Archive for May, 2011

The Morning After Maker Faire

Sunday, May 29th, 2011

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The headline on San Mateo Patch read “Meet Your Maker at the Maker Faire.” I don’t know if it was intentional or not but the irony in that line was sublime. My family and I and thousands of others were in fact at Maker Faire at the stroke of 6:00 PM on Saturday, May 21, 2011, the hour when the Rapture was predicted to occur and the destruction of the Earth guaranteed. The moment basically when humanity was indeed to meet its Maker. I am happy to report there was no global cataclysm (though there was a magnitude 3.6 earthquake in Hercules an hour later) but I will tell you this. Had civilization as we know it fallen that day, I can’t think of a better place to be than at Maker Faire.

CIMG0470Much has been written about Maker Faire, the annual expo put on at the San Mateo County Event Center May 21-22 this year by Make Magazine to celebrate handmade crafts, do-it-yourself spirit, and infectious eccentricity. We were there courtesy of GeekDad.com and GeekMom.com of which my good friend Ken Denmead is Editor and Publisher.  They are blogs for and by geeky parents about the ways they share their techie/sci-fi interests with their kids. (I aspire to be a geek one day, but today I only rank “nerd.”) It was my family’s third time going to Maker Faire. This year we helped the GeekMoms and GeekDads by volunteering at their booth, showing off fun musical toys and tee-shirts from ThinkGeek.com. My favorite was the Otamatone, a note-shaped puppet that sings when you squeeze it. Many passersby didn’t quite know what to make of it but I got pretty good at playing the theme to Star Trek on it and the keening synth hook from MC Breed’s “Ain’t No Future in Yo’ Frontin’.”

CIMG0481The alleged Armageddon was treated with general amusement by the denizens of the booth. The kids monitored their watches and occasionally shouted out the remaining time: “Forty-two minutes until the End of the World!” Together we counted down the final 10 seconds and at the stroke of 6:00 PM PDT Ken dropped a test tube full of Mentos into a two-liter bottle of Diet Pepsi, causing a spout of soda to erupt 20 feet in the air in a physical reaction well-known and much-loved by geeks and children everywhere. And that was it. No catastrophe, no second coming, no nothing. One GeekDad hilariously summed it up: “Worst…Rapture…ever!”

CIMG0465As I said though, had this been an actual Apocalypse, San Mateo Expo Center may well have represented mankind’s last best hope for survival because there were thousands of people there who knew how to make things. Useful things. At their disposal were contraptions and tools and raw materials. We had engineers, knitters, artists, and chefs. We had solar cells, compost containers, organic vegetables, and kits to make your own chewing gum. Should the End Times have also spawned a savage zombie horde, we could have defended ourselves with flame throwers, laser-cut trebuchets, a remote-controlled navy, and Victorian jet packs. I have no doubt that Maker Faire would have become a near-mythical outpost, a destination for the last Californians to seek out for salvation, and El Camino Real would have become the pilgrim road that brought them there. Someone get me Hollywood’s phone number; I have a screenplay idea to pitch to them.

In all seriousness I don’t like to make light of the failed Rapture predictions. I gave them no credence and they didn’t fit into my core beliefs about the destiny of mankind, but recent world events have brought us true disasters and unfathomable human and ecological suffering. Reflection on the end of existence on Earth did not inspire levity in me. That being said, I do consider humor to be a force of nature and there was so much wit and waggishness at Maker Faire intermingled with imagination and creativity, it forced me to view my most dreaded doomsday notions in a brighter light that put them in perspective. Everywhere at the Faire I saw faith, hope, and generosity of God-given talent in abundance. I did not meet my Maker, but I became reacquainted with the wonder of Creation.

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(Disclosure: Ken gave us free passes to Maker Faire and kindly treated us to dinner afterwards with the GeekDads and GeekMoms.)

Lost in Los Altos

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Do you know what’s embarrassing? Getting lost on El Camino Real. I don’t mean “lost” in the poetic sense, as in getting so enraptured by the sights and wonders that I lose all sense of time. I mean “lost” as in not having a perfectly clear notion of either where I am, where my destination is, or the precise relationship between the two. “How could you possibly get lost on El Camino?” you protest. “It’s a street, a one-dimensional line!” This is true, but after 200 years the road has developed a few idiosyncrasies which can snare the unwitting traveler. One of them is the city of Los Altos.

Border Road

The first tricky thing about Los Altos is something that residents know but it took me a while to figure out: Los Altos does not cross El Camino Real. The city flows down from the hills but in its northernmost section it abuts El Camino. That means if you’re driving down El Camino, Los Altos exists only on one side of the street. El Camino borders Los Altos for about a mile and a half.

This is unusual. As far as I can determine, there’s only one other city in the Bay Area that touches but does not cross El Camino: Hillsborough, and that’s only for about two blocks.

Tri-City Area

CIMG0382Los Altos doesn’t exist in a vacuum. For that mile and a half stretch of El Camino, the other side of the street is either Palo Alto or Mountain View. There is a spot on El Camino between Del Medio and Los Altos avenues where Los Altos, Palo Alto, and Mountain View all meet in a single point. No wonder it’s easy to lose track of where you are! The border between Mountain View and Palo Alto is marked only by the fence, bush, and break in the low wall in this photograph. Really they are the property line between the Country Inn Motel (Palo Alto) and The Hotel Aria (Mountain View), which used to be a Holiday Inn. Cryptically there is a signpost right here pointing to Los Altos (Avenue, that is) which takes on new significance.

Numbers Game

Granted, maybe it doesn’t really matter to you what city you’re in unless you’re challenging the jurisdiction of the speeding ticket you just received from the other city’s Police Department. What really matters is the street address right? Well that’s where things get really crazy. Take a trip with me.

Say you’re on El Camino in Palo Alto, heading south. As you cross Arastradero Road you’re on the 4200 block of El Camino with even addresses on your right and odd addresses on your left. The addresses increase as you go. As we all know, one of the cornerstones of modern civilization is that even and odd addresses are on opposite sides of the street, and that street addresses are ordered monotonically. You pass the Crowne Plaza Cabaña Hotel at 4290 ECR which is the last Palo Alto address on that side. You cross Adobe Creek and your side of the street is now Los Altos, though the other side of El Camino is still Palo Alto. Still with me? Fear not because the addresses still make sense. Both sides are now the 4300 block; the Motel 6 Palo Alto on your left is 4301 and the Courtyard Los Altos on your right is 4320. (There are a lot of hotels here.) You roll on and cross Los Altos Avenue. You’re still in Los Altos on your side but as we said, soon the other side turns into Mountain View. Your side is the 4400 block but the other side, the Mountain View side, is suddenly 2700! What?! That’s right, the addresses take a quantum leap on that Palo Alto/Mountain View side of the street.

Remember that the border between Palo Alto and Mountain View lies between the Country Inn Motel and The Hotel Aria. They are neighbors, but here are their addresses:
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4345 El Camino in Palo Alto, 2700 El Camino in Mountain View, literally next door to each other. Not only  do the numbers jump, but the Palo Alto addresses are odd and the Mountain View addresses are now even. The Los Altos addresses on your side are also even. This is madness! But wait, there’s more. As you keep driving, your Los Altos addresses continue to increase, but your Mountain View addresses get smaller! They run in opposite directions. You get to the end of Los Altos and cross over into all-Mountain View a little past Rengstorff Ave. On your side the last Los Altos address is 5150 El Camino Real and their neighbor in Mountain View is 2065. Even addresses become odd. The 5100s become 2000s. Enough said.

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This address nonsense used to trip me up from time to time. Back in the old days before online maps and GPS units, I would look up a business in the phone book (remember those?). Maybe I was going to El Torito at 4470 El Camino Real, Los Altos. (Don’t bother looking for it now; it’s gone.) If I made the mistake of approaching through Mountain View, the addresses around me would be no help at all—somewhere in the 2000s when I’m looking for 4470, and odd when I’m looking for even. This confusion is part of the reason I started AllCamino.com. I felt a need to understand these addresses and help my fellow sufferers. Don’t even get me started on West El Camino, East El Camino, South El Camino, and North El Camino.

Reading Signs

It’s not all bad. Even without wireless navigation technology there are plenty of hints to keep you oriented. There are well-placed “city limits” signs, and the light posts have handy civic banners hanging from them. Los Altos Patch Editor L.A. Chung pointed out a useful trick. Los Altos city street signs are brown and Mountain View signs are blue. I figured out on my own that Palo Alto signs are white, but the Palo Alto trash cans are blue.
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I still get lost on El Camino every now and then which is especially humiliating since I have this blog and all. Technology helps but I can’t always rely on it, so I’m learning that a little knowledge and good ol’ powers of observation go a long way. And if those fail me there’s always the last option of a desperate man: stopping to ask for directions.

Patch a Match, Natch

Sunday, May 15th, 2011

Patch.com Screen Grab with Missions
I first heard of Patch.com from Ryan Sebastian of Treatbot. A few months back we were chatting at a South FIRST Fridays event and he told me Treatbot had been interviewed by Adelaide Chen of Milpitas Patch, and that Mayra Flores de Marcotte was preparing to launch a new Campbell Patch. I knew Mayra’s handmade Kerfufle jewelry and her husband Josh’s Lost San Jose photography from exhibits at The Usuals. Treatbot…South FIRST Fridays…The Usuals…these are all luminous bodies in the AllCamino firmament, so let’s say Patch.com came to me well-recommended by these indirect El Camino connections.

I immediately checked it out and learned Patch.com is a slick, coordinated, AOL-owned network of hyperlocal news sites about communities across the country. Several are in California so I subscribed to all the Bay Area Patches for cities that lie on El Camino Real or have mission connections. I figured this would be an excellent way to catch news stories about the road. My current, growing list of Patches to follow is:

Back in November, as I was embarking on the the Shellmound Peace Walk through Milpitas, I contacted Adelaide in the spirit of networking and to my surprise got signed on as a freelance contributor. Since then she has given me the opportunity to write three articles for Patch—my first experience in journalism. It was a blast writing with a professional voice and (full disclosure) it was quite cool to be paid for those pieces.

Recently, however, she let me know that all Patches are adding a new feature: blogs. They are offering space for bloggers to write in their own voices about local topics they are passionate about. Patch bloggers don’t get paid, but they gain expanded exposure to a wider audience while retaining independence and ownership over the content. I knew right away this was a natural fit for me. Freedom!

I contacted the various Patch editors and so far the response has been quite positive. This is new for everyone so I’m still figuring out how it will work, but here’s the vision. AllCamino.com will continue to exist independently exactly as it does today; I’ll still do what I do. But if I write a post that might interest a particular Patch’s readers, I may cross-post to that Patch’s blog. Or I might write a standalone piece at Patch and just link to it here.

I’m taking baby steps now. I  just published my first Patch blog at Los Altos Patch. The editor there, L.A. Chung, was the first to activate my Patch blog and she’s been very supportive and helpful so to her go the spoils. Click the link to read it:

An El Camino Real Journey

By Bill Moore | May 10, 2011
El Camino Real is an important part of California history and Bay Area life. AllCamino.com is a blog that celebrates the past, present and future of The Royal Road.

It’s a fairly generic piece. My intention is to use it as an introduction on every Patch. See, I can do that. Freedom!

bell_scuDo you like my profile photo there? It took me many takes and half an hour to get it right. It’s a trick-shot self-portrait and all I had as a guide was the little mirror on the back of my cameraphone. It was a lot harder than I expected and I got some funny looks from drivers whizzing by on El Camino. Can you locate that bell?

I think this Patch relationship will be a lot of fun. The symbolism is irresistable. AllCamino is the virtual link among the various Patches, just as El Camino Real is the concrete link that joins the real cities. These Patches are stitched together by a common thread that together make up the fabric of Northern California. Um, too much? Sorry about that.

I love the breathless tone of press releases—they’re invariably so thrilled!—and I always wanted to write one, so here we go:

Today AllCamino.com is thrilled to announce a new partnership with Patch.com. Blogger Bill Moore says, “This is the dawn of a new era of Bay Area hyperlocal storytelling. AllCamino and Patch create unique synergy and an enhanced value proposition for our combined readership along the El Camino Real information superhighway.” Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post and recent addition to the AOL family, remarks, “We are thrilled to roll out one of the most exciting offshoots of our turbo-charged web presence. This week we launch a great new chapter for Patch.com.”

That’s a real quote from Arianna, by the way, just not about me specifically. A real journalist wouldn’t take a quote out of context like that, but hey I’m a blogger. Freedom!

El Camino Calendar

Friday, May 6th, 2011

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It’s been a minute since the last El Camino Calendar. Sorry about the hiatus but I’ve been so busy lately I could hardly see straight. There’s so much awesomeness going on this weekend though, it has shocked me out of inactivity. I’m baaack!


Morgan Hill No Bull BBQ Cook-Off

Saturday May 7 2011
10 am to 6 pm
Morgan Hill Community Center

17000 Monterey Rd. Morgan Hill, CA 95037

The public is more than welcome at the Morgan Hill No Bull BBQ Cook-off. You’ll enjoy great music, vendor offerings, and of course the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of the most dynamic gatherings of BBQ Pitmasters on the West Coast.

http://www.mhnobullbbq.com/


South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk

Friday May 6, 2011

JOIN US for the next South FIRST FRIDAYS art walk on MAY 6th!
7pm ’til 11pm — ART WALK venues are free and open to the public

http://www.southfirstfridays.com/


SJ Eats

Saturday, May 7th, 2011
Peralta Adobe
175 W. Saint John
San Jose, CA

Some of the best food trucks and carts across the Bay come to Downtown San Jose. Silog plates, short rib burritos, samosas, lobster rolls, horchata ice cream and more. Free admission.
http://www.sanjosemade.com/sjeats


Stanford Powwow

May 6-8, 2011

Welcome to the Stanford Powwow. Come visit us on Stanford campus May 6-8, 2011. The Stanford Powwow is held every Mother’s Day Weekend in the Eucalyptus Grove on Stanford campus.

Open to the Public | Rain or Shine.

Donation for admission

http://www.stanfordpowwow.org/


Mother’s Day

Sunday, May 8, 2011 all day

Technically this happens everywhere, not just on El Camino Real.