6/1: Liam and I spent the first half of the Summit arrival day on a 6.1-mile hike around Red River Gorge in the Kentucky hills, visiting massive Courthouse Rock and the Double Arch natural bridge. After a quick shower, everyone was assembled, and we went out for dinner at Knotty Pine on the Bayou, a fine local Cajun place. The evening featured a nice little scotch tasting and a couple rounds of Settlers.

5/31: I found myself back in the big silver bird for a flight to scenic (but generally unexciting) Cincinnati Ohio for the 2006 Dargon Writers' Summit.

5/27: I read "Understanding Exposure", which was a fair book, but hardly justified its hype and the two-month wait for the revised edition to become available from the BPL.

5/22: At my company's triweekly staff meeting, I gave my long-awaited presentation on XSLT and how we'd used it to convert fixed-width records in a text file into XML for a recent project.

5/21: I cranked out another issue of DargonZine. This month's new DargonZine 19-5 includes two of the final stories in our immense Black Idol story arc that was conceived over three years ago and has filled our pages for the past year and a half!

5/20: Finished reading the relatively useful but oddly titled "The Most Powerful Blackjack Manual". While my risk profile differs from the author, I found his analysis of the various betting strategies fairly useful.

5/18: Concluded an interesting business trip to scenic Scranton PA that was made more challenging as a result of illness.

5/17: On one of the only rain-free days this month, I joined a couple dozen other riders on Boston's version of the Ride of Silence: a silent procession from Arlington to Boston to honor cyclists who have been killed or injured while cycling on public roadways.

5/14: Just barely made it home from a Mother's Day trip to Maine, because after rain 8 of 9 days in a row -- including two record-breaking days in a row -- the Downeaster nearly couldn't navigate the washed-out tracks! Check it out.

5/12: Skanked my way out to Harpers Ferry in Allston and parked myself right at the edge of the stage to see my favorite reggae rastaman Joseph Hill and Culture.

5/6: Survived my first randonnée -- the Boston Brevet Series 200k -- to become an officially-recognized randonneur. By covering the 125-mile course in just over eight hours, I earned the medal shown at left from l'Audax Club Parisien, the first award I've ever received for a cycling accomplishment. Then I biked home, bringing my total to 153 miles, my new one-day mileage record. Full report here.

4/30: Finished reading David Kundtz's "Nothing's Wrong: A Man's Guide to Managing His Feelings" and was amused how much Buddhist thought it incorporated. It was generally helpful, although it really didn't address the issue that I find most challenging myself. Full reaction here.

4:29: Biked up to the North Shore and back to meet up with three dozen Where's George bill tracking enthusiasts at the Salem Beer Works. Photos

4/25: Received the newest version of Maine-based DeLorme's fine digital mapping product Topo USA 6.0, which I've been using for a numbre of years.

4/25: It was their annual Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's, so I did the rounds of all three of their ice cream shops in Boston. Their Turtle Soup flavor looks like a winner to me!

4/23: Finally got around to reading Lynne Truss' surprisingly popular grammar treatise entitled "Eats, Shoots & Leaves", which started out very well, but all too soon went completely pear-shaped. You can read the complete reaction here.

4/22: After hours of barely clinging onto my initial buy-in at a card night hosted by Matt & Dita, I doubled my table stakes in a single hand of Anaconda by drawing into a natural straight flush, making for another profitable night.

4/21: Received and watched the German DVD "HöllenTour", which follows the classic 2003 centenary Tour de France through the eyes of Team Telekom's veteran duo of Erik Zabel and Rolf Aldag. Ausgezeichneten!

4/20: Finished reading Neil Bradley's "XSL Companion", which I picked up to supplement some XSLT transformations I've been developing at my current work assignment.

4/19: After four years of philosophical inquiry, I took the Buddhist secular vows of the three refuges and the five precepts for the first time at CIMC at my first such ceremony.

4/17: Attended a Where's George? gathering at Zuma Mexican Grill in Quincy Market to honor a Georger from the Bay area who ran in today's Boston Marathon.

4/17: In one of the proudest moments in our 21-year history, DargonZine finally reached the climax of the immense Black Idol story arc in DargonZine 19-4 after three long, hard years of effort.

4/16: I don't know why this month's reading list has been so underwhelming, but here we go again! This time I was foolish enough to read David Sedaris' puerile "Holidays on Ice".

4/15: I was disappointed by David Finn's "How to Look at Photographs"; I'd been hoping for something with specific insights on composition and balance and color and so forth.

4/13: What kind of book on photography technique only has 8 pages of color images? Joe Farace and Barry Staver's poorly-proofed "Better Available Light Photography".

4/8: Continued plowing through photography books. This time it was Andrew Sanderson's rather dated "Night Photography", which I suppose is what one has to expect when one relies on the public library as a resource.