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Right now I am watching a show on PBS called Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City. It is intersesting to me growing up there but there is also a lot of not so subtle analogy comparing the city’s history to the need to revision a purpose for the country; a purpose that the makers believe to be investment in infrastructure (namely transit and heavy rail). So it’s even cooler than a show that just talks about Detroit. They even mention a volunteer project that I took part in while at Michigan called Blight Busters. And they talk about the reclamation of urban space for agriculture; something unheard of ametroplitan area until now. Definitely check it out and explore the show’s site.

The issue of squandered opportunity for rail investment is one that has been on my mind since the day of reckoning for GA with regard to rail a couple of weeks ago. Georgia received ony $750,000 of the $8 billion that the government gave out to states for investment in high speed rail infrastructure. It was a clear sign that the Feds can see how GA is operating and that the state need to get its act together. Here’s the dispute between the governor and Representative John Lewis. The fact that $8 billion is a pttance is another issue. A parallel issue on my mind is the cutting of MARTA service (~half the bus service), but I’ll get to that later.

If you’re interested in more on Detroit check out this post and photos.

http://player.theplatform.com/ps/player/pds/kj-5OcNN0M&pid=2CpxNKo_ln62EXqHstz5XlkcKUBOor5Q

Yesterday, during my course on advanced planning theory I had the pleasure of relating our in-class discussion to a lyric from Notorious BIG’s Juicy. We are in the portion of the course dedicated to epistemology and were discussing the Hermeneutic Circle. Specifically, we were illustrating the concept of idea informing observation by discussing how neo-classical economists tend to observe all actions as guided by rationality (as defined by the discipline). Then we got on to how crime is perceived and how the perspective of the actors tends to influence the interpretation of actions observed. Consider, for example the case of a drug dealer. I used this opportunity to paraphrase Biggy’s opening to Juicy in which he dedicates the album to all the people who lived above the building he was hustlin’ in front of when he was just tryin’ to make some money to feed his daughter. My thoughts drifted from social science philosophy to Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. A fleeting moment of pride in my studies.

You’d think after a month I’d have something better than this.

http://assets.delvenetworks.com/player/loader.swf

But really what could be better. Music video for Dan Deacon’s Woof Woof

The holiday season has come to a close and now it’s back to work, but it was a really good one for us. First we trekked up to Detroit with Mali to stay with my parents for Christmas Day. We took it easy, seeing friends, but not trying to squeeze in too much. Sometimes it feels like we’re running around everyday trying to see everyone and everything around Detroit. This time we had plenty of dinners at home and didn’t make any trips to Ann Arbor. On Christmas we went out to my aunt and uncle’s house for the day. Everyone on my mom’s side was there. We exchanged some gifts and tried on other people’s gifts. The gift we’ve used the most since then would have to be our new camera. You can see some of the pictures here, but a close second is the crokpot that my mom let us take home with us. We’ve been on a tear this week testing new recipes.

The only downer about Christmas Day was the weather. The snow that had been on the ground when we showed up disappeared on Chirstmas when it rained all day. For the day after Christmas we had a family portrait planned but our photographer came down with something. So we moved furniture, brought in some shop lights, got out a tripod and took our own ‘pro’ photo in the living room. We’ve been adding new backgrounds via Photoshop ever since. That night we headed to the Toldeo Zoo for their display of lights with a bunch of friends from church.
On the way home we wanted to stop by Akron to see our buddies Dave and Liza, as well as new baby, Ella. They moved to Salt Lake City and we were able to see them over the summer but this was the closest they’d be for awhile so we left Detroit around 5:45am and headed east. We had a nice breakfast and got to spend some relaxing time on their estate. Then we piled in the car for another 12 hours.

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf
We took Monday to run the necessary errands and to unpack and repack before leaving on Tuesday for San Francisco to meet up with our friends, Paul and Hilary, and then head to Lake Tahoe for New Year’s and Hilary’s Birthday. Our first night there we had dinner with everyone’s parents. The theme of the dinner was around a pizza cookbook I had given Hilary’s parents some time ago. Since then it had become a household favorite and a bit of an obsession for Howard. We left for Tahoe the next morning. One of the most valuable lessons we learned on this trip was how to put chains on our tires. By the second day Paul and I had it down.

We had a place rented for the week. It was a timeshare that Paul’s cousin owned near the Nevada side of Heavenly Ski Resort. We spent most of our days discovering hikes around South Lake Tahoe. For two days we rented snow shoes and went trekking around lakes and up hill sides in feet of powder. On the last day we got lift tickets and hit the real slopes. Paul and Hilary rented skis and Lauren and I got snowboards. I had never been on a lift or a slope in skis or a snowboard. After some brief lessons with one foot in the binding at the base of the hill we went to the top of the first run. I fell and got up and fell quite a few times. Then we fixed my shoes and went back up to the top of the lift. Lauren tore it up after about 5 years away from it. I never quite go the hang of it but we went down a bunch of blue runs on the mountain and made it up more than 2,000 feet from the base. I was a lot of fun, kind of scary and wholely tiring. I was, at the same time dealing with a pesky cold that had crept up a few days before. By the end of the day I was hopped up on cold medicine, sore and exhausted. My body was completely confused. Now we’re home and dealing with snow in GA. I’m still battling the cold, and it’s spread into my right eye. Nonetheless, I am excited to try it again.

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

One thing I can count on doing when I go home for the holidays is getting into some Wii Bowling. Nearly anyone who’s played a Wii knows this game. It has universal appeal to all age, skill, and experience levels. Plus the game comes with the system, so nearly everyone who owns a Wii owns this game. It used to be that my sister had a Wii that made it over to my mom and dad’s place for the holidays, but now I’ve discovered that they have their own. They love this game.

Today I found this video that makes new use of the Wii Bowling by chopping up screenshots and reassembling them to remake a scene from the Big Lebowski. Enjoy!

warning! strong language

Still pretty busy and not much new. Spent the holiday in Atlatna and went to a Liz and Derek’s house for dinner. Pretty standard Thanksgiving. Great food, ate too much, Lions lose. Then on Friday I went climbing at Foster Falls, TN with Derek and Lauren came up to meet us after work along with Ben and Caity. We camped in the cold on Friday night and did some more hiking and sport climbing on Saturday. I really liked Foster Falls. The camping is free, the hike in is easy, they allow dogs, there are great views, climbing and you can swim in the summer. This was my first time sport climbing and it took a little getting used to after so much time in the gym and on boulders. It is much slower, much more footwork intense, and much headier. I was glad to get on the climbs I did but needed some motivation to get started.

In other news I happened upon this tonight. I love good graffiti and thistakes it to a new level. Bogota had some really good stuff and from the collective’s website I am guessing this is in South America somewhere as well.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=993998&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

I started this post in response to a recent post on a friend’s blog about some required listening since 2000. Here is his original post

I noticed you he had no hip hop in there. This is a shame. Despite a marked falling off there were a some huge albums in hip hop since 2000. While Outkasts best work came before 2000, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below came out in 2003. I would say Andre’s piece is a work worth mention. Also, Jay-Z’s Black Album came out that same year. It was supposed to be his farewell to the game. This turned out to be a Favre-ian move, but led to the seminal hip-hop mashup album; Danger Mouse’s The Grey Album. Most recently I’ve seen Sufjan’s Illinois mashed up Finally, the prolific Lil’ Wayne must be mentioned (like the Ryan Adams of rap). His ‘s Tha Carter III signaled the end of hip hop, according to a recent piece on trends in the genre.

Here are some more relevant comments on the direction of hip hop from Matt. They should be on his blog but they are here instead.

I have several 2-cent coins to toss into the discussion of “the death of rap music.” My main thesis is: we want new rappers to emerge, but industry change prevents them from emerging.

Barrier to Entry 1:
NO PROFITS. Only the rappers who gained a toehold right before the death of the CD are able to afford to rap for a living (Jay-Z, Wayne, Kanye, T.I., 50 Cent). The internet killed all motivation because there’s no money in it any more and therefore no incentive for young rappers to pursue it. To put out an album now, you’ve got to be willing to distribute free mixtapes while you keep your day job, or have plenty of money in the bank from your previous albums. Back in the day, the labels were signing guys up left and right.

Barrier to Entry 2:
MARKET SHARE. Only the old heads listed above are currently relevant because they’re the only rappers that transcend the young and old (us) generations, thereby benefiting from a fanbase that is hip (young folks that guide trends) AND long-standing (loyal old folks). The new rappers leave the old folks scratching their head. All the classic rappers from like ’87 to ’02 are simply unknown to the young folks. So this leaves the market in 2009 really top-heavy.

Barrier to Entry 3:
CRITICAL RECEPTION FROM THE CRANKY HIP-HOP FANS. This top-heavy nature of the market further suppresses new talent because there are so few benchmarks for “good” rap. Everything new is compared, critically, to only these few legends and inevitably gets dissed because it can’t measure up. But not everything has to be THAT good to be on the ipod. Back in the day, there were a bajillion great 2nd-tier rappers and rap groups (speaking of, whatever happened to the rap duo??). Now there are none. You are either one of the few at the top, or you’re nothing because the internet critics say you’re nothing.

Barrier to Entry 4:
SUBSTITUTE GOODS. In the meantime, we listen to cheap-to-produce knock-off stuff made from guys who went to Skidmore (Ratatat), which luckily sounds great, but only stokes our fears that rap music is dying. And of course prevents us further from spending our time and money on new rappers.

I am out of town for a software training and was having dinner at a local bar/restaurant the other night when I overheard the older couple next to me talking about this New Yorker cartoon which I had remembered seeing and liking. Here it is. Feel free to comment, or not. It’s all good.

I am currently taking part in a study to test a new way of teaching basic sign language vocabulary to adults. The study was developed by the American Sign Language Group within the Contextual Computing Group at Georgia Tech. Each day for a week I follow a link from a text message to a mobile website where I go through my ASL lessons for the day. I can complete up to 80 lessons in the week of the study. and each lesson takes about 4 minutes.

During the lesson I watch 4-5 short videos of this guy signing a word. Then I click on “continue” and am shown 4 choices for the meaning of that sign, along with a button for “Don’t Know.” Finally you are told whether or not you chose the correct meaning for the sign and you move on to the next movie. Over the course of several lessons you see words multiple times and reinforce your knowledge. A week after completing my week of lessons I go in to take a test and wee what I’ve learned.

Not only do I get to learn some basic sign language, I get Amazon dollars too ($0.625 per lesson, plus time in the lab). I’ll end up with around $60. I am asking you, the reader to post interesting and unusual things from Amazon that I could buy with this money. Provide links in the comments section of this post. Nothing vulgar please. I may end up purchasing your suggestion.

For the Columbus Day weekend we had a trip planned to Cumberland Island, GA. Fresh off finishing the Ken Burns’ National Park Series I was ready to see some preservation in action. I went to Cumberland Island expecting to find no cars, no people, and wild horses; a semi-tropical setting in prime season.

We drove down to Blythe Island State Park on Saturday with a stop in Savannah for lunch. This trip followed a weekend in the mountains of Boone and so I was not ready for the heat that south GA still possesses in October. Temperatures hovered close to 90 most of the time we were there. We slept in tents; a euphemism for sweat torture chamber. Regardless of the heat we still purchased firewood and built a fire to stand around. The threat of storms kept the rain flies on our tents and made it hotter. Luckily though we didn’t get any rain while were out there. I’d much rather deal with the heat than be stuck in the rain all the time.

To get to Cumberland you take a small ferry for about 40 minutes from the small town of St. Mary’s. The ferry ride was one of my favorite parts of the trip. While we were on it, the sun was out, the wind is blowing in your face and the scenery is nice. I took some time to contemplate the nature around me (save the chemical plant silhouette in the distance) and compare it to the mountains. The coast always seems much more delicate to me, like it has so many more moving parts. That also makes it seem more dynamic. The mountains seem like they are forever unchanged. The views also have differential impacts. In the mountains one can get to great vistas and see the expanse of the landscape as well as stand at the edge or base of a cliff and feel how small you are. On the coast you only get the expansive views that go on forever and make you feel so small in time. I think a lot of naturalists write about each morning in a natural place feels like the first morning; the morning of creation. Like every thing in that place was like it had always been. For me looking out on the ocean and watching the waves gives me that feeling.

Nonetheless, most of my time on Cumberland Island was spent wishing I was in the mountains. I was surprised that there are still occupied residences on the island, and that the horses weren’t out running on the beach like something out of black beauty. It didn’t help that the rangers on the island give you a run down of everything that can go wrong on Cumberland Island before you head off into the backcountry. We had planned to head in about 7 miles to Yankee Paradise but found out it was occupied and went to the closer (4 miles) Stafford Beach camping area. The spot was very cool. Tons of old live oaks, plenty of room to spread out and keep the kitchen away from the tents, close to the beach, and it even had bathrooms.
The ticks and bugs were still pretty bad but we didn’t have any problems with raccoons or mice or gators or snakes or horses or armadillos. The beach was great and in fact my favorite part was heading there in the morning to watch the sunrise and spending time playing in the tidepools.

I’m not sure if I’ll head back to Cumberland right away but maybe someday I will revisit the place. I think for now the next barrier islands I try to see will be off North Carolina and maybe we can make a stop by some mountains while we’re up there.