Here's what I see when I look at my Google Reader stats:

Since May 22, 2007 you have read a total of 291,781 items.

That count will go no higher.

Google has decided to retire Reader on July 1st. Reluctantly, I have decided that I will not be using Reader on my six year anniversary. As a test, for the last week I have been exclusively using tt-rss installed on this web server as a replacement. So far it has been working pretty well. It's not a perfect replacement for Reader, but Reader isn't a perfect replacement for what Reader used to be, either. And unlike Reader, since it's self-hosted, no one will be taking it away from me.

If you want an account on my server, and you are someone I know personally, don't heistate to ask!

Update: I no longer run tt-rss. As of late, I have been using Feedly.

Update January 2025: I have now switched to NetNewsWire. Feedly wasn't bad, per se, but they inserted sneaky ads into feeds which is annoying. I could have paid for Feedly to remove ads. Feedly is a commercial operation and they need money to run their services. Instead I'm going with NetNewsWire is completely free and open source. So far it works well and I recommend checking it out.

You really need to click on the image and see the full-sized version!

We have a tradition (2010, 2011) of going for a hike on Christmas eve in Boulder. This year we decided to keep it easy and go for a stroll/hike (Melissa calls it a "strike") at Dowdy Draw open space south of Boulder.

Yesterday evening it started snowing, and by this morning there was roughly eight inches of fluffy snow on the ground, giving us a true white Christmas!

It's been over five months since I last posted on this blog! It seems appropriate that I come back with the counterpoint to the last photo I posted, this time showing the snowy Flatirons fronted by NIST.

Who knows when I'll post next!

Since we have moved to our new house at the other end of town, my ride to campus is a bit different. In some ways I don't like it as much as my old route because it is next to Broadway for most of the way. Broadway is a very busy street, it's noisy and unpleasant. My old route did go for a short while on a busy street, but most of the time it was on roads in quiet neighborhoods or on bike paths.

Note that I wrote "next to Broadway" above. In fact, my new route is almost entirely on grade-separated bike paths/sidewalks (it's legal here for adults to ride on sidewalks some places) or frontage roads next to Broadway, and I actually never ride on Broadway. The big bonus on my new route is that the views are far superior. Above is a photo of the view looking over NIST towards the fog-enshrouded Flatirons. They are not often covered in clouds like this, but it had rained heavily the day before and the air was still humid. Also note that the grass in the foreground is brown. Before our heavy rains we had two weeks of record-setting heat. It's been a feast or famine summer in Boulder.

Just a quick note: It's time again for the 2012 edition of the Tour de France pool hosted by Kris Wells. I am the scorekeeper, which I have been for several years.

Of late, there has been a great deal of construction in and around my office. Beginning two weeks ago my office cluster has been repainted, doors refinished, window shades replaced, some carpet has been replaced, and some wires and pipes have been installed and moved. There is still some more work to be done.

Beginning yesterday, and continuing for the next four to six weeks, the scoreboards for the stadium are being replaced. Pictured above is a crane removing pieces of the old one (notice the asymmetry in solid black/shaded regions). This crane is more or less just outside my window, which, as you can imagine, is kind of neat for the first five minutes, and then gets tiresome and annoying after that. The construction has also closed off large amount of space in front of the offices which is inconvenient for us, and they even cut down two perfectly healthy trees, presumably to make space for the crane (insert tree-sitter joke here).

As a matter of fact, the conduit carrying the control wires for the new scoreboards passes by my office. The next time Stanfurd plays the Buffs, don't be surprised if - wait, I'm saying too much.

Here are a few pictures from my ride today at Walker Ranch.

Above: Such a lovely trail!

The wildflowers are out in force.

When I was taking pictures, the California Zephyr rolled by on its westward journey to Emeryville. The full-sized image shows the train better than the preview. This is the train that Melissa and I took last Thanksgiving, and I remember seeing the Walker Ranch trail from the train.

Cowboy Longs Peak

Yes, that's a giant cowboy in front of someone's home, with Longs Peak in the background.

It's too bad the smell of fresh mountain air, cleaned by a recent rain/snowstorm, can't be captured and transmitted digitally.

Below is a kernel-density map showing where and how often I've ridden my bike around Boulder in the last year and a half. I've posted things like this before for my rides in California. The color map (the legend is in the bottom-left corner) indicates that anywhere there's a green dot, I've cycled through there at most a few times, and anything between blue and purple are my usual routes. There are a few red points mainly centered around where I live, which corresponds to places I've been through a few hundreds of times.

Looking at the map, I'm a bit surprised at the amount of exploring I've done out in the plains. I didn't realize I had done that much out there. I also want to note that most of the dead-end segments are due to geography - the roads end where the segments do.

Valmont View

Taken here on Saturday the 25th of February.

Here are a few photos I took on my snowshoeing hike in the mountains behind NCAR. As always, click to enlarge an image. Unfortunately, I broke one of my nearly brand new snowshoes. Luckily, I was nearly back to the car when it happened. By the way, today's high was -7C (20F).

Above is a panorama of some lesser Flatirons.

The narrowly beaten path between the Aspens.

A snowy view. Gotta love Boulder!

It's presently snowing. We've received around half a foot since last night. This is on top of the 22 inches that fell late last week. Boulder is a very snowy place right now!

This is the thirteenth photo I've posted in this series, and was taken only two days short of a full year after I began the project. I think I will cease taking photos of Boulder Creek every month. However, I will continue to post photos that highlight the natural beauty and change of seasons around Boulder.

Here are a few pictures from the hike we just did at Chautauqua. We've hiked there before when it was dry, but it has a special beauty when it's been freshly snowed on.