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Travis J.I. Corcoran wrote on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 3:53 PM:
> I still feel bad about that sandbar getting in the way [of your kite] in 1988.
>
> http://technicalvideorental.com/rental_93.html
>
> TJIC

I tell you, that was a great and useful experience for me. It was one of my first adult experiences showing that theoretical knowledge is sometimes worthless when performing a task. More dangerous is that theoretical knowledge can give you a false sense of security.

If you haven’t heard of it, Lazyweb is a cool. Check it out.

Dear Lazyweb,

Why does my Chrysler Sebring (3,400 lb, 2.4 liter V-6) get 27 MPG while an Aprilia Atlantic 500 scooter (425 lb, 0.46 liter 4 stroke) get only 45 MPG? If weight is any indication, shouldn’t it get more like 200 MPG?

I just went to pay a parking ticket and I ran into this rigged survey on San Francisco’s city web site.

You’ll notice two things. First, the “Highly Valuable” radio button is already pre-clicked for me. That was considerate of them, wasn’t it? Second, notice that two of the three options are positive. That’s like saying, “Using only the numbers 3, 7, or 10, rate our service on a scale from 1 to 10.”

Grrrr.

I got to see Miki, my Burning Man wife who weighs 23 beers today along with her boyfriend. We went to the Mexican place on the corner of 17th and Valencia. He had a fantastic quesadilla with meat and she had a crispy rolled up taco or enchilata thing; both were EXCELLENT. My salmon burrito was ok.

I went to grind some more at NIMBY. As evening rolled around, I found that a Dance Dance Immolation fundraiser party was happening that night. I called Vixen and she came by. I met another gazillion people (and it didn’t hurt for introductions being on the Colossus team!) and had a kick-butt time.

I’ve been working on Colossus the last few evenings. I’ve been grinding metal to prepare it for welding and to protect people from cutting themselves on the installation. In the image, I’m grinding the center pole down so the gussets can be firmly welded on.

In the last few days I’ve met a guy that participated in SimNuke, some of the Burning Man Thunderdome guys, a group building a giant nose-picking machine powered by a human-sized hampster wheel, some folks building a statue of Ganesh, art-car builders… phew!

Much of the time, as projects were discussed, they’d point to a far-off corner of the studio and say something like, “Those are the giant fans we used to push all the gasoline in the air before we lit it.”

Oh yeah.

There was supposed to be a Music and BBQ event just 2 blocks away from me but it got moved to 2 miles away. I was too tired from grinding all night anyway so I just got a sandwich from the shop ON MY CORNER. :-)

I’m off to a pinball party right now at Lucky Juju Pinball.

Wee!

Dear optical-wear website owners of the world,

If you are going to try and sell goggles and sunglasses on your website, please make the photos large, clear, from multiple angles, and on a human model.

How is anyone supposed to spend $30-$200 on a vanity item if they can’t tell what it looks like or if it will fit?

Last night I had a great meal with an old new friend Barry and his wife. in February I had sent out an email request, asking for people to help me consider if I should move to San Francisco. He responded but I never ended up having time to meet him. Well now I did! The both of them are pretty great. And the meal was wonderful as well!

When we were at dinner I asked, as I do most of the time if the bartender has any drinks that have umbrellas of them. In all the time that I had lived in New Jersey, not a single bar or restaurant had umbrellas. Well, the very first time that I asked for one in San Francisco, I got one! I’m in the right place.

I told you that I wasn’t going to be welding because I didn’t have enough experience. Corbett just gave me a call and I’m going to be doing some only slightly less glamorous grinding of metal tonight and tomorrow at NIMBY.

The job is going well.

Things are going well!

update 1:33pm The company is springing for a snazzy laptop for me. They love me. They really love me.

I’m sure the joy will wear off when I go somewhere on vacation and then get/have to log in and do some work in the evening. But no matter, I’m giddy with happiness. I’ve never had a good laptop.

update 11pm Grinding went very well. Great space. Great project. Great people. I’m learning too. I saw and met some good people… I’m just terrible with names… there’s the guy who happily bought me a beer from the sodabeer machine, Daniel, a couple other guys, the 2 folks building a 20′ Ganesh, Zack and Corbett and some nice guy named Larry.. we talked for a while…

Coldforged in rare form:

Coldforged on Grand Theft Auto’s sex scene.

What was little Suzie doing with a Mature labeled game anyway? This isn’t like buying Spongebob Squarepants’ Underwater Adventure and unlocking a secret “SPONGEBOB SLIPPERY SLIDING SODOMY” minigame. The GTA series is all about beating and killing cops and pedestrians, banging hookers and killing them afterward and doing essentially as many virtual illegal things as you can fit in a day. But, someone figures out there’s sex in the game and people lose their skulls.

And more…

Finally, someone is launching an investigation into that patently obscene millisecond shot of Janet Jackson’s mostly-obscured nipple during the Super Bowl. I’m so glad that someone is thinking of the irreparable harm that this brief pseudo-nudity caused.

Oh! Did anyone catch that CSI episode where the dog carries home a decapitated human head, and the dog got sick because it ate part of the head?! That was awesome!

Yeah! I saw that episode too! I remember, the killer drugged and then buried some poor sot up to his neck and tortured him all night before killing him! Frickin’ awsome!

I bought an HP Laserjet 1020 a few days ago. It sat outside my room gathering dust for a few days; I was worried. I’ve had an HP Laserjet 6MP for the last 8 years and it has performed flawlessly. Would this new printer be any good or has HP lost it. “They don’t build ’em like they used to.” This new printer looks like a toy compared to the 6MP. Heck, that’s the main reason I didn’t bring it. The 6MP weighs in at roughly 25 lbs; this new printer is barely 5, consuming 1/2 the desk space. How could it possibly print 3 times as fast at twice the resolution, printing envelopes and full size images with it’s wimpy 2 MB of RAM?

Well, it does.

The first thing that got my attention was how well planned out the setting up procedure was. From the pretty language-free notes to the amazing ease at which the toner slips into it.

• Driver software: excellent. It clearly walked me through printing double-sided… and it didn’t speak! Those speaking printers still freak me out.
• Speed: remarkable. The first text page comes out in 8 seconds, then 6 seconds per page. Full page photos come out just about as fast.
• Print quality: excellent. Not as good as a photo, or as a color photo but terribly sharp black and white. Better paper might help this.
• Envelopes: Fine. Since it doesn’t have an alternate paper path port, I worried that my envelopes would be all crinkled. It comes out only a tiny bit crinkled and the paper fully recovers after a few minutes. (better than my 6MP!)
• Footprint: tiny! When you’re not using it, you can fold up the front door and it takes up about 8″x15″x8″. Otherwise, it’s 15″x15″x8″, smaller than some inkjets.
• Aesthetic: Nice. Smooth, slightly curvy lines, respectable two-tone traditional beige and dark beige.
• Cost: A bit more than some other printers. I paid $179. Some other stores had a $30 rebate but I was lazy. Some other low-end laser printers are as cheap as $89 but buying the HP name seems to still be worth something. :-)
• Toner life and replacement cost: I think I remember reading that I’ll get 2,000 pages out of the $80 print cartridge. Probably more if I refill it.