Ben's Journal

Our 15th Wedding Annivesary Trip started off with quite a treat. We boarded what may be just about the best plane I've ever been on...

These days I do almost all my programming in either PHP, JavaScript or ActionScript. You know, totally mainstream programming languages. An...

I was expecting Learning to Fly: An Uncommon Memoir of Human Flight, Unexpected Love, and One Amazing Dog by Steph Davis to provide me wit...

This past weekend part of Shira's extended family got together for a family reunion. It was loads of fun, with lots of delicious food ...

I learned an awful lot from being a Boy Scout and earning the rank of Eagle Scout. I learned the importance of service, and doing the ...

With all this construction going on by my house, it's simply not possible to walk by without snapping some photos. Here's the more ...

The Wald #582 wire bike baskets seemed like an ideal way to add some cargo space to my bike. I figured unlike bag-based panniers, I would...

For the most part, I've been enjoying having a rooted phone . It's let me hack away in Tasker with wild abandon. When Shira receiv...

The term Embracing the Shake comes from this TED Talk , and refers to an individual embracing their limitations to make something great. H...

Jay McCarthy's efficient implementation of Forth in 85 lines of Racket is beautiful. It demonstrates how you can integrate two differ...

Today I had the pleasure of meeting one of my long time clients face to face for the first time. I did so by hopping on the Acela Express...

Farkle is a game I received for my birthday (thanks Elana and Shmuel!), and has quickly turned into my goto distraction when I've go...

I took another run along the C&O canal and the Archbold Trail this morning. I'm telling you, that trail is truly a bit of wilder...

Thankfully, people ignored this big 'ol weed along the side of the road. The result,it bloomed into something wonderful. There's...

I do love gear lists , especially lightweight ones. Which is why discovering Ultralight Bicycle Touring was like hitting the jackpot. Th...

Combine my love of whiteboards , index cards , notepads and cramming stuff in my pockets and what do you end up with? The Hipster Whitebo...

Difficult conversations, are well, difficult. Talking to your boss about unfair treatment at work, talking to your son's teacher about ...

Somewhat appropriate because it's Mother's day. Here's the Lansky AX-911 - Fire Battle Axe : There are three Amazon revie...

Been loving macro photography of late and I took a few minutes to poke around to see what kind of hacks / improvisations people have come ...

I couldn't resist capturing some photos of these flowers as I walked back to my car from morning minyan . They were absolutely stunnin...

From Exploriment , I give you a Love Letter to Plywood . This video is pretty much what the name suggests: 10 minutes of pure praise for a ...

It's hard to tell from the picture below, but that cat isn't just strolling through the neighborhood. He's strutting. I can te...

For as long as I can remember, whenever we're heading out of DC via Foxhall Road, when we hit Canal Road I make mention of what appear...

Continuing on my theme of comptact first aid kits , I give you the Front Pocket First Aid Kit : I work in a suit and tie, low risk offi...

This past weekend I finally got around to doing battle with the weeds in our front yard (I won the battle, they're winning the war). As...

Tone did just that : His solution? Shoot video and pull a still frame from it. That's a clever hack, if I do say so myself. T...

What Work Is , by Philip Levine , is powerful stuff. Like most poetry, I won't claim that I totally get it. But it's definitely wor...

An Urban Sketcher doing his thing. There was lots of activity at this Georgetown Intersection, yet, he was clearly in his own place.

Or was that bird coming in for a landing? Hard to tell after the fact. If I had a little bit longer lens, this would have been a pote...

A couple weeks back, I came across a post mentioning a fictional character I'd never heard of before: Jack Reacher . I was curious eno...

Back when the Dot Com bubble was bursting, and I outgrew drinking Mountain Dew in the morning, I noticed that our designer would start his ...

I hope the county's ready for the Colbert Bump , because Stephen Colbert gave a shout out to Arlington County last night. One of our es...

Here's a few random shots from my Galaxy S3 from the last few days: One day I'm going to figure out a good way to display these...

I'm back from my surprise Day Hike through Franconia Notch State Park . Even though it was only a one day event, it was still quite ed...

Shira promised me that for my Birthday we'd be hiking in the mountains. Not only that, but the hike would be of such epic proport...

Quick recap: a week ago Shira tells me she's going to take me on a super long hike on Friday for my Birthday, so clear my schedul...