Californication

Miami Beach is een (schier)eiland dat vlak ten westen van het eigenlijke Miami ligt, met een aantal lange noord-zuid lopende boulevards die afgezoomd zijn met hotels en andere bouwwerken in Art Deco-stijl; de Miami-interpretatie wordt ook wel ‘Tropical Deco’ genoemd. Als Miami in feite een beetje Havana is, dan is Miami Beach een beetje de Bahama’s: witte stranden, palmbomen, sun, sea enfin u kan het zich inbeelden. En het is hier inderdaad een ongelooflijke party-place: onbestaande sluitingsuren en een liberale consumptie van alcoholische dranken zijn de norm (overheerlijke cocktails in het bijzonder) - toch wel redelijk on-Amerikaans allemaal - Cubaanse danstenten, drag queens (jaja, Miami is ook een beetje San Francisco), clubs en restaurants met zwembad, schaars geklede zwoele schoonheden enzovoort. Don Johnson heeft ons geen blaaskens wijsgemaakt. En aangezien ik hier uit wetenschappelijke motieven ben, plan ik enig empirisch onderzoek terzake uit te voeren.

(betere foto’s volgen hopelijk - morregen)

Unlike what you may suspect, the goal of my trip is not goofing off in the Keys or partying in Miami Beach, but to attend a scientific conference. MEMS 2005 is indeed taking place in Miami this year and I’m attending. In fact, I’m livebloggin’ it since there’s Wifi in the conference rooms. Here is some fruit of my labor.

Dit is het aangewezen vervoermiddel in en rond Key West. We hebben een tochtje rond het eiland gemaakt, van de Golf van Mexico (westkant) langs het ‘legerbasis-eiland’ Boca Chica over de Atlantische oceaan (oostkant), de cruiseschepen naar de Caraiben in de haven passerend, terug tot ons startpunt. Het bleek een uitermate opwindende ervaring. Ik denk dat ik het wel gewoon zou kunnen worden op Key West.

Key West: ‘most southern city in the US’, and the most western islet of a string of islands called the Florida Keys, springing from the south tip of Florida, in between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Ernest Hemingway used to live here and drink mojito’s. So do many others. What I am doing here will become clear in later days, for now, check out the view from my hotel room below:

Het is weer van dat: mountain lion sightings rond PARC!
Een interne mail:

“SAP Labs located at 3410 Hillview was contacted by the City of Palo Alto this morning regarding another mountain lion sighting on its Deer Creek campus. Once again, we remind you to use extra precaution when walking in, and around PARC’s Hillview and Coyote Hill campuses. Please contact PARC Security to report any such sightings.”

Het zorgt alvast voor ietwat meer opwinding dan pakweg de konijnenplaag indertijd rond de Leuvense universiteitscampus.

This is fascinating reading (via John Batelle): an ‘inside Google’ blog from an ex-Microsoftie newly hired by Google; blog has supposedly been pulled (the link is a Yahoo-cache), for reasons still unknown. Not sure if it’s a hoax or not, but from a friend that used to work for Google in Mountain View I heard similar stories: the free lunches and dinners, company ski trips etc (didn’t hear about the on-site dentist though). In a sense, Google seems to mimic the stereotypical Japanese corporate style (’the Company will take care for you’), however, with a ‘work=play’ twist. Will we see an on-site pub or movieplex soon? So why was the blog pulled (if true): where some of the more stinging comments ‘impugning Google’s integrity’?
Btw, did this company party in San Francisco last friday perhaps take place in Gordon Biersch? We wanted to get a beer there that time, just to find the place closed off for some humongous private party…

Weren’t Republicans about cutting government spending or something?
Or, ‘what daddy did I can do much better…’

(from Yahoo)

In the first half of the twentieth century Henry Coe used to own and run a big ranch in the Diablo mountain range south east of San Jose; in the fifties, after his passing, his family donated the land to Santa Clara County, and it went on to become the largest (non-desert) state park of California. It is beautiful, huge and rugged, and one of my favorite mountain bike playgrounds in the area, with steep climbs, rolling singletrack, numerous entertaining creek crossings and rough descents. The last couple of days we’ve been experiencing a weird inversion-type weather system in the Bay Area - foggy and chilly in the valleys, sunny and warm at higher elevations. And so, on this January the 23th we went biking in Henry Coe Park, enjoying t-shirt temperatures under a blue sky and heavy sun (not so back east), with incredible vistas ranging from the South Bay over the Monterey Peninsula and the Central Valley to the snowcapped peaks of the Sierra Nevada. So let’s move into photoblog mode again:

Here I go, crossing the creek in motion blur

Near the Fractal Tree

T fighting the shadows

Needless to say, it was a great day. Everybody survived the fearsome descent over Grizzly Gulch well, and soon we found ourselves enjoying some nice food and Hefeweizen in Los Gatos. I was so wasted (from the ride, not the beer!) that I didn’t even make it to the New Year’s reception of the Belgian Club of Northern California in SF - sorry, good BCNC-folks!

(picture courtesy of VII Photo Agency)

If you always thought your boss was a psycho, you may have been on to something: here’s an article linking to some scientific analysis on the matter…

Meer foto’s! Record-sneeuwhoogtes in de Sierra’s + opklaren van het weer betekent immers: skien in Tahoe. Vrijdag: Heavenly Valley, waar het geweldig tree-skien is (zal ik dit vertalen als ‘boomskien’? - foto hierboven): de Dipper Trees, Mott Canyon, Skyway Glades vormen een fantastische speeltuin - wel oppassen dat je Sonny Bono niet navolgt.
De hogere pistes in Heavenly bieden ook geweldige uitzichten over de Carson Valley aan de oostkant van de Sierra’s, in Nevada (zie foto).

De Carson Valley is doorgaans een dorre woestenij, maar nu was ze warempel volledig met sneeuw overdekt (dit gebeurt uiterst zelden heb ik mij laten wijsmaken).
Zaterdag dan: Kirkwood, met zijn schitterende mogelijkheden tot backcountry skiing (off-piste skien). Door de meer-dan-normale sneeuwval lagen sommige gedeelten er ietsje anders bij dan normaal; op de foto hieronder bijvoorbeeld is een heuse ‘crevasse’ te bewonderen (scheur in het ijs), ongeveer een vijftal meter diep, op een plaats waar normaal gezien een ‘cornice’ is (ijs-overhang) genaamd The Wave (zie deze foto van verleden jaar).

Zoals gezegd, het backcountry-skien in Kirkwood is niet mis, en hieronder zie je S in redelijke stijl een steile ‘chute’ uitkomen - door de vele sneeuw lagen deze nauwe kokers tussen de rotsen er vrij uitnodigend bij (doorgaans moet je daar stukken ijs verwachten - en spektakulaire schuifpartijen). Uiteindelijk werd het een uitermate geslaagde tweedaagse, zonder al te veel brokken, die de lange rit meer dan waard was.

Cassini-Huygens entering Titan’s atmosphere now.
Curious to see what’s down there…

Riding Arizona
There would be incredible riding in the Phoenix area, I was being told, near South Mountain Park, aka ‘the world’s largest metropolitan park’. South Mountain, also SoMo, is indeed only about a 5 minute drive from downtown Phoenix. And it turned out to be almost too good to be true: the bike shop where I rented (Cactus bikes) was right next to the trailhead and the trails were rocky, beautiful, awesome and ultra-technical at times! The more technical the trails are the better of course, as they explore your mental and physical limits, and send gushes of undiluted adrenaline through your body (if you make it), horrid pain (if you crash) or sincere humbleness (if you walk). I did a loop comprising the National Trail and the Mormon Trail - National is a true gem amidst an abundance of granite and cacti… except for a creaking pivot on my rental Jamis, the ride was of a zen-like quality.

Running Arizona
On sunday January 9, 2005 Phoenix’s Rock ‘n roll Marathon would take place. About 30000 participants and many more spectators were expected. The finish line was in Tempe, college town and suburb of Phoenix - though ’suburb’ isn’t the right word. The Valley of the Sun, a desert plain that is scorching in the summer and more than pleasant in the winter, is basically one humongous metropolitan area comprising Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe and a bunch of other cities, characterized by a San Jose-style type of urban sprawl. It has a definite ‘Western’ feel to it. It attracts hords of ‘winter birds’ and retirees and is growing seriously - not unlike Vegas. R wasn’t very impressed by her performance in the half-marathon - I was and thought she was looking more gorgeous than ever. It was a nice and sunny day, the crowds were huge and there were a bunch of bands playing along the course (hence the ‘Rock ‘n roll’).

Rainy (and snowy) Arizona
After the race we left for Sedona. It had started raining, and at the higher elevations, snowing, so the red rocks got a nice white coating. No hiking or biking today, but that didn’t really matter. More pics here…

Arizona in the winter: bliss! A bad weather forecast essentially means here: ‘Clouds are blocking the sun once and a while’. This is the land of little fluffy clouds and deep blue skies with incredible sunsets. What I’m doing here? Mountain biking South Mountain, and rooting for R in Phoenix’s Rock ‘n roll Marathon. More later!
(thanks to the - almost - free WiFi at my hotel)

The Evil Emperor, in an effort to demonstrate ‘the digital lifestyle’ during the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, demonstrated instead that he’s not immune for that unique user experience every soul using his software experiences: crashing machines. As to elaborate on his point, he let a collaborator demonstrate in addition the Blue Screen of Death. And this is all but the first time they’re making this point. What’s the deal? They want to make sure that we suckers better accept the utter unreliability and flakiness of every product that rolls out of Redmond? That we won’t need to even consider bitching about it? Is this a sublime showing of arrogance and cynicism - or did the machine indeed just crash? The Mogul of Lake Washington lowered himself even more by comparing open-source advocates to communists.
In related news, the White Knight of Cupertino seems to be subject to a serious disturbance in the Force, as he started this frivolous and completely ridiculous lawsuit.

All is quiet on New Year’s Day according to U2, not so this time. Serious winterstorms were raging in the Sierra’s, and we were making our way to Tahoe, enduring blazing snow showers and dodging pick-up trucks spinning out in front of us. But my Subaru served us beautifully (anti-lock brakes + all wheel drive is a winning combination on icy mountain roads) and redemption was near. No skiing this time, but snowshoeing around the Tahoe shoreline, and towards Fallen Leaf Lake. And buffet in Harrah’s.