Archive for March, 2009

Islands from the first time we saw
we could wait for this moment, like rocks on the shore
we can never be closer somehow
for the moments that lasts, is this moment now
- mike oldfield

It seems humans were on living on Sardinia since at least 250,000 BC. During the early Neolithic period the Nuragic culture were building conical rock towers called Nuraghi (Nuraghe) throughout the island. By the 8th century BC the Phoenicians made their way to the island and created a base of sorts that connected ports all over the Med. When they arrived they found a mainly agricultural people who were more or less happy to trade and  leave the island’s shoreline and harbors to the Phoenicians. In time the Carthaginians took control. ( I can’t say Carthaginians without visualizing George C. Scott) In time they were defeated by the Romans and on and on it goes until next week when Justine & Barry show up…

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And there his worship sat in state,
In doublet, and trunk-hose
And quaffed a cup of good old wine,
To warm his good old nose
Like a fine old English gentleman,
All of the olden time.
– Henry Russell

Up early this morning and planning to get out on the trails as soon as it warms up a bit. I’ve been spending the pre-dawn hours doing a bit of clean up work on old Quix posts. When you have 104 pages covering 5 years and 1,549 posts (ah, 1,550 posts counting this one) things get quite messy and it can take some time to bring it up to date. Now you may wonder if it’s worth it. That’s what crossed my mind too, but in going back over all the old posts I’ve found that for the most part all those articles about kit and practice are mostly just as current as if I had written them today. In fact maybe a bit more helpful in that at the time I was taking many of those things on for the first time myself.

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Dont want to be a fat man,
Have not the patience to ignore all that.
Hate to admit to myself half of my problems
Came from being fat.
Wont waste my time feeling sorry for him,
I seen the other side to being thin.
Roll us both down a mountain
And Im sure the fat man would win.
-tull

I find getting in “shape” such an arbitrary and frustrating thing. There is the shape you want to be in, the shape you need to be in, the shape your genetics try to force you into, the shape your job or lifestyle try to create, the shape observers think you should be, the shape your doctor says is healthy for “you”, the shape your kid’s plastic people project, the shape in the Victoria’s Secret catalog and everything in between. Some folks don’t worry about shape. Some don’t need to, some live active lives and don’t work in front of a desk, some are thin by nature, some simply love the shape of being out of shape and some just prefer to tell others what to look like. It’s frustrating. If you’re struggling to keep or regain that svelte form for the summer, you’re not alone. I hear ya…

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Tom Sharp had told me some time ago that he and Corey Freedman would be hosting Maliqiaq Padilla this spring and setting up a qajaq (or “kayak” if you prefer)  building class.  If you’ve been following along on Twitter you know I promised you the details today.  So without further distraction…

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My new year can start whenever I dam well say it does. I mean, what is “New Years” really but an arbitrary moment in time where we can take stock of our life and make adjustments as we move forward? Certainly if New Years Day had some cosmic real world meaning it would be held on a solstice right? So let’s resolve make our new years start whenever we darn well feel the urge.  Mine starts now. Read the rest of this entry »

So this has the potential to rock…  It’s this funky (and FREE) application for Mobile phones and PDAs called Smap.  Smap uses your GPS enabled phone or PDA to record your routs and then upload them to Sanoodi’s website where everyone can tune in.  Kinda like  the spot thing, with out the spot. .  (and dependant on coverage).  They even suggest realtime reporting if you have a good mobile signal. Cool huh!?  Well Justine Curgenven is at the early stages of testing out this new application so you may want to follow along over on her blog right here.

Well, Keith over at Go Kayak Now was the first to call “BS” on this video from Epic.  I of course am much more diplomatic and will simply respond to this video by saying.. “Really?  You don’t say!?”…  You see, I learn something new every day.  Given that this design issue is  apparently so obvious you can’t help but wonder why the Inuit weren’t doing this all along.