After working the day shift all weekend, I’m back on nights starting, well, tonight. To prepare, I’m staying up as late as I can in an attempt to shift my sleep schedule back. I’ve been going through the backlog of posts in my feed reader, and I’d love to share:

• This first one isn’t from the feed reader. Since all of my friends were off at Coachella this weekend to do some more filming, I finally went and got myself a copy of the Coachella DVD. I’ve had it on in the background while I worked on stuff tonight, and I’ve already watched it twice. Makes me wish I was there.
• This necklace is pretty, and I think I could make one myself with a couple of supplies from the bead store. I might stop by there later this week.
• I wish I knew more about cryptography. That CIA sculpture puzzle just seems so cool.
• iTunes rocks. The possibilities are endless… like UC Berkeley on iTunes U. Cool.

I recently started working on an audio project called SoundsDowntown (more details soon, I promise!) with Kolby from Retrotravels.net. Although it’s in its early stages, I’m getting excited about going out and gathering all of the interviews and stories. This sort of “field reporting” is about as close to real “action” as I’ll probably get. After reading War Reporting for Cowards by Chris Ayres, I’m ok with that.

The book starts off with a riveting play-by-play from the front lines in Iraq. Ayres - not previously a war correspondent - had been sent out with a group of Marines, and spent much of his time huddled in the backseat of the Humvee, scared to death. We go from there to a winding tale of his career in journalism, and his decision to run as far as possible from any impending danger. In the end, however, we’re back in Iraq for a roller coaster ride through the desert.

When I picked up the book, I was excited by the thought that reporting from dangerous areas could be Fun! Safe! Easy! The author’s picture on the front cover makes him look like the last person to be chosen for the kickball team. What I learned is that there’s a fine line between hero reporter and dead media rep, and I don’t wanna be the latter.

The author? He’s a local guy (now) who writes for The Times of London (Their RSS feeds seem to have disappeared, though). He looks a lot tougher in his current picture.

This is old, but it came to my attention recently. Unfortunately, I can’t for the life of me remember where I found a link to this great video from one of my favorite companies. I want to work with people who think like this.

Yesterday, I was interviewed by Joe G from Beppeblog and Beppepodcast. (I had interviewed him a few weeks ago for Uncommon Path.) We spoke on Thursday about my experiences growing up as a Quaker and my urge to move to another faith. When I was speaking, I didn’t feel as though I was making any sense, but Joe turned it into a pretty darn coherent piece. Plus, he had the whole thing edited and posted the very same day, which is a skill I need to learn.

You can check it out here.

Busy day today. I finally got caught up with my RSS feeds for the last couple of days. I had over 750 posts waiting to be read this morning! Here’s what I learned, as well as some stuff I’ve been meaning to post:

• A Library of Congress map curator, Walter Ristow, passed away this month. His obit’s a good read (sounds like he was quite a guy), and has a nice gem toward the end about his collection of “handwritten maps — directions to people’s houses and so on.” For some reason that seems really charming to me.
• Sound Transit is just a cool site for people with free time. You can “book” a sound trip, picking departure and arrival cities, as well as stopovers, then it creates an mp3 of ambient sounds from each place. Neat concept. Beautiful execution.
• 
  I have a love for all things Bruce Willis, but this had me going “WTF?” Click on the video link for his Japanese Energy Drink Ad. Reminds me of that commercial shoot scene with Bill Murray in Lost in Translation. I think I need to go watch some more Moonlighting now.
• God, these fries look good. Anyone want some? You buy, I’ll fly (to NY).

Holy crap! Gmail’s so smart it’s scary. See, I read on Jill’s blog that Google’s come out with a calendar. I thought of switching, because it would be cool to have my calendar online. So many other things sync with iCal (Backpack reminders, my Blackberry…) that I just can’t make that change right now.

But Gmail just made my heart skip a beat. I was checking an email about an interview tomorrow when I saw it. There, on the right sidebar…

A link to add the call time to my calendar. But that’s not what blew my mind. The craziest part was that Gmail had extracted it all from a previous email in the “conversation” where I had said “talk to you tomorrow at 10AM.” The system had parsed the phrase and come up with the event, date and time. (Yes, I know it’s creepy to have a machine reading my email, but the government’s doing it to all of us anyways…)

Oh, to just click on a link from an email and have it show up on my calendar. That is a thing of beauty and may tempt me to give Google calendar a chance.

(Via blogging.la)

With all of the hype about the anniversary of the San Francisco earthquake, the mind frequently turns to the potential for disaster here in LA. Imagine being a homeless man in our metropolis, left to defend yourself as your city crumbles. That’s supposedly the premise of this game. It looks like so much fun, I’d consider working for G4 again just to get my hands on a copy.

Arthur Winston worked at the LA MTA for 76 years, but only missed one day of work up until his recent retirement. He passed away last week at the age of 100. A couple of months ago, he stopped by a Storycorps booth to be interviewed by his great-grand nephew, and the result is a fantastic piece on the NPR site. Well worth a listen.

Starting a new job tomorrow. I know I’ll settle into the routine, but for now I don’t want my vacation to end!

This weekend I saw the movie Failure to Launch with my friend Morgana, and (despite being a mediocre movie overall) it had this great story line about one girl’s quest to rid herself of an annoying mockingbird. I feel like I’m living the movie, since I’ve got a sleep-deprived bird living outside my window. The good thing is that I find the sound somewhat soothing. I thought I’d share, in case any of the select few who read this blog are ornithology buffs.

Here’s my recording. Pardon the random neighborhood sounds and background noise.

Also, if you’re a fan of Snakes on a Plane - as I am - then I think you’ll enjoy this.

I’ve been procrastinating most of the day (Friday), and now that it’s Saturday I feel compelled to share what I’ve learned:

• If you do nothing else this weekend, check out German Coastguard. I’ve watched it 3 times already, and I can’t stop laughing. Of course, it’s also 1 AM.
• I read a great book yesterday, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. I highly recommend both the book and the accompanying web site.
• Ever get told you look like someone famous? Waste some time with the celebrity face recognition demo at MyHeritage (free registration required), and you’ll find out exactly who you resemble. The first picture I uploaded connected me to Halle Berry (?!).
• With Spring on its way, I’ve been getting rid of a ton of stuff. Tonight I stumbled across Discardian, which offers simple tips for parting with your clutter. I feel saner already!
• My cousin Mace recently mentioned the Learning to Love You More site on her blog. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a look. Today I also found 52 Projects, which I plan to check out later this weekend.