Jake's Adventures

Help Support Operation Jack in 2011!

2011-12-11T19:59:00.001-08:00

So you all remember the 2010 Operation Jack Marathon, right? You can check my recap on the CORE blog. And watch the great video reviewing the race and Sam's epic achievement of running (and running HARD) 61 marathons in 2010.

So we're back in 2011. The race itself, held right in Manhattan Beach, is set to be a sell-out. Which is awesome. At the same time, we are trying to raise more than $30,000 for autism charities and we need help across the country & the world. And here's how you can help:

1) Enter one of the satellite races. We have an awesome medal for 2011, 4" die cast metal. And an excellent t-shirt and stellar bibs. Want to get all 3? Sign up for the 2011 satellite runs, 6.2 miles. Just register by December 16 for $35 to get all the gear by race day. You can read more about the satellite runs on Sam's blog and then register to run as part of Team CORE. Choose the Satellite Run option.

2) You can also donate through my fundraising efforts. I'm matching the first $5 of every donation and another $5 for each runner on Team CORE. If you donate $25 or more through me, you'll get a t-shirt too (just remind me).

For LA locals, there's still time to register to run or sign up as a volunteer.

Open Letter to Janice Hahn Concerning SOPA

2011-11-21T20:15:00.001-08:00

Here's the letter I sent. Congresswoman Hahn's letter is included below.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. However, I think you're completely missing the impact that SOPA would have by encouraging corporate censorship of speech and massively regulating the internet. In particular, this sentence shows a fundamental misunderstanding of whom SOPA is intended to help.

"To ensure the growth of technological innovation in the United States, it is essential that we protect the rights of artist and innovators from the online thieves who prosper by stealing their work."

First of all, lets be clear that copyright infringement is an offense distinct from theft. Adopting the loaded language of the entertainment industry serves only to poison the discussion about effective ways to reduce copyright infringement and ensure that content is legally & easily available to willing consumers. Second, I am quite aware that the leading companies in Silicon Valley-- Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Twitter & others-- have come out strongly against SOPA. Even the Business Software Alliance has realized that SOPA is counter to their best interests. Its quite clear that the true innovators are strongly against SOPA, and to suggest otherwise to informed citizens is inexplicable. Nor is it really in the best interests of artists, who are succeeding by adopting new business models to take advantage of the amazing new possibilities created by internet technologies. Rather, this bill has been carefully crafted by employees of the MPAA & RIAA in conjunction with lobbyists paying millions of dollars to congressional campaigns.

Finally, I'll close by pointing out that one man's rogue website is another person's freedom fighting tool. If the RIAA & MPAA had the power of SOPA in the 70s, 80s and 90s, we never would have had the VCR (in the famous Betamax case, the movie studios sued Sony), the iPod (the makers of the original MP3 players were sued by record labels) or YouTube (still being sued by Paramount). Yet these tools are ubiquitous today and these technologies have led to revolutions & new ways of communicating. Facebook was instrumental in the Arab Spring. Yet under rules like SOPA, a repressive or even well meaning regime could end up blocking Facebook in their entire country due to copyright violations committed by a small minority of their users. That's the world that SOPA would perversely enable. Dismantling safe harbors would gut the next generation of social networking tools.

I urge you to reconsider your evident support of SOPA and urge the wholesale rejection of this proposed law. Bills should be openly developed by congress and their staff based on citizen input. This bill was written by the media conglomerates along with the MPAA & RIAA and represents democracy at its very worst. Stand up for democracy, stand up for your citizens and do not allow the internet to be massively regulated at the urging of industries that have been unwilling to adapt to the new technologies that have connected our world so well the past several decades.

-----------------

Dr. Rome,
Thank you for contacting me to express your views. I am honored to represent you, and I appreciate your active participation in the legislative process. Your involvement makes democracy work better by helping me more effectively represent you and California’s 36th District.

To ensure the growth of technological innovation in the United States, it is essential that we protect the rights of artist and innovators from the online thieves who prosper by stealing their work. I support efforts to combat piracy in order safeguard intellectual property and those who produce it. At the same time, however, we must also be critical of the methods used against rogue websites so that they not be abused or used as part of a “one size fits all” approach. Rest assured that I will be sure to keep your views in mind as Congress considers this and other similar legislation.
I hope you will keep in touch with me on this or any other issue you feel important. To stay informed of my work or to sign up for my electronic newsletter, please visit my website at http://Hahn.House.gov. Or, you can always call my office in Wilmington at (310) 549-8282 or my office in Washington, D.C. toll-free at (855) 328-7332.
free at (855) 328-7332.
The internet is a wonderful tool that has improved and enriched lives around the world. That's why I support efforts to expand internet access across the country. Rest assured that I will work with my colleagues to achieve this goal.
Sincerely yours,
Janice Hahn
Member of Congress
JH/zs

Still Freeing the Dune!

2011-10-21T18:13:00.000-07:00

These posts have been well migrated to the CORE blog, but thought I'd update the 8-10 regular readers of this blog. Here's the short version, which is just the pre-meeting entry & post-meeting entry smushed together.

BEFORE
---------
Fellow Manhattan Beach resident & sand dune fans,

This Tuesday, October 18, the dune at Sand Dune Park will once again be on the City Council agenda. City statistics show that in the last 12 months, dune usage has fallen 80-90% and the dune has been replenished only once, which is less than half of the usage anticipated by the city. The number one reason for this are the restrictive hours that make it very difficult for working adults to exercise on the dune. The city has proposed only the minor change of adding one more reservations slot during mid-day to accommodate people on their lunch break. While we support that measure, it still does nothing to help the thousand of Manhattan Beach adults that commute to work each day. The dune is not open until 8 AM and closes at 7 PM in the summer, and 4 PM in the winter. Closing so early in the winter is unfortunate, as winter nights are perfect for exercising in Manhattan Beach. CORE's proposal to modestly extend hours is included below.

In addition, city staff proposes spending $50,000 or more to build a permanent fence around the dune. Finally, statistics show that only 15% of dune reservations are made by city residents; CORE believes this is because spontaneous usage has been eliminated, which is how most Manhattan Beach residents enjoy the dune.

CORE Proposal

SCHEDULE
Monday-Friday , year round
7:30 - 8:30 AM
9:00 - 10:00 AM
10:30-11:30 AM
12:30 - 1:30 PM
2:00 - 3:00 PM
3:30 - 4:30 PM
5:00 - 6:00 PM
6:30 - 7:30 PM

Saturday & Sunday, year round
8:00 - 9:00 AM
9:30 - 10:30 AM
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
12:30 - 1:30 PM
2:00 - 3:00 PM
3:30 - 4:30 PM

WALK-UP RESERVATIONS
Allow walk-up use during regularly scheduled times if fewer than 15 reservations have been made.

FENCE
Defer building a permanent fence, and instead use the money to support important Parks programs such as the fixing of the Begg Pool.

---------------------

We hope you can support the CORE proposal, which modestly extends the hours to accommodate working adults, spend scarce city dollars on more beneficial projects and allow walk-up reservations on a trial basis. Please also email the City Council here. We encourage you to write your own message, or simply cut and paste the following language into an email and send it to the City Council ( CityCouncil@citymb.info ) and please cc bill@core4you.org & jake@core4you.org:

Honorable Mayor and City Council Members,

I understand that you are reviewing the management of Sand Dune Park at your Tuesday, October 18 meeting. I am writing to strongly urge you to support the CORE proposal for Sand Dune Park.

The plan addresses the major issue with the current rules at Sand Dune Park, specifically the near inability of working adults to regularly exercise on the dune or spontaneously enjoy this crown in the city's park system. Since the dune has been used less than half as often as targeted by the city, there is ample capacity to allow more time slots. By modestly extending dune hours just 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening and allowing spontaneous midday use, this will make it much easier for working residents to enjoy the park. Allowing children & adults to play & exercise on the dune during winter evenings would be a welcome benefit as well. Adding weekend slots is another way to improve access for residents.

I am pleased that the City is once again working to manage the dune for the benefit of all city residents. I hope the City Council can develop a solution that allows more city residents such as myself to enjoy this city park

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]

-------------------------

AFTER
------------
Congratulations all, because of the suggestions offered by CORE supporters and other residents following our last blog post, the City Council heard your voices & unanimously voted to expand dune hours, allow walk-up reservation with a permit & allow seniors to enjoy the dune without reservations. These changes, while modest, go well beyond what was recommended by Park staff. In addition, a group of neighbors & dune users will form a committee to explore adding more hours. Both the Daily Breeze & the Easy Reader both have stories with some more background & detail.

The near immediate benefits are the addition of the following hours:

12:30-1:30 Monday-Friday
Saturday 12:30-1:30, 3:00-4:00 & 4:30-5:30

The already decided short term improvements:

Walk-up use for seniors-- it's unclear if this is during all open hours or just during the fixed time slots.
Walk-up use for up to 50 people that purchase or otherwise obtain a monthly pass. The cost of the permit and procedures for using it have not been announced yet.

Finally, probable medium term changes after community meetings & staff implementation:

Addition of early time slots in the morning
Sunday time slots
Walk-up reservations for all, enabled by staff using wireless technology. Hey, if tech savvy folks can help staff with this & demonstrate it to staff & council, we can make this happen sooner rather than later.
Fencing options will be determined

There were some ideas that were not supported, but with continued community support and more thoughtful emails to city council & staff, we can continue to improve dune access & achieve these long term goals:

Extended hours in the evening
Allowing children & adults to play & exercise on the dune after dark, as we have done for 40 years
Have the city remove the fence
Removing the dune divisions, opening the entire dune to all and letting young children climb w/ their parents to the top of the dune together

Look for updates on the reservations page and the city's official page for the dune. And you can still email city council with ideas for improvements, praise for park staff or anything else.

What has been a big part of the success of the CORE campaign has been the positive engagement of so many dune users, led by the example of partner-in-crime Bill Hory. From the outset, Bill's philosophy has been to understand the issue from all sides and work through the City Council process, even if it seemed slow at times. The benefits of this approach have not always been immediately visible, but they were on full display this week. By building a broad coalition, CORE members were able to send dozens of emails to the city on short notice, undoubtedly steering the expansion of dune access well beyond that recommended by staff. It wasn't only CORE supporters of course. Some dune neighbors emailed and even spoke at the city council meeting encouraging staff to add more hours. It's hard to overstate how crucial that support was. So thanks to all CORE supporters and dune neighbors that contacted City Council to advocate for expanded access.

Bike spill

2011-10-16T19:57:00.001-07:00

Do not cycle faster than 6mph in the dark on sandy, curvy, unlit paths.

I dinged my arm up today during a pre-dawn bike ride on The Strand, so I'll be brief since typing is difficult. Looks like triathlon season is over. I'd add more, but this sprained left hand and that right arm in a sling make it tough. X-ray negative at the ER, but I'd say it's 50/50 on a broken elbow. Nice scratch on my face, too. Didn't look too bad today, but I imagine it'll look worse before it looks better. Will see how I feel tomorrow, doctor later this week. In good news, my face protected the helmet from any impact, so no need to replace it! And don’t get me started on Blue Cross, which sent me to 2 urgent care facilities that wouldn’t bill their HMO. Now I enter reimbursement hell.

I'll get better.

Here are the x-rays:

I'm a Half Ironman!

2011-10-09T19:57:00.000-07:00

Oh man, it was a brutal course on a brutal day! The race started off well enough, with cool 55 degree termperature, a warm calm lake, and the sun breaking over the peaks surrounding Castaic Lake (lagoon, actually) as I neared the swim finish. The swim is 1.2 miles, which happens to be the furthest I’ve ever swum. I didn’t start great– not warmed up enough, so the first half I alternated between side stroke, rescue crawl and regular crawl. 2nd half I found my rhythm & swam crawl the rest. Out of the water in 57 minutes, followed by a 10-minute Transition 1 which included a restroom break.

So onto the bike. A 7-mile climb, 1700 feet vertical to climb. I was so surprised & proud to pass 4 people! Then the gnarly descent, sadly interrupted by a flat tire which cost about 15 minutes. Ugh. Well, nothing to do but go. Back up, then down, up down up down up down. All told, there were 6800 feet of climbing the first 42 or 46 miles (my GPS measured the course at 52 miles). I was worried I wouldn’t make the 6:15 Bike+Swim cutoff. But, thanks in art to the missing 4 miles, I easily made the mark. Flew down the last 10+ miles, and pulled back to the transition area after 4:35 on the bike. My longest bike ride ever. Detecting a theme? Six minutes gearing up for the run, then away I went. GPS data for the bike.

At this point, I should mention the weather. It was a beautiful, clear California day. Perfect weather, really, for just about any activity. Other than running. Or cycling up hill. I was hydrating well, but my body could only metabolize so much fluid. By the time I started the run, the mercury hit a crisp 85 degrees. A pleasant, dry, non Santa Ana 85. But 85 still. So I started to run. Initially, the worry was my lower back, totally stiff and very hard to run. Plus a mild cramp in my right calf. The back loosened a tiny bit after 2 miles and the cramp resolved itself. I was running about 10/mile, feeling good but warm. But then, about mile 4 or 5, the heat really took its toll. No matter how much water or Heed I drank, no matter how many salt pills or GU I ingested, no matter how many ice cold towels or cups of ice I cooled my body with, I could not get my core body temperature down.

So slow, slow, slow. I was hoping for a 2:15 half marathon– that was NOT in the cards! Instead, I staggered through in 2:45 and didn’t have a whole lot in reserve. Every time I ran more than 3-4 minutes, my brain would give my body an ultimatum– stop running or I’m shutting this down! Even with that, walking sometimes 10 minutes at a time, my heart rate was upwards of 160. I was dehydrated, but couldn't metabolize the liquids. I was overheated, and every step I ran exacerbated it. Alas, I pushed through & proudly crossed the finish line 8:34 or thereabouts. I had dreams of a 7:30 and expectations of 8 flat, but the heat & the flat ended that. “Running” the half was harder than the 2nd half of any marathon I’ve run no matter the heat. Just couldn’t get hydrated fast enough during the bike, and started the run already overheated. GPS data for the run.

Regardless, I’m proud of what I managed to pull off. I only had this idea 6 weeks ago, started training 5 weeks ago, ran my first Tri 4 weeks ago and bought the bike 2 weeks ago. All of that, and I finished one of the toughest 1/2 Ironman races in the world with brutal hills on the bike, a flat and temperatures not suited to running. It seemed like a crazy idea a month ago, even crazier when I glanced the course, but I did it!

Results here.
I’ll post the link to photos when they’re posted.

Mom's Artwork

2011-10-01T13:18:00.001-07:00

I've had a lot of crazy projects the last few years, leading or helping them along. There's The Day of the Donut. Free the Dune. Operation Jack Marathon. The Hermosa 24. The Icebox Book & Launch Party. Pacdog is Awesome. DMU Sh*w.

All were lots of fun, hard work (mostly) and I think brought happiness to a lot of people. I'm proud of what I did to contribute, and I know that I have some unique skills that have pushed a lot of these projects forward. Yet none I could've done alone, not by a long shot.

But none is more meaningful to me personally that has taken much of the year, starting in January and running through today and onward to next year. That has been photographing Mom's artwork.

590 paintings, drawings & sketches to date. Of course, it was far from a solo project. He'll humbly deflect his credit, but without Flickr & IRL friend Edson Matthews the latter half of those wouldn't be perfect, if I had the time or energy to complete the task solo. Truth is, its harder than one might think, and I'd like to thank NAHppy, leesure & the others as well for chiming in with helpful advice. Edson never shared his lighting set up. But it involved a few white walls, a couple strobes w/ stands, an umbrella, special white balance card & a whole lot of patience. Thanks again. You can see the best photos of paintings you could ever expect to capture in 90 seconds or less here:

www.flickr.com/photos/jakerome/tags/emwashere/

Friends, family helped the project too. Most of all Mom, who got me started on it as a snowy day activity. And I quickly realized it was what I was meant to do. Her friends, especially Katerina, helped a ton too, as did my cousin Emily, friend Mike and assorted other family members & friends. Including of course my step dad John who helped where he could and chauffeured Edson to the airport when needed.

So yeah, this is far from the end. But it's a milestone. Of the 300 photographed before Edson arrived, probably 100-150 need re-takes. That will come in due time. The 20 in my house still await a proper capture. But that's not what's really left.

As noted, I have a plan-- a real show, next June, with a few dozen artworks, maybe another dozen from friends. We'll donate every dime to cancer charities or art scholarships, all TBD. But a show, a show just doesn't happen. It'll be a slow roll, and a book alongside. So the project continues.

And that's the gift, really, that my Mom has given me. Among a 1000 others. I questioned at times what was the purpose of this task, and never quite knew. But at last I realized, this project is about me & my brother, which is all Mom ever wanted. For us to enjoy her artwork, to share it with the world, and get a little recognition.

Nothing gets those endorphins going like doing good. Doing good for my mom, that will kick in some endorphins for me. And others. And I'll gladly basque in that glow. And using my unique skills, leverage it into something more, something greater.

So thanks all for your help & encouragement so far. The task will happily become part of my life's work-- not as a chore but rather as a reward. And for those that seek to share those rewards, I'll be more than happy to accept your help.

Alas, and only with that does it occur that Edson didn't just visit Beverly to help me, but to gain his own reward. And I'm certain he collected, and now we are left in each others' debt. I look forward to owing a debt and being indebted to all of you more than I am already.

Pacdog is Awesome

2011-09-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

Paul Collins, AKA Pacdog, has been active on Flickr more than a half decade, and has made hundreds of friends across the site on various groups, and has never made an enemy. When he lost parts of 5 fingers in an accident, he seemed to be down and I resolved to organize his friends to cheer him up.

At first I thought small, just raise some money to buy a gift. But other Flickr members, such as Miss Nikski, suggested the more meaningful idea of creating something for him. Ideas included all signing a print, each sending him a photo, creating a collage and other ideas. Finally, it seemed to coalesce around the concept of each writing a message then creating a collage. At the last minute, Lito AKA Lito (You can see all the contributors here) for a list of most contributors), came up with the brilliant idea to have all our signs be a single, unified message and turn them into a video.

And so it began. Jeff Wilson, an experienced video editor, quickly volunteered to fill that role. For 2 days, we signed people up simply by asking people the cryptic question, "do you want to do something awesome?" 90 inquired to learn more, and all 90 signed on to the project. I wrote the bit that would form the message. And soon the assignments were set, tracked using a Google Spreadsheet so everyone could track the progress of the project. Files (named with a clever, if obvious, scheme) were uploaded via DropItToMe to DropBox. An an email message was sent to each member with a link & instructions. And somehow it all worked!

In just 2 days, more than 60 members jumped to complete their assignments, and then on a frantic Sunday afternoon a half-dozen die hards raced to finish by enlisting their family, friends, dogs, cats and stuffed animals. And then... we were set. Jeff accessed the files, chose some great CC-BY music on Jamendo, and sent me the file. I uploaded the video to Vimeo, and a day or two later Pacdog watched the video while Jake's World was on the phone with him-- he was laughing, crying & loving every bit of it.

Pacdog is awesome from Jake Rome on Vimeo.

The whole project was intended for an audience of one, and if Paul was the only person that saw it we would all feel extremely proud. But as it turns out, the format was perfect for sharing more widely, and already thousands have seen our message intended to lift one friend's spirit. I am happy about that. Here's how Paul responded a couple days later.

And about the words themselves... let's face it, there's nothing profound in my prose, a few inside jokes & a lot of nonsense in a self referential tone. But the message was more than the message-- it was the efforts of dozens of friends from 6 continents all spending time to take a photo and share it with the world, just so we could cheer someone up. That is far more profound.

Four Years of Camp Lawrence Family Camp Portraits

2011-09-09T23:57:00.000-07:00

2008

2009

2010

2011

Stage collapses at concert

2011-08-15T16:21:00.000-07:00

The gust of wind is always unexpected, probably a dozen times a year. Hey guys, if your stage is doomed to collapse with a strong gust of wind, maybe you shouldn't build them with giant windcatchers.

Canada (August 2009ish)
Indiana
Canada again.
Tulsa

During construction, too.
France
Michigan

That's from 3 minutes of searching.

Automated desktop!

2011-08-12T22:38:00.001-07:00

So I've been making these mosaics for upwards of 3 years now, and I always knew there had to be a better way to create them. I couldn't find any good tools, so I created one!

I learned just a teeny bit of the Flickr API & Applescript and OS X's Automator. Net result? Two little scripts that take less than a minute to set up-- all I need to do is specify the set ID, the number of images I want & the aspect ratio.

First, I get the list of photos using an Applescript that accesses Flickr via the API. Then a few nifty scripts quickly download the 240 pixel image of each & rename them.

A separate script creates a new image in GraphicConverter. Each image is opened in succession, copied, window closed and pasted into the proper position in GC. All that done, I just save the image & it's done!

Still some manual steps-- right now I'm manually deleting the images after, manually saving & I have to make sure GC is open when I start. Plus, I'd like to just specify the desktop dimensions in pixels & images then figure out the rest behind the scenes. Long term goal is to create a web front end and apps that will generate new mosaics on the fly.

For now, this is good. The nice side effect is that when I make my 25x25 mosaic I won't need to use the largely manual process I used in the past.

The Hermosa 24 Ultramarathon was epic

2011-06-23T16:27:00.003-07:00

It's 3:30 AM, I've been awake about 20 hours and I've already run 20 miles, barefoot, in the deep soft sand between the Manhattan & Hermosa Piers. My knee is starting to bother me, and I've returned to base camp ready to pass the baton to the next relay runner. But none are here-- 2 gone home with burnt feet, 1 left limping with leg cramps, one half wrecked knee, one gone due to nasuea along with a medical transport. Among the 17 members of the Team CORE and Team Structures relayers, only 3 of us remain in the wee hours to run back & forth. So I turn around head back for another 3.4 mile lap. Without getting so much as a sip of water.

Staggering along the beach, forced to walk and unable to run due to ITB tightness. There I sat, on a swingset not far from Longfellow, trying to massage the pain away. No go. And so on I went, finishing the lap in 67 minutes and still with no one to run the next lap. I was half delirious due to knee pain, dehydration, sleep exhaustion, cold, sweat and lightheadedness. The dream-- organize & run on 2 teams and keep them both on the course for the entire day-- was slipping away. How the heck did I get myself into this?

It all started nearly a year ago when Christian Burke set out to run 24 hours and set a new world record of 83+ miles on the soft sand. And he did it! A few months later, I was helping to organize the Operation Jack Marathon and Christian gave us a lot of useful advice. And then Christian won the dang thing! BTW, we'll back for the 2nd Annual Operation Jack Marathon on December 26. Christian was already planning the inaugural Hermosa 24, and I asked what I could do to help.

That's when I started running on the soft sand, Januaryish, quickly building to 20 miles, later running back-to-back 15 milers. I knew I'd be ready for anything, but I needed a team. So after 3 months of cajoling co-workers, I had convinced 10 to join the race. Meantime, CORE co-founders Todd Dipaolo & Chuck Trucker helped formed the core of the CORE team, and Todd recruited 4 friends to join and I found another runner, so we had 8. Of course, that meant I'd be running for 2 teams. More on that later. Of these 16 other team members, I think about 3 ran regularly. So we had our work cut our. The day began inauspiciously, as the sun was out full force at noon and despite the cool temperatures and strong breeze, the sand was hot. Hot enough to burn the feet of the first 2 runners for the Structures team-- the last 2 to run barefoot. Well, besides me. My feet were tough enough to run an hour at a time, although they got pretty toasty too. And then we got in a good rhythm.

Through all that, I was running for 2 teams, 5 laps by 9:30 before a much appreciated rest. The running, I could do. Problem was, I hadn't slept well the night before. I didn't know what the heck to do for fuel besides drinking Gatorade and sucking down junk food. And I was spending all my down time walking around chatting & trying to coordinate our next laps as one runner after another went down with various ailments. So after lap 4, I was looking pale and forced myself to sit in the shade for an hour and consume some mad calories. Much better. After lap 5, I took a break and had some tortilla soup, chips & dip then laid down to rest. And as I rested the team disappeared.

So let's see. While I rested Vinay's leg cramped up, causing him to fall and forcing him to crawl for a bit-- trooper that he is, he finished the lap. Eron tweaked his knee pretty bad yet volunteered to run more-- thankfully we talked him out of that. Jenny had some pizza with ill-advised timing, and left along with Daniel for medical transport. Instead of 5 people to cover the 2 AM - 6 AM shift, we were down to 3 across 2 teams. And I was alone for structures. And that brings us back to the first paragraph. I had just completed my 7th lap, and normally I could easily stretch a 7 mile run to 10. But these weren't normal times. So I had to just sit and wait. Chuck went to retrieve some fluids for me as I was splayed out on a chair and to check the tent for any hidden runners. No dice. Just then, Nathan returned from his run and we'd have to game plan together.

And just like that, Nathan (above) volunteered to run a lap for Team Structures as Chuck headed out for Team CORE. It's a Festivus miracle! As Chuck & Nathan complete their laps, I dragged a stranger off the street to run for Team Structures and I headed back out for Team CORE. Upon our return, the morning crew (mostly) arrived and our little drama was ending. Oh sure, 3 or 4 or 5 backed out of their last lap, but at the same time others stepped up, as Matt covered 3 laps in the morning. Dave (below), who almost didn't start because of a bad knee, ended up volunteering to fill a hole in & running our fastest lap of the day as Team CORE completed our 26th & final lap. All the totals for Team CORE and Team Structures are now permanently stored on our Google Docs.

While our drama was unfolding, another drama was playing out as Patrick Sweeney chased down Christian's 2010 record. He needed 25 laps, and looked solid to take it. I had hoped to run with Patrick the first lap, but he surprised me by blazing through lap 1 in a ridiculous 34 minutes-- hard to do running all out, let along simply as a warm up. Of course, Patrick slowed as the race progressed, but he still looked set to run/walk 25+ laps. Patrick was finishing his 25th & record setting lap just as I was heading out for number 9. Pretty cool! I passed Patrick about 16 times on the course, none more memorable than the last lap.

I missed that mini-hoopla, but caught it after his final lap. Was glad to pass Patrick again on my return, and seeing him running lap 26 with 3 of the other solo runners was pretty awesome. What was also awesome was Mickey's Winners completing 39 laps, 131 miles. Alex Mendoza running over 60 miles... more amazing upon realizing he's only 15! Many other stories, one sure to follow soon from the verbose one Bourbon Feet (aka Patrick Sweeney) and possibly from Christian Burke. Before closing with a few pics, I'll throw a quick link to the results & official race photos. I survived pretty good, legs not a touch of sore after 30+ miles barefoot in the deep soft sand (more like 40 effort wise on any other surface) with some tender feet and a sore back. The kids found a good use for those red balls that lined the course, all had fun and the whole group seemed to catch the sand running bug, already setting up monthly runs now and weekly runs later. Enjoy!

Yosemite Highlights

2011-06-23T14:49:00.001-07:00

Yosemite Highlights, a set on Flickr.

What a trip! My photos are worth many words, so I'll mostly just direct y'all to the pics and say it was a great weekend. Included a group hike from Bridal Veil Falls through Lower Yosemite to the Lodge then back again. Hike with Vinay to the top of Upper Yosemite, 3000' vertical over 4 miles and back. And the 600 granite steps to the top of Vernal Falls.

Water was manic everywhere, unnamed waterfalls appearing here and there and never a lonely moment on the trail. Enjoy!

Hermosa 24!

2011-06-17T20:38:00.000-07:00

So it's certainly not the most exciting news in Pyslent land this weekend, but it's still sure to be tons of fun! Starting Saturday noon and continuing until Sunday at noon, I will be competing as part of 2 teams in the inaugural Hermosa 24 Ultramarathon & Relay. More or less inaugural, as last year Operation Jack Marathon winner Christian Burke ran solo for 24 hours last Labor Day weekend, covering 83+ miles to set a new Guinness World Record. This year, Christian is organizing it while a dozen others take the solo challenge, including pre-race favorite Patrick Sweeney-- who won the 2010 Palos Verdes Marathon in 2:37 while wearing Vibram Five Fingers.

Tomorrow's course is pretty standard, back & forth between the Hermosa and Manhattan piers. I've covered that ground before, up to 20 miles in a day and 30 in a weekend-- although not always in a straight line! I managed to convince 9 of my co-workers to join the run for 1-4 laps, and found 7 more to run on the CORE team as well. My goal is to cover 10 laps total, tough but certainly doable. No idea how to prep for an event like this, in some ways much easier but in other ways much tougher than a marathon. Probably a good idea NOT to be at a rock concert until after midnight! Will post some pics when I get the chance, in the meantime wish me good luck.

My conversation with Time Warner Cable

2011-04-16T18:35:00.000-07:00

Can't make this stuff up.

    User jake_ has entered room
    Analyst has entered room
    Analyst Gary has entered room
    Analyst has left room

    Gary>Thank you for contacting Time Warner Cable Online Customer Service, my name is Gary, May I have your complete name please?

    jake_>Jake Rome

    Gary>Thank you for providing your name. How may I assist you today?

    jake_>How much is internet service after the first 12 months if I buy it unbundled?

    Gary>I understand that you would like to have informations about the future pricing, correct?

    jake_>Yes

    Gary>I will be more than happy to assist you with that.

    Gary>I would like to inform you that the price of the online promotional offers would remain the same for the first 12 months. After the promotional period ends, you will be charged the standard rate that is in effect at that time. We suggest that you contact our local Time Warner Cable office at the end of your promotional period to determine what other offers are available at that time.

    Gary>May I have your complete address ?

    jake_>What is the standard rate TODAY for Manhattan Beach?

    Gary>May I have your complete address ?

    jake_>If you promise to answer my question.

    Gary>It is my job to answer the customers concern, nothing to promise about it.

    jake_>It's xxx xxth St. Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

    Gary>Thank you for providing your address.

    jake_>How much is internet service after the first 12 months if I buy it unbundled?

    Gary>May I have your apartment number?

    jake_>1

    jake_>How much is internet service after the first 12 months if I buy it unbundled?

    Gary>Can you tell me a little more about your internet needs so that I may provide you with specific detailed information?

    jake_>Sure, RoadRunner Broadband "up to" 10mbps.

    Gary>Do you like to download pictures, movies or videos?

    jake_>Yes

    Gary>Since you mentioned that you like to use Internet for download pictures, movies and or videos. I do believe Road Runner Standard would be the best match for you.

    jake_>OK, what are the specs on that, what's the "introductory" price and what's the standard price.

    Gary>: I regret to inform you that after investigating the matter, it seems that Time Warner Cable services are not available at your residential address. It might be an option in the future. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience caused.

    Gary>Would you like for me to provide the number?

    jake_>I may move to a nearby address in the same city.

    Gary>Alright.

    jake_>So I would appreciate if you could PLEASE answer my original question that I asked more than 15 minutes ago.

    Gary>Based upon your zip code I can provide you approximate price but not the accurate one.

    jake_>Sure, I'll take the approximate price.

    Gary>RR Broadband $29.99 RR Broadband Turbo $39.99 RR Broadband Turbo plus $49.99 .

    jake_>Are those the introductory prices or the standard prices?

    Gary>Sir I told you the price I offered you is the approximate its not the accurate one.

    jake_>OK, I give up. My second question is are there any bandwidth caps?

    jake_>Are there any bandwidth caps?

    Gary>There is no bandwidth caps.

    jake_>There ARE no bandwidth caps. Thank you.

    Gary>Is there anything else I can assist you with today?

    jake_>Nope!

The Icebox Book: Photos from The Fridge

2011-04-13T21:26:00.000-07:00

Order the 12" hardcover and the 7" softcover from Blurb, and please use one of these coupons.

Early last summer, new Icebox member Chris Menz suggested that we cubes publish a "book for good" with our photographs. Everyone was excited. Just as the project began, we suffered a major setback as our good friend & fellow photographer Dave Hohler passed away. Instantly, we collectively decided to dedicate the book to Dave, use one of his photos for the cover and donate all proceeds to cancer charities.

We'd each contribute 3 photos that had survived the rigors of The Icebox. Then an editor would choose about 70 photos, carefully choosing images-- 1 or 2 from each contributor-- that would pair well with it's match on the opposite page. Through many fits & bursts, it all came together, with a dozen members making substantial contributions-- creating the back cover, designing the layout, writing essays, editing, proof reading and coordinating. A true collaborative effort. And now, it's ready for order.

Back Cover

The large, 12" x 12" hardcover, a true "coffee table" book if I've ever seen one, is $108.49. The small, 7" softcover is $29.49. As originally envisioned, each purchase will include a $10 (small) or $20 (large) donation to the American Cancer Society through Dave Hohler's Relay for Life team, for which I am raising funds. In addition, for each purchase made before April 29, I will personally contribute an additional $5. Proceeds from purchases made after April 30 will be directed to another cancer charity. All sales are made through Blurb, and I strongly encourage you to use one of the coupons listed there. Right now, you can use BLURBMOM or BLURBMOM2 to save 15% on orders of 2+ books in the US or Europe, respectively. Or use THANKYOU or THANKYOU2 to save 10% on orders of a single book in the US or Europe. Check back, there are always new coupons.

So buy a book. They look phenomenal, and go towards a great cause. Of course, I need to thank the 60+ photographers that have contributed. Thank you! We are a global bunch, as this map of where we live (or where we're from) clearly demonstrates.

OK, enough of that. How about a look at some more of the photos included in the book? Enjoy.

SACL 2011- El Segundo Edition

2011-03-17T14:39:00.000-07:00

Year 15 or something, been posting scores here for the last 5. Here are the latest standings.

2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.

Catalina Marathon, 2011 Race Report

2011-03-13T20:05:00.000-07:00

[Past, present & future race reports. First run in 2007, rocky boat ride in 2008, bonking in 2009, tardy blogging in 2010 and recovering in 2011.]

All my race photos from the 2011 Catalina Marathon are on Flickr. Will add a selection here soooon.

Where to begin? I love this race. The island, the hills, the runners, the volunteers, the organizers, the buffalo, the boats, the weather. After camping in the tent for the 2010 Catalina Marathon in Two Harbors, I reserved a camping cabin a full year in advance. So this date, March 12, 2011, has been circled on my calendar a long time. It's been a long year, with many highlights including helping to organize the 1st Annual Operation Jack Marathon. Let's linger on that highlight a little longer, and even post an awesome video from the race. Plug #1 is to be on the lookout for the 2011 running on December 26.

So let's see. For those that haven't been here before, might as well start out by seeing what kind of monster I'll be up against. On the top, that's a nice topographic view of the island from space, seeing the route climb this hill & that, along the ridges and through the valleys. On the bottom, well, that's the elevation profile in terms far more stark. It's about 4000 feet of climbing, 4000 feet of descending. There are no flat sections to this course, apart from the first 1/4 mile. As nasty as that last climb is, the second half of the race is actually easier than the first... can you believe it? It's straight up out of Two Harbors, then a few 400-foot high hills, the long slow climb to the base of Pumphouse Hill & the monster that follows... all topped off by a "scenic" run along the ridge that has about 4 Heartbreak Hill-sized climbs. So why would I be crazy enough to run this marathon again?

The last 10 months have been difficult for me. During that time, the cancer that afflicted my mother for 25 years took its toll on her body, and she died from cancer earlier this month. I can't put in to words what this loss means to me, what my mother means to me. I hope you are all lucky enough to have a mother that loves you as much, that loves life as much and that that you appreciate all that. Through all that, I did my best to train for Catalina, even through several months of this New England winter. The race was the one constant on my calendar, the one event that I had to complete, my one moment of selfishness in an otherwise selfless year. This past week did I return to California, days before the race. Exhausted mentally, emotionally & physically while fighting a cold. Now, in a moment of selfish selflessness, I'm joining a Relay for Life event in Oakley to honor my mother & my friend Dave Hohler. Wish me luck, and if you want to contribute, I'll be matching the first $5 of each donation.

And onward! Thursday afternoon my friend & former co-worker Jake Salter (hereafter Jake, Jake S., or The Other Jake) flew in for a repeat performance after completing the 2009 Catalina Marathon. Friday morning, a quick lunch with old friends and off to Long Beach to catch the ferry. Heading out of Marina del Rey that morning might have led to Tsunami complications, but by afternoon it was not a problem in the gigantic twin ports. The sea was angry that day my friend! Windy, choppy, swelly & rough, it was bumpy enough that I left the warmth of the cabin for the refreshing bouncy breeziness of the upper deck. On the way over, I spotted Operation Jack Marathon winner Christian Burke, and we chatted for a few minutes about the Hermosa 24 relay race. Real quick, it's a 24-hour relay race on the soft sand beach between the Hermosa & Manhattan piers. I'm sure many Catalina runners would love the challenge. Definitely check it out. I spotted Christian again many more times, last as the race began-- he would finish in 15th in 3:27, a few minutes faster than target. Excellence! Eventually, we approached the island and soon began the anticipation of stepping off the dock and onto the island. Throw the bags in the cabin, register for the race, enjoy a pasta dinner (with the best chocolate cake in the world), shoot some pool & hit the sack. Game on.

Always fun to approach the line and see the other runners gather for the race. Every one has a story, from the oldest to youngest, fastest to slowest. This year, the sky was bright and the hillsides a vibrant green with the morning sun having risen an hour earlier. A change from years past, when the sun would rise as we started the race. So I did what came naturally to me, which is to take a TON of photos! Plus, with chip timing, I could readily wait for the athletes to cross the timing mat and then jump in behind. More photo opps. Perfect. Eventually, I slung the camera rig back in its arm band for the last time (don't worry-- I'm going for an upgrade next year), and started the long slog to Avalon.

Partway through the first climb, it was easy to flip a glance back to our starting town. And soon I was recognized by my first fan, who thanked me for introducing him to the race through my photography. Of course, I snapped a photo. Even before the race started, I knew it would be a slow day, estimating about 5 hours. And by mile 3, I knew even better that it would be a slow affair. Heart rate up, pace way down compared to years past. Seriously, you can compare my 5 entries side-by-side-by-side-by-side-by-side.

But that was OK, I simply recalibrated and resolved to enjoy the weather, the scenery and my photographic genius. Genius. Nevertheless, I trudged along although I had to walk far more than I wanted as my heart rate continued to periodically spike. I announced miles in advance that upon reaching Pumphouse Hill, I'd hike the whole thing with no shame. No shame! And I did, and I enjoyed my 2 minutes at the top. Here's video proof of the ascent.

Now, it was The Other Jake's turn to slow our travels, as his knee started screaming at him. Oh, and my legs caught up to my lungs in the feeling gassed category. And TOJ had to upchuck to settle his stomach. We walked many of those miles along the ridge, but we didn't mind being slowed by the trio of buffalo spotted just 50 yards from the course. OK, as we struggled through the last of our trio of troubles, I got recognized again on the course. Sweet!

Then suddenly, the legs stopped yelling at me. TOJ's knee quieted down and the stomach stayed settled. The course first flattened out, then we started the descent & my lungs got a needed break. The long, steep descent. As we ran I spoke, full speed ahead. "Flying" at 9-minute miles, we passed a couple dozen of the people that smoked us along the ridgeline. My heart rate climbed even as we approached the sea. And soon, we were upon town, traffic circle in sight then in the back as we could sea the Pacific ahead of us. Across the line, and with that completed! (And one more fan.) Slowest race ever, by a fair margin, it was about 5:13:24. But man, what a day. The fog that rolled in over Middle Ranch just as the temperature would've spiked. The sun that greeted us at the start for those climbs out of Two Harbors. The shoeless runner swiping his chip over the starting mat. The pairs and triplets of smiling walking runners splayed everywhere. The dozens or hundreds of cameras that for once at a marathon were not at all out place. And the hills. Any day on those hills.

So cheers all, hope your run was as fun as mine, and see you in 2012! More pics below, and on Flickr, and many more from years gone by.

Five serious suggestions for making Flickr even greater

2011-02-01T19:05:00.000-08:00

Guest passes for collections. Make it easy for members to share all their family photos or sports team photos or school photos while eliminating the need to send out a new link and maintaining the ability to manage sets within a collection.
Memorial accounts. Let folks designate their accounts as "memorial eligible." If an account lapses and is unused for an extended period, convert the account to memorial status-- all images are available at full size. But no new uploads are allowed, no more comments can be made.
Holding cell for deletions. Whether it's a photo or an account, whenever an item is deleted, just hide it for a week in case the item was deleted by accident, maliciously or due to an error by Flickr.
Unlimited number of uploads for free accounts-- eliminate the 200 photo limit. Would make it a lot easier to get my family to join, and Flickr die-hard appreciate the extra features of Flickr Pro (higher resolution, no bandwidth cap, no ads, more videos, fewer restrictions). Sure, some folks would downgrade, but I think Flickr would compensate for the downgrading Pro members will a much more engaged set of free users more likely to upgrade. And more members overall, making for a better community.
A dozen free donuts for every Flickr Pro member every year. Because it's the right thing to do. Plus, you could imagine the media attention that would attract? By year 2, donut shops and doughnut shoppes would be begging to join.

Mom's Visited Countries

2011-01-30T06:13:00.000-08:00

Mom has had a lot more adventures... cruises to the Galapagos, the Danube & Alaska. River rafting in Nepal, Mexico by bus and a whole lot more.

Create your own travel map

Rachel has traveled to: Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Martinique, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, United States Virgin Islands, Vatican City, Venezuela

Hoping Sarah Palin Runs for President so We Can Have More Moments Like This

2011-01-27T12:55:00.001-08:00

That was another one of those WTF moments, when he so often repeated this Sputnik moment that he would aspire Americans to celebrate. And he needs to remember that what happened back then with the former communist USSR and their victory in that race to space, yes, they won, but they also incurred so much debt at the time that it resulted in the inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Last Heel Strike I'll Ever Make

2011-01-16T21:25:00.001-08:00

It was just 3 weeks ago that I ran the Operation Jack Half Marathon, and my photographer friend snagged a couple good photos of me running. Like the one above. And looking at the snap, it became apparent to me that I had to face the truth-- I'm a heel striker. Sure, I might have kidded myself and claimed I was a midfoot runner, but no way... the photo doesn't lie. I'm overstriding, too, which goes hand-in-hand with heel striking. I saw that photo and said, "this far, no further!" A couple days off, a dune workout and an elliptical workout and fast-forward to Friday December 31. Last day of the year.

I nimbly laced up my shoes, and off I went. My heel wouldn't touch the ground for 3 miles. That first run from Kelvin's front steps may have been overdoing it, as I was landing on my toes and overcompensating in keeping my feet off the ground. Man, were my calves beat! The next day, I decided to try again. Didn't know how it would work, but felt natural enough and I slowly struggled though another 4 miles. Now, while I was slow, my heart rate was pretty low & I didn't get fatigued. Another day. Five miles, and Kelvin can attest that I kept my form for at least the first 2. But man, were my calves wrecked! Trying to even hop while playing Kinect was nearly impossible.

A day off, more dune & elliptical. A visit to the shoe store and it was time to leave behind the Nike's that I'd worn for 12+ years. Something lighter, smaller heel, less cushion. Boom, Brooks something or other. Advice from Guinness World Record sand running guru Christian Burke suggested running barefoot in the sand, just a few miles at a time to help me improve my form. Decided to skip the planned 18 mile run, and instead climbed the dune 16 times (that's like 5.6 miles) and ran 10 full miles on the soft sand wearing only sand socks. So much for easing into it! Another day on the dune, and time to take take the new kicks for a run. Six miles on the woodchip trail, landing mostly on the ball of my foot and a bit on the midfoot. A little more natural, and now my heel would naturally impact after the forefoot. A few more days, 3 on the treadmill, more elliptical time. Then Friday I pounded 5 miles on the treadmill, running 8:30-9/mile for the last 3 instead of the lazy 10:30/mile that I had been going. Tough, but I finished strong if tired. My plan for Saturday was dune & soft sand. I was a wreck on the dune, so that was shortened and I called it a day.

Now today, it was time for the next level. No surf socks this time, ambled to the beach and kicked off the Tevas again. Headed north, along the Operation Jack Marathon route. 5 miles, all the way to Marina del Rey entrance near Ballona Creek. Back again, another 5. But I developed a nasty blister on the right big toe, and raw skin was causing a bit 'o pain. So intelligence briefly kicked in, and I climbed the hill full of energy but with a bum toe. Well, I needed to get back. So I bandaged the foot, put the surf socks back on and back down the hill. Heading south, I reached to the edge of Redondo Beach. And turned, and back. Another 6.5. Total for the day, 16.75, which is worth at least 20 on solid ground. A meandering 12:45 pace, tailing off substantially during the second act. But man, I like this barefoot running thing, at least on the forgiving soft sand of the beach.

So here I am, 3 weeks post that form, and I haven't had a heel strike since. Will see if I can keep this up, there's enough beach I suppose. One strategically placed kayak and I could run clear to Malibu, 15 miles one way. Still have to run long in the new shoes, at least 10 before jumping to 20. But at least I'm building my endurance while fixing my form. Catalina might not be so far away after all.

Operation Jack Marathon Wrap-Up

2011-01-16T21:16:00.000-08:00

Operation Jack all over the map

2010-12-25T19:50:00.000-08:00

THe race is less than 12 hours away. Everything I have to say, I've already said on the CORE blog. We have 300 runners registered for the Manhattan Beach race & satellite runs. Plus another hundred will likely join in still. Plus 20 or 30 in Oregon. Another 40 volunteers. Dozens of spectators. All told, 500+ people will be a part of this event. And we come from all over the map! Take a look. Good luck tomorrow, and wish me good luck, cause I'm running the half (one day after biking it, natch).

View Operation Jack Marathon runners in a full screen map

I'll double your donation if you give $5 now to Operation Jack

2010-12-25T00:08:00.001-08:00

I'll double your donation if you give $5 now to Operation Jack, originally uploaded by jakerome.

Donate now to battle autism & I'll double your contribution.

Tomorrow is the Operation Jack Marathon & Half. From zero to 26.2 in about 8 weeks, this is the first race I've ever organized & this photo about sums it up. I've poured my heart into the race, and I want it to be a huge success for Sam. It will be his 61st & final marathon of the year. Hope you can all be a part of it in some way. If you're near Manhattan Beach there's still time to register for the run, or come & support the runners. I'm matching the first of each donation-- drive me to the poorhouse! Around the country, you can join 200+ others in the 6.1 mile satellite runs. If it all seems that improbable, it's not; see the story in the local newspaper.

Read Sam's heartbreaking explanation of why he started Operation Jack.

Photo by calanan.

Asking for your marathon support

2010-11-29T08:18:00.000-08:00

Here's the short version: I'm organizing a marathon & half marathon on December 26 in Manhattan Beach. Should be 50-200 people, and it's pretty crazy, to be honest, organizing an event like this. The objective is to raise money for autism charities through Operation Jack, Sam Felsenfeld's effort to run 61 marathons in 2010 to honor his autistic son Jack. The last marathon is being held to celebrate that effort, and is of course called the Operation Jack Marathon & Half Marathon. I've got a few more words on the subject.

OK, so I'm hoping you can join in/ help out in one of three ways:

1) Run the marathon or half marathon. Obviously, this only applies if you're a SoCal runner. If you're in SoCal but don't run, we could also use some volunteers. Would be great to have a Structures Department aid station! Read the details.

2) Outside of SoCal? Participate by completing a 6.1 mile run or walk, in commemoration of Sam's 61 marathons. You even get an official race t-shirt & medal!

3) Not a runner? Well, you can still support me & Operation Jack by sponsoring my half marathon run. No amount is too small (or too big), and I'm matching the first $5 of each contribution. And hey, if you run in SoCal or anywhere else, you can set up your own fund raising page, too.

Of course, many of you probably remember me asking for support 11 months ago, and I definitely appreciate all the generous support. This event has obviously taken on a large significance for me, and I'm pouring in everything I can to make it a huge success. Hope you can run on December 26 in Manhattan Beach or elsewhere. And every dollar contributed goes to a great cause, helping autistic children & their families through research & support. Please pass on the word. Thank you.

Operation Jack Marathon ( & Half Marathon)

2010-11-02T21:30:00.001-07:00

Sign up for the Operation Jack Marathon & Half Marathon.

Back in January, Sam Felsenfeld began a quest to run 60 marathons in one year, a project he called Operation Jack in honor of his son. Sam's objective is raise money for autism charities, and to inspire others to do the same. And here's why:

Jack, born September 16, 2003, was diagnosed with autism shortly after he turned 3, although he has been in constant therapy and treatment since before his second birthday. He is showing signs of progress, but has very limited speech and struggles with communication and social interaction. After watching his son struggle day after day with his condition, Sam decided he wanted to do something to make a difference in his honor.

Now more than 50 marathons into the year, and a couple bonus ultramarathons, the finish line is in sight. And CORE is proud to be a partner in Sam's 61st marathon of the year, the Operation Jack Marathon. This race will start & finish right in CORE territory, at the northern edge of Manhattan Beach and running along the bike path 6.55 miles before turning around and running back. Half marathoners will finish there, marathoners will take another lap.

We'll be posting a lot more about the race in the coming months. Right now, we're looking for runners, volunteers & sponsors. If you can help in any regard, please contact me at jake@core4you.org. To sign up to run, head over to Sam's Operation Jack Marathon page or the registration page. So that's out of the way. Sometimes those of us living in the South Bay forget that we live amid such natural beauty. I quickly remembered it when I biked along the course route, taking photos for the event. What an amazing place!

Or look at all the photos on the map. CORE is going to be working hard over these next 6 or 7 weeks to help Sam, Operation Jack and the Train 4 Autism team host this event & make it a real community event. I'm going to be running the half marathon, and trying to raise money to reach my Operation Jack goal-- I'd run the marathon, but I've already 4 this year & there's no way I'm going to miss Sam's finish!

OK, here's the real hard sell. Every dollar from the event is going to Operation Jack. There are some fixed expenses Operation Jack has to pay (such as insurance), but everything will be done on a volunteer/ donation basis in order to maximize the amount going to help in the fight against autism. So sign up to run or walk the full or half marathon. Volunteer. Donate to a competing friend. If you do enter, please join the team after you register, then start some fundraising to help kids like Jack and families like Sam's.

And let me add a few words about Sam. He's a great guy, tireless and dedicated. I really pushed hard for Sam to have marathon 61 in my backyard, and I'm psyched that he's agreed. I'm also convinced that this can really be a seminal event-- the last race in an epic series, run along the beach, with his friends, family & supporters there to support him 100%. Plus, it will raise a lot of money for Operation Jack to battle autism. Now, CORE is going to be a big part of this, so I'll be asking all members for advice, help & support in the next few weeks. All ideas are welcome, participants are encouraged and sponsors are cheered! Oh, and if you have $5000 you'd like to donate to Operation Jack, you can name the marathon yourself!

Sign up for the Operation Jack Marathon & Half Marathon.

Mt. Monadnock with Friends of Nepal

2010-10-07T21:01:00.000-07:00

I was back on the east coast last weekend, and my brother Aaron asked me if I wanted to go on a hike with him, 2 of my nephews and a few Nepali friends. After a little consideration, I decided it would be fun, and signed up. I had no idea what I was in for! While Mt. Monadnock is not a particularly high mountain, topping out at roughly 3200 feet, it's a tough climb and feels a lot higher than you might guess-- most of that climb is up naked rock, often times at a 20 or 30% slope. That's a mountain in my book!

Arriving at the mountain base at 10 AM, I waited around for the bus to arrive from Providence... these folks were still operating on "Nepali time." Eventually, the bus and a couple cars arrived with about 60 Nepali & Bhutanese from the Rhode Island area. Of course, Nepalese are famous mountain climbers, having led nearly every major expedition to the top of Mt. Everest since Edmund Hillary & Tenzing Norgay first scaled the world's roof in 1953. But today, the tables were turned. Together with my brother, his friends Val & Doug and my highly athletic 7 & 9 year old nephews, for the first time in history a team of Americans guided a group of Nepalis to the top of a mountain.

And what a fun time was had by all. Outfitted in everything from fine suits to flip-flops, shoulder bags to backpacks, this was no ordinary group of hikers. Mountaineers from 3 to 63 set out on a cool fall day, about 50 degrees at the start of our trek. Aaron had brought along a dozen sweaters and a few extra backpacks, and Doug & Val contributed to the pot as well. Max started out like a bolt of lighting, and my plan to hike together with my nephews quickly disappeared. I eventually caught Max, who had no interest in slowing, so I continued to wander along with Nathan until we met the fork in the road. Soon collected, Max sped ahead again, only to be reeled in by Nathan & I before we regrouped and met again with Aaron.

And for many in the group, it likely hearkened back treks in Nepal, and they came prepared with dal bhat, flutes and other traditional Nepali items. Check out the video below.

On we hiked, to the top. Since I'm a better photographer than writer, I'm lazy, and the photos are already taken, I'll let the pictures tell the story from here. After a scramble to the top, we collected ourselves for a group photo and scrambled down the mountain before the bus left shortly after 4 PM. As remarked by Val, she had never seen such a large group of hikers where no one complained. It was pure fun, start to finish. Great way to spend a day. Check out more photos on Flickr, and see some more photos on the Friends of Nepal site. Enjoy the pics!

My conversation with Swipe Auctions

2010-09-18T19:31:00.000-07:00

Swipe Auctions is a "service" that tricks people into paying money for nothing, with the occasional person gambling and being allowed to buy products for a bit under retail. I saw an ad on a website, and as I sent a complaint email, I visited the site to learn more about the scam. And, one of their helpful "agents" started a chat with me! Below is the entire exchange.

------------------------------
Rina Says:Hey wait! I have been authorized to give the next 10 people to sigh up to Swipe Auctions 300 Bonus Bids (normally $159.00). Order now, to ensure you secure your Bonus Bids, simply CLICK HERE.

Rina Says:Just type in "Hi" to chat with me! :)

You:Hi

Rina Says:Hey, thanks for chatting with me! My name is Rina and I'm here to answer any questions you might have!

Rina Says:Welcome to SwipeBids, a fun and exciting, fast-paced auction website. Unlike other auction websites, on SwipeBids you can win all sorts of new brand name products at incredibly low prices.

Rina Says:If you activate your account today, we'll give you an extra 300 bids (worth $159.00) as a welcome gift. CLICK HERE to take advantage of this one-time offer!

You:OK. I've been contacting sites that run your ads and told them to stop running ads for this giant ponzi scam.

Rina Says:This is not a scam. We use Safe and Secure as our payment processor. They do not process payments from Scammers or Fly-By-Night company's.

Rina Says:For a limited time, you can take advantage and claim 300 Bonus bids when you sigh up to Swipe Auctions today! Just CLICK HERE to get started.

You:Your bids are scam. Even as a bot, you should be ashamed to work for such a disreputable company.

Rina Says:This is not a scam. We use Safe and Secure as our payment processor. They do not process payments from Scammers or Fly-By-Night company's.

Rina Says:For a limited time, you can take advantage and claim 300 Bonus bids when you sigh up to Swipe Auctions today! Just CLICK HERE to get started.

You:What kind of bot are you?

Rina Says:I am a live virtual agent :)

Rina Says:So do you want to take advantage of this great limited time offer?

You:Not really.

Rina Says:If you sign up through this chat window today, I can guarantee you instant access to the Swipe Auctions and 300 Bonus bids. Just CLICK HERE.

You:I don't want your worthless bids and I'll never give one cent to the crook running Swipe Auctions.

Rina Says:We will gladly refund the final auction price that you were charged if you ship the product back within 14 days of receiving it. Please contact our customer service team at 866-389-3870 or contacting our LiveChat service for the exact return instructions and details.

You:Why would I pay for bids just to run up the price and walk away with nothing/

Rina Says:Swipe Auctions is away where you can purchase products at a fraction of the retail price. Past winners have got up to 90% Off.

Rina Says:What are you waiting for? CLICK HERE now to begin and claim your Bonus 300 Bids.

You:I am waiting for the FBI to raid your offices, seize your computers and put your executives in jail.

Rina Says:Skeptical about using the Swipe Auctions? Remember, We guarantee that if you sign-up for our site, and do not win a single auction using the 300 start-up bids included, we will fully refund your bids. Why not CLICK HERE and get started immediately?

You:What happens if I buy 1000 bids and lose all my auctions?

Rina Says:You need to register to buy more bids. If you are registered simply click here, choose the number of bids and select purchase bids. Enter your credit card information, and the bids will appear in your account immediately.

Rina Says:Bids come in packs of 40, 135, 300 and 1325, with bids starting at 60cents per bid, and as low as 37cents! The larger the bid pack you purchase, the more you save! Bids used in an auction are not refundable

Rina Says:Claim your 300 Bonus Bids when you CLICK HERE.

You:So what if I spend 500 bids on an iPod and lose the auction? I just spent $200 on nothing. How is that a good deal?

Rina Says:Sorry I'm unable to answer you question. I'm a virtual agent, and I'm here to help with pre-sales questions. Please CLICK HERE to speak with a live operator.

You:Have a nice day Rina.
------------------------------

After that, a conversation with a real customer service person (I think).
------------------------------
Please wait for a site operator to respond.

You are now chatting with 'Nadia'

Nadia: Thank you for visiting SwipeAuctions.com Livechat Line. Our goal is to provide you with excellent customer service while assisting you with any questions or concerns you may have. We are here to help you win auctions, save money and have a great time. May we start with your name please?

Jake: Jake

Nadia: Hi, I would be happy to assist you with your concern, so in order to pull up the details of your account, can you please provide me with your e-mail address and zip code?

Jake: I'm not signed up for Swipe.

Nadia: Ok, How may I assist you?

Jake: So if I buy 500 bids and use them all on an iPod auction, what happens if someone else wins?

Nadia: If you do not win the auction the bids that you purchased upfront and used during the auction will not be credited back to your account.

Jake: So then I would have spent $300 on nothing. Is that correct?

Nadia: The Membership offered since July 29, 2010, is a lifetime membership charge of only $159.00. The full membership is charged upon signing up and as stated, 300 bids are deposited to your account upon signing up to allow you immediate access to the bidding site.

Nadia: There is no charges for bidding, for bidding your bids will get deducted from your account.

Jake: A question about your auctions. On one page, Swipe claims that the original value an a 16GB iPad is $1099.00. But I can buy the same from Apple for $500. What price does the "original value" represent?

Nadia: May I know the auction id please ?

Jake: 10760211

Nadia: One moment please.

Jake: Thank you.

Nadia: In that auction we are also providing you +1000 bids.

Jake: Oh, OK. I don't think Swipe Auctions is for me. Or anyone for that matter. Have a nice day.

Nadia: To signup, please click here .

Nadia: Is there anything further I can assist you with today?

Jake: Nope

Nadia: Thank you very much for chatting with us today. We hope the rest of your day is an excellent one.

Nadia: Please feel free to come back for any further assistance.
------------------------------

Sand Dune set to reopen in 1 week

2010-07-25T20:37:00.000-07:00

Summary

The dune reopens August 1 for kids, August 2 for adults. You can register here. Read the rules there. Join our Facebook group. Keep your eye on the Sand Dune Park website. Let me know your thoughts. And contact the city council.

On Sunday, August 1, the sand dune will reopen for children 12 & under, and on Monday, August 2, the sand dune will reopen for teens, adults & seniors for exercise & play. While CORE (Citizens for Outdoor Recreation & Exercise) considers to the new park rules to be overly restrictive, without the massive show of support from more than 600 Manhattan Beach residents, the dune would have likely been planted. Whether planted or merely subdivided, nearly all exercise & play would have been permanently barred on Sand Dune Park's signature feature.

Free the Dune
It's been nearly one full year since the sand dune was closed by the city. In January, the Manhattan Beach City Council indicated that they intended to ban exercise on the dune & was exploring landscaping options. In the following months, CORE was formed and went about building & demonstrating community support. Eventually, more than 600 residents signed the CORE petition, with the highest concentration in neighborhoods close to the park. CORE held a rally to Free the Dune, where over 150 people joined the rally & signed the petition. Meantime, the word-of-mouth campaign was spreading, as our Facebook group quickly grew from more dozens to thousands in a couple months, all kicked off by dozens of Mira Costa students imploring their friends to join.

April 13 was the big day. Hundreds of residents attended the city council meeting, and the end result was the reopening of the dune with severe restrictions. While originally set to reopen in late June or early July, the reopening of the dune was delayed until August after the discovery of the yellow pincushion flower. In the meantime, the city conducted studies that showed that the dune slope was absolutely safe using the same maintenance procedures that have been followed for forty years. Reports from the park ranger, park attendant & city police stated that the vast majority of dune users respected the park rules and the neighborhood remained as safe as ever as park use increased. We heard from residents that had been climbing on the dune for more than 30 years, a part of a 40 year tradition. Really, much longer, for before the city was developed some dune supporters used to run freely throughout the city on the dunes that were extant at the time.

Fenced off from its neighborhood, weeds soon began sprouting on the dune following the winter rains. That's what it looked like just about two months ago. It's looking better now, but will look best when adults & children are exercising again. This is a long blog entry, so hang in there. First, we'll review the city rules for the park.

New Sand Dune Park Rules
Manhattan Beach website for Sand Dune Park

The fence will remain around the dune as is.
Dune hours are now 8 AM - 7 PM during Daylight Savings Time, but will close even earlier during the winter.
All patrons age 13 and over must have a reservation to use the dune.
Reservation times are for one hour only, per day, per patron.
The following reservation hours are only available during daylight hours:
Weekdays - 8:00 AM, 9:30 AM, 11:00 AM, 3:00 PM, 4:30 PM and 6:00 PM;
Saturdays - 8:00 AM, 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM.
No teens, adults or seniors are allowed on the dune on Sunday.
Teens, adults & seniors are barred from the dune at all other times.
No reservation required for children 12 & under.
All children five and under require full time adult supervision and are restricted to the family play area.
Adults are not allowed to play on the dune with children six to twelve years old.
There is no access to the top of the dune without first climbing.

What You Need To Do

When the dune reopens, there will be heightened enforcement of park rules. How well dune users follow the rules, respect the neighborhood and obey traffic & parking laws will have a huge impact on the future of the dune. More importantly, we want to be respectful of the park, the neighborhood & its residents. After several months, the city council will revisit Sand Dune Park rules. With all that in mind, when the dune reopens remember the following.

Obey all traffic laws
Follow all parking signs
Throw away your trash & recycle your empty water bottles
Follow all instructions given by the park attendant
Refrain from yelling while at the park
Be respectful of your fellow climber and the neighborhood residents

If you have any problems accessing the dune or are subject to any harassment from dune users or neighborhood residents, please let the attendant know while also contacting the city council, the Parks & Recreation Department and CORE.

A Better Alternative

We can work together with the city and other neighborhood residents to create better rules for the park that will ensure neighborhood peace while making the dune welcoming to all residents. I'll break it down in three four areas.

Expand Hours

Hours 7 AM - 8 PM weekdays and 8 AM - 7 PM weekends, year round, will accommodate more residents while spreading out usage and reducing peak demand. There is no safer place to exercise at night than on the dune since there are no potholes, no traffic and it's a very safe park.
Keep the dune constantly during those times. Closing the dune for several hours during off-peak hours merely inconveniences residents without affecting use at more popular times.

Replace Reservations With Permits

For dune fans that exercise during peak times, requiring registration at city hall for a nominal fee. When visiting the dune, users exchange their dune permit for a bracelet so the park attendant can easily identify unregistered climbers.
If dune use regularly exceeds 50 users at regular times, the city can require reservations at those times & set an appropriate limit (30-50 users).
During off peak hours (weekdays 9 AM - 3 PM), allow free access to the dune without requiring reservations or a permit.

37 people exercising on the dune.

Tear Down This Fence!

The fence is an eyesore and unnecessary.
During reservation or permit hours, climbers would wear a visible identifier so the park attendant can identify interlopers.
Allow top-of-the-dune residents to once again treat the dune as their backyard.
Let kids of all ages play at the top of the dune.
Allow residents & others to continue the 40 year tradition of climbing over the dune on the way to or from the beach, or during their daily jog.

Let Parents Play With Their Children of All Ages

Allow adults to supervise, play with & exercise alongside their children of all ages, at all times.

Summary

Summer of Color

2010-07-23T16:57:00.001-07:00

Summer of Color, originally uploaded by jakerome.

Took these a week ago while rollerblading back through Redondo Beach (starting in Torrance, actually). I think I was only stopped for 2-3 of them, the rest I kept rolling & shot the best I could. All straight out of the camera except for the crop & leveling.

In this set, too. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakerome/sets/72157624563030610/

Grumbledog Barks Back: A Review

2010-07-19T08:31:00.000-07:00

While subtly disguised about Jane Austen's life as a vampire in the early 21st century, Grumbledog Barks Back ends up being something much more profound. While portraying its protagonist as a struggling writer angry at the world for the lack of royalties on books written years earlier, we soon learn that's not why the author is bitter. The book's author performs a neat trick, working to convince the engrossed reader that the lack of royalties is impeding the creative progress. But soon, we learn more of the character.

While openly expressing disgust at the lack of royalties through regular self-actualization, the author has been working on a novel for many years, meticulously keeping track of rejection letters from publishers & editors on both sides of the Atlantic. But then we learn something about the author. For once a publisher agrees to publish the novel, talk of royalties & profits suddenly ceases. The allure of becoming rich or famous do not, in fact, seem to motivate our author. Instead, it's the validation from having others like the book, and knowing that ever more people will read it, that is the reward our author is after.

By the end of the novel, our author is on the way to fame & fortune. But it's not the money that thrills our author, and it was never money that was the motivation. Rather, it was the creative process itself, the burst to escape the obscurity that kept millions from reading the work-- that was the payoff.

No doubt, our author will quickly learn that while those royalty checks (if they happen to exceed the advance and cover the other expenses charge by the publisher) are nice financially, it's the ancillary activities that will provide the real money for the author- book readings, book signings, paid appearances at conferences and more.

A nice trick played by the author of this book, it's as if the author is a character in the novel itself.

You can purchase Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford at Amazon and other fine retailers.

DMU Show: 2nd Opening

2010-05-18T07:33:00.001-07:00

DMU Show: 2nd Opening, originally uploaded by jakerome.

RSVP on Facebook

DIRECTIONS: Park near Barbara's restaurant, then ascend any stairs in the building and walk down the hall to Suite 222. 2010 N. Main St., Los Angeles.

THE DEL*TE ME! UNCENSORED SH*W presents the work of 55 photographers whose art is analogous with not only to the current milieu of contemporary digital and film photography, but also to the intoxicating and bewildering nature of society during this digital explosion. Photos are available for viewing on Flickr ( www.flickr.com/groups/dmushow2010/ ) and for purchase on SmugMug ( dmushow.smugmug.com/DMU/DMU-Show-2010/ ).
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The opening was a blast, as 3 dozen DMUers attended along with a few dozen friends, family and art fans. It was insane! This will be more mellow, but hopefully just as much fun. Check out the Flickr Blog entry about the event to see what it was all about. blog.flickr.net/en/2010/05/07/show-time/

And as noted, we'll have some light snacks and drinks & I'll be happy to discuss any of the photographs or photographers with all visitors. So attend the DMU Show: 2nd Opening. Refreshments. Will. Be. Served.
-----------------------

For more information please visit dmushow.awardspace.com ,
or contact Jake Rome.

Tracking webOS

2010-05-13T15:12:00.001-07:00

So for a couple months I've been tracking the growth in webOS using statistics from StatCounter. While far from being a perfect metric, it does provide insight into overall trends. Since webOS first showed up in July, share of the mobile browser market in the U.S. has climbed from 0.5% to 1.4%. But that doesn't tell the whole story, as the mobile market has grown tremendously since then. So I took it to the next level and created a spreadsheet to track usage. The in-flight WiFi is flaky with Google, so I can't share the link or update the usage to include the first few weeks.

StatCounter also tracks overall mobile vs. desktop share, so I've incorporated that. Then factored in the overall upward growth in internet usage by assuming a constant growth rate, increasing ~8%/year. Multiply the three together, and there's a reasonable estimate of webOS browser use. Now, there are some bumps & wiggles that are obviously not real. I have done a couple things to smooth the data: 1) used an exponentially weighted average w/ a factor of 0.05 for the mobile share; 2) ditto for the webOS share with a factor of 0.2. For any non-engineers that stumble upon this, the exponentially weighted moving average with a low factor (0.05) places less weight on the previous day (5%) and a large weight on the previous day's average (95%). Lower number leads to smoother curve that's less responsive.

The trends since mid-August are clear-- a very slow rise for 8 months during which use climbed 50%. Then, another 50% rise in the last 5-6 weeks. That coincides with the Verizon marketing for the Pre Plus & Pixi Plus. As Kelvin theorized, those increased sales may be the reason for Palm's latest earnings warning-- Verizon is doubtful to have ordered any more Pre's, but for each one they sell Palm is probably kicking in a $50-100 kickback. That would be reflected as a decrease in revenue for this quarter. And Palm timed the warning to coincide with the HP buyout to deflect possible criticism for selling "low." So while sell-in may meet Palm's earlier guidance, the revenue warning could in fact indicate that sell-through has picked up. Conversely, it could also mean that sell-in & sell-through continue to lag and StatCounter's stats are bogus.

2010 Catalina Marathon: Better Late then ever!

2010-04-25T20:33:00.000-07:00

Well, life was pretty crazy in the days and weeks after Catalina Marathon this year. So don't figure on another epic post like I put together in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Here goes: I trained hard for the race, but truth is, my secret to success has been fenced off since August. Yup, after walking up & down the dune 40 times to get in my hill training-- 4000 feet altogether-- for the past 3 races, I couldn't walk up even once. Even worse, on those weekends (or usually Fridays, on my day off) I used to double up, since I could climb the dune for 2 hours one day and easily run 12 miles the next without anything but tired legs. No can do running, as the pounding of a 12 mile run makes it hard to run 12 the next day. Thankfully, our long effort to Free the Dune is starting to see some success, although it will remain fenced off with hours reduced by 80% and use destined to be cut by 90% or more. But I digress...

This year, I finally convinced my brother Aaron to run the Catalina Marathon. Also, instead of taking the boat over in the morning, we journeyed over Friday morning to Two Harbors and camped out in a borrowed tent. That meant sleeping until 5:30AM! Pretty sweet. We wandered the 1/4 mile to the start line, where we were delayed 15 minutes or more while waiting for the Avalon boat. Turns out, the Marina del Rey boat threw the rope over the wrong side of the boat, and after 40 minutes they were forced to cut their line. Whoops! Meantime, here are the Romes at the start... I wouldn't see him again for 24 miles.

The race is a blur now, but I'll sum it up: I did fine on the slow uphills, very good on all the downhills, and walked nearly every big hill. Thus, I had another 4:45ish finish, disappointing as I thought I could run at least 5 minutes faster. But man, what a race! I ran for 5 minutes will Buffalo Bill Mcdermott, saw a green Catalina that few are ever able to witness, and again met many wonderful people. Big props to Vinay for taking the boat to watch the finish again, and Sam of Operation Jack for continuing his quest for 60 marathons in one year on one of the toughest courses you'll ever see.

So at mile 24 I saw some idiot running up the hill (it's all downhill from Mile 23 on-- you don't need to trust me, see for yourself) towards me. It took a few seconds to realize that it was Aaron. He had finished in 3:34:stupid, and after a 10 minute cool-down turned back ran up the hill to drag me to the finish. Well, not quite drag me as I ran quite well the last 3 miles-- 8:28, 8:35 & 8:45 after averaging 11 minutes/mile-- and managed to snap a blurry pic as I raced to the finish. You can check all my splits on Garmin Connect. Suffice it to say that despite walking Pumphouse Hill, I really got my butt kicked on the rolling hills from 18-22. Next year, I'm not walking anything until my legs insist on it!

So catch some more pics on Flickr, I leave you with a few more. Already looking forward to 2011.

DMU Sh*w

2010-04-23T11:34:00.001-07:00

DMU Sh*w, originally uploaded by jakerome.

Next month, one of my photos (well, more of a collage, really) will be featured in a group photography show in Los Angeles. The DMU Sh*w, as it is known, features about 55 artists from a dozen countries across 4 continents. Over 2 dozen of the participants are traveling to Los Angeles for the opening, coming from as far away as Australia, Europe and Manhattan Beach. The above is one of 55 promotional posters created by Lawrie M. If you want a nice keepsake of the Sh*w, I recommend buying a full set of the 55 "posters" for about $10-- pick the 3.5" x 5" prints for the best results. The prints themselves are prices as artwork, starting at $50 for 25 4" x 6" prints or an 8" x 10".

If you live in the Los Angeles area, I encourage you to attend the opening on May 1st at 2PM. If you can't make it then, visit any of the four following weekend. Here's our press release, to be blasted out *soon*.

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DMU Photography Sh*w Features 50 Photos from Artists around the World, 2 Dozen to Attend Opening.

In the first-ever group exhibition, 55 members of Dele*te Me! Uncensored are putting their work on view in The Sh*w. Each participating photographer has chosen an image that best represents his or her personal style, with subjects ranging from abstract color studies to portraiture, street photography to surrealistic tableaus, architecture to nature. But while the content of the photos is impressively varied, one thing unites them all: They are some of the most striking images to emerge from a unique collective experiment that pushes participants to expand their skill and vision.

One of the most notorious groups to spring up on the photo-sharing site Flickr, Del*te Me! Uncensored (DMU) asks participants to post their best work and subject it to the caustic, critical, and often hysterical comments of other DMUers, who also rate each image's worth by voting to save or delete it. Should a photo receive 10 saves before receiving 10 deletes--a rare event--it is placed in the Folio, a repository of images that have survived the gauntlet due to their outstanding quality. Earning entry into the Folio is a badge of honor, one that both hobbyists and professional Flickr photographers consider a coveted achievement.

The Sh*w is being held at The Brewery, 2020 N Main Street, Suite 222, in Los Angeles. It opens on Saturday, May 01, beginning with a reception at 2:30 PM and runs every weekend through May from noon to 5:00 PM. More than two dozen participating photographers coming from 6 different countries will be in attendance at the opening gala, and prints will be available for purchase.

Exhibited photos can also be seen both on Flickr and on SmugMug, where prints are available for purchase.

The Dune at Sand Dune Park is an Amazing Success Story!

2010-04-08T11:50:00.000-07:00

Below is an email that I recently sent in response to claims that the opening the dune is too expensive, that most users aren't from Manhattan Beach and these recreational users engage in criminal activity, and that 36,000 cars/ year is too great a burden for a residential street to handle. When writing on the subject, I try my best to be unemotional yet passionate, which is tough to pull off. But to truly be passionate, that emotion has to show through.

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Thanks for the note. My first response to the letter is to state of course many of the parking spots are used by out-of-town visitors, since so many dune users live right in the neighborhood and walk there! A quick glance at our map shows that. My second response is, how do the PTDers determine residence from looking at license plates, unless that have access to the DMV database? Really not sure how they are so certain that stairs & dune users are from neighboring cities. How do they figure that out??

I also note that even using the numbers in the attached letter, there are 100 cars / day on Bell. That's assuming ZERO neighborhood visitors, which is unrealistic but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. That's about 8 cars an hour, or one car every 7.5 minutes. That's nothing. Grandview generates far more car trips on a daily basis.

By my rough calculations (5000 duners/month at 10 climb each visit, burning 50 calories on each climb, 3500 calories/pound), dune users burn about 2.5 million calories/year. That's 7000 pounds of fat burnt each year on the dune. The park is an amazing success story!

Further, as Richard Gill has stated, that's the total cost of operating the park. Every park has at least part-time staff assigned to conduct rounds, and that cost continues no matter what. The cost of maintaining the dune itself is less than $25,000/year, and is likely to be completely offset with an annual-- at just $25/person, $25,000 would be raised if just 1000 people signed up! At the same time, usage and costs would drop.

Finally, at less than 3% of the P&R budget, the total cost of operating Sand Dune Park is a great value. It's a giant success story, and is enjoyed mostly by the closest residents, as the petition map attests. The overwhelming support the dune has received-- over 500 Manhattan Beach residents have signed the petition to date-- is further proof. We live all over the city, but mostly close to the dune. That so many have taken action on this issue demonstrates what a high priority it is.

I'll also point out that about 150 people attended our rally for at least a short time, and were overwhelmingly Manhattan Beach residents. Police calls in the area have not increased with dune use over the years. The most active Free the Dune supporters are overwhelmingly Manhattan Beach residents (90% or more).

What's our Return on Investment? For less than 3% of the P&R budget, and less than 0.2% of the city's budget, the dune encourages kids & adults to exercise outside and lose literally thousand of pounds/year. This improves the quality of life, creates a healthier population and in general helps make Manhattan Beach the best city in the country. I live where I do, 1/4 mile away, because of the dune!

Manhattan Beach is not an elitist city, and it really sickens me to see my neighbors try to effectively close a popular public park because there are 8 cars/hour driving through their neighborhood. What's even worse, is we all know why they are so quick to claim that the dune users are not from Manhattan Beach. None of us are naive, Manhattan Beach has a small minority population and the dune attracts a much more diverse crowd. And that's a great thing! We should celebrate this diversity, embrace it.Yes, let's find a way to manage the dune so that peaceful exercise can coexist even better with the neighborhood-- because as you can see, hundreds of people in the neighborhood are already big fans of the sand dune.

So charge a small annual fee to raise money, reduce usage (and thus costs) and eliminate bad apples. Let's make the park cleaner by adding recycling bins, decrease parking problems by installing bike racks. So many ideas, yet some don't even want to try any solution other than making it illegal to exercise in a public park.

Thanks for being supportive. I know this is all over the place, but I needed to vent a little bit.

Free the Dune, video edition!

2010-03-29T23:56:00.000-07:00

Highlights:

Director's Cut:

Free the Dune/ Parks for the People

2010-03-22T18:18:00.001-07:00

Free the Dune, originally uploaded by jakerome.

About 120 people took part in CORE's Free the Dune rally held yesterday. About 50 people, mostly kids & their parents, walked to the dune during a peaceful march. About 1/3 of the ralliers live right near the park, so they walked home from there. The rest of us journeyed back to the beach to demonstrate our enthusiasm.

I've uploaded a couple dozen videos to YouTube. All these videos were filmed by Sara & Palm. Very talented, both of them! Here's just one.

Daniel Sofer, aka Hermosa Wave Photography, aka the South Bay's finest photographer, took dozens of photos which he is sharing on his website and Flickr. I'll have more to say. Here are some of my favorite video moments. 1, 2, 3

There's already been some media coverage, I saw a couple short bits on KTLA last night, and KABC was there as well. Nick Green of the Daily Breeze wrote a fair article, as did Andrew Kersey of Manhattan Beach Patch. And definitely watch the video on The Patch, Andrew is a one man operation and he caught some great shots. I'll make a small objection to each, as I think they underestimated the size of the crowd. We certainly had over 100 people at the rally at various times, although not all stayed the entire time. I'll keep my eyes open to see if there's any more coverage.

Oh, we had some leftover food, which we brought to the Manhattan Beach police, who in turn will provide it to deserving charities. And thanks to our police for observing our rally and providing an escort during our march to the dune, that was fun! I had fun, and I know everyone else attending the rally did as well. We collected well over 100 signatures from mostly residents and a few other sand dune fans.

Free the Dune rally on Sunday!

2010-03-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

It's been a long road, prompting me to write a whopping 10 blog posts since October. Tomorrow is a big day. On Sunday, March 21 at 2 PM, on the beach near 26th St. & The Strand, CORE (Citizens for Outdoor Recreation & Exercise) will lead supporters in a rally urging the city council to reopen the dune for exercise & play.

We've managed to get a fair amount of press in the past few days & weeks. From local bloggers to citywide websites including newcomer Manhattan Beach Patch, in both of the local weeklies (Easy Reader & The Beach Reporter). Oh, and it's gotten coverage in popular Los Angeles blogs Curbed and LAist. And we've been featured in both the Los Angeles Times and in the South Bay's own Daily Breeze. As is always the case, the news gets some things right and gets some things wrong. I'll just quote myself in a way that I think best summarizes our effort, "It's a celebration of 40 years of physical activity at the park. We want it to be peaceful, large, fun and passionate. It is absolutely not an angry protest. It's a happy rally."

Our social media presence is strong & growing. The hub of our efforts is the Facebook group to Save Sand Dune Park with 2500+ members, and the Free the Dune event page where nearly 300 people say they plan to attend. We've also just started a Flickr group for sharing photos & videos surrounding our efforts to Free the Dune. And what would modern life be without a Twitter account? Finally, we have an old fashioned web site, too, where you can find some facts about the dune, sign a petition urging the city council to reopen the dune, read past blog entries, learn about upcoming events and more.

I don't know how many will actually show up, but I'm confident that we'll have at least a 100. We'll definitely have enough cream cheese for them all, and hopefully enough water, lemonade, apples and bagels too. Plus there will be face painting, a balloon twister, sand soccer, Frisbee tossing and more fun beach stuff. Hope to see you all there!

P.S. Whether or not you can attend the rally, please email the City Council and urge them to reopen the dune for play & exercise.

2010 SACL Tournament

2010-03-16T22:15:00.000-07:00

Here we go again! Here's the link to view the auction spreadsheet. If you want to edit it, ping me & I'll give you access.

Leaderboard:

Teams:

Auction:

Flickr Addict: The Best Wallpaper App on Any Smartphone

2010-02-15T15:40:00.000-08:00

Cross-posted on PreCentral.

Being a huge Pre fan and a bit of an anti-legend on Flickr, I was excited when I saw FlickrAddict had been introduced into the App Catalog. Not knowing what to expect, I was happy to discover that this app was the most stellar wallpaper app on webOS. Fun, serendipitous, easy to use, customizable and being constantly improved by Shane O'Sullivan, the Irish developer that's always seem ready to answer questions & respond to user feedback.

OK, first thing is there are two apps: Flickr Addict and Flickr Addict Lite. I've been using Flickr Addict since day one, so I never touched the Lite version. Even though it's a bargain at only $1.99, the Lite version can be used to get a sense of Flickr Addict if you're not sure.

Over in the Palm Pre group on Flickr, we noticed this app right away and started a discussion about it. After a little sleuthing, Shane found his way over & quickly began answering our questions and taking requests for improvements. Pretty awesome, and it's only gotten better as a result of adopting my suggestions! But it's about time I got on with the actual review, right?

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Flickr Addict is simply an application that rotates your wallpaper through various photos on Flickr. You can choose photos from the following sources:

Flickr's most interesting photos.
The Palm Pre & iPhoto Wallpaper groups
Any other group
From a specific user
From a specific photo set from any user
Based on a tag search from any photo on Flickr

Pretty good, right? Even better, you can choose whether you want to use the most recent photos or a random selection. And the photos are changed at an interval of your choice, ranging from 5 minutes to daily with plenty of options in between.

Each day, 1-100 photos are downloaded and placed in the gallery. From the gallery, you can view any photo full screen and change the wallpaper manually if you like. You can choose to hide a specific photo or photos from individual users. Also, in what seems to be a new feature, there's an ability to view those photos in a slideshow. Sweet serendipity!

Photos of any orientation are downloaded. Portrait photos are cropped and displayed full screen, while landscape photos are presented with black bars on top & bottom. This is my one real complaint about the app: I'd much rather have the landscape photos rotated and fill the screen, since it's pretty east to spin the Pre.

-----------SPECIAL BONUS COVERAGE-- EXCLUSIVE TO JAKE'S ADVENTURES------------
So first I'll add the link to Flickr Addict in the Flickr App Gallery. Then I'll add this: Flickr Addict is just about my dream app for a connected photo frame-- the flexibility, variety, serendipitous nature & so forth. If Palm announced a webOS tablet tomorrow, I'd buy it at (almost) any price, install Flickr Addict, and use it exclusively as a photo frame. It's that good.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Really, it's a simple little app that works really well and is getting better all the time, and you can keep up with changes by following Flickr Addict and Shane on Twitter. I'll close the review by urging everyone to download this app, and with a quote from another Flickr Addict fan: "For me, Flickr Addict injects a little serendipity; it’s a lot of fun to see a photo that I’d forgotten about just pop up onto my screen."

Flickr Addict Gallery

Photo in gallery

Photo Information

Flickr Addict Preferences

Letters to the Editor about Sand Dune Park

2010-02-12T21:39:00.001-08:00

Writing letters to the editor is another good way of supporting this effort. If you have the time to write a rational, passionate & powerful letter explaining why exercise is a benefit of the park, please take the time to do so. Take a look at this week's letter about the dune.

Some dune opponents now tar residents that walk up the dune as vandals, and insists that the dune is for the birds, and Manhattan Beach residents should be forced to exercise inside in the most beautiful place in America! Here are a couple quotes. "It is a nature preserve and bird-watching facility to enjoy and respect." "Buy a Stairmaster. Trampling and desecrating the dune is vandalism. Leave the dune alone."

Instead of responding to unsupported claims and hyperbole, compose an intelligent letter that offers solutions & offers of compromise while still insisting that our parks be used for exercie, not cordoned off and protected. You can send a letter to The Beach Reporter, Easy Reader and The Daily Breeze. Relate your own experiences & give your own reasons why the dune should be reoponed for adults & children for play & exercise. Offer solutions, suggest compromises use facts to support a rational argument.

P.S. I can't find good links for all the letters, drop me a line if you have better contacts for The Daily Breeze and Easy Reader so I can include them here.

Special Jake's Adventures only bonus: the letters that were printed last week in 2 of the local papers, The Easy Reader and The Beach Reporter.

The dune at Sand Dune Park has been closed for five months, and will be closed at least three more. At a recent City Council meeting, dozens of residents spoke of how they enjoy walking the dune for exercise. Yet some City Council members seem determined to ban “workouts/exercise” on the dune. This is being proposed under the guise of preventing the dune from being a “regional workout facility,” but in fact it would seek to ban adults from walking up the dune for any reason.

I’ve lived on the plateau atop the sand dune for eight years. Since then, my standard morning exercise has been running to the beach and along the waterline, up Manhattan Beach Boulevard and along the greenbelt to the bottom of the dune, where I finished my morning walking up the dune. Other times, I climb the dune several times, chatting with other Sand Dune Park visitors about the city, their health and the wonderful views.

There have been problems at Sand Dune Park due to overusage and a few bad apples. The solution is to address the peak usage issues and to focus on the actions of the few bad actors, not to close the dune.

I bike on the strand, run on the greenbelt, stroll along the beach and climb the dune. None of those activities make those places a “workout facility.” Recreation and exercise are key benefits that parks provide. Are we ready to ban walking in Sand Dune Park?

Should walking be banned in Sand Dune Park?

2010-01-26T15:47:00.000-08:00

The dune at Sand Dune Park has been closed for 5 months, and will be closed at least 3 more. At a recent city council meeting, dozens of residents spoke of how they enjoy walking the dune for exercise. Yet some city councilmembers seem determined to ban "workouts / exercise" on the dune. This is being proposed under the guise of preventing the dune from being a "regional workout facility," but in fact they would seek to ban adults from walking up the dune for any reason.

I've lived on the plateau atop the sand dune for 8 years. Since then, my standard morning exercise has been jogging down the hill, running along the waterline, jogging back up Manhattan Beach Blvd., then running along the Green Belt until arriving at the bottom of the dune, where I would finish my morning by walking up the dune-- I've never once run, it's just too dang hard. Other times, I walk to the dune and climb it several times, where I happily chat with other Sand Dune Park visitors about the city, their health and the wonderful views. There have been problems at Sand Dune Park due to over usage and a few bad apples. The solution is to address the peak usage issues and to focus on the actions of the few bad actors; the solution isn't to ban exercise in a public park and prevent thousands of residents from enjoying the park they enjoyed for decades.

I bike on the strand, run on the Green Belt, stroll along the beach and climb the dune. None of those activities make those places a "workout facility." What are parks for, if not exercise? I can walk on any street or sidewalk in the city. I can walk on the beach. I can walk on the strand, the Green Belt and in any public park. Are we ready to ban walking in Sand Dune Park?

-------------------------------------

If you want the sand dune to be reopened for play, walking and yes, exercise, please visit the SandDunePark.com website and sign the petition. Manhattan Beach residents should also email the city council.

"The people of Manhattan Beach have enjoyed recreational activitieson the dune at Sand Dune Park for over 40 years. We, the undersigned, request that the Manhattan Beach City Council reopen the sand dune as soon as it is practical for children and adults for the purposes of peaceful exercise and play. Reasonable limitations may be placed on the dune to prevent use by professional trainers and exercise classes, to substantially mitigate noise problems in the early morning and evening hours, and to effectively manage and reduce use during peak times."

Links:
http://jakesadventures.blogspot.com/search/label/Sand%20Dune%20Park
http://www.sanddunepark.com/
http://www.sanddunepark.com/?q=petition
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=171741568122
http://www.ci.manhattan-beach.ca.us/Index.aspx?page=1094
CityCouncil@citymb.info
http://sites.google.com/site/jakedocumentdump/docs/Petition.pdf
http://sites.google.com/site/jakedocumentdump/docs/DuneFlierPetition.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

Sam

2010-01-24T21:28:00.001-08:00

Sam, originally uploaded by jakerome.

Sam is the engine driving the Operation Jack train. He's running 60 marathons this year to honor his autistic son, Jack, and to raise money for autism charities, I decided to join Operation Jack and I raised just over $1000 to run the Diamon Valley Lake Marathon. That race got canned, so I ran the Carlsdbad Marathon today instead. After the run, several friends from the Runner's World forum met up for some post-race chow.

I've set my target high, I want to raise at least $2500 for Operation Jack this year. It's a great cause, and Sam is a physical freak. He ran his 5th marathon of the year today, in a time of 3 hours, 7 minutes. That's stupid fast. I ran 4 hours, 13 minutes and I was quite pleased with myself. Sam is on a different level.

Read more about Operation Jack, and please consider making a small donation to help battle autism. Any amount is greatly appreciated, as I raised well over $200 from $5 and $10 donations.

Full race report to follow...

Save Sand Dune Park/ Take Action Now

2010-01-23T20:06:00.000-08:00

[UPDATE: Since I first wrote this, one of the councilmembers has claimed that the City Council has decided to ban exercise on Sand Dune Park. That claim is false, as the council has taken no votes on this matter yet. But we need to continue gathering support to ensure that the City Council reopens Sand Dune Park -Jake]

1) Email the city council and tell them you want the dune reopened for adults and children to play and exercise. CityCouncil@citymb.info
2) Sign the new petition (even if you already signed the old one) and have your family sign as well. Include your name, address (street name is sufficient) and city of residence. http://www.sanddunepark.com/?q=petition
3) Forward this message to all your friends, family and co-workers, because that's the best way to spread the message.

"The people of Manhattan Beach have enjoyed recreational activities on the dune at Sand Dune Park for over 40 years. We, the undersigned, request that the Manhattan Beach City Council reopen the sand dune as soon as it is practical for children and adults for the purposes of peaceful exercise and play. Reasonable limitations may be placed on the dune to prevent use by professional trainers and exercise classes, to substantially mitigate noise problems in the early morning and evening hours, and to effectively manage and reduce use during peak times."
http://www.sanddunepark.com/?q=petition

------------
Thank you all for supporting the effort to reopen the sand dune and once again make Sand Dune Park a jewel in our city. There were scores of supporters at the Manhattan Beach City Council meeting Tuesday night, and even though I know many had to leave early, we still (narrowly) outnumbered those seeking to permanently close the dune. Your stories were mostly examples of how adults enjoy recreation on the dune by walking up the dune to rehabilitate from injuries, to alleviate back and knee pain, to exercise and just to enjoy the view sometimes. Other speakers related how they played on the dune growing up and want their children to enjoy the same opportunities. We spoke clearly and with many voices, but the message from dune supporters was clear: find a way to reopen the dune for children to play and for adults to exercise. And vice-versa.

However, that message wasn't completely received by our City Council. Recognizing the broad support that the sand dune has, the option of completely planting the dune (to make it indistinguishable from the other 90% of the park that is well-vegetated) was soundly rejected by the council. But draconian solutions discussed by the City Council could still effectively end the dune's use for most of the city's residents. These extreme measures include:

* Banning adults from using the dune;
* Carving the dune up by installing wooden paths that snake around it;
* Installing massive pylons to subdivide the dune;
* Adding unsightly vertical and horizontal fences;
* Leaving the dune closed for years in the name of "restoration."

To me, carving up the dune into 20 pieces and banning adults is not what I would consider to be a "reopening" of the dune. Some residents seemed to speak of the dune as if it was a historical artifact that should be placed behind glass and be only seen, not touched, in order to "preserve" it for future generations. Well, you and I both know that parks are there for recreation. No one would dream of closing the Green Belt or The Strand to "preserve" them. Yet many of us exercise at both of those wonderful locations, and neither is described as a workout facility. Reasonable compromises that would drastically curtail usage and eliminate virtually all of dune problems while reducing costs to the city were suggested by many city residents who respectfully play and exercise on the dune. These compromises were given little consideration, with only a brief mention during an extended council discussion.

I bike on the strand, run on the greenbelt, stroll along the beach, and climb the sand dune. Those activities don’t make any of those places a "workout facility." So when the council says "no workouts" I take that to mean no organized groups, no professional trainers, no soccer teams coming for a practice. With a lightweight permit system (not a rigid reservation system) we can eliminate the people that treat it like they would a gym's "workout facility" while still allowing respectful residents to climb the dune for exercise and to play on the dune with their kids. Let's make sure the council understands that, too.

So we need to send the message again. The next week is crucial, and we must act fast to spread the word while it is still fresh in everyone's minds. What every Manhattan Beach resident reading this needs to do is to email the city council by February 1 ( CityCouncil@citymb.info ). You can send a short note or you can send a long letter. Be respectful, and make sure this message is included-- you want the sand dune reopened for adults & children for play & peaceful exercise. Our City Council is highly engaged on this issue, and they often respond to constituent emails on the topic. You should take that opportunity to consider the councilmember's response, to clarify your ideas and to reiterate your desire to see the dune reopened.

And sign the petition at the link below. It is a short, simple request. We will present this petition to city council with the names of residents that want the dune reopened. Have everyone in your family sign if they want the dune reopened. Young and old and in-between, every voice is important. There will also be a petition for non-residents to sign, where they can urge the county to help Manhattan Beach effectively manage the dune as our City Council works to reopen the dune.

This last step is the most important. Spread the message. The groundswell of support in the last week was outstanding. I had friends telling me that their friends were going to Tuesday's meeting or emailing the council. The message spread like wildfire because our cause is just and because so many residents reached out to their circles of friends. This effort is from all of us, a true grassroots effort. One friend emailed a group of 20 volleyball players, who forwarded it to their friends. Another dune supporter asked members of his church group to attend the meeting. People saw the message posted on Facebook and Twitter.

Now we need to do it all again, only this time even bigger. So please forward this email to everyone that cares about our city and would like to see our public park fully reopened. Coworkers. Family. Friends. Neighbors. Customers. Classmates. Teammates. Print out copies and pass them out by hand. Or collect signatures outside of Ralph's or Trader Joe's with your friends and inform the passer by that the fate of the dune hangs in the balance. Post it Facebook, in groups, on your wall and on your friends' walls. Add your own message, because we each have our own story, important in its own unique way. Thank you.

Here's that to-do list again:

1) Email the city council and tell them you want the dune reopened for adults and children to play and exercise. CityCouncil@citymb.info
2) Sign the new petition (even if you already signed the old one) and have your family sign as well. Include your name, address (street name is sufficient) and city of residence. http://www.sanddunepark.com/?q=petition
3) Spread this message to your friends. Via email. Via Facebook. By passing out fliers. Share it with your church groups. Share it with your neighbors. Share it with co-workers, friends and family! Get the word out, because no one or two of us can spread it alone. Dozens went to Tuesday's 6-hour meeting because they care passionately about the dune after they heard about it from friends of friends.

http://www.sanddunepark.com/?q=petition

"The people of Manhattan Beach have enjoyed recreational activitieson the dune at Sand Dune Park for over 40 years. We, the undersigned, request that the Manhattan Beach City Council reopen the sand dune as soon as it is practical for children and adults for the purposes of peaceful exercise and play. Reasonable limitations may be placed on the dune to prevent use by professional trainers and exercise classes, to substantially mitigate noise problems in the early morning and evening hours, and to effectively manage and reduce use during peak times."

Jake Rome, jakerome@yahoo.com
400-block 28th St. (atop the sand dune plateau)
Manhattan Beach

Links
-------------------
http://jakesadventures.blogspot.com/search/label/Sand%20Dune%20Park
http://www.sanddunepark.com/
http://www.sanddunepark.com/?q=petition
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=171741568122
http://www.ci.manhattan-beach.ca.us/Index.aspx?page=1094 CityCouncil@citymb.info
http://sites.google.com/site/jakedocumentdump/docs/Petition.pdf
http://sites.google.com/site/jakedocumentdump/docs/DuneFlierPetition.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

Postponed marathon crisis means new opportunity!

2010-01-21T15:39:00.000-08:00

I'll be quick. I'm raising money to fund the fight against Autism via Operation Jack and Train4Autism. Just like I said. I was planning to run the Diamond Valley Lake Marathon on Saturday, but due to heavy rains, the trail run (well, dirt road run) has been canceled. And I'm out of town on the new date. Thankfully, I was able to secure a spot in the Carlsbad Marathon on Sunday! So one extra day to raise money. Any amount is appreciated-- I've received contributions from $5 to $100. It's a good cause. And I've upended my weekend to make sure I could run a marathon and honor all the contributions to date. Optionally, if you donate $26.20 or more, we would be happy to send you a t-shirt. $60 nets a t-shirt and a tech shirt. $100 and you're eligible for a sweatshirt. More about that here.

Sam's running 60 marathons this year to honor his son Jack as they battle Jack's autism together. I'm just running one marathon to help them out a little bit. Hopefully you can help too by donating some money before Sunday January 24. Thanks.

Sand Dune Park proposal for Tuesday's City Council meeting

2010-01-18T21:24:00.001-08:00

[Please help me raise money to fight autism as I run a marathon on Saturday and Sam Felsenfeld runs 60 marathons in 2010. Donate. Details. Thanks.]

Proposed operating rules to control the sand dune at Sand Dune Park ------------------------------------------------------

Annual Permits

Required for all 12+
Cost $25/year.
Include a unique number for each permit to enable user tracking
Users must sign agreement with city to obey park rules or surrender permit
Not required for children <12>
Purchased in person w/ ID during normal P&R business hours
One-day permit $10 via credit card purchase
Permit is a bright, reflective bib with number (like this, http://www.flickr.com/photos/kzirkel/3028093261/ )
Revoked for noise, parking, traffic & other park violations
Required 6-8 P.M. April-September, weekend & holidays year round, before 9 A.M. year round
Fixed length, July 1-June 30 (expiring in the middle of peak usage season)

Adjusted operating hours

Park stays closed until 10 A.M. weekends and holidays
Dune closes at 8 P.M. year round
Quiet hours extended until 9 A.M.

Rules adjusted if metrics not met

If total users does not drop 25% below 2003-2005 during comparable peak periods, permit fee raised for 2010/11
If average usage exceeds 2003-2005 levels, permits required at all times
If total users exceeds 50 people on the dune more than 10 days/month, then dune usage capped or reservations required during those peak times only

OPTIONAL Parking "tricks"

Post signs that say "Manhattan Beach resident parking." But don't enforce them. This will discourage parking by dune users while minimizing any impact for residents & their friends.
On Bell St., post "4-hour parking" signs. This can also be lightly enforced, and the objective is to keep those spots open for park users so they don't search the neighborhood for spots. [Aside: In the Sand Section near Grandview & 28th, and there are FAR fewer parking spots, and almost none west of Highland. Even without those spots on Bell, there is loads of neighborhood parking near the base of Sand Dune Park.]

Benefits of Proposed Plan

Usage can be controlled by adjusting operating hours, permit hours and permit costs if necessary
Usage guaranteed to be reduced to acceptable via use of triggered measures
Bad apples that break park rules can be barred while minimizing impact to the vast majority that respect the park
Enforcement is aided by the bright, reflective vest required of users
Assigning each bib/user a number, it becomes easy to track bad behavior and revoke bibs for bad apples
Quiet hours easier to enforce since breaking rules loses park privileges
Reduction in peak usage alleviates parking
Reduction in overall usage alleviates traffic
Reducing use alleviates reduces replenishment from 7/year to 3/year
Young children can continue to use at no cost
Maintains equal accessibility for all county residents
Maintains unique cultural melting pot in Manhattan Beach
Low bureaucracy solution, avoids reservation system unless absolutely necessary

Last Chance to Save Sand Dune Park

2010-01-15T20:35:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday night at 6:30 PM (January 19, 2010), the Manhattan Beach City Council will decide the future of Sand Dune Park-- the sand dune will either be re-opened or permanently closed. The dune was closed and has remained closed for 5 months because an organized group of local residents, most of whom reside on a single city block, has dominated the City Council, Parks & Recreation and PPIC meetings. As a result, the city leaders have gotten the mis-impression that most city residents favor closing the dune. But that isn't true. In fact most city residents, living on hundreds of Manhattan Beach blocks, want the dune reopened.

Coming to Tuesday night's City Council meeting is the single best way to demonstrate to our representatives that the people of Manhattan Beach want the sand dune reopened. Whether or not you can attend the meeting, please email the city council as that is another great way to let them know you want the dune reopened.

When you attend the meeting, it is important to be respectful of all. If you choose to speak, and I hope that you do, please focus on the aspects of the dune that are important to you. You might give examples of how you and your family enjoy the dune, relate to the council how the dune has improved your life or perhaps how your children love running down the dune. Even sand dune lovers understand that some accomodation should be made to alleviate the impact on the busiest days and to focus on preventing a few bad apples from disturbing the dune, its neighbors and the 99% of dune users that are respectful.

Whle we can all appreciate the impact that occasional overuse has on the dune, on the typical day fewer than 100 children and adults use the dune over the course of an entire 12-hour day. Street parking is much more difficult to find in neighborhoods closer to the beach. Many residents live near beaches, parks, schools and businessses that generate far more traffic & noise than Sand Dune Park. Through all of this, we choose to live in Manhattan Beach because of the great sense of community, the wonderful parks, the people, the weather, the natural beauty and much more.

Please attend the city council meeting Tuesday night at 6:30. Arrive early to ensure that you have an opportunity to represent your viewpoint before the city council makes any decision. And please bring your friends, family and neighbors that want to see the sand dune reopened. I've attached a flier that you are free to print & share throughout Manhattan Beach. Thank you for your support and I look forward to seeing you Tuesday night.

---------

Here's are some videos I took of my nephew Nathan enjoying the dune. This is why we need to save it.

I got photos, too. Lots of photos. Mostly from the weekend, when the dune is busiest.

A sprint AND a marathon

2010-01-06T22:07:00.001-08:00

Before I start, let me just say that this is a long story that's going to end with an appeal to contribute money. If you want to skip the treat of reading of lovely prose, just click here and donate now, since the event is only 2 weeks away. But read on anyways.

Let me explain that one. So last year, I decided to run the Diamond Valley Lake Half Marathon. It was a fun race, mostly on a dirt road around a new reservoir. Largely by chance, I happened to snap a photo Sam Felsenfield, aka 261 to 26.2 on the Runner's World forums, mostly the Southern California Running & Racing forum. I knew Sam on there way back before I got them to change the name of the forum (true story). He really liked the photo, blurry bits and all, and still uses it as his avatar on a bunch of social networking sites. Cool! Oh, and I have some more photos on Flickr.

But we'll get back to Sam. First, I got to get back to Diamond Valley Lake... because it looked like such fun to run around! So yeah, I went back for a long training run in April. And the next day I tripped as I was walking down a hill w/ my rollerblades, banged my knee and basically didn't run for 4 months. Ooph. But we'll get back to Diamond Valley Lake.

In the meantime, Sam had begun this quest to raise funds to battle Autism, to help his son Jack. And not in a little way, by running a race or two. Nope, he was going ALL OUT! He was going to run 60 marathons in 2010! And not only was he going to raise money for all those races, he was going to get a team of runner to also raise money each raise. Whoa! So we have the Operation Jack website. And the Operation Jack Facebook page. And the Operation Jack Twitter account. The blog. Honestly, I can't keep up with everything. But I believe in Jack's cause, and I love his passion. So I asked how could I help him? First, with 60 marathons, dozens will require travel travel out of the state. So I offered 2 of the frequent flier tickets that I can never manage to use to help Sam travel for his cause.

But surely, I could do a bit more, right? Now, I've never done a fund raising marathon before-- I just like to run. But this is a different situation. So I decided to support Sam in his cause, and run a marathon to raise money for Jack. But which race? Well, if you've been paying attention, you can probably guess the answer-- the Diamond Valley Lake Marathon. I've joined the team already! It's convenient, less than 2 hours from Manhattan Beach. And it's early in the year, January, so I can help get Sam off to a strong start.

So here it is: the naked appeal for cash. That part is a sprint-- it's only 2 weeks away! Skip on over to my fund raising page. Kick in a few bucks if you can-- $10 is good, $25 is better, $100 is outstanding, even $5 is welcome. No idea how much I'll raise, but with your help I'm sure we'll help Sam and his quest, via Operation Jack, to beat Autism. Thanks.

Plan to control Sand Dune Park usage upon its reopening

2010-01-06T21:37:00.000-08:00

[Update: here's a link to save Sand Dune Park. Here's the flier that you can help distribute to neighbors.]

I’m not much for writing elegant prose, so these are my thoughts in bulleted form. I’m sharing this with members of the City Council, members of the Parks & Recreation Committee, the few dozen readers of my blog, and a few other Manhattan Beach residents and staff. The key bits are at the top, and in the “operational rules” section. I appreciate feedback from any and all, and you are all free to share, adopt or revise this.

Minimizing neighborhood impact while maximizing Sand Dune Park benefits by controlling the dune upon reopening. Top-line summary:

· Paid permits, in the form of reflective vests, required at peak times
· No permit required for children
· Reduced operating hours
· Extended quiet hours
· Rule violators have their permits/vests revoked
· If peak or average usage metrics not met, additional measures triggered

The following plan is based upon:

· Email communications with city council members
· Feedback from Manhattan Beach residents at City Council meetings
· Discussions with members of the Parks & Recreation Committee
· Feedback from residents at Parks & Recreation Committee meetings
· Viewpoints expressed in local media, blogs
· Conversations with residents that want to permanently close the dune
· Conversations with dune users that want to control the dune
· Personal experience at the dune

The goals of the plan to control the dune are:

· Minimize neighborhood impact
· Maximize park benefits for dune users
· Prevent the few bad apples causing problems from using the dune
· Reduce neighborhood traffic
· Reduce parking issues
· Eliminate early morning and evening noise problems
· Reduce the overall usage of the dune
· Substantially reduce dune usage at peak times
· Keep the dune free for use by children 12 and under
· Maintain the dune’s availability as an open recreational area
· Reduce the city’s cost of maintaining the dune
· Mitigate some of the staffing costs of the dune
· Enhance Manhattan Beach’s image as a city that welcomes all visitors

Proposed operational rules for Sand Dune Park
· Annual permits required for all ages 12+, cost $25/year.
· Permits purchased in person w/ ID during normal P&R business hours
· One-day permit $10 via credit card purchase
· Permit is a bright, reflective bib with number
· Permits revoked for noise, parking, traffic & other park violations
· Permits required 6-8 P.M. April-September
· Permits required weekend & holidays year round
· Permits required before 9 A.M. year round
· Park stays closed until 10 A.M. weekends and holidays
· Dune closes at 8 P.M. year round
· Quiet hours extended until 9 A.M.
· If metrics are not met, new rules are automatically triggered

The plan has the following metrics:

· Reduce average monthly dune usage below average from 2003-2005
o If not met, permits required year round
· Peak monthly usage reduced to 25% below 12 peak months from 2003-2005
o If not met, permit fees can be doubled or total permits capped
· Peak hourly usage exceeds 50 users fewer than 10 times/month
o If not met, reservations required at peak times & hard cap enforced

Benefits of plan
· Usage can be controlled by adjusting operating hours, permit hours and permit costs if necessary
· Usage guaranteed to be reduced to acceptable via use of triggered measures
· Bad apples that break park rules can be barred while minimizing impact to the vast majority that respect the park
· Enforcement is aided by the bright, reflective vest required of users
· Assigning each bib/user a number, it becomes easy to track bad behavior and revoke bibs for bad apples
· Quiet hours easier to enforce since breaking rules loses park privileges
· Reduction in peak usage alleviates parking
· Reduction in overall usage alleviates traffic
· Reducing use alleviates reduces replenishment from 7/year to 3/year
· Young children can continue to use at no cost
· Maintains equal accessibility for all county residents
· Maintains unique cultural melting pot in Manhattan Beach
· Low bureaucracy solution, avoids reservation system unless absolutely necessary

Kids love the Sand Dune Park in Manhattan Beach!

2009-11-30T21:36:00.000-08:00

I was going through some old videos recently, and came upon a few gems of Nathan running down Sand Dune Park. He had so much fun, you could hear him smiling! Most of them are from the late Spring, although there's one from the winter too. Watch these videos, and you can really understand what it is that kids love so much about the Manhattan Beach sand dune. Of course, I also have plenty of photos of kids & adults peacefully enjoying Sand Dune Park, but none have quite the same immediacy of the videos.

Sadly, the sand dune is currently closed, and the Manhattan Beach City Council may consider permanently closing the dune to kids forever at their January 19 meeting. Hopefully they will instead re-open the dune as planned with mitigation measures in place designed to reduce the neighborhood impact. If you're a kid or adult that enjoys the park, or if you think your kids may enjoy it someday, there are a few things you can do to help ensure that it remains open for future generations of kids and adults:

If you're a Manhattan Beach resident, please contact the city council and let them know how you feel. It's OK to be brief, just make sure you are polite and respectful, and let them know where in Manhattan Beach you live.
Everyone can get involved by visiting the Save the Sand Dune website, which is collecting input from supporters of re-opening the dune with the goal of mitigating the neighborhood impact.
If you're a blogger that cares about this issue, please write about your own experiences at Sand Dune Park, link to this blog as well as the unofficial Sand Dune Park website. Leave a comment here & I'll be sure to include to your blog entry on my next update.

OK, but you really came for the videos, right? These are hosted on Flickr, and you can find them on YouTube as well. Sorry for the quality, but this is taken with ancient technology. Enjoy!

YouTube links: 2003, 2004, 2006.

The Dune at Sand Dune Park

2009-11-22T17:46:00.000-08:00

In January, the Manhattan Beach council will decide the future of Sand Dune Park. One of the options that will be considered is to permanently close the dune and prevent anyone from ever climbing up it again. The people that want to permanently close the dune are very well organized and very vocal in their desire to see the dune permanently closed. These residents seek the permanent closure in order to reduce the number of people from outside the immediate neighborhood from using the park in order to alleviate traffic, noise and overuse issues.

If Manhattan Beach residents that use the dune do not make their desire to see the dune remain open clear, there is a very real chance it will be close permanently. If you live in Manhattan Beach and want to ever have the chance to climb the dune again by yourself or with your children, then I urge you to contact the city council and express your desire. You may also want to visit this site to share your ideas for keeping the dune open for us, our children & future generations of children so they can all experience the joy of climbing this unique jewel themselves.

We are working hard to devise a plan that will mitigate overuse, parking and noise issues. Our goal is nothing less than to keep the dune open for all while reducing the use such that these issues are on par with other neighborhood parks throughout the city and state. By reducing park hours, requiring a paid permit, extending quiet hours and increasing accountability in order to eliminate the bad apples, we can all continue to enjoy the park while minimizing the impact to the local neighbors.

This is for real. There is a very organized group of citizens that are working very hard to permanently close the dune for all generations. These people are my neighbors, and their concerns are certainly legitimate. But I believe that by making some of the changes described above, we can maintain the dune for future generations with minimal neighborhood impact. My goal is nothing less than to have the resident living closest to the dune glad that the city decided to keep the dune open since they will be able to enjoy it without the severe overuse issues that reached a breaking point this summer.

Save the Sand Dune

The 6 Million People project

2009-11-21T18:16:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to take this opportunity to tell my readers about a project I've been spearheading on Flickr the last few years. I welcome you all to join in this project and help us reach the goal.

I need your help to continue an awesome project in the 6 Million People group. We're collecting portraits of 6 million different people as a way to help comprehend the enormous number of Jews, Gypsies, Russians and other people that were lost during the Holocaust. I hope that you can join, add a portrait of everyone you meet, and invite your Flickr contacts to do the same.

Along the way, I hope that you'll be inspired to improve your portrait photography and learn to appreciate the fine portraits that other photographers capture. The long-running Spotlight Seven interview series focuses on the work of one artist each episode. Our Featured Galleries are being curated by members with themes ranging from silly faces to facial hair and from toes to hats. World Portrait Days is a project to photograph many people during one weekend. And by translating the group mission into as many languages as possible--we already have nearly 20—we can make this project truly global.

So please join in the project, and invite your friends. Feel free to include this note or use your own words. We've already collected over 100,000 portraits and we intend to capture millions more.

One Solution to the issues surrounding Sand Dune Park

2009-10-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

UPDATE AFTER 10/26/2009 Parks & Recreation Commission Meeting
I spoke at the meeting tonight, and pretty much said what I wrote below. Many of my neighbors from the bottom of the hill also spoke as well, most expressing support for closing the dune permanently. After the meeting, I spoke with some city staff, commissioners, dune proponents and people in favor of closing (or at least greatly restricting) use of the dune. I think we learned from those informal talks that we really are all after the same solution-- making the sand dune available for use by community members while greatly minimizing the impact on the closest neighbors and maximizing enjoyment of the park by all neighborhood residents. The next meeting will be held on November 16, and I encourage all Manhattan Beach residents to attend. At that meeting, the pros and cons of various solutions will be offered by all attendees, and these will form the basis of a report to be made to the city council.

Original post below.
----------------------------------------

As readers of my last blog entry are well aware, I am a huge fan of climbing the 100-foot tall dune at Sand Dune Park. After attending the city council meeting, it became clear to me that Sand Dune Park is not going to reopen until major changes are made to minimize the community impact. I love the park, and want it to remain open to all, but I sympathize greatly with the neighbors that are impacted by its heavy use, especially during peak times. So I've brainstormed some solutions to the problem. I'll share these tonight at the Parks & Recreation meeting in Manhattan Beach.

First, let me list the principles that drove my thought process:

Minimize disruption to people living in the areas closest to Sand Dune Park;
Greatly reduce usage during peak times;
Maintain easy availability & use of Sand Dune Park for neighborhood residents and other people living in Manhattan Beach;
Preserve the ability for hyperlocals (i.e., people within walking distance) to spontaneously visit Sand Dune Park;
Make sure it's easy for kids to be able to safely play on the dune.

With that in mind, I quickly realized that a straight reservation system would not be ideal, since this would provide the same barriers for residents to visit as it would for non-residents. Further, it would greatly impact the hyperlocals who often visit the dune on a moments notice-- a problem that would not at all affect those that drive 20 minutes or more to enjoy the workout.

Instead, what I propose is a yearly pass with the following characteristics:

Passes can be bought and are good for use for one year;
The passes cost a nominal amount, probably $10-25/year-- low enough to be affordable for regulars, high enough to discourage first-time visitors;
The passes are ONLY available for purchase one day each month, at City Hall. Passes must be purchases by the user-- they cannot be purchases on someone else's behalf. This has the benefit of making the passes easier to obtain for residents than they are for non-residents;
Passes are only required for use during peak times, such as weekends and spring/summer evenings;
Children under the age of 12 do not require a pass;
The passes could be GINORMOUS YELLOW BRACELETS that are easy for park personnel to identify;
People without a yearly pass will be allowed to purchase a 1-day pass for $5-10;

That's about it. Manhattan Beach residents that use the park regularly will be only lightly impacted, and most will be happy to help support the park in the form of the modest cost of the pass. Kids, most of whom are local, can visit anytime. Dedicated out-of-towners will still come, but in smaller numbers and they are much less likely to bring friends. And there will be more accountability, since the passes could be revoked. Out-of-town visitors will have to plan ahead and visit the park at off-peak times.

This is my simple proposal. If adopted, it will provide a modest amount of revenue for the city, decrease use during peak times, maintain the same level of accessibility for neighborhood residents and still let kids enjoy the park any time.

Save Sand Dune Park!

2009-10-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

UPDATE, very late Tuesday October 6: Attended tonight's marathon 5.5 hour city council meeting, mostly devoted to a discussion of undergrounding utility wires. Starting the meeting by getting the proposal to keep Sand Dune Park closed (for 4-6 months while mitigation issues are addressed )from the consent agenda, which mean there would be an opportunity to discuss it. At the end, I spoke for 3 minutes in favor of keeping the park open, and after speaking it became apparent that 4 of the 5 council members had decided to keep the dune closed for now. Several others spoke, both in favor and against. Bottom line, the dune will remain closed until at least next spring while the city studies ways to discourage people from using the public park.

Sand Dune Park is a great park in Manhattan Beach, just blocks from my home. I've enjoyed working out climbing the 100-foot sand dune there, sometimes as many as 40 times as I trained for the Catalina Marathon. Currently, the park is closed and may remain closed through the end of the year unless the residents of Manhattan Beach can convince the city council to keep the park open to its residents. There is a organized group of residents fighting to close the dune permanently in order to discourage people from coming to their neighborhood; without a strong voice calling for the park to remain open to all, they may succeed. I may add some links later, for now see the most recent articles from The Beach Reporter and The Daily Breeze.

New links: here's the official Parks & Recreation Committee's recommendation to close the park until at least January. Another story in the Easy Reader. Here's an excerpt from the agenda item. They want to close the park for another 4-6 months!

Staff recommends that the City Council approve of maintaining the closure of the dune at Sand Dune Park until otherwise directed by Council and referral to the Parks and Recreation Commission for study of alternative ways to mitigate neighborhood impacts. Parks and Recreation recommendation, along with Parking and Public Improvements Commission recommendation, will both be presented to Council upon completion.

Staff estimates that the Parks and Recreation Commission will need at lease two or three meetings to discuss this issue and develop recommendations for park operations for City Council. The Parks and Recreation Commission should be able to develop the recommendations for City Council by January. This should coincide with the P.P.I.C. recommendations for neighborhood permit parking and meters on Bell Avenue going to Council in January. If the process is completed by City Council early next year, we believe mitigation measures will be able to be completed by spring.

The city council is meeting tomorrow night to decide the fate of Sand Dune Park. If you are a Manhattan Beach resident and want to ensure that the park remains open to all, please attend and express your sentiment. Here's a letter I sent to the city council.

As a 7-year resident of Manhattan Beach, and a user of Sand Dune Park for just as long, I feel that it would be unhelpful and contrary to the desires of most Manhattan Beach residents to close Sand Dune Park for an extended period of time. Since I moved to Manhattan Beach in 2002, only blocks away from the top of Sand Dune Park, I have climbed that dune literally thousands of times. Most often, I would walk up once at the end of my morning run along the beach and the wood chip path. Less frequently, I would have dedicated workouts at the park, climbing anywhere from 12 times to 40 times.

When Sand Dune Park was addressed by the City Council in 2002, I attended the council meeting where its fate was determined. Prior to that meeting, the opponents of Sand Dune Park, who had long sought to shut the park down, had dominated the Parks & Recreation subcommittees studying the issue. However, once the future of Sand Dune Park was seriously threatened, the residents of Manhattan Beach spoke with a clear voice-- well over 100 people attended the city council meeting, and the vast majority spoke up in favor of keeping the park open with some changes to how the park was monitored.

This time, history appears to be repeating itself. When I read about the temporary closure of Sand Dune Park in August, I was disappointed but understood the rationale, judging by the physical condition of the dune. Closing the dune for several weeks at the end of summer, by far the time of year when the park gets the most use, seemed to be a rational way of dealing with the issue by breaking the pattern of use, providing a respite during the peak times and providing time to come up with a longer-term solution. When reading about the council meeting for late September, all indications were that the dune would be re-opened, and a mitigation plan would be devised during the fall, winter & spring, before the period of heaviest use arrived again.

What appears to have happened instead is that a small minority of organized Sand Dune Park opponents banded together to address the city council in pursuance of their stated agenda of permanently closing the dune. While they did not accomplish that, it appears that the city council is now on the path to keep the dune closed through the fall and winter while they study the issue further. While this may coincide with the objectives of the Sand Dune Park opponents, it is counter to the wishes of most Manhattan Beach residents, and will provide no additional benefit over the initial closure. Let me explain.

The 3 reasons above for closing the dune in August-- peak usage period, breaking the pattern of use and providing time to solve underlying issues before the pattern of heavy use resumes-- are no longer valid. The pattern of usage has already been broken, and the peak usage period has ended until next May, as I'm sure your park statistics indicate. By closing the park, the City Council would be depriving its residents of a treasured resource at no benefit to the community.

I hope you take these issues into account when you decide on the immediate fate of Sand Dune Park. It is a wonderful place for a workout, to relax and to interact with people from Manhattan Beach and the surrounding communities. Addressing the underlying issues of park abuse are important, but these issues are almost exclusively the domain of summer, and closing the park in the fall and winter, when usage is much lighter with higher percentage of city residents, will do nothing to help solve the long-term issues.

I hope that you and the city council listen to all the voices of Manhattan Beach and decide to re-open the park while long-term mitigation issues are addressed. Thank you.

Camp Lawrence Family Camp 2009 Recap

2009-09-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

Actually, this is more like the shameless commerce division of 2009 Family Camp. I do not know what to say other than it was a wonderful week, 7 days of perfect weather and 1 day of perfect rain. Everyone attending this year was a returning vet, full of kids of all ages. Of course, I was there, camera in hand. There's so much more to say than I can possibly fit in a single blog post, and less is sometimes more. So, without further ado, links!

The 2009 Family Camp photo book, featuring 298 photos from the week that was. Available at Blurb.com, starting at $39.95 for the 80-page epic. You may want to look for a Blurb coupon before buying the book, to save $10 or more. Also still available is the 2008 photo book at the same price. Both come in hardcover or softcover, with Blurb's "premium paper." Get them while they're hot! Full previews are available for each book.

Next up, buy the official Family Camp 2009 t-shirt at Zazzle.com. While standard gray is recommended, the shirts are available in hundreds of different colors and styles.

Next up, more photos! Without breaking everything out, all the photos can be found in this Family Camp 2009 collection, including the 120 best photos, from the 3000+ I took!

Finally, there are also photos from Family Camps past-- my those kids have grown! And last year's blog post. The Facebook group. There's the Google group, too. Please add your own links in the comments.

Also, a few quick things. You are all free to use the family camp photos for printing, sharing with your friends, putting on a t-shirt, etc. But please let me know if you use them- I'm always interested to know what happens to these photos. If you're going to print them, make sure you click on the "All Sizes" button above a photo and get the original size image. The quality will be much, much better.

For now, I leave you with another slideshow, West Beach silhouettes. Enjoy.

2009 Family Camp Quicklinks

2009-08-28T15:24:00.001-07:00

Camp Lawrence Family Camp 2009 Portrait, originally uploaded by jakerome.

I'll have more later. For now, here's a collection of links to Family Camp related projects I've partaken the last few years.

The 2009 t-shirt.

The 2008 Family Camp photobook.

Family Camp photos from 2004-2009 on Flickr.

I'll update this with more links as necessary.

Will Be Deleted Soon

2009-08-10T23:06:00.001-07:00

Will Be Deleted Soon, originally uploaded by jakerome.

Lovely. I can rent a movie from RedBox for $1/day, or I can download a movie from Amazon for $5 (the non-HD version is $4) and have 24 hours to watch it. Watched the whole thing last night, then wandered back to re-watch the opening scenes. And got this. So tough luck if it takes you 2 nights to watch a movie-- that's $10 gone. Really, would it be so hard for Amazon & the movie studios to give their customers a full week to watch a movie?

Honestly, these movie executives are idiots. The number of people that rent the same movie twice within a week has got be well below 0.1% of their customers. In the meantime, they're losing 10-50% of their sales because some people aren't always able to watch a film in one night, especially if it's three hours long. So they rent it from RedBox for $1/night. Which the movie studios in their infinite wisdom, recognizing a novel (yet simple) service that people really enjoy, are trying to shut down.

The movie studios are about where they record companies were 10 years ago, trying to hold back the flood. The record companies wasted 10 years and squandered billions of dollars trying to protect, through artificial means, their obsolete business model. The movie industry is doing the same.

Amazon Video on Demand via TiVo is a great service, but I spend far less on it than I would because of the rigid DRM requirements. It's a shame really that the movie studios are crippling what could be a great service in its infancy, making all too appealing for people to download movies via Bit Torrent b/c that's the only way they can be easily watched on a wide variety of device, without restrictive rules.

Palette

2009-07-12T11:31:00.001-07:00

Palette, originally uploaded by jakerome.

The sequel or upgrade to the first rainbow mosaic. I used the exact same process described in The Making of a Rainbow, although in the hours since I have realized there's a marginally easier way. This is as far as I'm going to take this exact idea, as it's actually quite time consuming to align all the images properly and create the credits. However, I will dig deep into the color reservoir to create 1-2 more spectrum-themed creations. Stay tuned.

Photos from www.flickr.com/groups/solid-squares/

Row 1
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1. Red (airplane wing), 2. bluest girl, 3. Red (stop sign), 4. Red (In-n-out tile), 5. chrstphre, 6. Red (Tiles), 7. bluest_girl, 8. D90 Student, 9. bluest_girl, 10. Orange (sunset surf), 11. Puke green (seaweed), 12. the|G|™, 13. Yellow (columns), 14. Martino's doodles, 15. Yellow-green (plants), 16. Green (leaves)

Row 2
---------
17. Red (rose), 18. honey.huckabee, 19. Renée Ann Wirick, 20. Red (balloon), 21. Red (flowers), 22. Sparty Lea, 23. Ludie Cochrane, 24. Burnt umber (sky), 25. Amber (waves of grain), 26. bluest_girl, 27. Orange (dip), 28. Into the wild, 29. Yellow (cone), 30. Ludie Cochrane, 31. Green (crabgrass), 32. Green (clovers take 2)

Row 3
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1. Red (sculpture), 2. Red (bounce house), 3. Red (garage door), 4. Red (futon), 5. D90 Student, 6. D40 student, 7. Orange (hard sand), 8. Gold (wall hanging), 9. Mr. Wizzard, 10. Robert in Toronto, 11. Gold (ceiling), 12. Lucy Nieto, 13. Green (buds), 14. Green (grass), 15. Green (plant life), 16. Turquoise (mount)

Row 4
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17. Red (All-Star Game carpet), 18. bluest girl, 19. Red (heinz bottle), 20. Wild Vine Photography, 21. Red (brick), 22. CLCsART, 23. Orange (pumpkin), 24. Brown (carpet?), 25. Yellow (leaves), 26. Yellow (can't remember), 27. Yellow (B17 fuselage or wing), 28. All-Seeing angler, 29. CLCsART, 30. Green (grass), 31. D40 student, 32. Green (chairs)

Row 5
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1. CLCsART, 2. andertho, 3. Ludie Cochrane, 4. Orange-red (subway), 5. Orange (seascape), 6. bluest_girl, 7. Golden (pelican feathers), 8. Beige (bamboo), 9. Brown (paper bag), 10. Yellow (flower), 11. .eyebex, 12. Green (ocean slime), 13. Green (plants), 14. Turquoise (scopes), 15. milltown01, 16. Silver (observatory)

Row 6
---------
17. D90 Student, 18. Red (bricks), 19. CLCsART, 20. uʌ, 21. Brown (floor), 22. elvybeauti, 23. bluest_girl, 24. Golden brown (samosas), 25. Ludie Cochrane, 26. Yellow green (Shrub up close), 27. More green, 28. Green (fake grass), 29. bluest_girl, 30. Blue (pool water), 31. Baby blue (rocket blanket), 32. Blue (water)

Row 7
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1. Orange (coat), 2. Red (Red Rock), 3. CLCsART, 4. Gold (blurred elevator wall with questionable white balance), 5. Brown (ceiling), 6. Yellow (space hardware), 7. Sand (windblown), 8. Dustlake, 9. Green (plants), 10. CLCsART, 11. Green (plants), 12. Green (leaf), 13. Werner Schnell Images, 14. Blue (stucco), 15. Blue (sky, yet again), 16. Blue (pipes)

Row 8
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17. Orange (T hexagon tiles), 18. Orange (hard sand at sunset), 19. Orange (last one, I promise), 20. Blonde (hair), 21. MarshaMod, 22. Yellow (train line), 23. Martino's doodles, 24. Green (sparse vegetation), 25. .eyebex, 26. Green (wall with hardware), 27. Dustlake, 28. Silver (Central Park Ice), 29. Blue (Saturn V support bolts), 30. Martino's doodles, 31. Blue (fighter wing), 32. D90 Student

Row 9
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1. bluest_girl, 2. Orange (more stucco), 3. Gold (tile), 4. CLCsART, 5. Beige (rock), 6. Yellow (pole), 7. Green (grass), 8. bluest_girl, 9. DREASAN, 10. Kimmy Danger, 11. Blue (wall), 12. the|G|™, 13. bluest girl, 14. Blue (sky), 15. Ludie Cochrane, 16. Violet (petals)

Row 10
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17. Gold (golden hour wall), 18. Tan (floorboards), 19. Yellowish Orange (Circuit City stucco), 20. D90 Student, 21. Lime green (stucco), 22. Green (blurred leaf), 23. Green (leaves), 24. bluest girl, 25. Blue green (hot ocean waters), 26. bluest_girl, 27. bluest_girl, 28. Deep blue (evening sky), 29. Cheewy, 30. Indigo (Flower), 31. Purple (can), 32. CLCsART

Row 11
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1. Beige (marble), 2. BeautyIsAs, 3. bluest_girl, 4. Ventri, 5. Green (grass, yet again), 6. Green (vegetation), 7. Green (wall), 8. Aqua (Venetian Canal), 9. D90 Student, 10. Blue (canopy), 11. OSD, 12. Dustlake, 13. D90 Student, 14. Ventri, 15. bluest girl, 16. Violet (flowers)

Row 12
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17. jef safi, 18. Yellow (trucks), 19. Ludie Cochrane, 20. Green (Highway shrubs), 21. Green (budding shrubs), 22. Green (trash can), 23. christophre, 24. bluest_girl, 25. Lucy Nieto, 26. Indigo (is it a sign?), 27. christophre, 28. Purple (petals), 29. CLCsART, 30. Dustlake, 31. Purple (flowers), 32. D90 Student

Row 13
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1. pho-Tony, 2. Robert in Toronto, 3. Green (Candlestick grass), 4. bluest_girl, 5. Green (vending machine), 6. Robert in Toronto, 7. Blue (sign), 8. Blue (sky), 9. Robert in Toronto, 10. bluest girl, 11. BeautyIsAs, 12. Purple (flower), 13. Pink (tiles), 14. Purple (sign), 15. Pink (flower), 16. Pink (flower)

Row 14
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17. Yellow-green (shrub), 18. Green (leaves), 19. Studiojules, 20. bluest girl, 21. Mawhrin Skel, 22. CLCsART, 23. emmanuelle gabory ..., 24. Indigo blue (wall), 25. Indigo (tiles), 26. Indigo (petals), 27. Purple (flowers), 28. Ludie Cochrane, 29. Purple (sign), 30. Purple (jacket), 31. CLCsART, 32. Violet (conduit cover)

Row 15
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1. Green (wide-angle shrubbery), 2. pho-Tony, 3. Green (Redondo harbor), 4. Blue-green (Waikiki beach), 5. Blue (sky), 6. Blue (highline wall), 7. foto.phrend, 8. D90 Student, 9. Purple (siding), 10. Purple (flowers), 11. Pink (flower), 12. D90 Student, 13. Violet (flowers), 14. Pink (lockers), 15. Pink (1780), 16. Pink (stucco)

Row 16
---------
17. MattPenning, 18. pho-Tony, 19. Blue (wall), 20. Indigo? (tiles), 21. Blue (garage door), 22. archibaldo, 23. Indigo (big wheel), 24. Ludie Cochrane, 25. CLCsART, 26. bluest girl, 27. KatPi, 28. CLCsART, 29. Reddish brown (wall cover), 30. Violet (flower), 31. Violet (Bougainvillea), 32. bluest_girl

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Palm Pre: First Impressions

2009-06-06T23:36:00.000-07:00

Last night, I spent 3 hours trying to sync the old Centro w/ the Mac Address Book without success. My master plan was to sync the Centro, then somehow sync that w/ my Yahoo! contacts, then finally export the whole mess to Google. I ad-libbed instead, in the process discovering that iSync has the built-in ability to sync with both Yahoo! and GMail. The second discovery was realizing I could just send all my Centro contacts (via Bluetooth) to the MacBook Pro. From there, I imported them into Address Book, synced up with Yahoo! (10.4 doesn't support GMail), then went to the Power Mac to sync Yahoo! & GMail w/ the Mac's address book. Got all that? Bottom line, I got all 3 address books synced up and sent to the 4th service that I needed.

So I journeyed down to the local Sprint Store this morning to get the Pre. I was ready to leave at 8:45, but spent 10 minutes furiously searching for my keys. Got them, and made it in 5 minutes flat, enough time to catch the line just before they opened the doors. Of course I took a few photos of the Sprint Store waiting for the Pre to go on sale and then buying it. After about 1.5 hours in line I got in. After another 20-30 minutes, I had a Pre in hand and was on my way home. Review follows.

I've been tweeting about the Pre all day, but here's the bottom line: the Palm Pre is fantastic, and lives up to and perhaps even exceeds the hype in many ways. First, as everyone has noted, it feels great in the hand. It took about 2 minutes to set it up, just put in my GMail account information and BOOM! Contacts. Put in my Facebook ifnormation, and BOOM! Contacts. Integrated as advertised, no hitches. Then I went to set up Yahoo! Mail, and it downloaded all my folders. Pretty cool, making it easier than ever to organize my email. Apparently Palm/Yahoo! have worked together to enable IMAP.

Web browser-- works very well. Well enough that I may just have to ditch the iPod Touch... what do I need that for now? Downloaded a few Twitter apps, of course, and while bother Tweed and Spaz show promise, both have a few quirks that are keeping them from being uber Twitter clients. Oh, and I tested the turn-by-turn directions and they worked quite well. I definitely won't be bringing the GPS on the road anymore, the Pre is perfectly fine. Downside is that I couldn't set up hands-free w/ the car. I'll have time to troubleshoot that later.

Next, I used Media Sync to add tunes. It worked completely seamlessly, added several hundred songs and dozens of podcasts with no problem. Brought the Pre to the gym, and it sounded very good using my standard $10 Sony headphones. But I know that wouldn't last... So I wandered over to Best Buy and bought a pair of Bluetooth headphones, the Motorola Rokr S9-HD. Charged them up, worked perfect, even had a very noticeable bass boost. Haven't tested the call quality yet, but will soon enough. I figure these will be perfect for cycling, where I can just stick the Pre in a backpack or bag and enjoy the tunes. The Nano might be one good armband from being sent packing.

Downloaded a few apps already, not many available. FlightView seems like a good flight tracker, and Pandora is REAL nice. Classic is fun, just to see how well the simulate the crappy PalmOS fonts. The NY Times app is useless, might as well just use the webpage.

What else, what else? Amazon MP3 store seemed good in the store demo, haven't tried it yet. No problem getting WiFi working. The card metaphor is very intuitive, haven't cracked open the manual yet and I think I've got it figure out. All too simple to use any song as a ringtone. Now, a lot of this stuff I could have been using the Centro for, and in the past I did use some features. But it was always a project. Nothing on the Pre feels like a project. Very intuitive, easy, etc. The camera seems decent enough based on a couple snaps. More time for that later.

I do think it's a little sneaky that, and very Big Brother, that the Pre asks for permission to provide "anonymous" GPS data to Google-- letting them track the owner's movements. And really, there's no way to anonymize location data. But that's a whole 'nother can of beans. Another minor quibble is the LCD screen light leak, which may or may not lead to me making a return trip to get a replacement. I like the keyboard, but it's not quite as easy to type one handed as on the Centro, since it's so thin when the keyboard is extended. But I'm getting used to it.

This wasn't much of a review. So I'll just close with my favorite Tweet of the day. "The Pre is great. It's everything that it was cracked to be & has exceeded my expectations in many ways. Not perfect. Outstanding."

Palos Verdes Marathon, 2009 Edition

2009-05-04T18:53:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I woke up before 5 AM and prepared to run my 7th Palos Verdes Half Marathon. I've only missed 2 races since 2001, and since I ran the full in 2003 I think it's fair I skipped the whole thing in 2004. The Palos Verdes Half Marathon is easily the best race in the South Bay, and is my one can't-miss event. Well, maybe the Catalina Marathon will qualify, too, but I've only run 3 there. The race itself went well for me, mostly. I finished only marginally faster than last year (2:01:30 vs. 2:02:02), but since I had run 21.5 miles a week earlier, and my average heart rate was 5 bpm lower, I think it's fair to say that I'm in better shape than a year ago. I ran solid negative splits (1:02:30/59:00), and had lots of energy left at the end. The major bother was my knee, which HURT a bit, following a minor trip & fall I had while walking to my morning rollerblade session a week sooner. Ugh.

My knee hurt all day yesterday, and I was depressed as I was certain my running career was over; today I feel better, and now I only worry about missing the Rock 'n Roll Marathon in 4 weeks. I think 2 weeks of no running will be smart-- lots of biking, rollerblading, elliptical, weights & sand dune repeats in my future! After the race, I made the short walk back to my car (I got there early just to get a good spot!), and grabbed the camera for some post-race shots. Sadly, my autofocus was temporarily messed up. So I still took a lot of shots, and some came out well enough. but... well, I wish the autofocus worked! After the race, I met a couple peeps from the Runners World forum where I chill. My favorite moment was cheering a runner set to finish in just over 4 hours. About 200 yards from the finish, huskydon & I started cheering as soon as we saw the runner & the clock. I didn't think he'd make it, but as we told him to RUN!!!, Chan Mitchell accelerated to make it close, and then EXPLODED to finish with seconds to spare. That was exciting. Check it out.

So check out all the Palos Verdes Marathon & Palos Verdes Half Marathon photos on Flickr. Here's one more shot.

Palos Verdes Marathon, part 1: Photo #10,000

2009-05-02T13:42:00.001-07:00

10,000, originally uploaded by jakerome.

So this is my 10,000th public item on Flickr. While I appreciated the many suggestions (holding a sign & photo of a white square seemed to be the top 2), I decided to go in another direction. I decided to take some great photos after I ran the Palos Verdes Half Marathon this morning and upload the best. Somewhere, my plan went awry. Mostly, there seemed to be some minor electrical connection issue b/w the 50-135mm lens (which I bought specifically fot race photos... ugh!) & the camera. Everything worked except the autofocus. Which is really a pain when shooting moving subjects from a variety of vantage points and distances.

So I did my best to use manual focus, and about 1/3 of the shots are even usable. Along the way, I discovered a few gems, and this is my favorite so far. This marathoner was finishing somewhere under 4 hours, and headed straight for me when he saw the camera, probably thinking I was an "official" race photographer. He reminded me of myself-- I often run straight at the photogs if I want a good shot. This guy, he seemed to have a lot of energy left for having run 26+ miles, nice relaxed form, confident, moving briskly. I can tell he's a Nike fan from the hat & shirt, but if I had to guess, I'd say he's wearing Saucony. Go figure. Meanwhile, the gentelman trailing looks more like a guy who just ran 26.2. Grimacing, fighting to complete the race. Behind them both, you can see the orange cones that marked the course, the Palos Verdes peninsula and sky, as the clouds are beginning to burn off.

So that's it. Number 10,000. Nothing gimmicky, not even a great shot. Ignores the rule of thirds and probably every other guideline for composition. But it captures the moment; it's authentic and it's real. It's solid, and fits my style to a T-- I like to take shots that make people happy, and I bet if either of these guys find the shot, they'll be glad I took it.

[I'll add many more photos and a more complete race recap soon.]

Diamond Valley Lake redux

2009-04-26T16:55:00.000-07:00

About 3 months ago, I entered the Diamond Valley Lake Half Marathon, and hung around to take a lot of photos afterward of the Diamond Valley Lake Marathon. So yesterday I went back to run there again, and this time I decided to run a full loop-- advertised as somewhere between 21 & 21.8 miles. I didn't take any shots yesterday, so I'll scatter a few photos from January around the post.

So I woke up "bright & early" at 8:30, and "quickly" headed to the door, managing to get out of the house by 9 AM. After one quick stop at the Kwik-E-Mart to buy 3 24-ounce bottles of Gatorade, I was on my way! When I got to the Lake, I paid the $7 for parking and asked if there were any drinking fountains on the trail. Nope! Looks like I'd be lugging my fluids. I had already drank 24 ounces, so I laced up, got my electronics (GPS watch, heart-rate monitor, iPod) ready and I was good to go. I don't own a fuel belt, so I held one bottle in each hand. I thought it was just annoying, but I would later learn it was more than annoying.

So I began, and almost immediately I took a short dead-end, which tacked on about a quarter-mile to my journey. I knew that would not be helpful in the long run! The weather was not too warm, not too cool, I'd say 60-70 for the whole run, with a light breeze ranging from 5-20mph. The sun was in & out, so overall it was a good, not great, running day. Now, 48 ounces is probably about half of what I would've liked to drink on a run that long, but I figured it'd be enough. One thing I decided early on was that since I was running late for Tommy's 4th birthday party, that I didn't have the luxury of taking breaks. Normally, I stop 1-2 minutes for water every 2 miles or so, with occasional longer breaks to buy a bottle of Gatorade, stretch or use the restrooms. In contrast, today I never stopped. I would walk for about 1 minute while drinking or consuming GU, and I'd keep my stopwatch running to discourage me from resting too long. This worked for breaks at mile 2, 5, 7.5, 10 & 12.5. At 15, 17 & 19, I needed some rest, so I would walk and drink but stop my watch so I could relax.

I had contemplated carrying my little camera, but I knew there'd be no time to dilly. It was a nice place to run, about 16 miles of trails and 5-6 miles of asphalt road. The scenery was very nice, and you could contemplate some nice landscape photos taken there, but I only saw one very odd thing. I'll get to that. On the route, I passed a half-dozen bikers in the first 5 miles, then saw basically no one for nearly 10 miles. Then a few more cyclists. I didn't think anyone else was nuts enough to run around, until I saw one lady. But she was walking. Not only was she walking, she had a rope tied to her waste and she was dragging a tire behind her! Wish I had the camera for that.

Now you can see my route on a map, and if you're observant you'll see I went on a completely unnecessary 1/4-mile detour. D'oh! Those extra bits at the start & finish really suck! The run itself was good. A slow & steady 10:14/mile pace, slowing a bit in the end, but never quite crashing. I was dying for water near the finish, and I sucked down 32 ounces within minutes of finishing. You can see all the run details here. Oh, about those Gatorade bottles. I noticed during the run that the back of my neck was getting sore. Which isn't unheard of. But it kept getting worse & worse. By mile 16, it really hurt. I think by carrying those bottles for so long, it affected my stride and I must have pitched my neck forward. So yeah, last time I'm carrying 48 ounces of fluids in my hands. Live & learn.

Lori chasing Sam

The Day of the Donut II

2009-04-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

Who woulda thunk it? Just over a year after the first, groundbreaking Day of the Donut,, it's time for version 2.0! Flickr caved again, and will provide free donuts to folks at Embarcadero Plaza Thursday at 4PM.

So please join in the fun. Meet up at local donut shops with friends, bring in a dozen for the office, or just enjoy one in the peace & quiet of your home. Also, be sure to photograph and video the day's event. Enjoy your donuts!

Ode to DMU

2009-04-21T14:56:00.001-07:00

Ode to DMU, originally uploaded by jakerome.

It either makes perfect sense or it's completely inexplicable. That's just the way it is.

20 Hats

2009-04-19T09:53:00.001-07:00

20 Hats, originally uploaded by jakerome.

I wear many hats.

1. Gift from SWAT team member, 2. Received at Super Bowl pre-party, 3. In goodie bag from 1st marathon, 4. Benefit as Boston Beer Company stockholder, 5. Freebie via Mom, 6. Corporate swag, 7. From mom or stepdad, 8. Free hat from hotter-than-heck marathon that was a training run, so I bailed at 20, 9. Bought at local running store, 10. Bought after epic Catalina Marathon performance, 11. Bought as back-up running hat, 12. Found floating in lake while kayaking, 13. Bought at family camp, 14. Freebie after Palos Verdes Marathon, 15. Purchased at Wrigley Field, 16. Abandoned by dad after he visited, 17. Finally replaced white fabric hat, 18. Bought at Lids in Redondo Beach, 19. Gift from mom to replace sadly lost famous cap, 20. Giveaway from the LA Clippers

The Day of the Donut is April 23.

Dear geniuses at Google Adsense

2009-04-13T09:18:00.000-07:00

Congratulations. You have prevented me from using Adsense, and have guaranteed that any future blogs I create will not be on the Blogger platform, and will not use Adsense. What happened? I dunno. A few years ago my Adsense account, which had amassed close to $2 in earnings, was suspended. I didn't really care. Recently, I went to add ads to my Blogger blogs since it is recommended in so many different places. Only to discover that my account was suspended. I appealed and was rejected.

Soon, I realized what triggered the account suspension in the first place. Several years ago, I set up a blog for my Mom on Blogspot, back when it was the leading blogging platform. At some point, Google made it real easy to put Adsense on the page, so I added it to her blog. She didn't really know what it was for & often clicked on the ads. That's probably what triggered the problem.

Of course, I have no idea if Google would care about this, but since I already made my one appeal, they no longer here to wish from me. Yup, the Google Hive Mind works in mysterious ways, and they can not run the risk of human interaction. Oh well. Now, I'm not looking for sympathy. But remember, if you ever get on Google's bad side, they can and will suspend your account or accounts, and they might even let you "appeal" your suspension-- but only once, and they won't explain their decision. Don't make one mistake, because there will be no warnings. There will be reasoning given for the decision.

But don't worry, Google's slogan is "Don't be evil" so clearly they will act as a benevolent dictator. Trust in Google.

Catalina Marathon, 2009 Edition

2009-03-17T19:01:00.001-07:00

So after my epic race at the 2007 Catalina Marathon, and a respectable finish at the 2008 Catalina Marathon, I knew that I'd be back for a third try at the Catalina Marathon. Unlike 2008, this was no ill-conceived venture. Nope, this time I had trained hard, running 3 times over 22 miles including a truly epic run from San Pedro to El Segundo that went over the top of the peninsula. So I was confident, and estimated my race time at 4:20-4:40, although I would have been shocked to come in under 4:30. In retrospect, that was a pretty narrow range that really only took into account my fitness and not race tactics-- my last 6 marathons were perfectly paced, but was it realistic to expect 7 in a row?

The course, as hilly as ever. Take a closer look.

So now in my 3rd year, I've developed a little bit of a reputation for my race reports and my photography, especially those that I've snapped during the race. You can take a look back at photos from 2007 and 2008. As always, I carried a small Canon point & shoot with an old iPod armband for the in-race photos. This time, I carried along the Pentax K100D w/ 50mm f/1.4 to get pre-race photos, and my friend Vinay took some finish line photos w/ the Pentax K20D and 50-135mm f/2.8 before I snagged it from him to take way too many photos in the next few hours. Cause that's what I do. But enough of that. If I'm not careful it'll take me longer to write my race report than it did to run the race! Here are the links to this year's in-race photos, and the pre- and post-race photos.

This year, for the first time, I wouldn't be running alone. My friend & former co-worker Jake S. would be running alongside me this year. At least that was the plan. Sadly, his knee was bothering him and he decided it wouldn't be wise to run the very hilly course on Catalina. At least not all 26.2 miles. We hatched a devious plan. Jake S. would start with the walkers at 6:30 AM, and walk until I caught up with him, then run with me for the next 10+ miles. So that's what we had to look forward to that morning. Oh, and what a morning it turned out to be. The evening before was mellow, we ate an early pancake dinner and sat back to be inspired and lulled by Endurance, the tale of Haile Gebrsellasie. Then it was off to a night of typically restless sleep. We we prepared for the morning-- with a 7 AM start time on an island 20+ miles away, we better be! The alarms were set for 3 AM, 5 in total. The first one woke me, and I just turned off the rest. With 4 solid hours of sleep under my belt, I was ready to take on the day. We dressed and ate (2 bananas and a bottle of Gatorade) real quick, and headed out the door. It took only 10 minutes to drive the 8 miles, unheard of in Los Angeles, but I suppose the roads are typically quiet at 3:30 AM. The boat left promptly at 4 AM, and while Jake S. might have been happy with a bit more sleep, it wasn't going to happen. Some others on the boat did get some shut eye. Now, as many of you recall from last year's report, the boat ride was very unpleasant. This time, the seas were calm with only a gentle side-to-side swaying. No one said a word, but once we arrived in Two Harbors at 5:30, all anyone could talk about was how much nice the boat ride was this year. No kidding!

The boat from Avalon arrives in Two Harbors

But hey, that's the boring stuff. No one tunes in to read about lame breakfasts or smooth boat rides. We want to hear about the hills, the pain, the scenery, the runners and the finish line. So let's get it on with then, m'kay? Before I knew it, Jake was heading down the road with the walkers and I had 30 minutes to kill before the start. As I noted above, my fitness was good, with one notable exception. I had somehow managed to gain about 5 pounds in the month before the race. Ugh. Would that haunt me? Well, soon the hundreds of fellow wing-nuts gathered near the start line, including a pair of very enthusiastic runners looking forward to their first Catalina Marathon. And at about 7:04, we were off. The first 4 miles are absolutely brutal, over 1000 feet of climbing with a "little" downhill mixed in. And on these early climbs, my legs were not happy. I trained hills, but these really hit me hard. My pace was a little better than last year, but it still took about 48 minutes to cover those first 4 miles.

The earliest of the brutal climbs

After mile 4, things get a little more reasonable for a while. I mean, 100-400 foot hills are no walk in the park, but at least I've been able to get in a good rhythm over these parts. Now, running with the camera for hundreds of miles now I've learned a few things. First, I have to at least pause for a split second to get a decent photo, even if the camera is still strapped to my arm. And no matter how well planned out, you can't really run and photograph at the same time. Thus, there's almost never any shots while I'm running downhill, and even shots on the flats are rare. So I take a lot of photos of the climbing. Like really, a lot. And one particular genre of photos has turned out to be my favorite-- looking back at the hiking marathoners. Understand, a lot of these are people who normally run marathons in 3 1/2 to 4 hours. In other words, these folks are serious athletes. All of them walking. Take a look.

The climbing, the climbing, the climbing

You got it? Crazy climbing. So I cruised up another "little" hill (200 feet) before a big downhill, where I was reunited with Jake S. It was good to have a running companion for these lonely miles, actually one of the more scenic parts of the course. We ran along, a couple more ups and downs before we reached Middle Ranch. Since his knee was hurting him and I needed to bank minutes on the downhills, I usually ran ahead of Jake S. on the downs and let him slowly reel me in on the ups. Ah, and then Middle Ranch. At mile 11.5, we reached a recent low, only 200 feet above sea level. Then the long, slow climb. I described this part of the course as "the silly" before "the stupid." We climbed 750 feet over the next 5.5 miles. There was still another 500 feet of climbing before the big drop. Jake had pulled me all through Middle Ranch, we kept plodding along at a nice pace, passing a lot of folks. The Middle Ranch stretch looks flat, and after the race a few people remarked to me that they were disappointed they had to walk on this "flat" section. As my friend Jim Vendlinski used to say, this was a "false flat." Even the flattest section climbed 100 feet each mile.

So far to run

But that was just the warm up. Then 400 feet in the next mile! Pumphouse Hill is always a killer, but in a way it's a relief, because I know once I get to the aid station atop, it's mostly downhill from there-- if still a long way to go. The signs littered the hill again, this year conservation was the theme, as the signs were apparently recycled. On Pumphouse Hill, everyone walks. I may have jogged for 2 minutes total, and the climb left me with some left in the tank-- only took me 12:41 that mile, only my second slowest of the day! Of course, I snapped a few shots, and since I liked the video I took last year I took another this year. Take a look below.

After that, Jake S. stuck with me a few more miles until we hit a decent downhill. I was feeling great at this point, so I told Jake S. that his job was done, and I was all on my own from here on out. Now, at the aid station atop Pumphouse Hill, I saw the fruit there and I was compelled to eat one orange section. That was probably my first sign of troubles to come, but I didn't know it at the time. I should've eaten a lot more. So I kept cruising along, passing folks on the hills with my slow jog as they quickly walked. But soon, my hands started tingling and I unwisely ignored it. I was making good time on the downhills, but I was a little slow. Soon, we crested the last climb and it was 1600 feet straight down into Avalon. There was an aid station, but I skipped that because, well, because I'm an idiot!

Running shoes, before & after

After running a mile in a decent 8:30 or so clip, my condition took a turn for the worse. I got really light headed, and after passing one runner on the descent, I joked to him that he should grab a medic if I passed out. A minute later, I realized that was a real possibility. In years past, my heart rate reaches about 170 near mile 20 and increases as high as 180 at the end of races. This time, my heart rate dropped to 145. I figured this could only mean one thing-- my brain wasn't getting enough energy and was shutting my body down. I walked for a minute, sucked down a GU and staggered on to mile 24.5 or so. At the aid station this time, I had 6 cups o Gatorade and my strength began to return. After a horrible 10:30 mile, I managed to run the last mile in about 10 minutes flat.

And then, just like that, I could see the finish line. Vinay was staking out the finish, and got several photos of me as I crossed the finish line in about 4:42:23. I figured I lost about 5-6 minutes in the last few miles after the brain tried to shut down the operation. Still, it was a few minutes better than 2008, but well off the epic time I had in 2007. Nevertheless, a tremendous race. Immediately upon crossing the finish line, I headed straight to the oranges and ate, no joking, between 4 and 6 oranges in 2 minutes. I wasn't feeling good, but 10 minutes was all I needed to recover. Then I grabbed the camera and shot a few dozen finishers, and I identified many of the runners using the official results. These photos, I won't finish uploading for a week, so check back for more! Check out ASI Photo for official shots from the race. Since this is feeling like a link dump, check out the awesome in-race video from SoCalRunning.com, too.

About 40 minutes later, Jake S. ran across the line, just behind his doppleganger. He had decided to run the last mile after getting caught up in the enthusiasm. After Jake S. finished, we took the traditional finish photo and went to Busy Bee's for a Buffalo Burger post-race lunch.

And that was that. A few hours we were back on the boat to Marina del Rey, with arms, backs, shoulders and necks that would be sore for hours. And legs that would be sore for days. The boatride was nondescript, and I found plenty of interesting things to photograph on my way out. I'll upload those over the next few weeks. I'm exhausted!

The 2009 SACL Tournament/ El Segundo edition

2009-03-16T22:35:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again! Here I'll post a constantly updating leaderboard for year 12 of the original SACL-style NCAA tournament competition. Here are links to the 2007 and 2008 editions. Also check out the Google Spreadsheet for more details.

Updated w/ Vinay's NEW leaderboard.

Photo Madness! 2009

2009-03-15T20:14:00.000-07:00

Totally Off-topic: Check out the photographs & my race report from the 2009 Catalina Marathon.

Sweet Sixteen!

Here are the brackets:

Epic South Bay run

2009-02-23T20:40:00.001-08:00

Epic South Bay run, originally uploaded by jakerome.

I've been running on Palos Verdes since 2001 when I first ran the PV 1/2 marathon, and it's been my preferred training spot for long runs since I moved to Los Angeles. At first, I'd run along the coast then a few miles into Palos Verdes before heading back. Later, I'd drive to Redondo with friends then run out & back from 10 to 20 miles. But the big breakthrough was in 2007, when I got dropped off near the Trump golf course, then ran over the top of Palos Verdes-- 1500 feet at the top-- all the way back to Manhattan Beach. That's still my fastest-ever really long run, I don't know what got into me that day!

Ever since then, I started making the run over PV the cornerstone of my long runs-- it was the only decent way to train for the Catalina Marathon. Now I drive there & run, or I bike there and do 10-mile runs, and still occasionally make the long run from my house. But last week's run was something special.

Mom dropped me off in San Pedro at Point Fermin, at the entrance of San Pedro Harbor and the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. From there, I ran along the coast following the course of the Palos Verdes Marathon until it reached the Trump National Golf Course. From there, it was up the Palos Verdes switchbacks. And all the way to the top of San Pedro Hill, nearly 1500 feet above sea level! I actually ran non-stop from the golf course, an 1100 foot climb over about 3.5 miles. Damn. So once I got to the top, there was still the matter of sneaking around the fence in the middle of the road.

But this was only 7.5 miles into the run! Really, check it out at MotionBased. The downhill of PV is always nice, then the long run home. All told, about 2000 feet of climbing (only half of the Catalina climbing!), 22.5-23 miles and probably 3000 calories burned. I extended my run all the way across Rosecrans into El Segundo. I did that, since I wanted to run through every city in the South Bay! San Pedro (Los Angeles), Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Torrance, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and El Segundo!

If you want to mimic my South Bay near marathon, I've mapped it out on Gmaps Pedometer, too. I would have run all the way to Imperial, except I really didn't want to walk all the way home.

Blogger sucks

2009-02-15T11:19:00.001-08:00

Really, it might have been a good platform 3-4 years ago, but it's completely stagnant. I most bothered by the spam comments. I've turned on every feature to reduce spam, but still it gets through. Google seems to lack the wherewithal to actually take proactive measures to reduce spam. It's pathetic, really. Not only that, I even turned on moderation for comments on old posts, and still the spam comes through! Even worse, after I delete the spam comments, they remain in the sidebar I have on the right side of my screen. That's kicking sand in my face, Google.

It's no good anymore. I'll certainly be moving to a different platform for my next blog, and I'll probably get a custom URL as a first step to moving my current blogs to a new service. It's sad, really. Blogger was fine, but it's fallen way behind and Google shows no interest in supporting their millions of customers. Another black mark for Google.

Now that's what a hamburger's all about!

2009-02-14T23:15:00.001-08:00

Now that's what a hamburger's all about!, originally uploaded by jakerome.

Enjoyed a department field trip to In-n-Out and tested out the new lens.

Have we talked about Twitter?

2009-02-04T21:19:00.000-08:00

Yeah, you can find me on Twitter pretty often these days. It's tough to explain. Mostly I tweet about politics, gadgets & photography. Follow me on Twitter!

Diamond Valley Lake Marathon & Half Marathon

2009-01-24T23:50:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post about this morning's half marathon. Today I woke up before 6 AM and drove to Hemet for the Diamond Valley Lake Half Marathon. A very nice race, and the marathon looks like more fun since it runs around the entire 21-mile circumference of the lake, plus another 5+. The half marathon is an out & back. Both courses are run almost exclusively on hard-packed dirt trails except when running over the dams. Really nice views, and great weather.

I'll keep my race report brief. I wasn't fast-- 2:01:22. I ran about 2:02:30 in the first half, 59:20 in the 2nd half-- nice negative splits anyways. I was definitely working at the end, as my heart rate hit 185. My strong pace helped my pass 26 runners after mile 3, while I only got passed once.

But enough about that. I took some photos too! Check out the whole set on photos from the Diamond Valley Lake Marathon & Half Marathon on Flickr (many more will be added until probably mid-late February, so check back). Here are some more of my favorites.

Isaac reacts to our new president

2009-01-20T10:55:00.001-08:00

Reactions: Isaac, originally uploaded by Jayel Aheram.

Flickr friend Jayel recorded this short video, documenting how Isaac responded to the newly minted Commander-in-Chief's inaugural speech.

Yes we can.

2009-01-19T22:29:00.000-08:00

Today is the beginning. At 12 PM tomorrow in Washington D.C., Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America. I am honestly excited & hopeful for the country under our new leadership. I believe that Barack Obama is uniquely qualified to bring together our nation, every citizen in the country. One man can only accomplish so much, but if we all work together-- liberals and conservatives, men and women, the young and the elderly, new citizens and old, the skeptical and the hopeful-- we can forge a more perfect union. What the future holds for this nation under the leadership of Barack Obama for the next four years will be decided not by the man himself, but by all the people of our country. His success is our success, and his success depends on all of us. As he reaches out across the partisan divide to rivals like John McCain and independent-minded folk like Joseph Lieberman and Colin Powell, Barack Obama is already demonstrating how he will lead our nation. Everyone will be disappointed at times, myself included, but as he builds coalitions across the nation, Barack Obama will have the ability to create better policies, with more public support.

It will take hundreds of millions of people, working together at times and as rivals at times, but we will move this nation forward. The United States of America is admired across the world for our openness, our freedoms, our technologies and our innovation. Together we can extend our leadership, and serve as a better example to the world. Yes we can.

Today is the beginning.

Solid Squares: The Book

2009-01-17T23:17:00.000-08:00

The less I say the better. I'm ordering one for myself. What do you think?

Solid Squares

By Jake Rome

Book Preview

Landing

2008-12-26T12:37:00.001-08:00

Landing, originally uploaded by jakerome.

On a very clear, cool day in Los Angeles. You could see for hundreds of miles ... unless there were hills in the way.