cyberhobo

Month: November 2007

  • Mount Falcon Park Hike

    We finish our long weekend in Mount Falcon Park, hiking with Dad and Jezze. It’s still a little chilly out, but the sun feels great. The trails here have expansive views of Denver and the surrounding canyons, and even a few flat rocks for outdoor yoga.

  • Garden of the Gods

    We wake up parked next to highway 115 under clear, cold skies. Climbing still seems unlikely. We drive north to Colorado Springs, and follow many many signs to Garden of the Gods. We’ve both been here before, but never really taken a close look at it. It’s a nice place to hike around, we find,…

  • Dakota Hot Springs

    Our battery is low after a day running the heater without any appreciable sun for solar charging. The furnace requires electricity for ignition and running the fan, so if we drain the battery there’s no heat. To avoid this we decide to drive for a while to the Dakota Hot Springs, which are open until…

  • Sand Gulch – Bank Loop Hike

    A snowstorm slowly settles in, dispelling any notions of rock climbing. We don’t mind too much though. A slow morning feels nice, and the sign by the parking area suggests the possibility of a nice loop hike. We take note of trail and road numbers, then set off into the snow. BLM road 5825 climbs…

  • Thanksfasting

    Ann mentioned an idea to me a couple of days ago that has become more appealing to me as I mull it over. Instead of feasting for Thanksgiving, why not try fasting? We consume all the time. Is consuming more really a good way to give thanks? Going without seems like a better way of…

  • One Laptop Per Child – and one for me

    I’ve ordered an XO laptop as part of the One Laptop Per Child program’s Give One Get One program. This is a kid’s computer, but it runs Linux, has WiFi and mesh networking, and is quite rugged and portable. I’m betting that I’ll actually use it, and hoping a kid somewhere is inspired by it…

  • Movie: Half Nelson (2006)

    I like the storytelling technique of setting up a cliché, then exposing the cliché as a sham. This is a movie takes down a bunch of them: the irredeemable junkie, the heroic schoolteacher, the drug-dealing thug, the poor but bright student, and the list goes on. Mostly the reality exposed is grim, but the film…

  • The Palace, Camera Discovery

    Ann emails Kate and offers to trade me for a pound of stew meat. The deal is made, and I’m carried up to The Palace by Kate and Mark, where we enjoy some routes in pleasantly warm, hazy weather. One of the routes doesn’t even have a slash or a + in the grade! Cheerleaders…

  • Live Music: Pinchas Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth

    Husband and wife performers are always interesting to watch, knowing that we see the public face of a relationship that continues offstage. I had heard of violinist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman, but not his cellist wife Amanda Forsyth. We begin with only Pinchas conducting Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, a piece whose hushed intensity was…

  • Movie: The Prestige (2006)

    I think I might have let this one pass as just a reasonably entertaining movie, but it incorporated a few elements that have extra appeal for me. One is the research station on Pike’s Peak where Nikola Tesla conducted genuinely mysterious experiments. The other is a philosophical conundrum I read about in I am a…