Random Brain Dump

A few weeks ago, my dad & I took an early morning hike at Rancho San Antonio. After a good hour of hike, we got up to an open meadow with a great vast view of the entire bay area. We saw buildings from downtown San Francisco, the bay, the east bay hills. I managed to take some panoramic shots of the valley. I didn’t do a good job of keeping the metering constant across the photos so the stitching wasn’t as smooth as I wanted, but it’s still pretty cool. I’ll try again next time.

There were many signs from nature that spring is coming– greenery was everywhere and flower buds ready to bloom. I’m looking forward to do more hikes and take more photos.

By the way, when viewing individual photos, you should see “View Panorama” command link for each panaramic photo. Clicking it will launch an applet for viewing panorama, which allows for panning left & right– simple but pretty cool.

The comedians are having a ball poking fun at the VP’s hunting accident. Here are some of the funny ones:

David Letterman: “Good news, ladies and gentlemen, we have finally located weapons of mass destruction: It’s Dick Cheney.”
Jay Leno: “I think Cheney is starting to lose it. After he shot the guy he screamed, ‘Anyone else want to call domestic wire tapping illegal?’ ”
Jon Stewart: “Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a man during a quail hunt … making 78-year-old Harry Whittington the first person shot by a sitting veep since Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, of course, (was) shot in a duel with Aaron Burr over issues of honor, integrity and political maneuvering. Whittington? Mistaken for a bird.”
Borowitz Report: HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT UNVEILS CHENEY ALERT SYSTEM: Color-coded System Would Warn Nation of Future Attacks by Veep.

Ran across this interesting piece of news today…

Apparently after nearly 150 years, Western Union has discontinued its telegram service. I’m only surprised it didn’t happen sooner; it’s a technology made obsolete by telephone, faxes and emails. I haven’t never sent a telegram in my life, nor received one. I did remember my dad sent quite a few in the 70’s to my grandparents in Asia. I wonder what future communication technology awaiting us.