Category: Misc

Take a look at this checkerboard and tell me, which of the squares A and B is the lighter, which the darker? If you don’t believe they’re identical, use a color checker like OS X’s Digital Colorimeter to verify.

First day back at work after taking two weeks off to be with Amy and Miles. So strange to leave them this morning, and odd to be back at work. Had to shift gears from google-eyed dad back to multimedia / web dude. Back in the saddle. Everyone at work so full of questions, excited to meet Miles when the time is right.

Discovered on return that my work G4 would not boot – hangs on the startup screen. Zapping PRAM doesn’t help. Can’t start from CD. There was some water leakage before I left on paternity, and it appears to have affected the machine. Off it went to TSW for repair, throwing me back on Windows and Eudora… so another form of gear shifting.

Our weblog panel discussion was tonight – turned out to a great event, a full house. I’ll encode it and put up a streaming QuickTime tomorrow, if I have time. Very interesting.

Wow – folks at work got together and put up a collection to buy Amy and I a gift certificate for Appleseed – extremely generous, too. A true collaborative effort – thanks everyone, you’re all the best. Grabs set up a fake staff meeting, all assembled, and he started it off claiming there were some serious problems with our intranet… I got weirded out for a minute there…

Quite amazing piece of video collage / editing from the Guerrilla News Network in this piece S-11 Redux : Surfing the Apocalypse, somewhere between art and politics. Hits hard. Did me, anyway, especially the “Deliverance” bits.

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Two-headed turtle found in Florida — ” …. said the two-headed creature likely is a natural occurrence, not caused by chemicals or any other outside influence.”

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Dan Gilmor writes 10 choices that were critical to the Net’s success for the Mercury News, an excellent primer not so much on the history of the Internet, as on the decisions that were or were not made that allowed networks to proliferate at the right places, be reigned in at the right places, and to multiply everywhere else.

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Attended Andrew’s opening at Richmond Art Center, purchased one of his pieces, a dark + green upward slurping thick acryclic piece, to be delivered in November. Party at their house afterwards. Babies everywhere, except for ours and Gina’s, which haven’t popped out yet.

Music: William Parker – Hunk Pappa Blues

Funny, I never figured out as a kid that Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies were inside out mirror images of each other — rich folks move in with the country hicks, country hicks move to the posh hillsides. And how did I finally figure it out? From reading in the paper today that two new reality shows this season are going to make those two shows “real.” Save us.

CNN reports that a wildlife park in Siberia is planning to use DNA from wooly mammoths to artificially impregnate an Indian elephant, then repeat with its offspring. Within 50 years, they plan to have a living creature that is 88% wooly mammoth. There are estimated to be 10 million wooly mammoths buried beneath the Siberian permafrost.

A few weeks ago, went down to Morro Bay to pick up a 1950s capiz shell stereo console / cabinet I inherited from my grandmother, who recently went to live in a home. Forgot to write about that trip – went via Amtrak, enjoyable but slow, and also picked up a nursing rocker from my mother – her favorite one, she’s sacrificing for the baba, so sweet. The console originally belonged to my dad, who bought it before he was married. I’ve always loved it, was fascinated by the shells as a child, and it was an honor to be asked to take it over. I also wanted to get all my stereo gear out of reach of the baba, and to (finally) get all of my records out of tacky wooden crates.

The built-in speakers sound pretty bad, not worth saving, wanted to use the cabinets to store LPs, so yesterday started ripping the old speakers out. Like opening King Tut’s tomb – cracked open the wood and the “Hi Fi” lettering hit me square on from gold foil stickers. “Roger Charles III, Custom Construction.”

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The speakers hadn’t seen the light of day for 50 years, and were perfectly preserved. What really amazed me was that the wood inside the cabinets was finished to a polish just like the outside, even though it was never meant to be seen by anyone. They don’t do things like that anymore.

Also had to remove the turntable from the center section (not original), then scour all – starting to smell musty. Let the whole thing dry in the sun all day today – hot. This afternoon, extra long bike ride through Oakland hills, then came back to finish the job as the sun set.

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The inside height of the cabinets was 24.5″, barely enough room for two layers of LPs, so will have to use a plexiglass separator between layers rather than real shelf, as planned. Also didn’t count on the fact that two of my components have rack mount face plates, which makes them too wide for the center area. They had to go on top for now – will probably just run them faceless eventually and put all inside. Also had to take one of the speakers off its stand and put on top of the console, which sucks, since it’ll send vibrations right into the turntable. Argh. Only one solution – buy a house. But no room to do it any other way for now.

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My grandfather cracked the marble in the 60s by dropping a hammer on it after hanging a picture. Shame about that. Anyway, this looks so much better than it did with the wooden crates and all the components all over the damn place. Amy’s psyched about it too, and it’s one tiny corner of the house that’s now partially childproofed – just need some of those inside-door latches.

You know when you’re on hold waiting to tallk to someone at the bank, or phone company, or whatever, and the robot lady voice asks you to enter your account number followed by the pound sign? And then 10 minutes later the person comes on and asks for your account number? And you say, “I just typed it in!” And they say, “I’m sorry sir, I don’t have it in front of me.” You know what I’m talking about?

I can understand how this could happen from time to time, but it’s, like *all* the time!

Why is betips down today? Now my cheapthrills image from last night’s post isn’t working. Urgh.

There was this record store in SLO when I was growing up — baald knows it — Cheap Thrills. I can’t describe what a profound effect that store had on me… not your typical cut-out record store. Actually it’s still in business, but in a different building with no remaining redeeming qualities.

Every quarter Cheap Thrills put out a new wall calendar, always with art by a different local artist. I have a collection of about 20 of these, all different, all rolled up for the ages. There was one that was a forever favorite – Spring 1978 – this floppy astronaut standing on the moon looking towards you, in a sort of Robert Crumb hand, if R. Crumb drew in more detail. If you look closely at that hockey puck / biscuit thing in his hand, it says “Pay Attention” (you can’t see that in this pic). There’s something else funky about the image. Something that your parents never got around to seeing because parents don’t notice that kind of stuff. That was what was cool about it. Only teenagers ever dug the secret detail.

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In 1986 they re-released the same calendar, but with the secret detail missing. What is it?

“But if that light’s under a bushel, it’s lost something kind of crucial…”

I’m finally going to get around to framing the 1978 one. Been meaning to for ages.

What happens when you shop at the hippy grocery store? Amy just returned with a box of cereal which posts as a bragging right in a big purple splash panel on the front, “Flakes, Twigs, and Granola!” That’s right folks, you read correctly. This cereal has twigs in it. And that’s supposed to be a good thing. OK, let’s see how these twigs taste… hey, not bad! I take it all back. Those hippies sure know how to live.

I’ve been going back and forth for a year on whether to keep up my Wired magazine collection. I have 90 issues, going back to issue 2.08, August ’94. I think if the mag was still good, I’d keep on collecting without hesitation, but it’s gone all Fetish, no Revolution. Funny, because they finally emerged from that 18-month stretch where there was nothing but CEOs on the cover, and I really thought it was going to make a turn for the better, but no. So I just put the whole thing on craigslist. I have no idea what something like this is worth.
Wish boing boing was still in print.