Just plugged in my iPhone and remembered that I took these pictures while walking the neighborhood around dusk last week. It was one of those really gorgeous spring days, that was quietly giving way to an enchanting evening.
I have been super impressed with the quality of the iPhone camera. You do have to have a *very* steady hand, and with no flash the lighting has to be *just* right … but in most cases, the technology is satisfactory. I’m not sure what the scoop is on the new iPhone that is coming out and any plans for improvements to the camera feature. Hopefully they do make some enhancements, but all things considered, I’ve been happy with the photo quality so far for my uses.
Imagine you have a roll of scotch tape. When you go to tear off a piece of tape, ever notice that sometimes, it tears off in the shape of a triangle? Packaging tape is the worst! For anyone that has been part of a move recently, taping up all those cardboard boxes, will leave you very frustrated, when you go to tear off a piece of that tape, and the nice thick piece you start to rip off turns into a slender triangle. Then to have to start a new piece by picking away at the tiny point that is left on the roll … annoying!!! In a report published out of MIT at the end of March, mathematical researchers have explain the physics behind what they have called the "Wallpaper Problem".
The team found that those ubiquitous triangular tears arise from interactions between three inherent properties of adhesive materials: elasticity (stiffness), adhesive energy (how strongly the adhesive sticks to a surface) and fracture energy (how tough it is to rip).
The researchers developed a formulation that predicts the angle of the triangle formed, based on those three properties.
They also figured out just how those triangular tears arise. As the strip is pulled, energy builds up in the fold that forms where the tape is peeling from the surface. The tape can release that energy in two ways: by unpeeling from its surface and by becoming narrower, both of which it does.
Pretty neat stuff! Happenings that you take for granted every day, like pulling off a triangle shaped piece of tape, have very explicit mathematical properties. Given two of these properties, using these new formulas, the third property can be established, which proves to be one of many applied applications of these findings.
Two people in the past two days have contacted me for tips/insight on purchasing a scooter. With this amazing weather we have been having, I am not surprised. I took "kiwi" out for a rip around the block on Tuesday, and man did it feel good! Even though the taste of summer is fleeting next week, its hard to think that we are too far away from a consistent 75 degrees and sunny … the perfect scooter weather! Here are a handful of tips I already shared with a couple people, but may be helpful to others as well:
- Unless you don’t mind getting a motorcycle license, look for a scooter under 50cc’s. Anything over 50cc’s requires a motorcycle license in Massachusetts and also a motorcycle plate. Anything under 50cc’s, needs only a simple registration form, that you can fill out from here, and bring a *full service* RMV. You will get a sticker to place on the back of the bike which is good for 2 years.
- To go along with #1, think about where you will be driving the scooter to. Anything under 50cc’s will probably max out around 40 mph, full throttle, going down a hill, with a huge tail wind. Been there … done that. If you are thinking you’ll need higher speeds or horse power, you may need to do the motorcycle thing. In heavy traffic, with lots of street lights, I travel about 2 miles in 10 minutes. Faster if I pass on the right, which is completely legal.
- Look at models online, but also go to a bike shop to see the scooters in real life. I’ve never been to a store where you can actually test drive the scooters, but you can at least sit on them and see how they fit you and your personality. There is a great shop in Arlington that has all the accessories too.
- Once you’ve picked out that perfect model, look on craigslist for a used one. Anything under 500 miles is good … pretty much like new! I bought mine from a woman who was moving to Rhode Island from Boston, and it only had 273 miles on it. My fourth summer scooting, I have almost 1100 miles, and it is still running like a champ!
- Other things to purchase: Don’t forget to get a good quality motorcycle lock, and carry it around in your scooter’s storage compartment. You can park anywhere, even on sidewalks, and its easy to find something to lock the scooter too … usually a tree, trash can, or traditional bike rack, works well! The other MUST purchase is a DOT approved motorcycle helmet. There a lots of appealing choices, especially for the ladies out there, but don’t be embarrassed to get the largest, most obnoxious, spaceballs-esque, full helmet you can find. Safety first!
I absolutely love my Honda Metropolitan! It is a smaller size which fits me well. I see more and more scooters around every summer. With the high, and only increasing, gas prices just think about all the money you are going to save when you can travel 100 miles on 1 gallon … which is a full tank! I only fill up 2 to 3 times a summer. Happy scooting!!
I know I’m probably extremely behind the times, but I just dug into these two web apps the other day. My buddy Frank has been harassing me about Netvibes for a long time (well over a year), describing it as a kick-ass, pimped up, RSS Reader. I’ve always been pretty attached to Google Reader, because I can easily feed my blog, just by staring items in Google Reader, that will then show up in my "What I am Reading" section in the left hand sidebar. I didn’t see anything in Netvibes that integrated with blogging. iGoogle is getting a lot of attention recently, for the announcement that it is heading in the direction of becoming a new social network. I decided to do a side-by-side comparison to decide which one I’d like to use going forward. The breakdown of strengths is as follows ….
iGoogle Advantages:
- Easy to "star" what I am reading and it is fed to my blog.
- Add a new Tab, and just by giving it a name, the content is filled in for you. Ex: Add a Tab called "Delicious", and iGoogle fills it in with all the Delicous widgets. Saves a ton of time!
Netvibes Advantages:
- Look and feel is superior. It is clean, themes selection is great, and I especially like the look of the menu edit options for each widget.
- Has all the google widgets you need … check out the All my Google Services widget!
Pretty much the same widgets are available for both, so there is not much of a comparison there. So now I need to decide if the look and feel of Netvibes is superior enough to win me over from iGoogle, even though iGoogle allows me to more efficiently "star" what I am reading and add new Tab content to my homepage.
And the winner is ………….. Netvibes, for now anyway! It just has a nicer user experience. The issue I have with not being able to "star" what I am reading is okay, because I generally, would rather open up the full Google Reader App to star things, than only have a 5 to 10 titles available on my homepage to star at any one time.
Now the big question will be, once I get Netvibes set up as my perfect little homepage, will it truly aid me in efficiency, by showing me at a glance all my daily stops on the web? I’m not 100% convinced, but I will try it for a week and see how it goes!
For those of you reading this with a RSS Reader, click through and check out the new springy design of my blog! I was feeling inspired with the warm weather and the dogwood tree starting to bloom outside of my office window.
Last night we went to see the movie 21 based off of Ben Mezrich’s book Bringing Down the House. Although the reviews were not stellar, I loved the movie. I read the book a few years ago, and even though it didn’t follow the story line to the T … who cares … it’s a movie! It’s suppose to be entertaining, and entertaining it was! The Showcase Cinema’s in Revere has gone through a huge overhaul, adding a winebar, piano entertainment in the lobby, and a gorgeous new theater called The Director’s Hall with pre-assigned seating and people that will actually go get snacks for you! We liked it before because it was easy to drive and park there, instead of taking the T downtown. The Lowes Boston Common is still my pick for a big movie night out, but this one is great for those no-hassle nights, as long as you are willing to deal with all the teenagers and wanna-be thugs.
There was a cool article in Business Week on Twentysomething Entrepreneurs. You can read the full article here, but I really enjoyed this piece of advice from one of the founders of FriendFeed:
The best decision I have made so far is surrounding myself with smart people who think differently than I do.
I love when you can engage in a design discussion with a group of people that has a diversified way of thinking. It elevates the discussion to a place you couldn’t get to on your own, and makes the outcome a stronger, more creative solution. Being the smartest person in the room can only take you so far, it is important to collaborate with others who have different perspectives than you, and collectively this will make the smartest solution in the room, which is what is really important.
Finally got a "best of PR" album up on picassa web albums. While I was doing this I realized picassa web albums offers a Mac plugin for iPhoto … good to know!
Quick notes on the villa …. it was called Martineau Belle Playa Villa. I would definitely go back to this specific house, and would recommend it to others. It would be great for families with children too! The location was perfect on the island, close to the airport and the ferry terminal. Private beach, gorgeous pool, full outdoor grilling area and bar, there was really no reason to leave the house! We were able to eat all of our meals there, so that was a good way to save a little $$. It was fun going to local stores and fish markets to get things to make for dinner. The local fish market was actually this guy Roberto’s house, in a small part of the barrio Martineau. We were tipped off to this fisherman named Roberto who sold his daily catch right from his house every day! We got there and he had a nice little shop set up out back. Two freezers – One for fish and the other for octopus, conch, shrimp, and lobsters! The fish freezer had probably 30 different types of fish in it … all kinds of crazy looking tropicals! We were able to get 3 huge Red Snappers for $20!! You can not beat that deal! Andy, our cook for the week did a superb job of stuffing them will all kinds of spices and cooking them up on the grill! Paired with my nana’s rice and bean recipe it was an extravagant meal that we all enjoyed!!
We booked through a company called villascaribe.com, which I was happy with. You first go through a booking agent, and then are transfered to the concierge staff who handles the details of your arrival and plans for the week. The only problem I had was there seemed to be a disconnect between the villascarbe concierge and the on-island concierge that the villa’s owner has hired to provide services to the house. The problem started with minor things, like not knowing how we were going to get from the ferry terminal to the villa. One party says there will be a taxi waiting, but the other side says they don’t know about any of these arrangements. That part was worked out after a couple of weeks of emails … fine. The real problem I had with the on-island concierge is you felt like they were really trying to scam you. They would tell us one price for a tour, and then we’d get there and ask them how much they were charging and it was less than what we were quoted. It was a little shady. The main concierge lady just had a really awful attitude, but her assistant Kim was wonderful! Just something to consider for next time I suppose.
Another great thing about the villa is it came with full maid service every day. Our lady Wanda, spent at least 3 to 4 hours at the house every day scrubbing down everything! You would think we were pigs, but we really weren’t that bad. She just did a really thorough job. She spent a lot of time on the grill outside, and washed all the windows and floors every single day! Like I said before, with such a gorgeous place to live for a week, it was tough to complain, and I would love to go back!
How do you get to this little island 8 miles off the coast of Puerto Rico? Well, you have two options, and we tried both. One is the ferry from Fajardo to Vieques. It is a 1.5 hour ride and the ferry leaves multiple times per day. If you are staying in San Juan as we did, you will have to arrange transportation from San Juan to Fajardo. We hired Padin Transportation, and the women Ilca who handles all the plans is really great via email and phone! The van that was sent for us was large, clean, smoke free, and the driver Jose Padin did a great job of getting us to Fajardo. It is about an hour drive. The ferry is a whole different story. Ryan said he was expecting a nice little terminal … maybe something like the Hyannis to Martha’s Vineyard route …. not so much. I think the dog with fleas that peed on the floor in front of us, killed that idea! It was not completely awful though … and for $2.00 each way, it is a deal that can not be matched! The actual boat is a two decker, with an enclosed area downstairs and an open air area upstairs. It was a stormy, slightly rough sea day, so the downstairs people at least stayed dry on the way over, but man were they packed in like sardines! Not to mention they were sharing their seats with chickens and boxes of cats! We were upstairs which would be lovely on a calm, warm day. Unfortunately, the ride was pretty rough, and we were all soaked with sea spray by the time the trip was over. An hour and a half of rough seas and spraying water can really do a number on you!
In hindsight, I would not recommend the ferry! Especially, if you are coming from San Juan and you are just minutes away from the airport. On the way back we flew Cape Air from Vieques directly to San Juan and it was magical! We were on a 9 person Cessna plane with two propellers. I even got to be the co-pilot sitting right next to el capp-ee-tan!
The take off was thrilling and the view was incredible because you could see St. Thomas, Culebra, Vieques, and the main land of Puerto Rico! We were only 2,000 feet in the air, and the highest peeks in Puerto Rico are 3,000 feet, so you were flying so close to the mountains and could see everything on the ground really well.
Even if flying makes you a little uneasy, it is only a 20 minute flight! Just the time you are saving compared to a 1 hour drive and a 1.5 hour ferry ride, is worth it when you are on vacation! Our cousin is actually a pilot for Cape Air and these guys that fly the little planes are such talented pilots! I have never experienced such a gentle landing! Flying back and getting to be the copilot was actually one of my favorite parts of the trip … it was an amazing memory!!! Fly don’t float!!!
Back from Puerto Rico, and man did we have a GREAT time! If I was a real blogger, I would have done some "live blogging from PR" … but I didn’t even open the laptop once while I was there! It was a true vacation! I am working on getting a "best of" photo album up on Google … it will be a few more days for that action. The trip started with two nights in San Juan, then a "voyage" with details I will save for another day, to the island of Vieques where the six of us spent 5 nights in an incredible private villa! The villa was called Martineau Belle Playa Villa, and I should write more details about it at some point. I high recommend the house, but the on island coordinators were slightly difficult. With a villa that looks like this … those minor problems were easy to forget.
The first topic I MUST write about is our night time tour of the
Bio-luminescent Bay. Bio Bay on Vieques has the highest concentration of glowing plankton in the world, and this was apparent as soon as our kayaks entered the water. As the paddles touched the water everything just lit up, and you could see the kayaks gliding through the water leaving a glowing path behind them. There were three two person kayaks, so each couple had their own. Our tour guide was Abe Jr., or Abbie as some people called him. Cool guy … very chill … imagine a smaller, scrawnier, version of Bob Marley with a giant dread-locked pony tail on top of his head. The group of us paddled out to the middle of the bay and swam around a bit, which was very cool. It was kind of like swimming in a pool at night with the underwater light turned on. The water was really warm … maybe 85 degrees … like bath water! When you held your arm out of the water, it looked like glitter rolling down your arms …. trippy!!! After the brief swim, we all hopped back into the kayaks and Abbie said we’d paddle out a little further, to where you can see schools of fish darting under the water … like little comets or ghosts. Sounded cool, so we followed along. Sure enough, after a few minutes you could see little ghosts darting under the boats, this way and that … their glittery paths crossing each other and then disappearing into the water. The stars were so bright in the sky … one of the prettiest sky’s I’ve ever witnessed. We were all stopped at this point enjoying the water comets and stars, when all the sudden Kevin and I see a long slender glow coming directly toward our kayak at an increasing speed. It was as if jaws was coming at our boat and all you could see was the fin poking out of the water, except in this case, all you could see was a sparkly glow quickly approaching growing larger the closer it got. At a high speed it darted right to the front of our kayak, where I was sitting, and we thought it had just gone under the boat. It was thrilling …. UNTIL …. I felt something slimy slopping around in the front of the boat. I FREAKED OUT!!! Remember it is dark, so I couldn’t see how large or what shape this fish was. I exclaimed
Oh my God, it’s in the boat
and everyone started laughing. They didn’t believe me. The stupid thing was splashing around underneath me … so I screamed
Seriously, it’s in the F**K-ING boat!!!!
This violent shriek that cut through the peaceful night got every one’s attention. Abe Jr. slowly paddled over all chill-like, but I manged to fling the bio-fish out of from underneath me before he got there. Thanks for nothing, Abbie!! At this point, I’ve had enough. I start to frantically paddle back to shore and I’m convinced all the little ghost fish darting under me are now going to jump right into my boat again … a panic attack ensued. Half way back to shore, we’ve left everyone else in the dust, but I hear them say … "look, there’s a nurse shark!!!" I think … "cool, maybe the nurse shark would like to jump in for a little ride as well!" I’ve completely checked out!!
Later that evening, Ryan asks,
Leah, have you spent any time in prison?
because the words that came out of my mouth so violently cut through the tranquility of the night. Andy said he’d never forget his star gazing, when the deadly shrieks ended his peaceful night. I am not proud of my reaction, but it was definitely all instinct at that point. It doesn’t get anymore unleashed than that. I’m not a big fan of fish, or snorkeling, or swimming in water at night, so this Bio-Bay experience only added to these fears! Good times!
My soon to be ex-Manager is leaving IBM and we had a big going away dinner for him last night. It was a lot of fun, and he surprised each of us with a very thoughtful gift. He picked out a book that he thought we would like, and it was funny to see what everyone got. He even wrote a nice little message to each of us inside the front cover which just made it very special. I am American, Golf – Anika’s Way, Darwinisms, Why Women Should Rule the World, where just a few of the others. For me he picked, The Ten Best of Everything: An Ultimate Guide for Travelers, which pretty much hits the nail on the head! It’s a very cool book, with all kinds of great tips for places to see, stay, and enjoy all around the globe! As I was perusing the pages last night, I noticed Venice, Italy, came up a few times, and it got me remembering what an amazing city it is! One of my favorite memories in Venice was when we stopped by Harry’s Bar around noon on a Monday. It was a comfortably warm, but not too hot, bright and sunny day! It was so bright and sunny, that I remember the water ways sparkling, almost blinding, as the rays of sun danced around the Grand Canal. Harry’s Bar is right at the mouth of the Grand Canal, and has a famous reputation for its celebrity visitors. I was hoping to run into Ben Affleck again, but to no avail. In all the books I read about Venice, this was a MUST stop on the list of places to eat. What we didn’t realize was there are two very distinct parts to this fine establishment: a bar, and an upstairs restaurant. We should have opted to stay at the bar, but I wasn’t sure if they would serve their famous Croques Monsieur (toasted ham and cheese sandwich) down there. Come to find out they do, so I recommend staying down at the bar/lounge for other travelers. The upstairs is very formal, with impeccable service and waiters in white suits with black bow ties. It felt kind of funny only ordering a Bellini and cheese sandwich, but that is what we did, and I have to say it was still very indulgent. The peach Bellini was invented at Harry’s Bar and was delicious! I think the waiter could tell we didn’t realize the upstairs was typical for a heartier lunch, so after our Bellini’s and sandwich, he brought over a slice of the richest chocolate fudge cake I have ever tasted. Magnificent … and compliments of the house, which was very sweet! Here is a picture I dug up that Kevin took of me across our table. You can see my peach Bellini and how bright the sun was coming through the window that day!
