Lee.org

A random person online asked me a couple questions. You all might find it interesting to read the exchange.

Jesse asks: How did you manage to get your blog into the public, I’m talking about publicity.

Lee: Do you mean to ask how I promote my blog and make it popular? I don’t do anything except post unique, useful content and make sure that google can search it. I make sure there is no comment spam as well.

Jesse: Okay so your website is unique, which is good don’t get me wrong. Before you knew there were people actually seeing things on your blog, did you ever have the feeling it was quite useless to write?

Lee: That’s actually a very good question. I decided several years ago that I wanted to keep a journal for myself. I also noticed that many of my friends would email me, asking “how are you?”. When I wrote a long reply, I could copy and paste that response for several friends. I just don’t have the time to write a very long response for each friend. So I decided that I would polish up my response and let everyone see it on my website. So now all of my friends can check in and see how I am doing at their leisure. I have to censor myself just a bit so I feel comfortable letting anyone read it, but I feel it is well worthwhile.

Additionally, I like to write in order to remember an idea or story, that way I can tell the story in person easier. It was a no-brainer for me to write the stories for my web audience, because its easier for me to write when I know I have an audience.

Additionally, I like to make notes for myself, reviewing products, reminding myself of good and bad things, and the like. I find it easier to write them if I have an audience than if I am just writing for my own benefit. Hence the reviews and such on the site. I frequently use the search engine on my site to remind me of a product that I’ve used in the past.

In that same spirit, I’ll post my email to you to my blog when I get back from my spring break!

So as you see, it doesn’t feel useless to me, it feels like a natural and helpful extension to my life!

Oh, and it feels terrific every time someone writes a comment saying that I helped them, doubly so when I help someone avoid a scam!

Went to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco when meeting M. Nuttmeg for the first time. The gallery show “Audience as Subject” was just fantastic. There is a lot of terrific art there! You should go.

Here are some of my memories of the show:

• A video of a crowd of men doing some kind of shoving/groupthink thing to some women. I don’t know exactly what was happening and I was pretty bothered by it.(One does not necessarily “like” good art!)
• A giant photograph of a rock band playing, well actually you could only barely see the band, the photo was about the 20,000 people in the audience all thrusting their attention forward. It was beautiful!
• A larger than life photo of concert-goers totally in the moment of a rock concert, screaming and sweating and loving it!
• A large screen showing (probably, it was hard to tell exactly) the running of the bulls in Pamplona with an infrared camera. The bulls were hot, the people abstracted, the masses of people looked more like flowing water than people. Completely awesome.
• Lots of people standing in a stadium, flipping cards to make giant mosaics, FUN!
• A room that, when you walk into it the lights change and the walls light up with drawings of a crowd cheering, and a soundtrack to match. It was as though we were dropped into a fighting ring, and it evoked that exciting / scary feeling that you’d think it would. AND the way the lighting was, it felt very much like M. Nuttmeg, the only other person in the room, was my opponent: very cool art!
• A 10 minute video of a soccer match… well, we never saw the match, it wasn’t about the match. It was about the audience cheering and waving flags, doing waves, gyrating and undulating like a crazed sea of humanity on the verge of exploding into violence. For much of the video, it was very uncomfortable, worrying about whether we’d be trampled if our team started to lose. But then I envied how passionate everyone was about their team. It was very intense and cool!
• A very curious and energetic 2 image piece from China

Then upstairs!

• A 2-piece suit, briefcase, shoes and Blackberry, dissected! All the parts splayed out on the wall! Curiously totally cool. It reminded me of how deceased butterflies are displayed.
• A short movie titled Dogsled, which was my favorite piece of the whole show, partially because it was this crazy mix of serious, goofy, childish, and quaint; partially for personal reasons. We see a woman driving a “dogsled team” of faux-fur covered remote controlled cars in a wooded park in Tokyo. The team is pulling the wheeled sled she is sitting on across a parking lot while it snows lightly. (Mai Yamashita & Naoto Kobayashi, Dogsled, 2008, rt: 5:23)

Two notable things: I wouldn’t normally recall everything so vividly. This show rocks. I was struck that the show didn’t involve any kind of permanent collection. This show stands on its own, firmly on it’s own merits. Hats off to the curator! Oh, and it was just seven bucks to get in, crazy inexpensive for such a great day.

This is a simply stunning show. You should go.

The Workshop Weekend guys have a really impressive lineup at Tech Liminal on March 17 & 18. And they’re trying out a Convention pricing model… $30 gets you into any and all of the classes (a lot of classes have materials fees, but hey, that’s stuff you take home)!

I’m teaching a Beetlebots class. Check it all out

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Register for Workshop Weekend by Wednesday, March 7 and get 10% off admission with discount code EARLYBIRD2012.

Join us on March 17-18 to solder, program, build, craft, make and explore. New this year, a flat $30 admission gets you as many workshops as you can handle!

Register by Wednesday, March 7 and get 10% off admission with discount code EARLYBIRD2012. Select your workshops at https://whatwillyoulearn.com/catalog

We have 25 workshops to choose from at this Workshop Weekend:

Arduino for Newbies: Build an Arduino TV-B-Gone
Programming the Arduino for Fun and Profit (but just fun)
Make a Bug-in-a-Book: Clandestine Listening Devices
Exploring DNA Sequencing
Soap-making
Natural Bath Salts
Learn to Knit: Cowls
Geeky Cross Stitch
Scrapcycling: Recycling Old Fabrics into New Clothes
Millefiori Jewelry Making
Origami Photo Album-making
Electroluminescent Wire Workshop
Stop Motion Animation: Story
Stop Motion Animation: Characters
Learn to Program
PHP Web Development
Build a Camping Stove
MacGyverClass
Building Robots
Build a BeetleBot
Learn Lockpicking
Sewing Circuits
Learn to Solder
Obamacare: About America’s Healthcare System
Smart Aquaponics
Register and select workshops online at https://whatwillyoulearn.com/catalog

I hope we’ll see you in just a few weeks!

Best,
J.D. & Gil
Workshop Weekend

I think I aced my first Chem 32 test today. I’m happily surprised.
I definitely aced the first Phyc 10 test tonight. :-)
I’m rather terrified about my Anat 25 test tomorrow. About 100 questions like these:

9. In receptor mediated endocytosis, coated vesicles add cell membrane receptor proteins to the endosome membrane. Pieces of the endosome membrane containing these proteins bud off. Which of the following happens to them ? (a) They are destroyed by lysosomes. (b) They add to the nuclear envelope. (c) They are returned to the plasmalemma. (d)They join the Golgi body. (e) They become peroxisom

27. During muscle contraction, which is the second event to occur in the following list? (a) troponin changes shape (b) calcium binds to troponin TnC (c) tropomyosin moves (d) myosinbinding sites on G-actin molecules are exposed (e) calcium ions released from sarcoplasmic reticulum

I used FreeTaxUSA.com to prepare my again taxes this year. It wasn’t horrible.

The Institute of Urban Homesteading in Oakland has a lot of cool courses this summer, including my Real Bread in 10 Minutes class :-)

More info and signups at IUHOakland.com

Wow. They did it. And it’s so curiously awesome. I watched for 2 minutes… and then another 2… and then another…. I could watch this the whole thing

Star Wars Uncut

This is long form Sweded moviedom.

(props)

Having a good bike is amazing. Last week, for the first time, I was able to keep up with the uphill 13.5mph green wave on Valencia… with ease!

And today I rode to CPMC Pacific Campus (where I’m doing my hospital volunteering for school and such) in 30 minutes… less time than it would have taken on the BART + shuttle bus. And it was easy.

Hurray!

And here’s a shout-out to the guys at Pedal Revolution who set me up.

I tried Fungavir for my persistent toenail fungus yuckiness. It’s “too good to be true” claims are too good to be true. The website offers vaguely worded claims that it has special ingredients that get under the nail where other products fail. It does not.

It works about as well as any other topical antifungal I’ve used, but it’s more expensive and the advertising is shadier. Don’t buy it.

I’ve written a lot over the years about anti-fungals, take a look. Short form: Most topicals keep the infection at bay but none get under the nail to the root of the problem. Prescription orals sometimes work, sometimes don’t. There’s no reliable cure for nail fungus, this is especially true for topicals. Oral medicines work from the inside-out so you’ve got a better shot at a cure but they aren’t reliable either.

Fungavir’s website is filled with weasel words and hot air. Read some of their ad copy with that in mind:

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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.

Here are some good posters to bring to your next Occupy Wall Street event

There are lots more (and the commentary that goes behind them) at http://wedontmakedemands.org/posters.php