Long weekends rule. I was able to hit the road to see friends and family, and even managed to spend one night at home making sure the kitties were okay. Which they were, except for the fact that the female cat, Chumby, very much misses Lu. As do I. Chumby wanders the apartment meyowling while I just randomly start talking to Lu, then get mad when she ignores me and then remember that she's away on business this week. She taught at the 5th Annual Yoga Journal Conference in San Francisco this past weekend, and next weekend in the City she is offering a teacher training for anyone else that would like to learn the Full of Joy Yoga way. We miss you lots Lu!

So the NYTimes this weekend had some definite weirdness. The story on Page 4 about elephants on the streets of Bangkok seemed oddly lacking. It was more perfunctory and superficial than I expect from the Times. A little bit of research would have revealed far more aspects to the story of these creatures and their role in Thai society. There was no mention of the Elephant Nature Park, nor of Lek, the woman that founded this amazing refuge. She was one of the first people to publicly discuss the way elephants are trained in Thailand, and to try and find a new way. The phaajaan is the traditional method, and it is based upon extreme brutality and negative reinforcement to completely break the will of the elephant. There is a video of it here, if you want to see it. It is graphic. We saw this while staying at the Elephant Nature Park while traveling in Chiang Mai. Lek has spent her life saving old and injured elephants, and also training young calfs using positive reinforcement and love. For the Times to neglect all of this information is extremely frustrating.

Below the fold on Sunday's front page was another odd story with rather prominent placement. It was about a new trend in Japan: cellphone novels. Written and read on those tiny screens by tens of millions of people, it is a brand new way to tell a story. It was also cool to learn that the Tale of Genji is the first novel. Well, that's what the Times said, but it turns out that's not exactly the case. "Often considered" should have probably qualified what appeared to be a statement of fact. I'm sure a twitter novel is next, if it hasn't been done already.

We will be definitely heading to this get together next month, that's mentioned in this article. I've got the AllGreen magazine they mention right here on my desk, and Lu and I have been thrilled with the powerful local-grown and green community that thrives in Connecticut. It'll be nice for us to meet more of these like-minded folks. I bet one of them even has a great job for me.

And here's some tech for ya. Mixing tunes with iPods is fairly easy to do if you have the right tools, and these gadgets make it even easier. It's pretty cool that Pacemaker will release the software for free on the web. Could be fun to mess around with.

Alright, the new Wired is waiting for me. Time for bed.