattoo in Time Lapse

Jimi Hendirx Funeral, Seattle 1970

Grateful Dead & James Brown???

Proof the Grateful Dead listened to (and were inspired by James Brown):
  Dancin' in the Streets (live), Terrapin Station, Grateful Dead
  12:45 into it

I smell a mashup yet to be done...

Ken Kesey's bus Further

Further, the bus from Electric Kool-aid Acid Test. Full of Merry Prankster ghosts and memories on display at Hempfest Seattle 2009. More photos are online on JetCityOrange.

Help fight malaria with malariacontrol.net

Install the malariacontrol.net screensaver and your computer's spare cycles will help researchers learn more about malaria transmission vectors. After you install the screensaver please join the JetCityOrange team. OK?

Ghoulardi & Shaker Heights

Ahhh, Ghoulardi... Memories of my youth growing up in Cleveland.

Obama Doesn't Deserve the Nobel Prize

Hey. I used to respect the Nobel Prize. Heck, His Holiness the Dalai Lama snagged on.

But Barack Obama? Nice guy and all but he ain't done shit yet. There are no accomplishments to recount. No trophies on his mantle. And I voted for the guy. He's too conservative for me, but I voted for him.

But his on my shit list. The latest insult was snubbing the Dalai Lama this week for fear of pissing off the Chinese before his visit next month. Pissing off the Chinese? When was that a concern of ours?

Let's get this straight: our new Nobel Prize winner favors bald faced, unbriddled capitalism over human rights and genocide. I'm sure the Uighers and Burmese as well as the Tibetans appreciate this cold-hearted decision.

Close Guantanamo? No. Get out of Iraq? No. Bitch slap Wall and reform Street and Detroit? No. Gay rights? Healthcare reform? Change I can believe in? Nope.

What's he done? What can I tick off my list? How is my life better and what about my kids' future? My only satisfaction is that we're not living under the McCain/Palin regime.

Liberals, they always break your heart. We need our own party...

Google's Icon is a Barcode Today!!!

Ya gotta love Google. Today they gave me another reason why: the Google icon is a Code 128 barcode today!

Don't cha jus love it.I know I do. Bar codes have bin berry, berry good to me.

BPP Black History Month events

For information about the Black Panther Reunion and Black History Month events, go to BigManBPP.com/BlackHistoryMonth/for details.

See you there!

JetCityOrange flyby

Seattle Critical Mass on the West Seattle Bridge

Swiss Train Video

Sea-Monkey YouTube Video

Bike Photos

I love my bike. (Yes, I'm down to only 1.)

I've just put a gallery of bike photos online.

Civil Rights Photographs

I've been scanning vintage photos of the Civil Rights Movement. I own tons of stuff and if you're not in my living room, you don't get a chance to see them.

Not any more. I'm scanning select images: the Black Panthers, Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, etc. I have items like FBI wanted posters as well as photographs.

Now that I've started, I'm finding it hard to stop.

Black Panther Party photos

I've started to digitize my collection of civil rights photographs beginning with vintage photos of the Black Panther Party. They're available online at JetCityOrange.com/Black-Panther-Party/.

There's plenty more yet to come...

Pogoplug Web Server Video

A quick video tour of our Pogoplug web server:

Website Hosted on PogoPlug

AzaleaRSS.com is one of the first websites hosted on a Pogoplug. AzaleaRSS is a free RSS editor written in Microsoft Excel and creates feeds, podcasts, and webcasts.

The Pogoplug is a very small Linux appliance from CloudEngines originally designed as a way to mount USB drives online. The nerds at AzaleaRSS see Pogoplugs as cheap Linux computers and something kewl to play with. Using an 8GB USB flash drive for storage, a web server was born. Total cost: less than 100 dollars.

The AzaleaRSS server runs Nginx and PHP, and was configured by Cory King in Seattle.

Support the Iranian Protesters

Our sisters and brothers in Iran need our help. Their government is not their friend or ally. The first thing we can do is change our Twitter location and time zone to Tehran so the authorities have a harder time tracking them. Do it now!

Consider setting up a proxy server and/or a TOR server too.

All power to the people!,

Cell phone wallpaper & computer wallpaper photos

I've just uploaded a gallery of photos of metal designed to be used for wallpaper on your phone or computer, or to feed Google Photos Screensaver. Your choice.

Photos of metallic textures from Sodo, Seattle.

New free wallpaper & desktop background images.

Everyone loves fresh cell phone wallpaper images and backgrounds for your computer desktop. Now everyone else will be jealous of the wallpaper and backgrounds you have after you install the free photos from Azalea Software.

No, you won't find these anywhere else. Yes, they're cool, hip, and almost too much so.

IOS

Meditation MP3's Get Some Respect. Finally...

Nothing like getting a little link love from someone: http://www.bestfreetraining.net/?p=1165

I especially like the list of links to save folks from digging around themselves.

I'm flattered.

Mickey Mouse Toaster

Mickey toaster!

Danger Mouse's 'Dark Night of the Soul' download & burn

Danger Mouse can't release his new CD "Dark Night of the Soul" due to ongoing legal disputes with EMI. Again.

So he's selling a blank disk complete with the artwork encouraging folks to download and burn their own copy. All one needs is a link to the music online.

Enjoy!

AzaleaRSS v1.1 Press Release

AzaleaRSS: a free RSS editor in Excel press release

The release is online, the press release has just gone out. I guess it's time to get busy on the next release...

Sidekick LX 2009

It's been years since I carried a Sidekick around. Had 3 of 'em though. I've had a Dash, an iPhone, and now a G1. Doesn't stop me from being a bit jealous of the new Sidekick LX 2009.

Just a little...

AzaleaRSS v1.1 is out! Free RSS editor!

Big shout out to our man Ravi for helping us get AzaleaRSS v1.1 out the door.

This version of our new RSS editor is still free and lets you create and edit RSS 2.0 feeds including podcasts and webcasts. AND it's written in Excel. Not bad for free.

Mom and the book that got me started

This is the book my mom gave me for Christmas that got me started on the path to Buddhism. We laugh now because she swears she doesn't know what made her choose it.

It's a book/DVD set and I lost the DVD before I had a chance to read it. I re-read the book while I was visiting her in Cleveland and laughed to myself because on the surface, there's nothing special about the book. Timing.

LED Sheep Art

BubbleWrap, the movie

Not to mention JetCityOrange.com/BubbleWrap

Suppport LEAD Uganda at Dream Assignment

You can help support LEAD Uganda and noted photographer Stephen Shames' efforts to document the lives of Ugandan AIDS orphans. Stephen is a close personal friend of mine who has devoted his whole being into working with these children. Steve tells it best in his own words:

"My Dream Assignment is to tell the story of six Ugandan children - AIDS orphans, former child soldiers, refugee camp kids, child laborers - whose lives are transformed by LEAD Uganda, an indigenous program that locates forgotten children with innate talents and molds them into leaders by sending them to the top schools so they gain the 21st century skills needed to lead Africa into the future.

Six new children will be selected by LEAD Uganda for this photo documentation. They will be AIDS orphans from rural villages, former child soldiers or sex-slaves, a youth who works in a rock quarry, a child living in a refugee camp, and a youth from slum area in Kampala. Half will be girls. I will document their lives before they join the program and chronicle their journey to the best boarding schools in Uganda as they become leaders.

Please join me in supporting this effort.

Thanks!

Pirkle Jones

Noted photographer Pirkle Jones died last week. The NYTimes has a slide show of but a tiny slice of his work.

South African govt is a pussy!

Let me get this straight: South Africa won't invite His Holiness the Dalai Lama to a peace conference because they don't want to piss off China. Why? Because China is a big trade partner of theirs.

Chickenshits. Talk about turning your back on basic human rights and dignity. Aren't you the ones we all protested for all those years? Didn't the world support Mandela when he was imprisoned? And now you don't have the balls to stand up to Beijing cause they're putting money in your pockets???

Pussies!

My fortune cookie gadget just hit 300 fortunes

As you may or may not know, there's a free fortune cookie on JetCityOrange. Has been for some time now.

I add new fortunes to the database as they come to me. I usually scribble them on scraps of paper or in my notebook and update the script when I remember to.

Well, as of yesterday 20mar09 the list hit 300 fortunes. A personal milestone if I may say so myself.

Carry on.

No, it's a "capitalist" crisis

Every time you hear someone talking about the "banking crisis" correct them. It's a "capitalist crisis". The banking system isn't broken, capitalism is. Always has been. The chickens have come home to roost.

The banks and bankers have enough money. They're not doing the right things with it. And now it's OUR money. Taxpayer money.

In fact, these bankers, Wall Street pond scum, and industrialists have so much taxpayer money we should take the next step and NATIONALIZE them.

Don't be afraid. Socialism is just a four letter word.

Olympia WA Artesian Spring, 4th Ave & Jefferson St 98501

GimmeLocalStuff.com launches in beta.

GimmeLocalStuff is a brand spankin' new website that links companies, groups, people, events, and places. It features free web pages with user-generated content, tied together with a Google Map and more.

Check it out!

Google Maps says "Elliot Bay" Where's that?

Don't get me wrong, I love Google including Google Maps.

But why oh do they call it "Elliot Bay"? I thought there were 2 t's. "Elliott Bay" That's what Wikipedia says too.

Funny.

Hendrix Vodka is pulled from shelves

Nope. You can't use Jimi's name without permission. Yep. Hendrix Electric Vodka has been stopped by the courts.

I for one have an unopened bottle of my own. Wonder what it'll be worth on eBay???

But Now You Know It

We all know I'm a nerd. We also know I have a thing for Top 10 Lists.

In that same vein, may I introduce you to But Now You Know It.... What a hoot!

Times are tough. How tough?

Brown bagging one day a week in order to eek out enough to play the lottery.

Finally, a captcha that makes sense

When your oldest turns 20...

Nothing makes a Dad feel old like having his firstborn son turn 20.

Two other sons, a divorce, and a score of years later and it still seems so recent. Kinda.

That PETA ad you never got to see...

'Veggie Love': PETA's Banned Super Bowl Ad

China Oppresses Tibet. Again. Still.

After all they've done to Tibet, Beijing demanded a permit to reincarnate in an attempt to control the next Dalai Lama, Panchen Lama, Karmapa, or whoever else they deem a threat.

Now they've declared a new holiday. March 28 is now "Serfs Emancipation Day". You know, it's a time to to celebrate their emancipation from the hell of cruel oppression, quote unquote.

You remember the People's Republic of China, don't you? They're the ones behind the famous Peaceful Liberation of Tibet in 1951. Yeah, right.

China. You're transparent. We all see what you're up to. You're not fooling anyone. You're a disgrace to the revolution. Shame on you. Shame.

Beyond Plain Soy Sauce

A soy sauce-based marinade using garlic & hot peppers. And in a YouTube video too!

The new Lego camera

A Lego camera! "How cool is that?" asks the guy who hacks digital cameras in his spare time.