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June 25, 2004
Mary Temple - 1 Million Ellipsoids
Artist Mary Temple finally completed her 1 million ellipsoid project, comprising several hundred orginal works. Drawn with one color of ink pen on a translucent vellum sheet, each work has 1000 to 5000 ellipsoids reflecting form and color in a thoughtful, yet playful and meditative manner. The works are sequential and took several years to get to the final millionth ellipsoid. I recently purchased this piece, which was completed near the end of the project. Everyone here loves looking at it.
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Posted by elise at 1:34 PM
June 18, 2004
Seven Commandments for Being an Extraordinary Person
26 years ago, I spent two weekends in an remarkable workshop that eventually developed into what is now known as The Forum, by Landmark Education. My main insight at the time, which has served me well throughout my adult life, is that the way I see the world, my belief-system, is only just one view, one perspective, how my mind makes order out of the universe. Everything I know to be true is just my interpretation. This insight helped crack my mind wide open, allowing me to thoughtfully entertain new ideas, adopting them for my own if they worked for me, and letting go of intellectual prejudices that no longer served me.
The second insight was that I, and only I, was responsible for my experience, happiness, and life. I could never again blame anybody else if I didn't like the way my life was working out.
Pretty good for a 17 year old.
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Posted by elise at 1:33 PM | Comments (1)
June 15, 2004
The Way We Eat Now
Harvard Magazine has a well researched article on how the American way of life is turning us into flabby fatties - The Way We Eat Now. Our bodies are just not built for the combination of a sedentary life and foods high in fat and sugar.
Hat tip to Ray at Sacking Rome.
Posted by elise at 9:49 AM
June 13, 2004
iSight Tripod
Apple design is legendary and well deservedly so. Thus I was surprised to find when I purchased my iSight video camera that the mounting attachments that came with the camera did not include an attachment for a camera tripod. If you affix the iSight to your Apple monitor with one of the included attachments, you have little flexibility with adjusting the position of the camera. Mounting the iSight on to a mini-tripod however, would solve the problem. Oddly enough, an easy tripod attchment mechanism was not part of the iSight's design. The Apple plastic iSight mount will fit over a tripod bolt, but there isn't enough room in the plastic opening to allow one to secure the mount with a nut.
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Posted by elise at 10:08 PM
June 12, 2004
Awful Plastic Surgery
Or in the case of this gal, maybe too much botox.
Is it me, or are things getting out of hand with plastic surgery in our culture? I saw Patti LaBelle on Ellen the other day and the woman had no wrinkles! None. Patti is 60 years old. It just looks weird. If you're 60 you should be showing at least some signs of age. Same thing with Bette Midler. She was on the Actor's Studio and looked younger than she did 20 years ago. Is it botox? surgery? both? It's sort of creepy when celebrities you've known about for years appear to grow younger. Not to say that I'm completely down on the concept. My 93 year old grandmother had a facelift when she was 88. The surgery practically killed her (seriously!), but she was happy with the results. And after the initial tightness wore off the first 6 months or so she really did look radiant. People would stop us when we were shopping and tell her how beautiful she was. She would tell them it was years of healthy living. Right. That and thousands of dollars of surgery. But it made her feel happier and at that age, I figure she can do whatever she damn well pleases.
Here's a site that will give anyone pause before taking the surgical plunge: www.awfulplasticsurgery.com.
Posted by elise at 12:01 AM
June 11, 2004
The Hamptons - I'm Nobody, Who Are You?
Spent Memorial Day in The Hamptons, New York City's version of Martha's Vineyard. (NYkers may take issue with that comparison, as, since NYC is the center of the world, MV would be Boston's version of the Hamptons. It's all amusing to me, a Northern Californian, where in the summer more people go TO the city during the weekend than leave it.) Found myself at a party on Saturday night hosted by the publisher of Gotham, LA Confidential, and other fine, extra large glossy magazines showcasing celebrities and parties. Found myself wandering in and wondering of the spectacle of many tan lithe twenty-somethings with gorgeous clothes and bodies to match. Kept wondering why a video camera was pointed my way until I noticed that I was standing behind James Lipton, the guy from the Actor's Studio. Other notable attendees included Tina Louise (Ginger from Gilligan's Island) and Ivana Trump. Finally managed to congregate with other fellow wonderers (what are we doing here?) and was able to relax and enjoy the party. Later a friend emailed along this poem by Emily Dickinson. Seems like they had spectacle parties in her time as well...
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Posted by elise at 2:01 PM
June 10, 2004
Brain Degeneration, yet one more thing to look forward to
Harvard researchers have found what those of us over forty have suspected for a while - that the brain's learning and memory genes decline with age, starting in your early forties.
The researchers studied well-preserved brain tissue from 30 people, aged 26 to 106 at the time of death. The changes they found occurred in a wide variety of genes, with functions that range from regulating sleep to metabolizing fat. But most interesting was a marked decline in function among 20 genes involved in learning, memory and the plasticity, or flexibility, of brain function. As the subjects aged, these genes became damaged, reducing their effectiveness. "Some genes begin to decline much earlier than expected, as early as the early 40s," says senior author Bruce Yanker, a professor of neurology and neuroscience at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital in Boston.
Here's the link to the full Wall St. Journal article. The link should work for a few days.
Posted by elise at 9:09 PM
San Francisco - Aikido Noe Valley
Aikido is simply the best way I know of finding your center, settling your mind, and developing your spirit. Aikido was developed this century in Japan by Morihei Ueshiba. After years of mastering different martial arts and years of seclusion and meditation, Ueshiba discovered that the true purpose of all martial arts is to preserve life and resolve conflict. Ueshiba developed Aikido based on this philosophy.
Aikido develops both practical self-defense skills and a joyful, compassionate approach to resolving conflict. Students learn throwing and pinning techniques and how to fall safely when thrown. Aikido techniques do not rely on superior strength or size and can be practiced by women and men of any age or physical condition.
My favorite place to train in San Francisco is Aikido of Noe Valley. Steve Gengo is the chief instructor there. Steve has been doing Aikido for more than 30 years and has been teaching for over 20 years. He has a PhD in psychology with extensive training in religion and philosophy, all of which he incorporates into his teaching, which in my opinion deeply enriches the classes.
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Posted by elise at 10:29 AM
June 9, 2004
San Francisco - Parking Garages
Here's one page I did manage to find on the San Francisco city website:
http://www.sfmta.com/cms/pgar/garages.htm
A list of city-owned parking garages, their locations, number of spaces, and links to more information. City-owned garages are the least expensive of the garages, so I've found this list to be quite useful.
Posted by elise at 5:17 PM
San Francisco - Pay Your Parking Tickets Online
So nice to see a large municipality like San Francisco allowing its residents to conduct necessary transactions, like paying for parking tickets, online.
Too bad the link is almost impossible to find once you get to the city's website. Here it is:
http://services.sfgov.org/PTP-MultipleCitations/intro.asp
Scroll down the page and click on "Begin" to start. Enter the citation number. (It says you can enter the license number, but when I did that nothing came up. The citation number, however, worked fine).
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Posted by elise at 5:02 PM
June 6, 2004
NYC - Robert Longo at the Whitney
Robert Longo
Untitled (Hell's Gate) 2001
Charcoal on paper
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Posted by elise at 1:24 PM
June 5, 2004
Intestinal Worms and IBD
I love stories like this... from the New Scientist, Diet of Worms Can Cure Bowel Disease. Studies have found that regular doses of pig whipworms can drastically relieve the symptoms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Chron's. Hats off to the brave volunteers for the first studies, who not knowing if this was going to work of not, intentially submitted their GI tracts to intestinal parasites.
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Posted by elise at 10:32 AM
June 4, 2004
Category RSS Newsfeeds
Not Always On now hosts RSS newsfeeds by category. Scroll down on the right hand side and click on "Syndicate this site" to see the feeds. (Click on the link below it - What does this mean? - for an explanation if you are unfamiliar with RSS and Syndication).
Given that this weblog is essentially a brain dump of random information and details I am amazed that 1) anyone other than myself reads it, and 2) that anyone other than my uncle (my only relative who knows what RSS is) would subscribe to the newsfeed of it. I'm pleased and flattered when someone links over here, but also scratch my head and wonder, why? Certainly people who are interested in the New York art postings will not be interested in the Sacramento restaurant postings. I have found myself holding back from truly brain dumping as much as I would like for fear of boring the very few people who do look at this site once in a while.
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Posted by elise at 11:05 PM