Riders Paradise

The End of the Age of Cheap Food

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:42:00 +0000

The age of cheap food is over. As the economist reports: world grain prices rose 77% last year and has accelerated up 141% since January! The prices have shot up due to several factors. China and India are consuming more, but this is just a gradual increase. The targets for Biofuel consumption are a large factor in the price increase as the US and Europe set targets for renewable fuel consumption. Farming reponds slowly to change in demand and this results in a lack of supply. In the past, shortages in food supply have been localized due to war or disaster. Today, it's a worldwide shortage affecting many countries at once.

As usual, this affects the poor first. This quote by the economist sums it up: "“For the middle classes,” ... “it means cutting out medical care. For those on $2 a day, it means cutting out meat and taking the children out of school. For those on $1 a day, it means cutting out meat and vegetables and eating only cereals. And for those on 50 cents a day, it means total disaster.” The poorest are selling their animals, tools, the tin roof over their heads..." 1 billion people live on $1 a day, 1.5 billion live on $1 to $2 a day. When help finally comes from the World Food Organization or prices stabilize it will be hard for the poor to recover and many will have lost their lives.

There are many factors which can help reduce the impact of food shortages on the world. Trade barriers can be lifted, thus allowing for market stabilization of food prices. Europe and the USA can eliminate their targets for biofuel consumption which are contributing to the food shortage. These actions will take time and may never happen. Luckily, there are things we can do right now to help. 1) Consume less fuel. Use less oil to transport goods and services. Drive more efficient vehicles and use public transit. This will reduce the demand for Biofuels. 2) Eat locally. The food you eat grown nearby takes less oil to transport to your farmers market or local store. It allows food grown elsewhere to be eaten by the region in which it was grown. Also look for food grown without oil based fertilizers. 3) Re-use/Recycle. Plastics are oil-based. Less new packaging = less fuel used. Reused or recycled materials use less energy. 4) Eat less meat. It takes 5 times the amount of grain to feed a cow and produce meat for a meal as it does to nourish a person with the same caloric intake of grain. Less meat means more grain for everyone.

First female president?

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:43:00 +0000

I've heard a few people asking "Can Hillary be the first elected female president?". Well the answer is no, not really. She can be the first female president in the USA but I think it's good to remember this is far behind the rest of the world when it comes to choosing women for head of state.

The first woman to represent a country at the table of G8 leaders was Margaret Thatcher. She served as prime minister of the UK from 1979 to 1990. Canadians should know the 2nd female to sit at the table. Kim Campbell was prime minister of Canada for several months after Mulrooney's resignation. However, her predecessor left such a bad taste that she was not re-elected in Canada's 1993 election.

The first female president, and one of the most notorious, was Isabel Martínez de Perón, former leader of Argentina. She was put in power after her husbands death and served from 1974-76. She was recently arrested for illedgedly organizing the disappearance of people in Argentina during her term. She awaits extradition to Argentina.

The first elected female president, and the longest serving, was former president of Iceland Vigdís Finnbogadóttir. She was Iceland's 4th president and served from 1 Aug 1980 to 1 Aug 1996.

Current female world leaders include recently elected president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who succeeds her husband in office and Pratibha Patil, India's first female president. In fact, 7 countries currently have female leaders in office.

If you'd like to read more on this one checkout the following links:
Wikipedia - female presidents
Wikipedia - first female holders of political offices
Female presidents of the world

Recycle the Ringer

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:00:00 +0000

A week ago Gil's cell-phone "broke". Well... actually someone hit it with a 4 iron. But that's another story. The giving season recently ended and I'm sure many of you have old cell-phones, computer monitors, and TVs to get rid of. Did you know that it's actually illegal to throw those out?

Luckily, it's easy to recycle most items. In some cities, such as Kirkland, you call a number and leave the items at your curb for special pickup. In Seattle, and across the US, they have TAKE IT BACK programs where you bring the electronics to a drop-off station. These include places you probably go every weekend such-as Staples, Office Depot and Best-Buy.

What if you're feeling lazy, or want contribute to a good cause by doing it? Cell-phones can be mailed FOR FREE at ECOMOTO. Schools can even fundraise by going door-to-door to collect old phones. If you want to support the troops, send your used phones to cellphonesforsoldiers.com.

For more resources on electronics recycling go here.

Best Snowboard Video EVER

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:38:00 +0000

You have to check this out! GET THAT DAMN CAR OFF THE HILL.

So what's new? I recently went on a 12 mile x-country ski-trek to the Rendezvous Hut System in Winthrop with Janine, Mike, Katy, Cam, and Amanda. It was a tough trek uphill most of the way to the Cassal Hut from Cub Creek. The view was very rewarding and it was mostly downhill on the way home. Check out the photos in Cam's Gallery.

Saw the blue-man group last night. It was a great show and worth seing if you have the chance! My sister is in town visiting so she came along. Amanda and I are still in the midst of wedding planning. Quite a bit to do these days. Finally, Cam actually posted on his blog.

Video of the day: Snowkite

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 20:12:00 +0000

I found a french sports website called MyFreeSport. It's got some sick videos such as this one. Poke around for some more great vids and stories.

Snowkite Master : Teaser saison 2008

Snowkite master / myfreesport

More info on myfreesport.fr

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:33:00 +0000

It's been a while... a long while. I think the lack of motivation to post is derived from the intensity of life in other areas. And that's a good thing! When I'm not working on the computer should I really be spending time writing about things I do when I'm not on the computer?

On the other hand... I like to discuss interesting news, provide a laugh, and share some happenings with my friends. So I'll keep blogging in 2008. To start, here are a couple of interesting news stories I'd like to share:

1) Dakar rally cancelled: Best quote of this article "It's like getting punched in the back of our tourism industry.". I think they should have gone ahead with the race anyway. One french family was killed on vacation in Mauritania while picnicing so they cancelled. It's a terrible thing. However, if you're risking your life riding a motorcycle across the hardest terrain in the world then what's a little bit more risk from a small unconfirmed chance of terrorist attack? Maybe they need to go a little Mad Max.

2) Huckabee (Rep) and Obama (Dem) win primaries in Iowa: Read here how the first black contender for president moved one step closer to his goal. I watched some clips of both Huckabee's and Obama's speeches. Huckabee, who puts necrophilia and homosexuality in the same boat, was flanked by none other than Chuck Noris. Seems like a good enough reason to vote for him, right? Obama's speech was pretty good. The "bring home the troups" and "remove dependancy on oil" promises are unrealistic, but I liked his wrap-up with “A father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas, a story that can only happen in the United States of America.” and “We are not a collection of red states and blue states,” he said. “We are the United States of America, and in this election we are ready to believe again.” See Obama's speech here.

CAN climbs over USD!

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 18:33:00 +0000

"The Canadian dollar reached parity with the U.S. greenback on Thursday for the first time in almost 31 years, capping a spectacular run that has seen it rise 62 per cent since 2002." source cbc.ca

This is not particularily good news for me. I remember in 2002 when I could buy a chocolate bar on the BC ferry with 1 USD and get back a loonie. It also was helping to pay off those pesky student loans. Oh well, the tax-rate in WA state is still much less than BC.

---

Speaking of money. Do you exchange funds between currencies on a regular basis? I was frustrated by the 2% TD Canada Trust charged me for every US $ I exchanged with them. I also had to physically send them a check, which they'd hold for X days until it cleared. Not any more! www.xetrade.com and sites like it can send Electronic Funds Transfers (EFTs) all over the world. You need to setup a phone meeting with a rep to ask you questions about where you'll send the money/how much/why are you sending it. Some of the questions are big-brother style and probably caused by anti-terrorism legislature. But once that's done you can use the web to send money from Canada to the USA in 6-7 days. And they guarantee the best rates anywhere. Much simpler than my prior experience.

---

You've heard of outsourcing computer programming. Now you can outsource everyday tasks. Some website focus on hiring people remotely to do your tasks which do not require a physical presence such as creating/updating personal websites, tutoring, job-hunting, researching for apartments, making appointments, shopping online, etc. There are also sites which have people locally to help out with your everyday and menial tasks.
GetFriday.Com: Based out of India
Guru.com: Hire professionals in business/consulting, IT, office/admin.
DoMyStuff.com: Local and remote task bidding site. Includes local contacts who can clean out your garage, organize photos, etc.
Another article: some more links

Happy outsourcing!

Bad Fast Danger

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 06:04:00 +0000

Quick update since I've been sucked into the land of summer, work, BBQs, new toys, Amanda working, me working, moving out, selling stuff, etc...

First and foremost, our time grows short at the Juanita Manor. The crew only has what's left of this month and September before we depart. It's been an amazing 4 years at the house. Times like this remind me of the beginning. Jon and I had been living together in an apartment for a few months and decided to move in with Derek somewhere. Melanie (Jon's GF at the time) happened across a posting in the newspaper. A quick look and we were sure the house on the park with hot-tub and plenty of parking was for us! All thanks to Jon and Mel!

To celebrate the end of an era there was only one thing to do. Have a huge BBQ! Cam secured a keg of Mac&Jacks amber, I filled the tiki torches and we got the hot-tub fixed. Our theme "BAD FAST DANGER" epitomized our love for the fun fast and sometimes dangerous hobbies we all partake in. Checkout Cam and my facebook photos for the whole story. I'll post them on ecutts.com/gallery if anyone really wants (although I feel the urge to post there lessen since photo tagging is so damn convenient).

Our newest addition to the domination of the internet would be none other than DANGERGIL! I helped him get some free hosting on my account. If anyone else needs some let me know. I only get 1 terabyte of space after all.

SO... what's next? A 5 day weekend that's what! Cam, Brad, Lars and I are participating in Sportbike Northwest: a 4 day sportbike rally down at the Columbia river. Checkout the promo vid here. Thousands of riders meet in Stevenson, WA to ride some of the best roads in the world. These guys aren't stunters either, we're all wearing full leathers. You go faster with both wheels on the ground anyway. Oh, and did I mention I just bought a new 2007 GSXR 750 (same bike as cam's) which just got it's 600 mile service as my new toy? Life's short, wear a helmet!

Amanda's DONE

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 20:40:00 +0000

4 years in the making: Dozens of prerequisites, months of volunteering for work-experience, weeks of seminars, applications to several schools, 2 years of dental hygiene schooling, 50K miles of commuting, tens of thousands in international tuition fees, great family, shitty professors, amazing friends, several student visas, uncountable injections/composites/xrays/restorations/cleanings, and a whole world of stress! But it's officially DONE... Amanda starts work at a dental office as an Official RDH (registered dental hygenist) in only a few short days.

Congratulations Amanda, you did it! Here's a garbled voice-mail from the crazy girl moments after getting the holy grail, her social security number. She's yelling "I'm LEGAL!" in case you can't hear it!

Movie Review: Fantastic 4

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:52:00 +0000

Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer(2007)
My Rating: 2.5/5 stars
When I was a kid I loved Silver Surfer. How much cooler can you be than flying around on a surfboard with almost unlimited power! Too bad the movie was never destined to be a blockbuster. Jessica Alba is not a good invisible girl, the first movie pretty much sucked, and the movie sub-plot is a wedding.
I did enjoy this movie for its plot. Silver Surfer comes to earth to destroy it. The superheros have some issues with switching powers and ultimately use them to their advantage. Silver Surfer is as badass as I expected and I hope he's back in another movie.
What I hated was the product placement. The worst line in the movie "Does this thing have a hemy?". And even DosEquis sponsored the movie. It's everywhere! I dock them a full star for that alone. Also, why call the movie 'Rise of the Silver Surfer'? If it's a metaphor I don't like it.
This movie is worth renting to watch on your big screen for one of those "I don't want to think anymore" type of nights.

Speaking of big-screens... mine arrives today!

Zoning Out

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 19:52:00 +0000

Here's a good article by my friend Mike (owner of Crossfit Eastside) on the Zone diet. It's no joke, try it! I try to eat about 4 "blocks" per meal. Usually I'm not able to eat as often or as much as I'd like so I supplement with snacks of nuts and veggies between meals. Give it a shot and your performance will improve!

*update* Mike just pointed out a nutrition section of their site. Very cool stuff!

Learning to Sail a Hobiecat

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:43:00 +0000

On Sunday Tom, Gil and I ventured out onto the waters of Lake Washington to sail a "Hobie cat" sailboat. It was my second time on the boat and Gil's first. Tom has a membership at Sail Sand Point and we tagged along. The Hobie Cat is a Catamaran Sailboat with two pontoons and a flat deck. The vessel we sailed has a 16 foot sail and room for 2 or 3 people. The first two trips out were fun and we became comfortable tacking in 18 mph winds. On the second voyage we noticed a small 2-man race sailboat turtled (flipped over) in the middle of the lake. We sailed over and the found a guy and his girlfriend in their early 20s with no wetsuits. They were clinging to the top of the boat in cold water and high winds. I jumped into the water to help right the sailboat(wearing a 3/4 wetsuit) while tom/gil picked up the girl to bring her back to the shore. With high-winds and choppy water it took the guy (Cameron) and I two trys to flip the sailboat over and get in without it rolling over again. The boat was pretty full of water and Cameron was cold and not an experienced sailor so I limped the boat back upwind to the dock. I wasn't too cold but the former occupants of the sailboat were happy to be out of the wind and in the sun.

Mission complete, tom and I decided to go out for one more sail on the Hobie while Gil enjoyed the sun. This was the best run yet! We got the pontoon right out of the water and were truly "flying" the boat. Here's a video of a hobiecat flying and flipping over. Tom and I didn't crash (somehow) and managed to get back to shore without any problems.

Cam, Amanda and I plan on taking some sailing courses through sand-point to learn the proper techniques of sailing. If anyone's interested let me know!

update: more cool vids
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JtQjIsvdvo
http://youtube.com/watch?v=js-Z1m7zqvk

Gymnastics practice

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Thu, 24 May 2007 00:58:00 +0000

Kojo from Capoeira invited me to come along to practice at the Gymnastics academy in Seattle. It was entertaining to say the least! We worked on some basics such as round-offs, rolls, handstands and then moved on to more advanced techniques. We all improved in some areas. I learned the wall-flip and got better at hand-springs. Kojo landed a wall-flip outa nowhere and did some wicked spins and Ian landed 540s kicks, flips and other tricks. This will really help with Capoeira for better balance and improved aerials. Watch some videos I took here. At the end is an incredible trick by someone we met at the academy. It's a front wall-flip, executed like a wall-flip but running towards the wall, planting a foot and two hands, then flipping over forwards. Truly incredible!

Till next time!

Mean Machines 2007

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 19:41:00 +0000

Spring's here and it's fully bike-season again. I've been crusing to work and downtown on my motorcycle. As such I'm drooling over new bikes to use as a commuter and for day/overnight trips. I'd like something fast, under 10K and mean. I'll probably end up buying a used bike I won't feel bad dropping but why not dream right? There's lots of cool bikes, Gil's 2006 R6 is pretty mean but he crashed it at low-speed caused about 5K of damage so might be upgrading to an R1. Here's an R1 to R6 comparison. Not surprisingly the R1 is heavier (33lbs) and a bit longer in wheelbase (+1.4").

The R1 is a sweet machine but I'm drawn to more of a naked bike look. Here's a breakdown of some of them:

2007 MV Agusta MV BRUTALE 910R: out of my price range, the none-R version is a bit cheaper but still $$$

2007 Yamaha FZ1: A great all around bike. Looks good and has lots of power, plus it's good for slightly longer trips. A friend Paul has one and really enjoys it.

2007 Kawasaki Z1000: This bike looks mean. Huge Chrome dual exhaust and a great shape. I want one! Plus it's only $9K, cheaper than an R1.

Embarassing moto moment

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:24:00 +0000

I was just reading a funny thread on a motorcycle newsgroup about 'most embarrasing moments on your motorcycle' so I'd like to share my dumbass mistake!

Months after starting at MS (3-4 years ago) I was living in corporate-housing and my recently purchased motorcycle was parked in front of my recently purchased BMW in a single parking spot. I was going to take my bike for a ride so I needed to move the car to get at the bike. My plan was to pull the car out and up the hill a couple of parking spaces, then move my bike, and park the car back in the spot... no problem! I move the car out and up from my parking spot and leave it running. I set the parking brake and leave the car in neutral then walk over to the bike. Just as I back the bike out of the spot I glance uphill and OH SHIT!!!!1111 there’s my car rolling downhill towards me! I frantically scoot the bike back just as the car barely slides by my front wheel. I almost drop the bike putting down the stand and leap from the seat. My car is picking up speed and rolling towards a row of parked cars!!! Quickly bolting down the hill I leap akwardly into the drivers seat and yank the e-brake. The car jumps a curb and slides onto a lawn but slowly slides to a stop just inches from a lexus. I couldn’t believe I almost took out both of my new vehicles and a row of parked cars! Luckily nobody saw it and there was zero damage. A word to the wise... don't trust your ebrakes, put your car in gear anytime it's on a hill!

Got an embarrasing story about your car/motorcycle? Feel free to share!

Live Maps Improvements

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 22:06:00 +0000

If you haven't used http://local.live.com/ yet then you should. If you've used it before but haven't tried the birds-eye view then check it out! They've just announced several new cities which have been mapped for birds-eye imagery including Toronto, Utrecht, Geneva and more. I created a Shared Collection for Utrecht that has some of the cities landmarks. Go here and click the Birds Eye button. This page explains how to use the functionality, but it's pretty simple. Once in Birds-Eye view you can drag the map around to navigate or zoom out to map-view and move around from there, then back to birds-eye. You can also change the angle of view with the compass shaped control.

If you don't want to navigate around yourself then checkout some collections other people have created. Collections.live.com contains a full directory of featured collections with walking tours of Dublin, Amsterdam and other destinations. BirdsEyeTourist is another way to travel from your own computer. This technology is just going to get more advanced and soon I think we'll be able to go pretty much anywhere virtually and even add to these collections with our own media and photos.

Friday media

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 18:20:00 +0000

Hey all, here's yet another compilation of media for your Friday viewing pleasure.

540 kick tutorial: I'm learning these in Capoeira. To train I've been wearing weights and doing a lot of jumping. My legs are getting quite a bit stronger which helps with the pop. I find that leaning forward helps. I'd also like to learn the sideflip.

Crash at Pacific Raceway: With the warmer weather marks the start of the 2007 track-season. Scroll backwards through the photos to see what happens. Both parties are okay. The track was cold and this was only the 3rd lap of the day. The rider that went down first had cold tires and was probably going in a little hot. Here's some discussion from the rider of the yellow bike.

Fireworks factory explosion: This guy survived with some injuries. Apparently these factories blow-up all the time. Not my choice of a place to work.

Furnishings

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:14:00 +0000

Speedo posted some thoughts on how disposable a lot of our furnishings have become. Much of the time we don't think about where they've come from or where they go when we throw them out. This got me thinking about my current position. Amanda's in school and we still have roomates so that puts us in college mode. Beg, borrow or buy used. I've never been to Ikea and the only new furniture I've ever purchased includes my computer desk from staples, some kitchen chairs at Bed/Bath&B and a desk-chair. Soon however things will change. In September Amanda and I are moving out on our own and we'll be forced to find all the basics... couches, tables and all. It's a scary thought. A lot of people have mentioned Area 51 in Capitol Hill which boasts environmentally friendly furnishings. We'll definitely be looking at alternatives come Fall.

Friday vids

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 07:04:00 +0000

It's Friday! Time to share some videos.

Kiteboarder getting blown away: can wind really lift a boarder? maybe

Capoeira Ne Veia: capoeira trailer with good tunes

BMW M3 on Isle of Man: insane driving

Capoeira Samba: crazy muscle control

Got any vids to share? Post a comment!

Victoria Batizado 2007

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 22:17:00 +0000

Last weekend Cam and I travelled to Victoria, BC for an Axé Capoeira event known as a Batizado. Cam has a pretty good summary of the event and training here. The highlights were training with Mestres from all over the world and parcipating in the Troca de Cordas, which literally means changing of the cords. Cam and myself were promoted to Azul and this comes with further responsibility such as playing more instruments and helping the less experienced students in our academy. I'd like to thank Matt who let a bunch of us crash at his place and drink his beer. Without him the trip would have been a lot more difficult. We used to be roomies back in University. I also got to spend some time showing Cam around Victoria and we ventured out for a few hours at night. It was just like old times! I partied at the same bars, saw some of the same people, and felt genuinely 21 all over again.

PICS you ask? Well there's not many since I've lost yet another battery charger but we do have some videos:

1) Advanced students performing Maculele and solos at the Batizado
2) Myself, Cam, Mike and Brian during the Troca de Cordas in that order

And to help you finish off the week here's my youtube video of the week:
Terje with a sick line in First Decent.

Null season, Whistler pics, R32

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 22:55:00 +0000

As mottie suggests everyone's laying low these days. There's no fresh snow, the weather is bleak and work is busy. But all is not lost...

Today VW announced the release of more R32's in America. For $500 you can put down a deposit on 1 of the only 5000 vehicles to be released here. The car comes in 1 of 4 colours and the only option is to get nav for $1800. Some of the most interesting specs are that "The R32 features a narrow-angle 3.2L V6 producing 250 horsepower mated to a six speed dual clutch DSG transmission, with steering wheel mounted shift controls." Yes you read that correctly, paddle shifters with a dual clutch. I've never driven a DSG transmission before but I plan on test-driving a VW equipped with it this Sunday. My roomie has one of the few R32s in the US (released in 2004) and it's proven to be great for snowboarding expeditions, commuting, lookin hawt, and resale value. Maybe I'll throw down a refundable deposit Sunday. I'm going to research some other options like the WRX and EvoMR. Either way, I won't buying a new car until this summer.

While we're waiting for the next dump of snow I decided to put up pics from the last Whistler trip. George/Cam/Gil/Gil's cousin Susan and I hit Whistler in force 2-3 weeks ago. Hamilton, Eric and crew were there too and I stayed in style with Cam's folks who fed us immensely (fondue!) and kept us entertained with stories of Cam's youth. At one point Eric's brother smashed his face into some ice and got his first bloody nose ever but was okay. We enjoyed some sunshine and beer at the top of 7th heaven in the pub at the end of the day then I rode the couloir (no fall zone!) on Blackcomb for the first time ever. Overall, one of my best days ever even though the snow wasn't great. Here's a video (26MB) of Hamilton and I boosting over a knoll and getting a few seconds of hangtime.

NEW HOST

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:35:00 +0000

My website was hosted on a friend's machine plugged into the backbone of a major ISP. The downside to my great bandwidth was that eventually it would go away with little notice, and it did! After creating a tarball of my entire site (1.7gb) I copied it down with my favorite FTP program (CuteFTP rocks with 4 stream DL ability). Next I looked at some hosts and Mottie pointed me to BlueHost. They charge ~$7/month when you pay for 2 years of service and this includes hosting up to 6 domains on one account. With 200GB of space and 1000GB of monthly traffic I was sold! I switched over my DNS and before I could finish copying over files the domain was rerouted. Blogger and my old static photogallery was up right away but Gallery had some kinks to workout. I had to update my config.php to point to the new location starting with public_html but then once I ran setup it complained the paths were wrong, so I switched them back to the full path and all was well. Success! I moved my entire page to a new location in ONE evening!

I followed up with a quick upgrade to Gallery and have changed my look and feel a bit. The main categories now show thumbnails of sub-galleries. I've also added a sweet SLIDESHOW feature to the main gallery (link in upper RH corner) which loops 40 random photos. I'd also like to use the thumbnail navigation feature for navigating withing an album, but for some reason it's not showing up. Anyone have experience with this?

With my website's new host I'm privy to a few new features. I have increased memory limits on the server and can run stats with Gallery. This lets me keep an eye on new comments and generate queries such as 'most viewed photos'. Also, bluehost has better stats. I have been using webalizer to see who's hotlinking my photos. Mostly a few myspace users like this guy who is using my shot of Whistler windlip as his BG. Oh well it's a nice shot! I also see what search-terms people are hitting me with and what countries/busineses they're from. Shout out to those of you in the US military, Japan, NL, Austria, India, Brazil, Iran and Israel! It's nice to know my tax dollars are paying for people to surf my site. ;) Here are some search terms people used to hit my site in the past day:

#/hits/percent/term
1 13 11.61% blindfold
2 5 4.46% godess
3 5 4.46% tons of cocaine
4 4 3.57% bachelorette parties
5 4 3.57% stoppie
6 3 2.68% ecutts
7 3 2.68% roles royce
8 3 2.68% ticklish
9 3 2.68% videos site:ecutts.com
10 2 1.79% bus

So people like (in this order) blindfolds, women, cocaine and busses! Interesting... anyway, you can see I searched for vids on my site for a blast from the past. There's JMoto, a good friend from Nanaimo on the bmx, and some hilarious wakeboard vids.

CES, iPhone, Somalia and COMICS

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 23:38:00 +0000

Wow, 2007 kicks off with a bang! New technology is showcased at CES, the US sends gunships into Somalia for the first time since "Black Hawk Down", and the weather in Seattle continues to be unpredictable as ever!

If you know anything about consumer electronics, then you know about CES. The show is hosted in Vegas and there you'll find the newest in cameras, computers, biggest and baddest TVs, and more. Everything Microsoft has to offer is shown here at MicrosoftatCES.com. If you haven't watched Bill G's keynote yet then I suggest checking it out for a host of announcements. I most enjoy the portion from 1:04 onward where he looks ahead. It's also probably his last keynote at CES as he's moving on to work full-time on the Gates Foundation charity work.

Steve Jobs' keynote is also of interest. The new iPhone is a cool addition to the Apple product line. I'm not sure about the touch-pad interface yet but I can imagine using finger combinations to type as a new way of doing input. I hope it's customizable. But, all is not toys and gizmos... halfway around the world the US is deploying gunships.

Somalia officials report many deaths, including civilians, after the US deployed helicopters against targets they report as being "al-Qaida" training camps. This is the first US involvement in Somalia since the "Black Hawk Down" episode of the 90s. Seattle-pi has a good story worth reading here. Strafing targets with gunfire seems like more 'shock and awe' foolery. The US defense department is giving very limited information on its intelligence and has used the 1998 embasy bombing as a carte-blanche for its operations in the area. Somalis are unhappy with Ethiopia's Dec 24th attacks which pushed back Islamic militia and now the US attacks are fueling more anti-American sentiment in the area. I predict more terrorist attacks against American and foreign targets due to recent events.

On a LIGHTER NOTE... it's supposed to snow in Seattle tonight. This cartoon pretty much sums up my daily commute during bad weather.

HOLIDAY RECAP

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 23:10:00 +0000

The past month has been a blur. Now that I'm back to the everyday routine of work and play it's time to look back at it all. If you're interested read on...

Dec 23rd was Amanda's birthday and we celebrated a bit early with a viewing of the Nutcracker ballet at McCaw hall in Seattle. It was a formal affair and she looked stunning in a black dress. The production was beautiful and our seats were great. Photos are up in the Gallery here. It was produced by the Pacific Northwest Ballet (pnb.org) if you're interested.

After the Seattle storm and subsequent power-outage insanity Amanda and I had a day or two of work and preparation before heading north to Vancouver Island in BC. The highlights of the trip were visiting family, seeing old friends, and snowboarding. We received some amazing gifts. Some of them are a new espresso machine (mmm lattes), self-heating wok with thermostat, crok-pot, avalanche probe, many new books and, of course, SOCKS! After the Christmas craziness of visiting two families I got a chance to do some snowboarding.

December 27th I made a trip to Mt.Washington with Cathers and we ripped up the mountain. This was my first experience riding the new Outback terrain on the Boomerang chair. The new terrain really completes the mountain with tons of glades and some steep runs. I enjoyed the gulley on far skiers right and some glades and clearings far left. Someday when there's fresh snow I'll have to go back and explore more. Refreshed from boarding and tons of fresh air I was headed back to Seattle for 2 days of work.

New Years arrived and we made the annual pilgrimage to Vancouver, BC for a reunion with friends and partying like rock-stars. Thanks to Shawn and Loni for cooking an amazing steak dinner, Christina for being our resident expert on the scene in Vancouver, Amanda for sticking by my side and dancing all night, Gil, George and Kelsey for the positive energy, and Cam and Opal for the best after-party ever! Much love to everyone involved! Some pics which don't begin to tell the story here.

Well... things are slowly getting back to normal. I'll post soon with a list of things to look forward and build on in Earth, version 2.0.0.7!

ENERGIZED!

noreply@blogger.com (erik) — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:20:00 +0000

We have power! The hot tub is a balmy 101 degrees and it was great to wake up in our own bed! Power had been out for a total of about 84 hours. It's nice to be home.

I got a chance to play some Halo III in its testing stages and all I can say is wow! Here's a trailer.