You’d think that Garfield Minus Garfield would equal zero. But it doesn’t. (via)
And then there’s Garfield Replaced by a Cat (click to enlarge) (via)
Mutopia: The Flaming Lotus Girls Project for Burning Man 2008
Check out our art project, Mutopia.
Ripped from the page:
In 2008 we are creating Mutopia our latest collaborative project. It will celebrate the innovation and spirit of our community. Infusing form with greater dynamism and interactivity. Every participant brings new ideas to the work which manifest in fire and animation.
STRUCTURE
- 13 Seedpods
- 97’ x 60’ installation footprint
- Made of cast aluminium, steel, copper, fire, and light
- An interactive LED illumination system throughout installation
FIRE, STEAM, & ELECTRONICS
- Ambient flame effects throughout the installation
- 6 computer-and-participant controlled multi-directional propane poofers
- 6 computer-and-participant controlled Promatic effects (propane pneumatics)
- Liquid fuel canopy misters
- 3 x 50 foot multi-dimensional liquid fuel fire effects erupting out of 3 central Seedpods
- Sound wave driven propane flame effect
- Sonar activated proximity sensors, giving Mutopia awareness
- Steam seeping throughout installation
- Proximity activated video nodes
- Human activated movement controls, via hand cranks and levers
INTERACTIVITY
Mutopia is a participant controlled fire art installation. An individual can initiate sequenced patterns for the fire effects, LED lights and steam. Interactivity is multi-layered in the installation activated via custom buttons, sonar sensors, hand cranks and levers.You are going to LOVE it!
My favorite part (thus far, nothing is built) is the “Liquid fuel canopy misters”. It’s not too different from a wonderfully dangerous effect I was playing with that I call Fire Fog. Rosa Anna and Mills’ idea is safer than mine but it’ll rock nonetheless!
This Past Weekend
Saturday
Went on 2 pretty good appointments, driving around the entire Bay (SF->San Jose->Oakland->SF) weee, I’m dizzy…
Met our new neighbor Samantha. The welcome committee (Laurie, Cindy and myself) offered her and her friends celery as an official welcome committee gift. Had Sam over for leftover Tartine bread pudding. Aaron told of his amazing and harrowing journey bringing Shani to Boston (where she eventually met Charlotte) involving unbearable heat, “No Vacancy, Go Away” signs on hotels in Peabody, MA, crossing deep underground rivers and very little sleep. Had terrific Hungarian chicken and spaetzle. Had wonderful home-made (Trader Joes mix + blueberries) cup-cakes. Had all manner of people in the apartment in and out… Laurie, Rick, Samantha, Cindy, Aaron.
Went to BootieSF with Charlotte, Rick and Aaron. Turns out that Aaron is a darn high-energy and fun dancer. Daydreamed a lot to mashups involving 80’s tunes (apparently, I still remember all the words to 99 Red Balloons). Got out a lot of energy dancing like a fool. Saw just 10 minutes of Trademark G’s show
Sunday
Saw Rick’s groovy Oakland pad complete with geektronics, tube amps, vinyl records and giant screen TV.
Went shooting at Chabot gun range with Charlotte, having a simply wonderful drive with the top down over swooping roads. And quite a bit of fun shooting. Met 2 shooters in the next stall and tried their Walter P38. Vowed to get a speed loader since our thumbs were killing us by the end of shooting.
Geostationary Banana Over Texas
Isn’t it odd that this downright silly post follows such a very very serious post about Lucille Rathyen. Some truths: You’re born. You live. You die. How well that middle part goes is entirely up to you.
I reported previously that the Geostationary Banana Over Texas crew was busy. Well, it seems that Caesar Saez and crew is really trying to do it. There’s an assurance contract on ThePoint.com. The GBOT Team will float a giant banana over Texas if we raise $1,500,000. They’ve got a video on their site that implies they are really trying to do it! Here’s a local copy:
I’d pay at LEAST $25 to see a 300 meter long banana in geostationary orbit over Texas. I put myself in for $25 and said I’d chip in more when they answered a couple questions like what the actual conditions for “success” were.
Lucille Rathyen Passed Away Saturday
Lucille Rathyen was one of the two teachers in the early years of the Gifted and Talented program (renamed “Learning Unlimited” a few years later) in West Milford New Jersey. I spent many hours with Lucille and Cassie Lewis in middle school. This very well-spent time made a long lasting impression on me.
A few years ago, most of the first group of G&T kids got together at Cassie’s house for a very enjoyable reunion. I just looked over the photos and saw photos of these childhood friends all grown up.
This email came to me yesterday from Cassie.
I am saddened to inform you that Lucille passed away from a long bout with cancer last night. Her husband, Ralph, called this morning and said she was at home with her family and hospice. I last saw her a few weeks ago, just before she was scheduled for a final MRI to see is anything else might be done.
Lucille remained spirited and optimistic throughout the ordeal. She told me whatever happens is out of her control; the source of her illness unexplainable…some things just happen in life. She was grateful for the life she led, her family, friends and those years in LU and was making the most of the time she had left.
She will be cremated; Ralph will schedule a memorial service in the next week or so. If you’d like to send a note, the address is:
[contact Lee for the address]I hope this reaches some of you, at least. I don’t have all updated addresses or emails…apologies to those I missed. I contacted the Hazens and Jim
Paretti’s mom. So please pass the word to any others. Feel free to email me or telephone ([contact Lee for the phone number]) if you wish.Hugs,
Cassie
Humor: Toyota and Ford canoe racing
THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT!
A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (General Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River . Both teams practised long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.
On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.
Installed Smart Archives and Exec-PHP Wordpress Plugins
My blog archives have been ugly for a long time. :-(
If the old narchives.php script is still up, take a peek at what my archives used to look like. Useful but ugly and slow because it’s uncachable.
So I just installed Smart Archives. To make it work, I also had to install Exec-PHP. I was a bit reluctant because enabling PHP in posts could be a security hole but… eh, it’ll be fine, right?
Now, my archives are all pretty-like. I insist on a straightforward appearing archive. None of that javascript fancyness because then you can’t use the Find function of your browser to locate posts. And you can’t easily scroll around, getting an overview.
Click Here November 2003: Messenger Spam
My second article for The Panther originally published November 2003
Click Here
by Lee C Sonko
I’m so happy to have this new column in The Panther. It’s called “Click Here” in reference to that ubiquitous call to action that you see everywhere when surfing on the internet. Each month, I’ll be telling you about some of the most important things everyone should know about when using computers. Some of the topics will include: keeping bad people out of your computer, having fun on the computer, stopping annoying advertising, and lots more. For my first article, I’ll address a problem that many of my friends have had. Messenger Spam. And here we go! (more…)
gowithabc.com post
I have temporarily removed the post I made on February 29th titled “gowithabc.com is likely a scam”. I have been communicating with the president of the company, Jim Tracy and it so far seems that my impression was founded on the inappropriate actions of just one employee.
I will keep you, dear reader informed as to the outcome of our discussion.
Airborne Homeopathic Remedy: Made by a Teacher so it HAS to be Good… or not
This could have been done better. I mean, the placebo effect DOES work. Trouble is… (via ABCNews)
…
the investigation revealed that Airborne’s clinical trial was conducted by just two people in the absence of a clinic or scientists.
They are settling a lawsuit for $23 million. Monies to be distributed for those stupid enough to that believe this is a preventative and cure for colds.
Now the following took 3 seconds of investigative reporting. Look at the image I snapped of their website today. It says “The famous original formula - created by a school teacher - contains 17 herbs and nutrients…”
The ingredients list:
- 8 “herbal extract proprietary blend”
- 2 “amino acids”
- 8 “other ingredients” are sorbital, citric acid, sodium bicarbonate, orange flavor, mineral oil, acesulfame potasium, sucralose.
If I’ve got my math right, only one of those “other ingredients” isn’t a “nutrient”. Do you think it’s the mineral oil or the orange flavor? Yeah, right.
The First Mashup I Ever Heard: Stairway to Gilligan’s Island
In 1989 I was a DJ at WMFO, Tufts radio station. I found a cart
(image via) in the music library called “Stairway to Gilligan’s Island”. I fell in love with it.
Last year, I came to mentioning the song to a guy in a tiki bar in Alameda (I was there with some friends from my Improv class) because the song had been floating around in my brain. Amazingly, he said that he knew the guy who made the song and he lived nearby. (small world, eh?).
I really should look him up. Here it is, Stairway to Gilligan’s Island by Roger and the Goosebumps:
I’ll likely be going to a mashup event Saturday night at the DNA Lounge, BootieSF.
Mozy Discount for March 2008
Update: This promo has passed, look for more recent discount info on my blog here.
These coupon codes will get you 10% off your annual or bi-annual subscription to Mozy. They’re only good this month. So here’s what to do:
- First, sign up for Mozy with my referral link (and get $10-15 free money)
- Then, when signing up, there will be a box where you can type in a promotion code. “MARCH” gets you 10% off an annual subscription to Mozy. “MARCH2″ gets you 10% off a bi-annual subscription to Mozy. Use the code that’s appropriate for your subscription. :-)
Mozy says they are expanding their “Mozy Pro” services for businesses. I’m a big fan of their non-commercial product. If you’ve got a small or medium sized business, Mozy might be just the thing to run your company’s entire backup strategy.
That code is only good this month. If you found this link and it’s not currently March 2008, look on my blog for a more current Mozy discount code.
Offensive Google Adsense and Section Targeting
I’ve
noticed that Google Ads sometimes serves up ads into my blog that I think are offensive (and bizarre). I’m trying to get rid of them by putting them in my “competitive ad filter” in Google Adsense. We’ll see how it goes. (grumble grumble)
I also just started using Google Adsense section targeting. I now put my post content inside these tags. Google should now be able to parse my posts easier.
<!– google_ad_section_start –>
My content blah blah blah.
<!– google_ad_section_end –>
Update 3-5-08
Ah ha. I figured out why my site has started seeing lots of penis related Google Ads. The title of the photo on my peni[nospam]s patch page is peni[nospam]s-patch.jpg. My site is apparently the most popular image site on the internet related to peni[nospam]s patches. You’ll notice that the second most popular “peni[nospam]s-patch” photo is the photo I use in the upper right corner of my blog header. Apparently, the two photos had their google-juice comingled (eiw!). And while I enjoy being a being a peni[nospam]s patch magnate, I think I’ll change the name of that file so all my Google ads aren’t so…. patchy.
Update 3-13-08: Over the last 7 days, the hit count for the peni[nospam]s patch image has fallen from 230/day to less than 25/day.
