Sunday, August 28, 2005

Block Island Big Boats

So, just got back from a great weekend on Block Island (south of Rhode Island)... The boat we were staying on was a giant 60 ft Viking yacht named Puppy Love... My first time sleeping overnight on a boat(only 3br, hah), and it was absolutely amazing... I'll post some pictures of the weekend soon --

Sunday, August 21, 2005

advanced traffic theory

The root of all traffic is sheer volume of cars going through a road, but a large portion of traffic is caused by masses of asses...

The problem? A few weeks of drivers ed, and a drivers test that any senile grandmother could pass and you are allowed to drive a vehicle... After that, no further knowledge besides what you pick up from driving day to day... Well I'm a strong proponent of an 'advanced drivers licence' or at least increased education on how to drive offered to the public to help America's roadway problems...

* Use the passing lane for passing, Indian Sprints -- Like a moving chain, this keeps the left lane traffic moving faster, and distributes the risk of being the leader 'speeding'...

* Pull over or Speed up... If someone, or a whole line of cars is queued up behind you, you are the problem. Speed up, find a spot in the right lane, and let the line pass you.

* Brake lights, leave enough room between you and the car ahead to not use your brakes if you are not stopping... look at the line of cars ahead of the car in front of you... If nobody's slowing down, the car in front of you is just an idiot...

* Merging, leave space for one car, let one car go ahead of you from the opposite lane.. Simple, yet many a time I see a person that is 'in a rush' riding up on the car infront to dis-allow a merge, jerk... I hope you get to where you are going .5 seconds faster.

i guess you could call this my information superhighway road rage rant.... comments and stories welcome:

Friday, August 19, 2005

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Family Vacation '05

8/10/2005 Wake-up at 6am, stumble half asleep into family
minivan.... hop on Southwest flight to AZ, drive to
Yapavai lodge and the Grand Canyon...

8/11/2005 Had a great breakfast at El Tovar a nice hotel right on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon... Most of the day afterwards we walked around the South Rim.... wonderful views... caught a sunset that night (see below)


8/12/2005 Headed down towards Sedona, some more spectacular scenery...

8/13/2005 Another day of travel, heading down to San Diego... 7 hour drive... we got an early start on the day and made it to San Diego around 4:00 pm... The hotel is the Island Palms Best Western, on Shelter Island right on San Diego bay.. With the marina off the backyard, and the bay and a view of downtown in the front....

8/14/2005 Checked out Pacific Beach, it has a long fishing pier which extends out into the ocean... Fisherman were pulling up some small sharks, surfers were off to the right catching some waves... and we spent the day in the water off to the left, body and boogie boarding.... The water temperatures were nice.. Ended the day with a great dinner at Joe's Crab Shack (I got some tasty dungeness crab) and a Dairy Queen ice cream while catching a sunset... Made our way back to the hotel and caught a nice relaxing eve in the hot tub and pool overlooking the marina.... pretty good day :)

8/15/2005 way down to mexico


8/16/2005 last day in San Diego...

Cape Ann Sailing - Gloucester Harbor


[click for Gloucester Harbor Webcam]


On Tues/Thurs during August, I head out of this dock and sail around Gloucester harbor for two hours...

Here is a shot of the harbor from the breakwater off of Eastern Point.



I wanted to get a better feel for the Gloucester Harbor area, but most likely I'll join the Sandy Bay Yacht Club in Rockport next year as it's a better deal and you get use/access to a larger fleet of boats....

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Coldplay - Twisted Logic Tour




I get to see Coldplay tonight, looking forward to it :) I really love their old cd's and the new one recently released (X&Y) is more of the old stuff, but new!

So today, August 4th, I'm heading down to the Meadows in Hartford for their US tour opener. I took the following day off from work, and then Sat August 6th I'm checking them out at the Tweeter Center...

...

My brothers Kev and Dan came along with me to the shows, and it was a great time... Saturday we did up right with a nice 4 hour tailgate... Good times..

Clocks ticking....

view the comments below to see the setlist --