Some pals said: play this word game, obey this rule: each word must have just four byte size (can't have more, can't have less).
Text made thus does come slow; when this rule bans most talk, each idea, each line will take much more time. This game does seem hard; with time, this game won't seem very hard.
What news, then?
- This book list, that took much time, does seem (long last!) near done.
- They said they will make that road anew very soon, post-fire.
- CPLP does name this week -- this tiny part -- Luso fest time; each land that uses this talk will have glee over this fact, each Luso-less land must have some envy.
- Back safe from good airs; also vast falls (very good park), lake with giga-watt upon giga-watt flow (very, very good tour), glad port (trip with Vera plus word game buff), ball game, nice food, book spot, much else. (Good airs host: this lady. Woot!) Gave self-made Luso-only talk: "save free code, stop DRMs!"; guys plus gals that came said they grok what they hear -- "tudo"! (Phew.) Hear this talk soon from FISL site, read soon from EFF's.
- Have many-hour Luso chat with nice lady; only post-chat says: "From back East, live here...". (Also: glad-port folk call thee "thou" lots -- some from this part near Chuí lack "você".)
- Velo news! SFBC work: find road hole, note risk, mark spot, make ride more safe. Also, have long July bike ride plan; here, also, more news soon. Ride each week atop tall hill sure does make this size bike trip seem more easy.
- Next July: Rome?
- Will head back, meet 1997 folk this June (Gill side only this time. Alas.)
- Feel some misc. hope.
One of the odd consequences of the NERT program is that I have, following the recent citywide drill, an attractive, genuine, government-issued photo ID card that, as far as I can remember, I did not have to provide any proof of identity to obtain.
I recently heard several more reports of reasons that the ID checking at airports doesn't accomplish its stated goals of stopping particular people from flying. For example, Boing Boing reported that a TV station made its own IDs that were accepted by airport screeners. Last week, I decided to try flying with my NERT ID to see what would happen; my NERT ID is more "valid" than the IDs the TV station had (although it looks much less like a driver license).
The screener at the Oakland airport looked at the NERT ID very skeptically for about a full minute; I had resolved not to volunteer any information about it until and unless she asked me a question. After reading all the text on both sides, and presumably noticing the reference to "San Francisco Fire Department" and "Office of Emergency Services", she let me through without asking anything.
The screener at the Tucson airport was more skeptical. She said "Can I see a driver's license or something? Because I don't know anything about this." I said "Well, it's a government-issued ID." The screener said "Is it issued by a state or Federal government?" I said "No, a local government -- the City and County of San Francisco." She didn't clarify whether she thought local government ID was or was not valid, but she continued to ask for a state-issued ID, so I showed her one.
That's the first time I've heard an airport screener refuse to accept an ID merely because he or she was unfamiliar with the kind of document presented!
I did drop by the Maker Faire this weekend, and the coolest thing I saw was the Cyclecide rodeo, a whole set of traditional amusement park rides, all of which go at least as fast as their traditional versions but all of which are unconventionally human-powered by stationary bicycles. I really wanted a chance to pedal a few of them and spin myself (or other people) around, but the lines were too long. It was a beautiful spectacle to watch, though, and everyone seemed to be having a great time.
The second coolest thing I saw was the 3D printing section, including great mathematical sculpture and a remarkable commercial printer (under $20,000) that could print arbitrary objects, including complete interlocking gear trains, in a single pass. It used a firm but water-soluble material for the negative space so that you could simply wash the negative space away from your completed project. It's strange to think of 3D printers available in the price range that color laser printers occupied in recent memory. (I wonder if the 3D printer manufacturers are getting any pressure to include forensic tracking mechanisms in their printers to help identify who printed a particular object.)
When I was in Arizona I saw a really cute desert lizard and reflexively remarked "Salve, lacerta!". ... No answer.
(In the style of Rachel Chalmers, I recount this conversation with no comment, other than this sentence. And this sentence fragment, and the following sentence fragment:)
Eating at La Méditerranée with Michelle:
Michelle: Do you know which La Méditerranée was the original?
Seth: I've always assumed that the Berkeley one came first and the San Francisco one was later. But I don't have any evidence for that except that I ate in the Berkeley one before I ate in the San Francisco one.
Michelle: You know, when you close your eyes, the restaurant stops existing, too.
Seth: A classic example of Berkeleian idealism.
I got my CPR+AED certification this evening. (First Aid is tomorrow evening.) Why not get your certification too?
I just received a 419 scam letter written in bad Portuguese (that seems to have been machine-translated from some other language*) from an e-mail address in Japan claiming to have been written by someone in Ivory Coast who asks me to write him back in English at an address in France.
* almost certainly from English, because he refers to his parents as "atrasados" (late [delayed]) rather than "falecidos" (late [deceased])... Douglas Adams did this joke better.
