Hey, it’s NaNoWriMo time again. I had a dream about this back in June. I dreamt that I was trying to write my first novel. I could see myself sitting at an old-fashioned typewriter, pecking away, reading and re-reading the words you see below. I woke up and immediately wrote down for real what I could remember. It is not as good as I remember, but I thought it was novel 
enough to share.
In a very long room with an even longer table, Ed Stanwick was about to sit down to an elaborate meal. From the look of the imported linens, the silver and china you might think it was dinner but in fact it was brunch. Ed was an eleven week virgin to the world of high-finance, so he was not expecting the phone call he was about to receive. He was also not expecting the sudden departure party thrown for him at one of those swank bar with too many highballs and too much slipping on acrylic chairs. Nor was he expecting the prospect of spending the rest of his life in Thailand. But this story is not about him.
Instead, it is about Clairice, the girl Ed left behind. She told herself it would have hurt worse if they were married instead of just living together for five years.
Travelling to the Tidewater region of Virginia this week. It is a business trip but it will include stops at the Mariner’s Museum and Nauticus. Hope to try some moblogging along the way. Anyone have sugestions for sights to see or places to dine while around Williamsburg and Newport News?
Siesta Key self-portrait, © Jason RobertshawI listen to a lot of podcasts. Most are pretty much topical ephemera. I would expect them to enter into my brain and depart as quickly as a joke on late night television. But there is this weird phenomenon whereby I remember segments from certain podcasts as I am walking through my day. It is as if the memory of the audio is stimulated by being in the place where I first heard it. For instance, here I am in the condiment aisle of my local grocer, deciding on which brand of mayo to buy and vividly recalling Robert X. Cringely talking about how Cisco reinvents the mainframe. Or back in 2006, here at this spot on the nature boardwalk, I remember listening to Richard Vobes mentioning his trip to Arundel Castle. Or a few steps later, recently hearing Ira Glass talking about getting his Testosterone checked. But if I try to recall them later, at a different place than where I first heard them, it is not nearly so clear or intense.
To me it is a sensation akin to Déjà Vu. Or is it Jamais Vu? Or something? Anyway, I need a name for this experience and for lack of a better appellation, I am calling it Déjà Entendu (not to be confused with the band).
And I am curious if anyone else has experienced this too. I also wonder if there is anything neurologically interesting about it that is worth considering. There is already plenty of evidence for the linkage between smell and memory. Can the same be true for audio?
I’ve finally got a replacement AC plug for my Powerbook G4. This allowed me to reinstall the OS and get it cleaned up for sale. If you are interested, please feel free to contact me.
For sale
PowerBook G4 15-inch (Double Layer Super Drive, DVD+RW/CR-RW)
CPU Speed 1.67 GHz
Airport Extreme Card & Bluetooth
100GB Ultra ATA drive @7200 rpm
Serial Number: W85448L4SX2
Purchase Date: 31-Oct-05
Applecare Expiration: 31-Oct-08
Included:
-new AC plug
-new AC cord
-new battery (replaced during recall)
-2GB of RAM (third party, crucial.com)
-Installation CDs (Disk 1 & 2)
-original box and packaging
Bonus
-Stash Card
Note: Cosmetic damage on bottom lower left and right.
Asking price: $599.00 US
UPDATE: SOLD
![Origami squid made from a 20 dollar bill [200x150, 12K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_070321_origamisquid.jpg "Origami squid made from $20US")
Had a birthday recently. My aunt, ever the crafty lady, gave me a nifty little gift. Instead of merely including the cash in the birthday card (note, that’s Caulerpa algae on the cover), she folded it into an origami squid for me. Thanks!
Continue reading ‘Birthday Origami Money Squid’
![SeaTrek Distance Learning studios [200x150, 16K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_070223a_CBS_SeaTrek_Mote.jpg "CBS The Early show features virtual fieldtrips via videoconferencing with Mote Marine Lab's SeaTrek Distance Learning programs")
I don’t talk too much about my day job (seatrek.org) here on my personal site*, but I get to do some pretty neat things and work with some really great people. And today, CBS’ The Early Show did a segment on virtual fieldtrips that featured us. You can’t see me (I’m the one behind the camera) but you can see our studios at Mote Marine Laboratory. 
Virtual Field Trips Take Off
Thanks to virtual field trips, students can visit far-away places without ever leaving the classroom. Susan McGinnis reports that the idea is catching on in many schools.
If you have any questions about videoconferencing or would like to schedule a program, let us know.
Wow. What a day. I got up at 6:45 and took a shower. A few days before I had downloaded iTunes Alarm. As the names suggests, this program turns iTunes into an alarm clock and allows one to specify the time, playlist, volume, and other settings and includes features like a user controllable fade up or down and a sleep alarm. The only twist is that it won’t wake my Powerbook up out of Sleep Mode. To get around that, I set the Schedule under the Energy Saver Preferences to come on a minute before the alarm. It’s an extra step, but it allows me to role my own morning show. So under iTunes, I created a playlist called “Wake Up!,” and have copied a bunch of bouncy, morning songs into it from the Podsafe Music Network.
I also soon realized that I don’t need to listen to NPR broadcasts in real time anymore. Instead, I can download their news summaries and mix it in with my own program selections. Pretty neat trick.
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