Here’s a retail source for simple linear laser scanners. 817 Hz!

What a great night! Leah P. and Kerry H. threw a cozy little party over at Kitty Galore which was all kinds of fun. Good people, warm happy vibe.

I’d been excited about the Renegade Soundwave party tonight – psytrance til dawn, out in the woods somewhere near North Bend – but even lazing around in bed all day has not cured my exhaustion. I’m going to laze around in bed some more, and maybe spend the day tomorrow working on some creative project or other.

Infected Mushroom makes me very happy. Ohhh, yes, life is good.

I did a little exploratory dabbling last night with the tree of light. Instead of fiberglass, which looks to be prohibitively expensive, Leah P. suggested bamboo. I bought a bundle of 6′ garden stakes and wired them together in triplets to get long, flexible 18′ poles. They flex nicely, and I like the organic, random character of the bamboo, but I’ll have to streamline the wire-wrapping procedure if I want to make scores of them. I’ll also need to devise some kind of stress test which will simulate a good strong Black Rock windstorm; I’m afraid the bamboo would snap and send bits of wood and electronics flying.

1/2 pound ahi steak, the redder the better
bunch of spinach leaves
one smallish tomato
two mushrooms
olive oil
sea salt
black pepper
French bread
butter

Splash a little olive oil into a shallow pan and place on high heat. Wash and dry a handful of spinach, tear into big chunks, and scatter onto a plate. Slice two large mushrooms and one smallish tomato; place atop spinach. Pour a couple tablespoons of olive oil into a bowl. Mix in at least a tablespoon of freshly cracked pepper and a couple teaspoons of coarse sea salt. Dredge the ahi in the oil mixture. The pan should be hot by now, so toss in the ahi. Wait about two minutes; this would be a good time to add a little sea salt and some more of the cracked pepper to the salad plate, plus a splash each of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Then flip the ahi over and let the other side cook for another two minutes. Cut two or three slices of French bread and smear on a little butter. Crack open a bottle of wine. Pull the fish off the heat, put it on the plate, take your wine glass and some utensils and go sit in the sun.

I’m sitting in bed on a lazy Sunday morning. I decided, with some reluctance, to skip the big Polarity party last night; the conference was four days straight of demanding days and loud late-night outings, and I needed a break. Oh well – there are always more parties. Instead I dropped by Kitty V.’s going-away party, then found Adam and Janet in Fremont and spent a couple of hours catching up.

I’m starting to get more serious about this tree-of-light project, though part of the appeal is in how little seriousness the concept demands. So far this year I’ve managed to not get myself committed to any big art projects, and I’d like to keep it that way. If I can find a reasonably cheap source for long flexible fiberglass poles, preferably set up with ferrules and elastic cord so I can break them down for packing into bins, I should be pretty much set.

It is 4:14 AM, Seattle time. The conference is over and my plane will leave Austin in about two hours. Time to pack up the laptop and check out of the Omni… it’s been a good week.

I started working for Real Software six years ago today. I don’t think I would have expected the job to last this long when I took it. The last year has been mostly full of work on the incremental compilation system and the new module-namespace feature. It feels good to focus on large scale projects like that, and I’m glad there are a couple more on the horizon.

I’m in shockingly humid Austin, Texas, getting ready for the Real World conference. Since my part in the conference consists of one presentation on Thursday and a second on Friday, I’ve spent the day chatting with coworkers, checking my email, and tinkering with a couple of new, experimental features. Tomorrow ought to be even more relaxed.

I somehow got the day of the Circus Contraption show wrong, and thought I was going to spend a nice quiet evening at home last night. Er, no. Out late, crazy carnies singing and performing, an audience full of familiar faces, much drinking. Ah, what terrific fun.

I think I’ll spend this afternoon puttering around the house. There are books to organize, boxes to pack away into storage, and an unlimited number of plants to buy, pot, and arrange on the porch…

After five hours of work, I have all the remaining Burning Man supplies and music gear out of my basement storage units and (except the last half-truckload) transferred to the Rocket Factory. That’s it; I’m out of the apartment. I’ll swing by tomorrow and drop off the keys. Whew. Time to take a shower, mix up a martini, and read a book.

It’s a beautiful grey rainy day here. I am sitting cross-legged on my bed, leaning up against a big heap of pillows, looking out the window at a hill full of trees and houses all glistening in the wet.

There was almost no water pressure this morning. Apparently a water main broke near the University Bridge.