October 12, 2005

86 photos

86 photos

October 6, 2005

More photos scanned from S.F.. Now we have sea lions, The Barclay's SF Grand Prix, and Hyde Street Pier!

October 4, 2005

32 photos

32 photos

September 26, 2005

The Herbarium is updated. I know you're excited.

September 25, 2005

3 photos

3 photos

September 16, 2005

My buddy Gaba Gavi is is recording his first EP at Mr. Small's Funhouse studio in Pittsburgh, PA. His friend Liz Berlin, of Rusted Root fame, owns the joint and will be producing the album for him. Mr. Small's is conveniently equipped with an artist hostel for Gaba to crash in, as well as a pro-am skate park a few blocks away where he can shred (if he shredded, which he doesn't). Liz has also invited several top-notch musicians to collaborate on the album with him and assist with full band arrangement. Gaba's livin' his dream right now, so everyone wish 'em luck.

September 15, 2005

This could take keg stands to a whole new level. Who's excited? I just wonder why this took so long to figure out.

TurboTap.com

September 13, 2005

The last of the family funk.

September 11, 2005

(not Hitch's actual feet)

Oh yeah, we got a cat. Well, a kitten actually. He's 2.8 pounds of grey and white fuzziness. His name is Hitch because of his thumbs. "Thumbs!?" you say. Yes, thumbs. Hitch is a polydactyl cat. He has an extra digit on each of his front paws. Polydactylism can manifest in many forms. Hitch's is shown by the addition of a large digit on the inside of each of his front paws, right outside of his "dew claw". When I say "large" I don't mean freakishly oversized. They're really about the same size as his other regular toes. He looks like he's wearin' mittens. Some of you may be familiar with "Hemingway" cats. That's Hitch. If you have no idea what I'm talkin' about, go here. Anyway, we just went to the vet today and found out that he has crystals and blood in his urine. So he's on a special cat food to eliminate the crystals and the blood they think is from some sort of trauma (self induced I assure you). We hope he gets better soon, though you couldn't really tell anything is wrong by looking at him or watching him chase his toys (and everything else) around the apartment. Our only sign was a few inappropriate pissing incidents and a bit of crying when he would use his litter box. We don't have any pictures yet, but as soon as a get my ever-growing pile of film developed I'll post some.

September 10, 2005

My friend Matt has been working for the Peace Corps in Vanuatu, located in the South Pacific (they filmed Survivor there). Over the past few years he's sent many great emails describing his adventures. Matt's time with the Peace Corps is nearing an end and I felt it would be good, for the sake of reflection, to go back through these emails, relive the adventures, and share them with others. With his permission I'm posting these emails on the Mugblog. It's my hope that you, the reader, might get a laugh, learn something new, or get a better appreciation for what an organization like the Peace Corps is all about and how commited and attached the volunteers become to the communities to which they're assigned. All photos are taken by the man himself.

Tuesday, December 30, 2003 9:42 PM

Hello my friends, it's New Years Eve here in Vanuatu and
the rains have stopped (at least temporarily). My first
tropical X-mas was great, lots of swimming and feasting
followed by a late night of drinking at a resort on the
lagoon. I flew in to Vila on the 24th with a fellow man
Ambae on the smallest plane I've ever been on, but it was
nice because the sun was setting and we flew past a rainbow
that made a complete circle in the sky. I then went back
to my old training village where I lived for three months
to visit old Chief Pakalo and the family. It was nice to
see all my old friends and to get such a warm reception,
and the kava is the strongest out of any village I've
visited in Vanuatu.

Life has been quite difficult at site lately; the village
isn't motivated to do much of anything. I've tried many
approaches to many different projects, but no one seems to
be meeting me halfway. That's not entirely true, my
counterpart is great. But two men can only do so much.
It's even worse because Peace Corps put me on an island
that doesn't have forest and there's so much land pressure
that it doesn't make sense to put the cleared land back
into forest. So I'm working on an ecotourism project, a
couple of solar projects, and a tree nursery, but they're
not exactly taking off. I'm in a situation where one
person requested a volunteer, not an entire community.
I've decided to see some of these projects through and
perhaps change sites if the village still isn't willing to
work. Another factor is my failing health, for those of
you I saw in the states you know I was suspicious that I
was carrying worms. Well it turned out to be true and it
came to a head when I collapsed on the floor of my house
two weeks ago. The medication came by plane a (very long)
week later and they're gone. But three days later I caught
and still have Giardia. I'm waiting another day or two to
make sure it is Giardia before I eat the meds to be sure.
Regardless I've been in intestinal turmoil for 5 out of the
last 7 months and I'm quite weary. Another couple months
of this and I may decide to go home for my health's sake.
We'll see. I've never quit anything before.

Here's a web cam from the Hoppy Brewing Company in Sacramento. I have no idea if they let the patrons know that they're on film, but I'd like to think that they'd be a bit more entertaining if they did. Stupid monkeys.

You might have to d'load a Java file to view.

August 31, 2005

69 photos

69 photos

August 30, 2005

The plan was to post pics that Jenn and I took of the cross country trip on The Mugblog. We have unfortunately run into difficulties in that the digital camera has expressed it's opposition to the Sac-town heat by packin up and haulin ass, I assume, back to Virginia, and taken his brand new memory card with him. I do however have film in the good ol' 35mm SLR and will develop, scan, and post them as soon as possible. Until then I'm gonna try to score some pics of my little bro' playin football. Curb your enthusiasm.

August 23, 2005

So it was two weeks Sunday when we rolled into Sac-town. Our apartment is on the north side of Sacramento in a VERY coomercial area. If your from the Ville you can compare it to Dixie Highway, or maybe Preston. If we head east from our house we hit the high end shopping mall, the Starbucks, and the luxury car dealerships. If we head west we past several gentleman's clubs, liquor stores, and usually at least on homeless person. The area ain't so bad though. We're 3 blocks from the school that Jennifer and I both attend, there's a Target a block away, and we have easy access to the I-80 Freeway without much hassle. We're pretty sure that we'll look for another, most likely bigger apartment in the near future. An extra room would be ideal for an office and extra storage.

We took our first area field trip to Davis, California last Saturday. Davis was a welcome change from the urban setting that we've become accustomed to here in Sac-town. UC-Davis takes up most of the town, which itself appeared to be little more than several blocks of trendy student-oriented shops and small businesses surrounded by and intertwined with university. There were lots of trees, several parks, and lots of common areas for students and community residence to socialize. We can't wait to get there in a year. It's MUCH more our style.

Our second field trip was to downtown Sacramento. We dodged the light-rail train rolling through the streets, drove by the domed Capitol building whose perimeter streets are lined with giant palms (no sign of our Governator) , then traveled north up J Street to "Mid-Town". Our impression was that Mid-Town was the hip area of town, promising unique restaurants and a Bardstown Road type atmosphere. I dunno if Sacramento just has a late starting night life or what, but we spent several hours in Mid-Town and at 8pm the streets and most of the restaurants were pretty scarce of people. Perhaps when class fires up at CSUS (California State University - Sacramento) more will be going on. I left the area relatively unimpressed. I guess we'll figure out where the cool kids hang soon enough.