Facebook Friend Exporter

A friend of mine is shutting down his Facebook account.* But before he turns out the lights, he's exporting his friends' contact data to .csv using the open source Facebook Friends Exporter [since defunct -N.] Chrome extension (source available via GitHub).

If you believe that your data belongs to you, and that you should be able to extract it for your own use, this extension might come in handy for you. It's pretty cool - check it out! (obviously you'll need to be a Chrome user)

I tried it myself, and it seems to work quite well. The process does take a bit of time -- naturally Facebook tries to prevent users from performing exactly this kind of operation, so you can only export about 60 contacts every hour or so. The extension allows you to export specific information shared by your friends with you, including

• name
• e-mails 
• phone numbers 
• screen names
• websites.

Once plus is that it doesn't require your Facebook login credentials -- you merely have to be logged in to Facebook in a Chrome window. And then when you're done, you can just disable the extension, or uninstall it altogether. Nice and clean.

Philosophically it does raise the question, to whom does the data really belong? Most people would agree that my friends' data isn't owned by Facebook (though clearly they have possession of it; I mean owned in the sense of having moral rights to its use.). But is it mine to extract? You could argue that my friends' data belongs to them, and not me, and that I shouldn't be able to export the data for who knows what purposes.

If I remove my own contact data from Facebook, it's not unreasonable to expect Facebook to no longer store that information. Having someone extract that info means I no longer have control over the data.

But that quibble isn't stopping me. My perspective is, if you're friends with me on Facebook and you've shared contact info, you've chosen to do so. It's no different than if you told me your phone number and I wrote it down. This scenario is a simple repetition of that, over the set of all my friends.

In summary -- I think this extension has utility and is worth considering. Enjoy!

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* My friend has philosophical issues with Facebook. Fundamentally he disagrees with "the trend to digested, centralized, online connectivity and Facebook's pushy 'life outloud' development path", and believes we "shouldn't willfully be strengthening our dependence on a single product (especially one that creates such a superficial illusion of connectivity)". I share to a lesser degree some of these concerns, but lack the courage of my convictions. 

Cat vs Metronome vs Tik Tok vs Ice Ice Baby

For some reason I just can't get enough of this silly cat video:

Thank you for selecting the Air Shipment option...

I bought a memory card online for my camera. Amusingly, it was delivered in a hugely voluminous box relative to the card. I guess Air Shipping means shipping air...

If I'd bought a larger memory card, would that mean an even bigger box?

(Card packaging removed for emphasis)

Gravity Brawl pulls me back to earth - TdB writeup

I'm not sure what's more painful -- taking that first shower after a bouldering comp, or waking up the next day! In the shower you scream 'Aaah!!' as you discover the myriad stings and cuts incurred from clinging desperately to rough surfaces. Waking up is more like a groaning 'Ooof!' when you're slammed by a deep and thorough muscular soreness in your core from the previous day's all-out exertion.

Comp poster (click to enlarge)

This weekend I had the considerable pleasure of attending the Tour de Bloc Gravity Brawl at Gravity Climbing Gym in Hamilton.

I had a great time. That sounds kind of repetitive if you've read my other TdB session posts -- but you know what, the Tour de Bloc organizers certainly seem to know what they're doing, in terms of putting together an enjoyable bouldering competition.

So all credit to them -- Jody Miall, Luigi Montilla, and the setters at Gravity -- awesome job guys!

Why does it always have to snow before I arrive at these comps?!

Gravity is located in a gritty metal warehouse close to the Hamilton Spectator. From the outside, it doesn't look like much (and if you don't know where it is, it's a little hard to find), but once you get inside it's a revelation. Tall, open, airy -- Gravity has a down-to-earth vibe that matches its industrial location.

The padding at Gravity could certainly be a little thicker, but whatever, other than that they have a wonderful setup. There's a large central space where people can hang out, congregate, and watch other climbers, so at the comp yesterday there was never any feeling of being crowded by the spectators. If only Hamilton was a little closer; I'd climb regularly at Gravity if I lived in the Hammer.

32 - one of the key problems. A surprisingly hard start; a powerful finish

As for the climbing -- my improbable string of narrow TdB amateur victories was broken. I struggled mightily, barely placing 4th in Men's Exp -- no Team V0 glory, alas. My nutrition and sleep weren't right in the days beforehand; I simply did not have the juice to take a podium spot. My lowest score was #15, and I couldn't muster up a better sixth problem (the amusing highlight was working on an overhang problem (#23) with a bunch of little kids, and none of us could finish it except one, and that one wasn't me!).

But as Tony Berlier told me afterwards, the important thing was to work through a day where everything wasn't clicking and to learn from it. And of course to have fun. So the results were mildly disappointing, but I didn't mind -- the problem setting for this event was superb.

The start for 34 - a small, thin, slappy puzzle

The end for 34 - heinous round finish hold

This time around there were two fantastic problems that entrapped me, #32 and #34 (shown above). I came soooo close to completing both of them -- I had one hand on the finish holds in multiple solid attempts on both routes, but in neither case was I able to make the match -- extremely, deliciously frustrating. On a stronger day I'm confident that I would have completed at least one of them. If I'd managed either, I would have placed 2nd -- but that's just griping. These two problems took all of my energy.

Slabby, delicate, pernicious crimping on 29.

Burly 30 (yellow tape)

More problem photos from the comp can be found here. Dustin Curtis (the gentleman who drove me home from Montreal a few weeks back) won in the Men's Open category. Yay Dustin!

Hurrah for Outdoor Research! A TdB sponsor.

I was stoked to win a Radiant LT zip top pullover from Outdoor Research, one of the primary sponsors this year. The shirt was a draw prize, and worth close to double my comp fees -- sweet! Thanks Outdoor Research for your generous support of the TdB.

Delightful isolation

I wasn't able to secure a ride to the comp, so I wound up taking GO Transit (why does the train stop at Aldershot?!) and tramping around Hamilton for a bit. It has a smaller town feel that I sometimes miss. The architecture is subtly different...

All in all it was another fun outing. I've been enjoying this process even though I'm not sure if I can take the next step in terms of ability. Despite my advancing years I think there's still room for improvement. If I can apply a steady training regimen I'll be comfortable moving to Open next year without completely embarrassing myself.

And one last note -- I want to say: Janek -- your mom is awesome!! (Haha, that sounds rude) Janek's mom graciously gave me half a sandwich to munch on; it really hit the spot. It was an example of how friendly the atmosphere is at these events. Thanks!

Update: Empress Hotel Fire was Arson!

It's official: the Empress Hotel fire that destroyed one of the signature heritage properties along Yonge Street earlier this year was caused by arson, according to police.

Empty corner.

Unfortunately the only public lead they've released is this grainy security footage of a 'person of interest'.




And in other news, Salad King (which had its original location destroyed in the fire) is due to reopen its new restaurant just across Yonge, above the Foot Locker, on February 22. Hurray for Salad King!

See also: my previous post on the Empress Hotel Fire (and the history of the building).

Update: More details released
Update (July 2012): More details emerge -- arrest made
Update (Dec 2012): Empress Hotel arsonist sentenced to 10 years

Getting Vertical in Montreal

Sometimes I'm taken aback by the bruises, cuts and contusions that accumulate from a hard-fought Tour de Bloc competition. Hours after the adrenaline rush of participating has worn off, I'm left wondering, "How the heck did that happen?!"

Medium rare, please

  

This weekend I went to Gonflé à Bloc, a TdB session held at Vertical in Montreal. The first layer of skin on the pads of my fingers was scraped right off! I also wound up with a sore ankle, a dime-sized scab on my elbow, and matching abrasions on both wrists. Plus there were the usual aches, pains, and sore spots all over my body.

Obviously, I had a great time!

Exuding a certain inexplicable Gallic flair...

The trip was a spur of the moment decision; Mr. Jeremy Dowsett, the proprietor of Climbing Hold Review, invited me to attend, and even more generously permitted me to crash at his place for the weekend. I could hardly refuse such liberal kindness, so I hopped onto the train forthwith Friday evening, and settled onto his couch for an overnight nap prior to the comp (thanks as well to Ev and the two cats!).

David and Suzuki battling at dawn for feline sumo supremacy

Despite a precarious morning snow-storm in the City of Mary, the CHR team managed to arrive at Vertical (close to Station Angrignon on the Metro) well before the start of the morning kickoff. Since the last time I was there a year ago, Vertical has added an entire new wall and completely replaced their front bouldering area. The square footage of available bouldering surface is impressive. The setters put up 60 problems for this competition!

Yours truly on 25 (brown tape) - The end sequence to the finish using the green hemisphere was tricky. This problem wasn't ranked high enough to make it onto my top six, but I was glad I tried (and sent!) this one. Observe the orange CHR t-shirt; photo courtesy of J. Dowsett

I had a decent outing. The problem setting was varied and enjoyable -- it felt like there was a little bit of everything, so if there was something I didn't want to do, it wasn't a deal-breaker if I didn't work it or even skipped it altogether.

The best part of a bouldering comp is finding the 'nemesis' problem -- something that is set right at that flickering, wavering limit of what I can persuade my body to physically accomplish on a given day. Attempting those sorts of problems is always the highlight of a comp, and is definitely worthy of attention. It's invaluable as part of the search for self-discovery. You don't know what you can do, until you push to the edge -- and sometimes, you fall off!

42 (blue tape) was the difference between Open climbers and me. They could send it; I couldn't (and neither could any of the other Experienced climbers). 38 (brown tape) had a muscular horizontal sequence that you could secretly skip.

I had about 5 serious attempts on problem 42. I had everything dialled in -- except for the move to the finish hold, which was simply too strong or too technical for me. The penultimate hold was troublingly mediocre. The key seemed to be using the right heel hook to pull in the hips rightward and up -- which I couldn't do. I could get the hook, and pull in slightly, but not quite far enough to stably stick the finish with my right hand. Ah well. Practice makes perfect!

Part of the new bouldering wall at Vertical. You can see the end of 41 (green holds), an overhung crimper-fest with a blind throw to the second last hold.

I deviated considerably from my desired event strategy. I was intimidated by the large number of overhanging walls, so I did a few too many intermediates in order to get warmed up and build up some confidence. I'm sure I wasted some time at the beginning. If you take too long monkeying around with the easy stuff, you risk not leaving any juice for the hard ones.

37 (green tape) - deceptive leftwards traverse on crimpers

I was also side-tracked by a couple of problems in their cave, neither of which I completed. I had the presence of mind to abandon the area promptly following a few draining attempts. I was feeling pretty pumped out a couple of hours in.

30 was long! In both the 'it has many moves' sense as well as the 'you need a high ape index' sense. Apparently 45 was about the same difficulty, just with poorer feet. I got smacked around and left promptly without wasting too much energy.

As I've mentioned before, my goal for the season is to improve sufficiently to sincerely enter into Open. I'm still battling it out in the Experienced category right now. If I could have landed 42 that would have made a huge difference to me. I'm not disappointed because I did legitimately try my hardest on it. I might have sent it on a stronger day; who knows?

36 (red tape) was burly but fun. Brute force and ignorance was sufficient to complete it.

The organization -- at least for the morning section -- was great, and everybody involved deserves a huge thank you for putting on such a pleasurable event. Apparently there was a controversy regarding the final results for the Open category, which is unfortunate; I hope they're able to sort things out to everyone's satisfaction. My personal experience was fantastic. Facilities, registration, instructions, crowd management, announcements and awards -- all were well done during the morning time slot for men's experienced. My sole complaint would be that the padding in certain areas was a bit sketchy. I took one hard fall on my rump at a spot where there was a small gap between the pads; luckily I wasn't injured or overly shaken up.

It's a pity that Vertical is so far away from where I live; I would have loved to return and session some of the harder problems. 

Results (mens exp) - w00t! The margin of victory was slim indeed.

Other memorable problems I encountered at Vertical can be found here. If you're in the Montreal area, I heartily recommend a visit. It's clear a lot of effort went into the setup of the gym.

Listening to Grand Admiral Thrawn's devious scheme for Galactic domination on the way home.

Lastly, I had a chance to spend some time hanging out with noted climber Dustin Curtis and Michelle Day; they provided me with a swift ride back home that was much appreciated. Thanks Dustin and Michelle! Thank you once again Jeremy and ClimbingHoldReview for your hospitality, without which I wouldn't have had the opportunity to enjoy this whole experience.

Delay the Oasis demolition!

Please consider attending the upcoming community meeting hosted by Councillor Adam Vaughan of Ward 20. The meeting concerns the proposed Minto/freed development at Front and Bathurst, which is ultimately going to result in the demolition of the warehouse structure that houses the Rock Oasis climbing gym.

Update to Oasis' situation - a plea for help; a hopeful note.

Minto is pressing ahead with its demolition plans, even though it may be years before they are ready to commence construction -- because they want to build a sales office. The expected project completion date for their proposed development is 2015!

We're losing the utility of the gym needlessly early. We're being forced out way too soon.

I accept that the development is going ahead inexorably, one way or the other -- 500 condo units mean big bucks, tax wise and for the developers -- but the demolition should only take place when the developer is ready to proceed with construction.

Think of how the southeast corner of Yonge and Bloor has sat vacant and unused for almost two years -- because demolition went ahead before the developer was able to proceed. Was that a fruitful use of that space? I don't think so. It was a waste. Why let essentially the same thing happen again at Front and Bathurst?

Has it really benefited anyone to have this space vacant for the past two years?

The meeting is taking place Jan. 31, at 7:30pm in the Harbourfront Community Centre, 627 Queens Quay (at Bathurst), Medium Assembly Room.

If Oasis has to close the Front and Bathurst location before they can construct and open another location (keep your fingers crossed!), it's going to suck for the local Toronto climbing community. Even if you don't climb at Oasis -- think about it, everybody who climbs there will be forced to use the other gyms in town. That is not going to be enjoyable.

Hope to see you at the meeting!

Update: Read my subsequent essay, Farewell to Rock Oasis!, on the history of the gym, the industrial structure in which it was built, and the surrounding neighbourhood around Front and Bathurst.

Mayor Ford: Please reconsider the proposed service cut to TTC Route 101 - Downsview Park

A minor update (Jan 12, 2010): the TTC has chosen to defer making a decision on the proposed reductions in service, until their next Board meeting February 2.

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Sent today. This isn't political -- it's about nurturing the growing community at Downsview. 
For context - Mayor Ford is Rob Ford, Mayor of Toronto; Councillor Stintz is Karen Stintz, Toronto Transit Commission Chair, and Councillor Maria Augimeri is the Councillor for the affected Ward. Route 101 is among the set of recent proposed TTC service reductions.

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Dear Mayor Ford, Councillor Stintz, and Councillor Augimeri,

Please reconsider the proposed service cut to TTC Route 101 - Downsview Park Bus. That specific reduction in service would eliminate the route, between September through May of each year.

Although current rider levels on this route are low, this route serves -- and will continue to serve -- an important role in the ongoing development of Parc Downsview Park. The change needs to be examined in that context.

Support Downsview - keep Route 101!

Downsview Park is presently a hidden jewel in the list of overlooked Toronto assets. Over the years there have been many different plans for developing this area. Regardless of the ultimate path chosen, the one thing that everyone can agree on is that Toronto will be developing the park, and that it will play a central role in the future vitality of the city. We need to do all that we can to support that development, and allow this asset to flourish.

Downsview Park is rapidly becoming a signature destination for sport and activity-based businesses, and their attendant communities. Numerous small nascent businesses have established themselves at Downsview, and are reliant on Route 101 to service their patrons. These pioneering businesses include: The Hanger, True North Climbing Gym, Defcon Paintball, Grand Prix Kartways, the HoopDome basketball facility, the Rail Skatepark and the Premier Elite Athlete’s Collegiate (PEAC) school for elite athletes. The Park also has several outdoor fields which are used for football, soccer, ultimate frisbee, field hockey, and rugby. 

Downsview is also home to the Toronto Aerospace Museum, the Toronto Wildlife Centre, the Downsview Park Film and Television Studios, and the Downsview Park Arts Alliance. 

Usage of Downsview Park -- by citizens, businesses, and the Toronto community at large -- is only going to increase as time goes by. Due to the park's unique physical layout and geographic location, access to the park is challenging without adequate levels of transit support. Although not ideal, Route 101 is nevertheless a key piece of the Park's traffic, and will continue to be a key piece as long as it operates.

In short, reducing Route 101's service level threatens to hinder the evolution of the park. We have something special here -- let's support it. 

Councillor Augimeri, your 2011 New Year's Resolution was to 'focus on ensuring a smart development plan comes together for Downsview Park. One that takes community concerns into account.' I ask you to bring that focus to bear on this particular issue for your Ward.

I cordially urge you all to reconsider this proposed service reduction in light of the above facts. Your valued support of Parc Downsview Park is welcomed and appreciated. 

Thank you for your kind attention,

Nathan Ng

a concerned Parc Downsview Park user




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Oblig. disclaimer: this post is my opinion only, and does not reflect the opinions of my employer or anyone else I'm affiliated with, etc etc.. 

Fun times at Boulderz Bloc Party!

Despite an early morning winter snow squall I trekked out to Boulderz to attend the TdB Bloc Party. I had a solid outing.

Bloc party!!

There were lots of fun problems to work on; I found two which were at or around my limit. One of them I got after considerable effort; the other had multiple attempts all resulting in failure. Hopefully they'll get put back after the comp finals are done so I can work on them some more! I was surprised by the relative dearth of cave problems; my weakness on overhangs was not an issue this time around. The sloper problems were all too hard for me -- so it looks like I have some more time to work on my overhanging and sloper technique.

The overall setup was very good -- even though Boulderz is a small gym, it didn't feel crowded. They split up the Youth participants onto another day, and this made a big difference. Registration was a breeze, and I think everybody was having fun.

Results - another squeaker

My goal for this season is to make a case that I belong in Open, and not in Experienced. I'm not quite there -- I need to get stronger. At this comp there was a clear set of problems for Rec and Experienced (1 through 39), and everything past 40 seemed to imply, 'if you can't climb this, you don't belong in Open'. As mentioned above, there was only 1 in that latter range I was able to complete.

Practice makes perfect!

Thanks go to the organizers and Andrew McBurney of Boulderz for putting on a great event!

Neither snow nor rain...

Rock Oasis closing -- soon!

UPDATE: 
Read Farewell to Rock Oasis -- my history of the gym, the building, and the Front and Bathurst Neighbourhood. I also comment further on its closing.

(Original post follows)
---
My primary climbing gym is closing. This is distressing.

We all knew Rock Oasis was doomed, but it's now coming up a lot sooner than anticipated. I have been in denial. We've got about six months left to play. I went for a session this evening, and the following announcement was posted:

Oasis closing announcement

The reasons for the pending closure have to do with city taxation and the gentrification of the King West area. In a future post I'll comment further on these subjects, as well as about Oasis itself.

It's a shame. The local climbing community in Toronto is losing a key gym -- a key part of the climbing infrastructure here. I'm very unhappy about this development.

Oasis is my home gym. It is where I learned to climb, and where I have met many of my friends. It has issues, but it will always be dear to my heart.

Let's hope that Karen is able to secure a good location for a new gym. We'll see what happens.

Honey laundering: The sour side of nature’s golden sweetener - The Globe and Mail

In the last few years, global food supply distribution chains and systems have begun to interest me considerably. Often the implementation of these systems has far-reaching, not-necessarily-obvious economic consequences and side effects.

I also have a passing interest in bees and apiary. Linked is an excellent article about a 'lucrative contraband' smuggling scheme involving honey. You don't often stop to consider the source of it, but honeybees are a critical linchpin for our food production environment. Crops would be devastated without their pollination work.

Bottom line on this article: be wary of cheap imported Chinese honey.

Honey laundering: The sour side of nature’s golden sweetener - The Globe and Mail

See Also
Commercial honeybee colonies continue to die off (aka that time the Cheerios Honeynut bee told me to buzz off).

Historic Empress Hotel destroyed by fire

The Empress Hotel building (more commonly known as the William Reynolds Block, also known as the Edison) was destroyed by fire early this morning. Built in 1888, this structure was one of the most prominent and visible links to an older Toronto along Yonge Street.

Even in dilapidated condition the William Reynolds Block looked great. Photo circa August 2005

The Former Edison Hotel in 1978

It makes me sad. The corner of Yonge and Gould has given up the last vestige of its history. I spent many hours playing chess opposite this building at Haskell Square (sic). Now that this building is gone -- along with Sam the Record Man on the other side -- I will have to reconfigure my mental map of the area. New buildings will arise, but will they have the same character? I doubt it.

Sam the Record Man (formerly CIBC) is also gone from the corner of Yonge and Gould.

The timing of the fire borders on suspicious. The edifice -- designated a Heritage site by the city -- had previously suffered a wall collapse last spring which had ousted its tenants, including the popular Salad King. A meeting for setting a timeline to restore the William Reynolds block building had been set for later this month... That's obviously not going to happen.

Our stock of irreplaceable heritage buildings continues to decline precipitously. What can be done to save these lovely odes from the past?

Update: the fire was determined to be arson!
Update (July 2012): More details emerge -- arrest made
Update (Aug 2012): Litigation ties up Empress hotel site (pdf)
Update (Dec 2012): Empress Hotel arsonist sentenced to 10 years

Stop Facebook from tracking you, with Disconnect

I've been using a superb new online privacy oriented Chrome extension called Disconnect. It stops 3rd parties and search engines from tracking what you do and what you search for.

Spurred by the unmitigated spread of Facebook Connect, Google engineer Brian Kennish wrote the open source extension to give users greater control over their online privacy. Kennish observes: If you’re a typical web user, you’re unintentionally sending your browsing and search history with your name and other personal information to third parties and search engines whenever you’re online.

I have found using the extension to be quite enlightening and educational, as it informs you how many requests are being blocked at any given website.

In the following example, I'm browsing the homepage for The Globe and Mail (a major Canadian newspaper), and I can see that 6 tracking requests have been blocked--2 from Facebook, and 4 from Google.

Why should Facebook know what news articles I'm reading?

Personally, I'm not entirely comfortable with the fact that Facebook and Google are trying to track what news articles I'm reading. How do you feel about it? It's... somewhat insidious, don't you think? In the above example, I'm not even logged in to the respective services.

The extension also allows you to depersonalize your searches--in other words, your search history cannot be simply connected to you. The other functional aspect that is very useful about Disconnect, is that I can easily toggle the blocking for specific services (for example, if I need to temporarily log in to a site that uses Facebook Connect).

I recommend giving the extension a try--even just for informational purposes. You may be surprised--even shocked--to learn which major services are trying to track you, on what sites (The scary confirmation dialog that pops up when you install Disconnect is particularly ironic -- it warns you that the extension can access your data on all websites). You will realize that your internet behavior has become a commodity that is being sold. If you're not a Chrome user (and why aren't you?), take heart--Kennish plans to release Disconnect for Firefox next year.

Judicious use of extensions like Disconnect, along with prudent cookie management, allow you--for the time being--to exert a degree of control over who is watching you, and what they track. As Kennish declares, "They can't take our data without our permission anymore."

Twitter omphaloskepsis

Twitter is an inherently narcissistic medium. There are many valid information-sharing and collaborative uses, but overall I typically interpret a person's twitter stream as a crude reflection of their raw interests and personality. "This is what's on my mind, right now."  

Topic frequency within my Twitter stream

I decided to export my extant Twitter stream and perform some superficial analysis to see what I like to drone about. I passed the 1,000 tweet mark, and I felt that this was a sufficiently large body of text so as to be representative. While I don't have very many followers, I'd nevertheless like to thank all of them for their peculiar interest in what I have to say -- however banal or anodyne.

Blah blah blah
Clearly I enjoy nattering on about my work, and about software and technology. Life at a nascent software startup occupies the attention like few other things. It's not exactly scintillating subject material--but that is what is important to me, apparently. Narrowly squeaking into third place are tweets about the dynamic city I reside in, Toronto. I self identify as a climber, skateboarder, and runner, so it's not surprising to see those topics up there as well.

A simple conclusion to draw from the chart is, if the listed topics don't appeal to you, you're probably not going to want to follow me!

Methodology
I exported my Twitter stream with a free online tool called Tweetake [now defunct, alas. Twitter subsequently released directions on how to export your twitter archive], winding up with a tidy .CSV file. Then I manually went through each entry in Excel and tagged it with a keyword (or multiple keywords) depending on the subject matter. The last step was to generate a simple graph based on the keyword frequency.

Other areas for exploration
There are numerous areas for further analysis--except really, who has the time for that sort of foolishness? If I had a virtual assistant I would set them off on a report of:

• time-based analyses of topic frequency: when do I post, and what do I post about?
• # of posts that contain links or retweets (a measure of how much I share information vs. generate original content)
• where do I post from? (mobile vs desktop client)

Another data source that might be amusing to examine would be an extract of one's Facebook statuses (there are numerous applications out there that purportedly allow you to export statuses).

Final comment
While I'm not sure if I learned anything novel from this exercise, it's still useful to see that the data confirms the internal projection of how I see myself. I  believe self-awareness is one of the keys to maturity and personal satisfaction. Try it on your own feed -- do the results surprise you?

Another bright soul taken from us

Rest in peace, Cristina! A beautiful voice and spirit. The applicable word is saudade.

 

Cristina (right) at a Board Meeting

A fantastic fado performance by Cristina can be found here [Link defunct].

Update - the link doesn’t seem to be valid anymore. Sigh. I’ll see if I can get hold of it through other channels.

Update 2 - Here’s a commemorative piece I wrote -- with the recording! -- about Cristina.