Lee.org

(I forget exactly which week I did this… but the date is close…)

Friday - went to Tech Shop. Learned (pretty much) how to use a CNC plasma cutter. Saw their 3d printer and laser etcher. Met a cool film guy who is making his own camera lenses. We’re gonna hook him up with our neighbor’s friend who makes films like Oh Saigon. Also met some guys who said they had to buy all black T-Shirts because “we never knew when we’d be on camera on Mythbusters”

Saturday - Went to the Ferry Building Farmers market and got the bestest “walk into my mouth!!!” chicken and foccacia. Then we went and made a playground! Well, we actually planted bushes in front of a local school and filled planters for the childrens’ gardens :-). And we met a lady who works for the YMCA who asked us “do you know anyone who knows anything about robots? I’m trying to motivate my robot team” Oh boy, do we! Wee!

Then Starfish
Sunday

Baked bread. Box Shop. Lunch w/ Jeff. More with the box shop

A couple weeks ago, Charlotte and I went to the SOEX 7th Annual Monster Drawing Rally. We got to watch a few rounds of 20 artists make something in 60 minutes. It wasn’t nearly as fun as we thought it would be though since all the art produced was very so-so. Apparently it was a great fundraiser though since the line-up to buy the pieces for $50 apiece was quite long. It had the possibility of being fun with the festive, crowded and hip atmosphere and the bar…

This past Sunday afternoon: played Diplomacy for the first time. I was surprised how much fun it was even though after 6 hours of game play it seemed the game was only a little more than 1/2 finished. Before I went, I thought, “15 minutes per move? That sounds so terribly boring.” It wasn’t. :-)

Sunday morning Charlotte and I helped Charlie with an art contract building a 14′ tall metal wire horse and gold gilded grass around it.

“What are you doing Charlotte?”

“I’m gilding grass.” :-)

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This weekend, Charlotte’s friend Keith came by from Boston. Most notably, he acted as a neutral third party and confirmed what we have long thought was the truth, that our bed has evil tentacles that pull you in. He sat down on it, leaned back and asked in a startlingly sleepy voice, “What kind of bed is this?” Seconds later he was deep in a 3 minute nap.

For reference, he was fully awake before sitting down, it was noon, he wasn’t jet-lagged or worn out from the night before and was well rested.

Michael Prados, Jonathan Foote and I met with LadyBee and Crimson Rose of Burning Man today. Look what we signed :-)

SWARM is a funded art project and I am named as the artist because I’m the money guy.

Be there on April 13th… or miss it!

Darn it, $2 million will be the best hush money ever spent on a politician since… well, I don’t know since -that- hush money kept the scandal quiet.

Well, except for how the Mooninites are giving us one more push down the slope to McArthyism with this stupidity

[Boston Mayor] Curtatone proposed an ordinance that would allow for nontraditional marketing in the city, but would also regulate it. The ordinance will be considered first by the Board of Aldermen Legislative Matters committee, and then by the full board.

“We’re not trying to quell free speech, we just want to make sure we monitor these actions,” Curtatone said.

I went to the Mark Pauline lecture (founder of SRL) at CCA. Suprisingly, I met up with an acquaintance of mine at the lecture. She goes to school there. The world just got smaller :-)

The lecture was very good. Two things I noticed….

He lost part of his right hand in an accident many years ago. He functions well missing 2 fingers and a thumb but I’m sure he’d rather have kept them. That’s a big reminder to me to always be safe in the shop; it just takes 1 accident… and you don’t ever get them back.

I asked, “Do your shows pay for themselves?”

“Oh no. I lose hundreds of thousands of dollars on them. In San Jose last summer, we had a paying audience so I just lost $15,000. Normally it’s much more.” He talked a little bit about how he uses it as a promotional expense on his taxes. Just after the show, he mused how he’s probably lost millions over the years.

Oh and he told us where the name “Survival Research Labs” comes from. It was pretty funny. It’s a story involving corporate re-appropriation, Soldier of Fortune Magazine, figuring out how to kill the right wing when the time came, sniper scopes and a mail fraud PO Box in Georgia. :-)

This seems to be a worthy petition to sign. It’s got about 24,000 signatures so far…

To: Internet Radio Listeners

To my Congressional representatives, and to Congress as a whole,

As a fan of Internet radio, I was alarmed to learn that music royalty rates were recently determined by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) which, if enacted, would certainly silence most or all of my favorite online listening services. For most webcasters, this royalty rate represents more than 100% of their total revenues!

The shuttering of the webcasting industry would be a loss for not only independent business owners, but also for musical artists, for copyright owners, and for listeners like me who enjoy the wide variety of choices available via Internet radio.

I respectfully request that Congress look into this matter and initiate action to prevent it. As the CRB rate decision is retroactive to January 1, 2006, please understand that time is of the essence — as the immediate impact of this decision could silence many free Internet radio stations forever.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

I went to SF Dorkbot last night with Charlotte and her friend Sam.

It was terrific. I only got to see the first 2 main speakers and Ken Murphy. Those guys have done a -lot- of cool stuff. And they presented wonderfully.

(from a followup email)

Main Presenters

dan maynes-aminzade

afshin mehin

evolution control committee

Open dorks

ken murphy

leila hasan -
marc powell -
korntee -
and i’m missing the URLs for the others…

and special thanks to MC jonathan foote, niklas terczak for the BBQ (he’s a pro chef!)

and most of all to scott arford for hosting us at one of the spaces in SF (fond partying and noise show memories) at 7hz

i took some too much flash or too little flash photos here:

Hey, anybody else going to this? Wanna go with me?
————————————————–

http://www.cca.edu/calendar/
http://www.cca.edu/about/directions.php

Oakland campus
5212 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94618-1426
510.594.3600

Mark Pauline: Survival Research Laboratories «
Media Arts lecture
Thursday, March 15, 7:30 pm

Nahl Hall, Oakland campus
Info: 510.594.3656

Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) was conceived of and founded by Mark Pauline in November 1978. Since then, SRL has operated as an organization of creative technicians dedicated to redirecting the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military away from their typical manifestations in practicality, product, and warfare.

Since 1979, SRL has staged over 45 mechanized presentations. Each performance consists of a unique set of ritualized interactions between machines, robots, and special effects devices, employed in developing themes of sociopolitical satire. Humans are present only as audience or operators.

I used to live in Hackettstown, NJ. Hackettstown is the home of Andy Schlafly, founder of Conservapedia.org.

Mr. Schlafly got an interview on All Things Considered today. In the interview, Schlafly talks abou…. stupid things. The discussion starts with Conservapedia’s (lack of) coverage of Darwinism. The article on kangaroos, for instance, says this about their origins

According to the origins theory model used by creation scientists, modern kangaroos, like all modern animals, originated in the Middle East^[1] and are the descendants of the two founding members of the modern kangaroo baramin that were taken aboard Noah’s Ark prior to the Great Flood.

I suppose it wouldn’t be too terrible if they talked about creationism. I mean, some people believe in it, and it -is- an encyclopedia after all. My problem is that Wikipedia has articles on creationism and darwinism. Conservapedia only has articles on creationism. That’s doubleplusungood.

What do you think of this as team colors for the orb swarm team?