life, coding, technology, outdoors, photography
iPhone OS 3.0 was released today. One of the features I was most looking forward to is the ability to copy and paste.
So, here is a test blog post. I'm emailing a few photos taken with my iPhone that I copied from a photo album.
Here's to technology!
Things have been relatively quiet on this end. You might wonder what's going on.
I've been feverishly working with a few other fine folks on a new website.
Hoping to officially launch in the near future.
Stay tuned.
Recently, the National Basketball Association and Nike teamed up to produce a series of commercials for the NBA playoffs, featuring puppet versions of arguably the best two players in the game: The Lakers' Kobe Bryant and the Cavaliers' LeBron James. Two of them in particular are quite amusing to me.
The first commercial features Kobe bragging about the three championship rings that he has won, compared to zero for LeBron.
The second video features LeBron and Kobe challenging each other to a game of 1 on 1.
Photo by Meghan Pecaut
This past weekend, a group of friends and I ventured four hours north of San Francisco, to California's beautiful and isolated Lost Coast for a weekend of backpacking.
We stayed in driftwood shanties that were located south of the abandoned Punta Gorda Lighthouse.
One of the most exciting events this weekend, was an encounter with a lone elephant seal on the beach. While casually walking down the beach on Saturday afternoon near the lighthouse, we noticed a lone seal following us. We stopped and watched it come closer and took photos as it approached our group. The seal was adorable, though we couldn't help but wonder if something was wrong with it. A lone seal approaching 6 adult humans didn't seem like normal behavior. We indulged it for a little while, took some more photos, noted that it had an orange tag labeled 21940, and then we moved on (it still tried to follow us for a bit).
About 200 yards down the beach, we approached a pod of seals sun bathing. As we came closer, they became alert and scampered away from us and into the water. A striking difference from the previous seal encounter.
Curious about this whole situation, I did some research on seals and sea lions when we returned home. Courtesy of The Marine Mammal Center, I found out that animals with an orange tag had been rescued and rehabilitated at some point. I wrote them an email, detailing our encounter, sharing the photos, and was curious to find out more. They promptly wrote back!
Dear Dave, Thank you for the information. The animal you saw with the tag was an elephant seal pup that we released at Chimney Rock in Point Reyes National Seashore on 5/13/09. This female weaned pup was sighted post release at Baker Beach in San Francisco on 5/17/09. We always appreciate post-release reports and pictures of our previous patients. The behavior you experienced with this pup, commonly referred to as Buzz, is unfortunately not uncommon for recently release elephant seal pups. This pup spent nearly 2 months with us learning how to forage and compete for food; it was simply malnourished upon rescue. During rehabilitation it is difficult to avoid the patients associating people as a food source. Elephant seals in general are not fearful of people, but particularly pups that have been in rehabilitation are reported as approaching people in a curious manner. The behavior of the group of seals sounds very typical of harbor seals, which are very skittish of people; so I suspect you were seeing entirely 2 separate species. Thanks again for your reports and let me know if you have any further questions. Shelbi
Fascinating! "Buzz" was observed here in San Francisco, at Baker Beach, just over a week ago. Since then, she's managed to travel over 200 miles north. Buzz seems to be a pretty good name for her. Here's to hoping she makes a full recovery and leads a productive life!
Thanks to Shelbi and The Marine Mammal Center for their prompt response to my curiosity.
Anyway, the trip was a blast, and it is one of my favorite hikes that I've ever done in California.
A new documentary is out in theaters. It's called "Objectified" and is all about design. It looks pretty interesting. I can't wait to see it.
Some photos I took in Golden Gate Park last week.
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Last.FM is one of my favorite sites on the internet. Not only does it do a great job of recommending music based on my previous listening history, it also does allows me to type in a tag/genre/phrase and listen to good music found within it.
I often like to play their "New Zealand radio station" and listen to some of the music I heard while gallivanting around the country a number of years ago.
While listening to that station, I stumbled across this band from New Zealand, called The Tutts.
Good old, indie rock.
Another good band from New Zealand (and a CD I even picked up while in the country) is Fat Freddy's Drop. Definitely some nice, laid back music.
And if we're talking about New Zealand bands, we can't forget Flight of the Conchords!
Updated: A lot of people have been stumbling across this post after becoming frustrated with the California EDD. Scroll down to read the comments for some help, and my tip about emailing the EDD.
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Back in August, I was laid off from my job as a geologist for an environmental consulting firm here in the San Francisco Bay Area (1, 2). Fortunately, I was able to receive unemployment benefits that lasted roughly 6 months. Unfortunately, there were no permanent jobs to be acquired during that time. I was able to take on some side projects shooting photos for UCSF and running some events for Photojojo.
However, my unemployment finally ran out at the end of February. The Employment Development Department (EDD) let me know that I could go ahead and reapply for benefits online.
And that's where the trouble began.
Due to a dating problem with the last unemployment check, I received a form that said my benefits were not exhausted and therefore my extension wasn't granted. What? My last check said my benefits *were* exhausted and I should reapply!
Anyway, you can't call the EDD because their phone lines are swamped. So I reapplied online and was finally granted an extension after a week. I filled out the standard form they send you to prove you're looking for work (the same form I had been filling out every week for the previous 6 months).
Then I received a letter in the mail.
"Your previous unemployment form was either incomplete or incorrect. Please fill out this new one."
Fantastic! No idea what was wrong with it, since it could have been either incomplete *or* incorrect. Carefully looked over the new one and sent that in as well.
Another week goes by and I receive a new letter from the EDD.
"Your previous unemployment form was either incomplete or incorrect. Since your prior form was also incomplete or incorrect, you current benefit claim has been terminated. Please contact the EDD immediately to open a new claim."
Great! So I call the EDD and listen to their long winded recording that lists every possible thing that could go wrong. Basically, every solution involves reapplying for benefits online.
So I did that. A week and a half ago. Haven't heard back anything yet! My previous online claims were responded to within about 5 days.
It's now been 6 weeks without an unemployment check, I cannot talk to anyone at the EDD to find out what's going on, jobs are impossible to find, and I have about $80 left to my name. What on Earth am I supposed to do?
Update: [Dec 29, 2009] It's been awhile, but I figured I should update the post with what I ultimately did.
What ended up working for me was directly contacting them through their email form. It surprised me that they even HAD one. But after 3 days, someone responded to me and things were quickly resolved! They mentioned a check was on the way and that my benefits had been extended.
In my email to them, I basically listed my situation and what I had done up until that point. I listed all relevant info I could find: case numbers, date of last check, dates of reapplying for UI benefits, etc.
The extended benefits lasted until August 2009, but by then I had found steady work. I actually received a letter stating that I could apply for a *third* round of benefits, but declined.
Anyway, that might be the best bet at the moment.
I keep joking that I need to keep a dream journal, since I have ridiculously vivid dreams every single night.
Last night, I apparently won a trip to the International Space Station. Unfortunately, in my haste to "pack" for the trip, I didn't bring very much. Nor did I know that I would be in space for 6 months.
When I finally reached the space station, I realized that I had forgotten my DSLR. I also forgot the charging cable for my iPhone (hey - that means no games of chess or sudoku!).
Oh, and the station apparently had gravity as well. That meant there was no fun to be had floating through doorways and such!