So, what is zero gravity like? I've looked at other people's explanations and the consensus seems to be that the English language is lacking proper frames for explaining it. It's an entirely familiar yet wholly new experience. In fact it's so familiar that it ends up making normal gravity seem abnormal. Perhaps the most eye-opening revelation of zero gravity is not what zero gravity feels like, but rather understanding normal gravity for the first time in your life. The first time the plane straightened out again after zero gravity I remember feeling so heavy. It was hard to walk and I wanted to lay down rather than continue to feel the inexorable pull of Earth.

I have trouble deciding whether the familiarity of zero gravity is because it's some amalgam of experiences I've had throughout my life, or whether it's because it's a sensation I've felt before but only in a fleeting moment. I've thought of describing it as the instant at which you're jumping in the air and coming back down -- with that instant magically extended for 30 seconds. But that isn't right because you're entirely free. I pushed off a handhold and sent myself instantly spinning around the cabin. I also crawled around the hull of the cabin in a 360 and flew down the center with a Superman-like launch. There's no up or down and no control if you don't have something to push off of. I thought about doing handstands, then realized was no different from reaching up and touching the ceiling.

As for the Zero-G experience itself, it's best describe as organized chaos and total sensory overload. There's thirty people in the hull of a plane divided into three groups. There's some program to it all -- one parabola you do water, another M&Ms, another you do Superman -- but the reality is that there are tons of giggling adults bouncing off every surface for 30 seconds. You try not to hurt anyone else, but you will collide with people because there's no way to change direction without pushing off a wall or a person.

My favorite trick was eating the M&Ms, which surprised me. I wasn't expecting it to be that fun, but I was immediately enthralled the moment you see the M&Ms spinning like little jewels. I then felt like Homer in a Simpson's dream sequence, doing my best to guide my mouth towards spinning M&Ms as I floated down the cabin. Water is also fun as it immediately turns into little globes in front of you, but most of it will end up on your face instead of in your mouth. One of our groups launched 400 ping pong balls. I didn't get a good view of it, but it looked cool from a distance. I'm looking forward to the video.

I did get sick -- I wanted get rid of some extra weight for the weightlessness -- though I managed to get sick between parabolas and return immediately for the next. Others weren't so lucky and a much worse shade of green. They limit their flight to 15 parabolas because the majority of people won't get sick with that number and our flight seemed to back that up. What got me wasn't zero gravity, but gravity. You pull 1.8g in order to get to the top of the parabola and there's also the bottom of the parabola to deal with. This is fairly intense on your inner ear and they tell you to pick a spot on the ceiling to stare at. There's a couple of times when zero gravity will end, there's bodies that have fallen on top of you, and you find yourself doing a little more movement than you'd like under the influence of changing gravity.

I'd love to write more about it, but, honestly, my brain is just fried right now. Perhaps tomorrow. It's such an intense and amazing experience and my mind is still trying to digest it all. I've wanted to do this for over a decade and it's with absolute gratitude to my employer Willow Garage that I can add this unique experience to my life. For some reason I feel like singing the Discovery Channel commercial, "The World is an Amazing Place." boom-de-yaddah

Zero-g Photos and Video

In a display of her ninja-prowess, we just found out last week that our 1-year-old dog Ninja was never spayed. We -- and our vets -- had previously thought she was simply spayed improperly, but a more careful examination reveals no scar. More sophisticated ultrasound equipment was actually required to make the discovery as well as four trips and two attempted operations.

Ninja was also never microchipped, despite the tag around her neck that lists the number of the microchip that we now know is not inside of her. Some day another dog will show up on our porch and Ninja will greet her with a wink and a hug.

We're unsure what else to continue believing about our dog -- if that is her actual species -- but we're wise to her trickery now. We are still mystified as to how she evaded the original operation, but her records do leave some clues. There is a full medical chart for Ninja detailing the operation and mutliple followup checks. More careful examination reveals the method to Ninja's deception: she tricked them into spaying and microchipping her shadow.

The chart shows a photo of a dog remarkably similar to Ninja, except entirely black. A simpler explanation would be that they mistook Ninja for another dog at the shelter, but her continued evasion of all surgical procedures since then says otherwise. Ninja has such control over time and space that she is able to create a shadow of such detail that it is capable of being spayed. Amazing.

My first review for PhotographyReview.com is up. Hopefully the first of many. Please check it out and let me know what you think.

I reviewed Phoxle's white balancing products, which I was first introduced to when I attended a Camera Owners of the Bay Area meeting. I was impressed with their ingenuity and sought them out as a review target. If you're wondering what the big white disc is that I have with me when I'm shooting, you can checkout the review for more. Chris Pedersen of Phoxle was a stand-up guy throughout the whole review process and his presence on message boards out there showed that his friendliness is not reviewer-biased. So, to summarize the review before you read it, buy the SpectraSnap.

It's been pretty busy between reviewing camera equipment, reviewing bikes, reviewing pens, and writing web sites to collect cycling links. I've also been doing more studio work with bikes and holding down the day job building robots. I was a bit ashamed to have to use official shots of the Phoxle equipment instead of taking my own, but the time is just crazy hard to find I say, crazy. Of course I'm not complaining because all of this is a lot of fun.

Photo via bennest karate

Update: NONE of my thirdparty apps load now. They all crash on startup (fixable by redownloading each app from the app store again)

Thanks to the Apple-fu of m, my iPhone has been unbricked from its mysterious "unknown error (6)" issue. The highly technical of releasing it from its bricked state? I don't know if I should share it, but here goes:

Plug it into a different computer

Perhaps Apple is too embarrassed to publicly suggest this as a workaround, but it seems better than being telling me to piss off with an error number.

I used a MacBook Pro at work with the latest iTunes to try and perform the restore operation instead. It took awhile, but my iPhone breathes once more. Afterwards I had to plug it back into my normal computer so that the my iPhone would actually have stuff on it. The total time to perform this operation: just under four hours.

If I'm not answering your calls, I can't.

The iPhone 2.0.1 update bricked my phone. It gives me an 'unknown error (6)' every time it attempts to finish the update, so instead I have a fancy touch screen that displays a logo telling me to plug it into iTunes.

I like Japanese pens. A lot. Last time I was in Tokyo, the Sekaido stationary store was at the top of my list of places to visit. I can't help it -- fascination for pens is the sort of thing that's ingrained in you growing up in Japan as half of your gifts are ultra-fancy pens. You come back to the United States and you feel impoverished in the land of Bic.

So, imagine my excitement when I found out that there is an importer of Japanese pens right here in United States. Mountain View, in fact. They have a Web site so I don't have to drive down the street and offer with free shipping on orders over $25. It even has tutorials on how to modify your pens. JetPens, how could you have eluded me for so long?

I received my care package today courtesy of Lily containing some of their top products. I haven't had much time to try them out but I'm already over the moon. Here's the rundown.

• Uni Jetstream Alpha Gel: the cool metal body meets a squishy grip for some of the comfiest, silky smooth writing I've experienced. It may not be the prettiest ink, but this is the sort of pen that's with you for the long haul, keeping that writer's cramp at bay.
• Pilot Hi-Tec C 0.5: popular and precise, fine and finesse. The Hi-Tec C's aren't the most comfortable pens to write with, but performance requires sacrifice. I got an 0.5 but these puppies go all the way down to 0.25. If you've been wondering where you can find these in the United States, you have your answer: JetPens.
• Uniball Signo Bit 0.18: Uniball is just showing off here. I'm already a fan of the Signo line, but this is just ridiculously awesome. I was told it can write on a grain of rice -- long-grain/short-grain not specified -- so I tried it out on some Japanese short-grain. I was able to scribble out a 'kwc' before I ran out of room on the grain.
• Hinodewashi Electric Eraser: I can decide if I like enough to overcome the embarrassment of using this in public. I mean, being too lazy to wave my hand to erase pencil marks? Oh Japan, what will you automate next? I was a bit surprised to examine its guts and find the same little electric motor that powers the Tamiya Mini 4WD cars. I'm tempted to purchase a more powerful motor to give it more oomph.
• Uniball Signo DX 0.38: this is another pen I can see using on a regular basis. It puts out a solid, clean, dark black line and feels comfortable in the hand due to its rubber grip. It does offer a little bit of resistance due to the relatively small 0.38 tip -- you can get an even smaller 0.28 version.
• Pilot Fure Fure Shaker Pencil: Shaker mechanical pencils rock. Instead of clicking a button on top, you just shake it to get more pencil lead. It's oddly satisfying. I was fascinated as a kid when I received my first shaker pencil. It was large and solid black, so the secrets of its mechanism had to be worked out by carefully listening as I shook it back and forth. The Pilot Fure Fure is much more compact and clear so you can be visually fascinated by the weight moving up and down.