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Amar's half-hearted voting guide - California/San Francisco July 2012 Election [22 May 2012|06:29pm] I could barely muster the energy to fill out my vote by mail ballot this year. Basically voted straight democratic ticket. I contemplated leaving the senator spots blank. I'm not really endorsing Feinstein/Boxer so much as I'm repudiating the Republican Party and its ilk (Tea Party, birthers, climate change deniers, religious nuts, Fox New enthusiasts, etc. I feel like throwing up just writing that list.) Had a really hard time finding info about the statewide props. Probably cos nobody cares. I voted no on both cos better to do nothing then to do something stupid. At the city level, I just followed SPUR's July 2012 voting guide. SPUR's voting guides are pretty reliable-- it's too bad they only focus on SF. AMAR'S HALF-HEARTED VOTING GUIDE - CALIFORNIA/SAN FRANCISCO JULY 2010 ELECTION Federal Senate: Dianne Feinstein (D) Congress: Nancy Peolosi (D) State (CA) Senate: Mark Leno (D) Assembly: Tom Ammiano (D) - yay I actually quite like Tom Ammiano. Nice to see him in there. Proposition 28: reduce state legislator term limits from 14 to 12 years: NO Proposition 29: tax cigarettes to fund cancer research: NO City (SF) Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC): Nobody - I completely don't understand or care about this. Spent 30 mins googling it (worst use of time ever) and still don't get it. Best coverage I could find is this: Everybody who's anybody at City Hall running for the DCCC. Proposition A: nix Recology's exclusive waste mgmt contract w/ SF and open it up to competitive bidding: NO - My thinking changed on this-- read SPUR's analysis for details. It sounds good but it's not. Proposition B: something or other involving Coit Tower: NO Note to whoever the hell's coming up with these props: can we get a proposition to FIX MUNI? And to publicly execute whoever's in charge of the KT line? I would fund raise for that. post comment

lightning field report [11 May 2012|11:32am] walter de maria wrote an article for art forum in 1980 soon after LF was complete. i think it's the only thing he ever wrote about it. it's in a bound book in the cabin. wish i could find it online-- the precepts are below but what was most interesting was all the engineering details. (38,000 pounds of steel for 400 stainless steel rods, 5 years of searching to find the right spot, 5 months of topographic surveying to place the rods, all of them are aligned perfectly at the top (to within 1/25 inch tolerance)) i think a big part of the "art" is just the project itself-- the project management, hiring of contractors, permit wrangling, etc. etc. something in my brain just gets tickled by seeing a huge large scale engineering project come together--- involving project planning on the order of a decade, tons of external consultants, etc-- for no real purpose, other than just because. so Type-A, yet so right brain. i like christo for the same reason. 1. Facts are not the art. 2. Isolation is essential to the art. 3. The sum of the facts does not constitute the work or determine its aesthetics. 4. Part of the essential content is the ratio of people to space — small number of people, large space. 5. The land is not the setting for the work but is a part of the work. 6. Light is as important as lightning. 7. The invisible is the real. 8. Isolation is the essence of land art. the homestead cabin we stayed in was really perfect. i think it counts as part of the art too. it was built from pieces of old homestead cabins elsewhere. i liked it cos it was comfortable but absolutely functional-- no ornamentation, nothing there that didn't need to be there. it felt like everything was there for a reason, the whole thing just seemed right. like someone had really thought about it. the opposite of those horrible all-wood tahoe cabins where there's a moose head on every surface and everything is ersatz it's really in the middle of nowhere. like an hour's drive from quemado which is already BFE i wish the moon hadn't been so full that night cos i bet the milky way would've looked amazing i want to go back. post comment

What we've got here is a failure to communicate [09 May 2012|05:02pm] Amar (getting dressed, boggling at never-before-used bike shorts): hey Aliza Aliza: what Amar: hey Aliza Aliza: WHAT Amar: are bike shorts underwear? Aliza: what Amar: do you wear underwear under bike shorts? ... Aliza (confused): I don't wear bike shorts EXEUNT 1 comment|post comment

R.I.P. MCA / R.I.P. Maurice Sendak / Gutei's Finger [08 May 2012|09:39pm] MCA's death hit me more than I expected. Not like I'm sobbing or anything but I really respect the Beastie Boys and how they aged gracefully. Makes me feel quite old knowing MCA is dead. I remember in high school having my mind blown by Check Your Head. Remember, the Beastie Boys had fallen off the map at that point. They kinda disappeared after Paul's Boutique (which is hailed as a masterpiece now but at the time was a real headscratcher, to me at least.) Then suddenly they came back and they were playing their own instruments and had a completely different sound... just raw. The video for "Pass the Mic" mesmerized me. I heard them play it at Lollapalooza and it absolutely slayed. Wicked bassline & I love their weird green outfits. Trivia: I heard they purposely left in Mike D's flub 'everybody's rappin like it's a commercial / acting like life is a big commercial' just to fuck with him. Haha Also R.I.P. Maurice Sendak... always loved his comical yet menacing illustrative style. Read What Do You Say, Dear? to Izzy tonight. It's one of my fave books from when I was a kid and holds up really well. I love Sendak's bears and alligators and such that are used to illustrate points of finer etiquette... esp. since it always looks like they're about to eat the kid saying "please" or "thank you" or "beg your pardon" or whatever. "Yes thank you for being polite now get in my belly! GRAR RAAR MUNCH CRUNCH GULP" After I read a book to Izzy, our routine is that I tuck her into bed, turn off the lights and then tell her a story. Sometimes I tell her a big one but sometimes (often) I'm in a hurry, so I quickly and elliptically race through an Aesop's Fable or the boy who cried wolf or whatever else I can think of that's fast. Today I was in a super rush so I told Izzy a zen koan called "Gutei's Finger." If you need a bedtime story for your kid and wanna use this yourself, here ya go. You're welcome. Gutei's Finger Whenever anyone asked him about Zen, the great master Gutei would quietly raise one finger into the air. A boy in the village began to imitate this behavior. Whenever he heard people talking about Gutei's teachings, he would interrupt the discussion and raise his finger. Gutei heard about the boy's mischief. When he saw him in the street, he seized him and cut off his finger. The boy cried and began to run off, but Gutei called out to him. When the boy turned to look, Gutei raised his finger into the air. At that moment the boy became enlightened. 6 comments|post comment

It's not Monday it's Sunday! [25 Mar 2012|09:18am] Woke up thinking it was Monday. What a foul mood. I was running around in a panic throwing on my clothes, waking up Izzy, making coffee, trying to get my shit together. When Aliza finally pointed out it was Sunday it completely took me by surprise. Am I brain damaged? I've never mixed up Sunday and Monday before. Too much work dread perhaps. On the brain. Now I'm all Up. Maybe work on Probabilistic Graphic Models homework. That class got so hard so fast. It's basically a real college class, in that the problem sets are head scratching and I just muddle along best I can. Independencies of G satisfy independencies in P <-> P factorizes over G.... it all just seems like tautologies to me Tried watching The Muppets (new movie) last night. Gave up in disgust. I was trying to hide my usual stream of talking back to the screen criticism cos we were watching with Izzy (her first movie ever!) But even Izzy got bored. Nicole N is good at coloring. The one time she came over and colored with Izzy her page looked like a color illustration from a book. Hella in the lines. Me and Izzy just color over everything Rather than any of the movies we have on Netflix I would rather watch Flight of the Conchords season 1 again... or Ali G (british or hbo)... I remember me and Shawn and Angi and Kristen felt so ahead of the curve cos we got up on Ali G when living in London, before he blew up I don't have the impulse to write in here anymore. I try to make myself but it was never about making myself. Truthfully parenting two kids has sapped all my energy/desire in that regard. It's hard to convince myself any of this is worth saying. I do have things worth sharing but it would take too much work to share. Time is too short to justify spending it on that kind of work. I had a pretty good run though. 12 years! Not counting my zine in high school (92-95) which was basically a blog, before the internet was a thing. Will let you know if anything funny and not just 'I have a kid you had to be there' funny happens. That's the thing, parenthood is all consuming but I never had any interest in doing a 'daddy blog' or 'mommy blog' or whatnot. Cos who cares. Nobody cares about your kids except grandparents and such. Telling me about your kid is mostly like telling me about that crazy dream you had. Unless I'm sleeping w/ you I'm not interested Nick and Katie wanna go to the Lightning Field! I think it might actually happen I need to fix our closet door. That's the goal for today. Also order some tings post comment

Today's edition of "Note To Self Do Not Buy X You Think Buying X Will Make You Happy But It Won't" [16 Feb 2012|11:47am] Traditional Comics bundle ($21) GANGSTA RAP POSSE looks so rad. I'd add it to my Goodreads "to read" shelf, but it has no ISBN. (Chicken John's book didn't have one either. I asked him why and he said it cuts into his profit so why bother. You have to pay a fee, $300 or something in that range. I said "don't you want your book to be in the Library of Congress catalog?" He said libraries smell bad.) I used to believe in guilty pleasures, then for a while I adopted the philosophical stance that there's no such thing. Then I came back around to believing in guilty pleasures. Rap music is a guilty pleasure for me. GANGSTA RAP POSSE, doubly so. NIGHT BUSINESS looks captivating too, but then I wonder if I'm getting a bit too into the details of torture & gore. Too much reading about the Mexican drug war. It's crazy, snuff films used to be urban legends, but now they really exist. post comment

First day back from paternity leave blues [13 Feb 2012|10:38am] It was good spending time with Izzy. Asha too, though at this stage she doesn't really hold up her end of the conversation like Asha does. I am drifting. Life is good but I need some direction. Lesser resolutions for the year: Build a snowman with Izzy Grow something from a seed with Izzy Sidewalk stencils (w/ Dav?) Izzy was screaming about something the other day. IZZY: whine whine scream scream ME: Stop that! You catch more flies with honey than... by yelling at them. (?) Need to practice my hoary wisdom cliches cos I'm pretty sure that's not how it goes I got some Sonos wireless speakers. It's pretty exciting even though I can't play music loud that often. Getting frustrated with the limits of cloud catalogs though. A lot of early Aphex Twin stuff isn't on Spotify, or iTunes, or anywhere. (Other than YouTube that is) YouTube has the most complete catalog. I wish they'd just become a music service. You can't autoplay playlists on mobile (meaning you have to hit play for each song in the playlist). I think they purposely made it this way so you can't use YouTube as a music service. I got to put together my own Aphex Twin rarities collection. The song above will be on there. I think the technological limitations of the time were a big part of his sound. The kids today can make any kind of sound, but that means you don't get a particular sound like in AFX days. Not sure how to find the time to start writing again. I dunno. It's true, it ends not with a bang but a whimper post comment

Top ten children's books. Best purchases 2011. Letting go of fever dreams. Jokes. [06 Jan 2012|11:48am] I have to start just dumping thoughts out of my head. I need to get rid of ideas that I don't want to waste time on anymore. The only way is by tossing them up in the air. Once it's out there the fever subsides. Otherwise I get fixated on how I'm gonna write this or that and I can't stop thinking about it, even though I don't really wanna put the time into doing it and it's not a good use of time AT ALL. Here's how I should be spending my time: Installing the rear facing car seat. Such a pain in the ass with an old (pre-LATCH) vehicle. I hate mechanical tasks because I am a mechanical retard. More to the point I don't enjoy the process. You could say I don't enjoy doing mechanical things because I'm not good at it, but there are plenty of things I'm not good at it that I enjoy doing. Well, there's at least one. (Math) Job Researching 529 college savings plans Home improvements Those all seem boring as fuck. So instead, what I'm actually spending time on is: Paper airplanes. It's similar to origami I guess in that you enjoy learning the techniques of folding. But unlike origami it's not decorative-- it's engineering. You can learn about laminar flow (?) and turbulence, lift and thrust, airfoils. I don't understand any of it but I like the applied science aspect of it. I have to say though there's no dignified way to repeatedly throw and then retrieve a paper airplane. Or if there is I haven't found it. I guess it would help if my planes stayed up for more than 1 second. I've been going to tennis courts and throwing there. I tried attaching a string to my plane so I could reel it in, but it gets tangled too easily. Then I was like 'maybe I should put the string on a spool of some kind' and then I realized I'd just reinvented the kite. Reading books in an unfocused random way. History of MTV, infrastructure. Nothing about parenting or bike repair or Spanish or anything that could actually help me in my life in any way. Sometime I hate my brain. So much wasted unfocused energy. It's so hard to change who you are. Discipline is important but I'm so ADD in this internet age. Seriously hyperlinks are like citations times a million, endless opportunities to branch off the main path, so hard to follow a main path. Facebook on my iPhone, always connected to email, AGH. I hate what I've become. I tried kicking the iPhone habit but couldn't figure out how to get contacts onto the crappy T-Mobile flip top I replaced it with. Everything now is mediated by the notion of sharing. I can't experience a moment without thinking about sharing the moment. I'll take a pic, I'll write a status update, I'll "blog" about it. I guess it's the same compulsion that drives writing, but it's so amped up to 11 now that it's hard to get away from it for a second. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody tweets it and nobody tells anybody about it then what's the point of it falling at all? Contemplating blog posts like 'Top Ten Children's Books' or 'Top Ten Purchases 2011.' This Top Ten list way of thinking is too facile, but my brain is getting trapped in it. It's easy enough to make lists but then I think I'm gonna format them and illustrate them and add clever commentary and spend forever editing them, as if I were writing for pitchfork or gawker or something. Well I doubt they spend forever editing. but they at least have editors. But for a pitchfork writer writing is THEIR JOB, and they get paid for it. Writing is not my job. Spending time editing and revising and researching links and twiddling CSS and finding images and all that for a fuckin livejournal top ten list is an indulgence. got to give up this luxury or make it the only. ( sorry i don't I'm more just talking to myself here) Time to toss some lists in the air and watch them float away. (Perhaps I have been spending too much time w/ paper airplanes.) Top Ten Children's Books and Fuck Hyperlinks, Illustrations, or Commentary (or Even Getting the Number of Items Right) Goodnight Moon Guri and Gura I Am a Bunny There's a Monster at the End of This Book What Do You Say Dear On Market St Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus Wolves Corduroy The Very Hungry Caterpillar Caps for Sale Best Purchases 2011 Black Mickey Mouse t-shirt (Uniqlo) Enormous 53" stuffed bear (Costco) Horse mask (Forum Novelties) Straight leg khakis (Bonobo) Wolf in sheep's clothing puppet (Folkmanis) Fogless shower mirror (Ace) Magnetic money clip (Dopp Regatta) Heavy Equipment wall calendar (Bauforum24) Infrastructure: A Field Guide (W. W. Norton) 60 rounds ammo + shooting a machine gun (The Gun Store, Las Vegas) I'm still attached to the idea of fleshing out these lists cos I feel they would be useful to people. Everybody with a kid is looking for kid's books right? And most kids books suck. As for the purchases above they were all awesome and I bet you would like some of them as well. But it's hard for me to write these lists unless I sprinkle in some jokes. Mainly for my own benefit cos I always laugh at my own jokes so it makes things more readable down the road. But argh got to let it go. if by some chance i return to these list topics at a later date do me a favor and pretend you never saw this first draft. 0th draft. What's the statute of limitations on 2011 lists? In two weeks tops I will have another daughter. We got a cool name picked out. Not a snowflake name, just a name I'm struggling with all kinds of tings in 2011, aren't we all. But chin up it will be a good year. All things considered I got it pretty good. Can't end on that platitude so instead here's jokes Q: What did the buddhist say to the hot dog vendor? A: Make me one with everything Q: What did the hot dog vendor say to the buddhist when the buddhist asked for his change? A: Change must come from within post comment

Things To Do With Yr Kid [02 Jan 2012|01:57pm] Paper airplanes Sing crappy songs Run around flapping your arms Go for a bike ride Do pushups while she sits on you Pretend to eat things Pony Farm Angry Birds Watch YouTube videos Stack blocks that she will then destroy Bath toys Slides (I am now a connoisseur) Read (kids books is a whole other topic) Zeum carousel Creativity museum (a million Legos, Karaoke, foam blocks, video slide) Discovery museum (marimba, fake river, marble-roll, tunnels, chutes and ladders) Go swimming Tilden Park Little Farm Fake picnic Jump Swing her up towards the sky Menace passers-by with stuffed shark Scream as loud as possible post comment

Hip Hop 2011: Year in Review [02 Jan 2012|11:42am] I'm getting too old to do these lists. Think this will be the last year. There's something faintly embarrassing about a grown man being so into this juvenile delinquent music. Plus I can't listen to it around my wife or kids. Plus even though I'm not tied to the idea of "lyricism" as the be all and end all of rap, it is kinda depressing how nobody raps about anything these days, or if they do they're tedious backpacker underground rappers that I don't care about. Andre 3K is the only one holding it down. (Though, isn't that just what an old man would say! Back in MY day music was REAL music etc. etc.) Here's a spotify playlist of the best songs listed below, at least the ones on spotify. Here's a zip of the rest. You can drag and drop local files onto your spotify playlists so do that if you want a single spotify playlist with everything. I said spotify so many times just now that you'd think they were paying me. But they're not (yet). PRO-TIP: in Spotify, go to Preferences and deselect "Hide Unplayable Tracks." Otherwise any tracks not available on Spotify will be hidden when you view other peoples' playlists, meaning you'll never know what you're missing. BEST SONGS DJ Khaled ft. Lil Wayne, Rick Ross & Drake - I'm On One Drake gets on my nerves and Lil Wayne's bringing his C game and Rick Ross is shirtless in the vid (see worst trends below) but despite it all, this track owned summer. Miami New Times broke down the Miami-tastic video. Best bit: the chorus. "All I care about is money and the city that I'm from / I'ma sip it till I feel it I'ma smoke it till it's done / I don't really give a fuck and my excuse is that I'm young / And I'm only getting older, somebody should've told ya / I'm on one..." Clams Casino - I'm God (instrumental) Year of hip hop instrumentals as music in their own right. With Lil B subtracted this is an awesome tune. I listened to the original, by Imogen Heap, "Just For Now." She's basically a new age Tori Amos, with the gimmick of doing everything herself on stage (she loops her own voice in realtime). Talented, but kind of precious and annoying, and did I mention her name is "Imogen Heap" ?! For christ's sake. Anyway I listened to "I'm God" a million times this year and it never got old. Chris Brown ft. Lil Wayne & Busta Rhymes - Look At Me Now This and "Otis" were the two best hip hop videos of 2011. Ok there wasn't a lot of competition, but still. This tune only sounds good if you play it on a system with bass. Otherwise it doesn't make sense. I guess that applies to a lot of songs on this list. Interestingly, Diplo coproduced this. Also rapgenius to the rescue, if you're wondering what Lil Wayne's on about when he goes "What's poppin slime? Nothin five." Basically he decided he's a Blood now. Kind of bizarre but you have to admit it sounds good when he says it. BTW in the zip file I included a version of this song where I edited out Busta Rhymes, cos I find him annoying. The Weeknd - What You Need / Rolling Stone Lumping these in even though they're R&B. But close enough. This is what I imagine R&B would sound like if I liked R&B. Youtube commenter: "finally, music for white people to have sex to." But The Weeknd really nailed this mysterious sleazy 3am coke party vibe, like Massive Attack with libidinous lyrics. Dude can sing. Of these two songs, Rolling Stone is the more debatable. (rolling stone = stoned + rolling on ecstasy.) Liska hates it, thinks it's super cheesy. But to me it's a gorgeous and relatable ballad. YMMV. Best bit: "Yeah I know I got my issues why you think I fuckin' flow / But I'ma keep on smoking till I can't hit anottttttther note / But until then... I got you" (cue rapturous glissando or whatever it's called that he's doing) Kendrick Lamar - A.D.H.D. The chorus is annoyingly vulgar, but this tune won me over with its throwback Bone Thugz n Harmony melodicism & spaced out electronic production. (Bone Thugz n Harmony were awesome. Nobody else sounded like them) Best bits: that moment when he starts in with "I hope that I get close enough when the lights turn down," "yup, our president is black," "i'm at a house party trippin off my generation." BTW the video for this song sucks and has nothing to do with the song lyrics. Young Jeezy - I Got This (El-P Remix) The instrumental's pretty good. Off Adult Swim mix tape. (?) El-P is such a great producer. I wish more A-list rappers would hook up w/ his beats. Lonely Island - We're Back / Threw It On The Ground These guys are rap fans through and through and they're hilarious. Their fake rap album(s) are better than most real rap albums. Most of their songs work better with the videos, but the albums have other gems (e.g. We're Back, or from their previous album, "Who Said We're Wack?") Best bit: "This that Garfield sex muzik" Kanye West / Jay-Z - Otis / Gotta Have It Another great video (Otis). That car, wouldn't you love to scrape the ground while sparks fly? Unimpressed with the model chicks in the back though. Watch The Throne was the only actual album I listened to in 2011. I feel like albums don't matter anymore. "Gotta Have It" is nice cos of the trading of vocals, very old school. It is funny how they list Otis as "featuring Otis Redding." To quote Big Ghostface, First off they need to not be actin like Otis Redding is a "featured" artist on this shit. Since when do n****s sample a dude n then call that shit a feature. Son aint even been alive for like 40 years b. Otis Redding is my dude tho...so dont get that shit twisted son. That bein said...this shit still goes nahmean. And then on Gotta Have It: This shit also got The Godfather of Soul's voice all over it...but they aint put "featuring James Brown" on the tracklist for some reason. Guess they missed that one. Juicy J - Who Da Neighbors Best chorus 2011! "My mansion sittin' on 40 acres / Who da neighbors? / Kobe Bryant from the Lakers / Now that's paper" Produced by Lex Luger, the guy who produced "Hard in Da Paint" and is responsible for most of the ponderous thudding beats you hear these days. Oh I also like how Juicy J says "enormonous" instead of "enormous." Enormonous sounds bigger! Araabmuzik - Streetz Tonight Another hip hop instrumental. This guy released a whole album of cheesy trace tunes remixed with hip hop drums and such. It works surprisingly well. BTW he's Hispanic; Araabmuzik is just a nickname to convey how "exotic" his sound is. Would be better if he were actually an Arab. Rustie - City Star Best fake Lex Luger beat. The whole Rustie album is bizarre, I think in a good way-- combo of dubstep and video game music. Maximalist as Simon Reynolds put it. I like how the first thirty seconds of this song sound like endgame music for some JRPG, and then BOOM! BEST WEBSITES Big Ghostface Chronicles This dude (fake Ghostface) so completely nails what you imagine Ghostface would sound like if he blogged. His increasingly over the top insults on soft rappers (90% Drake) really crack me up. Start with: 3rd annual softest n****s in the game. AV club listed their 5 favorite big ghostface insults. I would excerpt it but you really have to read the whole things, they build and build. Rap Genius What did lyrics boffins do before this site existed? Pro tip: search rap lyrics with "rapgenius.com". Skips the bullshit lyrics sites. Particularly good exegesis: Jay-Z stuff, i.e. 99 problems. This site is awesome. A real public service! WORST OF 2011 Fat rappers with man boobs going shirtless in their videos. What is up with this? When did this become ok? Rick Ross is the #1 offender in this category, see his Hard in the Paint freestyle or I'm On One or anything really. But even worse is the video below. You have to watch it, it's so awful that it's hilarious. It's even funnier when you realize the chorus sounds like "I'm just stuck in my jeep." Also Gucci's gun looks like... well judge for yourself. Kreayshawn - Gucci Gucci This actually isn't fair, the video was quite good (great even) and the song is catchy, which is more than most rap achieves. But she is pretty annoying and not nearly as meta as I'd hoped. And she's friends w/ the Odd Future crew and nuts to them. See bands I don't get below INEXPLICABLY POPULAR OFWGKTA. Don't really see the appeal, just a bunch of irritating obnoxious teenagers. Everybody loved Tyler's "Yonkers" and I find it unlistenable. Only good thing is that their song Mellow Hype or whatever became the backdrop for ADHD. Lil B. Sorry, no. K$sha. You know Andre 3K guested on one of her tracks? WTF moment of the year. BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT Das Racist - Relax. They get a pass cos of their first two mixtapes but Relax was kinda weak. It had its moments but just wasn't the same. I still like Himanshu's twitter though. (The only Twitter I subscribe to, besides Kanye West) CAN'T BE BOTHERED Freddy Gibbs Donald Glover (that guy from Community, can't remember his rap name. who cares.) Bunch of other dudes that, by definition, I can't be bothered to remember BEST HIP-HOP BOOK Jay-Z - Empire State of Mind. In a nutshell explains how Jay-Z got mega rich. Quite fascinating. Read my goodreads review. ARTICLES OF NOTE Slate: Fact checking "Watch the Throne": Can You Really Plank on a Million? BEST LISTS FROM OTHER PEOPLE Cocaine Blunts: Best Rap 2011. In the past I would probably spend the next month or two casually trawling through this discovering things. Now I leave it to the next generation to deal with it. LA Weekly: Worst Rap Tracks of 2011. Pretty funny. The whole series of music blogs owned by whatever company owns LA Weekly is pretty good. (They do Miami New Times as well.). Best Drake sweaters of 2011. Hahaha poor Drake (aka Wheelchair Jimmy) just can't catch a break. But, he brought this on himself. FIN 4 comments|post comment

Things I Didn't Understand (2011) [31 Dec 2011|01:29pm] Rare earth metals Escapement (watch mechanism) How the Earth's rotation around its own axis and the Sun produces seasons (why the earth has seasons) Fractal dimension Infinite dimensional spaces Eigenvectors/values Caulking Why the drain switch in my bath tub retains its up/down position when flipped How they make powdered cheese in macaroni box (how to condense milk?) How toilet flushing works (visualize the siphon within) Buoyancy Feynman's QED theory (the thing with light being a guy running to the end of a field along a fence and he touches parts of the fence) How to cinch a ponytail (I try w/ Izzy end up w/ tufts) How to fold a onesie How to properly fold a shirt Why the stapler lets you open it to fill it but stays attached unless you pull hard Fancy paper airplanes How to adjust my bike brakes Why water is (under normal circumstances) incompressible How to fix a screw if its thread breaks Why do baby thermometers have to go in the butt Eurozone debt crisis What those hanging flaps are in construction site Infinite gear mechanism (on a bike) Group theory as it pertains to solving a Rubik's cube Galois theory The butterfly stroke Pitch (listening to a song and finding the corresponding notes on a piano) Etymology/usage of "shit-eating grin" How much DNA is shared between cockroaches and humans Rectangle packing Wittgenstein Paper airplanes, aerodynamics of Infrastructure post comment

Imaginary colors (how to see true blue) [07 Dec 2011|10:55pm] Stare at the white dot in the centre of the red circle. The longer, the better (two minutes and you’ll get a much stronger effect). Always try to keep focused on the white dot. It’ll be worth it. Soon after starting, you’ll start to see a thin rim of light around the edge. Don’t stop staring yet! Wait another minute – keeping your head perfectly still. Once you’ve done this, very slowly – move your head backwards – making sure to keep your eyes focused on the dot at all times. Voila, "true cyan." Note that this color doesn't match any of the shades of blue in the palette on right, thus this color can't be displayed by your monitor. Nothing in the real world has this color; it can only be perceived as an illusion caused by saturation of cones in the retina. http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaginary_color#Perception_of_imaginary_colors post comment

Livejournal, are you like a 16 year old's diary at this point [15 Nov 2011|10:21am] Who the F uses livejournal anymore?  But I'm too old to change up my game. I was thinking about stuff I'd do if given a day off from consequences. Kick in a door like they do in the movies.  I always wonder how easy it is in real life to kick down a locked door.  In the movies the door always gives way after one or two solid kicks.  It's as if all doors in cinema are made of cardboard.  Break the glass that you break in case of emergency.  Also, pull the alarms Climb up Lefty o' Doul bridge.  I'm such a wuss.  The only thing stopping me is a sign that says 'authorized employees only.'  On the other hand, cops seem to show up at the most most inopportune times. Spray-paint graffiti and/or stencils on wall or sidewalk.  (I should do this. how bad can the consequences be.) Does no consequences mean no physical danger?  If so, hit the gas & floor it till I'm going as fast as possible.  I've never done that-- I think the fastest I've gone is 90 mph, maybe 100?  Maybe not even 100.  Sad. post comment

Scientific questions from a dullard [02 Nov 2011|10:37pm] "The Earth rotates on a 23 degree axis"-- relative to what? What's the relationship between frequency and wavelength? Are they independent? If I halve the wavelength does it double the frequency? When light is described in terms of wavelength (630nm laser) what does that mean? What does 630nm represent? What is a hertz? (as in gigahertz) Why do they call it the kernel trick? What does kernel mean in this context? Is it the same as the null space of a transformation? How does unsupervised feature learning work? ANSWER IN ONE SENTENCE OR LESS USING NO E'S Really fascinating talk. I ♥ Professor Ng post comment

Amar's Endorsements, SF 2011 Election [31 Oct 2011|02:28pm] Prop A: YES (bond to raise $ for schools) Prop B: Yes (bond to raise $ for street repairs) Prop C: Yes (pension reform, version that was agreed on by all parties, unlikely to be overturned in court) Prop D: No (persion reform, version Adachi made up on his own, questionably legal) Prop E: YES, YES, YES! (gives elected SF reps the ability to modify/repeal props. for god's sake please vote yes. the current system ("rule by proposition") is so broken. let's make our elected SF officials do the hard work of actually REPRESENTING us, by giving them the power to do so. Prop F: Yes (more disclosure rules for SF "campaign consultants") Prop G: Yes (nonbinding resolution arguing that SF should adopt a neighborhood school policy. nonbinding resolutions are a stupid waste of time, plus parents can still elect to send their kid to any immersion school, so if you live in a neighborhood (pot hill, for example) where the only nearby school is an immersion school, your kids will still be SOL. overall the only reason I voted for this was to signal discontent w/ the current lottery system) I'm not endorsing anyone for mayor, sheriff or district attorney, cos frankly, what difference does it make? Who cares? Until someone can explain to me why the outcome of any of these races matters, I'm going to save the mental energy. (Believe me, I don't like skipping anything on the ballot. I spent a lot of time trying to get enthused about one of the candidates running for SF mayor-- somebody, anybody. But they're all completely unremarkable, I think precisely because because the job doesn't matter.) Download the SPUR Voter Guide if you want in-depth analysis of this year's props. post comment

Amar's Guide to SF Voting Guides [26 Oct 2011|06:11pm] This is proving to be the most confusing SF election yet. There's a bewildering array of candidates, and it's not at all clear what effect the various propositions might have. I reiterate my objection to voting on all this shit in the first place. Arcane procedural changes and budget line items should not be decided by f***ing popular vote! Anyway, here are the voting guides I've come across thus far, in order of informativeness/persuasiveness. SPUR's is the best, if you only have time for one. (Or just wait till I figure out my picks-- will post completed ballot here when ready.) SF Planning + Urban Research Association (SPUR) League of Women Voters SF League of Pissed Off Voters DNA Lounge (Jamie Zawinski aka jwz) Stacey Bartlett (Pot Hill mom) ANTI-GUIDES (mainly useful for deciding how NOT to vote) San Francisco Bay Guardian man, fuck the guardian San Francisco Chronicle post comment

Liveblogging Google's "San Francisco Mayoral Forum" [19 Oct 2011|10:09am] ed. note-- will update this through the debate, or just this once if I get bored and leave 10 AM - Ed Lee didn't show up, as usual. He never shows up to any of these things. Does the the fact that he never shows up mean that he doesn't need to? Probably. Depressing. The problem is that nobody gives a damn. Whenever I think about SF politics I think of that De La Soul album, Stakes is High. The motto of the SF general election should be Stakes is Low.. Anyway, let's see how thick the platitudes get. At least they used moderator to filter people's questions. This means some good stuff may get asked, unlike live questions which are always a waste of time. Main things people asked about that I upvoted are "when yall gonna fix Muni, goddamit" and "why is the school system so crap in SF? does anyone care that parents leave in droves around kids age 5? why is SF so dirty?" I honestly think the answer to q. @ parents might be "who cares, fuck em." But I suspect it's not good for the vitality of a city of parents desert it en masse. Note that New York City has almost double the % parents that SF does. So not just a big city thing. My submitted question: "Does it matter who the mayor of SF is? Succinctly and concretely explain why." Probably didn't get a lot of votes & I guess it's too vague to be a good question. But I just feel so frustrated that nobody understands what the stakes are... I'm serious, how much different would it make who the mayor of SF is? I guess we never get anyone who wins other than the establishment power brokers candidate, so who knows. Candidates who showed up: Lelend Yee - ? Johanna Rees - ? Dennis Herrera - seems to have the most buzz as an alternative to Ed Lee. Endorsed by Pot Hill Democrats Tony Hall - he was big in the D10 supe race (Pot Hill) but this 'get rid of recology and open up the trash to bidding' thing is not as clear cut as he makes it sound. and that's his main thing. seems like an ok guy, mostly small business oriented Bevan Dufty - ? Michaela Alioto-Pier - ? John Avalos - ? Jeff Adachi - SF public defender, maybe? David Chiu - ? 10:10 AM - it haz begun. Opening pleasantries. Something @ being in the "red zone?" Q1: Muni sucks, what are you gonna do about it adachi: central subway project - bad idea. what the hell is central subway project. platitudes Q2: "The taxi cab situation in SF is disappointing: poor coverage, expensive relative to other major cities (NYC is the prime example), credit card mandates are ignored by drivers, etc. What plans do you have to improve the situation?" herrera: platitudes Note from now on I'll type "..." to indicate candidate just talked for 5 minutes without actually saying anything actionable or specific. It will save a lot of time cos nobody has specific plans or ideas. If these guys were serious about fixing cabs wouldn't they have some kind of plan they could refer to? Q3: What is your plan to address the high levels of homelessness in San Francisco?" bevan dufty: advocates wet housing, like what you say in "dark days" - counterintuitive but idea is that giving free housing to the worst drunks ends up saving city lots of time/money. ++ to this, first smart thing I've heard someone say. he big ups george gascon for DA - restorative justice . shit was this herrera? i can't see and they all sound similar. well it was either duffy herrera or hall and i'm betting duffy. what kind of name is "bevan duffy" ? Q4: Something about payroll tax somebody: ... Q5: "Are you for or against removing a lane of traffic or removing parking in each direction for the planned Van Ness and Geary rapid transit systems? If not, do you have a reason why they would succeed without the removal of a traffic lane?" tony hall: ... something about bikes... sfbc is doing ok, i think bicyclists (me being one) are getting our say in sf govt. sfbc is one of the more effective local political orgs. i wish they gave more recommendations but you can't figure out that much just looking thru the lens of bike rights One question that didn't get voted high is "who's your 2nd and 3rd choice" candidate. I'm gonna ask this live if presenter doesn't ask it. It's actually a hugely important question given the nature of ranked choice voting. Your 1st place candidate probably won't win... so you should know who their 2nd/3rd choices are 11:11 AM - got up, asked my question. Q: In a ranked choice system, it's really important who your 2nd/3rd choices are. To people who are voting for you as #1, who would you recommend for their 2nd/3rd choice? (I directed this at Dufty & Herrera, who I'm leaning towards as 1st/2nd) - it was disappointing, they all dodged the question more or less. Well Dufty did mention Ed Lee, and he noted the obscure D10 outcome that happened in last election (as a good thing? not sure it was). Herrera just dodged and says he doesn't like ranked choice cos the candidates don't differentiate enough. Tony Hall also answered and just said some crap about small businesses yadda yadda. He also mentioned that he doesn't want to overturn Prop 13. Good to know where he stands. I wasn't sure about that guy but now I have him pegged as "Small Business No New Taxes dude." So not my dude. Outcome: Dufty came out looking good, I could live w/ Herrera as well. No to the rest post comment

F*ckin' water, how does it work? [07 Oct 2011|11:16am] When I'm giving Izzy a bath, I often imagine that she's asked me how something works, and then I try to give an explanation in my head. A lot of the time trying to explain things makes me realize how little I actually understand of the world around me. e.g. she has this bath toy-- a hollow rubber block with a tiny hole on one side. I filled it with water and was showing Izzy how to squirt water out by squeezing the block, and I imagined that she'd asked me about it. Anna, why does the water shoot out of the hole when you squeeze the block? Because squeezing the block reduces the space inside of it, so there’s not enough space for the water anymore and the water has to go out But why doesn’t the water just crumple like a piece of paper would? Because water isn’t compressible. (This is the idea behind hydraulic power.) Why not? Because of differences in the molecular structure of the different states of matter. Solids have molecules in a relatively rigid arrangement. Gases have molecules running around randomly (no arrangement). Liquid molecules are semi-structured What does semi-structured mean? Just, you know... kind of structured but not totally. What if I used a supernova powered press with like, 5,000,000,000 PSI to squoosh down the water? Then could I compress it into a smaller space? No I think the water would just boil (vaporize). Cos pressure and temperature are related so applying high pressure would make the water temp. rise. I still don't get why solids/gases can be compressed but liquids can't. Why do some molecular arrangements allow molecules to be compressed but others don't? Because... I don't know. Just look it up on Wikipedia. This bath is over. post comment

I CAN HAZ CANDY [07 Oct 2011|08:51am] Holy sh*t, I just realized-- having 2 year old daughter means I get to go trick-or-treating again! Nobody will say "aren't you too old for this?" Instead they will coo over Izzy and how cute she looks in her dinosaur costume. "Yeah yeah lady she's adorable. Let's see what you got... Bit o Honey? Sure. Snickers? Two of those. Better make it three to be safe." post comment

Burning Man: notes for the essay I will never write [04 Oct 2011|05:52pm] Why write about it? Why write about anything. "How I met your mother" To crystalize experience and share. To think aloud (i.e. to think) 20000 mile view - for people just asking @ it in the context of where liska and i met, not looking for a lecture on the subject. "it's a big art festival in the desert." 500 mile view - why should you care? why is it interesting? convince you to go? -but i never really want to convince anyone. if they ask should they, sure, but it's too big as is and not for everyone reasons to go - you are into art. you are the sort of person who goes to modern art museums when visiting cities, you pay attention to installations/art galleries etc - you are interested in cities, self organization, etc - you like the desert - you enjoy riding your bike around - you want to meet someone (i.e. your future wife) - you want to experience a one of a kind surreal event - you're a pyro / like seeing things burn - have heard of it want to understand the hype - want to experience crazy movie-esque parties reasons not to go - you don't like being hot and dirty - the people you know who are into it are lame - you don't want to work so much for a vacation - (maybe) you don't like drugs or drug scenes ways you can should experience: 1) super light, super quick (thurs-fri) - minimal packing no group camp commitments rely on others for shade etc basically just go to experience/party, not contribute 2) as part of a camp - group experience, communal cooking, building, etc. make art as a group 3) w/ your own personal projects - you as the artiste 4) as a survival thang - go for the whole week (mon-mon) - bring everything you need to survive 5) as a ranger, lamplighter or part of the BM org. * haven't done this yet 6) help build a large scale installation. * haven't done this yet my evolution of experience year 1: no clue, thought it was @ barter. came for thurs-sat, partied, left. year 2: now i get the gift economy and want to contribute. joined pinhole, did the whole group thing . year 3: personal projects. (fortune cookies etc.) spent lot of year thinking @ doing year 4: hanging w/ cool folks,chill. lots of cooking, costumes, events. left before the burn -i like how katie & co get into the fashion aspect of it. they are good refs for playa fashion would be interesting to ask noel what his evolution is, if he views it like that probably pretty different but you don't wanna just go and party but scantron crew do so can't over generalize aesthetics techno/mechnical aesthetic there's some types of art I enjoy that share some things the whole notion of public art, public space transience - like zen monks who sweep away sand should there be internet? cell service? sure why not but to me a true vacation involves little to no internet vivid reality some days at BM feel like they pack in a month of stuff you remember things so strongly a lot happens elements of other things (hippie festivals, punk concerns, DIY raves, site-specific installations, art car scene in houston, carnies, etc) but really not that comparable to any other specific thing why did BM catch on? why did jesus? why do memes take? why do some things last and grow? at least some of it is down to larry but there's an unwritten history of other helpers, e.g. john law shooting guns in the desert situationism will i tell izzy to go? maybe, but part of me hopes she has her own equivalent. burners are old -selfishly, seems better for things to burn out than fade away; quit while you're ahead -but why deny others of the joys i had? it will always have been cooler 5 years ago to me only things that would really ruin it are loss of the commerce restriction or loss of the art. beauty coming upon something in the middle of the outer desert beautiful and anonymous put there by someone for someone to come upon or not environment the desert riding your bike on the flat playa getting caught in whiteout windstorms -romance wind survival lots of stars camping -magnuses rant on how it's not wilderness there's tons of generators noise etc DIY/self reliance survival gift economy finding your niche - art project, camp, whatever spilled out into SF as a whole large collectives who put on parties & events public art sponsored by the city events that aren't BM but are somehow connected or in the spirit-- i.e. chicken john's camp tipsy camp tipsy is a great embodiment of what i mean by the burning man spirit (punk - DIY - art - not taking self too seriously) for me the appeal now is in events like that rather than BM itself -loop in that other thing i wrote maybe... BRC as summer camp for adults. "everything you don't know is an obstacle to your creativity" Things to think about origins in cacophony, death of that spirit. -paul addis brought it back by burning down the man early - thoughts on him project management, what survives and why - building institutions that last beyond individuals what is the value of a T.A.Z. for bourgeois hipsters? so much time/money/energy spent on this for naught, if a fraction of it spent on charity etc what we could do! -some refute by pointing to burners w/out borders etc this is fine but besides the point. i think the bigger thing to consider is that there is value in utopian communities even if they fail or exist only for a week same as w/ critical mass - the value is in the suggestion of an alternate reality gives us the capacity to imagine alternatives what if public art was everywhere? what if billboards and ads in public space were banned? why can't women walk around topless? obv. the gift economy couldn't scale, but it captures imagination also inspires you creatively -art doesn't have to have social cause, but art still has meaning/value -do you ask about art festivals, what's the point? Part of the problem perhaps is that many of the spokespeople for BM, vocal burners etc, espouse incoherent/silly ideas about the event and its radical self expression etc etc But that's just cos the event is so big It encompasses multitudes Obs: BM isn't one thing. It's dirty hippies, it's yuppies in fur boots, it's artists toiling year round, it's burnouts who like to work construction equipment Should Larry Harvey & LLC get rich? -eh. sure. i don't care. Should Budweiser be able to sell BM beer? -for me, absolutely not. the absence of commerce/branding/trade is, along w/ the art, the most important thing -i can accept a lot of contradictions/inconsistency in the event's organization/policies/planning if it keeps this the case -if BM is in the public domain as a brand than it will get used by everything/everyone Dogma -outfits not costumes -EL is the new glow stick -fake fur is fake murder -leave no trace -piss clear -nothing's black and white, contradictions in utopian philosophy are ok because aiming for a complex utopian reality -(via chicken john) - art is the key BRC as city - urban design -has a town square -iconographic large middle structure for orientation (till it burns) -infrastructure -no plumbing, just portapotties - this is where self reliance breaks down as does gift economy -they hire somebody to come pipe the shit out -admired alicia's attempt to do sanitation -energy -not provided, use generators -trash -pack it in, pack it out, leave no trace regulation -rangers - voluntary -DMV - dept mutant vehicles -gatekeepers - tickets enforced, population capped coffee/ice at center camp - i like this concession, nothing in BM is black and white, i like that too street life -random encounters while hanging out bicycle intensive - like amsterdam, everyone rides bikes depends on collective goodwill, murderers etc would be handled by regular police (so not really urban in that sense) no commerce - bring what you need to eat streets - laid out, labeled (street signs), lighted (lamp lighters). -cartographer - area surveyed, maps printed and provided -would be interesting to map the territory for real - aerial photography helps here - GIS has an air port has a post office has radio stations has wireless i hear (not sure @ cell phones) has a newspaper & an alt weekly Safe space for nudity without too much leering/groping BM is like the best holidays combined halloween (costumes) xmas (gifts) 4th of july (explosions) Stuff I've read that one guy's thing on flaming lotus girls - eh some rando films that don't do it justice aerial photos that kinda do random photos like of the flower piss clear / spock science gazette - the papers in general julie h's thing - still best thing i've read on it overall What doesn't need to be written about boas Meeting liska -funny how you rehearse telling a story until the telling of it becomes the truth (memory of it) -you decide how you want to remember it and chisel that into your head and collective memory -also the canned observations one makes. i always say -we were off our heads and both dating other people, so who says drugs/rebound relationships don't work -right place right time -even back then she was forgetful - lost her jacket -made me take off my blinky glasses and we made out before the burn -i gave her my number with a picture of a ducky, which was my spiritual animal that year. duckies in abundance - the ducky casino, ducky mobiles, i wore a ducky necklace obtained from someone didn't want to be too forward, didn't know if she'd call, at that point didn't seem like it would/wouldn't be a thing -we never made it to live miss pacman How well known is it? hard to say, in SF it's huge, elsewhere, who knows how do i answer the question, what is burning man, when someone asks? i usually don't bother really trying to explain is that selfish? more just i don't think they care. Surreality is commonplace Next level pranksterism etc -sell stuff illicitly -burn down man early -protest burning of man Life as performance art friendliness and whimsical interactions w/ strangers Music/dance parties -amazing soundsystems/backdrop like being in a movie club -usually terrible music -sounds bleed The saga in a nutshell? footnoted elsewhere related institutions? sunset parties, werepad, chillits, etc. No commerce gift economy sex/drugs/rock and roll drugs - must one take drugs to enjoy? - clearly many don't - i always did - it's like saying must you smoke pot to enjoy a rap concert list: personalities big and small -chicken john -dav -jason -john law -katie & the portland fashion crew -nick and his crazy costumes that embody things (medicine cabinet, trading post) -bill - seems more himself at BM than anywhere else! "welcome home," the greeters say list: What I don't like -porta potty smells -bourgeois - white, monied by nature -fur boots -cheesy burner names/outfits/attitudes -thurs/fri/sat crowd * -terrible music -more work than work itself -bar camps* list: fire/blew up good -serpent mother -big rig jig -2BLEVE (bombs) -lasers -fireworks -have people done missiles yet? list: cool art -charon, swimmers, zoetropes -dust city diner -motorized flower -big round cubatron -too much too much list: people who met and got married thru BM dav/mie me/liska pepe/wife list: cool cars -glowing head mobile -sharks -the contessa -walker thing (did it walk?) -sub that made the perfect 'ping' sound list: Cool camps -floss camp -terror dome (or whatever where people battle) -pinhole -black rock animal control - emily's friends, wonderful. encompasses a lot of what i like about the best camps-- humor, imagination, coherent vision that works in the context of a group-- mission, activities lots of op. to interact w/ others and create funny moments/experiences. same w/ terror dome, pinhole. not so much floss camp -floss camp i like cos of the idea that not everything has to be grandiose -pastie camps -that one that was a guy in his cube by himself would need to explain the concept of a camp, what is a camp exactly? literally it's a group of people camping together, they build shade structure, but beyond that they tend to have a theme (which is vague cos it can be anything) their gift to the community is the experience they provide to others, but also it's a way for friends to experience BM together -typically involves shared kitchen, shade structure, etc. expenses etc you just camping would not be a camp list: "chill" camps for "old" people -hammock camp -hookah camp -massage camp list: memorable encounters -feather dusting maids dusting bikers -guy who simulated a video game -gambling blackjack w/ marshmallows etc. in place of money -guy with fire bike handles for smores -too much too much list: stuff -monkey noise yoga -tesla device -the waffle -david best temples -chocolate cake in backpack -stick figure EL people subcultures: -hooping (inexplicable) * -fire dancing -people who walk around on stilts -carnies -BR rangers/volunteers (esp. the ones that build shit) list: eng. marvels -that huge boat -that 10 story iron thing -the waffles -david best temples -rollercoasters list: thrills -zipline -rollercoasters -huge see saw What would I want to hear from others? what would you add to these lists? what bears thinking about? what would ruin it? why do you keep going? how has your experience changed 1 comment|post comment

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