Time to get caught up here...  had a remarkably quiet little Sunday, considering we were hosting a wine tasting last night, and the tasting itself was a blast.  (What better excuse for a Holiday party with thirty of your best friends?)  The premise on this one was "foreign reds under $20"; I expected a lot of Malbec and Tempranillo and Shiraz, and I got it; in fact it was a high quality bunch.  The winner was 2006 Tait "Ball Buster", a Shiraz-Cabernet-Merlot from Barrossa Valley which delighted everyone (and for only $17!)

I’m doing a little better; it seems I’ve acquired a new energy from somewhere, not sure what or how.  Recently I’ve spent time coding – trying to understand AJAX programming more deeply – and it seems to have reawakened some sort of creative drive.  I love creating new things, which is why I love programming; perhaps it has been too long since I’ve immersed myself in a technical project. I’m looking forward to spending more time on it in the days ahead…

But you don't want to hear about that, you want to hear about ... this:

I love traveling around and sometimes I think about moving, but then there are days like today; the pic at left is the headline on weather.com.  Yikes.  I guess I shouldn't tell you the forecast for Westlake Village is 64F.  (Or that I'm planning a nice ride for the late afternoon.) 

Eric Raymond continues his series on the smartphone wars: Google changes aim.  "I just got a look at the promotional video for the Nexus S. What it reveals about Google’s Android strategy is fascinating, and suggests that the pressure on Apple and the telcos is about to ratchet up another notch."  It is worth noting, he called the tremendous gains in Android market share. 

Joe Wilcox: Who really needs a Chrome OS laptop?  He is making the same mistake I made with the iPad, thinking of himself as the target user.  Once you realize the Chrome OS laptop, like the iPad, is simple, truly a "computer for the rest of us", then all becomes clear.  I have a feeling they are going to sell a metric ton of these... 

Awesomeness: Navy's Mach 8 railgun obliterates record.  You must watch this video, it is pretty cool to see a 23-pound bullet shot with a muzzle velocity of 5,500' per second.  In super slo-mo :) 

This is so cool; the Antikythera Mechanism - executed in Lego.  Just copying the mechanism would be hard enough; copying it in Lego is unbelievable. 

In local sports news, my kids' school Oaks Christian defeated crosstown (actually cross-street) rival Westlake High in the Los Angeles Northern Division Championship on a last-second missed field goal.  The whole town has been talking about this for weeks, everyone was there, and then it turned out to be the most exciting possible game.  (The LA Times' correspondent called it the greatest game he's covered since he started writing about high school sports in 1976.)  Most excellent.  And yeah, we're *still* talking about it, and will be for a while... 

This is SO cool (in more ways than one): Electrified TRON Ice Hotel Suite Opens in Sweden.  Almost makes me wish I lived in such icy weather.  Almost. 

Who feels chills while listening to music?  I do I do.  "There is no particular type of music you can listen to that will reliably impart chills. The truly big predictor? Your personality."  Bring it on baby, I get chills just thinking about seeing Joe Satriani live! 

BTW, I must say Clive Thompson consistently manages to find interesting subjects, doesn't he?

So yesterday, following the lead of a bunch of friends, I switched to the new Facebook profile.  The most salient feature of the new profile is a series of five pics displayed across the top, but weirdly, you can't choose which five you want; you have to tag yourself, and the most recent five are displayed in reverse order.  So be it...  (of course you can always put more time into it than I did :) 

Okay, enough of that, time to start my week!  Cheers and please stay tuned...