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August 29, 2007

Kuala Lumpur Panorama

I just stumbled on this very cool panoramic image of Kuala Lumpur. Wow - there's a whole 'nuther world out there. 20374 pixels wide. Cool.

Posted by thedude at 9:46 PM | Comments (2)

August 27, 2007

Allegro agitato!

Wow. We had a terrific weekend, and I have a throbbing headache this morning to prove it.

Our friends Grant and Sandy are lucky enough to have one of the world's greatest musicians in their family. Grant's cousin Jon has a new CD out, and Grant was kind enough to have one signed and then hand-delivered the disk to us before a fantastic dinner at Downtown Restaurant in Berkeley. I'm listening to the disk now, and it's great. Thanks, guys!

On a totally unrelated topic, I never thought it made sense to buy a photo printer, given that it takes just a few mouse-clicks and very little money to order real photographic prints on line. Well, all that changed this weekend, when I attached an Epson Stylus 1400 Photo Printer to Kelly's iMac. This printer produces some of the best-looking prints I have ever seen. the six-color inks deliver a wider gamut than is possible using photographic paper, and 5760x1440 ink droplets per inch means sharper images as well. The very first print I made on Epson Ultra-Premium Luster Paper was perfect! The images this printer produces more closely resemble what I see on the LCD display than I imagined possible. The printer is super quiet, and fast enough. It spits out a gorgeous full bleed 8 x 10 in about two minutes. Epson offers a $75 mail-in rebate through September 8th. Highly recommended!

Posted by thedude at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)

August 14, 2007

Taking Things Into My Left Hand

I've decided that I need to take drastic measures to cure myself of this painful tendinitis, so at work I have begun mousing with my left hand. It turns out that this is not as hard as it seems. Yes, it slows me down just a bit, when I use the mouse but my right arm feels better already. The good news is that I am learning just how rarely I actually need to use the mouse. For most of what I do at work, it's not needed at all - in fact, it can be a hinderance. The bottom line - my productivity has improved!

Now all I need is the awesome new keyboard from Apple. I took one for a spin yesterday , and found it to be the best keyboard ever for two-finger typists like myself. The keys are large and widely spaced, leading to fewer typos. It's also completely silent. And it's is positively beautiful! (Listen to me - getting all excited about a keyboard!!) I think I'll make a run to the Apple Store this afternoon and get one - for Kelly of course! :)

Posted by thedude at 8:53 AM | Comments (5)

August 11, 2007

Pre-Birthday Party Party

Today marked the beginning of what promises to be a long party season. My best man Steve kicked off a string of September birthday parties with a gathering at Tilden Park today to celebrate his 60th. Man, it's hard to believe. It seems like Steve's 50th was just a year or two ago. Time does indeed fly.

By the way, sorry I didn't take as many shots as I normally would at the party today. I'm nursing a painful case of tendinitis which began the day after I lugged my heavy camera and flash around for 5 hours at the S.F. Carnaval Parade. Who knew that taking too many pictures could be hazardous to your health!? Anyway, the information I've gathered suggests that this pain could last for months, and that the best cure for it is to take it easy and let the arm rest. That won't be easy though, since I absolutely have to keep shooting. That, plus I use this arm to drive my mouse 14 hours a day. Right now I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

Posted by thedude at 8:21 PM | Comments (2)

August 5, 2007

It's a Beautiful David LaFlamme Band

My new-found old friend Robbie set us up with VIP passes to the 40th Summer of Love Reunion in Monterey. The show turned out to be one of our all-time favorite live music events, mainly due to the "unstructuredness" of it all. No one seemed to care much about where anyone sat or if a rogue photographer obstructed their view for a minute or two. This was the most laid-back concert crowd ever. Aging hippies rule!

I'm sorry to say that no guitars went up in flames while we watched, but there were a few memorable moments. The David LaFlamme Band put on a great show early in the day. It was fun to sing every word of Hot Summer Day and White Bird along with the rest of the crowd. Evidently, I'm not the only dude who still loves these tunes - even after (gulp!) almost 40 years. Anyway, the band played with a lot of skill and energy, and of course, it was great to see Robbie play again! It seems I may have inadvertently snapped more than a few pictures of Rob on and off stage. Not sure how that happened... :)

The RaveUps rocked hard and reminded us just how good some of the music of the 60's is during their scorching Yardbirds tribute, but the most amazing performance came from a Beatles tribute band from Alameda, California called the Sun Kings. Now, when I hear "Beatles tributes band", I expect them to play tunes like Twist and Shout and I Want to Hold Your Hand. This was not the case with the Sun Kings. No - they skipped the lighter fare and dove straight into the album that changed the world forever - Sgt. Peppers. Backed by the amazing Liddypudlians, they played the whole album - flawlessly. The band could not possibly have found a more perfect audience - some of whom had seen the real Beatles perform at Shea Stadium in 1965. The Sun Kings were the only band to receive a standing-ovation and perform an encore while we were at the Festival.

I was so stunned by the performance that I could barely raise my camera off my lap. I felt tears well up in my eyes. I was probably feeling nostalgic for a beautiful carefree time in my life and the amazing soundtrack that accompanied it. Or maybe it was the Jesus weed.

Posted by thedude at 2:58 PM | Comments (0)

August 2, 2007

The Dude on Your PC!

While checking my server logs, I came across this network dicovery tool with an awesome name. Naturally, I downoaded and installed The Dude, (version 2.2) and it did a decent job of finding every single machine on my network. Would you expect anything less from The Dude?!

The fact is, there are quiet a few other "the dude's" out there. At least one even lives in the Bay Area! As far as I can tell, these other Dudes came after The Big Lebowski, which was released in 1998 - two years after the thedude.com was registered by the original "thedude".

So there. :)

Posted by thedude at 11:24 AM | Comments (3)

August 1, 2007

Horsie Heaven

We had little time to spare on the way to the Summer of Love Festival in Monterey, so we stopped at the Equestrian Center at Pebble Beach and watched some of the horsies and riders warm up for the day's competition. The morning was overcast and drizzly, but this didn't dampen Kelly's spirit a bit.

We were all impressed by the beauty and gracefulness of these magnificent animals and their riders.

Posted by thedude at 8:00 PM | Comments (3)