The coldest winter I ever spent
Archive for the ‘General’ Category.
Huge science news today!
Gravitational Waves Discovered from Colliding Black Holes
The LIGO experiment has confirmed Albert Einstein’s prediction of ripples in spacetime and promises to open a new era of astrophysics.
How big is this news?
We all know about sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Well, humanity literally just got a new sense!
OK Go continue to be musical and performance heroes of mine. They just put out a new video that has me soaring. Watch it and share the joy!
I hear it’s only on Facebook so here’s the link:
https://www.facebook.com/okgo/videos/10153210535420683/
Bees? Bees!
I found this on “the internets”. Wish I knew the author.
short form: My wife and I are very happy with the custom made ring made by Edward’s Jewelry and Imports in San Francisco. I spoke with Jean Paul Tchamourlian there. I showed them some photos and talked about what I wanted and they made it for me! We got exactly the ring we wanted for about the same price as a ring made on spec! I got the sapphire from Andrew at Gemfix.com, a cutter in San Diego. The stone is magically beautiful. Seriously.
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Long form (it’s pretty long, all my wedding ring research!)
Jean Paul Tchamourlian
Edward’s Jewelry and Imports
Gift Center and Jewelry Mart
888 Brannan St
Showroom 160
San Francisco, CA 94103
jean-paul@edwardsjewelry888.com
415-626-9333
Jean Paul was really super great. If you go, definitely say “hello” from me, I’m sure he’ll remember me. He gave me exactly what I wanted at the best price I found. At other stores, I found many not-custom rings that were similarly priced to my custom ring.
The San Francisco Gift Center and Jewelry Mart is definitely worth browsing. There are about 5 big jewelers and 10 small jewelers in this underground mall. You need to be on the guest list to get into the place (security is tighter since it’s all jewelry stores). Just call Edwards Jewelry (or any of the others) and they’ll have a pass waiting for you at the security desk. The Gift Mart website doesn’t look like much but it’s definitely worth visiting.
I also got a Sara and Jane Wishbone Necklace in Sterling Silver for Megan so she could take her ring off and safely keep it on her neck. It totally works but it turns out that Megan doesn’t use it. There are similar ring holders online, this is is a very good one. You can search online for “wedding ring holder pendant” “charm holder pendant”
I got the sapphire wedding stone for her wedding ring from Gemfix.com. I ordered 3 stones and returned 2. As the website says, all of the gems look different from the photos. That’s the thing about gems, you can’t capture their glistening in a photo or in all the types of light. I thought I wanted one stone from the photos but when they arrived, I ended up completely falling in love with another stone. So when you look at your stones, try them in sunlight, incandescent, overcast daylight… etc… Again, see it with your own eyes before committing to it. I spent about $100 mailing gems around with insurance and it was worth it.
Inspiration for our Ring
* Show me some Van Craeynest
* Van Craeynest Facebook
* http://www.minerals.net/gemstone/sapphire_gemstone.aspx
* http://www.gia.edu/
* discussion of putting a sapphire in a VC 1020 http://www.pricescope.com/forum/colored-stones/blue-sapphire-for-engagement-ring-sos-t190755.html
Lots of articles http://www.jewelrynotes.com/, http://www.jewelry-secrets.com/
The first CAD design for our ring:
There are no official names for sapphire colors. Here is one website’s attempt at naming the colors. When asking around with these names, I got a lot of blank stares. Gemfix tries to put Pantone color names on their stones and that works better than saying “it’s more of a Camelot Blue than a Prince of Wales Blue…” heh. 
Here’s some good sapphire guides. But screw all the guides! Hold the stone in your hand and see if you love it.
* http://www.wikihow.com/Buy-Sapphire
* stones by location http://www.collectorfinejewelry.com/buyers_guide_sapphire.htm
Places to buy sapphires
* http://www.realgems.org/links.html
* http://www.thenaturalsapphirecompany.com/sapphires/c-5-blue-sapphires/ (many stones have videos which is nice)
* http://www.riogrande.com/Home
* http://www.gemfix.com/sapphire_blue.html
* http://www.ebay.com/sch/Sapphire-/10259/i.html
* http://www.africagems.com/bluesapphire.html
* https://www.hooverandstrong.com
* http://www.mastercutgems.com/
* http://www.palagems.com/home.htm (only open to the trade)
* http://www.gemrite.com/collections/gems/sapphire
* http://www.mlowejewelry.com
Gem sizing comparing millimeters to carats in round stones. (Via. This site has comparisons of lots of different shaped stones)
5mm = .46 carat
6mm = .84 carat
7mm = 1.28 carat
8mm = 2.04 carat
Styles of rings often have names, and often they don’t. I found abunch of buzzwords that helped in my search somewhat.
Antique / Vintage, filigree, Edwardian which is a subset of Victorian. Maybe Art Nouveau, Art Deco
Not: Georgian (kinda bubbly), Victorian (crowns and royalty, Edwardian, Art Nouveau and the Art Deco
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estate_jewellery#Periods_of_estate_jewellery
If you’re getting a diamond, I hear that you want to buy:
Color: I or better (D, E, F, G, H, I)
Clarity: SI2 or better
Dumb tip I learned:
White gold is usually electroplated with rhodium to make it more white. This coating wears off, which is stupid. Jewelers recommend replating it every 1-2 years. Some people get it replated on special anniversaries…
White gold can be made from nickel alloys. Caution, they might cause allergic reactions.
More Sites to shop for rings:
* http://antiqueengagementrings.com
* http://www.etsy.com
* http://www.ebay.com
* http://www.rubylane.com
* http://diamondbistro.com/
* http://loupetroop.com/
* http://www.vancraeynest.com/
* http://www.pricescope.com/
Suggestions for Bay Area local dealers and ring makers
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Phew. That’s enough talk about rings!
For the wedding plans, I’d be happy to talk to you about what we did. I’ve got spreadsheets and all kinds of things!
I made a couple posts on my blog about the wedding. Take a look. I’m happy to chat about any aspects.
http://www.lee.org/blog/?s=wedding
Another great hint: http://www.honeyfund.com/ It worked perfectly! See our honeyfund here: (http://www.lee.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/7b-Registry-Honeyfund.png)
(This was supposed to be posted in the summer of 2013 but it got stuck in my Drafts folder. Actually, I want to write many many more good things about Minnesota and tighten up the writing here but I figure it’s time to just let this post fly)
How I Spent My Summer or Life on a Northern Minnesota Island
Megan and I spent the last 2 weeks on a privately owned island with friends that may have well been family.
Located roughly between the triangle between Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, and Duluth in more ways than one, we had a tremendous vacation.
The island was formed by glaciers some twenty thousand years ago, stretching long and lean eleven hundred feet north-south and mostly 100 feet wide, but bulging out to almost 500 feet east-west at the northern proboscis.
Megan and I got in a lot of living on our trip!
I ordered eight sensible gifts from Cards Against Humanity for Abigail for Hannukkah. The gifts were AMAZING! Really. They were inspiring, thoughtful, absurd, touching… just amazing!
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Abigail isn’t Jewish, she’s a toddler! She welcomes presents from all religious and secular sources.
The first 3 nights were, of course, socks! You can’t have Hannukkah without lots of socks. Each pair came with nice, hand-written letters from dads. I don’t know whose dads but they were obviously lovingly written. Sensible as they a gift, they were unfortunately too large for Abigail’s tiny feet.
The fourth night held a Cards Against Humanity US Treasury Inflation Protected Securities Fund and a letter about the value of being thrifty! They friggin’ sent Abigail a dollar in an interest bearing account to keep safe! It’s like they were helping her open her first bank account! Yes, it’s a real dollar in a real account. The redemption information is on the back.
And here’s a photo of the tuppence bank scene in Mary Poppins for reference :-)
Here’s a snapshot of her investment portfolio. As you can see, since investing in November, her $1 has already turned into at least $1.00024645!
Then things started getting cray-cray. For the fifth night of hannukkah, they made Abigail a supporting member of NPR through WBEZ Chicago! So many firsts! So she’s like really a member of NPR now!
Next up, they gave the Chinese workers that actually print Cards Against Humanity a week of paid vacation. This might sound a bit odd but those folks live in the kind of place where they literally didn’t have a procedure for filing for vacation. The note explained how the CAH folks had to “buy” a week of nothing and then tell the workers to go home. It was accompanied by photos and thank-you cards from the people that work there. That is such a beautiful thing. There was also an awesome letter from “Josh’s dad” about the nature of gratitude. You can read more about it here.
Day Seven: This is when shit went off the rails. Stolen from their website:
We used the money for the seventh night of Hanukkah to purchase Tête de Faune, an original 1962 Picasso. The 150,000 people who subscribed to our Eight Sensible Gifts for Hanukkah now have a chance to vote: should we donate this work to the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, or should we laser-cut it into 150,000 tiny squares and send everyone their own scrap of a real Picasso?
Again, a link. As of this writing, they haven’t gotten back to us about the fate of the Picaso. It included a hand written letter from “David M.’s Dad” about the nature of culture.
Last and greatest, they made Abigail king for a day! Well, strictly speaking, she will be king for exactly 3 minutes. They bought a castle in Ireland and are letting each of the 150,000 people that bought in have their turn at ruling it! Yes, it’s a real castle. Though it’s rather modest. No hot water, no heat… not even a roof. But it is a certifiable, verifiable castle! You can read some of the proclamations of prior kings here!
Abigail’s turn at rulership be August 4th, 2016 10:06am-10:08 Central time. Look for some big changes!
Here’s a local copy of the manual for the Britax Advocate car seat. One of ours was manufactured 8-2015, the other 10-2015. We own one for each of our cars. There are good instructions and videos on how to install it on the Britax website.
Nerd alert: Here’s my latest attempt at hypermiling in our 2012 Prius C. I was stuck in 30-50 mph traffic on 880 North for a while on a trip in December. I went 11.8 miles averaging 80.4 mpg.
A friend asked me some advice on what books to get for school. Here is my school book advice:
I have thought a lot about books and tried various things. Here’s what I do these days.
I buy all the required reading at the very beginning of the semester from Amazon. I figure that I can sell it back on Amazon if I want to keep it and only lose a little bit. That strategy has worked out well… low stress and generally inexpensive. Only a few times have I been stuck with a book that has a new edition, thus devaluing my book greatly. I figure that if I am trying to save $100 by not getting a book, and that is getting in the way of a $70,000/year job, my priorities are in the wrong place!
To sell on Amazon: I generally match the lowest price and it usually sells within 2 weeks. I ship USPS “Media Mail” which is usually about $3-4 instead of $8-15 for Priority Mail. Pay for shipping online, wrap the package, then walk into the post office, CUT IN LINE, set the package on the counter and say “my package is all set. Thanks.”
After I’ve bought the book, I find a PDF version as a personal backup. I leave this on my computer, this has been very useful for me as I study during my long commute. There is some question as to the legality of having the paper book and a PDF backup but this definitely isn’t a settled matter.
See a wonderful new drone firework artform!
With all this talk about drones being scary, here is a glimpse at the future of art!
Skip to 43 seconds
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/drones-beethoven-intel-world-record_5693ae9de4b0a2b6fb70b843
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