Lee.org

Computer running slow. Virus? New Android drivers? Jury is still out.
New girlfriend maybe not girlfriend.
Fancy Android phone still a PITA… though getting better.
Boss yelled (yes, yelled) at me for no good reason.
Feeling very ungrounded.

I’ve still got my friends though.

This is a followup to my first and second posts: Nonyx Nail Gel and Nonyx Nail Gel: Part 2. It’s gotten so many comments that it’s hard to sort through these older posts.

Please make followup comments here.

And don’t forget to read the original post and other related posts including Fungal Nail Infection Treatment and Zetaclear.

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There are many discussions about nail fungus going on on my blog. Search my blog for the word “fungus” for more.

Let it be known that on this day and hour, one D-Nice Hill has registered with the Emoticon Registration Authority a new, novel and unique emoticon design. It has been certified to pass each of the tests of this authority and is hereby granted status of “awesome”.

The meaning of this emoticon as registered in this office is:

Rock on

The emoticon appears below

\oo/ x_x \oo/

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My friend Sara has started Secular Schoolhouse, a blog and resource for non-religious homeschooling. It’s also on the Facebook. Rock on!

Update 1-27-12: You don’t need to call them every 5 years any more. They have made it a permanent registry.

Every 5 years you should go to donotcall.gov to re-register your phone number on the Do Not Call list. This will keep away most telemarketers. It takes 5 minutes and will save you countless dinnertime telephone frustrations.

I’m travelling to Honolulu Hawaii in February and I’ll have a spare day. What should I see?

I hear the Pearl Harbor Memorial is powerful. What can I do that will honor the Brady Bunch Hawaii Vacation double episode? What else?

Schuyler’s Kickstarter project is running! Friends, family and even some total strangers have helped Schuyler start his blacksmithing portfolio!

“With your help, smithing will become my full time job next semester. And the portfolio that you have helped me build will be the key to my success after the Kickstarter funding has run out.”

Awesome!

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ABOUT THIS PROJECT

This project really consists of twelve smaller pieces that will all be displayed together in my portfolio. I want to make a wide variety of pieces that will show off all my skills as a blacksmith, while helping me improve old skills and learn new ones.

The first three projects I have planned all go together. They are a fireplace grate, set of tools, and screen that all coordinate. The grate will be a bowl shape, and be made of branches shooting out of the base and twisting around each other, with lots of forged leaves for detail. The tool set will have similar branches for the handles, and the screen will follow the motif with more forged leaves.

I will also be making a hanging wall garden, a Damascus steel knife, a set of table legs, and two abstract sculptures. The final project I hope to be something quite grand, and I have a few ideas. However, it will be the privilege of my backers to help me decide what to make in the end.

The money I raise with Kickstarter will go towards the costs of materials, transportation to and from the shop, and room and board for the duration of the project.

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PLEDGE $1 OR MORE
For $1, you will receive a card describing a cool fact about steel (a piece of which I’ll include in your card!) and a considerable heap of my appreciation.
1 BACKER

PLEDGE $15 OR MORE
Send me $15, and I’ll send you a handmade bottle opener. Each will be numbered, and signed. Enclosed with the openers will be a cool fact about steel, and a thank you note.
28 BACKERS

PLEDGE $30 OR MORE
If you’re generous enough to send me $30, I’ll be happy to screen print you a t-shirt bearing my anvil logo. The shirts are black American Apparel, and the graphic is a white circle centered on the chest, defining an anvil in its middle. Each of these will be slightly different, so get lots!
10 BACKERS

PLEDGE $150 OR MORE
This is a big one: for $150, I will personally make you a knife. Like the bottle openers, they will be numbered and signed, and like all rewards, will include a thank you note.
10 BACKERS

PLEDGE $2,000 OR MORE
Thank you so much for deciding to contribute such a substantial amount! In return, I would like to make you a replica of any piece out of this portfolio project. The piece you choose will be sent with a t-shirt and a more sincere thank you note than you have ever read in your life.

If we’re going to live in a world with rules, here’s one rule I can live with.

Every time I go a relative’s house, I see my family subject themselves to insanely loud TV ads. It’s like out of Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron. Every few minutes a television somewhere in the house starts blaring. TVs are on all day and night in every room of the house, even the 10 year old’s room. So for their sake, I welcome this new law:

(via)
President Barack Obama today signed into law S.2847, the Commercial Advertising Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, which forbids television ads from playing at a volume noticeably louder than the programs during which they air.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse says, “With the signing of the CALM Act, the top consumer complaint to the Federal Communications Commission for over a half century is now addressed…

Households across the country will now get the relief they deserve from the annoyance of blaringly loud television commercials. Consumers will no longer need to dive for the ‘mute’ button during commercial breaks,” she said. “My simple, two-page bill reduces the volume of television commercials, allowing them to be no louder than regular programming. It gives the control of sound back to the consumer, where it belongs. While this small bill doesn’t solve the many challenges facing our country, it is a commonsense solution for a national nuisance.”

S.2847 was signed into law December 15th 2010.

Some interesting tidbits about my recent trip to Saudi Arabia

One of the first conversations I had with my hosts on the way from the airport was about water. Riyadh is a city in a desert, all the water that runs the city is desalinated and piped from the coast, some 200 miles away! Actually, that isn’t too different from Los Angeles, pumping water from central California. So we talked about the California water wars for a bit.

Our host talked about how he thought he heard that one family now controlled most of the water in California. I described how it’s actually a story of how Eaton and Mullholland, employees of the city of LA stole water rights from Owens valley ranchers.

Several more times on my trip I saw how families are culturally and legally important but municipalities and corporations per say are not. This is a pervasive difference in how business and life is conducted in Riyadh. Every large institution in the city is sponsored by a family. Virtually every road in the city is named after a person. I heard phrases like “controlled by the xxxx family” many times. And I never heard about any Saudi company. Municipal laws are also very low on their priority list. The reason, as far as I can see, that they act civilly to one another isn’t because of a desire to obey laws like in the US, it’s that they want to keep the honor of their family. Taken to extreme, the King of Saudi Arabia could “legally” order me killed for no apparent reason and the people would go with it but he doesn’t because it wouldn’t reflect well on his family and people. The resulting society works similarly, but for different reasons!

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Our hosts took us to an Indian restaurant in Riyadh. On the wall next to our table there was this rather nice piece of art  in the shape of India. But something looked odd about the map. The outline of India looked different from any map of the country I’ve ever seen. I know that there are disputed territories to the north and east of India. In this map, those territories are not disputed but a part of the country, and then some. We discussed it for a few minutes and our hosts’ opinion of those territories matched the map, not my Nightly News / Google Maps view. I thought it wise not to ask too many questions to show my ignorant American imperial thoughts on the matter.

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Our host asked about a new law that he heard was going to be enacted in the US this week where internet censorship was going to be possible by the government. There was, in fact some rumination in the US news about such bills in the US, it was certainly no where near becoming law. Saudi Arabia has some internet restrictions; I took a minute of suring and noticed that sex sites were blocked, but politics was wide open. I figured it best not to try too many sites since my surfing was obviously being monitored by someone. I can understand how Saudis’ would discuss their news in terms of how the rest of the world is coming in line with their norms. Our news does the same.

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We had a fantastic Saudi Ararabian dinner, which is characterized in part by an amazing abundance of food. Our meal for 4 could have easily fed 8-10. I ordered a glass of goat buttermilk and I got a 20 ounce bowl. There were like 4 chickens and 8 large pieces of goat sitting on a round family-style tray of rice. The bed of rice was  4 inch high and 2 feet across! Everything was absolutely terrific (though it was crazy weird and messy to eat all of this in the native style – with our hands!)

Over another meal, our host’s friend told us with a wry smile how the Saudi Arabian style meal, with it’s immodest portions, was against Islam. Of course I didn’t know how to respond since I was caught between complimenting our host for an excellent meal and offending Islam. But its hugely interesting to see their conscious acknowledgement of such common contradictions.

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If you ask a Saudi a question, he’ll probably first respond nodding saying, “Yes, of course.” And then tell you how they disagree with you, but they’ll do it very very gracefully such that you can’t tell if they are disagreeing or not. The “Yes” part was that they understood the question. And the passive-agressive part is him not wanting to openly disagree with you. It is very odd hearing this the first time!

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Street signs and such in Riyadh have a dramatically different feel than other places. I saw virtually no graffiti (maybe none at all, I don’t read Arabic). Every single building is tastefully modest. Business signage is all tastefully modest. Business storefronts are all tastefully modest. Residential and commercial architecture is all tastefully modest. The most interesting buildings were the oldest ones since they used different building techniques and styles. For example, the Saudi Arabian restaurant was totally cool with it’s straw, clay and stick construction. Why is their entire city so modest? Simple: modesty is a powerful Islamic virtue.
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I noticed that there is tremendous construction going on all over Riyadh. It honestly appears that the capacity of the city will almost double in another 5 years. I mentioned the construction to two people and they both said that Saudis don’t want to invest in the west because it “isn’t safe”. Then each immediately, and in a clear but beat-around-the-bush manner clarified that “safe” means that they don’t want their money to mingle with any support for Israel. They really hate the Israelis.

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I saw that gas at the pump was 0.50 Riyals / liter…. about $0.50/gallon! Wow, how much does it cost to transport gas across the ocean and how much is pure profit? Gas in San Francisco is $3.80 / gallon. Update: I hear that Saudi gasoline at the pump is subsidized as a service to their people.

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I always thought that a raw food diet was a bit extreme. But I wasn’t sure if I should admire such people for it or not. Now I know.

According to a study in the Annals of Nutrition & Metabolism 1999;43:69-79 (DOI: 10.1159/000012770),

“About 30% of the women under 45 years of age had partial to complete amenorrhea (halting of menstruation); subjects eating high amounts of raw food (> 90%) were affected more frequently than moderate raw food dieters.”

If you don’t menstruate, you can’t have babies. If you can’t have babies, you can’t reproduce. If you can’t reproduce, your family line ends.

Cooking = good.

via: I heard this correlation in an NPR story and started google scholaring it.