At the moment the work on JAMWiki is still keeping me really busy, although Audrey has managed to get me out of the house each of the past three nights. Last night we met up with Aaron and Saundra at Phillippes for double-dipped roast beef sandwiches, and in the process discovered that any made-up story becomes vastly more believable when you add insignificant details. Compare:

I spent the day riding around in these weird go-cart things and nearly killed myself.

versus:

I spent the day riding around in these weird go-cart things. They had these giant flags on the back that flapped all over the place, and I nearly killed myself.

Stupid details seem to be the trick - we tried it with about a dozen stories, and everytime the detail is what made the story work. Anyhow, on Friday night Audrey tried to take me somewhere where I could absorb culture, but she's smarter than to just throw me into a symphony hall or some such. So we went to the Hollywood Bowl to see the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (sidenote: what distinguishes an orchestra from a philharmonic orchestra???), but the catch was that instead of just performing classical music they were performing the music from old Bugs Bunny cartoons, and to make matters better they were projecting the cartoons on huge screens. I saw "Kill da Wabbit" performed live. It rocked.

Thursday night I actually wanted to go out - the Indigo Girls were giving a free concert on the Santa Monica Pier. Yeah, that's right, I wanted to see the Indigo Girls, and I admit it freely. As one friend once described them, "It's good music, and plus there are lots of chicks in the crowd making out with each other. What's not to like?" We had spots less than a hundred feet from the stage and the show was really good - it's definitely more fun seeing people live when they have actual musical talent. My favorite moment of the concert came at the end when, after performing a song with the singer from Ally McBeal, the blond Indigo Girl made the comment "You folks near the stage can't see it, but next to the pier down on the beach there are like a thousand more people." She stepped back from the microphone, paused, and then said "You know, that's cool as shit." And she was right - it was.

The development of JAMWiki moves on, with the current release up to 0.0.6, and 0.0.7 on the horizon. It's still very much a work-in-progress so I haven't really publicized it that much, but already a guy from Russia has contributed bug reports and a new default design, and a few others have installed the software and reported that it works for them. This thing actually has the potential to be kind of a big deal, which is cool. Granted, most non-technical folks out there have absolutely no idea what exactly it is that I'm building, but trust me, it's good.

J.B.'s company is launching their new electric car tomorrow in Santa Monica, and Mr. Straubel came through with two invites for Audrey and I. It seems like their timing is perfect, with gas around $3.50 per gallon here and more and lots of rich movie stars driving around in environmentally-friendly cars. Having just watched An Inconvenient Truth over the weekend, and given the current mess in the Middle East, it seems it's none-too-soon to be getting cleaner cars on the road that can run on something other than oil. For those who don't know J.B., keep an eye out for news on Tesla Motors, 'cause they have a lot of potential.

And the only other news is that Audrey invited me to a jam session the other night with her on bass, Tommy on guitar, and Alex on drums, and all I can say is that my girl can wail. Totally improvised, and totally awesome. Makes me realize I need a talent (and no, using big lenses to capture nostril shots of albatross isn't really a talent).

Somewhat randomly I was looking for something on the site and realized that it was exactly four years ago today that this journal got started. The days sometimes go slowly, but the years fly by. Since that day in July I've taken a 13,000 mile roadtrip through Alaska, been to the Antarctic three times, visited the Galapagos twice, lived in at least seven different apartments, transitioned from a corporate peon to an independent corporate peon, and much, much more. Also during that time different friends have gotten married, gotten divorced, started their own company, changed careers, and experienced all sorts of other changes. Pretty crazy.