Would you like a floppy disk containing Issue #1 of NEUROblast, the HyperCard disk 'zine? When James Sime, the editor handed me this (autographed!) copy, I thought: Oh Cool! And then I thou...
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In San Francisco these days, you want to toss plastic bags in the trash, not in the recycling bin. This was news to me. I knew that plastic bags get tangled up in other things in the recycling bin, m...
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Important follow-up news: Today's grocery delivery came with more free samples, including a small tube of instant coffee from Starbucks. Thank you, Starbucks, for not assuming that I have coffee filt...
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Personal triumph: Remembered my ATM PIN after using credit cards to pay for everything for a year. For this feat, I was rewarded with cash. ...
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Many people have made the joke "Those pants are on their last legs," but few point out that the statement is both figuratively and literally true. Or at least I didn't notice any in the top few Googl...
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With another wildfire season approaching, I finally got off my butt and bought an air purifier. At last, I am ready for wildfires! (Not really; I wouldn't mind if we skipped the wildfires this year/f...
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Book Report addendum: Cards as Weapons
Rest in peace, Ricky Jay. He wasn't just a magician and magic-historian. He was also a skilled technical writer: he wrote a book that taught a bunch of kids stuff. Specifically, in the 1990s, a bunc...
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+1 415 868 4629 is still my phone number
I'm switching my mobile service over to Project Fi. Along the way, I'm fiddling with approximately a bazillion phone settings. But in theeeory, I'm set up and the Larry Hosken Contact Information pag...
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If someone asks you for a cigarette, you hand one over. That explains the guy I overheard: If you smoke on the bus, nobody asks you for one. I hope that remains the most antisocial thing I hear t...
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I still like my pencil bandolier better than this kid's crayon bandolier. But I have to admit he wears his better. Photo lifted from rentadisco; I dunno if they're the originators or got it from e...
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Link: Puzzlehunt Pencils
In case you've run low on Shinteki graph paper, Eric Harshbarger will sell you pencils adorned with code alphabets. Hmm, they're #2 pencils. For collaborative outdoor nighttime solving, that's probab...
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Pencil Bandolier: Overloaded
The other day I'm walking along and thinking Well it was quite a coincidence running into her here because (1) when am I ever in the Mission and (2) she moved to Switzerland which would normally be e...
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Now that's Tronsta: Identity Disc from Microsoft Puzzle Hunt 11.0. It still lights up! ...
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Now that's Tronsta: Clipped some glo-sticks to the pencil bandolier. Snapping a photo because, uhm, they might not stay attached very well, so I might not be able to run around and have these thin...
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Pencil Bandolier: Subtle Counterweight
During puzzle hunts, I run around wearing a bandolier to hold my pencils jauntily across my chest. Pencils don't weigh much, but they weigh something. Thus, I put a counterweight on the back of my ba...
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+1 415 868 4629 is still my phone number
In case it wasn't pathetic enough that I bought a phone marketed to men compensating for something, that phone is now powerless. I don't know why it doesn't start up; this has never happened to me be...
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Pencil Bandolier: the new configuration
Before: After: I tested out the pencil bandolier at the Real Escape Game. You ask: How did it go? I say: That's why we test. Perhaps the bandolier's boldest feature were the colored carpenter penc...
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Pencil Bandolier progress is as difficult as you make it
Look, ma, no pins! You may recall a few months back I'd attached an over-heavy counterweight to the pencil bandolier with vague intent of letting some of the extra lead weight. Today, I got around to...
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Two steps forward, one slide back I bought a couple of clip-on lights. Also, I bought a new counterweight. To keep this whole mess from sliding forward (until all the pencils are under my elbow), I'...
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Now with carpenter-pencils clipped on. I found carpenter pencil clips for sale online, and they arrived. It turned out they weren't small enough to be "snug" on the pencils so I had to help them ou...
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I'm on my way to a new level of handiness or dorkiness... or maybe both at the same time. ...
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Gadget Update
A few months ago, I snidely pointed out that Motorola Droid marketing was aimed at men who were trying to compensate for something. And yet, that's the kind of phone I bought last week. I figured tha...
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Shopping is Hard; Let's Coin Phrases
It turns out that REI's selection of headlamps is not as good as Hallmark's, depending on your criteria. In related news, the Triclops Headlamp is still missing; all hail the Quadruped Headlamp. ...
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Two Hours of Industry lead to Two Days of Sloth
I tossed things out. I moved furniture. It made room in my apartment. This activity is kind of like combining Tetris along with hippo juggling along with deciding which hippo you can get along wit...
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Headlamp Ideas?
I lost the triclops headlamp. I need a replacement. I look like a dork when I wear a headlamp; the triclops headlamp was an effort to push the dorkiness so far that it came out the other side to awe...
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Gadget of Intent
The Samsung Epic looks like it's going to be a pretty sweet phone. (This is a good time to mention: Despite my place of employment, I don't know more about the Samsung Epic than you do. Its abilitie...
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Book Report: Snoop
Yesterday, my office-mate told a story about the struggle with stuff. Her house had a lot of clutter. She was sick of it. So she cleared stuff up. She got stuff organized. She gave stuff away. ...
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Book Report: Botany of Desire
This book by Michael Polan was fun. It's about four domesticated plants, talking about how some plants survive not by being tenacious but rather delicious. Or maybe beautiful or nutritious or intox...
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Book Report: Garbage Land
Yesterday was all errands, errands, errands. Except that one of those errands was "Return Garbage Land to the library." and since that library was in Berkeley, I made a couple of fun side trips. I ...
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Book Report: Charles Sheeler: Across Media
I am still catching up on email from the last couple of weeks. Going on business trip = distracting. Good thing I had this book report written up ahead of time. Ahem, Charles Sheeler: Across Media...
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Site Update: Contact Info
The next time you visit the site's contact info page, you might notice that I got a mobile phone. You're not the only one who noticed. Ron figured it out right away: "Ha! You got it so that you can...
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Book Report: Ready Made #16
I read an issue of Ready Made, a magazine for crafty re-users and recyclers. I am not sure what I think about it. It is witty and amusing. It was inspiring to read instructions for making furniture f...
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