I took advantage of the Mpix large format print sale recently and ordered a 16 x 24 of this photo I took in India:

I’ve contacted Mpix customer service and I’m sure this will be fixed in some manner at some point. Trust me, this is not a complaint post by any means. I’m actually curious if I can put the Power of the Internets to work and find the rightful owner of this photo.

If this photo is yours, please get in touch – I’d love to know where you took this picture and the story behind it. (And I’m really curious if you got my print instead or if someone ELSE has it!)

Shirahige torii on the waters of Biwako in Shiga-ken, Japan.
Taken on: July 1, 2004 at 1.17pm
Taken with: Canon PowerShot A70

I spent the summer of 2004 on a life-changing semester abroad in the rural prefecture of Shiga in west-central Japan. My small class group and I often did field trips around and outside of little prefecture and one day we drove around the lake of Biwa that our hometown was named after (town was Biwacho, on the shores of Biwako!). We came across this amazing torii (a Shinto shrine gate, but it marks sacred land even if it’s not specifically ‘enshrined’) in the lake and our bus stopped so we could look. This site, Shirahige, is one of many torii in water all over Japan, it’s not the most famous one, but it certainly is somewhat famous.

I snapped this photo of my classmate taking it all in and just enjoying the sights. Later, some of my classmates hopped into the lake to swim out to the torii in the water and touch it for good luck.

Often when I think about the simple but amazing times in life where you’re taken aback by completely unexpected beauty, this time–and this photo–come to mind.

The lovely Bruce Freeman Rail Trail runs right through my hometown of Chelmsford, Massachusetts. One trailhead is in Carlisle (right at the intersection of routes 225 and 27) and the other is at the Lowell/Chelmsford line at the Crosspoint building (which used to be known as the Wang tower way back when).  Most of the way through Chelmsford it directly parallels route 27, which I used to bike as a kid.  It’s a lot nicer to go on the bike path though — the path goes right by the lovely Hart pond, my old elementary school (Byam!), some surprisingly beautiful wetlands and then right into the center of the town.

As seen in Chelmsford center, where there are a number of places to get some food and drinks. This photo is right behind Ginger Ale plaza, where you can find the Java Room, which has been a popular spot in town since it opened.

Turning around, this is the view of Chelmsford Center looking north:

Go up the stairs and that’s Ginger Ale plaza on the left. There’s also parking on the right. A lot of local businesses are here just waiting to cater to path users! (That’s why I recommend the Center as the trailhead if you’re driving in from out of town.)

Full review and photos of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail after the cut…

From Chelmsford center, the path goes alongside route 110 and then heads into Lowell.  Crossing 110, I have to admit, was very confusing and hard to maneuver without dismounting.  I actually fell off my bike trying to negotiate a hard sharp turn while crossing the street, which is my own fault. Definitely dismount when crossing 110 — those signs saying “bikeway narrows” are NOT KIDDING. Until the path picks up again properly you have to go along a narrow sidewalk, you might think you’ve lost the trail at this point. Just keep following the sidewalk and you’ll see it pick up again.  I know there’s been some discussion that this part of the trail is confusing, so I hope in time there are some changes to make it a little easier to understand.

My recommendation for recreational riders is that unless you are trying to get somewhere in Lowell, it’s not really worth the trouble crossing through Chelmsford Center, across a lot of traffic, to continue into Lowell. (Though of course if you’re trying to get somewhere specific, this trail is AWESOME for not having to ride on heavily-trafficked roads like 110.)

So biking from Chelmsford Center going south towards Carlisle, you will go some pretty decent stretches without encountering any streets. This path isn’t nearly as heavily-used as, say, the Minuteman rail trail, so you can pick up some good speeds here.

Leaving the center and heading south, you’ll see the streams that (I believe…) feed into the Middlesex canal in the center of town. The canal is kind of hidden — but if you walk near the Fishbones restaurant in the center of town you’ll get a little peep of the canal.

The trail isn’t too heavily trafficked, though you will encounter a lot of families using the trail, which is great to see. Serious roadies need to keep in mind that even with “ON YOUR LEFT” etiquette, a lot of folks here aren’t still used to that so kids — especially the kids — will not necessarily understand what that means. Definitely use caution and announce yourself well ahead of passing!

As the trail parallels route 110 (again, leaving the Center going towards Carlisle) you’ll go through some protected areas and wetlands. I can’t wait to see this in the fall, it’s going to be gorgeous.

It’s always great to see people using the trail, but sometimes you want a nice, quiet ride. :)

One of the many MANY things this trail got phenomenally right was the intersections. Lots of signage for cars on the road and plenty of forewarning for path users.

As you approach road intersections, in addition to signage and marks on the asphalt, the asphalt changes to arranged brick. This effectively acts as a rumble strip for bikers:

It’s a very VERY smart idea.

Above was the High Street intersection. While you can get away with rolling stop/slows at later intersections, this is one where I HIGHLY RECOMMEND vigilance. Having grown up in this town and learned to drive on these roads, I can tell you that a lot of people tend to drive way too fast down High Street, especially since it’s coming down a steep hill. Until people change habits and get used to slowing down their cars at this intersection, bikers/walkers/skaters really need to be careful when crossing here.

Continuing past High street you’ll be going on another decent stretch without any interruptions.

The trees steeple over the trail in a really beautiful way. Again, can’t wait to see this in the fall. The Bruce Freeman trail might become my favorite once I see it in autumn — if it topples the Nashua River rail trail as my favorite that will be a feat indeed! :)

When you get to this clearing with the power lines, know that you’ll be coming up to another road intersection soon.

Aaaaaaand this is that intersection! Directly to your right is Byam Elementary School (my alma mater, haha) and in front of you is Agway. They’re very smart — they’ve put up signs facing the path advertising cold drinks and restrooms inside. (They also had toxic waste candy for sale, haha.)

Right after Agway on your right will soon be Hart’s pond.

It’s a great place for a swim (no lifeguards on duty though!). No reason you can’t hop in off the bike path if it’s a hot day.

It’s a decent-sized pond, too. You’ll be biking right alongside it for a while.

You’ll also be crossing a number of tiny private roads that lead to the water-side houses. Definitely use vigilance when crossing (as always!) but you don’t need to come to a full stop for these tiny roads.

Kind of hard to see — but some neighborhood kids set up a lemonade stand along the path near the pond. Judging by their coin jar it looks like they did decent business that day. Smart kids!

After the pond drops out of view, you’ll continue to parallel route 27 towards Carlisle and even cross it at one point, be careful at these major intersections!
And then (alas) the sign that you’ve come to the end:

This is where stage 1 of the BFRT ends, but hopefully the trail will continue one day soon!

Google elevation map showing where to follow Route 225 -- i.e. how to get to the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail from the Minuteman Trail

For bikers coming from the Boston area, it’s not too hard to pick up the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail from the Minuteman Trail. Remember that the Minuteman trail ends basically smack-dab in the center of Bedford? Pick up route 225 from there and follow it west for a while. When you get to the intersection of route 27 and 225, that’s where the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail starts.

I haven’t done 225 on a bike yet, so I don’t know about any major hills — I’ve done Bedford to Chelmsford on route 4 though and there are a few killer hills, so I think 225 in comparison is much better.

For more information about the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, please check out the official website of the Friends of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail: http://www.brucefreemanrailtrail.org/index.html
They have info on how you can support the trail and efforts to continue its construction/extension. Considering how beautiful phase 1 has turned out, I hope other towns realize what an asset this kind of public space is and support it.

[[Addendum]]
Also, I want to give a big THANK YOU to the Friends of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail and the Chelmsford Police Department. When I was biking the path yesterday (Saturday September 5 2009), a big tree collapsed right around the Lowell/Chelmsford line and cut off the path at about 3pm.

Luckily no one was hurt but you couldn’t pass around the tree. Within an hour the police were there with chainsaw crews, and they cleared the tree. Hooray! I stand corrected, thank you Ken for the correction. The police were indeed present to help direct traffic around the tree but the chainsaw crews were courtesy of the Friends of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail. A big thank you to the Friends and to the CPD!

I am also probably one of the only people under 40 who actually owns a 5-cd changer stereo in addition to an iPod. Oh, and a best of David Bowie LP set. With a knitting Hello Kitty. With Greek pop cds. With feather fascinators. And mountain biking gloves.

I’m confused now.

The real news is this baby:

My new Janome sewing machine! I sold my trusty Singer on craigslist to someone who needed it more than I, and upgraded to a machine that’s a lot more heavy-duty and can work with the weird projects I’ve been making lately. Seriously seeing this on my doorstep was the highlight of my Friday.

‘Tis the season for house work–it feels like I’ve barely had a moment to sit down and think. Our apartment was de-leaded earlier this summer and since then I’ve been hard at work re-painting our kitchen with my roomate. Any weekend when I haven’t been doing housework I’ve been on the road somewhere, it feels like. So I’m behind on updates. I have about four drafts saved that I just can’t bring myself to post yet.  Instead of keeping you guys waiting, here’s a brief on what I’ve been up to.

In July, my housemate and I took a trip to Eastham on Cape Cod to visit the house of Captain Penniman.  It was such a lovely day on the Cape that we couldn’t just head back afterwards, so we ended up on the beach for a little while. And of course I forgot sunscreen and subsequently turned lobster red.

A few weeks later we were in New Bedford for the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament, the largest Portuguese heritage festival (excluding Portugal, I can only assume). Most of the Portuguese-Americans in New Bedford are specifically from Madeira, an island that I have been planning to visit in 2009. So while at the festival we dropped by the Museum of Madeiran Heritage, I got a Madeiran food cookbook (well, I do love to cook), and just kind of soaked in as much as I could from the festivities.

Wow! Those are some dresses, huh?

The festival brought back memories of when my family and I used to go to the Greek-American parades in Boston. Greek Independence Day is March 25th, which is a bit nippy up here in New England, so the parades were usually on the cold and dreary side.

So glad I got to go to this festival though. I have been dying to visit Madeira for a few years now and am now more psyched than ever to go and see it for myself. If all goes as I hope, I’ll be able to make a quick stop in Morocco on the way back from Madeira too, but we’ll see about that.  Meantime I have about a year to get ready — I hope I can squeeze in a few Portuguese lessons.

Early in August I was at Otakon with some friends. During the con, I was a guest at the Future of Jrock panel along with a number of industry guests and musical artists. The audience was so engaged and I took a ton of notes from it.  When I’m at liberty to speak more about events from that weekend I definitely will, but for now I’m holding off a bit.

Finally, just yesterday I went on a Boston harbor islands cruise with friends on a lovely sailboat owned by Community Boating Inc (CBI) of Boston. It was a proper sailboat–no motors here!–and I got to help out as crew when I could make myself handy, namely by being the navigator.  I’ve never done nautical navigation before so it was a crash course in reading a nautical map and learning all the different markers. What a great experience!

I now know that this thing here is called a nun:

Nuns, cans, daymarks — oh yea, and Nixes Mate. Until yesterday I had absolutely no idea what any of these things were (basically all marks to tell you where you are!), they were just funny buoys in the water. It kind of got me hooked into sailing now. I’ve always been a bit of a nerd for maps and navigating on the water is definitely a thrill.

(Our final destination for the day was Georges Island, in case you were curious.)

I’d like to note that even though I learned my lesson from the Cape trip earlier this summer and remembered to wear sunscreen AND reapplied throughout the day, I still turned lobster red by the end of yesterday. I can’t win. I’ll be in southern Pennsylvania for Labor Day to visit family, on Martha’s Vineyard the weekend after, doing the Hub on Wheels ride two weekends after and then visiting NYC the weekend after that.

I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

Just like the Seine in Paris, the Charles is such a psychological boundary for Boston-area residents. Crossing the river, simple as it is on foot/bike/car/train, seems to require much more effort than it really does. It’s so much easier to just stay on your side of the river and not cross over. Cantabridgians stick to their own, Bostonians likewise. And now that the Red Line is crawling snail’s pace over the Longfellow due to repairs, the gap between the two sides seems bigger than ever. If there’s a social event across the river, I know many people who’d rather just stay home than go over the Charles, even if it’s not very far. Such a bizarre phenomenon.

Meantime, I thought I’d provide the latest lame excuse for my delay in updating–one that’s just a tiny bit ironic considering my last posts were liveblogs from the Bastion of Geekery a.k.a. ROFLcon. I b0rked my server, meaning I kind of had a mishap with mySQL database. I wish the reason was something cool, like I was running some fabulous back-end scripts for some nefarious purpose. Sadly, no, nothing even remotely that excusable. All it came down to was that I lost my password. Kind of pathetic, really. Sorry about that.

[edit] Does anyone have a low- to mid-level DSLR recommendation? My very trusty Canon Powershot is on its very last legs, bless its sturdy PCB heart.

As with yesterday, newest posts are at the top.

Check out these two feeds:
My flickr account (photos)
My twitter (tiny tweets)

[@4:11pm] I’m home from ROFLcon — have to head out with the family for Orthodox Easter celebrations now. Had to miss out on some of the final panels (tweets on the ROFLcon feed are telling me perhaps I didn’t miss much) but I’m already looking forward to next year. I’ll post more about my overall thoughts on the conference in a later post. Have a lot to digest from the past two days before I can get some cogent thoughts together.

[@2:26pm] Whoa, Timbaland ripping off OCremix isn’t getting any coverage? If true, how is no one picking up on this story?

MSM and radio and talk shows read Fark for material. Apparently show networks can’t attribute Fark for material because of union and network contracting rules — legal ramifications. Hat-tips just don’t happen in MSM, says Curtis. He’s explaining how many TV news networks quote each other when stories breaks. This isn’t news to me, but a lot of audience members seem shocked. Old media ethos is exact opposite of how sites like Fark and Reddit work, kind of incomprehensible about how the two will mesh more and more.

“The Internet” = Fark.com

[@2:11pm] We have now successfully RickRolled the panel.

Alexis of Reddit: “So many buzzy PR things happen organically and it frustrates the hell out of them. ”

Another question — are trolls necessary?
DJPretzel: “They are necessary to deal with the marketers that come to the site. If you’re real it will come through, if you’re fake you’ll get trolled–there’s no way to pull one over the audience.”
Matt of Metafilter: “Marketing comes off as fake.”
Fark summary of comments: “People submitting content, great. Marketers, fuck ‘em.” Oooo.

Corollary: Old media being fooled by stupid stories/marketing, Drew Curtis not sure why old media is always getting drawn in by these fake stories all the time. I’m not either! (Mooninites anyone?)

[@1:56] Fark’s Drew Curtis on what Fark is: “Everybody else is stupid but I’m smart.”

Anil Dash deserves a lot of props and shoutouts, he’s doing a fantastic job of moderating this panel.

Comments on how Reddit and the Reddit community is changing, has changed. From geeky LISP-related news to political memes (Ron Paul) etc. Fark and Reddit commenting on their community–even the gripers–they’re really happy with the communities. OCRemix wants to see more diversity of games remixed, I can’t argue with them there (I go for the FF and Chrono Trigger remixes mainly but other games I like are barely touched by remixers). “Don’t always go for the lowest common denominator in terms of what you want to see featured.”

Current top comments on the backchan interactive are the first few lyrics from Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
That’s right, ROFLcon’s RickRolling Fark, Metafilter, Reddit and OCRemix. It has all come full circle.

[@1:47pm] Starting the “Incubating the Mindvirus” panel on memes– OCRemix, Fark, metafilter, reddit. This might be my last activity of the day — it’s Eastern Orthodox Easter tomorrow and I need to be with my family this evening.

Randall Munroe, creator of XKCD, is here. He says thanks to the referrals from Reddit he’s on there all the time. Figures, ’cause XKCD is on Reddit all the time. Cozy.

More twitter-reddit hybrid comment posting on a projection. Top posts right now: “Trolls: are they an essential part of the community?” and “Do you think the Internet is less interesting now that you’re all in here?”

Reddit gave a shoutout to Yahztee (Zero Punctuation game reviewer), says Yahztee should be here next year. I couldn’t agree more! Yahztee’s fast-paced potty-mouthed game reviews are painfully funny, and his homegrown reviews have basically dwarfed all the professional game reviewers out there from word-of-mouth alone.

[@1:15pm] We got locked out of an event room but there are a few ROFLconners inside. I’m twittering one of them, asking them to open the door (since they can’t hear us knocking) when they see the tweet. This is really bizarre, even for a geek like me!

[@1:01pm] TripAdvisor provided 225 boxes of free pizza (I asked an employee, that’s how I got this number). I think we ate about half of the food, I wonder what they’ll do with the ~100 boxes of untouched pizza? [I'm overhearing talk of Salvation Army and Pine Street Inn.]

Earlier, Anonymous (4chan) showed up toting pizza. Cries of “Anonymous delivers!” rang out.

Had a group photo outside of all the attendees. It’s a beautiful sunny day for it, can’t wait to see the pics.

Another one of those “Only at ROFLcon” moments — Tron guy, the Firefox and Cheez (CEO of Icanhascheezburger.com) all chatting together:

BTW, looks like there’s a Tron guy documentary in the works. He’s trailed by a sound and video guy at all times. Fascinating.

Earlier, the FireFox and Ollie the Owl (TripAdvisor’s mascot) duked it out:

… but they reconciled, all in the name of OMGfreepizza:

Going to get a seat now for the Stuff White People Like blog panel. I talked to the blog creater earlier, he’s a really nice guy and I’m interested to hear more of what he has to say on his blog’s very, very sudden and huge popularity.

[@11:59am] Fans are kind of asking for dirty Homestarrunner — Homestarrunner porn? Have Homestar say things he oughtn’t? Bros Chaps reply: “Corner me in the john.” Um, no thanks.

Lunchtime. Free pizza (oh, it really is like college again). The Firefox and the Owl will have a smackdown. Hmmm.

[@11:51] Brothers Chaps affirms they did indeed visit Disney and met with a producer there, he wanted to collaborate with HSR. Apparently nothing came of it (conclusively) but they found it very flattering that Disney folks liked their work.

Panel voted unanimously: The internet is awesome.
Great.
Glad we cleared that up.

The Firefox asked the panel about adding features for accessibility and open standards on their websites?
…Panel replies they don’t really get what open source is.
Moderator: “This is like a panel of people who only visit the internet.”

[@11:46] Someone asked the inevitable “How does Strongbad type with boxing gloves on?”
Strong Bad: “I’m gonna murder whoever put that question up.”

[@11:41pm] Neely: “I’m waiting for the day when someone tells me this thing is all over…but I have secrets” — OK, it must be obvious I am a huge Brad Neely fan. If he’s got other things up his sleeves, I can’t wait to see it!

Brothers Chaps: Someone actually thought the whole HSR joke was that Homestar has Down Syndrome?!?! What the heck?

[@11:34pm] Brad Neely–”Flash to me is a guy in a red suit that runs around”–talking about processes and tools used in production. HSR still uses Flash 5. Wow!

[@11:15am] Here I am again at the MIT campus in a sea of geeks and laptops. I didn’t get back from the ROFLconcert at the Middle East Upstairs (in Central) last night until 2:30am, so as you can imagine I’m pretty tired. In my exhaustion this morning, I forgot my camera at home! So it’s all cell phone photos today. Sorry!

Still the main focus fo the day are the excellent panels going on today.

Right now I’m (a half-hour late) to the Making It Big panel. Big names here–Brothers Chaps of Homestar Runner, Brad Neely of SuperDeluxe.com (Babycakes, Professor Brothers), Burnie Burns of Red vs Blue and some of the staff of Cyanide and Happiness.

The discussion has moved from what “selling out” is, to freedom of expression on the internet versus self- or imposed-censorship on other media, to the processes they go through to create their popular content.

Applause for Homestarrunner.com never running ads on their site for the eight years they’ve been going.

Q: “Can you talk about not having ads on your site?”–moderator
A: “There’s nothing to talk about, ads are the worst thing about the internet”–Bros Chaps

Brothers Chaps apparently work out of a “inspriringly depressing shopping center.”

There’s a room-wide twitter-like channel going on. Comments are up-down voted ala Reddit and the entire screen is projected behind the panelists so they can see what the most popular comments and questions are. This is a fantastic idea.

This information is now outdated:

[edit] Wow. Now my name is apparently “Brian Lewis.” Oh, Boston Globe. I wonder if there’s a guy out there named Brian Lewis wondering who this Maria Varmazis is and why her name is on one of his photos.[/edit]

I got an email two days ago from the Boston Globe asking me if they could run one of my photos of the flash mob pillow fight in print and online, and, thinking little of it, I replied that indeed they could.

Though I was pretty tickled to see my photo on boston.com today (also here), I was rather disappointed when I saw the photo credit. Apparently my new name is “file photo.”

In case the link expires, here’s a screen capture:

C’mon, Globe. Really now. How hard it is to run a link to a source? That’s Internet Protocol 101 right there.

I suppose I should email them and ask for a credit, but did I really have to spell it out explicitly that they should credit me for a photo that I took? Shouldn’t they be doing that anyway?

An example of getting it right? UniversalHub ran my photo not long after the event. Thanks, Adam!

Some of the blame here is on me. Previously the photos were “all rights reserved,” but there was no explicit statement requiring credit. But that’s easy enough to fix and I’ve now put a Creative Commons license on all my photographs, stating that attribution is now required for use, even though 99.999% of my photos are measly snapshots of minutiae. Lesson learned!