Information R/evolution

Well done vid setting the historical context of how information is now being created and shared.

Art DeLight

Crayon 158
Originally uploaded by Matt DeLight

I picked up 4 more of Matt Delight's pieces on Friday at the Open Studios, including this one and this Kirby tribute. I had gotten two of his in Spring, a pirate and a self-portrait with Matt's brain exposed and loved them. So glad to get the chance to pick up a few more.

buckle brown: bikes and birds

buckle brown: bikes and birds

Ha! I was in that pack that headed up the S. Van on-ramp. Certainly surprised how quickly the cops were on us. Got us turned around quick-style! The only thing I can think is they got on at Octavia and swooped down, with sirens blasting. Whoop-dee-frickin'-do ;)

Got to love the street theater aspect of it. Feint for the freeway, the cops block, and the bikes feint again =)

Saw a few cops break character too and loved that also!

Critcal Massed in Broadway Tunnel

Did the 15th anniversary Critical Mass last night. the most amazing part riding through the Broadway Tunnel. What a way to rock it out SF-style.



Critcal Massed in Broadway Tunnel from leef on Vimeo.

My Awesome Cousin...

just ran 100 miles, just to see if he could. So friends and family could run a bit with him, he just did 29 3.5 laps around Ashland, Or. Way to go Todd!!!

Some times I forget how amazing my family family truly is.






Local blog write-up

Was it just a matter of time?

Kinky - Mexican Radio

Secret Swank

I was in LA this weekend and randomly dropped in Secret Headquarters, the swankiest comic shop I've ever seen, bar none. Not aspersions cast on the local Isotope folk which I love, but Secret Headquarters is on a whole other level I neglected to take any picture, but check out their site to see some of the gentleman's club type atmosphere they've created.

I was getting the collected Mouse Guard book, and at the counter I couldn't help but pick up a copy of James Jean's Process Recess 2. Amazingly beautiful stuff. The comic field is very lucky to have an artist of his caliber.

Temple of forgiveness burn and collapse @ Burning man 2007

Burningman 2007 Time-Lapse

Death Pigeons from Above

dead pigeon
Originally uploaded by infobong

This morning as I biked to work, a pigeon fell from the sky like a brick, barely missed my head and landed with a splat.

It was one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen. There was a flock on the building across the street that had just taken flight and all I can think is that it ran into something and was suddenly stopped. The guy on his bike behind me thought maybe it was a heart attack, but it really seemed to have fallen straight down.

I certainly don't believe in omen, but this would be a great one. It's definitely a reminder that death is all around us, and how precious it is to be alive.

Last night a friend was telling me about how about a year ago, she had a fixation on death and all the things that she wanted to do before she died. I wonder what would be on my own list? Maybe something worth thinking about....

Sobule Sings-up the City

San Francisco by Jill Sobule


Nice! Jill Sobule is releasing free songs/video at My Damn Channel

My "perfect" sleeping position?!?

Find your own pose!

Train Time

The trailer for Wes Anderson's new movie is out now and looks like my cup of tea....
It's apparently the story of three brothers taking a train trip through India, and interestingly enough was written by Wes Anderson with the cousins Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman. In the trailer the question is posed if the brothers would still be friends if they weren't related. Interesting question and ripe for Wes Anderson's madcap explorations. Looking forward to it.

DeLaughter Cult

Last night I made a pilgrimage to see Tim DeLaughter's amazing creation, The Polyphonic Spree. It just blows my mind that he's able to gather up 24 incredibly talented musicians and get them to tour together. Everything they do is so sincere and heartfelt and it never fails to inspire me to be more appreciative of just being alive, struggling to be happy and all the love in the world. If Tim ever wants to start a cult, I'd so be there, in my psuedo-uniform and my dashiki robe full of love and joy.

See More

Txt Msging and Email are the new drunk dialing

Joey Comeau just recently posted this great little "cover letter" essay, Overqualified: APPLE: fixes before breaks. I'm afraid this is something I've been quite guilty of in the past, misspellings and all. Sometimes we do need to be saved from all our instant modern communication methods. Sometimes we'd be better on writing on clay tablets, or papyrus paper and sealing our missives us in caves.

My Dad's dog Lucky

make your dog a webpage

Visit my family

make your dog a webpage

Today's Catster video find!

Yellow

My Bst Frend Iz Fagil Arny

The latest P-Spree album is out today and available for a listen onAOL Music. Lovely stuff, and as always, hope inspiring with such feelings of joy and love. Really looking forward to seeing them when the hit town in a couple weeks.

Steam Trek- nice!

The art of the face

Found this on boing boing today and was just blown away by it. Great idea and amazing work.

Eating Organic on a Food Stamp Budget

I just started reading local writer, Rebecca Blood's excellent blog,Eating Organic on a Food Stamp Budget , on eating in a locovore, organic manner in the most economic manner. I find this very interesting in part because that's the diet that I pretty much grew up with. I've been quite resistant to the idea that eating well and ethically had to be expensive and part of an "elite" lifestyle. The Alemany Farmer's Market has always been part of my and always been reasonably priced and had this "people's market" feel. But with all the wonderful eating options we have in this town, I like most every one I know, eats out more then they need to. I'm trying to do better though.

I'm also just really impressed by Blood's ingenuity
for taking on such a project with a journalist's mindset and a personal touch. Impressive stuff.

Maker Faire

There's been tons of wrap up on Maker Faire, which was awesome. This time lapse video is one of the best things I've seen so far.

Pillow Fight!

pillow fight
Originally uploaded by Pete Knife.

Google Korea to censor search results

this article on Google Korea's plan to censor search results really sort of disturbs me; partly because it's just another example of the ROK government trying to put up the appearance of solving a problem, but actually not really doing anything at all. Requiring "age verification" and national registration numbers to view content isn't going to really stop any kid.

The other thing is that it's another example of Google giving up some of the "Do no wrong" principles for the greed of getting in good in an Asian country. Rather then bending to the wishes of a paternalistic government, it seems the better idea would be to offer a far superior product that meets the needs of Koreans just as well far as it does for Americans, if not better.

Formula One's Lewis Hamilton

I haven't been watching Formula 1 so far this season, but I have been following the reports of the rise of Lewis Hamilton, the newest F1 superstar. Four races into the season, and though he has yet to win a race, he's already leading in points, the youngest to ever do so. As the first black driver to actually compete in F1, it's interesting how little is being made of the fact. Even this discussion is rather tame. Historically F1 has been a gentleman's game, but since the big money came in years ago, it's all about performance and winning races. Hamilton seems poised to win one and race now, and I wish him luck. It is good to see the world's second most popular sport just a bit more open and reflective of the world.

Openings

It was Open Studios in the Mission this past weekend, and ended touring through twice, once on Friday evening and again late Sunday afternoon, and still didn't manage to get to all the spaces I wanted to. It was fascinating to getter a better picture of what other neighborhood folk are doing art-wise and also really inspiring. Lately I've been feeling sort of guilty for not being able to say "Yes" when people ask me if I'm an artist. Artistic expression totally fascinates me and love having it in my life, and I feel like I've got a good eye. It's just a matter of making more time to fool around with materials and letting myself play. But maybe having studio space where everything could be out and ready to go whenever would help get me to produce more. Either way, I definitely want to make it a priority beyond the stuff I'm doing for Burning Man this year.

But beyond my own artistic yearnings, I met some awesome people and saw some stand out stuff. Some of favorites:

• Paz de la Calzada
  
• Gina Power
  
• Kathryn Jaller
  
• Summer Lee
  
• Aaron Kllc
  
• Lisa Chou
  
• Melisa Philips
  
• Jeff Paul Riley
  

Spielberg, Jackson team for Tintin

Variety.com - Spielberg, Jackson team for Tintin

Wow! This is huge. It's amazing to see names like this attached to developing new film versions of Tintin, but shows the love and devotion that people all of the world have to this character. I know he introduced me to a love of geography, travel and sequential art. I couldn't get enough of his adventures in the late 70s.

Though I have to say, the idea of a "photo-realistic" Tintin is a bit frightening, but if anyone can do it in a tasteful manner, faithful to the Hegre originals, I trust Peter Jackson.

LOL BERZ

Made my first LOLCATSstyle pic today. Fun stuff

Brooke Shields Alphabet Quiz

Solve the Brooke Shields mystery

Reminds me of the apocryphal story on the origin on the word "Quiz", though Brooke Shield Alphabet doesn't quite roll off the tounge.

Love the fickr pool

via: Warrren Ellis

Chabon

Last night, I went to see Vendela Vida interview Michael Chabon about his latest novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, for City Arts & Lectures. I was going to wait for the paperback, but like Chabon said, there's nothing more fun the alternate history and I couldn't wait to start reading his version of the world where America accepted millions of Jewish refuges and allowed them to settle in th Alaskan Panhandle, thereby mitigating the Holocaust to some degree.

One the thing that he talked about that struck me was an awareness that his own writing voice tended to run long and snuck in clauses at the drop of a hat. I can certainly identify with that tendency as well. So trying to writing detective fiction in the manner of Chandler was really tough for him. I've only dug in to the first few chapters, but it is a bit of a strange bird, Chabon's beautiful sentences in a much more clipped style. I think I'm going to enjoy it.

Even though Chabon made a strong argument that typical "mainstream" literature that comes out of the tradition psychological realism of Checkov is a type of Genre fiction itself, I think one of the best things he's doing in legitimizing Genre such as super-hero stoies, sword fantasy and now detective fiction. I can totally see how he's part just writing the things that he'd like to read but the modern sensibilities and awareness he brings to his subject is a grand a glorious thing.

Internet More Dangerous than School Violence, Sexually Transmitted Diseases for Children

Internet More Dangerous than School Violence, Sexually Transmitted Diseases for Children: survey

I found this little bit of paranoia interesting. Reminded me of the excellent book "The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things" that I read a few years back.

Fragged

I saw a preview of the play First Person Shooter last Friday. It goes into the heavy topics of school shootings, racism, and personal guilt. Intense stuff and the director used a clever trick had the actors slam the set pieces around to heighten that intensity. And of course, with the VT shooings it was very topical stuff. The script covered a lot of ground and in a fairly complex way, with some fairly funny dialog as well. Some nice chunky roles for the many of the actors to sink their teeth into. Chad Deverman and Craig Marke were particular stand-outs.

As in any time limited dramatization of complex issues, aspects get left unexamined and I couldn't help but think about some of the issues that would have liked. Even though they provided plenty of examples, I wish the play had at least noted all the homo-erotic/homophobic trash-talking and posturing in the gaming world. Guys will say some stuff that they'd never think of repeating outside of the context of game-play. It's all sort of male-bonding talk, but there probably deeper connotations as well. What I find interesting that a lot of gamers are people that have adopted a role that at least superficially rejected typical "jock" behavior.

Then there's unexplored that school shooting and violence on that level is really a male issue, and the few exceptions only help prove the rule. But rather then just sort of writing boys and men as inherently violent, my take on it is that our society does a great disservice to it's boys and gives them very few tools to deal with and express their emotions. Instead a male culture of violent outbursts is perpetuated and accepted in this country.

Then of course there's the issue of ready access to firearms in this country...

Return to the Planet of the Apes

Last night Cornelius returned to San Francisco for the first time in years and years. And once again I was blown away by the artistry of every thing he does, the music, the videos, and his design sense. Everything is so imaginative, but also flows together very well. I particularly loved his collaboration with Kouichirou Tsujikawa

Ad Free San Paulo: ...things were out of hand and the population has made it clear it wants this

Sao Paulo goes advertising-free

Ah, to imagine such a thing in America, the birthplace of engineered desire and craving...
But it's almost equally amazing anyplace in the world today. I couldn't imagine Seoul without all it's blaring neon signs. Even the churches use neon to advertise their locations. It''ll be curious to see how long San Paulo's ban lasts. No forever I expect. The pressure of profit are strong and I bet the middle class will miss all the "beautiful ads" soon enough.

Jordan took some video of yesterday's Openning Day game

Gray Water -> Green Grass

photo by Matt McGee

My big Burning Man idea for this year is using a temporary lawn to recycle our camp gray water. This was an idea that was being tossed around between my sister, dad and I late last summer, but really didn't have the time to execute it last year, but this year I'm pretty sure it's going to happen.

The basic idea is to build modular nursery flats of sub-irrigated, nearly hydroponic tropical grass that is sturdy and able to aspirate plenty of nutrient-rich gray water. Then all the flats will be connected to main lines which will run from our gray water storage tank. The big unknown is how much water at 12' x 12' lawn will be able to soak up and how quickly will it use up water? Will we have extra grey water that the grass won't be able to use or will we be begging other camps for their gray water to keep it alive? Big questions. so we're starting some test flats this month.

This weekend we did some shopping for a growing medium. We got some excellent advice at SF Hydro who are used to providing supplies for other types of grass growing operations. We settled on clay pebbles, coconut husks and soil mixture, proportions yet to be determined. Then for irrigation we went out to Urban Farmer and explained our project and got set up with a drip system that we could place in the flats under the grass and get the water directly to root system. Looking forward to setting it all up and seeing what works.

Absolute Horror

New Kupek oddities album

I'm listening to the awesome new Kupek tracks that Bryan Lee O'Malley (of Scott Pilgrim fame) recently posted on radiomaru. Everything Bryan does is geeky-sweet, cheesy and sincere like a cheese and chocolate covered banana, but better. Check it out.

Trich Talk

Last weekend, I was in Washington D.C. for the 14th Annual National Conference on Trichotillomania & Skin Picking. This was my second conference so far and once again I was very impressed by the scientific presentations and re-energized to give my time and energy to help my fellow trichsters. It was also really great to see some of the people I'd met at past events.

Actually I went out a day early to do museums, and since it was an ugly day outside, I was glad spend most of the day indoors. Have to say, love the Smithsonian and will have to get back out there when the American History museum re-opens.

The first workshop I went to was Mass. General's, and chair of the TLC Scientific Advisory Board, Nancy Keuthen presenting on the recent neuroimaging work she's been involved in. I forget most of the details and it was pretty heady stuff to present that late in the evening, but the gist of it was that they did some brain imaging of trichsters doing some standards tests designed to stimulate the striatum and hippocampus and compared them to the previous OCD results. Unlike the OCD scans, the trichster scans the cortico-striatal connections seem to be working normally, but really this is just opening the door to the possibility of doing more brain-imaging studies like this. There's still so much to learn about how trich works in the brain.

The next morning, I went to hear David Pauls(from Harvard Medical) and Allison Ashley-Koch (from Duke) talk about the recent genetic research of trich and give a state of affairs. Pauls began with a broad outline on why genetic research could provide important information on how and why trich seems to travel in families and what methods can be used for doing genetic studies. He made an excellent case for using genetic studies to understand what factors could contribute to trich and rather then looking for some sort of gene therapy or advocating in vitro "treatment" of trich, he suspects that a greater understanding of what genes increased the risk of developing trich could help people in the future to reduce other contributing environmental factors. I found that very reassuring given recent controversy around Al Mohler's recent blog entry. He also announced that he was help organize an international trich genetic bank that could warehouse trichsters DNA and make it available to reputable scientists wanting to do research on trich. Interestingly he also mention that they were going to get DNA collected from the Afrikaner population in South Africa, which is both a fairly genetically isolated gene pool and I would think certainly had environmental stressors that could exacerbate trich.

Ashley-Koch then discussed last Fall's widely reported research on the connection between trich and the SLITRK1. I think one of the things I missed when this news came out was that the this was the FIRST real connection made between a metal "illness" and a genetic mutation. It is known that the SLITRK1 gene has a large influence on the brain and in particular, neurite outgrowth, connecting neurons to each other. The other thing that was very interesting was that this mutation appeared to be an "old" mutation and appeared in the DNA or other species such as mince, cows and dogs. And while the mutation was found only in 5% (2 of the 44 people studied) of the population they studied, it pointed at an area in the genome that definitely warrant more studies. And Duke's research is continuing. I had already decided to join the study and try to get as many of my family members to join as well. Conveniently enough, the project coordinators were available to take blood and DNA, so it felt good to be able to get that done right then and there.

In the afternoon, I went to hear psychologist Renae Reinardy talk about the gaining more awareness between the connection between our emotions and psychical state and our pulling, these are things we talk a lot about in my support group, but it was still nice to hear a fresh perspective. She pulled apart what people might be feeling before, during and after pulling their hair or picking their skin, asking people to identify for them selves what they might be feeling, frustration, tension, boredom, anxiety, indecision, excitement, anger, discomfort, pleasure while pulling, relief while pulling, "in a trance", pain while pulling, and afterwards maybe a sense of relief, accomplishment, more relaxed, more tense, guilt, anger, tired, sad or indifferent. She also encourage people to look for thought patterns and ways our pulling could be a maladapted thermostat-like way to bring use down or up to a more comfortable level. That's certainly part of my experience and having this awareness has helped me develop strategies like my meditation practice, better sleeping habits, reducing my caffeine intake, and reaching out to others for support more. She also strongly recommended assertiveness training which was a new idea for me.

Next I went to hear the Joe Garner from Purdue give an amazing overview on just about everything he's learned about trich and it's neurobiology. It was a rather involved talk to say the least, but he was able to cover an amazing amount of material in the time given. He started off with the take away messages that scientist are now developing a pretty robust understanding of how a variety of Abnormal Repetitive Behavior are produced by the brain, but that there's not a much research specific to trich though what there research there is seems to fit the patterns, while the differences may help to explain what trich is biologically and psychologically. In reviewing the data out there, the evidence seems to support the idea that trich is a disruption in the prefrontal and premotor cortico-striatal loops, or the circuits that that facilitate goals, are sensory stimulated, and that control patterns of movement. One idea that he mentioned that I hadn't heard about was the anarchic hand (or as wikipedia cites, DR. Strangelove Syndrome!) where one hand acts automatically which is interesting because I almost always pull with my left hand and around my left ear. But all the unknowns about trich are also interesting, like why (or does it) affect women more then men? Why is a similar barbering or grooming behavior seen across the board in many captive animal populations and nearly 100% of primates? And how far back in the evolutionary chain does this mutation go if it's part of the more "privative" basal ganglia part of the brain? Lots of room for new research, and Garner just submitted a proposal to look at multiple species across the evolutionary chain and compare genes such as SLITRK1. Exciting stuff!

After dinner I went to a men's forum that psychologist David Kueler organized. Even though there's a man that regularly attends my support group, it was nice have the opportunity to meet some other male pullers, though actually only two out of the four other men that I knew were attending the conference came to the forum. Yet another reminder of how much more needs to be done in raising awareness and building community.

Then on Sunday, I went to the research symposium, which was a round-up on the recent Trich Impact Studies. It was stressed many times how amazing it was that these studies were turned around so quickly and how important they could be in attractive further research dollars and legitimacy. Al so significant was the scales that were developed to measure the range of impact trich has on our lives and tools to categorize pulling behavior in a scientific way. Interesting data that they collected was that the largest majority of people reported pulling from their scalp and eyebrows. They also reported feeling unpleasant urges before pulling, feeling a bodily sensation, being for the most part aware of their pulling, and feeling anxious after pulling. All stuff I can concur with. Also interesting was that most people reported that when they sought treatment, most often the treatment provider was not much of an expert and treatment was very rarely effective and often was damaging. Strangely enough many people also reported that they had been prescribed SSRIs for treatment, even though there's been no scientific evidence that SSRIs are an effective treatment for trich. But what was encouraging is how many and how quickly published papers were coming out of this work and how these results and tools could be used for future studies.

There were also several sessions I wish I could have attended if I could have sent my clone.I was particularly sad that I missed was a presentation from one man whose Buddhist meditation practices was helping greatly in his recovery from trich. Sounds very similar to my own experience and I would have loved to compare notes. Also Doug Woods gave a talk on "Separating Snake Oil from Penicillin", which was funny because I had just seen a sample of the first Penicillin at the Smithsonian. I thought it was a very important question, sense it seems to me that many pullers are eager for anything that might provide some relief, even if it's only supported by anecdotal evidence and may or not work.

Good stuff all around and I'm really glad I went. All the people associated with TLC, the pullers, the picker, the researchers are all such amazing people and I'm very glad to have found them. And of course, none of us would have come together without the efforts of Christina Pearson. Makes me want to continue to help out it whatever small ways I can.

Sissy Spacek & Cam Archer take on "Pull"

indieWIRE: indieWIRE INTERVIEW: Cam Archer, Director of "Wild Tigers I Have Known"

I recently came across this interview where the Santa Cruz native, indie filmmaker, Cam Archer, talked about his next project being about a woman with trichotillomania. He's already got Sissy Spacek signed up for the lead which is a huge coup. I haven't seen any of his films but just his interest in the subject of trich is intriguing.

Whole Fed

Tuesday night I went and saw a fascinating sold-out talk between, the John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, and Michael Pollan, the author of the Omnivore's Dilemma.

You can watch it yourself on this webcast.

While I love everything Pollan has written and I think he's quite brilliant, I have to say Mackey really impressed me. He gave a large overview of the history of food production and also showed a short video on how various domesticated food animals are treated in today industrial system. As an aside, Mackey said that he was now a vegetarian, while Pollan still will eat meat. While he may have reluctant at first to have a public conversation with Pollan, Mackey used the forum to really engage critics and opinion makers and present some rather exciting new initiatives that Whole Foods is taking to step up their game and really set them apart. Probably a slightly calculated move, but still responsive and intelligently done. Mackey announced:

• A new $30 million venture capital fund that will invest in artisan food start-ups and help the best and highest quality food products


• An organic farm rating system that includes animal welfare standards and gives consumer more information beyond just "organic"


• A new $10 million annually funded Local Producer Loan Program designed to promote local agriculture and strengthen connections to local producers


• A new Whole Trade guarantee program in cooperation with Fair Trade and the Rain Forest Network that will guarantee quality, price, labor practices, and environmental sustainability of foods imported from the developing world.

In all, Mackey presented a vision of a corporation that is committed to values beyond just stockholder value, that is really trying to promote a new "ecological" system of food production. He also challenged everyone to join and engage in an effort to spread compassion and love and usher in a new ecological age. Very Buddhist. Conscious Capitalism, exciting "paradigm-shifting" stuff that really makes me hopeful, and glad that I myself am working for company that has higher values then just profit.

Pollan, while reserving space for "semi-objective" journalism, also made a few advocacy points, converting land used for corn production (primary for cattle feed) into grass based grazing land, letting a lot of ideals flourish (including things we might think are "bad") and see what works, and enabling greater transparency for letting consumers know how our food is made and how it gets to us.

All good stuff and glad to see so much attention being paid to these issues. And aamde me re-think some of my own behavior.

In my earlier years, my fmaily was macrobiotic, but I've been eating dairy for more then 25 years now. Mackey made a compelling point that the dairy industry as it exists now is predominately inhumane in it's treatment of dairy cows and most often supports the veal industry as well. I really want to think about how I can eat dairy in a more ethical manner. I've also shopped at Trader Joe's for a long time, and Mackey pointed out that as a privately held company owned they've haven't had to be as public about their business practices. It was also good to hear that Whole Foods decided to match Trader Joe prices on comparative products if only to help lure customers. So given Mackey's performance and the programs Whole Foods is doing, I think I AM more inclined to shop there.

So maybe the Omnivore's Dilemma backlash against Whole Foods may reverse itself on the strength of Mackey's engagement with that criticism and it really will create something rich and more productive then what was before.

Urge Fighter

Saw this L.S.U. college paper article pop up via Google News today - Fighting the Urge - News and was encouraged to see another Trichster dude in the news. It makes me feel like we're on the verge of a re-analysis of the prevalence of male TTM. I've thought for a long tine there were a lot more of men who had Trich out there, but weren't diagnosed and/or used other means to mask the symptoms. And I hope as more men come forward, others will be encourage to also step forward and seek help.

I'm going to the Natl. Trich Conference partly because they're offering a men's forum which should be very interesting. I'm curious who will be part of it and the conversation will go. I know for myself while much of my experience as a trichster is shared by women, there are differences in how it plays out in my own sense of male identity, my ability to be show vulnerable parts of myself and in my relationships.

As more men as diagnosed with trich, I think the re could be a benefit to the entire trich community. Too often women's medical problems are marginalized and not given the level of attention that male medical problems are given. With more men going the ranks of public suffers from trich, perhaps this could help change the perception of trich from a "women's problem to a "human problem". But perhaps, even that is wishful thinking and as a T-shirt I saw on Valencia this week, it's just confirmation that "Men are the new Women" and the only hope in getting trich more out there in the public eye is the elusive celebrity puller spokesperson ;)

Found Myself

Pillow Fight 2007 098
Originally uploaded by giantmonster.

I'm right dab center in the brown shirt. Too bad you can't see the Dogster tagline.

Love Fights

Wednesday, I joined in the 2nd annual Valentine's Day Pillow Fight Club.

Wow!

What an amazing amount of fun! I was pretty sad to see it peter out, but then I was off to see Si*Se and Los Amigos Invisibles both put on an awesome show at the Independent.

MEGO LEGO

Lego just started accepting pre-orders for their largest model ever, a mini-fig full-scale version of the Falcon. With over 5,000 pieces and almost 3 feet long, it's certainly impressive, but so is the price tag, $500! I'm sure they know what there doing and the Star Wars line has been one of their most successful, tapping into all those adult Lego/Star Ward geeks like me, but at the price I think I'll have to pass. It's tempting though. I'd like to get my hands on the directions booklet at least. I've built my own larger mini-fig scale Star Wars models, but this does look like a nice one.

Chuck E. Cheesy

Computer Space game cabinetLast night I went to Chuck E. Cheese for my nephew's birthday. I had never been before and for my nephew, even a 25-year-old concept is fresh and new again to a 6-year-old and the right TV commercial. When I was kid I remember all the hubbub when Nolan Bushnell from Atari started the whole animatronic animal pizza chain. At the time, it seemed prophetic rather then just the odd whim of a frustrated Disney fanatic, but now it has a sort of dated atmosphere, like a cheap kids' Vegas.

But looking up Bushnell history this morning led to this great game forerunner

powered by performancing firefox

The Geni's loose

Found this cool viral genealogical site. It's a pretty quick and easy means to build a web-based family tree and as data accumulates, eventually show how large groups of disparate people are related. Though one thing that isn't as supported as well as I'd like is showing how non-biological families are, since I've got a large California extended/blended family. But it's an interesting start and I'm curious how it develops.

Update: Okay, I'm totally addicted to this site now. I think they've got a winner here. The tag line "Everyone's Related" is almost a description of what they're hitting that many social-networking sites miss, those strong connections that people have in the real world, particularly family connection. And then on top of that it appeals to all those compulsive genealogy nuts out there, which I could easily join.

Guantanamo Unclassified

Why Am I A Buddhist?

I recently gave a talk at my Buddhist center on the topic of "Why I Am A Buddhist". It was a very interesting exercise and made me think about the question and about my practice in new ways. I'd really like to write an essay on the topic at some point, but my friend Gabriel's website has a copy of my talk along with the others that various members of the Sangha gave.

Is What the What?

I recently finished reading the Dave Eggers novelization of Valentino Achak Deng's autobiography about his experience as a "Lost Boy" of southern Sudan. It's an interesting sort of collaboration where Valentino supplied the rough narrative of his life and memories and Dave wrote in his voice and filled in the details that Valentino's memory lacked. It's a bit odd to hear Dave's style restricted in a way by trying to stay true to Valentino's life an d not fly off on it's usual surreal tangents. And certainly Valentino's own voice and horrific experiences shine through.