My firstborn is going to be named Google!

Google is just the epitome of coolness and innovation. Hopefully anyone that has used Mapquest switched to Google Maps years ago. Google simply has had a cleaner set up with extreme customization for a while, and now it is even better. Yesterday a new feature was quietly released.

How often have you made a route and realized that you wanted to change the route, such as when you knew it would be better to get off at one point where the route suggested a different point? Maybe you wanted to make a stop someplace in particular along the way and wanted to include that stop.I figured this might just be something that is too difficult to implement, but the Google guys and gals have done it again.

Now once you create a route, you can simply grab the blue line (create route) and the point you want changed and then drag it to another location on the map. The server will quickly recalculate the route. Here is a tutorial: http://maps.google.com/help/maps/directions/index.html#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-mapshpp-na-us-google&utm_medium=mapshpp

You may now add in additional destinations and change routes as you see fit. This is incredibly cool and extremely useful.

Surveys show that 8 out 5 schizophrenics agree.

I starting to run around fairly raggedly in trying to get things organized for the upcoming trip. Getting the gear and clothes is fairly straightforward, especially since I've used most of it recently, however the time consuming part is doing the planning for all the sites I want to visit. I'm setting up a pretty organized plan of what things I want to see an do one what particular days. I have to get all the point of interest loaded into the GPS, laptop, and print outs of the particular things of interest in case the technology fails. for just a few days I'd typically wing it, but this will be a 26 day multi-state tour (Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico) with a couple of dozen various stops such as state parks, national park sites, and even geocaches.

I did take a a little over two hours today to participate in a focus study group. Every few months I get a call from a local research/survey firm to determine if I am eligible for one of their marketing surveys but most of the time I do not 'qualify' whether it be because I don't use a particular product, am unmarried, or some other aspect. This time it seemed I had the right aspects for which they were searching and they offered me a position in the group. Since I signed a non-disclosure agreement I cannot talk about what the subject of the focus study might have been, but we spent a couple of hours looking at different versions of a product and offering ideas and opinions concerning layout, usability, and preferences. It was neat enough to experience and though it only took about two and a half hours, the participants were offered a small lunch of sandwiches and also paid $100 for their time.

Camper For Sale, Driver get 13 MPG loaded

All the shot stops on the starlight hash trail at midnight apparently got to me. I'm still not sure if it was the purple hooters, key lime pie, buttery nipples, beer, rum runners, or one of the other drinks, whose name I cannot recall, was the culprit. Since the teardrop camper kept the heat and noise out quite well, I didn't even stir until about 11 o'clock. Fortunately food was served throughout the day at this event whereas other campouts I would have missed breakfast by a significant margin.

I took it easy for a few hours before trail and took the opportunity to rehydrate with a lot of water and Gatorade. For the trail were were all trucked about seven miles down the road to an area of the Francis Marion National Forest. The trail was excellent as it provide a good experience for the local geography for those that had never been in the area. Having learned my lesson from the Hedon trail, I didn't wear a kilt, but soon realized that shorts were not providing a lot of protection. It wasn't the cuts and scrapes along the way, it was the 27 ticks that I had to pull off me throughout the trail and at the end!

After getting showered up we had circle, dinner, and then spent a while relaxing as it started getting dark. Plenty of songs were sung until the midnight naked hash, though apparently most people seemed to have petered out (no pun intended) from all the running, eating, drinking, and heat. I didn't stay up too long, though did watch several interesting rounds of tippy cup as the referee made a new rule every single round, so it was all entertaining enough.

On Sunday most people seemed to be packing up and heading home relatively early, as seems to be the typical case. Most people were relaxing as well help tidy up the place and wait for the pizza to come in. I found that I became quite popular when I thought to take my beach umbrella out into the pond as I floated around on the floating lounge chair. There was quite a bit of action immediately around me that seemed to center on the shade, not that I was complaining. After getting everything packed, we were among the last of the travelers to depart with only a few locals remaining.

On the way out we stopped by the site of the recent Charleston fire that claimed the lives of nine firefighters. I grew up just over a mile from this site and remember when it was the Piggly-Wiggly grocery store. After I made a quick detour to check out my old homes just down the road, we stopped at the nearby gas station so we could take a look at the makeshift memorials setup along the road.

Quite soon we were on out way back toward Orlando and then on to arrive back in Tampa around two o'clock. It was a long road trip, but along with the companions and sights, it was a lot of fun. I doubt I'll attend next year since it is pretty far in upper North Carolina.

Pictures taken at the campout can be found here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.6h2q22hz&x=1&y=-1yqvwi

South Carolina law prohibits the sale of paint, housewares, or hi-fi equipment on Sundays. [SECTION 53-1-60.]

After sleeping in a bit, the group got cleaned up and decided to grab breakfast, consisting of BBQ from a local chain, and were glad to have been able to have Jason join us on his lunch hour (the probably stretched in a little over two hours). After brunch, we headed towards downtown Charleston so I could take the visitor around and show them the highlights of the of the area including the Citadel, Brittlebank park, and drive along The Battery. We got out a little before White Point Gardens and walked for a while. We headed past Rainbow Row and on to Waterfront Park where we were able to snag a swing for a short while and enjoy watching the sailboats cruise around. The girls enjoyed a bit of shopping along Market Street before we meandered our way back to the vehicle while passing some of the famous churches as well as Charleston's 'Four corners of Law'.

Here is a Google Earth overlay of the walk along with some pictures taken along the way.
http://mblitch.googlepages.com/walkingalongthebattery.kmz

While I was in the area, and since I had the power of pilot, I decided to hit three local sites so I could collect a couple more NPS Passport Stamps. I first hit the Liberty Square area for the Fort Sumter National Monument and picked up a couple of stamps before driving over the Sullivan's Island to visit Fort Moultrie National Monument. I hadn't been here since the junior year retreat in high school when I attended Bishop England High School. My National Park pass got all of us in for free, though we only hung out long enough to take a few pictures of the area since I could tell someone was really getting bored. My last stop was at the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site since it was literally less than a mile out of the way. as it was still early afternoon, I felt there was no rush to arrive since few people would be there yet anyway.

When we finally arrived at the campout, couldn't help but drive up right to the beer trailer and pour a frosty beverage directly from the tap while sitting in the truck, all the while the other passengers complaining and poking me out of jealousy. We set up out tents and commenced the weekend relaxation. Jason finally arrive in the early evening. Though I offered to help, he seemed intent on getting the massive tent up on his own. It only took a little less than an hour; but being a camp out what is the measurement of time anyway? A time lapse movie of the construction of the nylon poles and light fabric can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz08NBBlqPY

Heading north.

This is the weekend of the NC/SC Interhash campout just north of Charleston SC. Kiddie, VC, and I headed over to Orlando to meet Mams at her place after she got off work. I had promised her a while ago that I would teach her how to SCUBA dive, so I brought over some gear so we could get started in the pool. It had been over a year since I taught a class, however the tasks and skills were still in memory and it nearly felt like I had been recently teaching. After spending a couple of hours in the pool and getting cleaned up, we packed up and started the long drive to Charleston. Road trips tend to go a lot faster when others are around to provide entertainment and it really didn't seem to be all that bad of a drive as we made our way up. the singing, sharing of stories, and text messages constantly being sent and received provided a fair amount of entertainment. Jason (pictured at his new house in North Charleston) was kind enough to provide is shelter for the evening and after getting to his place around 2 o'clock in the morning, we chatted for a while before going to bed.

I'm not ungrammatical - I'm pedantically challenged.

How is this for a grammatically correct sentence?

"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo"

Basically it is saying; That buffalo from Buffalo who are intimidated by other buffalo from Buffalo themselves intimidate other buffalo from Buffalo. Got it?

Kind of reminds me of when Cliff is seated at the bar describing the Buffalo Theory to his buddy, Norm.

“Well you see, Norm, it’s like this… A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.

In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers.”

Why do such things amuse me?

A thunderstorm is Nature's way of saying "Up yours!"

After a nice breakfast I started to make my way back home. I wanted to hit some caches on the way back, however every time I thought about stopping, it would literally start drizzling again. Instead of taking Alligator Alley back, I went up US 41 towards Naples so that I could hit a couple of more park sites including one last stop for the Everglades National Park and one for Big Cypress National Preserve. There was a decent loop scenic drive that was off 41 that ended up being about 15 miles of bumby dirt road, but it did indeed go through some nice areas that demonstrated the environment. The visitor center had probably the oldest informational film in the entire National Park System, but I guess things don't change that quickly anyway. I hit one of the roadside parks just as a large thunderstorm moved in, killing visibility for a while. Florida weather can be strange in that one can drive through a strong rain band, yet after punching through a few minutes later the other side can be bone dry. I hit a few caches on the way up before it got dark and finally got home after a few more downpours along the way, slowing my progression home.

As useful as the "Everglades' Guide To Rock Climbing

In the morning I decided to head over to Key Biscayne National Park to check out the area and plan some future kayaking trips. I had heard of Elliot's Key and Stiltsville and would eventually like to paddle the area, however the summer season is definitely not the time to do it. Since I wasn't in a rush I watched a couple of the films that had concerning the park and chatted with one of the rangers whom was also an avid kayaker and camper. After stamping my NPS Passport I hit a couple of caches outside the park on my way through Homestead. Since I was relatively close I decided to hit the southern part of the Everglades National Park to get some stamps at the several visitor centers. Out of nearly any place (other than maybe Death Valley National Park), the Everglades is one of the worst places to be in the summer. Not only is the heat stifling, but the mosquito population is nearly intolerable. Stories of constant swarms and clouds of the flying blood-suckers are not exaggerated. Sprinting from the car to some other indoor spot is all one can do to keep from being swarmed completely. I decided to drive through the park to Flamingo City to check out the area. This section of the park was devastated by hurricanes in a row in 2005 with the lodge and cabins being extensively damaged in that they are still uninhabitable. Even the inside area of the Flamingo City visitor center was covered with the damn bugs! I was able to hit the Royal Palm visitor center just after they closed, however the ranger was nice enough to open back up so I could pick up the stamp (making it the 4th for the day) for that area of the park. I headed back to the U of M campus to meet back with angie and some of her friend for dinner and then crashed even earlier after a long, hot day. I'm hoping to spend more time on the kayak trails and camping sites in the winter once the temperature and bug levels drop considerably.

Welcome to Miami. Pardon our driving, we're reloading.

After a bit of work in the week, I headed to Miami for Angie's birthday. I got a bit of a late start and got to Miami just as traffic and the rain started to pick up. As is typical, the torrential downpour literally only seemed to have lasted the time it took me to get out of the truck, find the right building, and get inside. After meeting up with Angie and being introduced to a dozen or so workmates, we headed towards South Beach for happy hour. At first we were supposed to meet some folks at a place called 'Duos' but saw that there were literally only two customers in the whole place. I took a look at the GPS to find something else nearby and saw that there was a brewery/restaurant less than a half mile away, the Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant. I always prefer micro-brews to the generic domestics, so we headed there. After a meal we headed back to the UofM campus residences where her suitemates had another small surprise party waiting. We watched Beerfest before playing some board game for a while. I was a bit tired after driving much of the day and decided to turn in relatively early.

If you bang two diamonds together in rhythm, do you get hard rock music?

Perusing Digg today, I saw a link to an article about diamonds used for engagements. Ah, this traditional (though not even 80 years old) method of showing devotion, sacrifice, and eternal love (though most marriages end in divorce). If it honestly means that much to you on a personal level, then more power to you, but to me things like this often seem to just be to show off, usually to people that just don't care. Prior to the De Beers marketing campaign, engagement rings had no one particular stone associated with them. When I see a huge ring on someone, I'm not impressed by the level of commitment on the part of the man, I think "what a waste of financial resources". That amount of money put into a ring could have been used for the home, vacation/honeymoon, child's education, or hell, even a new plasma television. I would bet anything that the couple would spend more time staring at the plasma TV in the first week of ownership than they would at the ring their entire lives.

People don't consider the economic opportunity cost that diamond sucks up. It isn't an investment, no jeweler above the level of the corner store pawn shop will purchase a diamond at any where near the 'worth' because they want to perpetuate selling them at such a high price and keeping the cost artificially high. A $3000 diamond (assuming you can pay it all off at once and not finance it at high interest rates) over 20 years at just 5% would be worth over $8,000 if interest is just compounded annually. That ring certainly wouldn't be worth that much then, and I don't even think you could sell it for even what you paid when purchased. I just dislike how everyone seems to think that it is expected behavior and anything less somehow signifies that the guy is somehow lacking or unworthy. I must give credit to one of the longest lasting and most effective marketing campaigns ever, for that is all that it is; marketing.

An ounce of sense would seem to dictate that unless money is already falling out of the pockets that one actually just invest the money spent on a lavish ring and wedding by purchasing a home or even use it on some future vacations that would inevitably be a lot more worth it throughout the years as a means to get away and enjoy each other. How many people say they cannot afford to travel, however do not even realize that the trinket worn on the finger could have funded a couple of grand trips if planned well enough? Withing a marriage, women often enough seem to hope for equitably divided responsibilities such as housework, child-rearing, and income through career, however the engagement ring ironic falls well outside this consideration.

http://www.slate.com/id/2167870/pagenum/all/#page_start

"What a strange pattern the shuttle of life can weave." - Frances Marion

Finally after one aborted attempt a year ago, I got to experience my first shuttle launch. I arrived a few hours early and was able to pick up a NPS Passport Stamp for the Canaveral National Seashore at the park headquarters in Titusville. Unfortunately the rest of the park is closed several days prior to shuttle operations, so I couldn't collect any others.

I found a decent area on US 1 just north of Hwy 50 that was a small city or county park with a dock. I figured this would be a good spot (with a view of the pad) to also be able to hear and feel the liftoff. My friend Sophie and one of her associates had spent the day at the Kennedy Space Center and after finishing there came to join me in a space I had reserved.

I think a shuttle launch is something all kids should get a chance to experience as it really can help open the wonders of science. I was surprised as to how long it took for the sound to travel the 12 miles after ignition. I used my Canon XT with 300mm zoom lens to get most shots and was fairly pleased with the performance. Next time I'll definitely have to borrow another extra camera so I can try to get some time lapse shots. I will try to make future launches so I can get more shots and also really get a chance to watch the while sequence instead of focusing on the camera, but had no regrets about it.

While we were waiting for traffic to die down a bit (massive number of people all trying to leave at once is insane), we watched as some really near smoke/steam trail formations formed overhead. It is a shame that undoubtedly most people missed this aspect that I would suspect to be fairly unique, and actually quite stunningly beautiful. While I'll have to work with schedules to see if I can make future day launches, I will undoubtedly make every attempt to go to the next night launch, whenever that may be as the pictures I have seen would make any attempt at viewing this spectacle worthwhile. Here is a link to a NAVY study concerning the noctilucent cloud contrail or 'shuttle clouds'. More infor can be found also at http://www.spaceweather.com/with a nice Flickr set that showed off some of the colors at http://www.flickr.com/photos/35423990@N00/sets/72157600329483616/

Does anyone know how to string together a series of pictures into a movie files (or even one of those animated GIFs)? It is something I've always wanted to try. Pictures can be found here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.a5amn37r&x=0&y=b13uzd

Update: I found a neat little service call Glickr that will take a series of up to 10 photos and put them into an animated GIF, but I am still looking for a way to take more of them and build it into something larger. Here is a sample of what it produced by that site;



After looking around a bit more, it seems that Microsoft Movie Maker does what I've been wanting, at least in making some of my pictures into movie. I love technology! Here is an example of the movie [~1MB] I created with the pictures I took of the launch.

http://mblitch.googlepages.com/shuttlelaunch2.wmv

I'm going to try to embed it into this blog post as well.

Customer to sales clerk: "You're overhead, I'm profit"

I recently ordered a laptop for the office and because the ship date was longer than expected and since I needed a unit, I had to call to cancel. Wouldn't you know it, but the morning I am going to contact them, I get a shipping notification from Dell. I still decided to try for a return since I already had other arrangements made. I called Dell and was able to, surprisingly, cancel the order with very little hassle. Because of the excellent experience, I decided to send an email through their website praising the customer service rep. Here is a copy of what I sent;

"I just wanted to comment on the customer care I received this morning for a call. I had called to cancel an order and was prepared for a drawn out conversation of miscommunication and script reading, however I was quite pleasantly surprised at the experience. The customer rep was quite knowledgeable, easy to understand (very important to me) and extremely courteous. She assisted me through every step and shared several options that I had not considered. Over the years I have become increasing frustrated with customer service phone calls as they are outsourced to other countries where all the person can do is typically read from a script and they have little ability to get things done on their own.

The person with whom I had contact was kirsten_baumann@dell.com It is experience like this that will make me much more likely to confine my orders to Dell in the future with the understanding should the need arise, I will be able to get the same level of care."


This evening I received the following response;

"Dear Mr. Blitch:

Thank you for contacting Dell. I'm sorry to hear that you previous interaction with us was not to your satisfaction. Please be assured that your satisfaction is of utmost importance to us and I will work with you till everything is resolved.

As per Dell records Isee that you had requested to setup a return request for the Inspiron Laptop for the order number 68716###. I will provide you with the required information.

Mr. Blitch, we realize the key to our success lies in providing outstanding customer satisfaction. It is input from our customers that help us to evaluate our performance. We hope you will give us the opportunity to serve you again in the way you deserve. Again, we are sorry that you experienced these difficulties, and we hope that we can restore your faith in Dell.

Thank you for choosing Dell."

Right now I am amazed as to how quickly Dell was able to turn a great experience concerning customer service to one that is now quite negative. Their message was the antithesis of what I was attempting to convey. The person with whom I spoke actually gave me personalized response, understood what I was saying, and could communicate. Whomever answered what was supposed to be a positive message in support of Dell has NONE of those qualities and could not seemingly comprehend anything I was trying to say. All they did was provide scripted responses by cutting and pasting or choosing from some pull down menu responses. Even my praise is being shipped overseas and outsourced.


Update: (6/9/07)

I sent a response to the message above that I received from Dell outlining my dismay.

"Did you even comprehend the message I sent in the least? You personally just turned a great experience into a bad one. Your message was the antithesis of what I was saying. The person with whom I spoke actually gave me personalized response, understood what I was saying, and could communicate. Whomever answered what was supposed to be a message in support of Dell has NONE of those qualities. All you did was provide scripted responses by cutting and pasting. It would have been so much better if you just accepted the compliment and let it be, however someone even my praise is being shipped overseas."

In response, I received the following.

"I am the case manager at customer care.

I sincerely apologize that my agent could not comprehend your email in the last interaction you had. I will certainly provide you the required information.

Mr. Blitch. I will certainly forward your valuable feedback to the agent who has resolved your concern. At the same time I will also ensure required feedback to my agent who could not comprehend your email. Your feedback has and will continue to be considered in our ongoing endeavors to improve services. I truly believe that anything less is completely unacceptable. We take this information very seriously and will move to take immediate corrective action.

Once again, I apologize and truly regret any inconvenience or frustration this matter may have caused. If you need any additional information, or have any other questions, please feel free to reply to my email. I will ensure that all of your questions are answered.

Thank you for choosing Dell.

Sadanand_K"

The response was nearly the same as before, broken English that is difficult to understand and seemingly additional canned responses. Who actually ever says "I will certainly provide you the required information"?, especially when sent by two different people. Even my complaint of their handling my praise is getting either scripted responses, I am dealing with the same person pretending to be other people, or they are wholly unimaginative.

I understand the need to save money and reducing labor costs, but I feel this behavior is driving away the American consumer. I do not need this kind of aggravation when I am trying to give someone my business.

Geotagging. Stalk yourself.

A couple of folks have asked how the geotagging is done. Instead of reinventing the wheel (or taking the type to type out the entire process) I'll simply refer you to this excellent post that another person had made that outlines each step. Once used to it, the process is relatively quick

http://hikesandbikes.blogspot.com/2006/10/life-of-geolocated-blog-post.html

For pictures of parties and such it really wouldn't be too useful, but for hiking, kayaking, and other outdoor stuff, it can be a great tool. Ever take a picture outside and well down the road could not remember where you were? This will help eliminate that as well reduce the questions of; where were you, what did you do, etc. from family and friends. Now you can be informative and anti-social at the same time (or could just get rid of the friends who are probably just using you for your cool stories and pictures anyway).

1000 Places to See Before you Die. Bleh

For a few months I had seen promos (excellent lead in commercials for it BTW on a marketing standpoint) for a Travel Channel / Discovery Channel series '1000 Places to See Before You Die' that borrowed from the premise of the book by the same name. I was especially interested since it was being broadcast on Discovery HD so that I would really get to see some quality pictures. The concept was great, however the execution has been quite disappointing.

Apparently some newlywed couple, 'The Ulles', was chosen for this 14 week trip and I do not think they could have found any any less energetic or vapid set of people. The host female is one of the most lackluster people I have seen on TV. She seems the only-go-to-college-to-find-a-husband kind of person as conveyed in the movie 'Mona Lisa Smiles' and has absolutely no ambition. The only thing typically out of her mouth in every episode is 'wow' or 'I cannot believe that ...' and it seems they had done absolutely no research regarding any site they visited. Maybe the producers wanted them to first learn of things as they are experiencing it, but it makes them seem more ignorant than anything else. It feels like watching a pair of sorority and fraternity rejets. Clothing is a typical style of 'fashion' expected from a rich background and worn without thought as to local custom (such as shorts in middle India). Neither are up to attempting anything outside of their norm. Even the comments they have on the website 'photos' is extremely dumbed down and even idiotic.

I had hoped it would involve more information about the interesting sights around each region, not just the big hotels and contact plugs. The Paris show spent a good bit of the time involving their learning how to ride a Segway while Venice had them playing with pigeons in the park, ignoring the Louvre, museums, or other such sites. I hope the Discovery Channel really places more thought on the kind of person they get to host futures shows. I am sure it was a great opportunity for this couple, however they just seemed to have squandered it with a lack of consideration, knowledge, and personality. They honestly seem to be more interested in showing off and looking good than in having any real sense of adventure.

I had looked forward to the show as a means of reviews sites that I might someday like to visit, but it is just too uncomfortable to watch. I really do not hope that there really are that many people out there like these two.

Again, cool concept, horrible execution. Yeah, I'm a bit moody this week. A lot happening on several fronts. at least I'm looking forward to the potential opportunity of seeing the shuttle lauch from Cape Canaveral on Friday if I can get everything I need completed.