Last week I realized that there was a Caltrain station called Blossom Hill and I already knew there was one about 20 minutes walk from my office. So the question is - can I replace my commute with Caltrain? I spent about 30-45 minutes in the morning driving to work, and about an hour driving home. That's not intolerable or anything, but it is relatively dead time. I looked a bit at it, and decided I could. The train trip is 55 minutes each way, so it takes me longer, but I spend that time with my laptop, or with a book, or with my GBA. That's a win in my book. Thus begins the comedy. The only real issue is that 20 minute walk twice a day. That's not terrible, but the trains that stop at Blossom Hill are somewhat infrequent, and I can't quite make all of the times work out the way I'd like. So Sunday I go out and buy some rollerblades. Mind you, I've never gone rollerblading, only gone ice skating once in college, and haven't been rollerskating since I was . . . six? So I try them out on Sunday evening, go around the block at home. Hmmm. Well I'll learn as I go right? I mean if I get tired or something I can always take the blades OFF and walk the rest of the way. Monday morning I leave bright and early (that's sarcasm - I leave before sunup) and drive over to the Blossom Hill VTA stop. Only catch - there's no Caltrain here. WTF? I actually called Karin and had her look on the web - the "Blossom Hill" stop is on Monterrey Highway. (frown) So I drive out that way, but I'll end up missing the 6:30 train and the next train is like almost an hour later. No biggie, I'll just hop 101 and drive on Monday. Tuesday - hah now I know the address. I'm unstoppable! And indeed I ride the train to Menlo Park and write on my Mac the whole hour-long ride, blocking out everything else with the handy combo of iTunes and my wonderful canalphones. Sweet! However, the Menlo Park sidewalks aren't very rollerblade-friendly for Mr. "This is the second time I've even put on rollerblades", and balancing my backpack with lunch, laptop, etc. is trickier than I anticipated. I did go almost the entire way before I decided I was tired enough to take them off. And I cut the 20 minute walk down to just half an hour! Yay! So on the plus side I snarf the new Hitchhiker's radio episode at work, slap it onto the iPod and then during the walk and train ride listen to the first two episodes of series 3. Woot! Honestly even if I have to walk, this is still an awesome plan. After HHTG finishes I flip over to the lovely Classics Regrooved album mentioned before and read the latest issue of Analog SF magazine. Digging the train. Plan B. I get a Razor folding scooter Tuesday evening. Right now it's Wednesday morning, slightly before 7 AM and I'm on the train writing this. I'll let you know how the scooter works out when I get to work :-) (Later in the day) - The scooter gets a thumbs up! I only used it about halfway - apparently 32 years of video games doesn't leave you with the best physical conditioning! Who knew? But even so it cut down the walk time, and if I get into good enough shape to use it the ENTIRE way, then I'll be styling!

Muwahahahahahaha! Being the copyright scalawag I am I sorted out the necessary bits to timeshift episode 1 of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Tertiary Phase" all the way to a CD-R and stashed it for my impending drive home. Alas, I didn't have any CD-R's handy in the office. So I had to go to Best Buy - where I had to purchase the Star Wars DVD's. And a copy of Dog's Life for PS2. They didn't have Katamari Damacy sadly. So yeah you got that right, I'm planning on listening to HTTG on the way home, and then probably watching Star Wars. If I could work in some Star Trek and Lord of the Rings it would be the geek hat-trick of all time. On a more serious cultural note - this HTTG thing is interesting. Follow me here - I'm timeshifting a *BBC radio broadcast* by about a day and a half. Oh, and across the Atlantic and all of North America. If we could ever work out the stupid digital rights nonsense this is just how everything *should* work. Neat!

Haikus are old school Mocking wrapped up nicely Always to hate Jeff

So Bwana rags on me for not posting in a while, which is true. I did actually write a post late Saturday night, but I hit the wrong key and closed the browser window that contained it. Which was too bad, because I estimate that it was 8 times more fabulous than I expect this post to be. I'd expect posting to be light until early September. We close on the house on the 31st, and the movers expect to find everything packed on the morning of September 1st :-) Which is a shame in a lot of ways, because a lot of good stuff is afoot. I'll touch on the high notes, and people can ask about things they are curious about: - Doom 3, natch - I'm planning on NOT wiring the new house for networking. In preparation I upgraded from my Netgear 802.11b access point to an Airport Extreme (Apple-speak for 802.11g) base station and an Airport Express in the living room. That was a smart move on my part, because the Airport Express took about three hours of cursing and rebooting to get right. It's plug and play NOW, but getting it there was a pain. In fairness, it worked out of the box, but getting it to work with the Airport Extreme as a range extender (via WDS) was a pain. But it does work now, and I've played the PS2 online over the wireless link. I've also streamed video over it, and I've used the digital audio out from the Airport Express to stream iTunes to the stereo. - My current IDSL is a paltry 144k down/144k up line. The new house is scheduled to have 6 *MEG* down/768k up. So that makes me feel all tingly. Look for a snappier hiddenjester.com in September! :-) - The whole laptop crash took my "cancel my free Xbox live subscription" note with it, so MS managed to charge me for a year RIGHT before my credit card expired :-) So I have a real Live account again now. Debate about whether ESPN NHL 2005 should be purchased on PS2 or Xbox has officially commenced. - I've almost finished playing through Warcraft III on my Mac, and will commence on the expansion (which I never played on PC). The thing about War III is that it was "free" to me - since I can use the CD I bought for PC back when War III originally shipped. Which is super-cool but it does raise the question about how many other games could I just pull out of the closet, reinstall, and have a blast playing. It's been long enough that it's almost like a brand new game - I don't remember much of the Warcraft III storyline or play experience at this point.