A brief trip back in time
Yeah, yeah, I know this site is supposed to be about futuristic stuff. But yesterday Neal Stephenson taught me that the past and the future are connected. (Well, I guess I knew that already, but he used better words and made it sound like a really cool idea.)
Tonight, my friend Lisa and I went to see a screening of some old educational films. Thanks to the films, I finally know how to behave so I'll get lots of dates, what to do if I catch VD from a trashy guy named Richard, how NOT to talk to kids about sex, and that 10 seconds is NOT a long enough time to brush my teeth. And I also learned that young people in the 1950's and 1970's looked a damn lot like the Brooklyn hipsters of today. Maybe someday, years from now, these will be considered educational films again, and people from the future will watch them to catch a glimpse of this country's wacky, wacky past...
Wednesday, October 8, 2003
More on futuristic apparel
Here is an article from a Scottish newspaper that talks about the kinds of things our clothes might do for us in the future. It doesn't cover the scary stuff, like when your pants tell the store who you are as you walk in the door, but it has some ideas I really like. I have a heart murmur, and always wonder if I'll end up with a robot heart someday, that whirs like a machine instead of beating. The article mentions a vest that would have the ability to monitor the wearer's heart rate and send an alert if it's irregular. This could be good to have until my robot heart arrives...although it would get embarrassing if my clothes started flashing warning lights every time a cute boy made my heart beat faster.
Here is an article from a Scottish newspaper that talks about the kinds of things our clothes might do for us in the future. It doesn't cover the scary stuff, like when your pants tell the store who you are as you walk in the door, but it has some ideas I really like. I have a heart murmur, and always wonder if I'll end up with a robot heart someday, that whirs like a machine instead of beating. The article mentions a vest that would have the ability to monitor the wearer's heart rate and send an alert if it's irregular. This could be good to have until my robot heart arrives...although it would get embarrassing if my clothes started flashing warning lights every time a cute boy made my heart beat faster.
Tuesday, October 7, 2003
Neal Stephenson, live!
Tonight I went to see Neal Stephenson at Barnes & Noble. He is the author of one of my favorite sci-fi books, Snow Crash. (I also liked The Diamond Age a lot.) I've never read anything of his that I didn't like. Instead of reading out loud from his new book (he said he chose not to do a reading because he figured we could all read to ourselves faster than he could speak the words out loud), he held a Q&A session with the audience. Among other interesting tidbits, I learned that he used to be obsessed with having the latest technology, but now does almost all of his writing with a fountain pen, and that he doesn't feel the need to stay long when he visits the locations he writes about, because all of his impressions of a place generally hit him within the first 24 hours of arriving.
And now for some robots.
The first one went to a stranger, and the second one went to my sister.
Tonight I went to see Neal Stephenson at Barnes & Noble. He is the author of one of my favorite sci-fi books, Snow Crash. (I also liked The Diamond Age a lot.) I've never read anything of his that I didn't like. Instead of reading out loud from his new book (he said he chose not to do a reading because he figured we could all read to ourselves faster than he could speak the words out loud), he held a Q&A session with the audience. Among other interesting tidbits, I learned that he used to be obsessed with having the latest technology, but now does almost all of his writing with a fountain pen, and that he doesn't feel the need to stay long when he visits the locations he writes about, because all of his impressions of a place generally hit him within the first 24 hours of arriving.
And now for some robots.
The first one went to a stranger, and the second one went to my sister.
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| starry robot | girly robot with briefcase and too much eyeliner |
Trying to fly
Wired News has an article about the Red Bull Flugtag event that I went to on Sunday. Basically, a bunch of brave (or crazy) people built homemade flying machines and attempted to fly them. In reality, the audience was just there to witness a bunch of strangely-shaped objects plunge into the Hudson River when they failed to stay in the air. But it was still kind of fun. I guess this isn't really about technology and maybe doesn't belong on my weblog, but at least it's a break from all the robot talk.
Wired News has an article about the Red Bull Flugtag event that I went to on Sunday. Basically, a bunch of brave (or crazy) people built homemade flying machines and attempted to fly them. In reality, the audience was just there to witness a bunch of strangely-shaped objects plunge into the Hudson River when they failed to stay in the air. But it was still kind of fun. I guess this isn't really about technology and maybe doesn't belong on my weblog, but at least it's a break from all the robot talk.
Sunday, October 5, 2003
Friday, October 3, 2003
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Colorful (and e-commerce-ful)
Look, I finally put some robots on my other website! For some reason, last weekend I decided to cut up some pieces of an amazon.com box and paint them bright colors. And tonight I finally finished painting little robots on them. The strange thing is, I have lots of nice paper and a bunch of canvases just waiting to be used. But instead, I was in the mood to paint on pieces of cardboard. I think the fact that it was an Amazon.com box gives them even more technological value. Hehe.
Question: Does the gray background I'm using for this site look bad on your monitor? On my laptop, it's a really nice gray, but today I have my big monitor plugged in and it is damned ugly.
Wednesday, October 1, 2003
His and her robots
Neiman Marcus has a gift idea that is MUCH more fun than pink and blue towels. But I think I will have to wait until they go on sale (about 100,000 times).
Neiman Marcus has a gift idea that is MUCH more fun than pink and blue towels. But I think I will have to wait until they go on sale (about 100,000 times).
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