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I just started a job in Berkeley and I’d like to get my teeth cleaned et all. Do you have any recommendations for a good dentist?

Check it out!
They are accepting applications for Makers til August 31st :-)

I like the idea of this event because the San Mateo event is just so crazy overwhelming big.

I got to see Jonathan Richman (of Modern Lovers et all musical immortality fame!) at (of all places!) Lost Weekend Video. Went with Charlotte. About 300 people packed into the video store! First thing was they they started playing the movie There’s Something About Mary. Charlotte and I wondered, a little disappointedly, if we’d have to wait until the end of the movie to hear Jonathan Richman play. But just 30 seconds in, a bold voice shouted “Ok, stop it right there!” Jonathan gave commentary throughout several parts of the movie, it was awesome! If you don’t recall, he did the music in the movie and had a few greek chorus singing cameos.

Initially we walked up to the video store and the line to get in went up Valencia and around the corner! We thought we’d never get in so we meandered around for a while. We finally committed, saying that we’d likely not get in. It turns out that we were the LAST people allowed in… which put us right at the front door… FRONT ROW SEATS :-).

I got this email today. NBC doesn’t want people downloading SNL.

From: complaintresponse@abuse-att.net

Dear LEE SONKO:

We recently received the attached notice from NBC Universal claiming that your Internet account may have been used for copyright infringement. Specifically, NBC Universal claims that your account was used to reproduce and/or distribute copyrighted content without authorization to other users of an Internet-based file-sharing network. We are forwarding this notice at the request of NBC Universal — please see the enclosed document.
Continue reading ‘Saturday Night Live is Protected by Internet Gremlins’ »

Liam and Rich tag-teamed the week-long Electronic Controlled Flame Effects class last week at The Crucible. They both said it went really well. I was originally going to teach it but I just started my job with Earthmine and was travelling for work.

Rich was disappointed that there wasn’t enough time to teach all the students everything they needed to know with Arduino and electronics. That’s always the case! Learning takes time. But there was fire! Liam opened the class on the first day with a poofer demo and in all they built 13 Poofers and some sequencing with multiplex poofers.

Surprisingly,    only 1 of the 5 students came to build something for Burning Man. Almost as exciting was that 1  student came from Texas specifically to take this class, “We don’t have anything like this back home.”

No, no they don’t :-)

Had a crepe formage 2 blocks from Notre Dame :-)

Notre Dame is pretty awesome. The structure totally rivals the Taj Mahal! And in my opinion surpasses it… But that’s just me.

Went in to the cathedral at about 11:30pm following a procession in the doors. The Virgin Mary and son had left at about 10:30 with a grande accompaniment celebrating the Feast of the Assumption. I looked at the holiday’s calendar and darn if I didn’t miss Gregoran chanting at the cathedral by just a few hours! I saw that the confessionals have glass “cones of silence” around the traditional tiny wooden rooms; pretty funny

Had an anduillette AAAAA for lunch. When I picked it with my patented menu order randomizing system our local coworker cautioned me “be careful with that”. Sounds like a dare, right? What other food based on a dare do you know about? That’s right, Scottish Haggis! The anduillette was umm.. err.. Ok, it was pretty gross but I’m glad I tried it. It’s a sausage made with intestines, not just the casing but the whole thing. When I cut open this unassuming sausage, it looked like it had lots of rolls of.. I don’t know.. maybe little rolls of soggy paper. Not so bad. But it smelled like… when I held it to my nose, Arnaud immediately said “It tastes better than it smells, like cheese.” he was somewhat correct: as long as I didn’t use my nose, I couldn’t smell the stench of death and entrails bundled on my plate. It smelled awful. It had the texture of soggy rolled up postit notes and had almost no flavor (barring the stench). I felt it appropriate to try and get used to it. Well, it’s been 10 hours since that meal and my stomach and mind still haven’t gotten used to it. :-(

During lunch it rained really hard. I watched and smelled it… Being in San Francisco so long, I miss the occasional “real” rains you get in Boston, New Jersey and Florida.

Saw a guy jump a 5′ tall turnstile on the Metro. The thing was designed to be very hard to jump. He did it with ease, it was pretty amazing. I might have told the station attendant who was 5′ away but there’s that language barrier…

French TV is much like US… channel surfing I found:
a modern drama with a good guy vampire
a cartoon that looks Ren and Stimy-ish but the story was stupid and the French speaking actors all had horribly American accents
several mediocre pop music bands (I’m guessing it’s easier to hear sloppy music when you don’t speak the language)
Some pretty darn good rap, though culturally different from American rap (possibly a plus)
French World Series of Poker,
A sitcom that was waaay more sit than com
A nice cultural food program with goat cheese making, salt harvesting, honey gathering, dessert making and all things French.

Croque Madame in a Parisian restaurant on Place d’Italia. One of our party had a whole burger’s worth of steak tartar! He says it’s fresh enough in Paris.

Eiffel tower! (I’ve got a better photo on my real camera) Did you know that it twinkles on the hour for 5 minutes. Aparently I was there for 2 hours… 3 twinklings.

For the new job.

I’ll be back Monday.

Phew!

Ok, this is an unusually frank post. The title pretty much speaks for itself. Put the word out. Ask that dear friend of yours if you think we might get along nicely. Don’t be shy, life is short!

This is somewhat obligatory.

local version: