Things done since ever.

• Bought tickets for the NPL Convention in Providence. Will be flying into Boston on the 4th (5 p.m. EDT), looking to bum around before heading to the hotel on Wednesday afternoon, then flying out of Logan early on the 11th (7 a.m.). Who'll be around?
• I also said, "Screw it!" and asked for the rest of that week off from work, so it's going to be a real vacation for me all through to the 15th. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. But it will not be working.
• I'm coming out of a funk (well, came out of a funk a week or so ago). It's always hard to identify it when I'm in it, till my body rebels and says, "No, Tablesaw, you need to do things again. You're going to do those situps, and then you're going to go out and see people." I'm looking ahead to when the pushback happens, the time when I feel a little sick or a little tired, and I let my momentum slip, and I can't pick it up again. On the horizon, this is most likely to happen because . . .
• I'm probably going into the dentist this week to get my other wisdom tooth looked at. I have a feeling it's going to need removal too. The last time that happened it took a lot out of me. If it happens again, I'm going to need to plan ahead so that I can remomentatize myself.
• I planned to go geocaching with trinker, and then found out it was to happen on her birthday, so I went all out to be the birthday fairy. It turned out kind of okay.
• All the TV shows ended, and everyone is pregnant, I guess.
• My phone, my crappy-ass phone—that is only one step removed from a crappy assphone—has started losing its charge, so I'm actually getting a smartphone. Virgin Mobile, which I've been using to keep my cell-phone bill under $10/month, has an unlimited data plan for $25/month. It should arrive this week. So that'll be interesting.
• The Portal 2 print is framed and gorgeous-looking. I'm also wrestling with framing these prints on the cheap, which would be easier if the United States and Canada hadn't decided that they wanted their own special paper sizes.
• Oh, I got a haircut too. For me, it's super short. But then, my hair was getting kind of long. For a while, it looked way too young for my big, bearded, thirty-three-year-old face, but it's looking better with a beard trim.
• I watched a friend run Dungeon World at Strategicon over the weekend, which got me rereading Apocalypse World. After playing through a campaign, the directives made a lot more sense. It's a fascinating game, which is probably why I keep talking about it to everyone I meet. Also, much like with Smallville, I'm seeing it in the shows I watch. Sons of Anarchy and Dexter are totally running on Apocalypse World.
• Finished Dragon Age:Origins. Pablum is too exciting a word.
• Visited the Museum of Death, knocking another item off of my bucket list (defined as things that are close enough for me to throw a bucket at). It was disappointing. I was hoping for a curatorial perspective beyond, "WOW ISN'T THIS COOOOOOOOL!? SERIAL KILLERS, MAN! FUCK SOCIETY!" There were some nice touches: a set of crime-scene photographs near (what I assume was) the brief mention of the murder-suicide. On the other hand, relics of Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Gein were counterposed with "ads containing humorous depictions of cannibals." Yeah, that wasn't too pleasant.

Gotta go to bed now . . .

With all the caching I've been doing, I thought I should spend some time getting reacquainted with Google Earth. And yet, I didn't get around to uploading any of the new stuff. Instead, I touched up some photos and made a map of a hike I made three years ago with ojouchan.

It was one of a few hikes that Ojou indulged me in, since she never really enjoyed just walking through the mountains like I did. When we reached the peak, she was rather miffed that there was a road that led straight to the peak. Still, the trail led through a cool rocky narrow on the way up. She took a lot of pictures there. I did too, but most of mine didn't turn out so well.

Google Earth file / Online Google Map

I went out on two abbreviated hikes (more like walks), one with trinker and family in north Valley, and one alone in west Valley. I'm finally nearing my 200th geocache find, eight years after starting.

I went to my dentist about what I assumed was a small cavity. We were both shocked to discover that it was, instead, a massive cavity that had grown faster than normal humans can manage, and that I now need a root canal. And also, after the root canal, I'll probably need another wisdom tooth pulled. And also my dental coverage had disappeared (though that got cleared up the next day).

I got into more of a routine with stretching and using the exercise bike. Current games for playing on the exercise bike: Castle Crashers, because it is simple and repetitive, and Super Meat Boy, because it causes you to feed the frustration back into your legs.

I made it to Laz's boardgaming night for the first time in 2011, and played Power Grid, which was balanced and fun.

I went to cramerica house-reheating party, and spent some time catching up with folks like Artistry and Bartok whom I haven't seen in a while.

I had a two-day workweek.

Oh, and also, I bought a new car a new car, and returned the Jeep to my parents.

I knew it was going to be hot today, so I planned to get up early and take ojouchan to a job in Glendale. Then I could pick up a few caches in Glendale, La Cañada, or Tujunga.

What I didn't know last night, when I was making my plans, was that it was on fire. I'd known about the earlier Morris fire further east, but I hadn't paid close enough attention to realize that there was a second fire in Angeles National Forest (the Station fire) much closer. And there are two other fires in SoCal right now.

I fell back to Griffith Park where the air was a bit (not a great bit) better, but by then it was already starting to get hot, and I didn't have a clear picture where I was going. Mostly what I did was sweat. The only thing I did right this morning was bring a very large bottle of water with me, and it was definitely needed.

I did get some walking in, but mostly what I did was sweat. I think I still walked like 2.5 miles. That is because I am stupidly stubborn when it comes to hiking. And I also picked up four caches, though one was literally across the street from where I dropped Ojou off.

Now I am showered, and I feel much better. Naya and I are going to the UCB Theatre later tonight. Till then, I'm staying away from outside and sending prayers to the folks fighting the fires and evacuating their homes.

I've been thinking about it for weeks, but today I finally got off my butt and started hiking again. I spent a few hours getting all my geocaching information in order, then I headed up to Bronson Canyon for a four-mile, twelve-cache loop. (I missed one cache, though; a coyote was chilling in the area.)

It was overcast, which was great for temperature but made most of the pictures come out pre-drabbed. It was a pretty varied trip. It started with wide fire trails and continued with wide paved roads. There were lots of people out too. Hiker, runners, dog-walkers, and horse-riders. The final leg of the loop went through some smaller paths to bring me back down to the caves. I'd intended to take a path that was marked on Google Maps, but ended up taking a longer route that circled the ridge of the quarry before I could find the path down. At the end, I ran back and forth through the Batcave a few times before heading to the car.

I came home and showered to cool down. Now I feel good, ready for a brand new week of sitting.

I've been getting increasingly bugged by driving to one place for no other reason. So when ojouchan says she needs a ride, it's generally a signal that I'm going hiking. Since I was taking her into the center of the valley, it didn't seem right to then double back and do the Santa Monica Mountains. Instead, I geocached my way north through the valley to O'Melveny Park. Since I spent a lot of time caching (and because it was very, very hot, I only did about a mile and a half, but it was beautiful up there. I'll have to get back in the morning some time.

Sadly, I didn't have a good record with the caching: 6/13. I'm pretty sure that two of them weren't there, one was being watched too closely, and another two I didn't go for because I coyote kept circling them. The other two were probably just me being dense. Still, I was hoping to hit one hundred fifty today, instead I'm one shy.



TueNYTX: 4. Solved without trying to guess the theme, because the tie-together clue was too long.

I had a doctor's appointment today, but I was feeling the effects of having slacked off on exercising for a while. So I resolved to head into Griffith Park for a quick hike. There is a new trail of caches, and I needed to get a new peak.

See, I'd tried to get to the top of Mount Bell before. And I thought I had. Except I didn't actually have very accurate information about where it was, so I pointed to the wrong place in Google Earth. On the day I came back from supposedly climbing it, I discovered, too late, that I had climbed what one hiker called "Mount Taco."

waah waaaaaaah

So this new trail was going right by Mount Bell; I figured I'd grab some caches and reach the top. Easy peasy.

Unfortunately, I let myself be sidetracked by some Mystery Hunt business, so I got out a lot later than I expected. I ended up in Griffith Park a bit after 11 a.m. But I figured I'd still have enough time to get up and back to the doctor's office at 2 p.m.

But once again, I forgot how long it takes me to look for caches. As it was approaching one, I was close to Mount Bell, but still not there. I knew I should go back, but I was so close; I couldn't let Mount Bell defeat me again. Last time, I'd come from the south, and there wasn't much elevation gain. This time I'd climbed up a thousand feet. And it was close, damnit, my GPSr said it was less than a quarter of a mile away. I mean, I knew it was longer by trails, but I could speed up and do it. And besides, I could go faster on my way down. I wouldn't be diverted by geocaching, and I'd be going down, which is always better than up.

So I hurried up, I hustled. I'd been in the area before; I knew the trails I was looking for; I knew I had to climb up, then do a long circling of the peak before I'd make my way to the south side, where the game trail to the top was. And from there, it would just be a quick jog to the top. The video would have to be short, but I could do it.

I started jogging, despite being in hiking boots. I sped up to a run when I could. And I pushed up that hill. I kept checking my watch, seeing if I was making it far enough. I had to make it to the smaller trail by one, I knew. I watched the minute hand crawl, while I pushed higher. It's those kinds of times when you're shocked to remember how much you can do in a minute, how far you can go. And so as I got closer and closer, I managed a pace that made me sure that I could make, and made me sure that I couldn't.

I rounded one switchback and made my way back. I was right by it. If there were a trail, I could go up right now. But instead I had to trace an achingly long circumference while my GPSr told me that the peak was 500 feet away—never more, never less, a vicious circle.

And then I was on the south side of the ridge. The wildflowers were right were the were supposed to be. I started running. In my massive hiking shoes, I was probably the most unlikely jogger in Griffith Park. I passed people with dogs. And I was there.

But the moment I saw the small trail again, I knew that I couldn't to do it. There'd been a lot more growth. And the rattlers had come out (I'd seen one earlier). I'd have to be more careful picking my way through the brush. My speed-demoning had been for naught. If I went higher, I'd be late for my appointment.

And as much as I love hiking, I hate being late even more.

Of course, now I was in a quandry. I should have turned back about fifteen minutes ago and enjoyed a leisurely stroll back to the car. Now, I had about a half hour to go back the two miles it had taken me 90 minutes to climb.

So I started running again.

When you weigh over two hundred pounds, momentum is more enemy than friend when going downhill. Oh, it was fun sometimes—careening down the fire road with the power of science propelling me, letting my the magic in my legs do as it would, flying—but at a certain point, I couldn't ignore the fact that I wasn't in a high school cross-country race anymore, and if I did twist an ankle, I'd miss my appointment (but have a date with an emergency room). I cooled down a bit, but I kept checking my watch, and the "instant speed" display on my GPS. Oh, the math! "If I average four miles per hour, I'll make it back to the car in half an hour. Hopefully sooner because I won't have detours. But if I let the average slip down to three m.p.h., it'll take fourty minutes!"

I ran, I jogged, I racewalked, and strolled purposefully, and ultimately, I made it down that hill.

With no problem.

Like I said, I've been slow to update my maps. For a while, Google Earth was crashing on me, so I lost work and got pretty disheartened. Also, the trip that I'm working on, to Temescal Peak, was pretty long and has a bunch of stuff to fiddle with.

In the meanwhile, here's the media from that hike. First, there's the pictures from the hike:

Then, I took some pictures of selected pages of the register for Temescal Peak:

Finally, I uploaded the video from the peak. I thought I'd done this a while back, but I guess my connection froze:

Now I really need some sleep.

TueNYTX: 4; TueNYSX: 5:30.

After work (that's Friday a.m.), I'm going to attack another summit of the Santa Monica Mountains. Once again, I'm staying close to home. This time, I'm going to visit Temescal Peak in Topanga State Park. I'm going to enter from Reseda, and generally follow the path of my last trip up there with cramerica. I'm going to start in Marvin Braude, and head into Topanga SP using the Temescal Fire Trail. This time, I'll take the Garapito Trail south to Eagle Rock. From there, I'll head east to the Hub Junction. Temescal Peak is right near there, and I'm going to climb up. I come back up north using the Temescal Fire Road and the Bent Arrow Trail.

Someone else has used this same trail, and he reckons it's about 7.5 miles. With the detour up to Temescal, I'm guessing about 8.

I'm hoping to leave at about 9 a.m. Let's hope it stays cool again today.

Yesterday, I duplicated my work in Google Earth and put together some pictures from my last trip to Griffith Park. Today, I was listening to Podcacher talk about geocoding photos, and I thought I'd detail the steps I take to put together the KMZ files for my hikes. I think a few readers might be interested, but mostly, I intend to post it on the Podcacher forums. As a result, cut tag!

( How to Create a Fancy Google Map of Your Hike with Photos and Other Neat Stuff. )

And that's it. There's still a bit more for me to learn. Sometimes I think I should enforce the ordering of waypoints by numbering them (Google Maps always defaults to alphabetical order, it seems), but I think I'd rather work to make suer that I can tell my story geographically instead of chronologically. I'm still learning how to properly break up the tale of my journey into the various textual locations (Google Earth descriptions, Picasa captions, and Geocaching logs). Soon I'll play around with embedding links to YouTube videos, so that I can include my video from Ladyface (and future others like it). But that's pretty much the method I use right now. Hopefully this information was of some interest to you. Let me know if anything is unclear.

If you decided to skip all the technical stuff, here's the Google Map of my most recent trip to Griffith Park. And here's my Picasa gallery for the same trip: