for i = zero

Pretty Browser Statistics

2010-01-14T20:50:00.000-08:00

How cool is that.

http://www.datavisualization.ch/showcases/visualizing-historic-browser-statistics-with-axiis

http://www.michaelvandaniker.com/labs/browserVisualization/ (interactive)

Its coming

2009-07-08T20:08:00.001-07:00

Firefox a search engine?

2009-05-29T06:26:00.000-07:00

http://gizmodo.com/5272417/fox-business-network-thinks-microsoft-and-apple-are-search-engines

I'm late, but still funny.

2009-04-04T00:32:00.000-07:00

NIN new album!
(check out the track titles)

http://www.nin.com/strobelight/

Form

2009-03-25T16:24:00.000-07:00

At first, form is needed.
Then doubt and inhibition must be dispelled.
Eventually, form is celebrated with joy,
And expression becomes formless.

Bespin

2009-02-16T19:58:00.000-08:00

Some amazing stuff going on at Mozilla Lab.

Introducing Bespin from Dion Almaer on Vimeo.

Got a Minute?

2009-01-30T00:17:00.000-08:00

The President and the Press: Address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association

No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition. And both are necessary. I am not asking your newspapers to support the Administration, but I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. For I have complete confidence in the response and dedication of our citizens whenever they are fully informed.

...

And so it is to the printing press--to the recorder of man's deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news--that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.

No wonder they shot him.

Words.

2009-01-19T15:42:00.001-08:00

Currently reading:

Do It!
By: Jerry Rubin

Seed Magazine
http://www.seedmagazine.com

Revolution For The Hell of It
By: Abbie Hoffman

Watching:

Ralph Bakshi

Ralph Bakshi & Frank Frazetta

Punk

2008-12-25T14:24:00.001-08:00

VDO time

2008-12-08T21:51:00.000-08:00

Vid #1.
Adobe's Zoetrope (web time machine).

Vid #2.
The Brain That Changes Itself. BBRRRRAAAINNNSSS.

Nano Wars

2008-12-08T17:23:00.000-08:00

Now I'm not one to play games infact I find them a wast of time however this game has put me under a certain spell. Its simple, addictive, fun, and one of the best games I've played in a long time.

I highly recommend Nano Wars to everyone - not just gamers. The fact that I'm writing about a flash game should be enough brain lube for you to give it a try.

Oh and don't worry its not hosted on one of those atrocious games sites.

Minority Report

2008-11-18T13:53:00.000-08:00

Check the vid. Some cool some not.

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

I lost control again...

2008-11-16T04:22:00.000-08:00

We just recently grabbed a Harmony remote for the house. Its a fine device no doubt however there is room for improvement(never happy).

That improvement would come in the form of a QWERTY keyboard embedded in the back of the remote. The keyboard would communicate via Bluetooth to any Bluetooth enabled device (media PC would be ideal). It would really push this already awesome remote into a new realm of dick kicking.

Imagine controlling your media PC via your remote and then flipping it over to type text into a browser, instant message window, chat room, etc. Eliminating the need to have Keyboard next to the couch.

Hell lets turn it up a notch (to a 11) and incorporate a BlackBerry ball type element to the remote thus removing 01000101110101010101000101001010100101010010101001010100101
101010000101111111000010101010100010111010101010100010100101010010101
000101111111000010101010100010111010101010100010100101010010101001011
(digital scratching to halt noise)
These guys have the right idea. Just need a BlackBerry equivalent.

ta|split|bs

2008-11-03T02:43:00.000-08:00

DOWNLOAD IT HERE!

Just released a 0.1 version of my ta|split|bs extension. You can check it out at
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9471
Core functionality is there. Play with it, write it songs, take it to the park, break it, and then come back and tell me how it all went down. I want feedback. Does it suck? Why does it suck? How can I improve it. You get the idea.

Shotgun How-To:
Open split tab by...
CTRL+COMMAND or Windows key + Right or Left arrows.
or
Right click a link (or anywhere on a page) and select 'Open in Split Tab'.

Once the split tab is open you can drag and drop to your hearts content (links, tabs, pictures, whatever).

To navigate in the left or right contents you must click them, doing so will high light the location bar blue(left) or red(right). So if your url bar is red, whatever you type in there will show up on the right side. You get the idea...

365 Tao

2008-10-27T03:47:00.000-07:00

Get on it.
365 Tao

...read some here.

Split it up pt.2

2008-10-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

OK so the previous post didn't do a great job illustrating how my extension works. Let me elaborate...

The pane in the right says "Drag Tab Here", which is a tad misleading because you can drag tabs, links, pretty much any element with a src/href attribute. So in the previous posts screen shots I dragged links instead of tabs.

I've made a few minor updates since...

Split content is only activated/opened/visible by right clicking hyperlinks and selecting 'Open in Split Tab'.

The opening of new tabs collapses the split content pane. A bug just surfaced while playing around with this. Once a new tab is opened the split content has to be dragged by the grippy back out. Clicking on the grippy does not open it.

I wouldn't recommend using this extension quite yet. Its still pretty awkward to use.
I've checked the source into google code @ http://code.google.com/p/tabsplitter/source/browse/

Split it up

2008-10-10T17:46:00.000-07:00

Rummaging through MXR (Mozilla Code) last night, I found it painful navigating multiple documents/tabs/source. So much so that I hacked up a quick extension that enables you to merge/split tabs.

Its very rudimentary at the moment (gimme a break I did this last night), so there are a ton of features, bugs, UI enhancements that need to be made.

For the visual:

Its good for...

Taking notes from webpages (have google docs open).

Comparing/viewing source code.

Looking at pr0n?

Multiple YouTube vids going.

... anyways you get the idea.

Things to be done:

When grippy is clicked for the first time it fails to expand, you have to drag it out first then it functions accordingly.

Change grippy widget.

Enable navigation in merged tab.

Add "Open in Split Tab" option in right click options.

Setup quick toggle keys, so no mouse is needed.

Add horizontal view (had this going earlier).

Fix content focus when merged tab is collapsed. Right now if you open up two video streams and collapse one, the collapsed video/audio is still playing (performance issue?).

Shit. Too many to list right now, I'm starving.
The install package(xpi) here.

Full Circle.

2008-10-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

Like to read interesting things?

Me too.

The Future of Science is... Art?

From the above article:

"...The fundamental point is that modern science has made little progress toward any unified understanding of everything. Our unknowns have not dramatically receded. In many instances, the opposite has happened, so that our most fundamental sciences are bracketed by utter mystery. It's not that we don't have all the answers. It's that we don't even know the question."

"By taking these artistic explorations seriously, neuroscientists can better understand the holistic properties they are trying to parse. Before you break something apart, it helps to know how it hangs together. In this sense, the arts are an incredibly rich data set, providing science with a glimpse into its blind spots."

Design

2008-05-16T12:04:00.001-07:00

Brilliant.
http://www.e-mrak.cz/index.php?lang=cs&page=home

v.03 The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

2007-12-14T12:40:00.000-08:00

The Good... v.03 is complete.
The Bad... I have to give back the school laptop.
The Ugly... My code.

Contribs:
Helped out Shomar Dejonge with his Litmus project. Gave him some code to login to litmus via JS.
Assisted Simon Jung on his project by running his server code on my home box.

l8r.

(Expect a more detailed post in the following week.)

Signs of Breathing

2007-12-04T07:45:00.001-08:00

Arlene Stamp

XPCOM Lab

2007-11-18T01:53:00.000-08:00

I just stepped through the XPCOM Lab ever so carefully but still ended up with a broken XPCOM component.

My FirstXpcom.cpp file is a verbatim the one from the wiki (cut n paste action) however it still bunks out at line 26 (in the constructor) with the following error:

/home/cozby/MozillaBuild/mozilla/extensions/firstxpcom/src/FirstXpcom.cpp: In constructor ‘FirstXpcom::FirstXpcom()’:
/home/cozby/MozillaBuild/mozilla/extensions/firstxpcom/src/FirstXpcom.cpp:26: error: no matching function for call to ‘nsString_external::Assign(const char [21])’
../../../dist/include/xpcom/nsStringAPI.h:124: note: candidates are: void nsAString::Assign(const nsAString&)
../../../dist/include/xpcom/nsStringAPI.h:128: note:                 void nsAString::Assign(const PRUnichar*, PRUint32)
../../../dist/include/xpcom/nsStringAPI.h:132: note:                 void nsAString::Assign(PRUnichar) 
make[2]: *** [FirstXpcom.o] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/cozby/MozillaBuild/build/extensions/firstxpcom/src'
make[1]: *** [libs] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/cozby/MozillaBuild/build/extensions/firstxpcom'
make: *** [default] Error 2

OK I lied, its slightly different from the wiki, the one on the wiki has a stray 'L' character in the constructor, so I removed that (I did try it with and without the mysterious 'L' though). The busted goods ---> http://pastebin.mozilla.org/244779

Ideas, suggestions, donations?

*UPDATE*
Thanks Dave making it 'AssignLiteral' did the trick.
I screen you screen we all screen for...

Shoot First Ask Questions Later v0.2

2007-11-06T22:32:00.000-08:00

Good news, I've been able to login to my OP via JS and establish a session. So now when you login to your favourite OpenID supported site and are redirected for authentication you no longer have to login to your OP because a session was previously established.

Nothing incredibly ground breaking but definitely a big step in the right direction. From this I can now try and capture the redirect and prompt a user from chrome which information they're willing to part with (IE. Email, First/Last name, Address, etc)...

This is currently handled via your OP's website, as shown below.Next I'm going to be making some UI additions to the preferences window to allow for some OpenID settings. Things like your OpenID and the URL along with your username/password to your OpenID provider.

Right now my code only supports one OP (http://www.myopenid.com).

Word.

FSAUCE Round Up

2007-10-27T17:48:00.000-07:00

If there was a theme to this years FSOSS I would have to say it was community. All the talks I
attended emphasized how important this element is in creating and sustaining good software.

The first talk I attended was with Jay Goldman and David Crow on Usability and User Experience. I really dug this talk. I've always felt that the UX element in software development is often overlooked in the development process. However I think this is changing, developers and companies are realizing the importance of good functional design and what it could do for them. Their slides on the evolution of the Word toolbar were great, its really no surprise that half the features requested by users already existed for more than one version. Jay and David also touched on the importance of community. Getting feedback from users and involving them in the design process (to a degree) and what great effects this has.

This was the main theme in Beltzner's talk (Product and User Design in Open Communities). Another great talk on design and the involvement of community. I'm not sure if I got this right but I reckon Beltzner said something along the lines of 'its not consistent design thats important but a consistent user experience' and that kicked around in my head for awhile.
I also found it interesting when he spoke on community compromise and how so many projects drive themselves into the ground by not saying 'no'. The options always there, you don't always have to do what the community wants and that most of these battles are a result of people becoming emotionally invested in their ideas.

The next talk I hit was the Facebook talk. Now I was really keen on hearing what these chaps had to say about building on FB and using it as platform, etc. Unfortunately thats not what we got. Instead we got a pseudo technical talk on scaling 1000's of servers using their Thrift framework. This stuffs interesting but not really applicable to me. I'm not even on one server let alone a thousand servers. I did come out appreciating the FB family a little more though, finding out that a lot of their stuff is under the BSD license and how 'open' conscious they were was a nice surprise (I always thought they were evil - still kinda do).

Overall I had a great time, kudos to Dave, Chris, Cathy, and all the Hulka Maniacs involved in executing such a massive gig so smoothly.

What a mess...

2007-10-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

OpenID is a mess! Half of the supposed OpenID supported sites are busted. I've been going to OiD sites and monitoring the Request/Response conversation and I can barely get into half of the sites I've tried, or when I do get authenticated they make me register an account with them and associate my OiD with the account!?# WTF! What's the point of this thing? It so far has done nothing helpful, if anything it has lengthened the login process. I've only got into one site smoothly (toodledo.com) and that was only with my myopenid.com account and not my Sxipper account?

I wrote a little httpObserver to monitor what kind of info is being passed to and from my OP and the site I'm trying to login to. Every thing works accept for obtaining the responseStatus. I have no clue why, its getting me twisted. I need this info to look out for authentication responses. Below is some traffic dump (for the curious).


Topic:http-on-modify-requestURI:https://www.mixx.com/login Req.Method:POST
Status Code:0
Topic:http-on-modify-requestURI:http://www.myopenid.com/server?openid.mode=checkid_setup&openid.return_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mixx.com%2Fopenid_login%3Fopen_id_complete%3D1%26nonce%3Dv3igUyzl%26nonce%3Dv3igUyzl&openid.trust_root=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mixx.com%2F&openid.identity=http%3A%2F%2Fwugunz.myopenid.com%2F&openid.assoc_handle=%7BHMAC-SHA1%7D%7B470bb41e%7D%7Bmp0eyQ%3D%3D%7D Req.Method:GET
Status Code:0
Topic:http-on-modify-requestURI:https://www.myopenid.com/trust?request_id=0ab21b60 Req.Method:GET
Status Code:0
Topic:http-on-modify-requestURI:https://www.myopenid.com/trust_submit Req.Method:POST
Status Code:0
Topic:http-on-modify-requestURI:https://www.mixx.com/openid_login?open_id_complete=1&nonce=v3igUyzl&nonce=v3igUyzl&openid.assoc_handle=%7BHMAC-SHA1%7D%7B470bb41e%7D%7Bmp0eyQ%3D%3D%7D&openid.identity=http%3A%2F%2Fwugunz.myopenid.com%2F&openid.mode=id_res&openid.op_endpoint=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myopenid.com%2Fserver&openid.response_nonce=2007-10-23T00%3A01%3A53ZvtuXjA&openid.return_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mixx.com%2Fopenid_login%3Fopen_id_complete%3D1%26nonce%3Dv3igUyzl%26nonce%3Dv3igUyzl&openid.sig=4i3IeUkNkcyaw9VweBkgCV8He%2Bk%3D&openid.signed=assoc_handle%2Cidentity%2Cmode%2Cop_endpoint%2Cresponse_nonce%2Creturn_to%2Csigned Req.Method:GET
Status Code:0

Back to work, more constructive posts will follow... I hope. I needed to vent.

OpenID[ea]

2007-10-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

Change of plans.
My previous idea of capturing OpenID request by making the browser an OP is out of the question. Its just not possible, the protocol doesn't allow for it (what if you're behind a router?)

Right.

So now the deal is I'm going to make an extension that acts as an OP manager and a liaison between the user and their OPs. Getting around the current authentication paradigm OpenID poses - authentication via redirection. My efforts are to push the authentication process client side. I also have to keep this as light weight and seemless as possible, as to not suggest to users that this is an external extension (even though it is) but instead give the illusion that its native to the browsers functionality.

You might be thinking well this is already done. Well yes and no, Sxipper does a good job of this but it also does 23809849209832 other things and is UI intensive (you should try it out its pretty nifty) and Beltzner pointed me to an extension called Appalachian that handles OP managing but still suffers from the authentication via redirection issue. That leaves some middle ground for this extension. I'll be posting whatever developments I make. At the moment I'm combing through Sxipper and Appalachian code to get and idea of how things are done.

Over'n out.

Project Goods

2007-10-01T16:31:00.000-07:00

Alright so I've been chipping away at this OpenID thing and I think I know how all this voodoo works.

I could give you the lengthy detailed version of how OpenID works but I'm hungry, so this will be brief like underwear.

A user goes to ilovelemurs.com and is asked to sign in with their OpenID, which is a URI that resembles something like example.com. example.com is any site that acts as an Identity Provider(it doesn't have to be, but I'm not getting into that). ilovelemurs.com then verifies that the user does indeed belong to/owns example.com and lets you in. I will post a purrrty diagram and a more detailed version of how this works later.

What I have to do is make Firefox act/function like example.com (to my knowledge).
I have to somehow make the browser handle the authentication request from consumer sites (sites that support OpenID) and chop out that middle man.

This will be tricky, as I have to somehow make the browser handle GET/POST request like a web server. In-fact the only way I know how to achieve this, is to actually embed a web server into my extension (I'm not even sure if thats possible for security reason).
I'm eyeing this sweet little 4k java web server I found here for the job. If I can get this thing going and implement single user OpenID support on top of it, then I'm rollin'. If for reasons I can't go this route, well then I'm not sure how I can do this? Suggestions?

Patching And Building Extensions

2007-09-19T22:35:00.000-07:00

This is a quick lil' run through on how to apply a patch and build an extension.

Applying a pizzzatch
Pre-condition: Before starting this I'm assuming you have already checked out the code from cvs.

1) Download the patch, this may seem straight forward but I actually tripped on this. The patches
I were applying are https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=393881, you must open each attachment in the
browser and then go to file->save as and that will save it as a .patch. Not knowing how any of this
works thought the attachment was going to be a straight forward .cpp file. So when confronted with a bunch of C++ code and then some, I got twisted.

2) Go into the path that contains the file you're about to patch and run the following command
patch -p0 -i /the/path/to/your/patch'/you/just/downloaded/
Doing so will patch the appropriate files. I got the following output when I did the above.


cozbymac:~/Documents/development/MozillaBuildStuff/mozilla/extensions/metrics cozby$ patch -p0 -i ~/Documents/development/MozillaBuildStuff/patches/metrics-places-update-01.patch
patching file src/nsProfileCollector.cpp
cozbymac:~/Documents/development/MozillaBuildStuff/mozilla/extensions/metrics cozby$ patch -p0 -i ~/Documents/development/MozillaBuildStuff/patches/metrics-places-update-02.patch
patching file install.rdf
patching file src/nsProfileCollector.cpp
Hunk #6 succeeded at 779 (offset -5 lines).
patching file src/nsProfileCollector.h
patching file src/nsUICommandCollector.cpp

3) Super, now thats all patched up I need to make sure the extension I want gets built. So I needed to add the following line to my .mozconfig file
ac_add_options --enable-extensions=metrics
in my case I'm building the metrics extension, if you want to build something replace metrics with the name of the extension.

4) Build. make -f client.mk build
5) Wait...
6) It worked!

UPDATE:
Thanks to Dave, I now know a much much easier way to build extensions. Instead of building World every time, you can just go into your objdir/extension/some_extension/ and type 'make'.
Thats it... it'll build just the extension and place the .xpi accordingly. EPIC.

Minefield == Gran Paradiso - wha?

2007-09-18T20:20:00.000-07:00

The name of the game - building Firefox on Mac OS X 10.4.
First up, making sure my build environment is accordance with
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Mac_OS_X_Build_Prerequisites#Software_Requirements
Was already rolling with Fink so I decided to go down that route, only to be stumped with the following error:


checking for libIDL - version >= 0.6.3... no
*** The libIDL-config script installed by libIDL could not be found
*** If libIDL was installed in PREFIX, make sure PREFIX/bin is in
*** your path, or set the LIBIDL_CONFIG environment variable to the
*** full path to libIDL-config.
checking for pkg-config... no
*** The pkg-config script could not be found. Make sure it is
*** in your path, or set the PKG_CONFIG environment variable
*** to the full path to pkg-config.
*** Or see http://www.freedesktop.org/software/pkgconfig to get pkg-config.
configure: error: Library requirements (libIDL-2.0 >= 0.8.0) not met; consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if your libraries are in a nonstandard prefix so pkg-config can find them.
*** Fix above errors and then restart with "make -f client.mk build"
make[2]: *** [configure] Error 1
make[1]: *** [/Users/cozby/Documents/development/MozillaBuildStuff/mozilla/../build/ppc/Makefile] Error 2
make: *** [build] Error 2

After mucking around with environment variables and still no cigar outcomes, I decided to ask Ben for some advice. He told me to ditch Fink and get with MacPorts (all the cool kids were using it). I did just that and my build proceeded smoothly. However there was some confusion as to what Firefox 3 aka Gran Paradiso was and what Minefield was. I thought I'd have some Gran Paradiso branded browser but instead got Minefield. The skinny is since Firefox 3 is based off the current trunk aka Minefield, it is in fact Firefox 3 sans the Gran Paradiso branding. Long story short - all is good.

Apologies to all the action fiends, no real epic build battles took place, everything was pretty vanilla (ice).

Eyes Wide Shut

2007-09-09T02:36:00.000-07:00

Arthur Erickson

Pickin' bones

2007-09-02T17:42:00.000-07:00

I've had enough man, people have to stop this digital picture madness. I was at a show last night that felt like a red carpet event. Every son of a bitch had camera. This one schmuck had this ghetto blaster like camera that seemed to leave radio active fall out from every shot. Why don't these people takes pictures of something worth while, like naked women or UFO's? I'm not sure what this is, the death of photography or the revival, whatever it is turn the flash off.

Take It Serious

2007-08-24T14:17:00.001-07:00

Ch-checkin' out Mika Miko tonight. All girl punk group from LA that tears shit up (awesome energy). Some good vibrations riiiiiight here.

Barnett Newman

2007-08-09T19:26:00.001-07:00

Achilles
Glass Candy - Computer Love (Kraftwerk Cover)

EPIC LULZ

2007-07-31T01:04:00.000-07:00

This is absolutely amazing.

The Heart Of A Dog

2007-07-29T13:55:00.001-07:00

Standing around drunk on a street corner waiting for your bus at 3am has its own charm.
I've been looking for a good book to read for the past few weeks (thx to those who recommended me some), but nothing so far has really kicked me in the nuts. That was until last night, some girl riding her bike stopped to ask for a quarter. What caught me though was the book she had in her front basket. So naturally I plucked it out and asked her about it. She told me to read the back - its worth it, she'll wait.

It features a professor Philip Philippovich Preobrazhensky (his name is derived from the Russian word for "transfiguration") who implants human testicles and pituitary gland into a stray dog named Sharik. Sharik then proceeds to become more and more human as time passes, picks himself the name Polygraph Polygraphovich Sharikov, makes himself a career with the "Moscow Cleansing Department responsible for eliminating vagrant quadrupeds (cats, etc.)", and turns the life in the professor's house into a nightmare until the professor reverses the procedure.

I think I found my new book.
I said thanks, and told her I didn't have any change.

A copy of the text can be found here.

...but we must go and work in the garden.

2007-07-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

Read it (Voltaire's Candide ), its good for you, like carrots it'll improve your vision.

Putting Canadian Piracy in Perspective

2007-07-12T22:38:00.000-07:00

A must watch.

Sweet.

2007-07-06T01:11:00.000-07:00

Played around with FUSE awhile back when I was trying to mount my google email account as an online storage place. I ran into some problems/restriction mainly concerning the uploading of data, so I dropped it. Well now it just popped into sight again as MacFuse, and its come a long way. The stuff you can do... wooooh weeeeee, pretty damn impressive. Check out the video.

MozMetrics

2007-07-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

New project in motion, check it out...

http://mozmetrics.wordpress.com

Wordpress is balls. Its unfortunate that blogger doesn't support multiple authors for one blog.

*Update*
K, I'm knob, Blogger does support multiple authors.
See comment.

Gimme the Green...P

2007-07-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

I was looking something up on Google Maps today, and when I found it the next question that came to mind was - where can I park? I have the unfortunate responsibility of looking after my car, like so many others. So its only natural that we find somewhere to stow away our mechanical steed.

After Googling around I found out such parking information is readily available. Cowabunga. The possibilities people! Instead of just Green-P lots we could also provide side street parking information, times, rates, days allowed. So there ya go, another lil project to keep me from doing school work.

Not... enough... time...

2007-07-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

Gone are the days when summers felt like years and years were all about birthdays.

Bring back the old days. Whats the rush, we don't even know where we're going, even with Google Maps.

Has everyone lost it. Twitter? Are you serious, how does a product like that take off?

END OF RANT.

Nicey app.

2007-06-27T02:57:00.000-07:00

Been working on my board the past couple of days, and In the process I discovered a really great application. Its called Fugu, its a free Cocoa front end to the OpenSSH sftp client.

Its simple and very intuitive, a no-frills sftp client. So if you're in the market for a GUI sftp client, give Fugu a twirl.

Genius

2007-06-27T02:53:00.000-07:00

So you're back eh?

2007-05-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

Boom! Shiva

2007-04-27T22:48:00.000-07:00

I packed the bowl (or should I say chillum) pretty tight these past weeks. So much has come and gone, to reflect on all of it would take way too much time (I'm racing against the next black out).

The mountains were unreal. I stayed in a village called Pulga along Parvati Valley where the gods grow their hash (charras), and it really is divine stuff. All those nutty eccentric characters you've ever drummed up exist - I've met them. The French ex-pat artist named Marrie who makes the most delicious hot chocolate and French bread, the Swedish architect who's gone fuckery, the spacey Israeli father trying to read the stars... they're all here man, and they're just as insane and beautiful as you imagined them to be. The best part is they're all just doing their own thing. Not for any other reason. Not to go back home and jive about how they chilled in some cave and shat themselves for 2 days while they talked to god or arm wrestled sadhu's for bananas. These cats are the real deal - hulkamaniacs to the end.

I could go on forever about all the cheesy, charming, and magical things India has to offer but you wouldn't get it unless you're actually here with dal stains on you shirt smelling like a bus full of sweaty Indians. So I'm going to stop.

Like that crappy slogan we got on our Ontario license plates... India is yours to discover.

Catch you on the flip side.
[I've got a stupid amount of pics to throw up, I'll do what I can.]

Gopal hates you...

2007-04-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

Golfing in Gurgaon

So I'm back at my aunts place in Delhi takin' it easy before I head out again. Its nice to be back. The home cooked meals, the fresh laundry, morning/afternoon/post-dinner tea times, clean comfortable washrooms where I can let the water run a lil longer and hotter, all this and good company.

While I'm here I figure I capitalize on the decent internet connection they got and up some pics from my golfing excursion with my uncle. My uncle works as golf course consultant. You can't really call it work, all he does is golf. Its a pretty sweet gig. One of the courses he looks over is in Gurgaon by the name of Karma Lake Lands. Its a real nice course, completely private (invite only) so basically no one plays on it except him and the marketing guy. They're developing the place into a high end residency for avid golfers, or something of the sort. They got flats being built around the course that go for no less than 1-2 million ducats (thats USD brutha).

We had the whole course to ourselves and I had my very own caddy named Gopal, who didn't take too well to me. Not once did I bend over to tee up or pick up the ball - Gopal was there. He was also there after I hucked the ball numerous times in the rough woods, lakes, and construction sites. The whole time I was there I forgot I was in India, I think thats actually the point. The minute you leave the compound you get a dirty Indian back hand of reality. Its strange.

This week I'll be heading to the Taj Mahal and the Golden Temple and then on the 18th I'm off to Dharamsala (Dalai Lama's hood) where my Himalayan adventure commences.

Until then...

Up, bustle, and out!

2007-04-05T07:52:00.000-07:00

Goa

Alright, so here's the deal I'm in Goa ya. This place is like one big never ending dirty rave. Its feels like a retirement resort for those past their prime ravers. You know, the 35-40 yr old lot you see wearing those flea market neon green T's with marijuana leafs swirling around. No shittin' ya.

It ain't all bad though...

There's this nicey German eatery here thats got amazing chocolate croissants (I go there at least twice a day), the gals here are ridiculously gorgeous and hail from all over the place, and there's nothing like booting about on your own scooter along side the beach feeling irie.

Omit my previous post, I read it over this morning and was shocked at how gay it was.

Beer and Bananas in Bangalore

2007-03-31T01:31:00.000-07:00

Bangalore+Mysore

Howdy,

I'm currently hangin' out in Banglore right now, the so called Silicon Valley of India aka Dork Central. This place is busting at its seems with international tech companies. Land here is incredibly expensive, and the traffic... forgettabout it. I thought Bombay was bad, this place is clown shoes.

Banglores in the south and has some of the best weather in India. Its pretty high above the sea level so it doesn't get too hot or cold around here. This place is also known as Pub City. The streets are lined with'em, but the funny part is they all close at 11:30pm (yay India!) so its kind of a buzz kill. Not much to do around here, so I went to the market and bought some Bananas and beer. I decided to try out some Indian beer - King Fisher. Its not bad, the best part about it is their slogan 'King of good times!' That shit cracked me up. It's all about the GT's!

I also hooked up with some hippies I met through a friend here. A real cool duet by the name of Garb and Nancy (not their real names). Garb is local and Nancy's from the US they hitched a few yrs ago. They're on some far out shit. They just got back from the Himalayas, so they had some premo Indo Hash, like I mean creme of the crop you don't stop, this rhyme sucks kinda shit. So it was a night of Yardbirds, whisky, and hash. It was so refreshing to lounge around and listen to GOOD music for once. Thats definitely one thing I miss the most - music. My iPods outta bats and I feel like a douche wearing it out. In the plane sure thats cool but walking around buying bananas haggling rickshaw drivers - no.

Gotta cut it short, I'm starting to smell myself.
Hit ya later with some pics.

Keepin' it white

2007-03-26T00:24:00.000-07:00

Bombay (Powai, White Night Club)

Finally got the chance to get out and see what Mumbai's all aboot. Got some meds to keep me from crapping my pants and they seem to be working!

Bombay..actually India is all about who you know. If you know the right person you can get anywhere , and luckily I know of few of those people.

So dig this, the first thing I wanted to do is get drunk (oooh sweet whisky where have you been). So the family friends I'm staying with took me to White night club, where everything is white except the people. Its the only exclusive house night club in all of Bombay (or even the country?). I had a WTF expression on my face when I first walked in. Its a real trip to see a whole club full of brown towns jammin' to house. It was good times though. The night life is like anywhere else but really really really expensive, also pretty exclusive. The family friends I'm staying with their daughter is quite the socialite so we were able to get free access to all the clubs, otherwise it'd be pretty costly. In addition to White I went to Shiro (some oriental/indo themed gig) and the Hard Rock Cafe. Now I know you're all thinking WTF the Hard Rock Cafe, but here this is THE place to be. Indian's love cheesy rock - it fucks me up. So what better place than the Hard Rock Cafe. It was surprisingly very nice inside. I also think this is the only place Hard Rock Cafe makes any money, so they put a lot into it. Its still pretty gay though.

Oh, I also went to Madh Beach. Drank some, played some, ate some. I enjoyed this the most.

Bombay the Hardway (had to use it)

2007-03-20T19:25:00.000-07:00

Just landed in Bombay and I feel like a rat crawled in my mouth and took a shit. I've become ill, from what I don't know, could be the food, water, heat, India. Its terrible, my stomach is such a sissy when it comes eating anything. The smallest grain of dirt, an improperly washed spoon, or an intense look by a cow would knock my ass out. I hate it.

I'm a lil back logged on my blogging, got plenty of pics to put up but not right now (give a brutha a break).

Once I feel confident that I won't crap myself I'll be sure to post some pics of Bombay.

Durka Durka Palace

2007-03-12T01:10:00.000-07:00

Vaishno Devi Trip

Weather conditions prevented me from going to Manali this week so I got myself on a bus to Katra Kashmir to see the Vaishno Devi temple. Its an intense 24km trek, 12km up and 12km down. Millions of pilgrims make the trek making it the 2nd holiest joint in India. It was a total mission getting there. I took an 18 hour bus ride from Delhi to Katra. Katra is in Kashmir and Kashmir if you don't know is a hot spot for rebels and has a strong military presence there - basically everyone’s carrying gats. The bus smelled like it doubled as a samosa factory avec crying children. Getting on the right bus was also a quite the task. I had met up with a colleague of my cousins who was also making the trek. He couldn't handle the bus we were on and suggested we switch to another bus going to the same place. So we did, only to be kicked off to our original bus an hour later. I personally didn't care, I thought 'hey, this is India...' Anyways, all things happen for a reason right, well I believe so. Apparently the bus we tried to switch to had snapped its axel in Jammu Kashmir and was stranded for 2+ hours. Seems like the divines already got my back!

The bus stopped at a eatery in Punjab called the Eagle Food & Drink or something awful like that. The minute we entered into Punjab the surroundings changed from tree's to liquor stores and truck stops (not surprised). This is where everyone got out and ate (the food was surprisingly good). This is also where our bus driver invited a few of us to come up stairs and enjoy a bottle of whiskey with him. Drinkin' n drivin' what what! Apparently its pretty common for truckers to be wasted here. Finally got to Katra after driving up mountain roads where families (children too) break rocks on the side of the road (I'm guessing they get dough for doing such). Along with families breaking rocks are monkeys break dancing. There were tons of monkeys sifting through garbage drinking juice boxes and eating Lays chips (they've got it made). Once we got into the core of Katra we booked ourselves into The Durga Palace, it gave off a real creepy vibe but was sufficient for our needs. First thing I did was check out my washroom, I was expecting the worst but was happily surprised. It was decent, a couple of centipedes here'n there, the toilet flushed and had toilet paper, and had running hot water.

Once the accommodations were all sorted out we made our way to the mountain. The up hill trek wasn't that bad. You have the option of taking a horse or donkey if you don't feel like walking or 4 dudes(in sweater vests) will carry you on a lawn chair attached to some poles all the way up. We walked. Some people walk bare foot all the way up others you see walk a couple of steps and then prostrate get back up and do this all the way to the summit. People say what you wish for at the top comes true (2 ppl have told me personally that their wishes have come true) but only if you keep your end of the bargain and come back and pray again. I'll just have to wait'n see if my prayer comes true.

Getting back down and home was a whole other mission and would require another page worth of writing, so instead I'm going to go eat a mango popsicle.

Happy Holi

2007-03-05T01:38:00.000-08:00

Holi

Yesterday was Holi. The city shuts down for a few hours and everyone goes nuts smearing each other in colourful powders and liquids. Some visuals.

The rickshaw ride that almost killed me

2007-02-27T23:32:00.000-08:00

India Gate & Red Fort

Did the tourist bit today; I went to India Gate and Red Fort for some sight seeing. I took a rickshaw to the front entrance of Red Fort that almost ended in tragedy. The rickshaw guys name was Haresh. He seemed quite popular amongst his rickshaw clan. All the other rickshaw guys were giving him high fives and telling me to call him some shit in Hindi. I think they were just jealous that he was able to nab a foreigner. I tried to get a pic of him but my camera died.

I got to bypass the main line to Red Fort, being a foreigner has some perks. Once inside, Red Fort is really a spectacle but for some reason I wasn't all that impressed. I had more fun almost dying then looking at this red building. Don't get me wrong, its incredible, it dates back to the Mughal era, constructed with no concrete, has some of the most brilliant inlay work, but really didn't blow my face off. Anyways check out the pics, there aren't that many because my camera was low on bats.