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I know that in high school and through my early 20s I held my stress in my throat. When I’d get stressed, when I had to do something nerve-wracking, My vocal cords and neck would get tight. My voice would get tired quickly under stressful conditions (like public speaking, pthaw).

Later, I recall holding quite a bit of my stress in my shoulders. Right in the spot between my shoulder blades would tighten.

This week I had some stress and it manifested in mid-back pain. About 8 inches below the spot between my shoulder blades. A very sharp nerve pain between two vertebra. I sat down to put my shoes on, slipped my right shoe partially on, crossed my right leg over my left, put my left index finger in the heal of my right shoe to slip the heal in and when I applied a little pulling force, that spot between my vertebra screamed. It was like the (very slight) sheering force was going to tear me apart.

I sat upright and held there for a minute, staring at my shoes, wondering how the hell I was going to get them on. Joy.

I resolved to gently work through the pain. The shoes went on and I went out.

Crism was on the left coast for business. I played Agricola with him, Riley, Sean, Josh. It’s a good game.

Saw Soylent Green today:  Soylent Green audio clip 1,  Soylent Green Audio Clip 2. Good movie.

I caught Hancock a couple weeks ago. Quite enjoyable. :-)

Iron Man is a really good Blockbuster. Witty, tight, fun. :-)

I watched the opening ceremonies of the Bejing Olympics. Wow, wow, wow and wow. Did I mention “wow”? It scares me in much the same way that the Blue Angels do during Fleet Week.

Oh, and a while back I caught Silent Running. It’s a movie that I don’t think stands the test of time. It’s got this odd flower-child bent to it.

My folks got me one of these when I was a kid. It was wonderful. The Walgreens down the street is selling this, the original Popeil Pocket Fisherman.

Ron Popeil, you are in my pantheon.

I heard this podcast the other day. It was a famous movie producer. He laid down this amazing piece of story telling wisdom in the middle of the interview. I wish I could recall the speakers in he interview. I recall that the producer had made movies of the ilk of Indiana Jones, though it’s not Steven Spielberg being interviewed.

Interviewer asking: So it’s all about, I mean for the audience you’re suggesting it’s this hunger to know what’s going on and why it’s happened.

Producer: No. It’s a hunger, that’s a very good word, to know what’s going to happen next. So we ask what’s going on in order to… that’s the only reason what’s going on. What we’re saying is in effect, “What am I rooting for?” That’s all we ever want to know.

You should watch this forklift safety video. It could save the lives of everyone you know.

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No, seriously, you should watch this video. Yes, it’s in German. That doesn’t matter. You’ll learn all you need to know. Seriously.

(On Youtube)

It is titled “Staplerfahrer Klaus – Der erste Arbeitstag” / “Forklift Driver Klaus – The First Day on the Job”

You can buy this video from its creator on DVD with lots of extras  for like 10 Euros.

When I look at this image, I can -hear- something. Seriously. It’s weirding me out.

It’s like I can hear the flip-flopping of the nand gates in my brain. Not really a buzzing, more of a rythmic humming.

Or maybe I’m just hearing the air handler on the building down the street. What do you think? What do you hear?

I was the Inspector at Precinct 2006 in Visitacion Valley yesterday. I had 4 clerks to help me. It was good. The quiet, reverent sound of voting is 1 part library, 1 part church. And like both of those, when it gets really quiet in the middle of the day, your eyelids can get pretty heavy.

We had about 250 people over the course of the day. About 1/2 before 10am but it was a steady slow stream all day.

The biggest excitement was when I realized at 6pm that the steps up to the polling place were poorly lit. A bit of scrambling around and turning on lights inside the building (the exterior lights, we found are on a timer) remedied that.

Oh, and at one point, the ballot machine, called the “Optech Insight” stopped making the happy noise when ballots where inserted. Instead of “da-dum da-dum!” It would go “da-dum!” or “da!”. I called in and they said as long as the numbers on the front keep incrementing, it’s all good. I rebooted the ballot machine and it and it started making happy noises again.

There were a few people that had trouble with the machines, voting for 3 presidents and wondering why the machine kicked back their ballot. A calm voice and patient explaining got everyone through without a single real problem.

At the training class last week, I remember cringing and mouthing “Oh my god!” when someone asked if White-Out was ok to use on a ballot because that’s what she had been given when she had made a mistake on her ballot. The teacher kept her cool and calmly explained that Inspectors should give them a new ballot instead of using White-Out.

And I got this nifty pin :-)

My FED ([something] Election Deputy) was great, very helpful when I had questions. I called the Election Hotline a few times with questions and they knew their stuff. The pickups were funny… the first pickup, for the “important” electronic voting information was carried out by these cops that looked like… well they had all the cool cop equipment. On one officer I counted about 6 magazine holders and a utility belt that rivaled Batman’s. He was all shiny and “officery”. I got a glimpse at the grip of his pistol and man, did it shine! The second pickup was for all the paper ballots… 200 pounds of paper. These two officers were 8 inches shorter than the first-pickup guys. They had a more “down to earth” feel. Although I’m sure that bullets from any of these cops guns would stop bad guys, I’m sure that the first-pickup officers simply wouldn’t have to draw their guns as often since their appearance forcefully puts forth an “I am in charge” vibe. Interesting.

And to make the image of the second officers complete, since they had to haul so much paper, they drove a mini-van.

You know how when you show up at Burning Man right at the beginning of the event… Monday at 8am and you go looking for a good place to camp and you get all depressed because  the whole frickin playa has already been marked off with rope? “Sorry, you can’t camp here, my friends will be along with our dome later in the week.”

Here was my plan: mark off every single inch of camping space with rope and ribbon and twine and sheets and signs. There won’t be a single place to camp on the whole frickin lake bed. The only way anyone will be able to park their RV within 5 miles of the Man is to tear down “someone elses” property marker.

You see, we’re always stepping on someones toes. We’re always taking someone else’s space. Every inch of this planet is already in use by someone or something else. The only way anyone can make their own way in this world is by taking the resources of another. Taking other people’s possessions makes us uncomfortable, but it’s the only way we can live. Identifying and clarifying that sense can help us live our lives better.

That’s my artistic statement and I’m sticking to it.

I was at Ikea a few Christmases ago and they had red ribbon on sale… Normally $2 per roll, they had these giant bins and were selling it for $0.11 each. So I bought 6 miles of it. I would have bought more but I couldn’t carry any more. I figured that would be a good start to the project. With a little more planning, I started begrudging the potential amount of work the project would take. First, I needed to show up at least 10 days before the event because, gosh darn it, I had shown up 4 days early in 2006 and the land grab had already happened! Then, I recalled, after everyone had gotten the artistic message, I’d have 6-20 miles of ribbon and metal stakes to clean up. Feh. And I’m sure that at least 1/4 of the attendees wouldn’t fully appreciate those educational first frustrating hours I caused them, driving around looking for a place to camp and then finally giving in and camping on “someone elses” marked off area. (of course, the whole purpose of the project is to generate that feeling of discomfort so they can understand it better)

So, I decided to dump the project and get rid of my ribbon supply. You may have seen me in front of my garage, or at Really Really Free Market or just walking the streets of San Francisco asking… pleading you to take a roll of ribbon. “Buy one for free, get one for free!” “Take 2! They’re small!” “The holidays are coming up!” “Take my ribbon, please!”

Giving away ribbon has been fun but it’s going waay too slow. I think I’ve given away maybe 50 rolls but I’ve still got another 100.

Want some ribbon?

I’m going to list it on the Burning Man Artists Announce mailing list today. Maybe someone has a need for a few miles of ribbon.

I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind yesterday.

I enjoyed it very much.

If you got a message from your future self telling you that you were doing it all wrong, would you change what you were doing? I suppose it’s true that most people wouldn’t.

I just caught this on Netlflix intant view.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster: The Side Effects of Being American

a fantastic documentary about steroid use in sports and America’s mixed messages about it. The film was very well made. Chris Bell used the facts to show the crazy split personality Americans have about steroids.