I've been interested in the Palm Pre and WebOS since they debuted at the 2009 CES, but it was only available on Sprint and I prefer Verizon. The Palm Pre Plus is now available on Verizon so I've upgraded to it from my trusty Palm Treo. The graphics are stunning, touch screen interaction intuitive, and mult-tasking outstanding. The biggest down side is the unimpressive battery life, it's been making it through the day with moderate use, but there isn't much reserve. I think WebOS has a lot of potential, but it'll take some time to get used to doing some things differently than Palm OS.

We celebrated the New Year and my birthday at the McGregor Mountain Lodge. We went showshoeing, watched the birds, elk, and deer that visited the birdfeeders near our cabin, and relaxed.

I often work out in Vibram Five Fingers and have been looking for something with a similar feel for every day wear. I bought a pair of driving shoes at a Red Wing outlet store which work pretty well, though I can only wear them with thin socks and they're not well suited to winter.

I just got a pair of Vivo Barefoot Karibas which fit the bill. I wore them to work today and they did fine in our current snow storm, like house slippers that keep your feet dry. Not as close to bare feet as the Five Fingers, but better than the Red Wings and close enough for me, and I like the look.

Virgin Galactic's Space Ship Two has been publicly unveiled. It will begin flight tests next year and begin commercial service in 2011.

Went on a toy run for children of Colorado National Guard troops deployed to Iraq. There was too much ice and snow on the roads here to ride the bike, so I drove the S2000, top down despite the snow. It's the next best thing to a motorcycle. After the run from Frederick to Longmont, we had lunch at the Armory provided by the American Legion. All in all, a good time for a good cause.

Tonight we had our annual Lyons holiday fireworks display. It's beginning to feel like Christmas.

Got home from our Thanksgiving trip to Houston yesterday and mostly chilled out today, though I did take care of a couple of chores. Looks like iffy riding weather for about the next week, so I took a quick ride to Rabbit Mountain on the Lightning to clear the cobwebs out.

MMy VFR 800 was a very nice bike, but the Lightning makes me want to ride more. It's not as refined, but a lot more fun for me. A review of the 2007 model puts it well. There’s little to take your attention away from the motor, which isn’t a bad thing, since the big V-twin is charismatically torque-happy. When riding the Buell Lightning Long, there is no doubt that you are on a MOTOR-cycle. I like Honda's VTEC engines, but the Thunderstorm engine form Buell is getting into my blood.

Visiting my mother in Houston and took her on a drive to Galveston to see how it's recovering from Hurricane Ike. We had lunch at Fisherman's Wharf where our table had a nice view of the Elissa.

After lunch we took the ferry over to Port Bolivar and drove up the peninsula. Fourteen months after Hurricane Ike most of the debris has been cleared, but only a modest amount of rebuilding has occurred. It was a gloomy, overcast day, but we did find these colorful flowers near the edge of the beach to brighten up the day.

More snow! Getting the mileage in to get the first service before the worst of the winter may be a challenge.

I couldn't resist the fire sale on Buells since Harley-Davidson announced that they were shutting down the marque. I've been thinking of one to replace my VFR 800 and decided to take advantage of the opportunity. Last night I picked up a 2009 XB12Ss (aka Lightning Long) in Cherry Bomb Red from High Country HD

It's a hoot to ride.

Yesterday Buell riders from all around the country made one last ride to the Buell factory in East Troy, Wisconsin to pay tribute to a unique marque as it nears its end. The last Buell is scheduled to roll off the assembly line Friday and 180 workers will be out of a job on December 18th. Hat tip to Black on Bad Web.

Harley Davidson announced last week that it was shutting down its Buell motorcycle operation and selling MV Agusta. Buell is one of the more interesting Marques and this is sad news. Best of luck to Erik Buell and his merry band of elves.

While most of the private space industry is focusing on commercializing the Earth to Low Earth Orbit market, others are looking farther out. In this interview former NASA astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz discusses the latest milestone achieved for his VASIMR rocket engine for deep space missions, and the next steps for his company, Ad Astra Rocket.

I attended the Colorado Episcopal Diocesan Convention in Pueblo the past couple of days. It was an worthwhile experience, better than I anticipated. The workshops I attended were interesting, and the business sessions were tolerable. I enjoyed getting to know my fellow delegates from St. Stephen's better as well as meeting delegates from other churches. I wouldn't mind doing it again.

The Wilderness Experience worship service impressed me more than anything else. This service has been held at St. John's Cathedral for the past two years. The experimental litergy is blended with meditation, movement, music, and imagery in an engaging manner. I also attended a workshop describing how it came about and is produced. It involves more work from more people than typical worship services, but I think it's worth the effort.

Congratulations to the Armadillo Aerospace team for winning the Phase 2 Lunar Lander Challenge today. Best of luck in their future endeavors.

From the press release: "Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Oliver and Major Tony Lancashire of the British Royal Marines sailed, rowed and when necessary dragged their NorseBoat 17.5 across the ice in a historic 1400 mile voyage through the arctic's Northwest Passage. For centuries the Northwest Passage has been a lure to adventurers and explorers seeking a northern link between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean."

Norseboats are on my short list for a sailboat when and if I return to sailing. I doubt that I'd attempt the Northwest Passage, but the Everglages Challenge is tempting.

We drove from West Yellowstone, Montana to Devils Tower, Wyoming on Friday. We camped a few miles away at the Devils Tower View Campground. The view from camp was a bit spooky.

The next day we went to the Tower and hiked around it. It's a really cool piece of geology.

We drug the camper to Yellowstone, stopping on the way at a small campground west of Lander on the way. We camped outside the park on the Montanna side, driving into the park to explore during the day. It's definitely worth the trip, though we found it a little crowded this time of year.

The landscape and wildlife are beautiful, and the unusual geology interesting. The highlight was a bison that crossed the road in front of us, then turned and walked past us in the opposing lane, passing the truck window close enough for me to touch.

In Entering Space Robert Zubrin describes how humanity could graduate from being a planet bound species to an interplanetary, and eventually interstellar one. He categorizes civilizations by the extent of their mastery of local resources. Type I civilizations exploit the resources of their native planet. Type II civilizations achieve control of the resources of their home star system. Type III civilizations expand to multiple star systems.

As founder of the Mars Society, it's no surprise that Zubrin sees Martian colonization and development to be key, though he acknowledges the potential of Lunar and asteroidal resources. He believes that governments will lead the way to space with private enterprise following and providing support services. I'm more optimistic that private efforts will play a leading role.

Zubrin looks at potential technologies consistent with our current knowledge of physics that might enable humans to travel, live, and prosper in the inner solar system, the outer solar system, and interstellar space. The most striking point in his analysis is that relatively fast interstellar spacecraft that could carry humans would expend an enormous amount of energy. They could easily become weapons of mass destruction, a sobering thought.

It's been 40 years since the first human steps on Luna. It's time to go back, and stay.

We got the camper out of storage and drug it down to Elizabeth, Colorado for their Celtic Festival. They have camping on site and despite a slight mix-up with our reservations, we had a beautiful camp site. Competing in the Men's Masters Heavy Athletics Class, I had my most consistent performance to date. New PR in the Braemar Stone and I tied my PR or came close to it in the other events.