Italo Calvino sheds a little light on the question I posed and answered so poorly at our last lunch: what to leave in and what to leave out, how to tell the difference, and why it matters. Thanks Italo!
"Both in art and in literature, the function of the frame is fundamental. It is the frame that marks the boundary between the picture and what is outside. It allows the picture to exist, isolating it from the rest; but at the same time, it recalls--and somehow stands for--everything that remains out of the picture. I might venture a definition: we consider powetic a production in which each individual experience acquires prominience through its detachment from the general continuum, while it retains a kind of glint of that unlimited vastness."
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
other things I could do with my life
My company is facing layoffs in the next ,month or so. I am preparing for the worst; my job is only a marginal function to my managers, so I am a logical choice for being "made redundant", as the Brits would say.
Here's the plan, so far.
Go to Austria. I've been watching the HBO series on WWII, Band of Brothers, and it showed the gorgeous lake-y vistas of the Austrian alps. So there's that.
Go to India and Pakistan and teach English to children. Nikolas Kristof wrote a NY Times column yesterday about the merits of travel for our young people, and I am long overdue. He offered two leads of teaching English abroad: New Light in Calcutta and a Pakistani anti-rape activist, Muktar Mai, who starts schools.
So that's the worst case scenario. Best case is I keep my job, continue plowing money into savings, and keep on with the nice life I have here in SF. Dinners out, ballgames, and good times with friends, preferably outdoors. More on the fate of Judy's job when I know more.
Also a note: my mother and Barbaro both had their ankles fused within a week of one another. I have every confidence, though, that my mother will recover, puruple cast and all.
Here's the plan, so far.
Go to Austria. I've been watching the HBO series on WWII, Band of Brothers, and it showed the gorgeous lake-y vistas of the Austrian alps. So there's that.
Go to India and Pakistan and teach English to children. Nikolas Kristof wrote a NY Times column yesterday about the merits of travel for our young people, and I am long overdue. He offered two leads of teaching English abroad: New Light in Calcutta and a Pakistani anti-rape activist, Muktar Mai, who starts schools.
So that's the worst case scenario. Best case is I keep my job, continue plowing money into savings, and keep on with the nice life I have here in SF. Dinners out, ballgames, and good times with friends, preferably outdoors. More on the fate of Judy's job when I know more.
Also a note: my mother and Barbaro both had their ankles fused within a week of one another. I have every confidence, though, that my mother will recover, puruple cast and all.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
real people want to weld
That's the only explanation for the tremendous swell of interest around the TechShop Project. And it hasn't even opened yet. Buzz, buzz. Every girl needs a plasma cutter. Especially me.
From the email I got today...
PEOPLE WANT AND NEED TECHSHOP!
Since our announcement of the TechShop project at the Make Magazine Makers Faire, and from our live presentations at the Homebrew Robotics Club, South Bay Metalworkers Club, and the Inventors Alliance meeting, and the article about TechShop that appeared in the San Francisco Examiner, we have had nearly 500 people contact us wanting to becoming members and take classes! We are absolutely blown away from the response, especially since our business plan calls for only 280 members! We have definitely struck a nerve with the TechShop concept. People have even stated that they are planning to relocate near TechShop from other areas of California and even from out of state!
MORE AND MORE CLASSES ARE BEING ADDED!
We are busy recruiting expert instructors from the field, and also busy developing 'Building Block' and 'PathWay' courses in many subjects that will blow your socks off. Subjects from machining to electronics to robotics to materials and so much more will be available to you.
THERE'S SOME VERY COOL EQUIPMENT COMING!
In addition to the full-sized milling machines, lathes, MIG, TIG, arc and gas welders, plasma cutters, sheet metal equipment, plastics equipment including a vacuum forming set up, and electronics design and fabrication equipment, we are finalizing arrangements for the Epilog 24" laser cutter and engraver for your unlimited use, as well as a Dimensions 3D printer and a stereo lithography system. This is all in addition to the thousands of tools and support equipment that we will have for you. We are working hard to be sure that TechShop will be a maker's dream come true!
DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS?
If you have any questions at all, or you would like to help the TechShop project in any way, we want to hear from you! Please call us at 1-(800)-640-1975 or contact us by email at info@techshop.ws. You are also encouraged to participate in the TechShop Advisory Board forums if you are not already doing so...please go to http://forums.techshop.ws/ to participate in the forums.
Thank you, Judy...we look forward to having you be a part of the TechShop open-access public workshop project!
From the email I got today...
PEOPLE WANT AND NEED TECHSHOP!
Since our announcement of the TechShop project at the Make Magazine Makers Faire, and from our live presentations at the Homebrew Robotics Club, South Bay Metalworkers Club, and the Inventors Alliance meeting, and the article about TechShop that appeared in the San Francisco Examiner, we have had nearly 500 people contact us wanting to becoming members and take classes! We are absolutely blown away from the response, especially since our business plan calls for only 280 members! We have definitely struck a nerve with the TechShop concept. People have even stated that they are planning to relocate near TechShop from other areas of California and even from out of state!
MORE AND MORE CLASSES ARE BEING ADDED!
We are busy recruiting expert instructors from the field, and also busy developing 'Building Block' and 'PathWay' courses in many subjects that will blow your socks off. Subjects from machining to electronics to robotics to materials and so much more will be available to you.
THERE'S SOME VERY COOL EQUIPMENT COMING!
In addition to the full-sized milling machines, lathes, MIG, TIG, arc and gas welders, plasma cutters, sheet metal equipment, plastics equipment including a vacuum forming set up, and electronics design and fabrication equipment, we are finalizing arrangements for the Epilog 24" laser cutter and engraver for your unlimited use, as well as a Dimensions 3D printer and a stereo lithography system. This is all in addition to the thousands of tools and support equipment that we will have for you. We are working hard to be sure that TechShop will be a maker's dream come true!
DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS?
If you have any questions at all, or you would like to help the TechShop project in any way, we want to hear from you! Please call us at 1-(800)-640-1975 or contact us by email at info@techshop.ws. You are also encouraged to participate in the TechShop Advisory Board forums if you are not already doing so...please go to http://forums.techshop.ws/ to participate in the forums.
Thank you, Judy...we look forward to having you be a part of the TechShop open-access public workshop project!
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Mother's Day
Cooked brunch today for two mothers, so I figure I've done my bit. Nice to see friends and be charmed by their children and have the menfolk clean up afterwards. Then I get to go spend my day however I like. Hitting the yarn sale at ImagiKnit. Napping. Baking bread. And no one asking me questions, like how do you spell where? Singlehood has its benefits.
It was record-warm in San Francisco today. Easily 80 degrees in a town that rarely sees 70. I took a book and a parasol to the park and proceeded to crisp bits of my pale exterior. Then rode my bike through the Presidio and down past Baker beach, with its wafting smells of BBQ and hazy view of the Marin headlands, where the oceanliners pass on their way out to sea. Nice day all around.
It was record-warm in San Francisco today. Easily 80 degrees in a town that rarely sees 70. I took a book and a parasol to the park and proceeded to crisp bits of my pale exterior. Then rode my bike through the Presidio and down past Baker beach, with its wafting smells of BBQ and hazy view of the Marin headlands, where the oceanliners pass on their way out to sea. Nice day all around.
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