Purple Tunnel of Doom – The Google Map

Filed Under News, Personal | 2009-01-28, 20:08

I didn’t think I’d be posting more about the Inauguration, but the stories about the Purple ticket line and the infamous “Purple Tunnel of Doom” are gaining steam. The Huffington Post has a great round-up of info on it and I figured I’d share the Google map that I put together after the Inauguration because I wanted to see where exactly we were all day. Little did we know that we were actually under the Mall most of the day. Here’s a link to the map with photos and all.

And here’s a list of my Twitters from the Inauguration: http://tinyurl.com/edrabbitinaug09

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Our Inauguration Experience in Photos

Filed Under News, Personal | 2009-01-27, 19:37

I’ve been meaning to sit down and write up a blog post about our Inauguration experience (the good and bad), but I haven’t gotten anywhere close to finishing it. It’s rapidly approaching that point of no return where I know I won’t actually get it done, so I figured I’d post some photos for people that were interested in hearing about it. This is just a sampling of the photos I took. You can see the full sets on Flickr:
20090120-Barack Obama’s Inauguration
Out and About around D.C.
There are also some videos I streamed from D.C. here and some others here.

We woke up at 5am and were on the streets walking to the Capitol by 6am.

All the roads around The Mall were closed to vehicles so people were walking everywhere.

Heather yawns as we wait in line for 4+ hours in the infamous Purple Tunnel of Doom.

Things got pretty crowded.

We could see light at the correct end of the tunnel after about 3 hours. We started the morning in view of the light from the other end of the tunnel.

Last two people to make it through the police barricade as the crowd/mob surged towards the gate. I would have been the last one to quickly squeeze past the cops and barriers, but Heather got pulled through since we had locked arms to avoid being separated in the crowd. A quick (almost scarily unthorough) security pat down and we sprinted to get a view of the swearing in that would happen minutes later.

This is the Purple Gate you may have heard something about in the news.

Seen on the sidewalk. It probably would not have done them any good as thousands of people with tickets didn’t even get in.

We scored a spot right at the fence for the first block of Obama’s motorcade that would later join up with the entire parade. It was a long cold wait, but we got a chance to wave at the new President as he rolled by.

Secret Service is Serious Stuff.

Heather reacts to seeing Obama. She’s such a fan-girl. :)

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Streaming Qik from the Inauguration

Filed Under News, Video | 2009-01-20, 17:03

I was surprisingly able to stream a couple of Qik videos while waiting in line for and during the Inauguration of Barack Obama. I’m amazed that the cell networks held up, let alone allowed me to stream video. Here they are:
Walking down the loooong line for the Purple ticket holders:

Still waiting in line:

Catching part of Obama’s speech:

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Headed to D.C. in the morning

Filed Under Personal | 2009-01-19, 00:28

We’re all packed up with warm clothes, electronics, and whatnot and ready for the shuttle to pick us up at 6:30am to head to the airport and eventually land in Washington D.C. for Obama’s Inauguration. The party has already started with the We Are One concert tonight. We tuned into the rebroadcast from HBO to check it out and were amazed at the size of the crowd, and then even more amazed when we realized the estimated crowd for Tuesday was 3-4 times that size. Heather also pointed out that I am in fact 1-degree away from Obama, as I have met John Legend, and John Legend performed as part of the We Are One thing. That plus a piece of paper with Abraham Lincoln will get me a burrito.

Rubin has been awesome enough to lend me his Canon Digital Rebel XSi for the next few days so I can take actually half-decent photos with something other than my point-and-shoot Canon SD450. Coincidentally this is also the camera I’ve been considering purchasing, so it’ll be nice to give it a test run.

In about 24 hours we should be at Kim’s place and in a day and a half I’ll be turning 29 and we’ll be getting a new president. Can’t wait for the madness that will be the Mall!

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Google search results for “KH(Ax)N” for x=1 to 100

Filed Under Geek | 2009-01-16, 13:30

Ever wonder just how many ‘A’s you should be using when searching for one of Captain Kirk’s most famous phrases? Tim has graphed it out for you.

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Tickets for the Swearing In Ceremony of Barack Obama

Filed Under News, Personal | 2009-01-15, 16:59

Just got back from picking up our tickets from Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s office. So excited to actually have them in my hands. Only 5 more days!

We’ve got seats in the North Standing (or Purple) area. If we get there early enough we might actually get a decent spot in the center! Here’s a map of the Inauguration “seating” for the different tickets:

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We’re Headed to the Inauguration!

Filed Under News, Personal | 2009-01-14, 20:05

image via Flickr

Jan 20th is my birthday and I can’t think of any better present this year than having Barack Obama as President.

I’ve never been much of a political person. I have my own views and opinions, but have never been interested in all the politics. A lot of that changed with this past election. Finally someone I felt could represent most of my interests and outlooks was running, and actually won. On November 4th, I watched Obama give his acceptance speech in a room of friends from all walks that I never thought would be as concerned as they were. Here was an entire generation energized by the potential the Obama represented to all of us.

Fifteen years ago I stood in the cold winter air of Washington D.C. on January 20th to watch Bill Clinton get sworn in. I had just turned 13 years old and did not really understand the significance of the moment. My highlight was having the group of people around us join in a chorus of “Happy Birthday”. However looking back on it, I realize that it meant something to my dad. I can’t speak for him, but I imagine he felt that there was someone taking office that represented him and his generation. It’s my turn for that. Coincidentally my dad will be there too!

So a few days after the election I decided that I wanted to be in D.C. again for another inauguration. We booked flight tickets (after a friend offered us floor space on which to crash) and I drafted an email to Nancy Pelosi requesting the free, but incredibly rare tickets. We had very little hope of actually getting tickets but looked forward to joining millions of people on the mall to experience this historic event. To my surprise a few weeks after I had sent in my request, I received an email from Nancy Pelosi letting me know that she would like to offer me tickets to the event. I was ecstatic.

So on Monday, Heather and I will hop on a flight to D.C. to join an estimated 4 million people for an unprecedented celebration. We’ll probably be spending the night on the floor in a friend’s office, 1 block from the Capitol, getting up early to get through the security checks and into place to wait for the official ceremony at noon and for history to take place. I will be twittering non-stop, and doing my best to take photos as I want to document for myself and I know others are interested in a more personal take on the event. If you’re going too, let me know!

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Dracul: Prince of Fire, a Fire Ballet

Filed Under Art, Fire Art, SF Bay Area | 2009-01-09, 16:44

Last night we gathered with a large number of friends for the second performance of “Dracul: Prince of Fire” at The Crucible. We’ve been to several of the previous fire ballets and knew that the tickets were worth every penny. Apparently so did the rest of the Bay Area as the performance quickly sold out.

For those that aren’t familiar, The Crucible is an Oakland based non-profit organization that encourages collaboration of Arts, Industry and Community through training in the fine and industrial arts. You can take classes there on topics such as welding, neon, jewelry making, wood carving, fire dancing, and more. This fire ballet is a celebration/fund-raiser for their 10th year in existence. With your ticket purchase you will get a wonderful show, plus you’ll be helping a great organization.

The show itself was amazing from start to finish. I’m not a fan of ballet personally, but as readers know, I love me some fire. And there was plenty of fire for the evening. I don’t want to give away any parts of the show, but it had me applauding both the performers as well as the people behind the fabrication. In addition there was a lot of amazing aerial performances as well as humorous nods to popular culture.

I highly recommend going if you get the chance. I would recommend wearing warm clothes however, as it is held inside The Crucible’s warehouse, which is not know for its warmth. People will give you envious looks (rather than weird ones) should you bring a warm blanket. The show runs Jan 7th-10th and Jan 14th-17th. There are still several nights left at varying ticket prices, but they will sell out. For more info, check out the page on The Crucible.

The following trailer for Dracul uses footage from previous performances to give you an idea of what to expect:

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I Spy Eye-Fi for the iPhone

Filed Under Gadgets & Hardware | 2009-01-05, 19:02

Say that quickly three times. I love my Eye-Fi card and have since the early days beta-testing it. It makes “downloading” photos easier, parties more fun, and opens up all sorts of new possibilities. I also like my iPhone as well, but I’ve been kind of disappointed with the iPhone apps for instant uploading of photos so far. AirMe tends to crash and loses the photo, Klick adds the wrong location, and sending via email sends a stripped down image. I’m hoping that the new EyeFi app for the iPhone fixes all these issues and becomes my new app of choice for quickly uploading photos to sites like Flickr as well as transferring to my laptop. More info on the new Eye-Fi app being announced at this year’s Macworld is on their site.