Walking Tour

I dropped off the Chevy Malibu with Enterprise on 6th and Burnside. No surprises. On my way home, I stopped in at Laughing Horse Books, which used to be closer to my home, on Division.

Then I sauntered over to CityBikes, as I'm in the market for something to replace TinkerBell, my stolen steed.

Lastly I stopped in and interviewed a struggling small business doing its best to serve on a street of dreams, SE Belmont. I got to see what ASCAP letters look like, if you want to play covers in a public venue, plus we discussed the (stringent) rules around private partying.

My model for private parties is like Quakers renting space at like Mt. Hood Kiwanis. We hire local staff to cook for us on the premises, pay for floorspace. We bring in our own entertainment, our own trainers (e.g John Calvi). We're allowed to play covers (e.g. songs by Lisa Hubbell).

A private party may double as a teach in i.e. may serve a schooling function. If guests give donations, it may be in support of a worthy cause, such as mathematics reform in Portland Public Schools, long overdue, with the status quo really hurting our economy, destroying streets of dreams.

Lindsey's Flyer

Hey Everyone,

Duke's Landing
I'm playing at Duke's Landing Saturday Night at 8:00 PM August 29th, which is today. Sorry for the late notice. Duke's is still BYOB beer and wine with receipt. I've got three hours booked, so if you want to come out and jam or play a few songs, just show up. I'll be setting up at 6:00 PM if you want to sound check, practice some chords or just hang out. I don't want this to be an open mic, but more like a loose jazz and blues jam session.

Newsletter
I'm officially turning this weekly email into a Newsletter. I'll be providing updates on shows and my political and community activities. I'm currently working on a free garden and bicycle project, and would like to blog about them and maybe do Free School classes on them. If you don't want to receive these email updates just respond back to this email and request to be removed from my list.

Facebook
I've had a good time this week adding many of you as friends on Facebook. I've really enjoy reading everyone's comments and looking at their pictures. While Myspace is good for music, Facebook seems more like the right place to talk about other things like political and personal interests. It's really cool.

Take it easy and hope to see or hear from you all soon!

Lindsey Walker
Rock Star and Professional Revolutionary
lindsey_walk@hotmail.com
http://twitter.com/lindseywalker
http://www.myspace.com/lindseywalkermusic
http://www.facebook.com/people/Lindsey-Walker/100000210876194

Revectoring

Even as Wanderers is mostly guys, my digs on Harrison Street are frequented by mostly gals these days. We had five females as guests in the course of the day, complementing the ones who live here. The occasional male visits too, like Trevor recently, so it's a good balance overall, gender-wise. The Python is male (Barry), the chameleon too we think (Melvin).

I've been meaning to get an URL back to Gregor's post, about Wittgenstein's architecture in Vienna, with my reply, posted on the Wittgenstein's Aftermath list. That'll likely happen soon, interspersed with the "brain talk".

There's lots going on with the digital math track, including around translation and propagation, but it's too unfinished to share much about yet.

I sent AFSC a bunch of stuff relating to a "starvation = torture" campaign we might anchor, in collaboration with local Friends. We have John Calvi joining us for a Friend in Residence program extending through Quarterly Meeting this time.

I proposed a list called snakepit@python.org in our fruitful discussions on diversity@python.org. This list would serve as a playground for pirate hackers, gypsies, witches, other brands of FOSS boss who prefer to be deliberately provocative as a part of being responsibly direct, even when engaging in diplomacy (this in contrast to bending over backwards to never offend or insult). We'll see where that goes, to /dev/null most likely -- I have limited clout on the diversity list, where Aahz makes the rules, not me.

I talked to Farmer's today about replacing the company car, having received a FedEx about the settlement. Razz was a great vehicle. My thanks to the Subaru company (Fuji Heavy Industries) for producing a robust and reliable product. Yes, it's OK to share the "taxi" among partners (like band members) provided they're all properly licensed to drive in Oregon. The policy covers the car and whatever driver, not just the title holder e.g. 4D. I should visit DMV soon, then talk to Bob again (my agent).

Cyborg Anthro

Ignite Portland 4 - A Short Introduction to Cyborg Anthropology - Amber Case

View more documents from igniteportland.

Gnomedex 09 Cyborg Anthropology Caseorganic

View more presentations from Amber Case.

Daily Bulletin

We're gearing up to check out Milepost 5, not neglecting the local neighborhood block party, something to get back to.

On the edu-sig ministry list I'm pushing the analogy between teaching programming and teaching piano: each teacher has a style and usually the students come to the studio, although the idea of an itinerant piano teacher is also a well-known script (or program).

We also need to do more to link theater and computers, per this "agile" meme.

Is a musical instrument "event driven"?

Good Bye Party at Muddy Waters tonight...

Here I am using MW wifi, having a couple cans of Old German Premium Lager outta Pittsburgh. Laura was singing a moody birthday song when I got here, then turned the stage over to Lindsey Walker who is driving that Yamaha keyboard hard, delivering her unique and edgy sound.

Her Freedom Train is not to be missed. Everybody's Stupid expresses a darkly militant solipsism born of disillusionment, yet tinged with humor. Her Sex Doll, sung by the Laura, Lindsey on keyboard, Rick on guitar, all contributing vocals, is a true tour de force.

Dr. Tag and Beth have joined me, the blogger in the corner, geekazoid publisher of vintage brands of kookaholic gibberish (can't get enough eh?).

I'm thinking about our Wanderers at sea quite a bit, hoping that adventure is going OK.

Diversity Training

We've been working on TV show ideas, both the cooking show and the survival show, as components of what I think of as "digital math", though many aren't into seeing it that way (and I'm not into forcing 'em to, recognize the value of having diverse heuristics).

Glenn Stockton is my paradigm "neolithic" in that he has lots of survival skills. He was trained as a spy by the military and sent to Vietnam as a code cracker for NSA, but that's only the beginning of his story. He developed his crafts, including knife-making, in Arizona. I took lots of pictures of his homemade knife this morning, looks very professional.

This focus on knives led to the story of Sikhs coming to America, 14 year old boys and above simply expected to carry a dagger around. In lots of cultures (e.g. Bhutan's), you need those, not for committing atrocities nor even for self defense so much, but as an all purpose tool. You can open shell fish, cut steak, slice vegetables -- no cook would be without her knives, right? And yet of course the public schools had a problem with this, as one boy's all-purpose tool is another boy's weapon (some bully... unless there's real training in this picture, you can't trust 'em with such implements).

Lindsey has an all-purpose knife (Austrian) as a part of her costume, not concealed in any way. She's a kind and thoughtful person, in no way a bully. As a teacher, I'd be fine with her wearing that thing, Glenn wearing his. They're out in the wilderness after all, in the wilds of Arizona or New Mexico, or perhaps in Oregon high desert, teaching skills...

So you see where we fade over to "paramilitary" in this scenario, which sounds odd for a Quaker to be into, but then again, I'm not talking about knives as outward weapons, guns either really. Target practice is a fun sport. I enjoyed shooting that sawed-off that time...

Back to suburbia, I sketched my vision of this gymnasium with six simulators, like the one at OMSI, inheriting from pilot training. GM has a logo on 'em, as this is part of a government (public) program to teach driver's ed. In a simulator, one simulates inertia, acceleration, by tilting the entire platform. If you slam on the brakes, you literally pitch forward. The same simulators might run other programs as well, i.e. just because they help us be safer drivers doesn't mean they can't also make some of us more knowledgeable and aware in other knowledge domains.

Yes, this all sounds expensive, meaning we're creating jobs.

Some of this "diversity talk" is spilling into the diversity list within Python Nation. Our plans to have source code running right to left, would be considered "pilot project" at this stage. It's easy to interleave comments in Arabic or Hebrew, but how do the code editors handle the inherent left-to-right syntax of the Python language? We need field testing more than butt spinning.

The "user group in Baghdad" idea might work better as television at first. I've been networking locally to find sponsors. Having seen Mark Shiley's Untold Stories, I know there's a crying need for more and better hardware over there, more wifi. The Coffee Shops Network could franchise through Abu Dhabi maybe? I don't have a real game plan yet, as we still need more manga code around the whole idea.

Some banks have programmed their ATMs to permit donations to charity, presumably that goes on one's record as a "tax fact". Those of us who live nonprofit lifestyles, perform public service in the private sector, could use audit trails of this kind, but I prefer the social setting of a salon for comparing notes about what's a worthwhile cause (investment). The average bank ATM is unlikely to have anything close to the esoteric offerings a true coffee shop would have, thanks to Jack Daniels or whatever sponsor.

Speaking of sponsors, I'm continuing to push Unilever as a buyer for Pauling House, up for sale in a discreet setting i.e. hardly advertised. I only know cuz I'm board. Unilever is both Liptons and Ben and Jerry's down the street. As a kind of corporate HQS or back office, any company might benefit, in terms of PR. But not every company deserves to benefit so greatly. I've learned enough about the real estate game to know that turning buyers down is as much a part of it as accepting offers.

Before Prohibition...

:: one of many brands ::

:: little druggies ::

:: coke for da pope ::
(this wine had cocaine in it, so what?)

[ source blog ]

PPUG 2009.8.11

:: bug detector (from Flickr) ::

We're on top of the world tonight, at Webtrends, top floor in a downtown Portland sky tower. This company obviously treats its people well. Michelle of Emma (her company) is treating us well as well, showing up with large numbers of gourmet Hot Lips pizzas and premium beers.

I'm glad I didn't eat supper, as this is definitely the real deal.

The FM radio stations are fussing about the cloud cover. Tonight, the Perseid meteor shower reaches a climax but no one near Portland is going to see that. We've had clear skies until today, when it's overcast and rainy.

You'd need to drive out the gorge anyway, to escape light pollution, but this weather means there's no viewpoint within a convenient driving radius (as a family, we tried Rooster Rock one year, somewhat disappointing).

We're like 40 people here tonight, including one child (she's part of the videotaping crew), at least as many as at the Ruby group the other night. I'd call this a party, although the chatter is unrelentingly technical, with some lore mixed in.

My meeting with Patrick Barton earlier today focused on simulation games as key to recruiting intelligent players into policy-making. If you want to build customer loyalty around your power company's development strategy, then have them appreciate the world you face, including their own role in that world.

Patrick, an accomplished psychometrician, is persuaded that simulations often more effectively communicate about complex, nuanced systems than any number of research papers, though it's not either/or. Kids probably learn more about urban studies from playing Sim City than from most textbooks, for better or worse.

We're not talking first person shooters here -- more like Civilization (Patrick had just been playing it, sampling the state of the art).

The military has budget for such games, aimed at recruiting, why not civilians too? Are we serious about nation-building, or just giving lip service?

If your rural high desert academy sells power to the grid from its wind farm or micro-hydel, then let's visualize that as a part of the game. If you're a water bureau encouraging conservation, share a relevant simulation with the schools.

Just before this meeting I was at Laurelhurst Rehabilitation Center visiting TC. This is one of those "as good as it gets" care centers, where most of the overworked staff don't themselves get any health coverage as a part of their low-wage jobs.

Meeting Tom's basic requirements, e.g. pain meds on time, has been an uphill slog. Most people are less effective self advocates (especially if sedated), don't like to be squeaky wheels -- and so fall through the cracks sometimes (the system encourages this).

Speaking of health care, North Americans were going berserk on TV about it, indulging in what passes for political debate around here. Intelligent discussion is not what the public airwaves are about -- more like cartoons, corporately sponsored lunacy (i.e. entertaining fluff). At least it's participatory. The town meetings have been well attended.

Mindfulness and consciousness are separable concepts (per another filing today).

As AFSC rep and liaison, I've been getting some readings from various points within the organization, helping me grok what some of the issues are. I'll write more about that in some other post. Carol (my mom) is on the board, so between the two of us, we get some good overview.

Michelle did a short talk on the optparse module (I remember exploring that on Amtrak's Coast Starlight for amusement, some years ago). She has a nice loud voice and cheerful demeanor. It's no wonder she's our leader. Her example code spits out a "Python meeting date" given a -m month and -y year. If you don't want to go, use the -e option and the Python Oracle provides an excuse.

Adam Lowry is giving a full-fledged talk, originally a candidate for OS Bridge. This is about automated testing for Python projects, e.g. unit testing, functional testing, and web testing.

The Standard Module's unittest module is fairly minimal. It's a good place to start but gets difficult. A 3rd party module called nose is Adam's preferred solution. py.test is also worth considering. Nose sniffs out any callable (e.g functions or classes) that matches a simple pattern (has the string "test" in it etc.), allows for setup and tear down. Doctest is somewhat limited. Nose will work with it though.

Fakes, dummies, stubs and mocks provide simplified behaviors, basically simulate working components. For example, the decorator @mock.patch() will replace a callable with some other callable. We call this "monkey patching". mox replays / verifies against expectations. Suppose you want to simulate a database failing or other glitch, without actually forcing that behavior for real. Testing libraries put your code in a simulator, apropos of the above.

Could high schools have simulators, like OMSI has? Patrick and I were yakking about teaching driving skills, but you could use simulators for other purposes as well.

Now we're looking at Twill, a tiny language for primitive web testing. Windmill is probably better than Selenium according to Adam. This is if your project has Javascript and requires in-browser testing.

Hey, check out Igal's write-up, quite succinct and not "all over the place" like mine.

Lightning Talk

[KU adds, in 2013:] This is like one of those rants in Uru, some guy in an animated book, leaving a message in a semi-crazed, even frantic state.  One comes across these recordings later.  They lead you deeper into the mysteries of the (language) game.

To just bleep over the concentric hierarchy of polyhedra, based around a unit volume tetrahedron, is to me a terrifyingly cowardly decision, is a threat to our shared future ... "How could humans do this to themselves?" I find myself asking....

So then, when I go off and vent by making a little video suggesting I'm just dealing with quacks, readers looking over my shoulder can at least see where I'm coming from. It drives them crazy too (some of them) as I'm not the only die-hard in my little camp.

[math-teach, March 14, 2010]

X-refs:
Forbidden Knowledge
Back on the Beat
Incomprehensible?
Focal Points
Buried Treasure
Pointful Gossip

PSF Posting

[fragment of a thread on the PSF members list, hyperlinks added, posting Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 2:13 PM ]

>> (how about sponsoring members at least get
>> a sticky decal on a Python Kingdom decal sheet,
>> like Yahoo! puts out? -- calling it a Kingdom
>> feeds the Monty Python conceit of having
>> knights, like Sir Laura (I was also suggesting
>> passports awhile back, for $9.95 from the PSF gift
>> shop, get a stamp for each Pycon and/or
>> EuroPython you attend)).
>
> Too cheesy... we have standards. ;-)
>

The Yahoo! decal sheets were pretty slick at OS Bridge, I'm uploading a picture:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/3796413880/

With the passports, it'd be fun to imitate real nation state passports very closely, with similar watermarks and official-looking bling.

When this Python geek goes through passport control, it'd be fun to fumble and hand 'em the wrong one by mistake, then apologize, give 'em the "real" one (whatever that is). And don't forget to embed RFID! (see if Stallman gets mad, give him a free one).

I don't know if any of our sponsoring members are rich enough to have a fleet of Gulfstreams or LearJets, but if they wanted to take the PSF logo and apply it to the tail of one of those airplanes, I think we should seriously consider accepting that offer, unless we really think the company involved is too cheesy (but then it probably wouldn't have jets? -- not necessarily, Swiss have jets, and cheese both).

That's pie in the sky talk I realize.

Speaking of which, how about spending the money on a real flag, the kind you run up a flag pole and unfurl? Maybe at future Pycons, like at a Hyatt or whatever, we could ask 'em to fly it somewhere, maybe under the US or Georgia one, or the Italian one if this is Rome (Vatican?).

My role model is OLPC to some extent as I think G1G1 was pretty brilliant, despite the low turnout. The goal was worthy and we think spreading awareness of free tools is like offering free medicine in some situations, i.e. you don't have to take out a loan to manage your banking system, just write it in house, no "piracy" need apply.

I'm not sure I buy that the Python community is intrinsically averse to marketing. The "Python fits your brain" and "batteries included" tag lines were both worthy and effective. Congratulations to the people behind those.

The free spin Python gets from xkcd is to-die-for, all the more so because it's free. Pythons in general are good advertising (we have one, it's beautiful) and we hardly pay them a dime.

I think what turns people off is the idea of "aggressive push advertising" which stomps on sister languages i.e. we obviously love the Republic of Perl and have no interest in profiting at the expense of our close allies across the board. I'm all for a big tent approach and think my "just use it" tag line, homage to Nike's, is properly neutral in this regard ("just use something else" is equally valid).

I'd love to see Camels on some jet tails, not talking about the tobacco company's.

Hey, I realize my suggestions sound over-the-top and unrealistically expensive, but if you think of a TV show designed to teach real skills, like Sesame Street for geeks and geek wannabes, then these "world domination" memes could just become part of the woodwork, i.e. the backdrop for the show is "geeks making it happen" and guess what, it ain't so bad. Not too 'Mad Max', not too 'Blade Runner'.

Kids are really learning relevant stuff for a change in this parallel science fiction TV world (this "other tomorrow") that seems a lot less hellish -- so a good recruiting tool, for geekdom in general (the show would be more like "OSCON meets Make:" i.e. a mixture of software and hardware, device controlling by means of scripting, with lots of socially meaningful "helping people" type stuff that our women more enjoy (guys are more easily satisfied, by simple explosions, loud noises...)).

We'd want real geeks for talking heads, lots of skits like on Monty Python. Could be fun. Presumes a culture that really cares about its young people though, so maybe Japan or like Russia?

Kirby

Quakers 101

Note from a PNW Friend: my daughter worked hard as a babysitter, saved her money, and is right now buying a larger aquarium for her friend Barry, a python. I'm proud that she would share her good fortune with a fellow creature, a member of the reptile kingdom.

Quakers tend to be somewhat eclectic in their choice of Friends and fellow travelers, one of our liberal hallmarks as "among the unprogrammed" (deprogrammed?). Jesus is a role model here in that he liked hanging out with tax collectors (we have those too), Roman soldiers, other people the zealots would never rub shoulders with (cuz they're zealots, i.e. "left behinders").

Here's one of me eating sushi with friends in Seattle:

Yakking with Old Timers

I was over in Oregon high desert recently, checking in with some friends. Some of these boomers have lived here a long time by now, given boomers are turning 60 or thereabouts, plus the land was settled by immigrants rather recently, mostly post Lewis & Clark.

In my view there's some paranoia around this 2011 troop withdrawal. Why isn't that finished already? They went in there really quickly. Is there some problem with logistics?

That was the hope with this last election, plus the Iraqis had one too, same result: end the occupation now! (that was over a year ago). We were at least hoping to see some real work getting done, to get our economy re-pointed in a positive direction. Is someone holding out for a higher salary here?

2011 is a "debate year" in anticipation of 2012, meaning they'll want us to maybe return a different verdict this time, re-fight the same fight, maybe get a different outcome? They're hedging aren't they?

They made 'em vote seven times in Palau, before they "got it right" and said parking nuclear weapons in a tropical paradise was okey-dokey. State wouldn't accept defiance on this issue, wouldn't take no for an answer, especially from indigenous women (the most bravely opposed).

The name of this game is Operation Dilly Dally isn't it? There's a constipation problem at some level in the Ruling Party (that'd be Democrats yes?). Someone is being all foot draggy.

Washington DC is still trying to colonize isn't it, force its will down our throats? Not all Oregonians are equally appreciative.

Count me suspicious, and I'm not the only boomer who thinks NPR is too spineless. Let's debate this now in 2009, move over health care. Why aren't the troops flooding home, top story? Our BS detectors are set on high, so please be cogent and succinct. No lame excuses this time OK?

Before leaving Portland I had back to back meetings with Quakers: Oversight and Quarterly Meeting Planning. During the former, I ranted about "bland Protestants" who suck (how geeks talk sometimes). Our assistant clerk made some wry quips about that. He has a background in journalism I think.

Ban Liposuction?

Some of us geeks have been thinking it'd make sense for Americans to tighten their belts and forgo any elective cosmetic surgeries in a time of war.

Our more ethical ancestors of WW2 vintage would not have disgraced themselves by spending money on vanity, when our brave men and women were being stop lossed overseas, warehoused in high heat, with sand storms, nothing to do except waste their young lives.

It's a national tragedy, these occupational forces, far from home and with no obvious mission. If 100K troops in Iraq is really necessary, then we really shouldn't be all frivolous and party minded while they're out there. That's just ugly. Geeks seem in agreement.

People who know how to do nose jobs should be volunteering their services, as many are coming home with broken faces, having been sent there by power mad neocons with no relevant training and no coherent plan (Wolfowitz for example: not really a "soldier" by any stretch of the imagination, nor really all that skilled as a civilian either).

Where I ended up on Facebook: "I'm thinking of a harmless videogame for soldiers where they watch liposuction candidates float in this lava lamp, get to pop 'em. High desert entertainment. They think maybe this is nixing cosmetic surgeries but there's actually no link."

Plus maybe call it a "larva lamp" instead of a "lava lamp"? Reminds me of Wall-e.

And from Synergeo: Troops will like this idea: you get a big fat-ass USAer rotating on your screen, an image of some slob wanting to be less fat, and you "pop" her or him, meaning the procedure won't get done, not as long as you're sitting in the desert under the thumb of has-beens with no brains or balls.

Tech Talk

I was defending the view on the Wittgenstein list that Microsoft needs to cut loose from Visual Basic, which is holding it back, keeping it less competitive than it should be.

That MSFT has started committing to Linux is a good sign, goes with the rise of Codeplex, other FOSS commitments, the Iron (Fe) languages in particular. Fe and Hg (Mercurial), I like the sound of it.

What happened was the VB lineage sort of dead ended in VB.NET, which, as one of the other posters put it, is just C# without the semi-colons. I think that's a good thing, as C# is in the C lineage, as is Java. You're not wasting your time learning it.

However, after FoxPro, what did Microsoft have for a high level language, given VB is dead? C and Java are system languages, not agiles. Sun is working on Jython whereas PSF has CPython, both worthy projects (CPython is really the standard by which the other Pythons are gauged).

The importance of web frameworks and MVC, the consequent need for a DB API on the server, and for the ability to ship Javascript templating with the HttpResponse, are what's driving the market in a lot of ways.

GUI development has shifted to HTML/CSS and Javascript libraries (e.g. JQuery). The back end is handled by feeding multiple threads and/or multiple processes, across many servers.

However, we still need thick clients or hybrids like Java applets. Delphi is another good thick client development language, but isn't Microsoft's. Perl, Scheme, Ruby... all of these get used.

If you're on a Windows platform, I recommend cygwin. Windows started moving towards POSIX with NT, but still has a ways to go in following Apple. Wrapping a flavor of what used to be called Unix is what OS X is all about.

There's nothing to prevent Redmond from following suit with a .NET version, cross-leveraged with Mono. That's pretty much what's happening anyway, informally, with people running Qt, GTK, wx, Tk, all their other favorite thick client widget kits, atop both Ubuntu and Windows.

Apple is more in its own world, busy with iPod (a whole religion unto itself), but actually it's in the same GNU / POSIX boat as well. So we're almost there, in terms of getting almost everyone under a big FOSS tent, proprietary around the edges, lots of booths with secret sauces.

Like I'm not saying we're losing diversity, just that you won't necessarily care as much which operating system you're using. The market will still divide into Coke and Pepsi lovers, but in both cases it's dark colored with bubbles, tastes sweet, with Apple as Royal Crown.

Note I've said nothing about Google's Chrome here, more out of ignorance and out of wanting to keep MSFT my focus. Let's see what they do.

Beating the Heat

Those of you following PNW weather (means you probably live here; PNW = Pacific Northwest), know we're experiencing some record highs. Like tonight will supposedly be the hottest on record, in failing to fall below 75 degrees Fahrenheit. What makes Portland bearable in summer are the really cool evenings, so these ultra dog days have a way of sapping our will to live.

For my part, I finally got that haircut, from a new establishment on Hawthorne recommended by Glenn. I'd let it puff out, getting into wolverine territory (in my own mind anyway), a somewhat idiotic doo for triple digit heat (note that I'm not using Celcius here). Real dogs shed, or their owners give 'em buzz cuts. Being my own owner in this case, I thought it was time.

Another strategy was to swap in Pauling House in place of Cubespace, as a co-working zone. Of course this is less than ideal, as it takes keys to get in, but I'm a sucker for air conditioning... and coworkers.

Dr. DiNucci was already there when I arrived. We gabbed about "passing the torch" issues, much on my mind. He's had experience running groups, had dharmas to share. Not long after he left, our president Terry Bristol showed up, eager to test the new little external hard drive he'd ordered. He's working with Jeff on some projects, filled me in on some grand schemes.

In addition to his "booze 'n schmooze" programming (a kind of Wanderers writ large), Terry is developing some ideas around conferences, all with a focus of building Portland's reputation as a City that Works (civic pride runs high around ISEPP, as we know we've got talented people, and that's really what one needs).

Fred Meyer, on the other hand (see below), works pretty well for public coworking. Show up with your laptops and start making those plans, cast your "away teams", spin off your committees. If you're used to hanging out around Quakers, you've already got 350 years worth of templates and processes (no, not "Robert's rules"), so might as well use 'em.

So what was I coworking on, between conversations? I'm focusing on the Wittrs group a lot, connecting dots for the Wittgenstein people, also on math-teach, a standard stop on my beat. The Free Skool meeting I'd planned to attend had to go on the back burner. I met with Trevor instead, about some new finds, another talent. He told me about a new Bucky book, some anthology with stories culled from the archive. He liked the posting about the nuts and bolts of the archive itself, but found the rest of low caliber, his own scholarship far better. Based on his review, I'll likely shelve reading it for awhile, maybe wait for an airplane trip. One thing he did like learning: the name of he who'd invented "Dymaxion" for Bucky, a detail he'd long wondered after.

I've also been in this Jungian meditation about egos, what goes on when they have an encounter. An ego is like an API to much deeper complexes (saying "complex" with no hint of "dysfunctional" -- some are just what the doctor ordered). Artists tend to be more aware of this and are able to amp up the bandwidth, intuit APIs like Spock does on Star Trek. He always seems to know what buttons to press, even when the instruction book is in Klingon (the universal translator is never explained, but that alone would explain the high living standards on that show, humans mostly at peace among themselves, just fighting for their lives against Martians, or whatever ETs).

Shopping Again

Derek phoned to alert me to a new phenomenon in our neighborhood (no, not those UFOs in the parking lot): an outdoor patio for Peet's customers, on the roof of Fred Meyer.

My take was: lets turn the rest of this deck into an Asian garden of sorts, something that'd work in winter as well.

Just a fantasy, as Hawthorne hasn't gone car-less yet, though it's tempting to make it so, more like Venice.

Scraping 'em off the roof of Freddies, like so many cockroaches, might be feasible though, encourage more Euro-style shopping, a little here, a little there, on foot or by bicycle (Burley is an Oregon company (considering Python? that JRun OK for ya?)).

That's how neighbors use the place, with string bags and pull carts, none of this SUV-centric "freight train" approach, as if the nearest next watering hole were 400 miles distant. This isn't Wyoming after all.

However I do understand we're getting more out-of-towners these days, wanting to stock up on souvenirs 'n stuff. Recommendation: leave the rig at your motel, use Tri-Met, sample the Portland lifestyle for real. We've got a fareless square 'n everything.

We've got no aquarium quite like Chattanooga's (nobody does), but our art museum is top notch, has a Snelson, plus PDX (the airport) has those equus-looking things, plus there's OMSI and Oregon Zoo, a deep Max tunnel.

Check us out! Bring the kids!

More Lobbying

:: usb building ::

I ended up spending a wonderful afternoon with a retired government employee, also an old friend, from a political family from Montana, from whence Tara recently returned, soon to be on to a next adventure.

I was field testing some of my lobbying lines (so on the clock), such as "all public schools are charter schools" (in the sense of "having a charter"), another way to break down this perception that just because you're newer and different, you're an alien interloper.

Well yes, that you may be, but you have a right to a place in the sun nevertheless. This land is your land. People under 40 have a right to start their own public schools, learning from boomer mistakes, imagine that.

We went to Jakes for the happy hour, had real crawfish, exotic to both of us.

I was being the "ebullient vacuum cleaner salesman", one of my characters, and yukking it up about Ali G. This was more than a coincidence as I first found out about Ali G. at Jakes, thanks to Wardwells.

If there's an opportunity to brag about knowing Nirel and her family, I'm known to take it, plus Borat was my first MySpace friend (after that first default guy everybody gets).

My next move was to discover at Living Room Theaters that U2 in 3D was not the Pixar 3D movie Up (duh). I'd gotten those two confused somehow and maybe they canceled out, as I ended up back in my control room, hacking on stuff (my usual pass time).

I loved having some fun in the sun though.

I love bragging about my friends, which maybe gets me in hot water with girl friends especially, as I'll brag to them about each other, but not because we're in some kind of playoff or love tournament (that'd be too stupid, we're a team).

My girl and boy friends (XXs and XYs) are all winners in my book, even if I'm not around to brag about 'em. And don't get me started on my relatives, such characters!

HP: Half Blood Prince (movie review)

We piled into the car for this one, the girls going for a 2nd time, mom and I first timers for this one, though HP veterans of sorts, plus I recall reading at least one of the books maybe.

I parked my Razz @ Lloyd Center outside, from where Robin got stolen.

We're deep into teenhood at this point (and in the thick of a plot that's hard to follow if you haven't been) all concerned about drugs and the opposite sex, personality trajectories.

On Sean's Wittgenstein list, I call it "a namespace" as in "Next up: Harry Potter (gonna pile in the car with the family and revisit that namespace). Tara and I both Slytherin."

We're also into role modeling inter-generational relations. Like Dumbledore gets to pry into Harry's sex life (not much to see), wink about that Jamaican muggle in the opening scene (hey, I liked her too, thought this movie might really be going places (poor Potter, just has to go with the flow, hoping for strokes of good fortune, something more than a dismal diet of death eaters (wow, luck in a bottle! (but that might've been a placebo?)))).

There's more talk of "the loo" (even wizards have to go), including a fight scene in one amidst urinals (a place to compare wanding skills). Adults let their hair down more, booze it up without apology, confess to infirmities, though Dumbledumb is still very clever and brave, wants Harry to know this.

For the most part there's plenty of respect in both directions, across generational lines.

Notably absent are wholesome same-sex infatuations, though males do sit in bed together, grab at one another. A lot of the time they just fight and break things, more like British soccer fans. The XXs are all predictably fixating on and/or competing for XYs, include no one like Willow, ironically more of a real witch, but then that's Sunnydale for ya, lightyears ahead of ol' Hogwarts in some ways, as Giles could tell ya.

Of course you could read something namby pamby into those suppressed memories of Tom Riddle, potentially ruinous. He seems into especially dark research with his "you're not like the other profs" pick up line. We shouldn't fixate on him except in small doses as he's guaranteed to make ya grow up twisted, like that unhappily married Malfoy character.

Back to the Wittgenstein list, and fading out with a plug for my own readings and writings (a kind of syllabus):

So, I'm just back from the latest Harry Potter, which is all about an inner circle shamanic elite that gets to do drugs, with adult supervision, even sometimes slips them to others (dangerous) -- lots of poisons in play.

For more serious connected literature, check Walking with Nobby, chronicling conversations with Norman O. Brown, one of my favorite thinkers who cites both Wittgenstein and Bucky Fuller in quite a few places. That's a good intersection for me too, one I used [sic] around Pycon this year, per this blog post for example:

http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2009/03/airplane-reading.html

(and don't forget the 57 minutes of me lecturing, plus another 6 or so if you track down the stash of talks on Blip TV -- gives a sense of what my tribe is like).

I came to NOB's Love's Body through Ernest Becker's Denial of Death (which Woody Allen plugs in Annie Hall). I think this literature is a good entre to Wittgenstein, as it's all about "meaning and bandwidth" which connects to "waxing and waning" of one's logical world, in an ethical dimension. "The wages of sin is narrowing meaning" might be a way to summarize Nobby's view (though he was distancing himself more from Christian imagery towards the end there).

Mom found it hard to understand much of the dialog, even with the hearing aid, given the thick accents all round. Also, I was reminded why it's good being part of an audience sharing a theater: you get all those titters, chuckles and guffaws i.e. it's not a made-for-TV "ghost audience" in some idiot box.

2nd Life, 2nd World

I was yakking with a smart cookie professor the other day, global studies type, about the origins of "3rd world", originally Nehru's idea for "non-aligned" i.e. "not playing stupid cold war games" (hot even stupider) so more neutral, like the Swiss.

So Switzerland is, technically speaking, 3rd world. But that sounds wrong cuzza all the bastardization that went on, in the hands of economists mostly, as they needed to red line various slum zones in the Global U, talk about where our student body is especially under-served.

So "3rd world" came to mean something else i.e. "developing", fostering the bogus idea of being "developed already" like at the end of some road. I'm glad I don't think that way, it'd make me real stupid. I thank Princeton U for some smart Woody Woo types, who helped keep me on my toes.  My dad was also a smart cookie.

In the middle of all this, you had "2nd world" (like if you have a 1st, e.g the US, and a 3rd, e.g. India, then you've gotta have a 2nd one, right? e.g. the USSR) but all that started crumbling with the withering of those states sharing a workingman's Marxism, to where hardly anyone talks about "2nd world" any more.

Vilnius is clearly 1st whereas Tashkent is more iffy, being in the Stans, ergo more like Florida i.e. undeveloped, with pockets of colonists from the colder North e.g. Michigan and the UK e.g. Orlando (lotsa timeshare), so 3rd.

I think an elegant solution is to repurpose "2nd world" to go with "2nd life" (as in "avatars") i.e. make it mean "Cyberia", our spanking new cyberspatial world. That keeps our "from Russia with love" overtones, plus jibes with a lot of our chachkas (= swag), our aesthetic motifs.

"World domination" means mastery over server farms, i.e. keeping our data, our blogosphere, or photostreams, backed up and secure, another way of "saving the world" (ala Google Earth and like that).

This all makes a lot of sense eh? I'll run it by my Esozone peers for inclusion / injection into our Portland-sourced viral marketing campaigns.

Python Nation is 2nd world, as is Uru.

Planning Meetings

Glad to get a cell call from Alaska, even if the bubble was weak, Anna explaining why I'm not included in recently completed TECC specs, mainly cuz half of my posts are but a mouse click away from something R-rated (more average for gen/X and after, but we're grays after all, still working hard to hunker down and play professional, in grand boomer style).

Thanks to Chris Brooks for sending the next meeting agenda, looks fine to me.

Lindsey has exotic senior management experience I'm envious of, tempting to send her to work under Sara Ford @ Codeplex to pick up the latest in XP DNA, then maybe throw her at Providence, but I'm not her handler, just one more on a growing list of local fans (OK, so I admit to having not met many Southern Baptist types in my day (even liberals need mind expansion therapy on occasion, especially if wanting to survive in Portland)).

I'm doing the rounds on Tink with 360compass this evening, although that's not a meeting for business really, just going down a checklist before Larry flies himself off to the Big Sky State (Montana) to meet up with family.

Welcome to Abigail, joining Pacific University, happy to get your call after your long drive across the continent. ISEPP fellow G. Stockton and I were out strategizing when you phoned, eating wild berries (Dr. A. Taylor, also an ISEPP fellow, met with me in Oregon City last week, before my meeting with Dr. T. Khuri, all meetings productive).

Looking forward to Keiko's new art show. CSN is sitting pretty for now, doesn't need any help with marketing. Patrick and I are both focused on motherboard failures (Diane's went kablooey too).

On the PSF front, here's an unofficial breakout of members by passport authority. Pycons in India, Philippines and Argentina were recently mentioned (no reason they can't happen in parallel). Vern Ceder is making progress with Chairman Steve's idea for a poster session (I take no credit for that one).

Argentina 1
Australia 5
Brazil 1
Canada 8
Denmark 1
France 1
Germany 8
Iceland 1
Israel 1
Netherlands 4
New Zealand 1
Korea 1
Sweden 5
Switzerland 1
UK 3
USA 70

[source: PSF Members list, adapted for local use]

And last but not least, my thanks to Gregor in Vienna for cutting out some of the fat in my "algorithm for Ada" (Bernoulli numbers) the other day. Edu-sig is a veritable gold mine by this time, if Pythonic math is your thing (and for other reasons as well).