Monthly Hike: Bald Mountain

New year, so I think it’s time for a new monthly feature. Victoria and I used to go hiking all the time, but had fallen off the wagon a bit in recent years. In 2009, we want to do more “hardcore hiking” again. We started yesterday, with a hike up Bald Mountain at Sugarloaf Ridge, one of Sonoma’s prime state parks. We had hiked there before, but we’d never gone all the way into the park and taken the trip up Bald Mountain. We went without expectations, got much more than we’d bargained for, but found a trail that was totally worth the effort.

Although only 2729 feet high, Bald Mountain affords amazing views of the surroundings when you get to the top. Mt Tam, Mt Diablo, Napa, Sonoma, Marin, San Francisco, Angel Island and the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge are all visible. You can even see the snowy silhouette of Pyramid Peak, 10,000 feet high and 129 miles away in the Sierras. Getting to the summit takes a bit of stamina: the 2700 foot ascend stretches across (only) 2.8 miles and has some steep sections. The way back down (via the Gray Pines trail) might be even trickier, because loose rubble turns even steeper sections into a serious balance challenge. We had a lot of fun and the weather was beautiful (74 degrees in January!). The only downside was that we didn’t bring a real camera, so all of the following photos are low-res iPhone pictures.

Lily Allen’s New Single

Lily Allen doesn’t mince words in her latest single, “Fuck You Very Much”. Her song about small-minded people, bigots and opponents of gay rights is sure to offend some circles. I think it’s brilliant.

Silent Reviews

Titans/Ravens game – Yes (judged by entertainment value)
Giants/Eagles game – Kind of… (judged by entertainment value)
Steelers/Chargers game – No (judged by entertainment value)
That new Subway “$5 foot-long” commercial – No
Golden Globes – Yes

The Greatest Character Name Ever

There’s two types of character names in games and movies: the ordinary ones that you just pull out of a hat, without ever giving them much thought. And then there’s the names you agonize over for extended periods of time because you really want them to say something about the character. Ideally on a subconscious level, to add that extra little bit of punch. Ancient writer wisdom holds that, to create a good character name, you mix one part ordinary, and one part unique: John McClaine. Indiana Jones. Luke Skywalker. Some writers try to be too clever with that formula, giving rise to names like “Max Payne”. (Hit me over the head, I might not get the hidden meaning!)
But hey, there’s many opinions on what constitutes the perfect character name. As far I’m concerned, the discussion is over. The perfect name already exists, and it’s on American TV right now: it’s 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon.

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Impressions From Germany, Part 3

Germany is experiencing a rather convincing cold spell at the moment and my brother sent me these images, which I found too cool not to share. These were taken in Straelen, home of Bofrost. Bofrost is the world’s biggest distributor of frozen foods. Now you know why

The Remnants

Joss Whedon wasn’t the only one who kept himself busy during the WGA strike last year. Screenwriter (and sometime director) John August (Big Fish, The Nines), together with a group of friends, created the pilot episode for The Remnants, a possible web series about a group of survivors in a zombie-infested world. That pilot is now available on the web. A mixture of a classic zombie movie and The Office, The Remnants isn’t quite as brilliant or captivating as Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. But it’s worth watching. The idea of doing a zombie survival story in this fake documentary style feels fresh, and the execution is good enough to carry the pilot. Judge for yourself, it’s only 11 minutes.