Jeff Rivers

Fungi

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:34:24 -0800

Christmas with my daughter

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:36:43 -0800

It’s been years since I’ve cared much about Christmas. It’s always a nice opportunity to get together with friends and family, but over time I’ve tuned out all the trappings of the holiday. Observing my two year old daughter and seeing Christmas 2012 through her eyes has been a very different experience. She decorated her first Christmas tree this past weekend and we’re paying our first visit to Santa this coming weekend. Her excitement is contagious. It’ll be years before she gives me a gift for Christmas – and that’s fine – what she’s giving me already is plenty to be grateful for.

World Series fever

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:33:55 -0700

World Series fever has taken over the Bay Area – and our house along with it.

Having grown up in Massachusetts, my baseball allegiances lie with the Red Sox. But, I lived in the Bay Area from 2001-2003, and during that time I adopted the Giants as my favorite NL team. It’s nice to see them doing so well and all the local excitement that goes along with it, especially in light of the horrible season the Red Sox have had.

(Photo geek info: 50mm f1.8 at f11 for 1/100 sec. Vivitar 285HV straight above and angled down. Retouched a bit in Lightroom to make the hat stand out against the dark background.)

Basil

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 13:05:36 -0700

Pick up here

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 10:17:25 -0700

Lobster rolls flying out the window of Sam’s Chowdermobile at last weekend’s Eat Real Festival at Jack London Square in Oakland.

The lobster roll and New England clam chowder were top-shelf, as was the rest of the food festival.

Farewell, Endeavour

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:51:50 -0700

Taken outside my house in El Cerrito, CA.

Surf fishing

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:23:16 -0700

Whitehorse Beach, Plymouth, MA. Four second exposure to blur the tide.

Week in review: August 10, 2012

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 11:26:47 -0700

The big news around here this week was the Chevron refinery fire, which happened only a few miles from where I live and had us sheltering-in-place for about six hours. The fire sent hundreds to the hospital and gas prices over $4/gallon on the west coast. After initially saying that air quality was unaffected by the fire (which is another way of saying that air quality sucks in general, isn’t it?), air quality officials are now saying the air was toxic. So far, Chevron’s reaction to the fire has been ridiculed by local residents. I took this video of the fire about 45 minutes after it started:

Last week, I mentioned it was nice to see the New York Times giving Oakland a little love. This week, they take a long, hard look at Oakland’s past, present, and future. (Spoiler alert: The “last refuge for radical America” is going away. Is this a good thing?)

A few months ago, I turned on Google’s two-factor authentication. After reading Mat Honan’s experiences of getting hacked last week and his follow-up story for Wired, I’m glad I did. My primary concern at the time was to make my email more secure, but I didn’t consider how my Gmail account could open doors to other services and even my devices. If you’re a Gmail user, I recommend you turn on two-factor authentication. Lifehacker has all the backstory on Mat’s hacking and information on how to enable two-factor authentication.

This photo of the Curiosity’s heat shield falling to the surface of Mars is a preview of what’s to come. Let’s hope images like this Mars panorama start coming in soon.

Codeacademy now offers a course in Python. Study up, then go build the next YouTube or Reddit. And here are five other sites that will teach you Python, if you’re so inclined.

“If they think I’m going to surrender, it’s not going to happen”, says Sheriff Joe Arpaio in his Rolling Stone feature. What Sheriff Joe doesn’t realize is that his opponents don’t want him to surrender. They want him to go to jail.

My least favorite part of the Olympics are the networks’ features designed to stir our emotions. Not that I’ve got a heart of stone, I just think they’re a distraction from the drama playing out in front of us. If you just watch what’s happening, you see that it’s right there and a hundred times better than anything scripted. Case in point…

Pine Cone

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 11:28:04 -0700

Pine Cone on Flickr

Our neighbor has huge pine trees (Jeffrey pines, best I can tell) growing in his yard. The branches hang over into our yard. Occasionally, a massive pine cone shows up beneath the tree. This one is about half the size of a pineapple.

Week in review: August 3, 2012

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 09:35:08 -0700

What would the night sky look like if other planets orbited Earth at the same distance as the Moon:

Scale from Brad Goodspeed on Vimeo.

Fox News will go to great lengths to dispute President Obama’s claim that business owners didn’t build the infrastructure that allowed their businesses to thrive. And they really nailed him this time.

I like margaritas, but they’re admittedly a little girly. Here are some manlier options. Or, just wash your girly drink with one of these steak sandwiches and no one will ever question your manhood.

Slate put together a set of cool interactive graphics showing how top Olympic competitors over the years would perform head-to-head.

I thought this photo project that recreates atom bomb test detonations was cool.

It’s nice to see the New York Times giving Oakland a little love.

This 50 megapixel, 23 photograph panorama of New York during last week’s storm looks like something out of a movie.

It sounds like it’s hard not to be a helicopter parent these days. After reading that article, I’ve added Teach Your Children Well to my reading list.

On the subject of reading lists: Here are 15 Malcolm Gladwell wannabes. If you like Gladwell’s books, you might want to give some of these authors a try.

How hot has it been in New York city? Check out this footage of the Statue of Liberty:

Melting Statue of Liberty from Vincent Ullmann on Vimeo.

The Milky Way over Monument Valley. Visiting Monument Valley was one from my Arizona bucket list that I never got around to.

Kodak Brownie Hawkeye

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:53:00 -0700

Kodak Brownie Hawkeye on Flickr

The Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera was manufactured by the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, NY from 1949-1961. It retailed for $5.50. For that price, you got an aperture of f/14.5-16 and a 75mm focal length lens.

My uncle passed away several years ago and my parents inherited his home. Last year, just as my parents were wrapping up the long process of sorting through a lifetime of possessions and preparing the property for re-sale, I visited my uncle’s old house. This camera was sitting in a box that had yet to be sorted. I decided to take it as a keepsake.

I didn’t notice the film in the camera until later, when I got home. I’m excited to see what my uncle thought was worth capturing, some 50 years ago.

Week in review: July 20, 2012

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 19:19:40 -0700

San Francisco as seen from a remote control helicopter. This is awesome.

The Walking Dead season three trailer:

The 50 most valuable sports franchises. Maybe most surprising to me was the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins are number one and two in the NFL and four and five overall. I might’ve eventually guessed Dallas, but I never would’ve guessed Washington was that high.

Why is it so hard to make friends when you’re over 30?

I never watched Mr. Wizard as a kid, but this made me laugh:

Barely half of American adult males think college is a good investment. About 60% of women agree. What a disturbing tend. Related: Are Millenials the screwed generation? and Obama vs. Romney on education.

Two good local articles this week: Why it’s chilly in San Francisco and San Francisco’s 20 most iconic dishes. I’m bookmarking the latter for future reference.

And finally, given the events of today, a few links about the shooting in Aurora, CO:

Roger Ebert’s Op-Ed on the Aurora shootings. And, a conservative criticism of Ebert’s opinion that fails to offer any facts, theories, or… well, anything, really. Calling something “tripe” and saying you’ve heard it all before counts as valid criticism for Noel Sheppard, who also writes for the “prestigious American Thinker“. Prestigious? I don’t know. Thinker? Surely not.

Could an armed person have stopped the shooting? Not surprisingly, the firearms trainer seems sure more guns in the theater would’ve helped. I think it’s more complicated than the scenario he describes.

Michael Moore’s statement on the shootings.

From Bill Damon, via Twitter. I think we can all agree that something needs to be done to reduce this number:

In one year, GUNS murdered35 in Australia, 39 in England and Wales, 194 in Germany, 200 in Canada, and 9,484 in the United States.

— Bill Damon (@billdamon) July 20, 2012

Our pet deer

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 14:31:29 -0700

Yet another encounter with the backyard deer. She usually comes by around dusk with her two babies to curl up for the night. Visits during the day are a little less frequent. I was in the back yard with my dog when she came strutting through. She’s a little skittish, but overall isn’t really phased about being around people. After seeing me in the backyard, she didn’t really seem to think twice about passing through. And she clearly has no concerns for my 4′ chicken wire fence.

Notice that my brave, loyal companion chose to stay up on the deck until she’d vaulted the fence.

Here are some photos of the gang from last weekend:

The twins.

Mom and the kids.

Week in review: July 13, 2012

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 15:31:18 -0700

Automobile as an extension of the body and mind. Also, a cool tour of San Francisco:

Ken Block tearing up the streets of San Francisco. Alcatraz in the background.

Chris Arnade (@chris_arnade), a hobbyist photographer, who’s latest photo project, Faces of addiction, chronicles addicts in the South Bronx, NYC. Be sure to read the photo captions. They can be heartbreaking.

Mr Bishop: Hunts Point, Bronx by Chris Arnade.

If you ever wanted to chance to ask a world-class photographer a question, here’s your chance: Zack Arias is running an ongoing Q&A on his Tumblr.

NYC design agency Big SpaceShip recently redesigned the Star Wars website. It’s a beautiful site and there are hours of content to sift through if you’re a Star Wars fan. (I spent nearly as much time of Big SpaceShip’s website. They create amazing things and it looks like a great place to work.)

I don’t enjoy having my picture taken because I’m usually unhappy with the result. This might explain why:

Trust your friends when it comes to evaluating yourself in photos.

Loft envy:

I was sold as soon as I saw that panorama of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The WTHR app for iPhone is beautifully simple (and simply beautiful):

The WTHR app for iPhone. Not sure what the fuss is about this summer being so hot.

The 12 Sushi Commandments. No less of an expert than Masaharu Morimoto has weighed in on this, via Twitter:

Yes for 1, 3, 6, 10, & 11 RT @foodrepublic@ThisIsDavidGelb @bourdain Wondering if ur down w r 12 Sushi Commandments. bit.ly/NVgDmL

— Chef Morimoto (@chef_morimoto) July 11, 2012

(So, let’s call them The 5 Sushi Commandments, then. Thank God sushi delivery meets with Morimoto’s approval. It’s been a staple in my diet for a couple months now.)

knowwhatsfuckingcrazy is a Tumblr blog that features mini rants about things that are a little crazy when you really think about them. Kinda jealous I didn’t come up with this idea.

Tahoe time lapse

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 12:46:22 -0700

Where Children Sleep

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 10:01:21 -0700

Where Children Sleep

Fascinating photo series capturing portraits of children from around the world and the places they sleep at night.

30 iPhone photography apps

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 10:01:20 -0700

30 iPhone photography apps

If you like taking photos with your iPhone, this is a great list.

The Consequences of Caring

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:31:09 -0700

I tried to warn her. I tried to prepare her: “Look, this is sports, you never know, you can’t just assume they’re going to win.” She wouldn’t hear it. She kept saying, “Dad, stop it, just stop. They’re going to win.”

Bill Simmons on The Consequences of Caring. I enjoyed this as a sports fan and a dad with a daughter.

On winning

Thu, 31 May 2012 13:54:24 -0700

Every Christmas, I hand out $20 Starbucks Gift Cards to every single employee at my agency’s Christmas Party. The other clients stand around embarrassed at their thoughtlessness. Is it awkward for me knowing that these cards have no value because I swiped them up off the counter display? No. It’s awkward for the employees when they try to redeem them. That’s called being a winner.

Greg Fitzsimmons (on why he’s a winner)

The Forever Recession

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:30:16 -0700

The Forever Recession:

Seth Godin sees the ground shifting beneath our feet.

When everyone has a laptop and connection to the world, then everyone owns a factory. Instead of coming together physically, we have the ability to come together virtually, to earn attention, to connect labor and resources, to deliver value.

…

In one direction is lowered expectations and plenty of burger flipping… in the other is a race to the top, in which individuals who are awaiting instructions begin to give them instead.

Which direction are you going to go?