A Weekend in the Northwoods

Bayfield Ice Road Photos

Jen and I headed up to Bayfield this weekend for an enjoyable, off-season Northwoods weekend.

The moment we merged onto Highway 2 in Wisconsin, our mobile phones declared ‘No Network’. It took a moment for ‘No Network’ to sink in:

  1. No using the phone’s bluetooth as a dial-up modem.
  2. No calling people you’re meeting to say, “we’re running late”.
  3. No calling for help from the side of the road when Something Bad Happens. (i.e. the car starts making odd sounds in the middle of the Chequamegon National Forest)

Though, we missed ‘Book across the Bay’, the cross-country ski race across the frozen Chequamegon Bay between Ashland and Washburn, we still took advantage of the winter-only real estate.

During the winter months, the State of Wisconsin plows a two-lane, pine tree-lined, road on frozen Lake Superior connecting Bayfield to Madeline Island.

After some difficulty with a small patch of ice outside the B&B, the Neon performed excellently on the Ice Road and had enough zip left for a full tour of the yet-to-be-fully-plowed island.

As isolated as I felt without T-Mobile service, I found the lack of TV and phone in the room refreshing. It made watching Anchorman off the PowerBook‘s DVD player that much more enjoyable.

We’d like to thank Sharon & Craig Locey, proprietors of the Thimbleberry Inn for a quiet, comfortable stay. Sharon’s enthusiastic hospitality, her apple bars, and her restaurant recommendations – all flawless.

She sent us to the Deep Water Grille, next to the South Shore Brewery in Ashland and Maggies in Bayfield. Both are islands of culinary joy in the Northwoods. At Deep Water, Jen enjoyed the black bean veggie burger and I’d go back for half a mushroom, spinach, and gorgonzola sandwich. If they’re out of whitefish livers at the pink flamingo-covered Maggie’s, get the spicy Thai peanut noodles.

After we got out of the lake-effect snow storm, the drive back went very quickly.

A Mac Mini in the Living Room

Since the release of the Mac Mini, I’ve been looking for reasons to pick one up. Currently, there’s a G4 tower in my basement and I’d like to return it to the 20th Century.

macmini-tv.jpg

Here’s what I’m thinking:

  1. Plug the Mac Mini into my TV, and use either the El Gato EyeTV Wonder or Plextor ConvertX as a personal video recorder.
  2. Use the KeySpan Remote Control to control the PVR, the Mini’s DVD player, iTunes, iPhoto, and Skype from the couch
  3. Use the Mini as a file server and WiFi base station to the rest of the computers on the network

In theory, it sounds pretty slick, a true Digital Hub. In practice, I’m less optimistic. I’d rather not have to navigate the Mac OS from the couch.

Two things require further investigation:

  1. Can a specific key on the KeySpan can be mapped to each of the applications?
  2. Are the PVRs reliable with broadcast, over-the-air TV?

Has anyone tried something like this in their own home?

The Creative Grotto Vibe

This morning Jen brought up the Temporary Office Space idea again. It’s something she’s brought up before. As a highly-mobile professional, the idea is very compelling. To have comfortable, secure place to send faxes grab a decent cup of coffee, and recharge off a good vibe for an hour or two, I think you can see how tempting it is.

This is why I’m tracking the next iteration of the Gate 3 Work Club.

On a smaller scale, I scanned the blogroll (opml) this morning, Brand Autopsy has a nice write-up on Po Bronson’s Writer’s Grotto.

If you’re interesting in this idea and closer to the Twin Cities, check out the Renaissance Box’s Writer’s Refuge.

Here’s a quick list of what I want from my work space (temporary or otherwise):

  • Wireless Internet
  • Chairs and tables fitting people over 6′ tall
  • Really good coffee
  • 2 reservable conference rooms; 1 for 2-4 people, 1 for 4-8 people
  • An open lofted, studio area where everyone can work quietly, and be aware of others working quietly
  • Postal substation
  • High speed, color copier

More as it comes to me.

Coffee Goes Stale in a Week

Sam over at Afongen.com reminded me of something extremely important – How Long to Store Coffee:

“There is a marked decline in coffee’s flavor over the course of a week after roasting. If memory serves me correctly, something like 70% of the compounds responsible for coffee’s flavor are gone in that time, transformed into something far less pleasant.”

Here at First Crack central, we have 2 air-tight, light-proof containers. One for caff, one for decaf. Stored on the counter-top, never in the fridge.

This evening marks a week since I came down with that nasty something, and those containers haven’t been cracked open since. I’m a 100% – and a little nervous about the state of the beans.

Looks like I’m due for a trip to White Rock.

UPDATE: Yes, I can confirm the coffee in those containers is awful. Sour and sharp, Not refreshing and eye-opening.

First Crack 30. More Washboard, Less Cowbell

On the drive back from a Urban Hillbilly Quartet show, I interview Milo – the band’s washboard player, and his fiance (& my sister) Kari. You hear the history of his washboard playing, a washboard solo, what Kari does doing a show, and how to review a book in 5 words or less.

Listen to More Washboard, Less Cowbell [39 min]

Got questions about coffee or comments about the show? Call: 206-20-BEAN-1

Like the show? Support the First Crack Podcast

Better Email Tips

On MPR the other morning, they had consultant and author Marilyn Paul talking about ways to spend less time in your inbox.

Her suggestion is to institute email subject line tags. You include these tags in your email subject line. Here are the one’s I remember:

  • ty: thank you
  • nrn: no reply necessary
  • nbd: need response by date

More tips on increasing your effectiveness available in her book: It’s Hard to Make a Difference When You Can’t Find Your Keys.

Introducing the WP-iCal Plugin

The WP-iCal plugin turns WordPress into a multi-author, online calendar. The plugin takes any posts in a ‘Calendar’ category and writes them to an .ics file ready for subscription into Apple’s iCal or other vCal-friendly app.

All information on WP-iCal, including the latest version, comments (even the ones that were here), and version history is being maintained at http://garrickvanburnen.com/wpical/

Hello, welcome to the hub of Garrick.

Hi all.

A couple weeks back, Jen Bohmbach and I talked about weblogs for an episode of the First Crack Podcast. In that conversation, you’ll hear us talk about the strengths (“you have a very comprehensive view of that person”) and weaknesses (“you have a very comprehensive view of that person”) of having a single weblog.

Personally, I think in topics and I like a little stronger separation between my topics than a single weblog will support. Previously, if you wanted to know what’s on my mind, you could check out MNteractive.com, The Work Better Weblog, and more recently, the First Crack Podcast. All of them are fairly topic specific. I like that. There were times when I had something to say that didn’t neatly fit into one of those 3 topics. Like WishRSS, or the WP-iCal plugin, some other early stage project, or just a thought I’d like to share.

That’s the purpose of this site. Think of it as the hub of Garrick, or the misc. category of my personality, or the most comprehensive view of me.

As always. it has an RSS feed.