Devon Akmon

Reflections on life and work by Devon Akmon.

Month: November, 2009

Puerto Rico Travelogue: Day Six

Yesterday was about as perfect as it gets. Highlights included a visit to the Ayala Crafts Workshop, a hike in El Yunque National Forest, a refreshing swim at Luquillo Beach and dinner at the neighboring rustic kiosks, and a nighttime kayak trip to see the bioluminescent bay near Fajardo. Our first stop was at the [...]

Puerto Rico Travelogue: Day Five

Yesterday started off rather normal and ended on a weird note. Highlights for the day included an outstanding Puerto Rican breakfast at La Bombonera, a relaxing walk along the Paseo de la Princesa and the western coast of Old San Juan, and our Thanksgiving dinner at Marmalade. La Bombonera was the perfect place to start [...]

Puerto Rico Travelogue: Day Four

Sometimes things just don’t go according to plan when traveling. Yesterday was one of those days. After spending a couple of hours hunting down the only available rental car in San Juan, we departed the Old City for a trip to a coffee plantation in Ponce. Well, at least that was the plan. After a [...]

Puerto Rico Travelogue: Day Three

Today we paid a visit to Casa Bacardi, home to the world’s most popular rum. Several years back we started a habit of visiting distilleries and breweries when we travel. Up until this point, we’ve had great luck with our experiences. Generally the visits are educational, fun, and include good times tasting good beverages. Sadly, [...]

Puerto Rico Travelogue: Day Two

When we arrived at The Gallery Inn on Saturday, Dharma was the first to notice the many pictures of Barack and Michelle Obama visiting the hotel. When we asked the clerk about the pictures, all she told us was that the first family visited during the primary election campaign. Yesterday we befriended the maintenance man [...]

Puerto Rico Travelogue: Day One

Greetings from sunny Puerto Rico! We arrived in the Old San Juan (Old City) late yesterday afternoon after a long day of flights and promptly headed to our sanctuary (otherwise known as the The Gallery Inn). The B&B we are staying at is really amazing. The brief description on the website aptly describes the location: [...]

Xtra-Normal Makes For Xtra-Fun Times With Text-to-Movies

My friend @JRKnecht shared a hilarious video last night called Hipsters Discussing Cyclocross. This short clip was made on the Xtra-Normal website utilizing its text-to-movie interface. Xtra-Normal is a real time movie making site featuring drag and drop animations, automatic lip syncing and international voices. You can make movies in minutes by simply typing in [...]

More Google Goodness – Google Local Business Center

Google manages to create new products at a lightning pace. Yeah, some of these stay in beta forever and others don’t seem to be the most useful. However, overall, Google does have a pretty impressive collection of web tools. Recently I was informed of one such tool, the Google Local Business Center, which let’s you [...]