2012 Solo Road Trip: Day 4 (Fort Stockton, TX to San Antonio, TX)

Hard to believe, but today was even nicer than yesterday: Mellow drive through Texas hill country bursting with blue bonnets, lunch at Cooper's, and - best of all - an evening with dear friends, Jay and Andrea Cotham. Couching it tonight with a houseful of friendly cats (and one sweet dog). Tomorrow: Heading to Austin.

2012 Solo Road Trip: Day 3 (Phoenix to Fort Stockton, TX)

Fun (loo-oo-ng) driving day to Fort Stockton (with one lengthy detour through Marfa). Surreal, sublime stuff...

Tomorrow: Lunch at Coopers Old Time BBQ in Llano - followed by a visit with J. and Andrea in San Antonio!

2012 Solo Road Trip: Day 2 (Rialto, CA to Phoenix, AZ)

Morning at the Wigwam Motel

Lovely day with Jeff Sockwell and his family (Lisa and Royce) - chatting, catching up, and celebrating Jeff's birthday. Tomorrow: Heading for Texas!

2012 Solo Road Trip: Day 1 (S.V. to Rialto)

Enjoyed a wonderful day photographing downtown street art in L.A. [see more pix here] and sampling one of Damon's famous mai-tais. Tonight I'm staying at the Wigwam Village in Rialto.

Tomorrow: Phoenix to see Jeff Sockwell!"

2012 Cross-Country Road Trip Itinerary

Woodland Shoppers Paradise will be on hiatus for awhile as I embark upon my 2012 "Greatest Hits" Cross-Country Road Trip.

Staring this Sunday I'm hitting the pavement for about three weeks, seeing friends and family, shooting footage for a project about animated neon signs, and enjoying a little bit of roadside Americana.

Of course my itinerary is merely a draft; I'll alter my plans as new opportunities arise. But this is a pretty good idea of how I'll be living life for the next few weeks. Check it out!

[If you experience any hassles with the map below this text, I recommend that you click over to the larger format version.]

View Andy's 2012 Solo Trip in a larger map

Shameless Media Plug: San Jose Mercury News

I enjoyed the opportunity to participate in an interview with Sue McAllister a few weeks back about the tendency for folks to adopt differing communication strategies for "text-friends" and "talk-friends." Some of our conversation found its way into a San Jose Mercury News article that appeared this week. Here are a couple relevant quotes:

"We've been developing these devices that allow us this ubiquitous communication, and on the one hand it is remarkable and exciting. But we haven't quite caught up with the problems this revolution has unleashed," said Andrew Wood, a professor of communication studies at San Jose State.

…

San Jose State's Wood says much of personal communication comes down to being courteous to the people you're interacting with and gauging which method will be the right choice for the situation. For example, "In certain contexts I'm an email person," he says. "When I'm answering a question, I like email because I have the time to reflect on an answer."

But when it comes to real discussion, he says, his favorite medium is a time-honored one that many people still crave in our digital society.

"It's one-on-one conversation, in a diner," he says, "just two people talking. That's when I'm at my best."

Read the entire article: Text, call, email, IM, Facebook, tweet and meet? Communication has become confusing

Love and Theft Online

"What’s yours may not be yours anymore if others find a better way to package it."

David Carr offers this warning in his NYT article about efforts to fashion a system for ethical citation, aggregation, and "curation" of web content.

His article explores two potential solutions: one, a semi-top-down "seal of approval" approach; the other, a "curator's code" adopted from the bottom up.

Examining these options, Carr poses the interesting question: "Where is the line between promoting the good work of others and simply lifting it? Naughty aggregation is analogous to pornography: You know it when you see it."

Read more: A Code of Conduct for Content Aggregators