I Exist

Still compiling the videos, and haven’t sat down to make a blog yet, but here are some pictures. Check out the album here to see captions.

I literally gasped with excitement when I read this.

You can use this feature to transfer placemarks from Google Earth to Google Maps, make an editable copy of some geographic data you find on the web, or upload KML data from a GPS tracking device. Then you can bring it back to Google Earth by clicking on the KML link to download a KML file.

Finally a place to organize all my GPS logs from my trips. But it’s not working =(

Here is the announcement from the Google LatLong blog:
Import your KML, KMZ, and GeoRSS files

It’s new to me so I’m posting it up.

Why can’t life be this simple? You wake up, enjoy a coffee and a bagel leisurely then practice some karate and play some croquet. After lunch you hit the slip n’ slide, have a water fight and then play some badminton. After an eventful day you gather firewood, roast some marshmallows and tell scary stories until it’s time for bed. There’s appealing about such a simple life.

I just wonder how these guys do it all on 4 hours of sleep. Keep in mind that they start rolling out their sleeping bags at 2am, so you have to figure that it will be another 15 until they get settled and actually fall asleep. I’m guessing there’s more than just caffeine in that morning coffee.

For those of you unaware of Google Themes, check out this.

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I was thrilled when Google added multiple destinations to maps last year. Just in time to plan my trip through the Appalachians. Since we took back roads throughout the mountains default suggestions for routes always picked expressways. So, how did I get around this? I spent hours getting the particular longitude and latitude of a point on the earth to force Google to stay on the road I wanted to take (the Blue Ridge Parkway). They finally added a feature to pick a point on the route that Google calculated for you and divert the route to wherever you wanted to go. I was dreading planning out my trip through the Rockies, and considered not mapping it out through Google maps at all. I was just going to make a time table. This week I should be in this state, this week I should be in this area, ect. Mapping out tangents and spontaneity is even easier now. But I guess it can’t be too spontaneous if it’s methodically planned out months in advance. How about a “I’m Feeling Lucky” button that picks a random location to stop off on your travels?

(My new crazy commute to work)

So I’ve been obsessing over the idea of taking a month long trip through the Rockies and here is Route #1. At this point I am overconfident, and concerned with hitting every attraction I can think up, so the route is pretty long. I had to split it up into two maps because I exceeded the amount of destinations on Google Maps. Yes, my trip has exceeded the limits that Google developers thought to be reasonable. Now things are starting to get crazy. So I am expecting around 8,000 miles total.

Originally I thought of just going thought he Rockies, but then I thought, “Hey Yosemite is close by, oh and then Google isn’t too far away from there, then I could go to Death Valley. Oh hey, might as well stop in Vegas.” What will I do at Google? Probably drive around the buildings, snap a couple pictures, and leer jealously at employees. Maybe I could ask them to expand the number of destinations that Google Maps can hold. “Hey, Phil, there is some guy that rode 7,000 miles on his motorcycle to deliver us a feature request on Google Maps, what should I tell’em? Phil:Call security…”

I got some good feedback for my last trip so I thought I would ask again: Does anyone know of particular places in the areas I am passing that is worth seeing? I am open to any suggestions, whether it be a road side diner that makes a mean omlet or a national park that can’t be missed. Also, have a place where I could crash for a night? I don’t want to spend a month in hotels since they are boring and expensive over time. I will be camping a lot, but I am sure even a couch would become very inviting after a while.

(Click on the maps to zoom in and navigate through Google Maps.)

These charts represent the number of RSS entries I will “read”. I usually just scroll past most and just glance unless I see something about robots, alarm clocks or some picture that catches my eye. You can see what I typically bookmark, here. The charts are generated off of the past 30 days of activity.

Hourly Activity: This negatively correlates to my sleeping schedule.

Daily Activity: This correlates to how much I don’t see the sun. Also reinforces the “case of the Mondays” which, incidentally, occur on Mondays.

If they could only represent this in a eye pleasing pie chart I’d be in heaven…or just pleased by the chart.

Google has added themes to their personalized section. I was skeptical at first but it is actually pretty neat. My favorite is the “Tea House” theme. It changes every two hours and adjusts to your local time. The pictures below start at 6am and end at 4am. Very cute. Uh oh, Foxy is heading back to the tea house right now, that means it’s lunch time!

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Google added a new feature to view the traffic in some major cities. Ver Niiiice!

*tha-thump*

*tha-thump*

*tha-thump*

*refresh*

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*back online*

*tha-thump*

*tha-thump*

*tha-thump*

8268 searches later and still ticking.

Ok Bush. This is the final straw. Iraq, the Patriot Act, phone taps, huge deficit, billions in handouts to oil companies, handling of Katrina, pushing for social security privatization, removing US from Kyoto Treaty, fear mongering, “No Child Left Behind” program, letting the assault weapons ban expire, “switch grass”, faith-based initiatives, stem cells, God…, no accountability and creationism in public schools were all things that I didn’t like, but hey they weren’t that big of a deal. But when you use the term “The Google” it only shows how technologically incompetent you are and it makes my blood boil. For all the things you could be looking up on Google you lookup pictures of your ranch. I can just picture you laughing away as you notice a section of brush that you cleared. You’ve spent 20% of your presidency on vacation, do you need to waste any of the other time dicking around at Google to look at your ranch? Google “Osama” or something. Pretend like you are trying.

“The Google”….wtf.

Kudos to Google for another piece of powerful technology wrapped in a simple and straight forward interface that even President Bush can use.