tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136987822011-04-21T16:31:47.035-07:00I get interested in things and like holding on to my memories. This is a place for me to do that.Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.comBlogger401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-88777699861519580482007-08-15T13:35:00.001-07:002007-08-15T13:36:47.508-07:00

Listen to Dick Cheney describe why we should not have to gone to Baghdad. This video from 1994 should have been replayed to the present administration before they (and I do mean "they") decided to go there this time.

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-89428675566105621272007-08-10T01:12:00.000-07:002007-08-10T01:17:09.406-07:00

I really want to believe that this this is real. No matter what, an immensely entertaining interview."How do you feel now that you've peaked?""Jonah, do you think it's important to be unattractive to be funny?"

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-19313927337608163062007-08-06T22:30:00.000-07:002007-08-06T22:38:14.779-07:00

I just learned (via Mike Koss on the Blue Dot blog) that Blue Dot has hit a key milestone, surpassing 1 million page views per month. A big "WHOOT!" to the folks over there who continue to keep their heads down and just make progress, despite a lot of drastic changes in the last year. The folks there are data driven and keep making interesting and intelligent changes to the service. Keep it up BD

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-39959120887244851682007-06-28T22:48:00.001-07:002007-06-28T22:48:36.219-07:00

The iconic “Glass House” by Philip Johnson has just been opened up for tours and I would LOVE to take a trip to check it out at some point. It might even give me a great excuse for seeing what that other coast of ours looks like.Apple did a nice little piece on the technology and art direction behind the installations:http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/glasshouse/They’re already booked up into May

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-81026305097194689452007-04-12T08:22:00.001-07:002007-04-12T08:26:58.669-07:00

I just wanted to see how easy it was to put one of the slide shows on the web. As it turns out, very easy...

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-28516891522216581082007-02-16T13:37:00.000-08:002007-02-16T13:53:28.907-08:00

It's been a crazy couple of days. On Valentine's Day, a post on my other blog made it the front of Digg.com, diverting mass amounts of traffic onto my hosting provider in San Francisco. Shortly after that happened, I received a call from some of the folks down there (right as I was about to head to lunch) and they assisted me in the installation of a wordpress caching plugin that kept things up

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1171475294165541242007-02-14T09:48:00.000-08:002007-02-14T09:48:14.226-08:00

Did anybody notice today's "Google" logo? Doesn't it look like "Googe"? I did some very brief digging and found an obscure literary reference for Valentine's Day!read more | digg story

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1167022389558355122006-12-24T20:47:00.000-08:002006-12-24T20:53:09.570-08:00

I hiked up from my aunt and uncle's cabin to the top of the nearby peak via an old eroded road with may downed trees. It's now nothing more than a local trail, illegal for vehicles to traverse. Despite living here for 12 years, nobody in the house had ever been up to the top via the trail. Whole not entirely surprising, that's kind of a shame as the road is beautiful and you get some great views

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1166978448200241292006-12-24T08:33:00.000-08:002006-12-24T08:40:48.210-08:00

Well, when it rains it pours. I've had my house on the market for nearly 3 months and today it gets an offer - for full price. So, to recap, beginning about 4 weeks ago I became unemployed, got turned for multiple jobs for dubious reasons where I was eminently qualified; my basement flooded during the storms, I spent $6500 which did not solve the problem; I had to take loans of money from my

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1163547922477176012006-11-14T15:40:00.000-08:002006-11-14T15:45:22.490-08:00

Click them in order. Listen. Smile. I never thought marching bands could be cool. I stand corrected.

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1162853624719916522006-11-06T14:50:00.000-08:002006-11-06T14:53:44.730-08:00

Somewhere in the lowest circle of hell, in the Gillette Razor Lab, somebody knows an awful lot about my stubble. Here, wayward engineers - people who once wanted to solve important world problems - toil at understanding the delicate sciences of facial friction, shaving cream viscosity, and whisker shear. Demonic overlords with MBAs obsessively track "cost-per-shave," planning expensive marketing

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1161708811836163182006-10-24T09:47:00.000-07:002006-10-24T09:53:31.870-07:00

I went for a 5-mile run this morning in the rain. Boy is that ever the way to wake up!Anyways, I cribbed this smoothie recipe from the October 2006 issue of "Runner's World," modified it a bit to match ingredients I had picked up, and then drank one. It was hella tasty!Without further ado, here is the recipe:1/2 cup pomegranate juice (I use half of one of the little "Pom" bottles)1 orange1 cup

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1160849741789646202006-10-14T10:44:00.000-07:002006-10-14T11:15:43.770-07:00

I love the location of my new home. This morning was the first time I got up, put on the jogging gear and went for a run run on the Burke-Gilman trail. It was the first time I had been able to attempt a jog since injuring my hamstring tendon just prior to the Portland Marathon a few weeks ago. It felt really good to be outside again. While there was a bit of a cold snap when I left the house, the

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1159828263473263872006-10-02T15:19:00.000-07:002006-10-02T15:31:03.496-07:00

Comcast is getting something right! I'm currently in the process of packing up all my belongings and changing abodes. Yesterday, when I called them to switch my service to a new address, they had a new feature that allowed me to retain my place in line, awaiting a customer service rep, but to have them call me back instead of hanging out on hold. Overall, the system worked pretty well. You punch

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1159311216357621232006-09-26T15:47:00.000-07:002006-09-26T15:53:36.366-07:00

Let's see - what do I have going on this week? Hmmm, deploying our next big release at Blue Dot, moving into my new house, running the Portland Marathon this weekend, and getting my current house cleaned up enough to sell. With all of this going on, I picked last night to go wakeboarding and tear part of my hamstring tendon. Lovely. My ever-excellent doctor has indicated that my best chance of

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1154896436093319682006-08-06T13:33:00.000-07:002006-08-06T13:33:56.096-07:00

Hoarding change for a year at a time can really pay off. Every day, I dump all of my change into a heavy duty plastic bag formerly used to hold a comforter. Today I took 42 pounds of change to the Albertson's grocery store on 145th and spent 10 minutes pouring it into the Coinstar machine. The result? A $590 Amazon gift certificate (if you take the gift certificate option there is 0% service

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1150039520473828652006-06-11T08:25:00.000-07:002006-06-11T08:34:06.943-07:00

photo by: www.berlin-sightseeing-tours.deThere's a short piece in "The Economist" this week which attempts to explain why the World Cup is better than the Olympics. 70 years after the 1936 Olympics took place, the Berlin Olympic Stadium is set to host the World Cup finals this year. The article spends most of its time discussing how World Cup has proven itself to be insusceptible to political

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1149963908107433132006-06-10T11:25:00.000-07:002006-06-11T07:19:39.006-07:00

My friend Christie used to loan me her copy of Mogwai's "Come On Die Young," when we worked together as fraud investigators at Amazon.com (weird job, not as exciting as it sounds). It had been a long time since I heard it and so I snapped it up today and have been getting reacquainted with it.What strikes you immediately when listening this album is the opening song. It's a meta-statement about

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1148488144276849772006-05-24T09:29:00.000-07:002006-05-24T09:40:35.426-07:00

Scottish rockers Mogwai played The Showbox last night, once again proving that it is possible to have a perfect rock band with no vocals. Their richly-textured wall of sound is perfect in smaller venues and comes across as much more vital, hot and intense than any of their albums. I highly recommend catching them live wherever and whenever you can.While the band was amazing, there were a number

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1146497773427648362006-05-01T08:36:00.000-07:002006-05-01T08:36:13.466-07:00

Whoa. Stephen Colbert really stuck it to 'em at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. An actual quote: "To actually sit here, at the same table with my hero, George W. Bush, to be this close to the man. I feel like I'm dreaming. Somebody pinch me. You know what? I'm a pretty sound sleeper -- that may not be enough. Somebody shoot me in the face. Is he really not here tonight? Dammit

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1145898142371409722006-04-24T09:15:00.001-07:002006-04-26T09:36:06.646-07:00

Yesterday, while it was bright and a Seattle sunshiney day, I descended the Elliott Bay Book Company steps and went underground to see an author talk about being outdoors in the High Sierra. Pretty ironic now that I think about it but probably a reasonable explanation as to why the crowd was solely myself and an ex-park ranger (that's when I got ther, some stragglers ended up wandering in).Eric

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1145749821953546822006-04-22T16:50:00.000-07:002006-04-22T16:50:21.983-07:00

So step #1 involved getting indignant and deciding to spend $30 to join a group called "Private Citizen." The initial materials for that membership showed up the other day. They have requested my signature and approval for them to start sending letters on my behalf to the largest proprietors of direct/unsolicited mail and telemarketers. For Junk Calls, it authorizes "Private Citizen" as your

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1144767429120174342006-04-11T07:57:00.000-07:002006-04-11T08:01:56.530-07:00

Ivory-billed Woodpecker - The Ivory-billed Woodpecker has been Found in the Big Woods of Arkansas - Ivory-billed birdI believe "The Nature Conservancy" is generally a good organization which does useful work protecting and extending habitats of endangered species. With that said, I am a little angry at the bundle of crap they sent me to try and get me to donate to them recently. The reason I'm

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1144421968894868282006-04-07T07:59:00.000-07:002006-04-07T08:04:01.573-07:00

Michael Abegg, "In a world of her own" Originally uploaded by mrefranklin. I walked around with Sung Kim (thanks for the wine, Sung!) and some of his friends last night at Art Walk. It was a nice time and I saw some great things. Two artists jumped out at me in particular, one in a visceral way and one in an appreciative professional sort of way.The artist I enjoyed viscerally is named

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1144083442707625052006-04-03T09:43:00.000-07:002006-04-03T09:57:22.760-07:00

I went to Whistler this last weekend with a large group of friends and new acquaintances. It was my first time snowboarding this year. For anyone that knows me, that's quite difficult to believe. This is my 18th season snowboarding (good golly that makes me feel old) and I've never ever done less than 10 days in a season. A couple of seasons ago, I had never been fewer than 20 times in a season.

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1143648715331292962006-03-29T08:11:00.000-08:002006-03-29T08:11:55.366-08:00

Rocketboom has an interesting little interview piece with scifi author Bruce Sterling today where they discuss Spimes (the tracking of objects through space and time). Bruce is a proponent of embedding tags into consumer products - in the interview, he uses a shoe as an example - where the tag includes information about the raw materials composing the product. He brings up the great point that

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1143130421576602542006-03-23T08:13:00.000-08:002006-03-23T08:13:41.596-08:00

Nature magazine posted an interesting commentary by Vernor Vinge yesterday. For anybody interested in technology and its applications, this little piece does not have too much new to offer, it stands more as a marker which says "yep, we're on the way to something really cool, the on-demand and hyper-aware future." I did, however, really appreciate the last paragraph:How can we prepare for such a

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1142981528870177742006-03-21T14:49:00.000-08:002006-03-21T14:52:08.890-08:00

I heard a really powerful piece on NPR yesterday exploring the history of the current Iraq war and reviewing the various messages given by the administration for going there.I had had a similar idea a few weeks ago. Another one of those things you think about doing but never quite find the time to do. The idea was to try and put together a pastiche of media, chronologically ordered, of all the

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1142533221065006652006-03-16T09:41:00.000-08:002006-03-16T10:20:21.086-08:00

This morning, prior to coming to work, I looked at the stack of mail that came to me yesterday. The most annoying one I could find, and the one I decided to try and eliminate first, was one of those newspaper type fliers addressed to "resident." I thought I remembered reading that you could remove yourself from any mailing list where the sender did not have your name associated with the address

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1142457696213507442006-03-15T12:59:00.000-08:002006-03-15T15:48:59.163-08:00

I am contemplating a potential life experiment (aka "lifehack") to cut down on the clutter and be generally nicer to the environment. Here is the issue: as an avid reader, I consume my fair share of paper-product. I'm a self-confessed media whore, buried under weekly and monthly magazine subscriptions, crap mail, and books on my "to-read" shelf. So this is the idea: Cancel every magazine

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1142357981313616872006-03-14T09:28:00.000-08:002006-03-14T09:39:41.326-08:00

Step right up to see the hideous, the horrible, the putrescent, Human Guinea Pig. Yep, that's me. Up at "o'dark thirty," I've already been the subject of a University of Washington Psychology experiment this morning. While it might make a better story to say that I've volunteered myself to science to pad my income, it's not really true. I went to help out a friend who is working on her PhD. It

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1142007693418619412006-03-10T08:21:00.000-08:002006-03-10T08:23:57.500-08:00

The Wet Spot Tropical Fish Originally uploaded by mrefranklin. This business is right near my friend Jeff's house in Portland. Makes me wonder about the shop's clientele.

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1142006170308928952006-03-10T07:56:00.000-08:002006-03-10T07:56:10.316-08:00

I was talking to some folks from work about this over lunch the other day. It appears that some sort of compromise of consumer credit info, on a massive scale, has recently occurred. The scary thing about the particular breach is that the thieves appear to also have been able to garner PIN numbers for many of these cards. I had no idea that many businesses can/do maintain your PIN number on their

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1142005642150676652006-03-10T07:47:00.000-08:002006-03-10T07:47:22.186-08:00

According to the Writely blog, this is no longer a rumor. Google has indeed purchased the online word processor company. In fact, Writely has stopped allowing new users until they fully integrate into the Google Borg. Alas, I had nearly signed up for Writely several times. Now, due to my hesitation, I must wait...read more | digg story

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1141861663928336842006-03-08T15:35:00.000-08:002006-03-08T15:47:43.940-08:00

Most of you are aware that I work for a company called Blue Dot which has been working on a top-secret project building the Blue.Us (pronounced "Blue-dot-us") website. Well, today we hit a pretty big milestone and have put out a release that allows users to invite other users. So, if you haven't heard of us yet, hopefully you will soon. We'll see whether the site starts to take off now or not. I

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1141604905482430422006-03-05T16:25:00.000-08:002006-03-05T16:38:59.646-08:00

Old clip but something I just rediscovered. Thank you internet! I remember how excited I was about this when it happened. I was watching the Tori benefit concert on tv (I used to be quite a fan) and she brought out Maynard to sing with her (Maynard being the front-man of major hard rock band "Tool" and the lyricist for songs named things like "Prison Sex" and "Opiate"). Now, thanks to YouTube, I

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1141595146082425482006-03-05T12:44:00.000-08:002006-03-05T14:11:33.173-08:00

I picked up Ray Kurzweil's "The Singularity is Near" for a second time today and read through the first chapter. I'm not exactly why/how I put the book down the first time but perhaps it was because the overall idea is so transformative and important that it takes a while to seep in. The premise is simply this: the pace of human-created technology is accelerating with the result of a "Singularity

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1130361675746922022005-10-26T14:21:00.000-07:002005-10-26T14:21:15.753-07:00

 

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1129914393387426352005-10-21T09:28:00.000-07:002005-10-21T10:10:21.333-07:00

I was in Vegas at a trade show with my manager as the last presidential election occurred. Both of us were stunned when it became apparent that. in spite of all logic, the US populace was granting another 4-year term to the worst president either of us had seen in our lifetimes. My manager was sullen. I was incredulous.I actually feel sorry for GW. I think he honestly believes that he is making

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13698782.post-1129910988713893392005-10-21T01:52:00.000-07:002005-10-21T09:15:11.880-07:00

Investment Club Notes - October 2005This is going to be a pretty dry first post but I want to just check this service out and see if I like it more than my other blog. ---My good friend Jeff Taylor came into town from Portland last night for our investment club meeting. Scott Howard also attended his first meeting and indicated that he and Tam would like to join.The meeting was pretty valuable

Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083910422278292586noreply@blogger.com0