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Here’s an hour-long track of good Christmas music by artists like Paul Simon, Natalie Merchant and others!

All Songs Considered Holiday Music Special 2011

Share and enjoy!

A friend asked the Lazyweb for help with Samsung Galaxy phone vs iPhone. Here’s my response:

I’m very happy with my Android Samsung Galaxy S. I’ve had it for almost a year now. My last phone was an iPhone 3G. My Samsung had a short battery life so I got a backpack battery for it; it’s a bit large but now no battery problems.

It took a while to get used to the Android. Some of the apps it came with aren’t as good as the stock iPhone apps. IE the calculator app. But there are free and cheap calculator apps that kick the iphone’s calculating ass.
More deets: http://lee.org/blog/?s=android

My vmail and email now belong to the Google, and I like it better than Steve owning them.

Android runs Flash in the browser. And it works great. That says just as many bad things about Apple as good things about Android.

I didn’t root my phone and I don’t feel I need to. There is just 1 tiny thing I would change if I were to go to the trouble of rooting the phone.

Your next phone should be an Android.

PS.
Oh but I have to say, the iphone 4’s High Dynamic Range camera takes pretty effing awesome pictures.

I saw this bumper sticker in Bernal Heights the other week.

“Don’t pay your credit cards till all our troops come home!”

Here is a terrific video piece about the art scene that I hang in.

The Art of Doing it Yourself by KQED Television

The Art of Doing it Yourself  airs Friday, December 16, 2011 at approximately 11pm, as part of the  PBS Arts Fall Festival.

It’s almost time for the 12 days of Christmath. Here’s a warmup. If you get this joke, you’ll love this video
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An infinite crowd of mathematicians enters a bar. The first one orders a pint, the second one a half pint, the third one a quarter pint…
“I understand”, says the bartender – and pours two pints.
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(via)

Over the summer I went to a sourdough bread workshop at 18 Reasons Josey Baker. I love to eat sourdough more than I like to make it. He put on a good workshop and I picked up a thing or two.

Here’s the sheet he handed out:

I’m teaching “BeetleBots Zooming Everywhere!” at Workshop Weekend, Dec. 10-11 in Oakland! Come learn, make, or build something new. Use my coupon code BEETLEBOT2011 to get 10% off tuition. Register online at http://whatwillyoulearn.com/catalog

There’s a lot more classes running at the event, check it out.
I hope to see you there!

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Here’s the full class description of my class

BeetleBots Zooming Everywhere!

This workshop is best for 9-15 year olds.

In just two hours we’ll take some motors and switches and turn them into living, scampering, skittering BeetleBots! It’s a robot that zooms around your kitchen floor in the cutest/creepiest(?) way you’ve ever seen!

When you’re done, you’ll know how to build more of these little guys (did I just say Holiday Project with family?)

This relatively easy robot project gives great food for thought on the nature of artificial intelligence, robotic mobility and… nah, they’re just awesome to play with!

If you don’t have these skills already, you’ll learn how to use a soldering iron and hot glue gun. But the magic isn’t in the legerdemain, it’s in how we put these little guys together and make them go!

Instructor Lee Sonko
Tuition $20
Lab Fees $7

I have to thank Cindy for getting me two tickets to the Glide Church Holiday Jam. Thursday night I took Allison to this event at the Warfield. It’s so easy to forget how music lifts the soul. The Glide Ensemble, Tom Johnston from the Doobie Brothers sang Listen to the Music and other amazing songs, Sheila E and her dad Pete Escovedo played several numbers, Maze Daiko rocked, and the greatest cover band I ever heard POPLYFE played (I suspect they won’t be a cover band for long! the father of the lead singer sat in front of us, he described how noone in the band is over 16. Correction! They have original songs, at the show, they did some AMAZING covers), Valerie Simpson (from the huge writing duo of Ashford and Simpson) sang “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing”, wow.

The food before during and after was great. The hors d’oeuvres after kicked ass, and the company was terrific.

I just got a giant 65 watt compact fluorescent to fend off Seasonal Affective Disorder. So far, so good.

The light has good color rendition and it’s bright as all get out. I’ve still got to find a good way to mount it. A local video store uses these lights in their shop, their lights are labelled “Bright Effects 65 Watt Soft White CFL”, and they got them from Lowes. I went to Lowes and (apparently) they’ve been rebranded as “Utilitech 2600 Series 65 Watt Soft White CFL product 0046931”.

Right now it’s mounted near my computer monitor, so I might just start getting a suntan as I geek. I’ll figure out a less obtrusive mounting method. Charlotte told me about a study where people successfully received light therapy on the backs of their legs, so I shouldn’t need to put the light on my face.

The light in action. Notice how everything else is freaking black? My camera couldn’t handle how bright it was!

I’ll be travelling to Boston Jan 11-16 for some R&R with friends before my next big school semester starts up. If you want to spend some time with me, give me a buzz.