It Hurts when you Tump

One minute you’re hanging around, getting ready to go for a motorcycle ride with a few buddies, the next minute you’re in the emergency room at St. John’s Hospital.

Not the Sunday ride I had in mind.So went my Sunday morning. Brad and I rode up to the QT east of Tulsa to meet a few other riders from the Tulsa Sportbike Rider’s forum. About 9:30 we were going for a Sunday ride up around Spavinaw and Jay. There were a dozen of us all together at the time we left. Or so I’m told- I don’t remember ever pulling out of the parking lot.

Later that afternoon I remember seeing my wife and father-in-law standing beside me. I wasn’t sure where I was, but it certainly did not look like a pleasure cruise. I was in a bed- not my own- and everything was white or stainless steel. A hospital seemed like the most plausible answer.

Then a lady started asking me benign questions which I couldn’t possibly answer.

“What year is it?”

Black and blue bruises tell the story.I honestly did not know. Two-thousand something was about all I could manage to say. That’s when I realized that my noggin must have made solid contact with terra firma. When I caught a glimpse of my tortured helmet the theory was confirmed- hard impact with a rocky surface.

I am a very lucky boy.

Best I can tell my front tire washed out (maybe a little or maybe a lot) going through a left-hander on Oklahoma 20 just north of Spavinaw. I’ve been down this road dozens of times. This time I must have lost my concentration or let it get away from me. Either way I ended up head-first into the rocks along the shoulder. Sharp rocks. Like Indians used to make arrowheads.

Motorcycle wrecks attract a crowd.Frequent readers of this site know that I hold no punches when it comes to wearing proper riding gear. This experience has been a certain, if unnecessary, confirmation of the practice. The fact I was wearing a helmet and protective riding gear spared me from serious injury.

Read more on the Tulsa Sportbike Rider’s Forum

More photos snapped by Jason

Lewis & Clark Coming to Tulsa

About 150 years too late? No, not that Lewis & Clark.

Lewis & Clark Outfitters is an outdoors and camping gear retailer headquartered in Springdale, AR. It’s similar to an REI– maybe a little smaller- with all sorts of tents, backpacks, bicycles and clothing. Whenever we’re in Arkansas we like to drop in and check out the latest specials on outdoorsy stuff. Turns out they are opening a store in Tulsa sometime in Spring 2009.

Their plans are for a state-of-the-art store located near the Riverwalk development in Jenks. The design sounds pretty cool and will make the Tulsa location their flagship store. River access is even provided for test driving canoes and kayaks!

So pretty soon we won’t have to cross the state line to check out the latest deals.

Mobile Devices: Back to the Future

Remember the Nineties?

Remember Netscape Navigator and Eudora Mail and Compuserve? If you were trying to create web pages back then you’ll probably remember dealing with different web browsers and versions and plug-ins. I remember avoiding the use of tables because there were still browsers in use that didn’t support tables. Yes, tables. Like rows and columns.

All those heady memories have came rushing back to me as I delved into the wild and wacky world of the mobile web. Also know as WAP (wireless application protocol). Otherwise known as cell phones. With web browsers.

Most people my age can’t understand why anyone would voluntarily surf the web using a cell phone. That’s another discussion- all I know is what my web stats tell me. And they say people are hitting Places 2 Ride using mobile devices. Which made me wonder, “Just what the hell does it look like?”

Turns out it didn’t look like much.

My cell phone, a Motorola C261(far from a high tech piece), displayed certain parts of the site. The majority of it appeared to have slipped off the right side of the screen. Some images were visible, others were not. Columns were shown in a random order, seemingly picked from some celestial wi-fi soup. It needed work if several hundred people were going to insist on looking at it on a two-inch screen.

Anywho, back to the stroll down memory lane.

Turns out that delivering content to these mobile surfers is quite similar to those carefree days back in the Nineties. You’re dealing with limited bandwidth, tiny screens and a variety of browsers. Some phones do amazing things, many do very little. Some actually use the same web browser as a desktop computer. You may have a final product. But you don’t really know what it looks like to everyone.

Here are some links and tips I have found helpful in my WAP endeavors:

  • devMobi portion of the dotMobi website with reference, forums and tools for developers- including their handy…
  • Emulator at dotMobi here’s what Places2ride.com supposedly looks like on a Sony/Ericcson K750 cell phone.
  • Blogger Mobile this article explains how to create a Blogger template that will play for mobile devices and desktop machine alike.
  • Tips just my own observations…

    • Don’t mess with WML (wireless markup language). This technology appears to have either never taken off or died prematurely. XHTML is where it’s at.
    • Learn a scripting lingo, or at least learn how to copy-n-paste it. Find a “browser sniffer” like a PHP or ASP script and use it to identify whether to show your visitor the normal website or the mobile site.
    • Minimize. You can’t display very much information to mobile users, so you’ll need to identify the most basic content and show only that.
    • Sign up for Ad Sense. Unless you plan to promote porn or gambling you don’t have many options for generating revenue from a mobile site. Google can supply relevant ads based on the content of your pages. When a visitor clicks, you earn revenue.

Need a phone that surfs? Check out Tracfone for the cheapest wireless in America.

High tech phones for cheap and pay-as-you-go wireless from Tracfone.

Set the Wayback for KTOW

Last week I was contacted by Mark Brown from the Tulsa World (no relation) who is working on a story about the golden age of radio in Tulsa. Namely, the zebra-striped era of KTOW.

In the Nineties this minor AM country station was commandeered in the name of alternative music by Tim Barazza and company. Later an FM transmitter came online and the upstart station started showing up on the ratings. Something the established players never imagined would happen. It was this unique time and place that is the subject of the forthcoming newspaper article.

It had been years since I’d thought much about KTOW and the phenomenon it wrought. I was never a DJ, but did have fun with a short-lived show on Sunday nights called Night Light. Bowe and I would read weird crap from the newspaper, run spoof commercials for a variety of fictitious local businesses and take live phone calls from listerners. My favorite memory of that was the night we played Battleship over the air. It was amazing how many people called that had never played Battleship! Not surprisingly we won.

I was able to provide Mark contact info for a few of the personalities associated with KTOW. Some were personal friends- like Robert Bowe (Robb on the Radio), Chris Hale (Caesar Vitalis), Tony Dapolito (Sabu), Carole Thompson (Carol Dane) and Tony Mills (Tony Too). Others were acquaintances that I didn’t really know all that well- Sanchez, Linda Berg (Taylor Chance), Joe Stone, etc. There were others I may not remember… sorry!

In case you have a KTOW story to share, or know how to contact some of the other DJs, you can reach roving reporter, Mark Brown at the Tulsa World or [email protected]

****UPDATE****
Hah!

Like magic is this Internet thing- no sooner do I mention a long-ago radio station then suddenly it appears on My Space! Join me in befriending this blast from the alternative music past… KTOW 102.3

Fourth of July Staycation

We decided to have a short Staycation. Like many Americans this Summer we found the idea of venturing far away too… um, expensive. With gas prices and the thermometer both rising rapidly it made sense to consider destinations close to home. With air conditioning.

We started by visiting a strange and novel place unfamiliar to most residents of Tulsa County. It’s called “Downtown Tulsa.” The landscape of this unique area is made up mostly of asphalt ponds and a forest of Art Deco. Tulsans seldom venture here for fear of one-way streets.

Amity- a statue in the Civic Center Plaza, circa late Seventies.Seriously, things are looking up downtown. But don’t look up too long, or you’ll step into an excavation! It seemed like every street was under construction of one sort or another. It appears to be utility infrastructure work is being performed in addition to asphalt renewal. Hopefully it will all be finished soon, and worth the wait.

It Means Roasted Corn
Our first stop was for lunch at a new Mexican restaurant call Eloté. If you’re not familiar with the name, you’ll probably know the location- they are in the old Nelson’s Buffeteria at 514 S. Boston. The menu is not the typical Texican fare, but a refreshing mix of authentic south-of-the-border and nouveau Mex. Eloté emphasizes fresh ingredients, and they use as much local produce as possible.

I had the fish tacos and Jackie ordered veggie tamales with sweet potato sauce. The fish was grilled just right- a little crusty and not too soft. The sweet potato side order is highly recommended. Oh, speaking of sides, eloté is roasted corn, a common snack sold by street vendors in Mexico.

After lunch we strolled Boston Avenue and admired our “art deco main street.” My favorite is still the old NBT Bank Building (now know as 320 Boston Building) with its ornate ceiling and dirigible mooring mast on top. In October this street will very busy as thousands of architecture geeks descend on Tulsa for the National Preservation Conference. We decided coffee and dessert sounded good, so we headed west toward the historic Mayo Hotel.

The main lobby is available to rent for special events, receptions, weddings, etc. That’s been going on for a couple of years. Renovations upstairs are finally underway at the Mayo, something Tulsans have heard over and over through the years. It appears it might actually be happening this time!

Not in Kansas
Another business on the ground floor of the once-grand Mayo Hotel is the Cafe Topeca. Topeca Coffee is from El Salvador and available in the US through this Tulsa business. They roast the beans nearby and serve light snacks and desserts, along with their excellent coffee of course. The atmosphere is calm and inviting. We enjoyed coffee and a creamy cake-thing and lounged for almost an hour.

Oh yeah- they pronounce it tow-PAY-kuh.

After our coffee break we visited the Central Library to pick up a couple of videos and then headed back home. All in all a very enjoyable staycation.

My Town…
more fun links and other tidbits for exploring Tulsa