Google Reader Trick: Mobile + Sidebar
User of Google Reader? Tired of constantly loading the website to check for new items? Found this trick while cruising the interwebs yesterday:
- Visit https://www.google.com/reader/i/ — the mobile version of Google Reader
- Using Firefox, bookmark the page (you are using Firefox, right?). Throw it into your Bookmarks Menu
- Go Bookmarks->Organize Bookmarks and single click the bookmark
- Click the “More” button at the bottom of the window
- Check the “Load this bookmark in the sidebar” button
- Double-click the bookmark and watch as a Firefox sidebar gets tacked onto your browsing window. Now you can just refresh whenever you want without having a separate window or tab open.
Enjoy!(Tip o’ the hat to David Griffiths)
Moving (again)
My peoples,Erin and I have some news for you. Rather than stress and worry about who to tell when and in what order, we’ve decided to write you all.
Long story short: we’re moving! (shocking, right?)In a nut shell, my job has required me more and more to be in San Francisco. As our company has grown, the San Francisco office has grown large, while the office I’m at in Santa Monica has gotten smaller and smaller. Because most of the work that I do requires me to be in San Francisco, I’ve had to drastically increase my travel up there — sometimes up there every other week. This travel schedule has taken its toll on our little family. This past trip, I missed Ava’s first words (“da da”). The trip before, I missed the first time she crawled and her first teeth. Erin and I seem to catch up only through email and the occasional phone call. Frankly, the idea of continuing this pattern in the months to come is simply not an option for us.So, we’re moving to San Francisco in January.Obviously, there are some big drawbacks to moving: primarily leaving behind both our extended families in San Diego and also our tight group of friends in Los Angeles. However, keeping our little family together more often is top priority for us. We do plan to make frequent trips back to San Diego to see everyone.Well, I guess that’s about it. We’ve put a lot of time and thought into this decision and we’re ready to make the jump into a new life in a new city. We now request your love/support/prayers for us as we venture off to a city neither of us know very well. We’re very excited for this new chapter in our lives in such an amazing and vibrant city. Stay connected with us online (Skype/Twitter/Facebook) — we’ll make sure to send you plenty of updates.Love,J, E & aps For further insight or details, shoot us an email or give us a call!pps By the way, we’ll miss you, (insert your name here) the most! You were always our favorite.
Desert, Stars, and the TSA
We had big plans last weekend of taking a group of our friends out to Joshua Tree. Having spent so much time out there the last two years rock climbing and camping, I figured our friends would enjoy the quiet solitude, campfire, and starry nights. I guess I was wrong.
Although we locked down the date over 4 months ago, our small circle of friends all lead very busy lives. Like clockwork, we got our first call Tuesday night — the wife was sick and they were staying home. We got our second call soon afterwards — there was some volunteer work that randomly planned some training this weekend. And with 4 of the 10 people cancelling, the others decided it would be no fun as a partial group.
Frankly? I couldn’t care less! I’ve spent more than my fair share of nights alone in Joshua Tree, staring into a fire and enjoying the alone time… of course, I was very excited to share the beauty of this place with our friends, but getting to spend the weekend alone with my wife was a perfectly acceptable replacement.
Friday was spent simply walking around the park, enjoying the “nature loops” setup by the park service. Every 20ft or so, a new sign would point out plants and animals and give you some background on the area you’re in. I always hated History class, but there’s something different about actually seeing history. Seeing relics of the past (including a handful of pictographs), reminded me of my time growing up in Northern Virginia — a place littered with hands-on American History. We finished the day doing a 90ft climb to the top of a rock to watch the sunset. Afterwards, we drove into town to find the best in small-town dining: Applebee’s.
Saturday was full of bouldering. My good friend (and very good climber) Aron joined us for the day. My wife is a great encourager and she enjoys watching us climb. (I’ll spare you the rest of the details as I can see my blog starting to become dreadfully unbalanced with climbing posts). The day was capped off with a big campfire, some roasted chicken breasts, a big bottle of Fat Tire, and a great chat with my lady-friend.
We climbed a bit more Sunday morning before heading back to LA. Once home, my wife left for her mother’s as I prepared for a week-long work trip to San Francisco. Although my trip was a productive one, there’s something jarring to the soul when you experience such a drastic change in mindsets. One day you’re sitting beside a fire, bundled up in a big poofy coat and beanie, staring at a sky lit up like a Christmas tree … the next, you’re dealing with cab lines, TSA, and expense reports. I guess that’s why we take pictures.
I'm a PC. And I'm miserable.
i’m a PC - and i do boring, ordinary, every day things. please make me an operating system that works like I do. make it boring, ordinary, and lacking in innovation. oh, and let is SHRED my hard drive on startup, too…i LOVE that. oh, i almost forgot! could you make it somewhat stable until about 3 months of heavy usage — then let all the applications start colliding in registry hell. oh and let it take 5-10 minutes to boot up then, too. that’ll give me time to drink the crappy office coffee before i can actually do any work
Tram Cleanup
Robert Miramontes (author of the Bouldering Guide to Joshua Tree) put together a cleanup day this past weekend at the Tram.
40+ folks showed up to “climb&clean.” The Miramontes’ (Rob and wife Christina) passed out trashbags and even gave everyone a raffle ticket. A few local climbing companies donated gear for the raffle. I went up early Saturday AM with wife and baby. This was Ava’s first trip up the mountain, and she did great.
I managed to tick 2 of the 3 climbs I wanted to do: “Like A Virgin”, and “Standing on the Head of the Dragon.” (the 3rd is “Methane”, but it was too hot to work on this problem). Part of the “cleanup kit” included rubber gloves to cleanup…anything that we found that we didn’t want to touch. I decided instead to use the gloves as part of a photo shoot in homage to “Like A Virgin.”
(please forgive the crude innuendo)
Quote of the Day (year? phase of my life?)
“So let me guess,” she says, “you are the guy doing the software.”
“Yeah,” he admits, a little defensive, “but the software is the only interesting part of this whole project. All the rest is making license plates.”
That wakes her up a little. “Making license plates?”
“It’s an expression that my business partner and I use,” Randy says. “With any job there’s some creative work that needs to be done — new technology to be developed or whatever. Everything else — ninety-nine percent of it — is making deals, raising capital, going to meetings, marketing and sales. We call that stuff making license plates.”
— Crytonomicon, Neal Stephenson
20 Point Traverse
Cruised down south to hang with the in-laws this past weekend. Spent most of our time driving from grandparent to grandparent so they could all see the baby. Now that all 7 great-grandparents and both sets of grandparents have seen her, hopefully next week’s trip will be a little more relaxing.
Despite the hectic schedule, I managed to find time for climbing. Since it’s so freakin’ hot, the only option was to wake up at 5:30am and get to the boulders before it got too hot.
I usually hate climbing at Santee — I’m not a big fan of dime-edged feet and relying solely on the quality and stiffness of your shoes. However, my buddy Jon took me to a new boulder I’d never climbed on: the “20 Point Boulder.” It had a few very unique and gymnastic climbs — very rare for the area. I ticked one v4 and began working on a traverse that a friend had told us was a v2.
My only guess is that the problem lost a foothold somewhere during a recent fire, because that climb was not a v2. By the time I figured out the sequence, the sun was roasting the rock and I failed to finish. Unfortunately, I then spent the rest of the day thinking about the climb…which meant another early morning trip to Santee. I figured out some new beta and sent early Sunday morning.
20-Point Traverse. V4.
Home Gym
With the move to our new apartment, we’re now in a weird location — between 2 climbing gyms, and neither of them near work, home, or in-between. Add to that the fact that my shoulder injury has had me side-lined for almost 2 months and I’m one weak climber of late.
I went out last weekend to the Tram and to Black Mtn and felt heavy and week. V3’s were hard, and that made me sad. So I broke down and decided to do some working out at home.
Behold! My awesome home gym!!
Black Mountain
I went up to Black Mountain (near Idyllwild, CA) yesterday with some friends to rock climb. Here’s a pic of me working on The Visor (v6).
Hi there, I'm Jon.
Writer. Musician. Adventurer. Nerd.
Purveyor of GIFs and dad jokes.