Stephen Skory

My birthday wish list was a bit excessive, I know, so here’s a much more reasonable xmas list. Some of these items will need to be mail ordered if you want to get exactly what I link to.

• ($10-$20) I have a fairly useless 64 MB USB dongle. Something with 1GB or more would be much more useful and not very expensive.
• ($35) I like helicopters. I’ve heard that the super micro helis like this are kind of fun and nearly indestructible. They’re also not very expensive. I don’t need this exact model, of course.
• ($25-$200?) I want a really cheap and compact digital camera to strap on my helicopter to take aerial images. Ideally it would have a built-in intervalometer (like this one, but it is too much for what I’m thinking). I’d like it to have a movie mode, too. Otherwise, I’d like a really, truly cheap digital camera that I can strip down and wire it for remote trigger (I have a spare channel on my radio).
• ($20) If you’d like to buy me a book, I’m getting interested in the Cold War. I’m currently reading a book about Nikita Khrushchev.
• ($35) I’d like a cheap, durable foam flying wing. I actually already have nearly all the parts needed to put one together.
• ($20) I’d like a new Cal baseball cap, size 7 1/4. My current one is getting old and grimy. Here is a picture of it from five years ago looking a bit cleaner (naturally).

There ya go. That ought to get you started.

In just over one month I will turn 28. An anniversary of this magnitude deserves appropriate celebration and grandeur. You can make your contribution to this in quite a few ways:

• One T-REX 600 Nitro model helicopter & Spektrum DX7 radio kit, plus a nitro starter.
• I would love to have my own personal helicopter.
• I’ve had my current road bicycle for six years. I think it’s time for a new ride. This bike will do. 60cm, please. (Note: I know I asked for this last year. Ahem.)
• I’m hoping and praying that my Golden Bears will make it to the Rose Bowl this year. They haven’t since 1959. I would like to attend the event. Two tickets will do, thanks.
• I don’t really need it, but I won’t turn down a new car.
• I really liked making the cycling video. I would like a high definition video camera of my own to make more videos with.
• As long as you’re buying me a high definition video camera, you might as well buy me a HDTV that has full 1080i resolution. I need to see my videos in all their glory – I want none of that 720p junk.
• Full HD video requires a fast computer and nice monitors to work with it properly. Thank you.
• My cell phone contract is ending soon. I hear that the iPhone is a nice gadget.

If you think everything on that list is too expensive, here’s one more thing I’ll accept:

• A tasty cake that is exactly the same as the one pictured above, down to the sprinkle.

This is my 28th birthday, people, either you’re gonna spend some money on me or put in some ridiculous effort.

In ten days I turn twenty… err seven. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track, seeing as my cycling racing age has been 27 since January 1st, 2006. Most (all) of my readers are my friends and family, so they should already be in turmoil over what to gift me. I’ve thoughtfully provided a wish list, below.

• You can start from my Wish List category. Any one of the items seen on that list will suffice.
• A subscription to Scientific American.
• A Red Ferrari.
• A waffle iron. Seriously. I’d use it.
• A new Trek Madone SL 5.5. My current road bike is over five years old and I’d love to get a new one (as long as it’s free to me, of course).
• I’d enjoy a new cycling computer. A power-measuring bottom bracket ($1,599.95) would be nice. If you’re feeling less generous, a Garmin Edge 305 (~$350) with GPS and wireless cadence would be a nice upgrade to my Forerunner 301.
• Cold, hard cash is always accepted. But it’s quite unoriginal.
• I’ve started a bit of a garden, so plant paraphernalia would be good. Or wild bird feeder stuff. No need for a hummingbird feeder – we got one today.
• If you’re feeling especially kitchy, enroll me in some sort of (blank) of the month club. Cheese? Bread? Beer? Sushi? It’s all good.

Currently in my apartment I have three large, high quality maps on my walls. Two of them are from Raven Maps: California, and Southern California. The third is late 1940’s-era (it may have been printed much later than that) USGS topographic map of the central San Francisco Bay Area made up of two 7×4 foot sheets. I have more in my closet. Clearly, I like maps.

Over at Rand McNally, they have a custom map store where you can choose your own area to map, at about 10 scales (from neighborhood to state level), and they will print it out in poster format, up to 48×60 inches. But it’s not cheap. That size, their largest, costs nearly $400. You can also choose to receive a custom booklet for that map with a street index.

Alas, if you can’t run Internet Explorer on Windows, you cannot use their custom map web interface. They should at least make it Firefox compatible, because IE is a bad idea all the time.

To the left here I’ve previewed the map I would like you to give me. It covers all parts of San Diego that I ride my bike at with sufficient detail of the smaller streets that are important. I would like it in the largest size, with the street index, too. With a cool wall map like this, I can plan out new rides much more easily than on a computer. San Diego county is nearly four times larger than Rhode Island (11,700 km² to 3400 km²), with much more interesting geography. Help me discover it’s wonders!

It’s only your money. We’re talking about my geographcial edification here!

(p.s. Yeah, okay, there’s actually no http://map.a.licio.us/, but there should be.)