My Blag

my new favorite machine!

.zegnatronicalled — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 19:46:11 GMT

is the inchworm! it lasted the whole show despite abuse (well mark said to be aggressive). it was a longish show and so we were able to get a few of our moves in there. i was able to pick up a cockroach bot and toss it, get some 17 ft arcs off the tesla coil (but had to move away after a few seconds to preserve my electronics), do a headstand on the bombloader and ripped its side off and sparked its battery as i backed off of it. the 'after-party' er cleanup was hilarious as well...

fire fights back

.zegnatronicalled — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 18:01:37 GMT

Bob and I fucking around while Mark is trying to lift this heavy Moriseiki CNC lathe by himself. (i was useless anyway wearing heels and all popping in after work). Trying to blow spiders out the other side with fire from our metal pipe collection and trying to do the propane fire organ thing, Bob gets some feedback to the face: http://blip.tv/file/get/SRL-fireFightsBack622.3gp?source=3

celebrating an american patriotic holiday with nazi tech

.zegnatronicalled — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 20:34:10 GMT

much fun was had by all. mark taught me and liisa how to operate the inchworm (for the show in august) and we also got to run the v1 which is a replica of the first guided missile -a buzz bomb engine the germans built for wwII http://youtube.com/watch?v=f59s0x0UmQw the sound is from the valve bank inside at the other end of the barrel. the low frequency vibrations give you an internal organ massage if you stand alongside it. if you stand diagonally in front of it, your eyeballs and tonsils will oscillate.

neuticles: never looking at jellybeans

.zegnatronicalled — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 04:47:49 GMT

the same way again after looking at the size and pricing chart http://www.neuticles.com/webpages/cost_tab.html for neuticles (http://neuticles.com/ ) testicular implants for pets: "help your pet maintain his natural look after neutering!" i just hope people aren't sick enougn to get cat balls for their dog or vice versa. or upgrade the size of their pets balls by getting them an XL implant. they even sell them as keychains!

should this be an ad against the use of m-80s?

.zegnatronicalled — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 19:53:01 GMT

teehee i just found this old image of me and mark.

tamale mon

.zegnatronicalled — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 17:22:41 GMT

Tamale Lady's got competition. Tamale Man came around 111 Minna the other day selling 2 tamales for $5. They were good tamales. more 'gourmet' than Tamale Lady's and slightly bigger. He had black bean, cheese, and nopales, chicken mole, and roast pork tamales. He left 2 sauces at our table and he comes back when you're done eating to take away the tamale wrappings! He said you have to pronounce his name 'Tamale Mon' and that he was trying to sell better tamales than the Tamale Lady. So I ran into the Tamale Lady at Zeitgeist and asked about him. She says he gets his tamales from trader joe's and he reported her to the car smog authorities which caused her to be fined $400! Let the tamale wars begin!

hack the wine robot

.zegnatronicalled — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 14:48:20 GMT

vino venue is the wine automat on 3rd and mission. you go in there and give them a min of $10 and they give you a smart card. intead of bartenders they have these wine vending machines with the price of a taste displayed on top. you stick your card in, pick your wine, and it will debit your card and dispense the very stingy squirt (looks like less than a shot!) of wine into your glass. the wines seemed to range in price from about $3 to $16. you cannot get drunk here even if you tried (if you had the money you probably wouldnt even be here). it pissed us off that instead of taking wine notes we spent the entire time thinking of how we could hack the system. btw if you have money left on your card but not enough for another teeny drop, you can take it home and use it again some other time. so take it home and if you have a card reader, it might be a fun excercise left to the reader to find out something and report back :) it's definately writeable or the cashier wouldnt be able to enter the amount you purchased. in the meantime, if you look at this picture, you can see the bottles are pneumatically clamped in place. there is a switch next to the dispenser that you can flip to release the bottle and give yourself a more reasonable pour. i actually did this (but didnt top up my glass) and it didnt attract anyone, but it does make that air release sound which is loud enough to act as a bird call for distrought staff. so if you try this, be careful! maybe these are hard to find wines, who knows but i had a $6.50 1/2 a shot of 2003 pahlmeyer which was unimpressive. (or you can't tell from that drop they give you) and i also had a good austrian tokai but it wasnt "$7.40-for-2-drops-good"! for $14 i could've gotten an ok bottle or at least 2 full glasses of decent wine elswhere with better ambience!

betty butterfield

.zegnatronicalled — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 06:17:35 GMT

this reminds me of so many people it's not even funny. well it is funny. i can't stop watching this blog. like a train wreck in slow motion it is. the mindless blog er blathering of america... mmmhellloooo. http://bettybutterfield.textamerica.com/ this one particularly: http://bettybutterfield.textamerica.com/?r=4108745 and http://bettybutterfield.textamerica.com/?r=4106021

bay2breakers

.zegnatronicalled — Mon, 22 May 2006 06:36:46 GMT

i tried to sleep through it but that didnt work. i slept through the kenyans. they come around about 30 minutes before the great unwashed go by giving me a few more minutes of sleep. why is it illegal to look at nekked people with no ID on the web but completely legal to look at unattractive ones on the street? that many people swarming around in great numbers remind me of ants! i used to throw a brunch for friends to come by after they run or for others to watch since i'm on the route and have huge windows, but these days i'm all bah humbug and ended up finally watching my pile of netflix since i was trapped in the house instead. it might be hilarious to get this many people to parade the streets of mexico in a fake immigration parade and see if they get all like 'whoah -did we have that many immigrants? and why are we not paying them enough for clothes?'

sex trends

.zegnatronicalled — Fri, 12 May 2006 20:57:56 GMT

this is interesting. i know its now considered gauche to breed but i didn't realize to what extent. according to google trends polyamory and celibacy are more interesting to people than monogamy. and celibacy is being searched on more than polyamory: http://www.google.com/trends?q=polyamory%2C+monogamy%2C+celibacy&ctab=1&geo=all&date=all polyamory was interesting to people in 2004 but towards 2005 and 2006, celibacy seems to be gaining. san francisco (surprise!) and seattle are the biggest polyamorous places, canada the most monogamous, and the uk as the most celibate. hmmm. i am surprised that people would rather be celibate than monogamous. goes to show no sex is better than bad sex.

the tank chair

.zegnatronicalled — Thu, 11 May 2006 19:28:10 GMT

more bad-ass than a segway. what handicapped person would not want this. especially if it had flame-thrower and launcher attachments. check out these videos: http://tankchair.com/video.htm . you can take it off-roading in the snow and rain. more points if it can spin in place without vibrating the passenger too much.

h2pia - hydrogen city

.zegnatronicalled — Fri, 05 May 2006 04:22:55 GMT

the danes are planning to build one sometime in 2007 and the author of this article http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/04/h2pia_a_vision_2.php closes by saying "We are thrilled to learn that we can return to a 1950's suburban lifestyle with no suffering, no cutting back, no trouble at all". that statement is just plain wrong. not only in terms of how this would eliminate suffering in general but the whole idea of suburbia as the cure-all. official h2pia site: http://h2pia.com/com/h2pia/ i wish architects and city planners would get away from crap utopian ideas like suburbia being ideal. we've already seen what happens to the environment (not to mention crime and other social problems) because of suburban blight (in LA especially), that it's ironic that they are building something that exacerbates the energy/environmental issues they're trying to solve in the first place. more people should read Jane Jacobs book "death and life of great american cities". she died like last week or something. still, it will be interesting to track what happens to h2pia but i'd rather they convert parts of an already thriving city than create more bubble cities self-righteous/do-gooder people in their hybrid SUVs will commute to. funny they have this logan's run idea going on too. one of the neighborhoods called villa plugged will have a commune for young people only. they dont really say why. maybe these'll be the orphans leftover from the remnants of the baby boomers that'll all be dead by then and they can be told folktales of the people that lived on liquid dinosaurs.

bursting the tamale lady bubble

.zegnatronicalled — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 04:03:00 GMT

of hundreds of hungry barflies the mission over but i heard the tamale lady gets her tamales from la palma. i guess that's credible. even if she were a methhead there's no way one person can make that many tamales. but no matter, they're still good hot tamales delivered right to your barstool! and she caters!

illegal immigrant parade

.zegnatronicalled — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 16:00:13 GMT

blocking the freeway yesterday. i don't care what people say against capitalism and democracy. this is proof that those systems are the least of all evils. communism didn't work. anarchy doesn't scale. and if socialism were really so great, why are the good people of s. america here protesting anti-immigration? they should just be allowed to stay and treated like real workers (taxed and receive benefits, hell make them citizens if their immediate nuclear families are here). these are the people that can actually improve the US since these guys actually are really doing work. it certainly won't be the whiney anti-man hipster/artist on the dole wagging their finger at me for shopping while wearing an old flea-ridden blanket and flannel pajamas. actually these are the people i'd rather see voting, since they really do have issues relevant to a lot of other people that would benefit the entire country instead of some abstract, intellectual ideology of left vs right/the man vs oppressed and the 'distraction' causes they come along with like war on drugs, gay marriage, guns, and abortion. (everything should be allowed these are individual choices and what they're doing cluttering up political issues of national importance is retarded). i say hippie socialists should move to a third world country before they complain about how it is here. maybe we could have a new labor trade. finger wagging hippies in exchange for latino workers!

where ive been

.zegnatronicalled — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 02:00:32 GMT

based on this there's no way i'm wasting another vacation day on burning man! there's the rest of the world to cover! http://www.world66.com/community/mymaps/worldmap?visited=USMXATFRDEITMCESUKCNJPPHAU i haven't been to too much of the US either: http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedStates/statemap?visited=CACTDCFLHIILLAMEMANVNHNYORRITXWA Make your own visited countries map: http://douweosinga.com/projects/visitedcountries

military vehicle technology foundation

.zegnatronicalled — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 23:05:27 GMT

A few years ago a small bunch of us were lucky enough to get a tour of jacques littlefield's tank collection in palo alto. Supposedly the largest private collection of tanks, armed vehicles, Anti-aircraft/anti-tank weapons, etc. He had tanks from different countries from WW1 to current and 2 SCUD missiles. Pretty impressive collection he has. He even had one of those tank bridge builders which he started up and demo'd for us. It turns into a bridge a about block long. The most common tank he had was from england. The russian tanks had interesting "dashboards"/control panels. One required 6 people to operate. There was an anti-aircraft tank that had a range of 30 miles and came with it's matching satellite truck. There were cute little sky blue tanks that I remember we thought was pretty girlie. Also little semi-amphibous "tank" motorcycles. Anyway, check out his inventory: http://www.milvehtechfound.com/inventory/index.html The organization is called Military Vehicle Technology Foundation and he has lots of people restoring these old tanks etc. so they are in working, operational order. Whenever he gets a new tank it is delivered to his property complete with military escort. Old British tanks are apparently really easy to buy -you can get them for $2k but it's all the procedures importing into the US that is a hassle (and this was before all this homeland security paranoia). Also on the property he has this giant pipe organ which is housed in a seperate building attached to his house that is earthquake proof and also he has this cool miniature steam train you can ride around on the premises. i dont see tour info on the website and i have no idea what kind of pull our friend had that we were able to snag one but if you can, it's certainly well worth seeing.

akhal tekes

.zegnatronicalled — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 21:05:10 GMT

as a kid this was the horse i wanted. (and ironically this is the exact picture of an akhal-teke i had back then -it's from a book originally. how deja vu to find it on google) i was reminded when a friend went on a riding trip to capadocia. a metallic golden horse. for real. they come in other colors but naturally i wanted the gold kind. they have a metallic sheen when they sweat. one was given to queen elizabeth and the grooms tried to wipe off the gold thinking it was some kind of cheesy decoration but the more they buffed the horse, the golder it became. neat-o. these horses were bred for endurance. they were fast and could go for days in the desert with not much food/water. the only horses that made the 1935 cavalry trek from ashkabad to moscow (2600 miles or 84 days of desert, swamps, mountains) were akhal tekes. some mixed breeds akhal-something made it too but the pure akhal-tekes were in better condition by the end of that trek. they have lots of personality too. they bond with their humans and even act up if treated badly. there used to be a lot of farms that bred them in russia even though they're basically a turkmenistan breed. but a lot of farms just ended up in ruins after communism and the law abolishing personal property like horses. many of them were sent to slaughter (like tossing rare art into a fire -shame!). these horses were so cool that people like alexander the great and the persian emperor cyrus would marry to gain access to these horses. genghis khan most likely used this breed. marco polo apparently traced the breed to bucephalus -alexander the great's most awesome horse. this horse was not polyriderous -they were loyal to one rider and they were so badass they were fed mutton! they are rare (less than 2000 in the world) and are the pre-cursors of thoroughbreds. the oldest skeletal remains of an akhal teke was found in 2400BC. probably used in many wars we've all read about throughout the ages. now they are being bred in russia, turkmenistan, and some places in europe and i think in florida. this worries purists as they dont want to dilute the bloodline. they dont want horses to evolve differently under different weather etc. they make excellent dressage horses. a sport i dabbled in as a kid but thought this was best left for old-age. so maybe soon i'll try and get one. this would definately be better than buying a ferrari or something. they're really exotic looking. like the whippet of horses. see more horse porn: http://www.chez.com/kalisha/akal_teke.jpg http://www.agraria.org/equini/akhalteke.jpg http://www.riverranchmontana.com/index_files/image814.jpg http://www.equiworld.net/breeds/akhalteke/akhalteke01.jpg http://www.akhalteke.org/web/karakum.nsf/755e0ff4614c0ec4c12569540066d6aa/8d4e981de77d1e92c1256e630062cd3b/Body/0.1D4!OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=jpg http://www.akhalteke.org/web/karakum.nsf/755e0ff4614c0ec4c12569540066d6aa/d89dfe5cc68e7fb7c1256e630062cd71/Body/0.A6!OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=jpg

tribe not working for you?

.zegnatronicalled — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 17:01:21 GMT

try Google Romance http://www.google.com/romance/ who wants to fill out yet another profile? may 404s not abound...

elizabethan vanity

.zegnatronicalled — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 02:33:31 GMT

so much easier to be vain now than back in the middle ages. during those times the aesthetic was very white skin with beady, dark, glassy eyes and a small red mouth, high forehead with red or blonde hair. tilda swinton and david bowie are like modern day examples. to get that look women painted their faces with white lead ceruse which was highly toxic. if they didn't die, they ended up aging well before their time. as galen the greek doctor said, "women who often paint themselves with mercury, though they be very young, presently turn old and withered and have wrinkled faces like an ape." it also, destroyed their teeth and discolored their faces which often turned into a mottled green, grey, yellow, and brown. they often end up dying bald, toothless, and parchment-skinned crones. women continued with the whiteface despite their hair falling out and high foreheads ended up becoming part of the whole look. as their real skin got worse they never removed the makeup either. instead they'd just slap on another layer and draw fake veins and coat their face with egg white to get that lacquered look. the dark, glassy eye effect was acheived by dropping belladonna in their eyes and kohl which was made from powdered antimony back then. so despite the pain and worse side-effects the odd thing is, this continued to be the standard for beauty and women continued putting mercury and lead on their faces. there's still tons of toxic materials in makeup today and yet we continue on just like the elizabethan women. check it out even if you don't wear makeup, some of these chemicals are just unavoidable in basic daily hygiene: http://www.health-report.co.uk/ingredients-directory.htm

unphotoshopped animals

.zegnatronicalled — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 16:23:34 GMT

i recently met the photographer who does these famous animal photos that have animal rights people up in arms all over the world. she's a young russian photographer who buys these animals, kills them, and poses them for these unique pictures. she says that she expects to get more heat but she only takes animals that were going to be killed anyway -whether for food, lab experiments, or ASPCA kitties that no one wanted to adopt. is it better that these animals are immortalized in artistic poses instead of just consumed and discarded? her work may still be up at BOCA (new rx affiliated gallery on jessie st near mezzanine) but they are showing the 'safer' photos of butterfly wings arranged in flower formation or rabbit eyes in a peapod. if anyone wanted to buy these i'm sure will or monika can hook you up. google nathalia edenmont for more...

darth vader in biblical times

.zegnatronicalled — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 11:19:36 GMT

this is the new part of the sagrada familia started by gaudi with the other facades left as an excercise to future architects. check out the romans depicted as darth vaders. the other side of the church has reptiles like snails, snakes, and lizards slithering down the roof. http://static.flickr.com/38/104383446_d7b511efcd.jpg

louvre roomba

.zegnatronicalled — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 08:53:31 GMT

neat glass pyramid-cleaning bot going through this IM Pei thing in front of the louvre...not autonomous though. it looks tethered but that was just the vacuum hose

propeller fx

.zegnatronicalled — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 09:16:20 GMT

yes, i'm still in asia! and there's talk of more races in italy to check out soon... missed the entire holiday partying season but it was a nice change to spend with family whom i've not holiday'd with in 10 years! here's a picture of the neat optical effect of propellers spinning at high speed, landing. so what else fun stuff am i missing in the west bay/east bay these days?

manic panic pony

.zegnatronicalled — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 15:23:43 GMT

next, they'll be dressing these horses as unicorns with rainbow reins!

macau

.zegnatronicalled — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 01:04:56 GMT

i'm in macau to watch my nephew/brother race go-karts. flying in was cool -there was a phalanx of long and thin clouds over the south china sea (notorious pirate territory -do not sail here alone) that looked like endless lines of coke and underneath you could see the sea and the waves moving perpendicular to the clouds. last night we went to a portuguese restaurant where i had my first *authentic* bacalao in ages -haven't found a place in the bay area that makes it right. one of my dad's friends is this old but doesnt look it guy that runs/owns many of the casinos here. the rumor is he has rooms full of virgins stuffed with plums which he eats to keep him looking young. apparently he does nothing with the virgins -they are just plum receptacles fermenting them with their special yeast.