Lee.org

Orisinal

Very fun. Very cute. Kid friendly. I like em too.

Except for that “shoo the penguins with the ice cube gun to save them” game. It feels way too much like Duck Hunt.

I recently got one of those “forward this to all your friends” emails. It offended me so much that I wrote a response and sent it to all 100 or so people I found in the Forwarded by… list.

First the letter, and then my response.
Continue reading ‘Ben Stein, Anne Graham and Fear Mongering’ »

Firefox has a gazillion keyboard shortcuts.

Here are the ones I use (or want to remember to use…)

Quick Search – Right-click on any input box (IE: the search bar on my blog). You’ll see “Add a keyword for this search”. You can make it so that searching my blog for fun is as easy as typing the following into the Firefix address bar “l fun”

My searches are:
g – google.com
l – lee.org/blog
w – wikipedia.org

Alt-D – jump to the address bar

/ – find ( ‘ and ctrl-f are other types of find commands)

Here’s way more keyboard shortcuts

I’m thinking of doing Improv classes at BATS Improv Theater :-)

There’s a “Foundation I” class running every Sunday from April 23rd to May 28th.

Last week I caught a “Double Feature” long-form improv show at BATS and quite enjoyed it. I’ve always (I remember wanting to very badly in college) wanted to try improv.

:-)

Rancho San Antonio County Park is 10 minutes from my office in Cupertino and it’s a great electric model aviation field. And since it’s not someone’s official field, I don’t need no stinking AMA membership.

I’m starting to think about model aviation again. It’s been a long while. I had promised Ma’at that I’d get her in the air at Burning Man 2006. It still seems like a great challenge. There are two big challenges I can think of. First, finding the right plane to put her on. The Trick 1000 didn’t work very well for a few reasons. The second challenge is safety. I want to fly her over the heads of Burners at night. What I want to do is put her on a platform that can (in a worst case scenario) hit a person and have it not hurt. I’ve been hit by my Zagi a few times and the EPP foam and rear-mounted motor made the strike a non-issue. I think it’s possible to make a crash-safe plane but it’s going to take some effort to get such a plane to be able to carry the 12 oz payload of Ma’at and her batteries.

My apartment is strewn with playa-dusty airplane parts as I begin to get things together. While I was looking online for some answers to my questions, I ran across an inspiring video. Give it a view and then tell me flying isn’t uplifting and beautiful.

(Article with video link)
(Video link), Mark Leseberg at Tucson Shootout 2003.

(local version) (26megabytes)

On Friday I met Andrew Schinasi and his girlfriend at lunch in Boogaloos. He’s a jazz saxophonist from Montreal. It was cool meeting them and talking about a panoply of political subjects. If we could only stay on one subject, we might change the world.

I bought his VERY recently produced (IE, earlier in the day) “Andrew Schinasi Compilation 2001-2006” and I’ve got to say that I’m pretty impressed. I’m usually not much of a jazz fan but it’s really good.

It’s all good, I tell you.

I saw mention of Rainbow Grocery on Yelp. I thought, “oh that’s nice, another snazzy grocery store.” Boy was I wrong.

Their cheese shop is quite formidable. I think I counted 4 wild-picked mushroom varieties and at least another 5 varieties present! Their spices and bulk food sections are exceptional. It is crunchy-granola heaven. And, they have a huge variety of exciting specialty foods.

But most important of all, they have a tap stuck out of a 55 gallon drum of Vermont Grade B Maple Syrup! And while Charlotte gave me a tremendous gift by finding and bringing Trader Joes Maple Syrup all the way from Boston, this…. THIS is the stuff! I just compared them head to head and all it takes is a glance to tell the difference. The Coomb’s syrup is darker, thicker and has a richer smell. And the taste… now I’ll say that Trader Joe’s makes a fine syrup. It really is. In fact, it’s probably what more people would prefer. But this is maple syrup that tastes like driving past a sugar house in early spring with the billowing steam that you’d say looks dangerous until you roll your window down and then the smell encompasses you like a jet plane diving into a cloudbank. It’s like living in another, infinitely more delicate world for a million years in a second. It brings to mind the colors of the ground during mud season when the melting snow, recently uncovered grass and previously frozen dirt turn into a slippery, boot-sucking menace with deep scars where vehicles foolishly tried to cross from the driveway to the relative safety of black-top.

Good maple syrup makes me so happy. Thank you Charlotte. Thank you Rainbow Grocery. Thank you Coomb’s Family of Brattleboro Vermont!

Those who run from suffering run right into it.
~ a Buddist saying heard on an Audio Dharma talk by Gil Fronsdal