August 2003 Archives

The Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing at Stanford has a an interesting site with videos of various manufacturing processes, billed as "How Everyday Things are Made". While the show from Harley Davidson, for example, won't help you rebuild your own bike engine, it is kind of neat to see an overview of the process. And sometime when I'm not at work ;-) I'm going to watch the one about glass, having not yet had the chance to tour a real glass factory. (It's on the list.)

[Thanks to LockerGnome for the link.]

What I want to know is why they didn't give this guy his gun license back?

You belong in The Man Who Sold The Moon. You are a
dreamer. People don't understand you your
calling, and often get in your way. Frontiers
call to you, and you will breathe your last
breath as you gaze back from a distant horizon.


Which Heinlein Book Should You Have Been A Character In?
brought to you by Quizilla

If you have to be at the dentist, getting fitted for yet another crown, you should at least be able to experience The Queens of the Stone Age "Feel-Good Hit of the Summer" whilst on gas. It doesn't make it WORTH IT, mind you, but it helps.

This is very cool: Monster Engine. Thanks to Mark for the link....

Still the best-looking car on the planet. Mine is going to be blue, though.

Responsibility at Eject! Eject! Eject! A long essay, as usual, but quite thought-provoking, also as usual. Also about as close to politics as I'm planning to get at this stage.

One of my favorite sentences from the essay:

That"s why it was called common sense...it was the Minimum Daily Requirement of intelligence and logic that one needed to survive on a daily basis. Those who didn"t have it were too stupid to live, and had been eaten by wolves or prairie dogs, depending on just how stupid they were.

Quiddler was a recent purchase from Nan's that has turned out to be a household favorite. This is a simple word game played with cards. Kind of like if scrabble was more fun.... Turns out the makers have a site that includes daily on-line solitaire versions of Quiddler and two other fun games. We've played this with 2 people and up to 5, and it's a blast. Just keep a dictionary handy for the inevitable challenges.

Lemmings!!! This looks just like I remember it... Yippee!

I got a link to this article in an industry newsletter at work. So why did the mention of Bimbo catch my eye? Because they were once a potential customer (via a chain of consultants and resellers and whatnot). Okay, so it's not really very interesting, but it's almost like seeing my company's name in print, which is kind of exciting, in a nerdlinger sort of way.

The New Diamond Age

This is a perfect story for me. It has jewels and technology. Plus a little reminiscing. (Hey, that guy's name looks familiar--oh yeah, he was an engineering prof at school! Cool.) It's all good. The only downside is the comment that already there is not full disclosure about the source of the gems all the way down the line. It only takes one untruthful agent to have a bunch of misidentified stones being sold to trusting consumers. (Along these lines is the disclosure about cherry quartz.)

So would you buy a synthetic diamond? The word synthetic has bad connotations:
4 a (1) : of, relating to, or produced by chemical or biochemical synthesis; especially : produced artificially (2) : of or relating to a synfuel b : devised, arranged, or fabricated for special situations to imitate or replace usual realities c : FACTITIOUS, BOGUS
but it doesn't necessarily mean fake. In the case of these diamonds, they really are diamonds, molecularly speaking. They are not a diamond substitute, like cz. For myself, they'd have to be a heckuva lot less expensive than mined diamonds, but the synthetic nature doesn't offend me a bit. I just think you need to know whether it was mined or created in a lab. You don't have to tell anyone else (unless you're selling it, of course) if its origin devalues it in your eyes.

Kirsten is finally done with her Bar exam, and is (in her own words, not mine!) becoming human again, so we picked right up where we left off with the Angelika foreign film plan. Bend It Like Beckham was a lot of fun--the cast was super and the story was enjoyable. Sometimes you really like a tie-it-up-with-a-nice-neat-bow kind of movie. Of course, getting back out of downtown was a whole 'nother story--nothing neat about that at all. Ugh. I think every single street is under construction.

What fun! I hosted a Bead Party yesterday. A few friends came over and we went to the Nice People show and bought some goodies, and then came back and Made Stuff. The picture is of Marianne wearing her new necklace. The stones are dyed howlite. They had two holes going the long way, and we put hammered sterling beads between the stones, and a pretty Bali silver clasp on the back. I think it came out beautifully!

I was apparently on a green kick, as everything I bought was a shade of green except for a strand of facetted amethyst. Peter (Mr. Nice People ;-) has a good selection of gemstone beads now, along with the gorgeous crystals. He also had pearls and a small but well-chosen selection of Bali silver beads and findings. This is a great one-man-show to catch if he's coming to your town. And they really are Nice People, too.

If you're in the mood for some mind-twisting, try Robert Abbott's Mazes. The java programs aren't reliable on my Mac, but some you can work on just "on paper," and presumably the java will be more functional on a pc....

I was really looking for a site for Games magazine, to find out when the Games 100 is published. (Assuming it still is, of course.) Our collection is growing, and we've had a couple of disappointments. That's inevitable when going by the blurb on the box, I suppose. Anyhow, I thought a little research probably wouldn't hurt us, although I sort of feel that the poking through the stacks of games on the shelves at Nan's is part of the fun.

There's no way around it. Going to the dentist just isn't fun. No matter how much gas they give you, no matter how nice they are, even though you get to listen to KTRU on headsets while the drilling is going on.... It's just not fun. Sigh.

With that little bit of self-pity out of the way, here's the real post. I finally remembered to share these cool links:
The Official Exhibition Calendar and WebExhibits Catalogue

Both of these are from ResearchBuzz. I've just discovered AmphetaDesk (which works a lot better on my pc at work than on my Mac at home, but I'm way too lazy to try to figure out why) which is a great way to keep up with blogs and news and stuff. Now I even occasionally find a tidbit before Mark does (but not very often).

Our week 2 photos are up! Week 2 was "Herbs and Spices." Next week is "Chess." I have a leftover idea for that, but it was all based on drawings--I'll have to figure out how to incorporate a photo....

I'm a little bit surprised at how much fun I'm having with this project. I find myself thinking about it off and on all week, coming up with ideas, imagining effects (most of which I can't pull off once I sit down with PhotoShop, but that's ok) and wondering what Louise will come up with. I keep thinking that at some point we're going to end up with similar images, but based on the first two weeks, maybe not!

I took some time today to make us each a (small) set of postcards and trading cards from our Week 1 images. I think it would be fun to do this each week. I like seeing the images in different sizes and in duplicate.