Harry Braun for President

looky

Wow.

This guy is great… his plan for utopia based on converting everything to run off hydrogen is pretty brilliant and straight out of a comic book.

But the visual of the “windship” floating factories bobbing around in the ocean, generating hydrogen… that’s just awesome. All we need now are zepplins and sky cars and we can live the dream!
Web link of note: Harry Braun for President
(At http://www.braunforpresident.us/)

Nice DSL On That One

looky

I just saw a SBC Yahoo ad- it’s a woman wearing a very low-cut night gown, a vacant look in her eye…
She’s not even making eye contact, she’s just staring off into space with puckered lips. The words say “CLICK to learn MORE about DSL”

When DSL first came out, a bunch of us would jokingly ask each other “do you have Dick Sucking Lips?” to ask about high speed internet access, because up until that technology was offered, that phrase is what the Three Letter Acronym “DSL” meant to us.

I wonder if the advertising guys knew that phrase? Probably, even if the original marketers who coined the TLA “DSL” did not. Maybe the association is intentional to boost sales!

At any rate, it’s still pretty silly to have this woman advertising DSL… unless they mean you should be using it to download porn faster.

EyeTap

looky

“Mediated Reality”- filtering and augmenting your perception through the use of wearable computing!

Steve Mann is the guy… I can’t seem to find his 2000 book,
“Cyborg: Digital Destiny and Human Possibility in the Age of the Wearable Computer,” or the 2001 documentary,
“Cyberman.”

Steve Mann himself is a bit of a firebrand… one of his big issues is with surveillance cameras and their abuse by authority and plutocracy. He’s a professor at University of Toronto.

See also Prof. Kevin Warwick (University of Reading, UK) who implanted the chip in his arm.
Web link of note: EyeTap
(At http://www.eyetap.org/)

Rattle Ring

looky

The Rattle Ring is a two-piece tubular band of 18-karat gold with eight discrete interior compartments, each sized to hold one loose quarter-carat diamond. When the inner part of the ring is rotated against the outer part, a small square portal slides open, revealing in turn each diamond, nestled in its “house” — as one observer so aptly named the compartments. A gentle tap, and the diamonds fall onto a waiting hand or tabletop, sparkling with fire and light. Once the stones are replaced, the ring is rotated closed with a reassuring click, its precious contents safe and secure.

Silly. What is the point of a diamond ring where you can’t see the diamonds?!
Web link of note: Rattle Ring
(At http://johnreinhold.com/)

Tux rental

looky

I kinda want something with tails!

Summary: save yourself the heartache and go to Men’s Wearhouse.

Let me tell you a little story. A couple of weeks ago I wanted to get my tuxes lined up for my wedding in May.

I intended to rent tuxedoes for myself and my groomsmen… fortunately there are businesses everywhere which cater to this exact need. How hard could this be, right?

After an abortive attempt to visit random places in Oakland (the places near me were all closed on the weekends) I went to the mall; there was a Gingiss and a Gary’s Tux Shop there. First stop was Gingiss.

Gingiss had two mannequins and two teenaged girls talking to their friends on the phone. I started paging through their style book and one of them finally showed up to help. First I asked about the different kinds of tails they had available and they sort of gestured to the mannequins. I asked them how much rentals cost and they said they didn’t know and didn’t have any price lists.

So then I asked to see some of the vest colors they had and they scurried off to the back room- they didn’t have the actual vests, but they had swatches. While I waited I took a photo of the mannequin. “Oh you can’t take pictures in here sir” they told me. Okay, no catalog to take, no prices, and no photos. How about I just write you guys a blank check and you can give me some potato sacks to wear at my fucking wedding?

So, Gingiss was out. Next I went to Gary’s… which I couldn’t find at all. It wasn’t in the mall directory and not on any map. I heard it was inside Sears (just in case I wanted to buy power tools with my tuxedo) but looking directly at the formal wear section I didn’t see it. Plus, I heard a really awful story about the clerks there, so I was already not too enthusiastic about going… the mall was a bust.

Now that I thought about, it, how much would it suck to make everyone get their tux from the mall? This isn’t high school, boys and girls. So I decided to make an effort to avoid the mall.

There was a Selix in Hayward which was NOT in a mall. It was a nice big space and hada wide floor selection. I looked through their binder, and they told me about the different packages they had and the styles available. So decided, ok, this is the place.

Saturday, the day before my guys were getting together to get tuxedoes, I call Selix to see if I can come in that day to finalize my design before I drag everyone in on Sunday. I had other stuff to do that day, so of course I wait until the last minute to check…

They tell me sure, I can come and look at things, but their warehouse is closed over the weekend. So I can’t try anything on; I’ll have to wait until Monday. Waaiiiit…. so how is anyone going to try anything on? How are we going to see the styles? Too bad!

This is lame. I call around and try to find more Gary’s locations. There is supposedly one in Menlo Park, but the number gets forwarded to another one which is in a mall in San Jose. I successfully make a call to a location in Sunnyvale- they tell me they are open until 9 pm. Great!

I drive there… and there is no store there. Diane is helping me call at this point, and she calls the one in San Leandro and the one in Fremont, neither of which exist anymore. This is too stupid.

We find out that the Men’s Wearhouse now rents suits. They are closing soon, but we make an appointment to show up when they open and they tell us the deal over the phone.

When we finally got there on Sunday, they were very nice to us and very knowledgeable about their suits. I really should have gone there first!

Making rings

looky

What’s that?

Making an enamel/cloisonne wedding band is a horrible idea you say?

Well up yours, we’ll make our own rings!!!

What we ended up doing- we went to David Thorp, of WormGear Designs (in Oakland).

We brought him an Art Neuveau poster by Mucha and he hand-carved matching wedding bands in wax, then cast them into white gold. The rings are beautiful!

If you want to make your own ring, here are some of the resources I used in my own search:

Ring designs

  • Santa Fe Goldworks has the inlay effect I was looking at with cloisonne- they use stones (e.g. lapis lazuri)
  • Youngblood-Kallas does some cool effects with different finishes of gold- polished and matte
  • Keith Farley does some elegant rings, including some where two different metals meld together