Mokka mit Schlag » 2008 » December

So now I’ve had a little time to play with my G1 phone, and my initial impression is that it shows promise, but isn’t fully usable yet. In particular,
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Saturday, December 20, I got to Starr Ranch bright and early at 6:30 AM for the San Juan Capistrano Christmas Bird Count. I was assigned to a team walking the Juanino Trail in Caspers Wilderness Park. The rain earlier in the week had played havoc with the plans for the count since multiple areas were no longer accessible. We car-pooled over from Starr Ranch, and I joined up with Candace and Steve, a couple of park rangers, at the Nature Center.

Stefan dropped the three of us off at the trail head and we hiked back approximately 3.4 miles. Overall the trail was quiet. Yellow-rumped Warblers were by far the most common species, but Turkey Vultures also put in a respectable showing with at least 15. We only picked up about 20 species, but several of them were singletons nobody else in our section of the count circle spotted: California Gnatcatcher, Phainopepla, and Orange-crowned Warbler. I also found a Golden-crowned Sparrow at the Nature Center’s feeders. Technically it was outside my area, but the folks covering the nature center area had missed it, so we added it to their list.

My total list for the morning wasn’t so impressive but we did get some individual species no one lese in casper’s found including Phainopepla, Orange-crowned Warbler, and California Gnatcatcher:
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I knew there was something bugging me about Chrome, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I finally realized what it is: There’s no menu bar!

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You may have noticed I missed Moth Monday last week because I had finally run out of moth pictures. Of course, it’s only the pictures that ran out, not the moths. There are over 10,000 species in the United States and Canada alone, which at a rate of one a week should be enough to keep going for a couple of centuries at least. Last week I was in south Louisiana where many moths are still flying in the unseasonably warm (even for south Louisiana) weather. Here’s the first one from down south, a Florida Fern Moth, shown approximately five times actual size:

Florida Fern Moth, Hodges#9630, Callopistria floridensis
Metairie, Louisiana, 2008-12-23

Thanks to Bob Patterson for the ID.
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So there I am, just having arrived at my parents’ house, away from my backup drives for a week or so when up pops a dialog:

20 Days?! How the hell did that happen? This bug may have had something do with it. Or perhaps I just disconnected my USB backup drive and forgot to plug it back in. But why didn’t Time Machine warn me before now? 24 or even 48 hours I can believe, but it really should warn you that you aren’t backed up before two weeks go by.

Apparently the airport wireless does not reach into the plane though. Shouldn’t have bothered to board early.

American Airlines is now selling cheap (relatively) upgrades to first class at checkin at the airport. I wonder if I can get one online in advance? On a short hop–e.g. New Orleans to Dallas–it can actually be cheaper to by the upgrade ($35) than to check two bags ($50).

Is there a tethering application for the Android yet for those airports that don’t have free wireless? That would also come in handy when my parents’ wireless network flaked out over the holidays. If there isn’t, maybe I should write one.
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