Posts in the Travel Category

The title of the post exists mostly because I vowed in a public setting to use it, but there is a story behind it.  I just don’t remember the details right now, because it happened more than 24 hours ago and I’m very tired.  I remember that a small group had gathered at Crepes on Cole for brunch yesterday, and the conversation kept veering wildly from highly geeky to very much the opposite. At some point, the subject of Tantek being in trouble (for a comment? an action? a bug in IE/Mac?) came up, and it was asserted that he needed to be spanked.  (“Oh, yes, yes!  A spanking!  A spanking!”) Then it was observed that we should probably check first with his girlfriend to see if that was acceptable.  So I turned to her and said, “So, is it okay with you if we spank him?”

Her reaction was so priceless (and his nearly as amusing), I ended up teasing both of them about it several times, and I wasn’t alone in the effort, either.  She never did answer the question, so we still don’t know where she actually stands on the subject.  It was a weird day.  Relaxing, but weird.  Early on we were discussing relationships and the subject of polyamory came up.  I speculated that the increasing practice of polyamory might be linked to the rising incidence of attention-deficit disorder.  It’s so crazy, it just might make sense.

Pretty much the opposite of ADD is the viewpoint espoused by the Long Now Foundation, which aims to get people thinking about the next ten milennia as opposed to the next ten minutes.  Tantek and I met up at the Herbst Pavilion to see Brian Eno give a free talk on the Long Now, and there turned out to be an even Longer Line.  With space for 700, and probably 750 in the hall by the time they closed the doors, there were very likely three or four times as many people in line as were eventually admitted.  The talk itself was interesting, and Mr. Eno’s presentation style was done in such a calm, deliberate, paced manner that I felt a little more in touch with the Long Now by the time we left, which may or may not have been done on purpose.  The instant the talk was over, Tantek and I headed out a side door and toward the parking lot at a jog so we could the crowd to their cars; we had no desire to get stuck in a traffic jam trying to leave.  This would be ironic except for the statement I remember from the presentation, that the Long Now perspective is meant to make the world “safe for hurry” by slowing other parts of life a long way down.  So we hurried safely, and benefitted from the effort.  Yay us!

In many ways, I’m intrigued with and approving of the Long Now concept.  If we as a society could take more of a long-term view, we might make different (and hopefully better) choices about how we relate to our surroundings.  If you knew that you’d be around for five centuries, how would you live your life differently?  If you knew humanity would occupy the Earth for the next ten milennia, how might that alter your patterns of behavior?  I’ve generally lived my life employing a long-term perspective, but the longest term I employ tends to be my lifetime.  While I might plan for retirement and how I’ll pay for the education of children I don’t even yet have, I don’t generally make plans that are centered on my great-great-grandchildren, because I will almost certainly never live to meet them.  Does that make them any less real, or worthy of consideration?  Maybe it does, but even the act of deciding that will require a longer view than I usually take.

Clay Shirky’s recent essay on the Semantic Web has stirred enough attention that I had non-techie friends forwarding me the URL.  I found it interesting, especially since over the last few months I’ve been working with a few sharp people on a way to address one of the points Clay touched upon.  We’re almost ready to make our work public, so watch this space for details as well as an addition to this page.

• Tantek == Spanking? was published on Sunday, November 16th, 2003.
• It was assigned to the Personal, Travel, and Web categories.
• There have been no replies.

I’ve been wandering from place to place in the Mission District of San Francisco all afternoon with Doug and Tantek, searching out open WiFi access points that also have open power outlets.  We were hanging out at Maxfield’s for a while, but then a live jazz band started playing and we couldn’t hear each other talk.    So we moved on, and after snacking on some New York-style pizza (!) have now settled in Muddy Waters on Valencia.  What relevance has any of this?  Not a lot, but it’s a great excuse to post an amusing picture Doug took with his Sony Vaio TR1AP.

Seybold starts tomorrow, which means I get to show up at Moscone West way too early in the morning to register, get oriented, and get ready for the panel “Speaking in Tongues,” which will discuss the wide variety of standards and choosing which is best for you.  Later in the day I’ll present “Bridging the Browser Divide,” a look at the state of standards support.  Tuesday, I’ll do “CSS For Navigation,” a slightly reworked version of “Minimal Markup, Surprising Style” (which provided many of the examples in the Listamatic), and then participating in the closing plenary “Future Vision: The Web and Beyond.”

I’d better get some future vision by then, I guess.  Think the audience will take me any less seriously if I tell them the Web doesn’t really matter because we’re due to be subjugated by the barbarian hordes of Pluto in the next three years?  Think anyone took me seriously in that last sentence?

As much as I like visiting San Francisco and hanging out with such cool people, I can’t help looking forward to my return home.  I fly back home on Thursday, which means that for the third year in a row I’ll start September 11th in the San Francisco area.  At least this year I’ll end it back in Cleveland, unlike the last two.  Contrary to the expectations of some people I’ve talked with, I have no apprehension about flying on Thursday.  I figure if there’s one day of the year that’s safest to fly, it’ll probably be that day.  Besides, I’m done with conference and client stuff Wednesday evening, and I intend to get back to Kat as soon as possible.

• Mission Critical was published on Sunday, September 7th, 2003.
• It was assigned to the Personal and Travel categories.
• There have been no replies.

I wrapped up the three-day speaking and training session at Los Alamos National Laboratory yesterday, and it seemed to go really well.  This having been my first multi-day training session, I was a little bit nervous that I might have problems with pacing, but everything seemed to come together just fine.  The attendees certainly were positive about the material, and how much they learned.

Now I’m off to Albuquerque to catch a flight to San Francisco (by way of Houston) for Seybold.  I’ve been four days from home, and have another five before I return.  Kat and I talk at least twice a day, and it seems like every conversation begins and ends with, “I miss you.”

• …the Weird Get Going was published on Saturday, September 6th, 2003.
• It was assigned to the CSS, Speaking, and Travel categories.
• There have been no replies.

So here I am, sitting in Rockin’ Java in the upper Haight, surfing on the free wifi.  All kinds of cool people are (and have been) here, including Matt Haughey, Tantek Çelik, Erika Hall, Scott Andrew, Doug Bowman, Michael Leung, and Merlin.  Some other people have drifted through but I didn’t catch their names.  Sooner or later I ought to buy something.  Or not.

As is always the case for San Francisco, the weather is beautiful and the driving horrendous.  Tight parking I can handle, but the restrictions on turning, one-way streets, and general vehicular topography are a nightmare.  It makes Cleveland Heights look like nothing.  I can well understand the impulse to be a biker in this city, and I’d almost certainly be one if I lived here.

Regardless, it’s a thrill to be sitting with smart folks and talking about whatever comes to mind.  I’m looking forward to more of the same over the next few days.

• Rockin’ WiFi was published on Sunday, March 23rd, 2003.
• It was assigned to the Personal and Travel categories.
• There have been no replies.

In her Web Design World keynote on Wednesday morning, Kelly Goto introduced us all to a “bored genius” and her thoroughly fascinating projects.  Some of my favorites are The BullRide, RealTime / Interface to the Future, Neologues: Bang Interface, Stump, and TreeLogic.

In the past 40 days, I’ve been to three conferences and five cities, two of them twice.  Last night I returned from Boston, and so far as I know I don’t have to board another plane until 2003.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy visiting other places (although the actual traveling isn’t such a thrill) and I love having the chance to see my friends and colleagues at conferences.  It’s just that the last six weeks were a little intense, and I’m glad to have a chance to slow down and relax at home.

I had a fascinating experience last night as we approached Cleveland.  As the plane was descending through a layer of dense snow on its final approach to Hopkins, the plane was struck by lightning.  Okay, I know, the bolt actually jumped from the plane to the air, but still.  Thank God planes are still basically steel tubes with wings.  After all, if you’re going to fling yourself around the sky, you may as well do it in a great big Faraday cage.

• Homecoming was published on Friday, November 22nd, 2002.
• It was assigned to the Personal and Travel categories.
• There have been no replies.

Kat and I are no longer sick, and I’d like to thank everyone who wrote with notes of concern.  Last Thursday, shortly after I wrote the previous entry, we got a call informing us that Kat’s grandmother Ruth had passed away.  This was not an unexpected event, but that doesn’t make the loss easier to bear.  So last Friday afternoon, still sick, we boarded a plane to New York City and were there until last night.  Fortunately we got over our illnesses before the memorial service.

Obviously, e-mail was one of the last things on my mind while we were away, so now that I’m back and it’s foremost again I’ll be trying to catch up before next week’s trip to Boston for Web Design World.  If I don’t, and you wrote me, at least now you know why I seem to be blowing you off.

On a lighter note, I’d like to share one of the best literary interpretations I’ve seen in quite some time.

• A Space Between Silences was published on Thursday, November 14th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the Humor, Personal, and Travel categories.
• There have been no replies.

I’m back from a 26-hour foray to New York City and Meet The Makers, and I’m sick.  So is Kat.  I could feel my temperature going up on the flight home, and my throat is doing its best sandpaper impression.  Of course, we’re both working today, but at reduced capacity.  A bit of a crisis over at css-discuss, and followup mail from yesterday’s event, isn’t helping me get away from the keyboard.  Please do keep sending e-mail, but expect delays in reply.

It’s traditional for me to curl up on the couch and watch The Stand when I get sick, so I think I’ll go do that.  Unless I decide to watch something else.  Whatever.

• «sniffle snork wheeze» was published on Thursday, November 7th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the Travel category.
• There have been no replies.

Kat and I just spent the last five days at Walt Disney World with my parents, sister, and her guy.  The family time—a first, really, as it had very little in common with the family road trips of decades past—was a much-needed break in all the craziness (by substituting for it a different sort of craziness, I suppose) of our recent life.  I got to be a personal bodyguard to the goddess Babylonia, at least for a few minutes, while at the Adventurers’ Club, so that was fun.  We also got to attend Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party on Halloween night itself, and the Imagineers really outdid themselves.  The train station at Main Street USA looked spooky enough that someone asked if it was the Haunted Mansion.

While we were at Disney, we all went to see La Nouba for the first time, and Kat and I saw Quidam last month during its stop in Cleveland.  Both productions were deeply, inexpressibly moving; the artists of Cirque du Soleil have created forms of beauty for which no words exist, and perhaps never should.

• Beauty Without Words was published on Tuesday, November 5th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the Travel category.
• There have been no replies.