Dear Lazyweb,

I'm looking for an HTTP client library for ruby which handles HTTP caching fairly transparently. It should work basically like a browser, in that if I hit a URL, it should cache the results, and if I try to GET it again, it should do a conditional GET with If-None-Match or If-Modified-Since. Does such a beast exist? I really don't want to write my own.

From their early 20s, many people go through a process I call lifestyle inflation. Flush with cash (and possibly credit) from their first jobs, they often buy nicer cars (maybe their first new car, and often on credit), jack up their rent or acquire a mortgage (thus extending expenses to include all sort of tools or paying others to do maintenance), and eat out a lot more often. In my case, high-end audio gear was also one part of that picture. Later in life, especially if they "do well", they'll jack things up again: perhaps a new luxury car (not a Buick or Caddy like their parents or grandparents, but probably an Acura, BMW, or perhaps a high-end Nissan), a series of expensive gadgets, a nicer neighborhood, an increasing alcohol budget (and more frequently sticking with "the good stuff"), a kitchen remodel, really nice furniture, etc.( Read more... )

I bought Cowen's Create Your Own Economy shortly after arriving in DC and have read about half of it. I'm enjoying it so far, but I think that's partly because I identify as someone with certain autistic cognitive and personality traits.

After starting the book, I also started reading Cowen's blog, Marginal Revolution. It's economicsy, but covers other stuff, too, like music and food. I reccomend it. I was turned on to Liszt's Transcendental Etudes by him.

If you happen to be in the DC area, his restaurant review blog seems good, if NOVA-centric.

I'm now starting my fourth Cory Doctorow book, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. This is a fairly blazing pace of fiction reading for me, and I'm beginning to think it's mostly down to how easy it is to read on the iPod Touch (I use Stanza), especially in bed. This is the absolute best laying down reading experience I've ever had, and simply starting the app takes me back to where I left off; no bookmarks. The device is easy to hold in one hand and simple to operate with only that thumb.

Although I don't have a Kindle yet, I think, at least for bedtime reading, this is probably a superior situation, mostly because of its one-handedness and the fact that I can read it with the lights off (I use a red-on-black theme to keep from disrupting melatonin production). Also, because the iPod is almost always in my pocket, I can grab a paragraph or two in the tiniest of moments.

Of course it also helps that I love Doctorow's books and that they are free. But I have to wonder if I would have ever known how good they are without the freeness and the iPod. My previous experience leads me to doubt it. At any rate, I recommend both Doctorow and Stanza highly.

I have to confess I've never really cared much for "challenging" movies and music. I don't mean mere intelligent stuff, but barely-narrative movies that "make you think", or assorted noise that is supposed to be "challenging to listen to" (not in the same way that G.G. Allin is).

I suspect I'm unusual in that I don't particularly have a problem thinking enough. I do it all the time, indeed probably too much. When my brain gets revved up, whether building software, planning travel, or fiddling a budget, I have trouble turning it off to go to bed. Like Eckhart Tolle says, I sometimes feel like the instrument (my mind) is in charge of me, rather than the other way around.

No, generally what I want from movies or music is some combination of mood-augmentation, humour, entertainment, and beauty. I don't particularly think my brain needs more things to pick apart and decode in a given day. If anything, I'd prefer a life where I selectively switch it on to do the things I really love to (or need to) do with it, then spend more time being present in the present.

Weather today's pretty much amazing: wispy clouds hanging in a perfect blue sky, 57 degF, and alternating between still and a mild breeze. I walked about 5km on the beach to reach town and return, and was in short sleeves for most of it. Saw some great waves out here on the west coast and am now back at Birdsong with a bottle of local brews set aside for sunset, which should be pretty good tonight, unless the weather turns. I'm out back on the deck, without much of a sea view, because I really don't want to leave the fresh air and sunshine on my skin. More about my glacier trip, including pictures, soon.

Safely ensconced at Birdsong Backpackers (in The Woodpigeon Room) in Hokitika. About 350km in mileage today, much of it in the mountains. Gorgeous, sunny weather pretty much the whole way. Now we've switched to rain and grey cover, which is probably going to make for a boring/invisible sunset. A shame because we're about 200 ft from the ocean facing west. The common room/kitchen in this hostel is just glass on 3 sides.

Tomorrow I'm headed further south for a walk upon Franz Josef Glacier. I'm beginning to think I'll stretch my stay here to a third night.

Angela felt an earthquake this morning. It was mild, but there it is nonetheless. Also, I'm planning to head to the South Island solo next week, and probably do a glacier walk while down there. That's all for now.

Is that the right word? They're not sightings. We went on a night hike this evening and heard Little Spotted Kiwi and Morepork (NZ's only remaining native owl). That was probably our only hope of seeing a Kiwi in the wild. Next stop, Wellington Zoo.

Pizza places sell sides of squid rings. How great is that? A 4-topping medium pizza and a side of squid rings came to US$12.25 tonight, tax included (as it nearly always is in posted prices). In general, there is a much smaller premium for eating out in NZ than in the US (relative to cooking at home). In order to clue in to this, one has to remember that there's never any tipping or extra tax on the bill.

The Tui has become my favorite NZ bird. Not only are they cool looking, they have fascinating, distinctive calls that resemble one another in style but are ultimately unique to each individual. I've heard them every time I've stepped in to the bush, am frequently able to get close to them, and can even identify them by the sound of their flight.

Generally, the birds of NZ are fascinating to see, hear, and learn about. The three parrots alone are cool enough: the Kākā we saw early on at Karori; the Kea, rated the smartest bird and the only alpine parrot; and the Kakapo, the only flightless parrot, a nocturnal one at that, and perhaps the longest living bird (95 yr avg life expectancy).

Today I approached a couple Australian Magpie, which while an introduced pest was pretty nonetheless, quite closely on foot.

I bought some New Zealand green-lipped mussels at the supermarket yesterday. This evening, I steamed them in a typical onions, garlic, white wine fashion and we ate them with rice & veggies cooked in stock I'd made from the carcass of a smoked chicken. It was quite tasty.

Ah, the smoked chicken. Piled up in Kiwi supermarkets are these whole smoked chickens, seal-a-mealed in thick plastic much like comes on stuff like Canadian bacon in the US. They cost about US$7 apiece. The meat is cooked by the Manuka smoke, and the smoky flavor goes all the way to the bone. We're on our second one right now, and I couldn't see wasting the carcass of the first one, so I made a stock from it in our poorly-appointed kitchenette today. It worked out great, and goes to show that you don't need a fancy kitchen to build delightful meals.

I just got a TXT on my NZ prepaid phone (actually the same GSM phone I used in the States; I just bought a prepaid SIM the other day) telling me I had Skype voice mail. I log in to Skype, and there's the voice mail: my bank had called my USA SkypeIn phone number (the only number I currently have over there) checking on recent overseas debit card activity. They have no idea where I am. I had to talk to no humans to set up any of this, and I paid a grand total of US$50 for several months of SkypeIn and the prepaid SIM. 20-30 years ago, this would have been a level of convenience and "follow me" connectivity that might have been available to rich executives with a lot of work on the part of corporate underlings and hotel staff, or eventually hauling around a bag phone. To everybody else it would have seemed hopelessly out of reach. Now, not only is it possible, it's easy and within almost anyone's reach.

At the climbing gym yesterday, I walked up to the counter, paid my NZ$12, and that was that. The fella didn't ask my name, put me in a computer, ask me to sign anything (e.g., the States-usual "I acknowledge I might die; I indemnify the gym."), or do any safety check-out. They had 2 autobelays which I was welcome to use, but I had to go out of my way to ask for instruction (though they are dead simple).

I rode the bus out to the Hutt Valley suburbs to do this. With all the natural beauty, it seems vaguely goofy to go out of my way and spend money to climb indoors, but it also serves to drop me in to a social context, and besides I just like to climb. I think I'll also poke around looking for places to boulder.

On Sunday, Angela and I rode the Wellington Cable Car to the top, then took a nice walk along the ridgetop roads to Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, where we saw or heard, in the space of a day: Grey Warbler, Saddleback, Tui, Kaka, Weka, Tuatara, Weta, and some very enormous fern trees, and learned a great deal about the native flora and fauna of New Zealand.

Pictures start here. Sadly, I left the CF card out of my DSLR, so the only wildlife shots we got are with digital zoom on the P&S.

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At the library now:

We get "free internet" at the apartment hotel we're in. It's free and it's internet, and despite what I suspected earlier, they aren't blocking ports. That said, it is craptacularly slow and laggy, and I don't think this is entirely to do with being an extra 100ms or so from California.



Even given those numbers, Angela had a successful video chat using Skype with her parents in Indiana.

Still, I'll be venturing out to use some cafe wifi today and see how that goes. There is a single provider for the vast majority of wifi in cafes and assorted other buildings, including the library. And it's a pay service, so hopefully that means high quality and high bandwidth.

Departure to Wellington is imminent. I have assured assorted parties that I will try to blog about—and post pictures to flickr of—my experiences while there. Both a P&S and a DSLR have been accorded space in our luggage.

The flights themselves will take 23 hours including time spent in airports from takeoff in Indiana to touchdown in Wellington. It's better than a full day when you include arriving early to the airport. Not sure how well that's going to work, but we've laid in copious quantities of melatonin and benadryl (couldn't get to the Dr in time for Lunesta), so here's hoping.

See you soon, Kiwis!