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Yesterday morning, departed FC at 7:30am for an 8:30am trailhead departure.

Greyrock-stats (gps log including chart below, .xlsx)

If the panorama below isn’t showing, click the “Greyrock Bagged!” title above.

Next is Long’s!

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Rereading Fantastic Voyage and updating my science-based daily regimen. Going in for a full physical soon so we’ll have some feedback on this.
Read more…

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It’s that time again. Yesterday I was part of a team of three preparing breakfast for CCI’s Friday mornings “Breakfast Club”. We outdid ourselves making one of the best breakfasts served in quite some time: the “Burrito Bar that Doesn’t Quit”

• Several cans of La Costeña Refried Pinto Beans
• Several dozen Fresh-baked local Los Comales authentic Mexican tortillas
• One very flavorful can of “Cuitlacoche” (a gift from Bruno at the end of a recent Mexican cooking class)
• Two cans of La Costeña red jalapeño sauce
• Two varieties of fresh homemade Pico de Gallo
• Two varieties of (green and traditional) Mole
• Fresh onions, scallions and tomatoes
• Eggs, sausage, cheese and hashbrowns

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8:30am One year ago today I began writing my personal diary here on Wordpress. Throughout the day, I am going to attempt to check-in here and reflect on the year’s progress toward my still-valid aspiration: “an early post-human artist” as well as other goals & aspirations. Some of that reflection will necessarily be personal and private so I’ll be editing a parallel “private” version.

10:15am This next year I hope to develop and refine a personal Statement of Purpose and Mission, using Play to Win as a guide. 

A year of coffee: More than any other time in my past, this year I have consistently consumed coffee throughout the day. Assessment? It is all good. I’m a better, more consistent performer. Far less frequent ‘lulls’ as I frequently experienced at HP (where the coffee is so bad I wouldn’t even use it in my garden).

11:42am: Lunch at Fiona’s.  Ben’s Smokin’ Again is my new favorite.

From Play to Win, in the face of crisis STOP, CHALLENGE and CHOOSE.

1. Stop to think
2. Challenge your moment’s thoughts and reactions
3. Choose the optimal course of action

Meeting this evening with the CEO of CCI. She takes this book and it’s message very seriously and is willing to give advice. Lucky me.

From the book: Winning: ‘to do the best that one can do with all that one has’. On the positive side, I think this year is a high-water mark for my personal wins using this definition. On the painful side, I think I’ve become more aware of the gap between my current status and my ultimate potential therein. Still have a lot of painted cattle guards hemming me in.

8:30pm: Lots of notes from my 1:1 w/Lori. Ordering a new copy of Play to Win to replace the one I cannot find.
[ ] Homework: Steps 1 and 2 on p. 216. 

9:00pm: looking through this past year of posts. A very useful timeline for me and what I’m sure must be a mild case of retrograde amnesia.

12:47am: a good day. Not a bad year.

1:35am: so much for sleep. I’m on a roll with ideas for a presentation I’m due to give in a month: Exploiting Recent Trends and Technologies in Data Visualization at the 2008 Annual Conference of the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO),  (IAAO Reno Brochure, PDF)

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After missing last year’s Human Race due to my broken foot a year and a half back (not sure when exactly as it pre-dates the commencement of this journal), it is good to be back!  Although not my personal  best by any means, today I came in 1st place overall in the 5K racewalk. The catch: none of the serious racewalk competition from Denver showed up. Sadly, racewalking has gradually fallen in popularity. Long gone are the days of large turn-out and judged racewalks here at the Human Race. Many years ago (I’ll have to check the plaque on the trophy) I won first place in my age group in one of the judged walks. Back then, there were many more competitors and the racewalkers took home nice awards along with the runners.

– Recent Results –

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Ever since reading Eric Drexler’s ground-breaking Engines of Creation over 20 years ago, I have yearned for its promise of at-home 3-dimensional object fabrication from a ‘vat’ of material. The molecular assembler is probably still a decade away but affordable 3D rapid prototyping (3D Printing) is just around the corner.

For some time now I’ve been following progress with the “RepRap Project” as well as the similar but less widely supported “Fab@Home Project“. While these are both immensely interesting — one day I would like to build one — for the time being a much more enticing new option has just surfaced: shapeways.com  (also, just found a similar but less sophisticated US-based site: Ponoko.com)

For as long as I can remember, 3-dimensional shaping and thinking have been a strong suit of mine. From early-childhood soap carving to current-era marble stone sculpture, I have imagined my 3-dimensional daydreams coming to life. Always at the top of the class in Engineering Drawing — I especially enjoyed solving hidden line problems in orthographic projections — my fascination with solid geometry and computer-aided 3D design continues to grow exponentially. Perhaps one day I will find myself more actively exercising these talents and putting them to good use.

I’ve looked on with envy as 3D designer Bathsheba creates beautiful mathematical objects with direct-metal printing. I could do this!  One day I would love to find my mathematical art on exhibit at one of the annual Bridges conference.

Ever since version 1.0, I’ve been an avid fan of Rhinocerous, one of the leading 3D modeling packages that is especially strong with non-uniform rational B-spline (NURB) design. Finding shapeways gives me the inspiration I needed to fire up Rhino and begin designing!

3D printing is here! More Design tools: Blender and PyTopMod

RepRap

Fab @ Home

Shapeways

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Long fraught with synophrys a genetic predisposition to extra bushy eyebrows I found this video particularly entertaining as well as the recent scientific research correlating caterpillar-brow with an abundance of testosterone. Check. Alas, there are many.

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Years ago in my past life at HP, a few friends and I formed a sometimes-bienneal mass ascent up Longs Peak in August.  Missing that, I’m putting together a group of collegues from CCI to do the same. Looking forward to it! Need to train hard now.

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Today’s forecast for the high is 101°F. One degree above the all time record high. Thank God for Water! (and low humidity). We’ll be spending a lot of time in the back yard today. Long Pond’s water level is at a record high—our beach is almost subsumed. Some favorite photos from the back deck:

At an hour and forty-one minutes, Episode 151 of TWiT (http://twit.tv/151) was the perfect length for my morning peddle around the lake in the Sprite. Much more unlikely: the entertaining banter between tech personalities John C. Dvorak, Leo Laporte, Steve Wozniak and Patrick Norton ends up being the perfect complement to the natural beauty of Long Pond in July.

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