Matthew Botos

At the urging of a few other pet-owning friends, I joined Facebook so I could make a profile for Meadow. Of course, I also had to make one for myself, and I was impressed with the Facebook application. After creating a MySpace profile for the King of Prussia Ski Club last year, I quickly realized what a mess that site was.

Facebook definitely seems geared to a more mature audience, and the site is pretty solid with plenty of AJAXy goodness. It’s also amazing to see how quickly they’ve amassed over 3500 applications based on their platform, including a complete profile system for your pets (they get to have friends, too, and people can “stroke” them). Poke your friends, stoke their pets - it’s easy to see how it can get addictive. Meadow already has more friends than I do; cute girls get all the attention

(Image created at the ICanHasCheezBurger Factory.)

“Earlier you wanted a gun. Now you’re getting a gun and a wet suit.” - The Rock

My brother has the gun/wet suit combo pretty much sewn up, so in preparation for my upcoming dive trip to Belize, I went with the knife and wet suit. And a few other gadgets, since I just couldn’t help myself - how can you resist a giant day-glo orange inflatable signal sausage?

The local dive shop is my kind of place: all kinds of bargain deals on closeout and overstock gear. The full 3mm O’Neill wet suit I bought was over 70% off! All the shopping is getting me excited about the trip; now I just need to capture the momentum and actually book the flights and hotels.

Steve Jobs’ marketing prowess is amazing; 6 of the top 10 stories on Digg right now are about his iPod announcements today. For those like me who are playing catch up: the iPhone price fell $200 dollars, and there are new models of the “classic” and nano iPods, plus an iPhone-like iPod touch. Also, in a sign of the times, the base 80 GB iPod classic now offers as much capacity as any one of my full blown computers!

Some great news for Wissahickon bikers and hikers from IMBA’s Singletrack eNews!

Bikes Belong Awards Grants in IL, PA

Friends of the Wissahickon: Philadelphia’s Friends of the Wissahickon (FOW) will receive $10,000 to put toward their Sustainable Trails Initiative. IMBA’s Trail Solutions continues to consult on the design and construction of the highly regarded urban trail network.

There are a couple of great demo sections of trail there that are a nice preview of what’s to come…

I went to the post office today to mail a package, since I’ve found them to be the most economical for smaller items. I tend to ship much more with UPS or FedEx, and this was a good reminder why. With UPS and FedEx, I can go to their website, type in addresses and options, print one label, and make a quick drop at one of their locations well into the evening.

The Post Office keeps slightly shorter hours, so I have to make post-lunch runs instead of working. There’s always a line, even if you’re just dropping off a prepared package. Every service you want requires you to fill out a separate form with duplicate information, which are then added to the multitude of stickers being manually affixed to your package.  Those services cost nearly as much as the base postage, so in total I only saved a few dollars over a commercial service, though that savings was quickly eaten by the extra time spent standing in line and filling out extra forms.

My coworker Tim and I went biking at Bear Creek this Saturday, where we found a short, but rocky and challenging trail. Bear Creek (formerly Doe Mountain) was bought by new owners a few years ago, and has seen a huge influx of investment. There’s a substantial new snowmaking system, rebuilt lodge, and a new hotel and conference center under construction. It looks much more like a scaled-down western resort than your typical day-use mountain in Pennsylvania.

The trails also seem to have received some recent attention; it was largely well-maintained except for a few spots. The main trail loops around the border of the ski slopes in the woods, with various more-difficult side loops. Both were plenty rocky, to the point that I walked a few sections after being force to clip out and unable to get going again. There’s also one loose, step climb, a few sections with sharp switchbacks, and some short bridges. Most of it was well marked, even including some warning signs of approaching bridges or more technical sections.

Our ride came in a bit under 6 miles, doing the main loop and one side trail in about 1:45. We grabbed lunch at their grill in the lodge, which has the rustic feel of an old lodge with hearty food to match. The selections and prices were middle of the road, and the sandwiches and burgers were plenty filling, along with a couple of beers, of course.

It was a nice change of pace from the usual handful of places I ride locally, and not too far at about an hour. The trails were a bit too rocky for my tastes, but it certainly offers some challenges and good food when you’re done.