Long time; no post. This is because of the colossal amounts of Stuff going on.

Quickly:

New Server: 3x as fast, and MUCH easier to deal with. The transfer of all my clients sites is still in progress but this one just made it over this evening. Obviously, I bork-ed some things. If anyone uses those tabs along the top, they'll be back soon, I promise.

Work: Whoa! I'm a CTO. How'd that happen? It's not all just glamor an emergency-pages at 3am though, we are building a business here! Seriously, the further I go the more I realize my future is probably in business dev.

Life: I can screw anything up. Apologies to the last two girls I've been on dates with. Now is a shaky time in my life, I gots too much going on.

Money: Sc&ew you IRS and your self-employment rigamorale! That and the feline decided to go and get a blockage between the bladder and the out-valve. $800 and change later he is annoying me daily again. Never get a pet.

Sustainability: Home compost +, except make sure if you put packing peanuts in there, they are the corn-starch ones. Homebrew ++, just got an Irish red into the primary today - my first All Grain!! Home garden + - getting seeds in, planting next week(?), I think.

Twitter sidebar: I hate twitter, but it is easier than writing this, check it for the latest.

So, some people have asked about how the composting is done. Here are some pictures of how I did id. This no doubt isn't the only way.
Before we start, here is the finished deal:
Three drawers for composting, one as a catch basin. I just happened to have plastic Ikea drawers lying around, maybe you have something else that will work as well. Basically, the top drawer is always the 'active' drawer that you put things in. When it is full, move it down and put an empty drawer in the top slot. By the time you fill three drawers, the first will be ready for dumping in the garden (depending on the rate you produce compost).
The top three drawers need a drainage mechanism:
However, since plastic doesn't do the biodegrading part so well, you'll want to be careful to get all the plastic bits shaved out of there:
You can add almost all organic matter, no meat, no dairy. Eggshells, paper towels vegetable scraps, biodegradable packing peanuts, old bread (rip it apart though), apple cores - all work great. And start it off with 5 lbs of potting soil to give the worms some grist for digestion:
Add some worms - red wrigglers are ideal:
Wait.
Get Compost:
Get fruit flies.
Get Fruitfly traps:
Now, if you can do all this outside - do that. This is a system designed for indoors, because I live in Brooklyn and there is no outdoors area that is suitable. I do keep it isolated to a room, where I also have the planters for the garden and the beer brewing setup. So, thats nice anyway.
But yes, its pretty simple, just leveraging how nature works anyway. Closes the loop some.

The home experiment continues. I've been through a few full rotations of the bin, and have gathered in the vicinity of 30lbs of good potting soil after its left my kitchen and gone through the worms.

Some basic observations:

1) Brown paper is probably better for 'ecosystem'. Although I use any non-glossy paper without a lot of colored ink on it. When I was first reading the formulas I found called for nearly 50% leaves or paper, and I thought this surely must be an over estimate. It is not. Use more paper.

2) Aerate. Worms are lazy, about once a week turn the compost and make them find a new home. This also has the effect of mixing things all up which is good for the resultant soil. If you are using a drawer system, like me, you'll want to be careful about only filling the drawers about 2/3 full, or else this step gets difficult.

3) Packing Peanuts. If you get the kind that melt in water, these are just corn starch. Cheese doodles without the cheese. Throw them on in, just do it in stages, as too much freaks the works out.

4) Fruit Flies. My nemesis. This is the most difficult part about doing this indoors, and i am still developing a solution. Fruit flies are tiny bugs that can reproduce in batches of around 400. They have a lifespan on 30 days, unless I get at them. Easily a hundred can fit in an area the size of a bottle cap.

I would be perfectly content co-habitating with several thousand. But these guys take it too far, and must be stopped. I have Made some traps, and they work great, but not enough. I have the fly paper and it works, but not enough.

Then I got to thinking, plenty of things do this in nature. Spiders, lizards, frogs - all viable in my back room. But what I really need (thaks Elley!) is a Nepenthes.

The Tropical Pitcher Plant thrives on insects like all carnivorous plants, however it has been reported that some larger Nepenthes pitchers contain the remnants of small reptiles, birds and an occasional monkey in their native jungle habitats! These carnivorous plants are well suited to year round growing in your own home or greenhouse.

As long as my garden doesn't eat my cat - that is the plan.

5) Leave it alone. The more you forget about it and just leave it be, the better something like this fits into your lifestyle.

Oh yeah, and I went to DrupalCon, presented there, barcamp is this weekend, DrupalCamp is the last weekend in March, I started the second round of homebrew, and I might be starting a BedStuy Food Buyer's group.

More later.

Increasingly I find myself sitting here in Bedford Stuyvesant, wondering when I'll next go fishing, or hunting, or plant a garden, or drink moonshine. The thought process always lands on when or if I'll ever move out of this concrete jungle. Buy myself a plot of land that is only accessible on foot or potentially by cable car, and retreat into my thoughts and hobbies.

But no. No! I like it here in New York. I like museums, I like the nightlife, I like the friends I have made, and the opportunities it has given me. I like it as a jumping off point to travel the world, and I'll never get over walking these city streets in a cold spring drizzling rain just to feel invisible.

But, alas, we are at an impasse, neh? Too many of those things I value are inherent to living full time at a place or at least half a year at a stretch. I can envision things like time shares or having a vacation home, but to be honest, that attitude doesn't sit well with me. I don't want this life here and that life there. I want both lives in both places. Yes, I'm greedy.

And so began the slow shift to being an Urban Redneck. I'll have to leave being a Metropolitan Hick for another blog post and stage in my life.

And what is involved in that you may ask. Well, I don't know. I started with slow food in increments.

I make my own bread, and pasta. I'm taking the New York State hunting course in May. I've made an in-apartment compost bin - complete with worms. This spring I'll be planting cucmbers, tomatoes, yellow squash, red peppers, green peppers, garlic, and various herbs.

I hae a food dehydrator and snack on dried apples and bannanas most times. This past season I've canned my own pickles and chili beans. Soon will come my own marinara sauce (to go with the pasta). My homebrew kit just came via UPS.

The point of all this? There is value in being self-sufficient. There is value in knowing how things work - even more so in the natural processes.

Next steps:

Off the grid in NYC - one appliance at a time.
Turning the back room into an entire garden.
Weekend camping trips within train ride of the city.
What do you do once you've shot the deer?
and much much more!

Been out and about for the past ten days. First Colorado for my first AdvoSummit, in which we were clarifying the future business plan and, particular to me, defining my role in the company. More on that later, but to say the least, work is interesting.

After that I spent a week in North Carolina. For the second time in twenty years I managed to wrangle all of my father's children in one place at one time. The previous time was at my sister's graduation from college, which was barely a half day event. Before that, was my mother's funeral - not the best time for visiting. This go around we covered a lot of ground. My sister will be having a child come March, my brother might be going on the road, and we all got to see the old man. In whole, a success.

I've created a posts-to-make block on the right. The intent is to spur me to write more on this, or at least keep a public running to-do list... even if I don't share items here. Too often I think of things that I want to write here and just end up not writing - lack of time, energy, or proper wording are all reasons - yet none are good excuses.

More soon.

Hmm... I've heard this story before

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7178878.stm

it went something like this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_Incident

Remember when setting up Thunderbird mail filters to delete all email from a specific mailing list older than two weeks to click the "Matches all of the following" box.

I can pull important stuff from backups, but yes, I just nuked my inbox from the past 5 years. Go me!

I installed a "This Day in History" Google widget and am quite enjoying reading it each day. Today's ranks top on my list though, it led me to this page: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Christmas+truce

In 1914 on Christmas Day, the war just stopped. I think of this in context of today's conflict and the complete absurdity or the Iraq war stopping for a day, any day. There is a letter that sold at auction, that along with The Gift of the Magi, now ranks among my favorite Christmas tales.

This will be the most memorable Christmas I've ever spent or likely to spend: since about tea time yesterday I don't think theres been a shot fired on either side up to now. Last night turned a very clear frost moonlight night, so soon after dusk we had some decent fires going and had a few carols and songs. The Germans commenced by placing lights all along the edge of their trenches and coming over to us—wishing us a Happy Christmas etc. They also gave us a few songs etc. so we had quite a social party. Several of them can speak English very well so we had a few conversations. Some of our chaps went to over to their lines. I think theyve all come back bar one from 'E' Co. They no doubt kept him as a souvenir. In spite of our fires etc. it was terribly cold and a job to sleep between look out duties, which are two hours in every six.

First thing this morning it was very foggy. So we stood to arms a little longer than usual. A few of us that were lucky could go to Holy Communion early this morning. It was celebrated in a ruined farm about 500 yds behind us. I unfortunately couldn't go. There must be something in the spirit of Christmas as to day we are all on top of our trenches running about. Whereas other days we have to keep our heads well down. We had breakfast about 8.0 which went down alright especially some cocoa we made. We also had some of the post this morning. I had a parcel from B. G's Lace Dept containing a sweater, smokes, under clothes etc. We also had a card from the Queen, which I am sending back to you to look after please. After breakfast we had a game of football at the back of our trenches! We've had a few Germans over to see us this morning. They also sent a party over to bury a sniper we shot in the week. He was about a 100 yds from our trench. A few of our fellows went out and helped to bury him.

About 10.30 we had a short church parade the morning service etc. held in the trench. How we did sing. 'O come all ye faithful. And While shepherds watched their flocks by night' were the hymns we had. At present we are cooking our Christmas Dinner! so will finish this letter later.

Dinner is over! and well we enjoyed it. Our dinner party started off with fried bacon and dip-bread: followed by hot Xmas Pudding. I had a mascot in my piece. Next item on the menu was muscatels and almonds, oranges, bananas, chocolate etc followed by cocoa and smokes. You can guess we thought of the dinners at home. Just before dinner I had the pleasure of shaking hands with several Germans: a party of them came 1/2way over to us so several of us went out to them. I exchanged one of my balaclavas for a hat. I've also got a button off one of their tunics. We also exchanged smokes etc. and had a decent chat. They say they won't fire tomorrow if we don't so I suppose we shall get a bit of a holiday—perhaps. After exchanging autographs and them wishing us a Happy New Year we departed and came back and had our dinner.

We can hardly believe that we've been firing at them for the last week or two—it all seems so strange. At present its freezing hard and everything is covered with ice…

The letter ends:

There are plenty of huge shell holes in front of our trenches, also pieces of shrapnel to be found. I never expected to shake hands with Germans between the firing lines on Christmas Day and I don't suppose you thought of us doing so. So after a fashion we've enjoyed? our Christmas. Hoping you spend a happy time also George Boy as well. How we thought of England during the day. Kind regards to all the neighbours. With much love from Boy.

This year I'm cooking a roast for the neighbors and they are inviting a bunch friends over. I'm also about to start with some bread baking. I guess I'm just now realizing that somewhere along the line I started to dislike the holidays to a degree. I would much rather the event be about a good dinner with friends then any of the materialism, consumerism, or really anything that the media has come to associate with the season. I not only don't care, I'd much rather avoid it all.

Good food, good friends, and a phonecall to the various family. Thats all I want, please check the rest at the door.

Guess I need to go away and ponder things some more.

Happy Holidays!

Lots going on and invariably no time to write. The title more or less describes half a dozen scenarios playing themselves out in my lie right now. My living situation, my occupation, my family, my relationship towards material possessions, my lifestyle, my, my, my.

Today I bought a paper shredder. My indoor composting bin has been going quite well, but as I understand it, I can't help but to be carbon poor and nitrogen rich ergo, I'm composting my non-colored ink junk mail, and bills. I've also moved to a two bin system, and will have worms on site in a day or so.

This all is leading up to next spring, when I plant with a combination of this material and whatever else is needed. Yes. If all goes well, this time next year I will be eating my junk mail. You have a problem with that?

Other than that, I've been nose in books about business, computers, and eco-friendly trends. Much to the chagrin of my social life, but much to the benefit of my plan for the future.

Maybe I'll talk about that here at some point.

Mostly, I'm writing to let everyone know I am alive and well. I hope ya'll are too. and Happy Holidays.

I keep forgetting this so I'm gonna write it here. Non-geeks, just keep walking.

The most common way to make a key on Windows is using Putty/Puttygen. Puttygen provides a neat utility to convert a linux private key to Putty format. However, what isn't addressed is that when you save the public key using puttygen it won't work on a linux server. Windows puts some data in different areas and adds line breaks.

The Solution:
When you get to the public key screen in creating your key pair in puttygen, copy the public key and paste it into a text file with the extension .pub. You will save you sysadmin hours of frustration reading posts like this.

HOWEVER, sysadmins, you invariably get the wonky key file that throws no error message in the auth log except, no key found, trying password; even though everyone else's keys are working fine, and you've sent this key back to the user 15 times.

ssh-keygen -i -f keyfile.pub > newkeyfile.pub

Should convert an existing puttygen public key to OpenSSH format.

Please feed the monkey on your way out.

I talked to someone long ago who does in-apartment composting and while it never seemed plausible with a roommate, I'm now trying it since I have the place to myself for a while.

I need worms, people. And carbon-rich material. And probably a psychologist if I'm trying this in a NYC apartment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_composting

I should add that this is all tantamount to having my own NYC garden - either in planters or on a backyard depending on where I move.

Oh, and I canned 4 pints of chili beans tonight - and I have about 16 pints left to can in the fridge... baby steps.

As some of you know, one of my big relaxation time activities is cooking. As things settle into a groove with the new career I am finally finding some time to do more of this, learn better techniques, and get adventurous in my culinary talents.

So, I feel like sharing. I've added a 'recipe' content type to the site, and posted a bread I made the other week. Hopefully this will be the tip of the iceberg. I have a lot of food ideas, mostly centered around the idea of living a more local, more sustainable, healthier, and better tasting life.

First step has been baking my own bread. Both plain white bread and various flavors. Next step will be canning and pickling. I have 4 lbs of beans soaking right now for cooking tomorrow and canning the day after, I think. I figure that I like chili beans and can't find them in the north. If I put them up in half-pints 4 lbs + onions and tomatoes should be about 20 cans of instant side-dishes or so.

After that I want to do spaghetti sauce. 1 pint organic sauce runs about $5-$6 in our grocery store. I think I can do better for taste, environmental impact, and price, at around $2 a jar... ... ...

More thought needs to go into this, but for now, its a good hobby. More later.

Another year down. Last year I wrote a lengthy three-part post regarding my adventures on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the special gathering I spend each year following it.

I realize now re-reading those posts that there is a lo I glossed over. But I think I'll save those stories for another time. This year had some of the bes weather of any parade I've worked, whereas last year was hands down the worst.

A new woman on our crew put it a way that I thought was interesting, "I worked the balloons last year and it sucked, I can't imagine what it would have been like for people doing this last year." Hehe. Some of the best compliments come in that form, I think.

I'm was in worse shape starting this parade with the remnants of a head cold, which I seems to developed to a full on cough and congestion thing, HOWEVER, I think I feel better today than the friday after Thanksgiving last year. Not-raining is a new type of weather for me, and we had 24 floats, down from 30 last year. I'm still sore all over, I have a nasty scratch on my hand from a crane cable that wasn't taped on the sharp edges, and a few bruises... all in all a good parade work-out.

Some highlights from last year's write up that are still applicable today.

Thanksgiving holds a special place for me in that after Parade I'm welcomed into some dear friends' home. Every year this gets harder for me. This people have known me for close to a decade, and in that time they've seen me through a lot. To repeatedly spend a holiday with them brings us closer all. I may not see them for over a year afterwards, but we all seem to know that in a very real way spending this time together makes us a quirky sort of family - with all the burdens and jys that bears.

Bev, and Karen, and Jess, and Craig, and a bunch of others toil away for 3 days to make the most amazing spread you've ever seen. But that isn't what makes it so great. What makes it so great is that this entire group are mostly people that see me for about 5 hours a year. They welcome me (and others) into their home and celebration and don't think twice about the smelly, nasty, delirious people that just walked in he door. This is normal. This is expected.

At this point I start to lose focus. Talk of the years events. Talk of parade. Some staring off into space for myself. The entire place just goes out of its way to radiate comfort, and welcome.

An this entire episode, from Veselka's diner to the end of Thanksgiving dinner does a lot to put things in perspective. Sure, work encompasses a lot of my life. Maybe I've lost some things dear to me over the year. Maybe life is tough and stressful. But once a year I can put all that aside for three days (I do nothing on friday) and really remember what its all about, in a way I don't think very many can.

Thank you to all who make my Thanksgiving a unique, extraordinary, colorful experience every year!

This is almost exactly like it was this year, wonderful. The Mitchell's have a new son, and we reinstated a tradition from Thanksgivings past that I Really enjoy. We went around the room saying what we were thankful for. I'm thankful for that gathering where it is both understood that I am welcome, and where they understand that post-parade I am not in top shape intellectually or physically, for good weather this year, and for my new-ish career, that I am seeing success in and happy in.

In truth I'm thankful for a lot more too. Those are just the things that sprung to mind at the moment.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

So, google the issue and you will find plenty of details. Long story short: The government spied on us. They listened to our phone calls, and the telephone companies gave them neat access to do this.

The telecom's knew they were potentially breaking a constitutional law and they didn't do one thing to stand up against it. Now, they are asking for retroactive immunity for what they did.

You know what happens when you or I get accused of breaking the law: We go on trial for it. We can't get a carte blanche from the Senate saying, "Oh, its ok, you were doing what you were told to do."

It's important to note that this IS NOT about guilt or innocence, it's about whether these companies can run to the Senate every time the break the law and get protected. That is wrong. Trials decide guilt or innocence, not laws.

Please call your Senator if they are on the judicial committee. Particularly, if your Senator hasn't come out against the new FISA bill yet. My Senator, Chuck Schumer is on the committee. He is taking a tally of what his phone in constituents think, and is expected to come out against the bill. So, if you live in a Fence state, Call Now.

it's just insomnia.... 4:02. Many things on my mind, but I know in the end, I should have just run around the block 3 or 4 times today.... idiot.

Alumni Night last Thursday made me realize just how closed in I've been over the past months. Work, Barcelona, Wasington D.C., learning, work. Pretty much in that order.

All of these have been largely solitary activities. And I'm continually surprised at how OK I am with all of that. I've referenced before on this blog that I am a bit of a loner. I do things on my own and am fine with that.

But I have to take a step back now and again and get some perspective. I've had more than one friend of late tell me they were worried that I was becoming too antisocial - that they didn't want to see me end up alone. And me, all I can think is: Would that be so bad?

Anymore on a Friday night, I stay in and read, I write code, I learn more about Immunology, I watch really cool indie movies, that are bucking the system and making money. If I do go out, I find a quiet end of a not too crowded bar and I think, by myself.

And I'm happy. I'm making strides in my career that are bigger steps than I've taken before. I have time to work on art. I broaden my horizons, cause I just get off on learning new stuff. I'm not stagnant. In fact, I'm right where I want to be. And while there is always a horizon to chase, I'm enjoying the trip now, no desperate urgency to get the next job, move onto the next project, come up with some idea to save myself.

Is being comfortable alone, all that bad? unhealthy? Am I gonna change my mind but then it will be too late?

Ok, thats the extent of my insecurity, hope I didn't rattle anyone too much.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/washington/09nsa.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slo...

"Scared to not be in the majority", "still think they need to do whatever the president acts", "fear they will be considered soft on terrorism". WTF?

What country are the democratic leaders living in? I know I have a left skewed perception living in New York City, and all, but how many Americans out there want our Federal government to be able to spy on us? Show of hands? One, two, mumble-mumble, Cheney put your hand down.... yup, looks like 14, maybe fifteen, but you only have your hand halfway up, sir.

New plan. Instead of this elect-a-democratic-majority-and-expect-them-to-do-what-we-want strategy, why not just start over. I'm thinking we can replace our entire democratic elected official cadre in little less than ten years. How's that sound?

Let's see where did I leave off? This week in the hostel has been pretty good, nice place, has its own bar on the first floor for meeting other travelers, and is pretty much in a perfect area.

WiFi has been atrocious, however, making it hard to get work done and also keep thing here updated and I'm afraid things have gotten a little out of hand. So, I'm giving up n giving a day by day accounting and just gonna let you all know the highlights, and even that might be too long.

Ciutadella Park is like a mini Central Park. It has a zoo, and sculpture garden-esque things, includeing a sculpture called 'Grief' by Josep Llimona, whom I may need to look more into.

The Barcelona Aquarium is the point when I really got serious about my Spanish, I went through all 20+ tanks only reading it all in Spanish, then cross checking myself on the English translations. They had a really fun final tank that was 35M across and 5M deep with sharks that you actually walk through a tunnel under it. Pictures when I get back.

The Picasso Museum increased my respect for old Pablo Ruiz. I'd only ever seen his later works from the Cubism days, and frankly, I don't much like cubism. But I was really enthralled with his earlier works. Particularly one called Wagon that is a picture of a wagon in a barn - sound bland but really well done, and google images is denying me at the moment. I took the time to stop and draw it and will scan my humble results later.

Gruell Park is up on a hill overlooking all of Barcelona, great view . Saw the Gaudi museum and am quickly becoming a convert to his works.

Museo de Historia: So, a museum is cool in and of itself, especially if you are a history nut like me. This museum was the palace of the counts of Spain in the past, that was moved here for the worlds fair. When moving it they found Roman ruins underneath it and began excavating, but then a civil war hit and they were temporarily forgotten. Just recently (in the 90's) they began excavating the basement again, but since its a museum they put an elevated pathway through it. There is a 4th-5th century early Christian Church, and a earlier winery and fishmonger, about 6-8 feet below that. At first it can be disorienting cause the way its excavated makes it look like they were gutting fish in the chapel. All this is underneath the adjacent Paca del Rei!

Barcelona Cathedral, Inside Sagrada Familia, walking along the coast, Actually finding the four existing Roman columns that no one has directions too (hint, they are beside the millstone embedded in the pavement marking the highest point in Roman Barcino, walk uphill.)

Too much to get into, just amazing. Today after walking along the Mediterranean for abotu five hours I found the street artist who had caught my eye last week. I bought original pieces (for peanuts). None are completely original but I liked this guys style. The guy selling was actually the nephew of the guy who painted them. I realized as I walked away that it was actually a different artist that had caught my eye my first week here, but it turns out I like what I bought more. They will be gifts for three people, and two canvases for myself.

Last night I was supposed to go to Passia the, purportedly, best club in the city with two new Norwegian friends, but I fell asleep and woke up way too late. Ah well.

So, the adventure continues. I fly back to NYC tomorrow, where I have about a day and a half before I head fro Washington D.C. to see William officially wed. After that the nose goes back to the grindstone. I am closing out old clients, getting my new assistant up to speed, and need to launch 2-3 side businesses, but this trip has very much affected my future plans.

I've joked about getting a houseboat or some mobile means of housing, my brother suggested an R.V., but I am beginning to think boat is the way to go - something that can cross the Atlantic, satellite internet, working on my art, working on the web, doing my thing... this deserves some thought.

The other thing this trip has taught me is more about the value of my time. If I am in a reasonable financial position to be doing things like this on a regular basis, the price of stress just went up. I have a decently secure job that lets me do stuff like this whenever I want (within reason), why am I still taking sidework that I don't much care about?

Thats it for now. See ya'll next in the States.

Well, big updates, this will be a long post. The first stage of my trip is over. The final co-worker left this morning, and I've moved from the company apartment to a Hostel on Passieg de Gracia. This past week has been an eventful one, no doubt. I'll give you the play-by-play here in a minute. Internet is now difficult to come by, so I will do my best to keep thing up here, but no promises.

However, by and large, the first stage of the trip was about DrupalCon. Not only was being in Barcelona a mind-expander in itself, I was surrounded by some of the top minds in web development. I got a ton of new ideas and could work for a few weeks just refining my technique and learning all this new material. I don't really have weeks, but I did take some time to do a few patches for drupal, we'll see if they make it in before Drupal 6 launches.

Its Monday. Thursday night was drinks in Placa Sant Miguel with crazy Europeans. We all met a Placa Reial, the locating of which was a little adventure. I had a general idea where it was but mostly had to spiral in on it. That trip probably taught me more about the layout of Las Rambles than anything else. I'm still consistently amazed at how you can be literally around the corner from somewhere in the old city and not really know that it is right there. I figured this out in a pleasant surprise, when at the end of the night I walked off in the general direction of the metro and found Placa Sant Jaume, about 50 feet away. Wow, this is right where I was last night!

Conference all day, Friday night we caught up to Aaron, who had mysteriously disappeared the previous day and through the morning. Turns out he wasn't registered for the conference that he had come to Barcelona to attend... whoops. Him, Neil, and I went down to Placa Sant Jaume and saw the beginning of the Festival Merce. Giant Puppets paraded through the crowded square, and then performed tradintional dances to a full orchestra. A King and Queen, a Lady and Gentleman, and some other couple that I couldn't place. Two dragons, a tortoise-thing, a lion, an eagle, and many dukes. All larger than life, they are called los gigantes, and stand 20 feet tall.

Anyway, conference all day, Saturday night was the Correfoc. Aaron and I headed down to Via Laietana where we knew it was going to start at 10:30 - it was already in full swng at 10:15. We ran into the streets with everyone and watched as Devils and Dragons danced to the drums, and set fireworks off in ways most mothers would disagree with. In general, a devil holds a 4 foot long 'pitchfork' on the end of which is put something between the range of a huge sparkler with an M80 on the end of it. Then they light it and run down the street spraying sparks at your feet, then raising the pitchfork into the air it creates a fountain of fire, fially ending with a loud concussion. The idea is to dance in with this, and run with the devils.

Aaron burned up a good dress shirt (who wears a whie dress shirt to run in fire?), and I had one of the loud bangs go off about a foot from my ear, causing some ringing for the rest of the night. It was a ton of fun.

We then walked back through to Placa Sant Miguel and had one of the best seafood dinners I've ever had. Mussels Marinara, and some fried oblong potato thingy, whose name I forget, but they are all over the place here, to start. I had a seafood casserole, with at least three kinds of fish, mussels, and prawns. Aaron had a turbot, which is Spanish, for tasty-damn-fish.

Neil joined us and we walked through Las Rambles till early in the morning. Aaron left early Sunday, reluctantly.

Next morning, I went off to the Placa Sant Juame again to see the human towers that I spoke of earlier. I have some camera phone video, but don't have my cable with me, so I will upload when back in the states if it turned out OK. The travel guide I had said that the rarely built over 6 stories, but I was seeing them go up to 8. The last person up is always the lightest, meaning a 4-7 year old child. The honor is actually in disassembling the tower gracefully. I saw one fall, but I don't think people get hurt too much, as when it does happen, its kind of in slow motion as everyone is trying to prevent it. Instead you just kinda wind up with a large pile of people. The youtube provides again:

Hack fest at one of the drupalista apartments for a few hours, then I headed back. I got off the subway a stop before to take a quick look at La Sagrada Familia cathedral, I'll need to go back and see the inside, but I'm already fascinated. The way the stone seems to droop or flow like water is amazing and a skill I'd like to look at for use in my own work. That Gaudi was a wacky dude.

Then a walk home on Carrer Guadi hat has a center median strip for shops and restaurants. Turns out there was a massive dance going on about three blocks from our apartment. The placa was so full it took me 20 minutes to navigate 50 feet and realize that I just didn't have the energy for this. I was already at sensory overload. I bought a bottle of local wine (2,55 Euro, about $5) and spent an evening in for a change.

And that brings us to present. The rest of the trip is going to be different. Flying more solo, more sight-seeing, and more work, which I don't want to fall more behind in.

Coming Soon:
Inside of Sagrada Familia - with a sketchbook.
Barcelona Aquarium.
Possibly the Roman Ruins South of here.
More.

Adios.

So, to sum up things, I think I might defect. I know its not defecting when you are allowed to go and there aren't any embassies involved and all, but this place is amazing. Let me try to sum up what stands out to me.

I landed in Barcelona 14:00 barcelona time and took the train to the hostel I was staying at. The guy at the desk was really friendly but I accidentally left my travel guide at the front desk and it promptly disappeared. I think it was probably an honest thing, seeing as travel guides were scattered all over the place for free use.

That night I knew there was a drupal get-together down near Las Ramblas, and I did a little map research, rented a towel for a euro, took a shower, and hit the train. Placa de Jaume I. Big open square, some marble work, all the streets are so narrow that a relatively small number of people (in NYC terms) looks like a lot, and cars are going down these things and people just casually move out of the way.

Tapas sushi bar. 6 euro special, and geeks take over Spain. There must have been 60 of us, and one waiter, one bartender, and one poor guy making sushi as fast as he could.

Back to the hostel, but still a little hungry, I find a late night diner and order 'un hanburgesa, y patatas, y guernicas' I got a hamburger steak thingy, an inch thick slice of fried tomato, three slices of fried zuchini, and the best fries I've ever had. Very tasty.

To bed, four people to a room, blah, but I just need it to crash and for 25 euro, what do you expect?

Up at 7, checking my e-mail wearing a drupal sirt I run into some drupalistas from Holland, we make breakfast plans. Down in the lobby waiting, more and more come out of the woodwork. 10-12 in all, from London, Holland, Germany - I no longer feel like the oldest guy in the hostel. We find a cafe, and croissant and cafe con leche. Then the train to the geek-a-thon.

Most interesting thing of the day was finally coming up with a (semi)-solid plan to get image handling into a default drupal installation.

I connect with my co-workers and head to the company flat where I will be till the 24th. Jungle boogy. Our apartment looks like a teenagers idea of a swanky bachelor pad. Complete with a shower stall in the hallway and a bathroom with no ceiling, and "Welcome to Barcelona" drilled out in dots along the floorboards, with flourescent backlighting going into the kitchen.

It's better than the hostel.

We go back to Jaume I cause Neil is a vegetarian, and after some research I found a vegetarian restaurant (a rare find in barcelona) down there. After wandering for perhaps half an hour we find it. Ony, 'it' is a Organic Food Grocery Store. I was close. We saw a falafel place earlier and ran to it. I think I love the food in this city.

Then to sleep, up early and off to find the essentials. I can't. Finally stumble across a chinese dollar store of sorts and get toothpaste, laundry detergent, and hair gel. The toothpaste might be the funniest thing in the world, and I am saving the packaging to scan later for this blog. Chinese toothpaste, sold in Spain, translated to English. It promises, "the smell in oral cavity is pure and fresh!" and boasts of "the special effect of the strong small particle". And it can "the safety is thoroughly cleared face of tooth, include the smoke moisten, the moisten of tea, the moistens of coffee, and the color ect."

I think it burned my mouth a little.

Breakfast sandwiches of ham and chorizo and back to Drupalcon. Earl Miles is doing some seriously web-warping work with panels and I'm using it for a few things we can talk about later.

Seriously, I might just stay here in Barcelona. I'm very excited this weekend into Monday is Festival de Sant Merce. It's traditionally when they build the human towers.

Oh yeah, and the dollar hit another low $1.40 to one, Europe.

This was from yesterday morning, more to come soon.

Well, not quite barcelona yet. Just got to Madrid, I'm beginning to realize that I like traveling partially because of the uncertainty that it offers me. Is that I feel at home in a state of change? flux? I know that a large part of me waits to make plans, or makes no plans at all, ostensibly, so that I can experience things more as they come to me. Scripted events are just that, scripted. Also, if you have no plans its easy to have fun, whereas if you do have plans, its easy to think you aren't having fun, just because you aren't on the plan.

Or maybe those answers are too glib, as its also easy to overlook a personal fault with an easy rationale that 'explains' it.

I'm, drinking a 1,55 euro cup of coffee. There was a starbucks but I refused - turns out this is less expensive and much better. Cafe con leche. Short hop to Barcelona next.

Finally, I've been wanting the campaign to start concentrating on past accomplishments for a while now. Mike filibustered for 5 months in 1971 to end the VietNam Draft.

Incidentally, he also read thousands of pages of the Pentagon Papers into congressional record while the Supreme Court was convening to possibly ban their publication. Yeah, he went through a long legal battle after that stunt, but still thought it was important enough to stand up for what he thought was right.

That is what I find key. I'm not crazy about the National Initiative and the National Sales Tax does have (correctable) drawbacks as it stands and those are Mike's two major platforms, BUT, I do like the notion that their is actually one politician out their who will stand up when they see something wrong, regardless of the consequences to themselves, and I cannot say that about any other candidate out there right now. Mike Gravel has proven it time and again.

On the flip side, he does a horrible job of explaining some of his very legitimate notions. He talks about passing a law to make the war in Iraq illegal and make the President and Vice-President felons if they don't comply. Well, that just sounds ridiculous when framed that way.

But think about it for a second, and you can dissect it. a little. Frame this as Congress having weakly given up its power to declare war for obvious reasons (from the wikipedia link above):

Not declaring war provides a way to circumvent constitutional safeguards against the executive declaring war, and also, in some cases, to avoid feeling bound by the established laws of war. Not using the word "war" is also seen as being more public relations-friendly. For these reasons, governments have generally ceased to issue declarations of war, instead describing their actions by euphemisms such as "police action" or authhorized use of force."

In fact, the last war we did declare was on December 8th, 1942. You know what comes with the declaration of war? The power to undeclare it. Back in the day, Congress told us when a war was over, not the President. But now we can't do that. Our Congress has betrayed us by giving up a specifically reserved power.

So, whats left to be done if the vast majority of the country wants our troops to come home, and yet the bastard in the White House does not? Cut funding to the war. Thats about the only power they have left to end this thing. But that is an unpopular move. It uses the troops as an emotional weapon against the executive branch and it looks bad so congress people are disinclined to do it.

Of course, they are the legislative branch and in essence they make the rules. Enter Mike Gravel, the war-ender with United States Armed Forces Withdrawal From Iraq Act. The full text is there, here is the gist:

1) All members of the US Military except for the sovereign guard must leave Iraq within 3 months.

2) In that time, money can be used for withdrawal and defense, but not for mounting offensives.

3) The executive branch must supply verification that they are complying with the law (this is shakey ground as you can't make laws directed at individuals, but we're very clear that these are Public Offices, regardless of who occupies them, so its kosher)

4) Penalties if you violate the law

5) Repeal the authorization of force made to enter Iraq.

And thats it. Seems pretty straightforward to me, anyone else want to help me start a grassroots movement just for this bill?

Has anyone else noticed the World Economy collapsing over the past week or so? I mean the markets aren't great in th US, but the ECB has also injected 7.7 billion euros into the world money market today following a whopping 61bn last Friday.

THe US Federal Reserve... $38billion Friday, more today.

Is this normal? It can't be.

The culprit? The US mortgage market and credit cards.

Here's a rule, 'money' doesn't exist without 'collateral'. I'm sure some higher level economists would disagree with me, but stick to that and its hard to go wrong. Start inventing money, Refinancing against outdated property values, charging credit cards against potential income... it gets shakey.

This is actually a pretty scary move. Japan $8.5 bn, Aus. 4.95billion.

Injecting money into the money market, as I understand it, please correct me if you know better, is a practice that came about after the last workd collapse (The Great Depression anyone?). THe idea being if the government banks keep enough money back to offset to prospective money that evaporates when there is a scare they can prevent a run on normal banks.

All that, of course, implies that a crash *should* have happened this week, of large proportions, and didn't cause we had safeguards. But that stikes me as a safeguard that shouldn't be used often.