Nothing But Words

Mike Toppa presenting "Clean Code" at WordCamp Nashville 2013 View at Picasa Mike Toppa presenting "Clean Code" at WordCamp Nashville 201320-Apr-2013 11:18, NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D7000, 5.6, 68.0mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 400	Eric Brace and Peter Cooper at the Station Inn View at Picasa Eric Brace and Peter Cooper at the Station Inn20-Apr-2013 10:14, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 110 HS, 2.7, 4.3mm, 0.1 sec, ISO 1600	Video: a clip of Eric Brace and Peter Cooper playing "Nobody Knows" at the Station Inn View at Picasa Video: a clip of Eric Brace and Peter Cooper playing "Nobody Knows" at the Station Inn20-Apr-2013 18:44
A Minnie Pearl poster from 1944, at the Station Inn View at Picasa A Minnie Pearl poster from 1944, at the Station Inn20-Apr-2013 09:45, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 110 HS, 4.5, 9.584mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 1600	Spring in Nashville View at Picasa Spring in Nashville22-Apr-2013 02:42, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 110 HS, 8.0, 4.3mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 200	Nashville's life-size replica of the Parthenon View at Picasa Nashville's life-size replica of the Parthenon22-Apr-2013 02:21, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 110 HS, 2.7, 4.3mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 125

Spring is conference season, and I’ve given four presentations in the past for weeks: two in Philadelphia, one in Nashville, and one in Washington DC. Each presentation was different, and I did most of the preparation outside of my regular work hours, so I’m looking forward to not doing any more presentations for a while

I already wrote about the first presentation – Knowledge Slam, and a few days after that I headed to Nashville for their 2nd annual WordCamp. I also presented at the first one last year, which was my first time in Nashville. For both trips I was there for only a couple days, but I was able to get out and see some of the city each time, and I have to say it’s a great place. It’s a small, clean city, with very friendly people, and has culture and arts you’d normally find only in a bigger city… as long as you like country music.

My friend Caryn from grad school lives there now, and after I arrived Friday evening, I headed to the Station Inn to meet her, and see a show by Eric Brace and Peter Cooper. I’d never heard of them before, but Caryn was a fan, and after hearing the first song, so was I. Here’s a version of that song – “Ancient History” – that they recorded for Couch by Couchwest:

…If you liked that, I recommend the album.

The WordCamp was great. It had 3 tracks scheduled – one for beginners, one for users, and one for developers (a 4th was actually added on the fly, to accommodate the variety of skill levels in the beginner track). I spent the day in the developers’ track. Something I was excited to see in several of the presentations was a wider focus, showing WordPress as part of a broader ecosystem of development tools, as opposed to being the only tool in a developer’s toolkit. This came across especially in the talk about using WordPress in an enterprise software environment (unfortunately there is no information about this talk online), and Nathaniel Schweinberg’s talk on debugging strategies (many of which apply beyond WordPress).

My Clean Code talk was scheduled between those two, which was perfect, as the 10 techniques I presented are ones which you can apply to any software development project, not just WordPress. My talk went really well, with lots of good questions at the end. We even went over our scheduled time (normally that’s not allowed, but I was right before lunch, so it didn’t take away from anyone else’s speaking time). Here are some of the tweets people made during my talk:

View at Picasa Tweets about the "Clean Code" presentation at WordCamp Nashville 201311-May-2013 16:31

Right before I came to Nashville, we finished working on the WordPress plugin for the ElectNext Political Profiler, so I took the opportunity to debut it at the start of my talk. The plugin relies on PHP in the WordPress plugin, and 3rd party javascript to dynamically inject into the WordPress site the political profiles generated by a Ruby on Rails application running on the ElectNext servers. It’s actually a great example of the importance of having clean and consistent coding practices across platforms (otherwise such a project would quickly become a nightmare to maintain).

Here are my slides, as well as the recording of my talk I made with my Flip camera (a professionally recorded version should be available on wordpress.tv sometime in the next few weeks)

A portion of the Gettysburg Cyclorama View at Picasa A portion of the Gettysburg Cyclorama29-Mar-2013 04:18, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 110 HS, 2.7, 4.3mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 800	Eidan picking off tourists from Little Round Top View at Picasa Eidan picking off tourists from Little Round Top30-Mar-2013 02:35, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 110 HS, 2.7, 4.3mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 100
Press reactions to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address View at Picasa Press reactions to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address29-Mar-2013 23:56, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 110 HS, 2.7, 4.3mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 1600	Eidan at the Gettysburg museum View at Picasa Eidan at the Gettysburg museum29-Mar-2013 23:11, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 110 HS, 2.7, 4.3mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 1000

After living near Philadelphia for 10 years, we decided it was finally time to visit Gettysburg. The boys are on Spring break, so I decided to take some vacation time (for the first time since last summer). We took our time getting there and arrived in the late afternoon, which turned out to be great, as we didn’t have to fight any crowds to get into the Cyclorama. The next morning we went through the museum. My favorite part were the derisive press responses to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (see my picture) – greatness is often found only through a historical perspective.

Then we bought an audio tour CD for our drive through the battlefield. This is a 2-3 hour experience, and I was worried Eidan would be bored, so before heading out we bought him a toy musket rifle at the gift shop. This made the tour an exciting adventure for him, as he got out of the car to pick off the other tourists at each stop we made.

One thing that stood out for me was that the guidebooks and audio tour talked about the strategic importance of various ridges and other high ground. So I was expecting some impressive hills, but with the exception of the two “round tops” these locations were all just very mild slopes. I was amazed at what a difference it made to occupy even just slightly higher ground.

The highlight of the trip for Eidan was his many hours spent in the hotel pool. For me it was dinner with the family at La Bella Italia. The place looks like an Olive Garden from the outside, but – speaking as someone who grew up eating Italian food – I can say my shrimp diablo was excellent. Two bottles of Lancaster Brewery’s Strawberry Wheat beer didn’t hurt my disposition either

We passed the Harley-Davidson factory in York on the way there, and figured we’d stop for a factory tour on the way back, but we belatedly discovered they don’t have tours on the weekends. We’ll catch it next time!

The Bay Bridge Lights View at Picasa The Bay Bridge Lights07-Mar-2013 12:34, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 110 HS, 2.7, 4.3mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 1600

The Bay Bridge Lights View at Youtube The Bay Bridge Lights

Mike in the San Mateo Japanese Garden View at Picasa Mike in the San Mateo Japanese Garden03-Mar-2013 13:51, Apple iPod touch, 2.4, 3.85mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 80

The Embarcadero at night View at Picasa The Embarcadero at night07-Mar-2013 12:36, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 110 HS, 5.0, 11.674mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 1600

Kimchi and fried chicken ramen at Rocket Fish View at Picasa Kimchi and fried chicken ramen at Rocket Fish09-Mar-2013 04:20, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 110 HS, 2.7, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 500

Last week I took my third trip to San Francisco since I started working with ElectNext in the Fall. Now that I’m back home, jet lag is keeping me up, so you get to hear all about it.

It was another busy week working side by side with Mertonium in the Code for America office. Maria was in Japan at the same time, leading a group of Villanova students… more on that in my next post. My mother was kind enough to come out to watch the boys while we were gone. Having someone else taking care of them for a week meant they were exposed to some new, yet everyday things. Who knew – Kai likes cranberry juice, and Eidan experienced his first batch of home-made jello. I never thought about it before, but a big, shimmering, jiggling bowl full of it is an entirely different experience than the tiny store-bought cups he’s used to. He reportedly announced in amazement, “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

On my previous trips I’ve been able to stay for a weekend to visit friends, but I couldn’t stay that long this time. I did get a few hours in San Mateo when I arrived last Sunday afternoon though, with my friend Lynda and her son Grant. That’s where we used to live, and it was my first time back there in about 8 years. It brought back a lot of memories. I was delighted that my favorite restaurant was still in business, so we had a tasty, home-style Japanese lunch at Hotaru. It was a warm and sunny day, which was a welcome break from the perpetual gray and chill of Philadelphia this winter, so we strolled through downtown and visited the park.

Another highlight of the trip was seeing the Bay Bridge lights the night after they were inaugurated (unfortunately it was raining on the first night). Check out my video on the right. The only negative aspect of the trip was my coming down with a cold on Thursday, which was bad enough I had to cancel plans with my friend Paul that night. I’m not over it yet, and being up late with jet lag tonight isn’t going to help…

30 Rock, getting ready for the election View at Picasa 30 Rock, getting ready for the election05-Nov-2012 19:01, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 400

View at Picasa Brian Williams in the news booth at 30 Rock05-Nov-2012 19:19, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 4.5, 12.495mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 800

View at Picasa The Microsoft Surface promotion at 30 Rock highlights NBC News, which includes the Electnext candidate matcher05-Nov-2012 19:07, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 320

View at Picasa On election night at 30 Rock, they'll light up the building to show which candidate breaks 270 electoral votes05-Nov-2012 19:03, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 500

The ElectNext team has gathered from across the country – Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and San Francisco – to meet in New York City for the week of the election. We stopped by 30 Rock after work today, and as you can see in the pictures, it’s all setup for election night. Our candidate matcher is featured in the NBC News app that’s on the Microsoft Surface tablets that they’re promoting in booths all around the plaza. We also got to meet in person for the first time with the NBC team we worked with online, for getting the candidate matcher on their site.

I arrived Sunday night and I’ll be here through Wednesday. In the parts of Manhattan I’ve seen so far, there’s hardly any sign of Hurricane Sandy’s damage, but many surrounding areas are still suffering.

Update 11/7: here are a couple pictures from last night. ElectNext hosted an election night party at the General Assembly coworking space that we work out of.

View at Picasa We liked this email from a user enough to put it on a big sign06-Nov-2012 16:07, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 250

View at Picasa The ElectNext sponsored election night party06-Nov-2012 21:11, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 800

I shot a gun for the first time at the Silver Bullet gun range View at Picasa I shot a gun for the first time at the Silver Bullet gun range12-Jul-2012 14:33, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 320	Maria, Eidan, and Mike at Marco's Pizza in Denver View at Picasa Maria, Eidan, and Mike at Marco's Pizza in Denver11-Jul-2012 21:51, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 4.0, 8.736mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 640	Whiffle ball in Denver City Park View at Picasa Whiffle ball in Denver City Park10-Jul-2012 21:44, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.013 sec, ISO 160
Maria and Yoko enjoying the lobster View at Picasa Maria and Yoko enjoying the lobster12-Jul-2012 21:36, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 4.0, 8.736mm, 0.1 sec, ISO 800	Eidan and Kai at the Denver skate park View at Picasa Eidan and Kai at the Denver skate park03-Jul-2012 15:01, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 80	On the scooter View at Picasa On the scooter03-Jul-2012 20:12, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.013 sec, ISO 160

Awesome sign at the bar 1UP in Denver View at Picasa Awesome sign at the bar 1UP in Denver15-Jul-2012 22:13, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.02 sec, ISO 160

I saved Eidan from almost being eaten by a giant Boa Constrictor View at Picasa I saved Eidan from almost being eaten by a giant Boa Constrictor

My favorite piece at the Denver Art Festival View at Picasa My favorite piece at the Denver Art Festival06-Jul-2012 15:57, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 160

We’ve visited Maria’s sister Yoko and her husband James several times in Denver over the years, and it has become one of my favorite cities. Visiting with kids, it can’t be beat – the many skate parks are amazing, the Elitch Gardens theme park and Water World are right in town, and the Arvada Apex Center, with it’s skate park and indoor water park, is probably the nicest public facility I’ve ever seen in the United States. Part of the reason the parks and related facilities are so nice is that they get money from the Colorado state lottery. There’s plenty for adults too – the bars and restaurants downtown are great (my favorite is the retro arcade bar 1UP), the Denver Cruisers are fun to watch on Wednesday nights, and the Denver Rockies play right downtown in Coors Field, a stadium which is much more impressive then the team’s record.

We visited for two weeks, and the boys spent one week in skate camp, which also included time at the Apex Center water park (the video at that link gives you a glimpse of one of the skate parks). Yoko and James were great hosts, taking us and the boys all around town, not to mention giving Maria and I a couple nights out while they watched the boys. James took me out to a shooting range, for my first experience firing a gun (by the end of the session I was a pretty good shot), and they hosted a great 4th of July party at their house. The highlight for Kai was spending most of a weekend in the garage with James, building his Captain America light-up sign that I wrote about last week. For Eidan I think he was simply thrilled to be in a house where there were twice as many adults, all giving him some significant portion of their attention every day. For Maria and I it was a very rare extended reduction in our parenting duties – with Yoko and James to help with the kids, we could do things like wander into a bar and see a band, just walk around town together, and other ordinary things like that, which become extraordinary when you have kids.

If you want to see more pictures, click the album thumbnail below:

2012 - DenverJul 3, 2012Photos: 24

James welding one of the stars for the Captain American light up sign View at Picasa James welding one of the stars for the Captain American light up sign14-Jul-2012 19:01, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 400

The finished Captain America light up sign View at Picasa The finished Captain America light up sign15-Jul-2012 14:13, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.077 sec, ISO 800

We’ve been in Denver for almost two weeks, visiting Maria’s sister Yoko and her husband James. I have Post to Post Links II error: Unrecognized type: cat_slug about the trip so far, but haven’t had a chance to blog anything in detail yet. So I’ll start with the project James and Kai worked on most of yesterday and finished this morning: making a Captain America light up sign out of sheet metal (his WWII shield). James has made other light-up signs before, using different designs, so he’s experienced in the craft of making these.

Kai drew the initial design on a large piece of sheet metal, tracing a projected image. Then the division of labor between them for most of the first day was Kai outlining and cutting pieces of sheet metal, and James welding. The stars were a bit tricky, since they are small. James had to weld them individually first, and then attach each star to the shield. They finished the welding yesterday. This morning Kai degreased the shield, and then we did the spray painting (I say “we” because this is the one place I jumped into the uncle-nephew bonding: I painted some cars in my teenage motorhead days, so I helped with the hard to reach corners of the blue top section). Then Kai and James finished the project by modifying a set of Christmas lights and wiring them into the shield.

Now we just need to figure out whether to ship it back to Philly, or see if we can package it and take it home on our flight as checked baggage.

View at Picasa Early stages of building the Captain America light up sign14-Jul-2012 16:50, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 250	View at Picasa Early stages of building the Captain America light up sign14-Jul-2012 16:51, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 320	View at Picasa Kai trimming pieces for the Captain America light up sign14-Jul-2012 18:41, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 400
View at Picasa James with the Captain America light-up sign - the welding is done!15-Jul-2012 11:42, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 320	View at Picasa Kai preparing the Captain America light up sign for the next round of painting15-Jul-2012 13:02, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.013 sec, ISO 160

People arriving for the start of WordCamp Nashville, at Watkins College View at Picasa People arriving for the start of WordCamp Nashville, at Watkins College21-Apr-2012 09:55, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 320	My dependency injection talk at WordCamp Nashville (photo by Patricia Melton) View at Picasa My dependency injection talk at WordCamp Nashville (photo by Patricia Melton)21-Apr-2012 00:56, Canon Canon EOS 40D, 4.0, 70.0mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 1600	@rfair presenting "Less, JS, and WP" View at Picasa @rfair presenting "Less, JS, and WP"21-Apr-2012 16:07, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.04 sec, ISO 400
The Otto and Nacin show - @otto42 @nacin View at Picasa The Otto and Nacin show - @otto42 @nacin21-Apr-2012 12:09, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 250	@ryngrn presenting "Child Theme Frameworks" View at Picasa @ryngrn presenting "Child Theme Frameworks"21-Apr-2012 11:06, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 400	@studionashvegas presenting "The Blank Screen: Overcoming Fear of Pressing from Scratch" View at Picasa @studionashvegas presenting "The Blank Screen: Overcoming Fear of Pressing from Scratch"21-Apr-2012 10:11, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 400

I’ve traveled coast-to-coast across the US 4 times, but until this past weekend I had never been in the South (except for a brief visit to UVA many years ago). I was in Nashville for only 48 hours, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The first thing I noticed was how kind and polite everyone is. The driver of my shuttle bus from the airport pointed out all the sights as we drove into town, and he seemed genuinely interested in what everyone on the bus was planning to do that weekend. I spent the day on Friday with my friend Caryn, who I hadn’t seen since we finished grad school 16 years ago. She showed me around town, and it was great to catch up.

This was Nashville’s first WordCamp. The organizers did a great job pulling it together, and they clearly had a lot of local talent to draw upon for their speakers. Coming from Philly, I think I was the only Yankee among the speakers – I felt honored to be included (Nacin, coming from DC, is a borderline case ).

I was in the developers’ track all day. The first two sessions were design focused, and here’s an excellent summary of both presentations. They were followed by the Otto and Nacin show. They are both deeply involved in the development of WordPress, and they gave a preview of features in WordPress 3.4. Their talk was the most popular of the day in the developers’ track.

I was up next after lunch, and my talk went well. It was an advanced topic (dependency injection) so I drew a smaller crowd. But I got some good questions towards the end, and some good tweets:

View at Picasa @rfair's tweet about my session29-Apr-2012 19:40

Here is a non-technical summary of my talk.

Russell Fair wrapped up the day, and he did a great job of sharing his experiences using LESS with WordPress.

I didn’t get to see Joel Norris’ WordPress bootcamp presentation, but from what everyone was saying, I believe he gets the prize for having the most popular session. He stayed in character as a drill sergeant for almost the entire session. And he was in costume – here’s a photo.

The speakers dinner and the after party were both a lot of fun. I learned a lot chatting with Otto and Nacin, made some new friends, and my friend Caryn was able to come too, so it was a great evening.

If you want to read more, WP Candy has a great review, and they also have links to many of the presenters’ slides. There’s also a great photo pool on Flickr. Here are my slides:

The Golden Gate Bridge View at Picasa The Golden Gate Bridge28-Mar-2012 16:38, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 10.0, 7.173mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 80	Aaron and Jessica View at Picasa Aaron and Jessica30-Mar-2012 22:45, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 800
Balboa Park in San Diego View at Picasa Balboa Park in San Diego01-Apr-2012 17:02, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 80	The model train museum in Balboa Park View at Picasa The model train museum in Balboa Park01-Apr-2012 17:42, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.04 sec, ISO 400

It's Aaron, and it's LA, so of course he's customized his car with a boat horn View at Picasa It's Aaron, and it's LA, so of course he's customized his car with a boat horn30-Mar-2012 22:09, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 640

Only in California - Sarah has a flamethrower for a heater - it actually set her cat's tail on fire once View at Picasa Only in California - Sarah has a flamethrower for a heater - it actually set her cat's tail on fire once29-Mar-2012 11:54, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 400

Lynda's son Grant (almost 1 year old) View at Picasa Lynda's son Grant (almost 1 year old)29-Mar-2012 17:49, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 400

Our original plan for Kai’s spring break was a family vacation in San Diego, as the International Studies Association conference was at the same time, and Maria was planning to attend it. Then WordCamp San Diego came up for me, the week before Maria’s conference. We decided to stick with our original plan, but I would go to San Diego alone first, for WordCamp, and then I’d spend the week in between visiting old friends in the San Francisco Bay Area. Maria sometimes leaves me with the boys for 2 or 3 days when she has conferences, so it was my turn

When I flew into San Francisco from San Diego and hopped on BART, I had an almost overwhelming feeling that I was home. We moved away almost 9 years ago, so the Philly area is home now, but it has never felt like home. Philly has an attitude that I do appreciate – summed up nicely in the t-shirt “I’m not angry, I’m from Philly”. But it’s not who I am. Perhaps someday we’ll move back to California, but not anytime soon. Where we live now, we have a nice home with a yard, in a neighborhood where the boys can play in the street, with good schools, and easy access to public transportation: that would cost well over a $1 million in the Bay Area.

I was in the Bay Area for four days and squeezed in visits with six friends. I spent a couple nights with my aunt Tisha in San Francisco, where she’s lived in the same rent controlled apartment since 1972, much to the chagrin of her landlord. I also spent a couple nights with Maria’s friend from college, Sarah. My favorite feature of her place is the 1950s era, incredibly dangerous heater which one could easily mistake for a flame thrower. She calls it the cat emblazinator, as it set her cat’s tail on fire once. I fit in visits with Paul, Hilary, and Lynda – my friends from college at UC-Santa Cruz – and Stewart, who I worked with in the .com days. It was my first time seeing them for many years, but I hope to make it back to the Bay Area more often to see them again – WordCamp San Francisco will be a good excuse!

Next on the itenaray was a flight to LA, for a one day visit. I stayed with my childhood friend Aaron and his girlfriend Jessica. After a fun night out in LA, they drove me back to San Diego the next day to meet up with Maria and the boys. Seeing Aaron again brought back a flood a memories from my high school years (most of them good!). Maria was busy with her conference on their first day, so Aaron, Jessica and I spent the day with the boys in Balboa park. After that I spent the rest of the week with Maria and the boys in San Diego, which I’ll write about next!

Mussels with Sarah at Scratch View at Picasa Mussels with Sarah at Scratch29-Mar-2012 21:14, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 400	I come all the way to CA to drink lemonade from RI (note the bottle has a phone number, because they don't have the web yet in RI) View at Picasa I come all the way to CA to drink lemonade from RI (note the bottle has a phone number, because they don't have the web yet in RI)31-Mar-2012 22:15, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 400
Mike with the boys at the USS Midway View at Picasa Mike with the boys at the USS Midway01-Apr-2012 13:43, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 160	Eidan and Kai at the Balboa Park playground View at Picasa Eidan and Kai at the Balboa Park playground01-Apr-2012 12:11, Nokia N900, 2.8, 5.2mm, ISO 100
Eidan at the Balboa Park playground View at Picasa Eidan at the Balboa Park playground01-Apr-2012 14:59, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 9.0, 5.9mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 160	Kai built a hot air ballon out of blocks at the San Diego science museum View at Picasa Kai built a hot air ballon out of blocks at the San Diego science museum02-Apr-2012 17:04, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 320

If you might like a movie that is equal parts…

• Memento: but instead of the story unfolding in reverse, it unfolds in a completely jumbled sequence, going from 2012, to 1982, to 2009, to 1975, and then back to 2012. If you’re like me and you enjoy a movie that calls for your active mental participation, and you appreciate the movie maker’s attention to detail in making all the threads of a story mesh together, then this won’t be a problem for you.
• Anvil! The Story of Anvil: except instead of a story about a briefly famous band that falls into obscurity, the band in this story, Gekirin, goes from obscurity to oblivion. They write a punk song in 1975 that is ahead of its time, that almost no one appreciates, but ultimately is the key to saving the world (yes, punk rock can save the world, and fortunately, they actually wrote a great track for the movie).
• Armageddon: in 2012, the destruction of life on earth by asteroid is imminent. Last ditch attempts to save humanity, involving space ships and nuclear warheads, are involved. If you’re wondering what a forgotten punk rock song from the 70s has to do with saving the earth from an asteroid 37 years later, well you’ll just have to watch the movie!
• The Karate Kid and Power Rangers: a young man who isn’t sure why his father forced him to endlessly practice martial arts as a child finally finds his purpose.
• High Fidelity: the cool record store owner in this movie has the same encyclopedic knowledge of music as John Cusack’s character, but his sadness does not come from girl troubles.
• If You Give a Pig a Pancake: (which is a children’s book, not a movie) after watching Fish Story, Maria was talking about causality, conditionality, and contingicies, but all I could think of was this book. Each step in the story makes sense by itself, but they all add up to a crazy spectrum of events.

…then you will enjoy Fish Story. It’s available on Netflix streaming. There’s also a doomsday cult, a bitter old man, a brilliant mathematician, a hostage situation, and a love story, but I ran out of movie analogies. I encourage you to not read any plot summaries before watching it – a lot of the fun is watching the story unfold, as it definitely does not follow a predictable plot line. But I will share with you a bit of the review from Lost Turnable, which explains what makes it a good movie:

Although the idea of Fish Story is more than a little silly, its conceit is not. At its heart, Fish Story is about how music can connect with people and change their lives in unexpected and amazing ways. It shows how music can give us courage and hope, and challenge us to make ourselves and those around us better. It shows how a song, a stupid little song that almost no one in the world knows about, can drastically affect and change for the better the lives of people who have never even heard it. And when you think of it like that, it’s not hard to imagine that a song could, somehow, actually save the world someday.

Unlike modern American movie trailers that summarize the whole movie for you, the Japanese trailer for it gives you a sense of the movie without giving away the story (with subtitles).

View at YouTube

Onigiri for the kids in Eidan's class View at Picasa Onigiri for the kids in Eidan's class02-Feb-2012 23:25, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 640

For Eidan’s kindergarten class this week, our parental duty was to bring in a snack for all the kids that starts with the letter “O”. So last night Maria and I made about 30 onigiri:

Onigiri (お握り), also known as omusubi (お結び) or rice ball, is a Japanese food made from white rice formed into triangular or oval shapes and often wrapped in nori (seaweed). Traditionally, an onigiri is filled with pickled ume (umeboshi), salted salmon, katsuobushi, kombu, tarako, or any other salty or sour ingredient as a natural preservative. Because of the popularity of onigiri in Japan, most convenience stores stock their onigiri with various fillings and flavors. There are even specialized shops whose only products are onigiri for take out.

justbento.com has some wonderful pictures of the many forms onigiri can take.

We made the traditional triangle shape, and thanks to the 69th St. H-Mart’s dazzling array of nori selections (half an aisle for nori!), we were able to use the nori that comes in individial plastic sleeves. The sleeve keeps the nori dry, so we could get them to school with Eidan and not worry about them getting soggy. You then remove the plastic sleeve right before eating. Of course someone has posted a video on YouTube to illustrate. Ingenious product packaging from the Japanese – what a shocker

Final snack - onigiri and lemon water before getting on the plane back to the US View at Picasa Final snack - onigiri and lemon water before getting on the plane back to the US08-Jul-2010 20:43, SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.02 sec, ISO 100

When Post to Post Links II error: Unrecognized type: cat_slug, the boys and I would stop at a convenience store for onigiri almost every day. It’s a cheap, healthy, and filling snack, and the boys never got tired of it. There’s a huge variety of fillings to choose from, some of which the boys liked (such as salmon) and some which they didn’t (like umeboshi – pickled fruit). So to make sure I didn’t buy the wrong thing, I learned to go to the stores that labelled the onigiri in Hiragana, which I could read, and to avoid the stores that used Kanji, which I couldn’t read.