Thursday, February 28, 2008

On His Way


02282008016, originally uploaded by filtersweep.

I took the day off to watch Julian while Lise was at school. We had a rough morning when I took him in to for an immunization. He handled it quite well. After we stopped home for some lunch, we went for a little walk behind our house before I took him in for his next adventure--- his first haircut. He handled the haircut like a pro. He is all ready for visiting his grandparents in the US. We leave next week.

All the Way to the Playground


02282008017, originally uploaded by filtersweep.

Finally Made It


02282008019, originally uploaded by filtersweep.

We played on the slide.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Reason for buying a new camera


I picked up a Canon EOS Digital Rebel camera in Virginia-- at a fraction of the Norway price. With a 4 gig card, we should be ready for anything. I don't know it well enough to give it a proper review, but it blows our pocket camera out of the water. This thing actually takes the photo when you press the button. Every image turns out well. With a mobile little kid, we need something that captures fast moving objects. This thing delivers.

Atlanta


I am back in Norway--- had a great trip from a business perspective (and travel perspective). It is even better to be home.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Heading to the US

It has been a busy few weeks--- mostly doing phone screenings of potential employees for an office I will be setting up in the US. I am leaving tomorrow for Boston, D.C., Atlanta, then home. All in one week.

Julian took his first steps this week. It is quite amazing. He is very motivated to practice walking, and seems to be driven by some unseen force to become more and more independent. Of course, he also is taking his share of spills. Yesterday he "got a fat lip" when he landed on his face. He looks pretty rough, but he is a tough kid.

In other news, I finally have a new cell phone--- a Nokia N82. It has wifi, a 5 megapix camera, quality video, everything under the sun. I have no clue why anyone would want an iPhone. I can check my email, surf the net, MSN chat, listen to mp3s, watch youtube. It really has everything. I thought my old phone was great--- and it lasted me over 2 years before I had the itch to upgrade.

See you in Boston.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Sheldon Brown's Passing

If you follow the cycling community at all, you are likely already aware that Sheldon Brown died this week of a heart attack at 63. I have linked to his site since I began this blog-- he holds the definitive answer to all things cycling related. Granted, his site looks like an HTML time warp, but it is truly the bicycling encyclopedia. Sheldon is the primary reason I started riding fixed gear, or built my own wheels, or figured out compatibility issues for my frankenbike. What was unique about him is that unlike Lennard Zinn or Jobst Brandt, Sheldon never came off as a blow-hard "expert." Rather he was entirely sincere and enthusiastic about his love for all things bike. He also showed his human side, rather than hiding behind a shroud of anonymity on the internet. He would even post at cycling forums under his own name from time to time. I almost felt as though I knew him.

It is strange when there is a real death in a virtual community. I worry about the fate of Sheldon's website. It belongs in the Smithsonian. There was another odd death a few weeks ago--- a teenager who crashed his car on a private runway in Florida, killing himself and four passengers. There was an elaborate postmortem dissecting his postings at a high performance BMW forum. It was fascinating reading his postings after the fact, knowing that his quest for high performance would ultimately lead to his death. There have also been a few deaths noted at roadbikereview.com-- from any number of causes. What is odd is how any number of people leave this online communities by simply no longer participating. They are alive, but sort of fade away. Not unlike all of the abandoned blogs out there, begun with good intentions, then left in a state of stasis-- for there is no decay in a well-designed digital world. If you never update your photo, you never age. Eventually the design elements will pass from fashion, and any external links may soon be broken, but the core content remains for eternity, or at the very least, cached on the waybackmachine.