Tag: United States

Facebook No Better Than the NSA!

y now everyone knows that our own government is spying on us all—hundreds of millions of innocent Americans. Astonishingly to me, no one seems to much care. I do, actually. Facebook seems to be spying on us too1, even speaking on our behalf. Here are some recent examples I have experienced personally: 1. About 3 years ago I was house… Continue reading

The American Dream by David the Painter

We are having some inside touchup work done before selling the house to return to Atlanta for a few years. (Do you like how I snuck that in there?) Through the years, our painter of choice has been David, an amiable fellow with a delightful British accent. He’s from the UK, London, I think. I suspect he’s about my age.… Continue reading

New Zealand: Day 12 – Mount Aspiring National Park

Breakfast This morning we had a delicious breakfast with numerous treats all prepared by our breakfast chef, Sarah. She is in her early 20s and is from San Luis Obispo, CA. Talking with her was interesting. I asked her why she chose to work down here in New Zealand. She replied that when she realized she could live any where… Continue reading

New Zealand: Day 6 – Mount Cook [Updated]

Weather The weather here is very changeable to be sure, but today, near the base of Aoraki Mount Cook, the weather was mostly the same: heavy, low cloud cover and constant drizzle or rain. We never saw Mount Cook. In fact, a few times we couldn’t see anything. We had scheduled a private flight around the mountain range, including a… Continue reading

New Zealand: Day 5 – To Mount Cook National Park

We began our day by shooting a couple of panos of French Bay. The morning light was very nice on the rocky beach along the coast. Then, we were off to breakfast. We had a long drive ahead of us: 385 km (about 5 – 6 hours drive time depending on the number of stops for photos). The trip was… Continue reading

New Zealand: Day 3 – Travel Day to Christchurch

Preparing for the Journey We got up really early (4:45am) to pack and then had an early breakfast in the cold restaurant at Hotel Blue. Next, we took a taxi to the airport. I’m not sure what the issue was, but something was odd about our tickets to New Zealand. It took some time, but the agents fixed whatever the… Continue reading

New Zealand: Day 2 – Visiting in Sydney, Australia, with “Old” Friends

Early Morning We ate breakfast at the hotel. The main commons areas of Hotel Blue is freezing cold in the mornings, and I was to learn why, shortly after breakfast. I must confess that the breakfast bar is not the strong suit of this hotel. Their food is a bit chi chi—for example, I had the “juice cleanse.” It was… Continue reading

For Your Safety and Security

The fact that you’re reading this has been logged by your government and will be indefinitely retained for future analysis.” Source: Boing Boing And I was thinking: What has the total, blanket surveillance of our country done to the confidentiality of sources for journalists? Kinda limits what gets exposed, I guess.… Continue reading

Tesla Road Trip: Vacaville Supercharger

We took our first road trip in Nick—driving to Martinez for a bit of business1. We then decided to head up to Vacaville for lunch. We wanted to visit the Vacaville supercharger station. We really didn’t need to charge, but the whole idea was to try it out. This was our first supercharger experience. It’s free. It’s blazing fast. You… Continue reading

Your Local Police Militarization

Does this not concern anyone but me?! Does this make you feel safer??! This is insane! We are running in the wrong direction as fast as we can. Why? Police militarization is hurting the wrong people. Is government anticipating our running out of drinking water because of all of the fracking poisoning the drinking water or because of the depletion… Continue reading