Hipsters and Clogs

Day 965, Clogs: Earlier in the week, I ordered myself a Kindle Fire HD, a belated Christmas present from my parents. Thanks, Mom & Dad! I’m looking forward to figuring out this crazy contraption, which I think is basically a phone that can’t call anybody, but I’m not sure yet. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a virtual bookshelf to fill with virtual books I don’t have time to virtually read.

Day 928, Clogs: We won a free round of beer at pub quiz for being able to decode an anagram of “Johnny Cash - Man in Black”. I snapped a photo with my phone, which turned out terribly, I learned in the light. So through the magic of Dropbox and Photoshop, I uploaded it to my work computer and manipulated it just enough to not be terribly embarrassed. 

Day 917, Clogs: The STRP festival came around again. Simeon wanted us to check out the laser forest he’d heard about. It’s an installation by a group called Marshmallow Laser Feast. It’s an arrangement of about 100 poles, each with a green laser pointer at the top of it. The pointers are aimed through a cloud of fog, so you can pretty much always see the beam. Running around the environment, or more directly manipulating the poles, led to vibrations of the poles & pointers, which were also hooked up to tone generation devices. The end result was this ethereal space, very calming and simple. The other piece that made me grin ear to ear was the waterfall swing.

Day 767, Clogs: I spent much of the day working on a talk about a paper I’d read, that I ended up not giving in lab meeting, but I’m glad I put it together all the same. After that meeting, though, I was able to tune in to C-SPAN to watch old friend Emily talk about health care reform. (The friendship is old. She’s not very old.) Thanks, Internet!

Day 708, Clogs: Next stop: Kassel! I’d visited in 2010 for New Year’s. My friend from home Amelia was there to visit her sister and attend dOCUMENTA (13), which maybe you’ve heard of but not necessarily. I bought a two day pass for 35 Euro and today alone made it worth it. On top, you see Haegue Yang’s window blinds controlled by DMX technology, which I know of from my heady theater days in college. Various other pieces required a bit of effort to experience, such as Susan Philipsz’s Study for Strings, drawing from Pavel Haas’s Study for Strings, which was entirely composed and only ever fully performed in concentration camps. Videos of the Philipsz installation don’t capture even a tiny fraction of what it was like.

Day 651, Clogs: A year ago, my friend Amelia threw her mother a 5-day art festival as a 60th birthday party. The party was “60 Hours”. This year’s sequel is “61 Hours” and is indeed scheduled to be one hour longer than last year’s event. As I couldn’t make it last year, I put together some “radio shows” for the event’s low power station. I had fun making them, and Amelia invited me to make some for this year. I’m done with 1.75 so far of the 3 I intend to make. If you ask me nicely, I’ll provide you with copies.

Day 646, Clogs: This phone-looking device is an intercom system that I use when people buzz up from the front door of my building. To let them in, I just press the teal  button. I have no idea what the other 6 buttons are for.

Day 603, Clogs: I went to the office late in the evening to sort out some tax-related issues, in part because my desktop screen is four times larger than my netbook’s. 

Day 574, Clogs: I love the street art in Paris. Even the “models” are well-dressed!

Day 570, Clogs: A friend in the genetics department had offered to give me a tour of their facilities. I took her up on it. I learned how to use much fancier pipettes than we used back in Regents Chemistry. I possibly made a mess with some neuroblastoma cells. I definitely failed at pipetting into wells for the gel seen here. But I got a little better with a few tries. What you see here is FOXP2.