baby got x-rayed

This is part of the reason why I don't even consider hiring armed security at our projects.

SoCal's not so bad after all...

I just got back from a week in LA/San Diego. Some highlights from the trip:

• riding bikes around Santa Monica, hiking to a nudist hot spring, and browsing LA's fashion district with my sister Amanda
• talking turtles/ponds with my friend Kevin in San Diego
• lunch with Tresa, a friend from the good ol' WiSE (Women in Science & Engineering) days
• Pisco Sours and sushi with Amy, a friend from the HODR project in Peru
• exploring Manhattan, Hermosa, and Redondo beach by foot and convertible with Alex
• riding a tandem bike with Allen in Pasadena
• cresting the hill where I-5 meets I-580, seeing the wind turbines of the Altamont Pass, and knowing that I'm almost home!

Playing (essentially) nonstop for a week is tiring, but my heart feels happy and connected and in many places. Now I have a few days of planning and preparing at home for a week of meetings in Boston and some time on the east coast.

Tie it up!

A pretty alternative to the plastic bag or canvas tote:

Furoshiki, a Japanese method of using a square cloth to wrap and carry items. And you can carry more than single perfectly round or block sized items. Check out the haul in this video.

Smells like...nothing!

Even though that Febreze commercial where a family is playing charades and the dad lays down on the carpet and starts sniffing and forgets about the game while the rest of the people yell out think like "sausage link!" and "beached whale!" makes me laugh, all in all I'm not for fragranced products. And I always though air fresheners were a sham.

So, I think it's important to know that fresheners and fragranced products can be bad for your health. You sniff in lots of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) from the paint, carpeting, and other materials unfortunately used in most all existing homes and buildings, so you might as well not up the sniffer quotient by spritzing around your own blasts of chloromethane and whatever else is in there.

Beards

One of the bigger disappointments of my life is that I am not as big of a geek as I would like to be, and I fell out of engineering/computer science quite easily.

That said, I still like to try and follow what's going on in industry, such as, you know, the recent Silicon Valley Beard Off. Just because I can't grow facial hair myself doesn't mean I have to miss out on the fun - I can create seamless illusion with the help of Fear the Beard's DIY cutout beard.

Baby jump!

Ok, so in Java babies sleep with daggers and scissors, and in Bangladesh babies have horrible painted eyebrows and giant soot moles rubbed on their foreheads, but is it really any weirder than this? I don't think so.

Indecency

From bbc.com:

Saudi Men Arrested for "Flirting"

Prosecutors in Saudi Arabia have begun investigating 57 young men who were arrested on Thursday for flirting with girls at shopping centres in Mecca.

The men are accused of wearing indecent clothes, playing loud music and dancing in order to attract the attention of girls, the Saudi Gazette reported.

Male birds flash brightly colored feathers, warble special songs, and strut around. Seems to me that this is the same thing. Makes me laugh.

Parkway

Last night Dan introduced me to the Parkway Speakeasy Theater in Oakland. It's an old movie theater with swanky Art Deco stylings and only two screens. They play movies that have been out for a while or are cult classics.

The best part: There are couches instead of seats, and you can order food, which they deliver right to you in the auditorium! Superfun!

Movie tickets are only $6 too. Matinees are only $4.

We saw Hot Fuzz. I shook some parmesan onto my pizza as the lights dimmed, held it up to take a bite, and then accidentally blew it all off because I started laughing so hard. Go see Hot Fuzz! Go to the Parway!

NPR Road Trip

Recently I noticed that In-N-Out offers a little location brochure, so you can plan a roadtrip along In-N-Out lines. That strikes me as kind of sad. But then today I found out that you can plan your roadtrip so that you can always be tuned in to NPR! That strikes me as all kinds of awesome.

Solio

Take your iPod off the grid: www.solio.com.

Bring Your Own Bag!

Yesterday I went shopping at Trader Joe's, and since I brought my own bag, I got to enter in a raffle for a $25 TJ gift certificate. Cool beans!

I am away from my computer right now

While I'm traveling, checkout my travel updates at holegraintravel.blogspot.com! I might still post here occasionally though, while I'm gone. Leave me messages! They are much appreciated.

Rubbah!

I think this is cool.

Dentist

Nmph. I've never minded going to the dentist before. As a kid I even thought was fun. But I'm not not so thrilled with my current dentist office. I'm maxing out all the health/vision/dental benefits before I leave, so this afternoon I had a dental appointment.

The hygienist commited such key offenses as:

• failing to move my lip aside before jabbing me with the poky thing
• spraying the water onto my front teeth instead of inside my mouth, such that it bounced into my eyes
• flossing me as if she were wringing laundry against a washboard

When it was all over, I sulked away with a "May I have a toofbrush fanks bye." At least I have no cavities.