The Future Of Mountain View: Art, Science, Technology & Big Thinking vs NIMBY's & City Government

Yesterday Google & LinkedIn and a host of other Mountain View companies launched a shared initiative for the growth and development of the North Bayshore area and it's surrounds.

KTVU Report on Linkedin plan here

I grew up in this valley and have lived all over the country before moving back in 2000. One of the great failings of this area is our utter lack of creative, innovative or even generally good looking architecture. SF has the Transamerica Pyramid, Coit Tower and little else. The South Bay's most architecturally interesting structures are Hangar 1 (built in 1933) and a pedestrian footbridge over 280 near Wolf Rd.

Last Fall's Harvest, This Spring's Sunday Dinner.....

I harvested a very nice deer last fall in the Sierra and have been enjoying various ways of preparing the amazing flesh from that beautiful animal. I've avoided though the smoker. I'd never smoked wild game and was worried that I'd ruin it and it'd come out dry and tough. Most of the recipe's I'd found either called for wrapping the meat in an armor plate of bacon or in some way braising it in the smoker. I wanted this stuff to still taste like venison, not bacon.

Decided to give it a whack this weekend though with a roast that had a fairly good bit of thin silverskin running all through it. I didn't label it when I butchered the deer so I don't recall if it came from the shoulder or hind 1/4. I figured if I kept it low/slow long enough I could get that stuff to break down and contribute some moisture.

Sure, the car is quick but I think we need more downforce....

To Hell And Back...For A $2 Part

Prototype Development Group and the 2013 edition of the 25hrs of Thunderhill.

Every good story has a distinct beginning, middle and end. The story of Prototype Development Group and their 2013 campaign is no different.

The beginning….

After a good, but not great showing at the 2012 Edition of the 25hrs of Thunderhill, team PDG owners Yvonne & Richard Migliori committed to a full racing schedule for 2013. Operating on the theory that iron sharpens iron, the focus was on competition and lots of it to gain more experience for the team and drivers and a deeper knowledge of the strengths and limitations of the Factory Five Racing GTM and of their competitors cars. To that end, Team PDG entered 5 endurance races in the ES class and 10 sprint races in Super Unlimited. 
  
The results? In the endurance races team PDG collected podium finishes in 100% of the races including a spectacular overall win at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah and their 2nd NASA WERC series championship.  In sprint races team PDG collected podium finishes in 90% of the races and again, won the series championship. 

An utterly dominant collection of podium finishes in 14 out of 15 races entered and 1^st place in 10 out of 15.

Green River Video

I finally got around to compiling my video from a 2010 trip to the Green River in Utah. Huge thanks to Troy of Maddy The Goose, Greg Yoder of Mr.Diversity and Kevin Callan for the inspiration. Thanks to Tex's Riverways for the shuttle and advice. Visit  http://thedamntrueexperiment.blogspot.com/2010/12/blog-post.html for a transcript of my trip journal and tons of photos.

The video is rather long, but the scenery is spectacular....makes me want to do a return trip.

Richard Sherman and what that outburst says about you.....

I've always been a Stanford fan, and a fan of Richard Sherman, despite the fact that he now plays for a rival of the 49ers. Richard Sherman is a phenomenal athlete and whether Michael Crabtree wants to say so or not, he IS the best defensive back in football and arguably, the most impactful defensive player this year. He is a well educated man (Stanford graduate in 2010 and currently working on a Masters Degree) and one can assume, given where he's from that he was raised exceptionally well to have achieved that.

Last night Sherman, broke the internet after losing his mind in a post game interview with Erin Andrews thus exposing a fascinating dichotomy in what sort of behavior we view as acceptable. There seems to be little gray area in regard to opinion on this. Many, myself included, believe he acted inappropriately. Others still, seem to be making excuses for him based on the emotion of the moment. Two such pundits are David Flemming and Joe Posnanski, both of which I have tremendous respect for.

I Like Big Butts And I Cannot Lie.....Breasts too!

We decided to have a bunch of friends over on Sunday to watch the 49ers play the Texans on Sunday Night Football. Kathy & I are always game for an opportunity to entertain but if I get the opportunity to make it less work for her by doing a big part of the cooking, so much the better. In keeping with that and my desire to further hone my ability to run my new smoker I jumped at the chance to make some pulled pork sandwiches for the assembled crowd.

While I'm still working on trying to find the happy place with this cooker with respect to Low & Slow type cooking (~225deg range) I've quickly found the process for maintaining the cooker in the ~300-325deg range which is ideal for the "Hot & Fast" style of BBQ cookery which is gaining in popularity. Doing so allowed me to sleep in a bit on Sunday which I rarely shy away from and allowed me to get started at ~9am for a ~6hr cook instead of staying up all night for a ~13hr cook.