Jet-lagged in Amsterdam

So the blog has fallen nearly into disuse. I get it.

But hey, better late than never, right?

So it's a few minutes after 6am and I've been up for two hours because I'm an idiot and I never follow my plan to NOT crash immediately after stepping off my flight in some European city. Slept from about 12:30-6:30pm, then showered, went out for dinner, walked around, and crashed again at 11pm. And now I'm awake, hungry again, and wishing I could not hate myself for paying €3.75 for a small tube of Pringles from the minibar. Normally I keep a granola bar or two stashed in my computer bag for between-classes emergencies, but I've gone through all the pockets to no avail. Damn me for being stupid.

But at 7:00, SOMETHING should be open, so I just have to hold out a little longer. Meanwhile, I should catch up on life since my last blog post was months ago. Hmm. Classes start this week, and I'm teaching Strategic Management again, using an updated version of our strategy game that I haven't actually tried yet. Should be chock-full of frustration, given the bugs they found in beta. What else? Oh yeah... been subbing on a few pro bands, which is fun, but nerve-wracking as hell when I'm the new kid in the room, playing with a bunch of folks I go to clubs to see. Got my butt kicked this past week subbing on Roger Neumann's band in rehearsal, but it was after nearly three solid days of oh-my-god-don't-f***-up-the-part sightreading on similar bands, and I guess I just got too mentally exhausted. I'm not sure whether being on this trip for four or so days without horns will be good or bad for my chops, but I suppose I'll find out.

Not much else happening and I'm tired of listening to my stomach growl, so it's off to find a shop--or at least a vending machine--somewhere. More later...

A study in contrasts

Just.... wow.

Need recycling help?

Was wondering whether I could recycle old CDs tonight, and stumbled on the Internet Consumer Recycling Guide, maintained by the folks over at obviously.com. Especially helpful is their page, The World's Shortest Comprehensive Recycling Guide. Good for posting on the back door (or wherever stuff gets sorted in your house).

I can haz microcar?

Been lusting after these cars since I first saw one in London in 2003, and when I learned early last year that Daimler was *finally* going to make them available in the U.S., I signed up and anxiously awaited the car's launch.

So... about a year later, I finally get to drive my own smart fortwo. And boy, is it cool.

A few specs: This car has a 1-liter gasoline-powered engine. It's a two-seater that weighs in at about 1800 pounds, and is just under 9' long by 5' wide. The EPA mileage rating on it is about 42/highway, which is better than every gas-powered car sold in the U.S. except for two: The Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic hybrid. However, *this* car doesn't come with the $23,000+ pricetag those do, and... well... let's just say it's WAY more fun to drive.

Oh yeah... you can just about park it on a postage stamp. :-)

Pic of the week: Spring comes to Cal Poly

Gotta love California. 'Nuff said.

Pic of the day: Lunch with a view

My Pic of the Day project will probably be more of an occasional series now, but I'm going to try to keep them frequent. Today's is a no-brainer; I'm having lunch at the In-n-Out on Sepulveda right by LAX. It's right under the 24L approach (maybe 1/4 mile from the piano keys), so the view is awesome, especially in the afternoon when the heavies begin to arrive from Europe. :)

Got assholism?

Just finished reading Meg Fowler's excellent blog post, "how not to be an asshole or encourage assholism on the internet: a handy guide" and I was compelled to link to it here.

Yes, I'm known to be sort of an offender in this area; I visit a number of web forums, and sometimes when I'm confronted with an obvious troll it's all too tempting to take the bait. I'm working on that--mostly by asking myself, "Do I *really* want to spend my time responding to this, or could I be practicing my horn, instead?" This is tending to curtail my participation on a couple of these forums, but it sure is a better way to re-direct my energy, and my chops improve as a result... ;-)

EDIT/SEGUE: Of course now I'm about to sort-of violate this whole philosophy, but... it's becoming rapidly apparent that the OWNER of one of the forums I post on is actually taking the cake on internet assholism. The parent company,an outfit mostly known for a form of cyber-squatting known as "domaining," Demand Media, purchased the site Airliners.net, and instead of nurturing the already-existing sense of "community" there as they claim, they're developing a rather antagonistic attitude toward users who are unhappy with things such as system outages, the dismissing of respected volunteer community leaders (also paying customers) who give unwelcome feedback, and shoddy communication with the rest of their customer base. It's astonishing that a company in the business of social networking and user-generated sites would seem to exhibit such a loathing for the members who make those communities possible, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by ANYTHING anymore when it comes to the internet.

More on this in a future post...