Merry Christmas

An eventful thanksgiving

After a nice thanksgiving weekend, filled with visiting family members, I awoke on Sunday morning with a severe pain in my stomach area. Naturally, I assumed I had eaten too much, but gradually, I realized that this pain was not due to over eating. So I made a doctors appointment for monday, and stayed home from work.

Pretty much immediately, my doctor diagnosed me with appendicitis. I was sent off to confirm this by cat scan. The cat scan doctor took one look at the read out and said, "Yup, you have acute appendicitis, go to Mt. Sinai emergency room." I went over, and in the next few hours had surgery!

So, in traditional David Mortimer style, I ate a lot and went to the hospital. Right now, I'm on pain killers and out of work for a week. Although appendectomies are reasonably straightforward (mine wasn't ruptured) the recovery is still a little painful because your stomach muscles are all messed up. I can't lift stuff, or do anything that exerts those muscles.

Several family members have pointed out that I can now do any sort of extreme outdoor trip. Apparently, there are some trips out there that you aren't allowed to go on, unless you've already had your appendix out because there is no telling when you might get appendicitis and you aren't going to be an easy position to evacuate. Naturally, I won't be doing any of these trips.

My grandma in Maine asked Lila if there was anything she could do, and Lila said that a phone call would be nice. Grandma then said that she wanted to get me something. She said, "Girls get 'get well flowers' Dave gets 'get well giftcards'!"

Needless to say, Lila has been wonderful, helping me, managing phone calls, and just being all around great. She just asked me, "What's it like having a personal nurse?"

My Band

Here's a series of videos that together are nearly a full performance of my band. We are called Dave and the Fogies because I said I "didn't think I was a fogie yet." Also, I did debate the spelling of fogie, but what are you going to do...











Rock.

Watch the video at the link.... now

Death Star Destruction = 9/11

watch the whole video.

Scartlet B's - Moving!!

Lila and I went to Scarlet Begonias two nights ago, we turned into park in the gravel lot to the right of Cote's and discovered that it had been turned into a new set of empty buildings! We were dissapointed to discover the easy parking option gone, but managed to find a spot on mainstreet.

After a great meal, and a little chit chat with Sallie, we learned that Scarlet B's is moving into one of those new buildings! They are going to have table service and a full bar!

They are either moving/opening october 1st!

While I'm happy that they are doing well enough to faciliate a move to a bigger and better space, I will miss the small feel and charm of the old restaurant. I remarked to a friend that "the nice thing about scarlet b's is when you are done, you're done! You've already paid! No fussing over the check, just smile, say goodbye, and go!"

Unlucky Fisherman

First... I snapped the tip off of one of my spinning rods in the car window. Naturally, I just rolled that window right up... Shimano doesn't cover that, duh... So that's one rod down. Two days later, I'm fishing in this river and my feet start to feel funny. As if I'm not standing on something flat (like the inside of a shoe). I ignore it, thinking that it is just the river rock underfoot. A few minutes later, I realize that the boots on my waders have just disintegrated. Like literally feel to pieces.

Once again, Sierra Trading Post came to the rescue, the new waders arrive today. Perhaps a Customer Service Rep will find this positive feedback and leave a comment again!

Why is it that I have all the good ideas...

It's no secret that I am a heavy World of Warcraft player; it's fun, social, and a really well designed game... The thing I wonder is when are we going to see MMORPG sports games... Think baseball, you could have minor leagues, majors, people can go to training, you can find a team, play, could be similar to PS3/2 games... I feel like there is a large untapped market here. EA - get your head in the game!

Party minus one

JT had a party tonight, and while it was going, We started having a little jam between Jon, myself, and Jon's buddy Pete. We had two guitars and we kept passing them around. Pete is a really solid guitar player... and Jon and I are ok, but we don't have either the knowledge or the flair to be really impressive. As we were playing I thought about how, when playing with Pete, Jon and I filled similar roles as when we played with Fred.

Then, inspired, I thought about things from what I might consider Fred's perspective. Here's this guy who spent several years always playing beneath his level. Fred taught Jon and I a lot about music through jams and conversations.

Later, I thought about how I've recently been considering taking guitar lessons; I took group lessons as a kid, but I'm mostly self taught. I'd mentioned to Lila that I'd never really had a real guitar teacher, but then I just realized, I have, and he's Fred.

Thanks man.

Went fishing

Had a pretty good day today in the Catskills... In the morning, went fishing in the ashokan reservoir...

Video from Trip

if you want to see any of the photos in a larger, higher quality format, click the link in the sidebar to my picasa web album.

Photos from Trip

I tried taking a lot of planned panoramic photos... I combine them in photoshop, although I'm not totally competent with the photomerge command. Here's one of Bryce Canyon that turned out well.

Las Vegas

We spent our last night of our trip in Las Vegas, staying at "The Signature at MGM Grand." The Signature is a three tower complex attached to the MGM Grand that is just a little nicer... We had a suite with a giant jacuzzi tub, and a king size bed, kitchen, living room, multiple tvs; it was great.

We ate at Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill which was amazing. On the MGM Grand website, it is listed as casual dining, but I can tell you, there is nothing casual about the food.

Afterwards we saw Ka, a Cirque du Soleil show. I have to say, it was one of the best things I've ever seen in my life. Truly amazing. Most of the stuff the performers do, you wouldn't think possible. Ka only shows in Las Vegas, so probably you should buy an airplane ticket and get out there.

This morning, we spent a bunch of time at the Grand Pool, the outdoor water enjoyment complex at the MGM Grand. It was nice, but not the best aquatic experience of all time. Then we went and gambled a bit. I was pretty nervous about it... there is something intimidating about all the semi-drunk young people and slightly serious old people. So we played some slots and then a video blackjack game. We lost $11 bucks, but had a half hour of fun.

Finally, we hopped onto our Virgin American flight (interior is like a disco) and came back. Pictures will follow tomorrow as well as a little video. Fred: I really will make a little video this time!

Early Morning

Lila and I woke up this morning at 5:30, got dressed quickly, and drove out to watch the sunrise over Bryce Canyon... It was amazing. The rocks were impressive looking enough in the dim light before the sun climbed above some of the mesas of the Colorado Plateau, but once the sun peaked through, the Canyon looked as if it was on fire!

Naturally, I took many photographs, none of which have made it to the web yet as I didn't bring my own laptop... all these posts have been through kiosks at hotels.

After a short breakfast, we are going back to the Canyon to do a hike, the 1.4 mile Navajo loop, which will bring us down into the canyon. The trail winds around hoodoos, arches, windows, and natural bridges.

Then, we'll clean out the car a bit (We already shipped home two giant boxes, just to lighten our load for the return trip) and drive to Las Vegas. En route, we'll cross out of the Mountain Time Zone and into the Pacific Time Zone, gaining an hour. One more hour to gamble and live it up in Las Vegas! We are going to a Cirque du Soleil show as well as eating dinner at Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill.

Bryce Canyon

This morning, we departed Zion Canyon. Zion National Park is wonderfully run, with a very environmentally modern visitor center, to a fleet of propane powered park buses, the park is easily accesible and beautiful. Additionally, unlike other parks, it has a great town, just right outside! We ate lunch today in a restaurant called Oscar's Cafe. There, I had the best ribs I've ever had. Lila had fish tacos, also delicious. They played such classics as "Mr. Roboto" as well as "Don't you, Forget about Me..." Also the fish tacos were spelled "Phish" Tacos... so obviously I liked the place.

After a two hour drive to Bryce Canyon, we checked into the local Best Western and went to look at the Canyon. Skipping the obvious viewpoints, we continued to Bryce Point, less crowded with better views. Geologically, Bryce is easily my favorite canyon we've seen. Tall sandstone strucutres protrude from the canyon floor, Hoodoos they are called. Tomorrow, we plan to wake up to watch sunrise over the canyon and then to do a short 2 mile hike before we jump in the car and drive the 4 hours back to Las Vegas.

Zion National Park

Today I'm posting from the Zion Lodge, its about halfway up the Zion Canyon... It is a beautiful national park although it is oppressively hot outside. I've been drinking a ton of water and I'm still sure that I'm dehydrated.

Although the scenery is great, our campsite is not. We had to rent an RV site, because of limited availablity, and it was infested with ANTS! Litterally, everywhere you looked there was an ant... We've readjusted our travel a bit to stay in some inexpensive motels for the next two nights, mostly to avoid the ants. A nice result of this is that we are going to get to actually stay by Bryce Canyon.

Grand Canyon

Staying at a campground (Mather Campground) at the Grand Canyon has been a really relaxing experience. We walk around, look at the Canyon from different perspectives, read, take photographs, nap, eat, and walk around a bit more. Today we went to Shoshone point, an unadvertised viewing spot, used primarily by the park's service for weddings and events, which has unparralled views. It was pretty nice to eat lunch with near 360 degree views of the Grand Canyon.

Tomorrow morning, we drive to Bryce Canyon, for a quick look, and then on to Zion National Park where we'll spend the next three nights.

Colorado Plateau Part 1

Lila and I flew in to Vegas yesterday and rented a car with little trouble... We flew on a Virgin America flight, which if you haven't done, is pretty fun as far as planes go. As you play with great inflight entertainment systems you're bathed in a purple light cast from the plane's overheads... It sort of feels like being in a lame club... At least what I think a lame club might be like!

We spent a while in Henderson, a suburb of Las Vegas, picking up some stuff at REI that we didn't want to pack, and then buying a GPS unit.

Drove out of Vegas and went to the Hoover Dam... It is a pretty colossal construction, although there isn't that much to see. There is a tour that highlights the inner-workings, but we didn't grace the tour guides with our presence. Afterwards, we continued driving, for several hours, and finally made it to flagstaff where we had a room booked at a motel.

After a quick breakfast and some internet time, we are going to go pick up some food and camp stove fuel and head off to the Meteor Crater, a short drive to the east out of flagstaff. Then its off to the Grand Canyon!

Just finish the Job, Jobs

So, if you spec out a pc laptop with as equivalent as possible parts as an apple, they typically run about the same price... sometimes the mac is even cheaper! For example, I just turned away from this post to spec out a dell laptop, a 13.3" screen model, for comparison to the macbook. With similar features to the macbook it comes out at right around $1000 bucks (a little under actually). Now the apple, with the same specs is more expensive... But if you factor in the cost of software that comes with the apple, they are neck to neck. You could consider buying the cheapest macbook, which albeit has a slower processor, but provides a much better graphics card. The GC in the dell is the same model as in the old macbook air, the intel x3100. A decent card, but nothing compared to the nvidia 9400.

So whats the point? Well the point is I think apple should give you iwork for free. You are already getting a great computer at a great price. Why not just finish the job and do the one thing that PCs never do... come with good word processing software, out of the box.

Pages is a great program, it is my word processor of choice! I hardly ever use word (twice a year for writing student evals)... Why doesn't apple produce pageslite? Something like wordpad (not notepad, wordpad, it is in accessories for all you pc users who didn't know it was there) but better. Most people don't need much from their word processor.

The other stuff, that's extra, presentation software, spreadsheet software, a lot of people don't use it. Make people pay for that. Lots of people use word processing!

Of course this is all really moot. Apple should really put out a web based verision of iwork and skip the computer altogether. Google docs, except by apple, and therefore, nicer looking and a little bit better functioning.

This was rambling. Sorry. But I'm in class and needed something else to pay attention to.

Here in MEXICO

Lila, Lila's parents (tobe and meg)and I are in mexico.

We are in cozumel, a great destination and we are staying here.

Maybe in a day or so I'll upload some pictures. I didn't bring the cable for the underwater camera, so only above ground photos while we're here. Maybe we'll have some video on this trip!

Last minute

Well today was an adventure...
I've misplaced my passport, I can't find it anywhere, and I've really looked. So a few days ago, I made an appointment at the Regional Passport Office in New York City. Basically, you can go in with the proper forms and get a passport same day, or next day.

I print my forms, fill them out, print out my proof of immediate travel, get my passport photos taken, get my certified copy of my birth certificate, and get all this prepared the day before. This morning, I wake up, and I get ready to go. Then I look to make sure I have everything, and the photos are gone! Completely gone. They were in an envelope, and now the are not. I assume that they slid out of the envelope somehwere...

What do you do at 7:00 in the morning when your appointment is at 8am and you need passport photos? Well you do what I did... freak out. Thankfully, Lila was thinking and made me stand against the wall (which is white) and she took some pictures with me with her camera. I raced down to Rite Aid, printed the photos then hailed a cab.

While I was in the cab, I measured and trimmed the photos to 2x2. Lila equipped me with sisccors and a ruler before I left.

I got to the passport office a few minutes late, but it wasn't a big deal. They sent me right up. Then the passport agent looked over my documents. I breathed this huge sigh of relief when he stapled the photo to the form.

It all worked out. I get my new passport tomorrow and I'll be able to go to mexico on Sunday.

Let this be a lesson to you. Don't loose your passport. If you have photos taken, SEAL the envelope. And, if you do it right, you can take your own pictures. Lucky for me, Lila was thinking this morning, instead of freaking out.

All you really need to play Quake for real...

This are both real items. Anyone know where the aliens are?

A seriously awesome combo

Try these together:
Polar Clock by the team at Pixel Breaker


And set it as your wallpaper with wallsaver


I had a little trouble getting Wallsaver to "see" PolarClock, although it supposely searches the directory that user installed screensavers go to... I moved it to ~/System/Library/Screensavers and then I had no problem.

Where I buy all apple related stuff from

Check out these guys: Powermax.com

Since it is in Oregon, you don't pay sales tax, and their prices are definitely competitive with apple, especially for refurbished computers. My Macbook Air, after you factored in tax, was $300 less expensive than the identical model from apple.

Their customer service was superb, and the shipping was as fast as anyone else. Save some money and have a more satisfying and safe shopping experience with Powermax!!

Hardware Review

Lets see:

If you already have a nice desktop, this is a great computer. I had problems with using remote disk, I think due to the Teacher's College firewall. Rather than spend some time on the phone with CIS, I decided that I really could use an external DVD-RW drive. Rather than buy the completely useless apple model (only, only works with the Air) I went for an LG model:

The drive has performed perfectly, and given that it is the same price as the apple model, and that it will work on any system (mac or pc) I can't imagine why you'd buy the other.

Obviously a sick laptop requires a sick case, and for that I turned to one of my three favorite computer bag companies, Waterfield Designs:

Mine's the same, except I put the flap on a vertical orientation to allow easier backpack access to the laptop. Hmm... I just realized how small this image is. Oh well!

Now, I'm thinking about mobile me... It seems like the type of thing that is a gimmick, but it really isn't that expensive... Only about $8 a month... And it will allow easier syncing across macines, of which I have three now... Hm... Lots of... Any one have any tips?

Cooling Your Mac

For a little extra control over controlling the temperature inside your mac, check out Fan Control.

It gives you a window in System Preferences in which you can control at what temperatures the various internal fans "turn on" and you can control the speed at which they spin.

I think that the software works for all intel based macs, so go for it. If you want to mess with it. Which obviously I couldn't leave alone.

Two parts

First:
You could live like a hobbit!



This guy, I think in England, built this place, and even though it conjures up odd (read enticing) images of Lord of the Rings, it is pretty cool.

Second:
How did I find this? Was I just googling for "build your own hobbit hovel?" No... I stumbled upon it. Stumble is awesome, and maybe the most interactive time waster I've ever found. You should try it. It'd be very web 2.0 of you.

Where'd we'd only go if you paid for it

My brothers got us a gift certificate to Mario Batalli's restaurant, Babbo, in NYC. We made a reservation a month ago and went tonight for their pasta tasting menu with paired wines (which is an enormous amount of amazing food).

Needless to say, we are both stuffed, happy, and tired. Living in NY does have its perks...

Where we'd go, if you came to visit

Recently, Lila's cousin invited us out to Queens to get some Chinese food. We took the 7 out to Flushing and went to Golden Mall.

The food is great, cheap, and fast. Today, Lila and I ate for about 12 bucks. And we are full! Here are some shots of the interior.



So, potential visitors, you could be as happy as these people!

Photo Blog

Although I post most of the same photos, I also have a photo blog at http://picasaweb.google.com/davemortimer/. You should check it out as I occasionally post different things there.

Trip to Rome

Obviously another update is long overdue... And no. This isn't a video update. Although there might be one in the near future. These are some photos from our trip to rome. We had a great time as I hope the pictures should show!
The Spanish Steps

The obelisk at Piazza de Popolo, there are obelisks all over rome, this one is great condition.

Lila in front of the Pantheon. The Pantheon is over 2000 years old and pretty much the best preserved structure from "the ancient world."

Lila in front of the Fountain of Neptune in Piazza Navona, a large piazza built on the site of ancient stadium. We stayed like 2 minutes from here.

Looking at across the Tiber River towards Hadrian's Tomb.

The view over the Vatican Museum from the top of St. Peter's Basilica.

The altar inside St. Peter's.

The Pantheon at night. We were staying about 5 minutes from here, so if we had a little time to kill we'd just wander over. It is a giant building right in the thick of the city.

The Trevi Fountain by night. Apparently the Trevi fountain was commissioned to commerate the completion of an aqueduct, which terminates at the fountain.

This is the inside of this italian bakery/pizzeria that we went to a lot of times. The pizza was amazing. It was easily the best pizza I've ever had, well maybe the best besides scarlet begonias. The baked goods were also great. They cut the pizzas with these 14-16" long knives with one big chop!

Lila standing in front of the Colosseum. The Colosseum is pretty impressive but there isn't actually much to see on the side. You wander around and imagine thousands of animals and people being slaughtered inside. I've read that the ancient Romans used to flood the inside of the Colosseum and stage mock sea battles!

This is the view from the Palantine hill, one of the seven hills of Rome, looking down over the Forum. The Forum is right by the Colosseum and walking around you can really get a feel for what ancient Roman life.

This is the Temple of Saturn, inside the Forum.

This is an evening shot of one of the 4 Santa Maria churches in Rome. Technically, when you enter this church you leave Italy and enter into the Vatican Sea, even though this church isn't really near St. Peters and the rest of the Vatican.

Lila is walking up the inside of the Dome inside St. Peter's Basilica. She is actually standing perpendicular to the floor and it is the dome that is curving.

This is a view taken from one of the many bridges in Rome looking out across the Tiber River towards the Vatican.

When we visited the Vatican we arrived really really early and so we were rewarded with about 20 minutes of crowd free viewing. Later in the day, it was literally shoulder to shoulder through much of the space.

This is Piazza Navona, looking towards the Four Rivers Fountain, sculpted by Bernini. When I was a child we visited Rome as a family and stayed nearby Piazza Navona, that's how I picked it as the location for our hotel for this visit.

This is a statue of a guy who's name I forget. He was a contemporary of Copernicus and was burned at the stake for challenging the Church's sun centered solar system model. The statue stands in Campo di Fiori, a great square that 6 days a week is covered with stands selling foods and vegetables and chickens and pork and all sorts of other stuff. During ancient times the city wasn't really built up much out here, mostly fields. Pompey, a roman general and later consul, built a theater right near here which is were Julius Caesar was stabbed. None of those original buildings still stand.

All in all we had a great trip - Rome is really fun city to visit and well worth a weeks visit. We were able to see the sights, eat enormous amounts of really good food, and have a relaxing time.

Format shift

I got a camcorder - a sanyo HD700... So it perfectly possible that there will be video updates in the future. They will still be infrequent.