Pictures of Circular Quay and the Opera House. Here is what I did this morning to enjoy the hot weather that ushered in the new year here. Burning Question: What happened to Michael Keaton? Micheal Keaton is a great actor. I was a young kid when my Aunt got all of us to see Mr. Mom (she has a certain gift for warm-hearted coercion). It’s on TV right now and it’s gotten me thinking… Keaton is one of the finest actors that we have ever been blessed to watch do comedy. First he does physical comedy incredibly well. The scene in Mr.

Back in the early days of cable (dating myself here), the then-fledgling MTV networks did not have the means to produce its own content (20 years later, it produces too much crappy content). As part of the MTV Networks Umbrella, Nickelodeon (now “Nick”) imported a great amount of content from our friend across the pond, the BBC and Thames productions. What the Hell? They also imported many Canadian shows like “Pinwheel:” Aside: T’was on Nickelodeon’s Today’s Special that I first saw the mysterious word “Ontario.” Today’s Special, You Can’t Do That on Television, and Pinwheel are all pivotal childhood media milestones and worthy of their own post elsewhere

Life in NYC and SF are remarkably similar in the amount of walking that happens day to day. Unlike San Francisco, however, much of transit time is spent underground where there is no network connection and, as a result, the podcast is a standard accompaniament for Gotham walkers / subway riders. One that I’ve really come to enjoy is the podcast of the Andreesen-Horowitz (or, A16Z) venture capital business. A16Z has recently started investing in nootropics: materials that help keep you at top cognitive function and on [their nootropics podcast][pod] they had a really keen observation: as of this moment the human body is at a point such that it can be considered as a component, not unlike the Homebrew computer movement, (e.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/06/star-trek-tng-and-the-limits-of-language-shaka-when-the-walls-fell/372107/#article-comments One of the most fascinating articles I’ve ever read about inter-planetary communication. How could we communicate with minds that are dramatically different than ours? The article recalls elements of Orson Scott Card’s “Xenocide” and Sagan’s “Contact.” I know the (latest) “Wow!” signal is probably an aberration, but these are the difficulties of the future.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/a-guide-to-the-epic-scifi-movie-valerian-and-the-fanta-1789112928 We really lost something when the French stopped imagining the aesthetic of the future. From Jules Verne to Mőbius there’s a grand, beautiful tradition.

When I first moved to the San Jose in 2000, I didn’t know a soul. Driven by ambition, hubris, curiosity and the desire to get out of the socio-political and heat environment of Texas, I went as far to the West as I could. I remember driving up from the Central Valley through the apricots, peaches, and garlic of Gilroy. The wide tree-filled manors of Monte Sereno and the brown hills of South San Jose served as pillars marking the entrance to the Valley of Heart’s Delight. It was magical and the smell of produce and the richness of Earth’s breast has never left me. I’m sure it’s all Kohl’s-anchored strip centers and Targets now.

In those days, I was eager to start working and making my splash in the tech world. There was still enough wheeze left in the coughing engine of “the New Economy” that I was hoping for one last shot at the optionaire dream of wealth and fancy. All that would be undone within 18 months, but knowing the sordid future coming due does nothing to undermine the joy of dreaming the dream. But in those early days, along in my tiny room, on Saturday night I had a ritual:

I would walk to the fast food options up the street and bring home my dinner. I’d listen to KQED’s programing of “The World,” “This American Life, “Selected Shorts,” “The BBC World Service” and then go to bed and sleep in late on Sunday. Often, in those nights, it would be me, my computer, stacks of CD’s loading Linux, or me working on programming projects. It seems small and lonely now, and it was, surely. But it was also where I started finding out who I was professionally. I can’t shun it.

To this day, I can still hear the introduction patter from program director Isaiah Sheffer: “Recorded at Symphony Space in New York.” How many dozens of times did I hear that over the years?

How funny it is, then, that I’ve now lived a few blocks away from where “Selected Shorts” was recorded all those years ago. For a couple’s night out, I got us tickets during Christmas to see a recording of “Selected Shorts” this past Wednesday.