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Thumbs down on this book.

I got about 1/2 way through listening to the unabridged “Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)”. I couldn’t finish it. Not enough science, too angry, too snarky, too jerk-like, too monochromatic, too… a lot of things. And the reader amplified those emotions.

Here is my simplified version of the book:

You’ve seen this a million times before: some jerk cuts you off on a highway on-ramp at 5:30 on a Friday afternoon, you speed up to see who this moron could be and he waves apologetically at you! What could this doo-doo head possibly he possibly be thinking? There was a study about this. It said that most people on the highway aren’t really jerks. But let’s get back to this idiot who cut you off.

I kept thinking it would get better, that the author would dive more into the ample quantity of interesting studies he’s read, that he’d bridge together ideas from across the story-arc. That he’d propose some ideas that didn’t sound like they came from some white-knuckled, road-raged jerk. But that didn’t happen.

1.5 out of 5 stars. (0.5 stars for choosing a good topic)

That’s Rodin’s Gates of Hell at a garden museum at Stanford. I went there last Friday before going to SubZero. You can see The Thinker up top. Yes THAT “The Thinker”. He was originally designed to sit atop this piece so that be could ponder the sorry souls that were going through the gates.

The piece is astounding. I would say “simply Astounding” but there is nothing simple about it.

And that’s Adam and Eve standing beside the gates. Interestingly, The cowering Adam is the piece in this garden of naked people with the most fully formed junk. All the others have “tastefully” partially formed naughty bits.

Pertaining to “Art”…

Aesthetic is perception.

Perception is history.

History is stereotype.

Stereotype is a box.

I imagine the front of the t-shirt looking like the above image.

And of course the back of the t-shirt reads “Think outside the box”

– Marnia Johnston and I came up with this when considering the possible criterion for an art competition we’d be curating. We knew we needed an “aesthetic” criterion. Our discussion took us down this dark avenue.

“You need to have Jules Verne before you can have the submarine.”

Massively Multiplayer Thumb Wrestling.

• @rrmutt don’t read youtube comments. Just don’t. Ever. in reply to rrmutt #

I’ve been doing all manner of odd jobs recently.

• Due to the idiotic Swine Flu idiotic panic, Malcolm X Elementary School in Berkeley was closed for a few days. I babysat for Erin for a couple days.
• I’m still working on the T. Pen idea. After a week, the first beta customer is very happy with it. :-)
• I submitted a proposal to the San Francisco Unified School District with Noisebridge to teach an after school program. That might manifest in the fall.
• I’ve been making a little money on my Mozy referrals and Google adwords.
• I’ll be teaching a mechanical sculpture class at the Crucible in June.
• I’ve been working part-time for  Charlotte’s company, fixing computers and such. I logged many hours saving her computer this week
• I’m going to be working a trade show on commission with Charlotte soon.

I need a real job….

In other news…

• A problem and solution I had with  Sporatic bad LCD initilization in 4-bit mode of an Arduino and LCD is going to be turned into a code change in the main Arduino library.
• SWARM performed at the Google IO Developer Conference and we’ll be at Maker Faire, SubZER01 and Robogames. :-)

Do you want to know the secret to search engine optimization (SEO)?

Create useful, unique content.

That’s it.

There is no more to it.

Now stop reading.

And start clicking my ads!

Muhahah!

You are still reading!

I have teh google juice and I control your mind!

Now click! Click for all time!

Update 6-18-15: After several years of running Google Ads, they have pretty much stopped generating revenue so I removed them. Say “La vee”!

Doing:

* Sunday & Monday: repairing SWARM orbs for Google IO, finishing sound design, shelling etc.

* Tuesday: Charlotte’s office hard drive failed. Spent the afternoon and evening recovering

* Wednesday: More hard drive recovery, finished sound design for Orbs. Performed at Google IO with SWARM! (you couldn’t hear the music over the DJ :-(((((((((((((((((   )

* Thursday: Attended Google IO, priced out computer for Charlotte’s office, attended Professional VFX Compositing With Adobe After Effects class at Crucible, sat in on German class at Noisebridge with Charlotte for a few minutes

* Friday: more computer help for Charlotte, working on lesson plan for a Crucible class I’m teaching, tidying hundreds of loose-ends emails

The class I’m teaching at the Crucible:

Youth Extreme Gizmos

Learn kinetic techniques to design, engineer, and construct a mechanical sculpture, contraption, or gadget with lights and moving parts. Using new and salvaged components, you will learn how motors, lights, and switches work, how to create mechanical structures, how to create different types of motion, and how to incorporate switches to operate your very own fantastical contraption!  

8-12 year olds, June 15-19 2009

Cost: $235.00 (Tuition: $180.00, Materials: $55.00), Members: $217.00

Youth Radical Robots

[KIN15-Y]

Build a simple remote-controlled robot . From the wheels up, you’ll create your robot’s shape and personality from salvaged components, mechanisms, and electrical components. You’ll also learn soldering, mechanical construction techniques, and how to remove and repurpose these items. Each student will receive a kit of motors, wheels, and a remote control toy.  

June 15-19 2009

Cost: $295.00 (Tuition: $220.00, Materials: $75.00), Members: $273.00

As part of a dumb class action lawsuit, I received a 1 month 3-DVD-at-a-time subscription to Netflix at no cost to me. I’m sure the lawyers were richly compensated. See section 1.2 of “Amended Settlement Agreement” below for the specifics of the lawsuit.

(Frank Chavez v. Netflix, Inc. Class Action, San Francisco Superior Court, Case No. CGC-04-434884, local copy of  Amended Long Form Notice of Class Action and Proposed Settlement, local copy of Amended Settlement Agreement.)

These are still on my list… didn’t have time to have them mailed to me:
The King of Kong
Robot Monster
Superbad
S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale
Waking Life
 

So here’s what I rented in 30 days… (reviews to come eventually!)

The Omega Man
Failure to Launch
Sideways
The Bucket List
Strange Culture
The Departed
Crash
Psychos in Love
Children of Men
X-Men 3: The Last Stand
A Scanner Darkly
The Illusionist
X2: X-Men United
National Treasure
Solaris
Stranger than Fiction
Sin City