666 Photo Meme

I was tagged earlier this week by Sean Bonner with the 666 Photo Meme. With this meme, you go to the sixth page of your Flickr stream, post the sixth photo, and choose six more people to be tagged.
Here is the requisite photo:

Middle Fork Idaho Rafting - May 2008

That is a photo of the rafting trip I took with friends in Idaho in May. I had a fantastic time and was blissfully disconnected from the outside world for four days.
I am tagging the following six people to continue the 666 Photo Meme: Little Kenny, Jason Toney, Octopushat, Squidly, Cyril, and Steve Lodefink.

The end of Movember – Mustache Removal

Movember is over and the mustache is gone. Thanks to the help of everyone, we were able to raise $1,242 for Prostate Cancer Research. You can donate for a few more days if you want at my MoSpace.
Here is the final photo of the mustache before removal.


Michele and girls were eager for the mustache to be removed. Here is the video of Michele shaving the mustache off.

Movember Mustache Removal from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.

Thanks again to everyone the contributed, participated and offered encouragement!

Site Problems

The virtual private server I use to host this and other sites was hacked again. I’m still not sure how they are getting in, I assume its a vulnerability in some software I’m using.
Please pardon the dust while I do some work on the back end to move things around and do some long overdue upgrades.

Movember, Part Deux

I wrote previously about growing a mustache for charity and I have been overwhelmed with the support.
I’d like to thank Miles, Knob, Drew, Micah, Charles, William, Mom & Dad, Robert, Garen, Laura, Pat, and Mr. P.
Special thanks go out to Little Kenny, Rich, Brian, Brad, and MK for their large donations.
If you would like to help, you can visit my MoSpace here and donate. The money goes to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, a non-profit (meaning tax deductible!) organization.
My co-workers have had to see my mustache all month and were very supportive yesterday when they all showed their support! For those that don’t know me, I’m the guy in the tie…


I’m not sure who instigated this, but I think Ben (famed author of Jump Leads) was involved.
Update: It appears that Joe was the instigator. Many thanks Joe!

Free Wifi at McDonalds on the iPhone

I was in McDonalds waiting to order my coffee when I pulled out my iPhone to check the internets. A wifi hotspot popped up and this is what I saw:


It seems that AT&T bought Waypoint, the wifi provider, eariler this month and we are seeing the fruit of that acquisition. Free wifi for the iPhone? I’ll give it a try.

I entered my mobile phone number and got a message to wait for a text message.

Sure enough, the message arrived almost instantly.

Clickety-click…

And boom, I’m on the interwebs. In about 10-20 seconds…
No login.
No registration.
No ads.
No headache.
Just some sweet, sweet wifi provided in a way you can actually use it easily.
Props to AT&T, Waypoint, and McDonalds for quick work on creating a great service. I’m going to check at the local Starbucks today if it works the same. If only I could register my phone with T-mobile Hotspot to work the same way, I’d be in heaven.

The View of Los Angeles from Runyon Canyon

Two weekends ago I went up to Runyon Canyon with family to see Los Angeles. It was the weekend of the fires in Sylmar and the Triangle Complex fire near Chino.
From the top of the canyon you can see the entire LA basin from the Ocean to Downtown to Hollywood to the San Fernando Valley to the Westside.
I took photos and made them into a Quicktime VR so you can pan around and zoom in and out.


Thanks to Sean & Tara, the Twitluvahs for showing me the spot.

Soda Roundup

Over the last few weeks, I’ve picked up a few random sodas. Finally I gave them all a test.
First up was the pair of sodas based on ice cream floats.


The Root Beer Float is a traditional dessert and A&W is well known root beer. The Orange Soda Float? Not so traditional, but hey they are trying something new.
The root beer float tasted like a melted root beer float. The ingredients include things like pectin and propylene glycol alginate to make it taste creamy. Not so much. While the root beer flavor is good, I would rather simply have a root beer rather than try to recreate a float.
The orange soda float was a bit strange. Not quite a melted 50/50 bar, the thickening stuff made the orange soda simply strange. I’m not a big fan of orange soda, to begin with, so I wasn’t impressed at all.

Every year, Jones soda puts out a few flavors for Halloween. This year I picked up Dread Apple and Monster Mojito.
Amazingly, the Dread Apple tasted like carbonated apple juice and the Monster Mojito tasted like a non-alcoholic mojito, a little bitter with a hint of mint. Surprising, I know. Michele enjoys mojitos and gave it a test. She said it tastes “exactly” like a mojito. I’ll take here word for it. Personally I don’t like the whole muddling trend at bars these days.
I guess I was hopping for something strange or extraordinary here, but alas, it’s just soda pop.

Movember – raising awareness and money

Most of the time, Cruftbox doesn’t ask much from you, the Loyal Cruftbox Readers, but today I am.
This month is Movember, a month where I am growing a mustache to help raise money for Prostate Cancer research. Just last month, I had the opportunity to have my prostate tested during my yearly physical.
In Movember, men grow mustaches to help raise money and awareness about Prostate Cancer, a major problem for men. All donations during Movember go to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, a non-profit (meaning tax deductible!) organization.
You can visit my MoSpace here.
I know these aren’t the easiest financial times for anyone, but I am asking you to donate a little money to help. Every little bit helps. I’ve have been writing Cruftbox since January 2000, that’s almost 9 years of Cruft for your to peruse. Donating $9 if you enjoy Cruftbox and my fine new mustache would be fantastic. Of course, feel free to donate more if you want!
The donation page is here. Please consider making a small donation now.
Here are some photos of the progress of the facial hair.


Clean shaven in October


Movember 4th


Movember 9th


Movember 10th


Movember 16th