Kokochi

i bought a new hat

Made by an Austin designer. I have bear ears now. Yeah!

Temporary Posting Change

From today until Monday (3/15), I'll be at the SXSW conference. I'm on a panel called Moblog Nation and we have group moblog that I will posting at along with Adam Greenfield, Mike Popovic, and Molly Steenson.

There is also a public moblog for SXSW participants.

Check it out!

Heading to Texas

On my way to the train to go to work from where Dav will scoop me up and we'll fly to Texas and participate in the South by Southwest conference. But see that I've already passed Texas? Can't wait to see Austin!

cool research

Transcription by Dav
Last night Dav and I were interviewed by a professor and his PhD student from Berkeley about our blogs, how we use phone cams or digital cameras, what we want as features in a perfect world, and how we integrate all this blog/cam stuff in our lives. Dav and I showed them our public and private blogs (ahh, the wonderful memories!!) and yapped for two hours. I'll link their research site later as I'm about to get on the train for work.

The professor's name is Professor Marc Davis at UC Berkeley's School of Information Management and Systems (SIMS). His Ph.D. student is Yuri Takhteyev. Check out their research site. Fascinating stuff!

Going to work by train

Transcription by Anonymous:
I've been meaning to try and take CalTrain to work. I love public transportation - to see all sorts of people I normally wouldn't, and to have time to sit and read or think. Dav is taking the car in for a check-up so I'm on the train now :-). Got my new Ready Made magazine to read. And my car is double-deck so I'm up here with great views!!

*update* I got off at San Mateo station and it took me a brisk 30 minute walk to get to the office. I figured I'd finally get in shape with all this walking, but with walking from the SF station to home, I'd have like 2 hours daily of walking!

And you know what? I just found out our office is closer to the station one after San Mateo...and it's like 3 blocks away! As we were walking to lunch just now, someone pointed out a passing train that I could clearly see just down the street! Much better!

Mocha

Barak brought his dog, Mocha, to work. Everyone is smiling and playing with her now.

Cheu

Dav's old housemate, Cheu, is originally from Singapore, and now lives in Brazil. She moved there like me - to live with a love. She flew into SF for 2 days from Singapore on her way back to Brazil after a visit home. We went out for Brazilian butt-shaking music. There were some great dancers, but I swear, their feet moved a mile a minute. I felt like I should oil my hip joints to get more movement. How do they do that?

I love this picture of Cheu and Dav.

Happy Girls' Day

I almost forgot! I had a set like this (well, not that elaborate) and remember playing with the decorations. So much detail, it was better than any doll set you could dream of. Yeah, the Japanese aristocrats had crazy notions about beauty back then. Wanna hang around wearing this? They spent all their time writing poetry with just the right symbolism, on just the right paper that matched the season and was scented by perfect perfume, and with their hyper practiced calligraphy skills. Back then, your writing reflected who you were. They focused so much on beauty that the starving common people finally revolted. Read about the Heian period and The Tale of Genji to get a sense of how self-focused the aristocrats were!

I have the right to vote

I will never forget the fact that being able to vote is a relatively recent privilege, and considering what's going on in the world, I deeply appreciate this right. I will walk barefoot through snow to vote. But that's why I live in sunny CA.

My voting place is in the neighborhood elementary school. In the hallway, kids were learning the letter P and painted various People figures. One was a cute purple dog though.

Sunday evening music

Quicktime 6.5 Movie (.3gp) Download free player.	Quicktime 6.5 Movie (.3gp) Download free player.
Quicktime 6.5 Movie (.3gp) Download free player.	Quicktime 6.5 Movie (.3gp) Download free player.

Last night Dav and I went out to see some bands play. My friend Mieko (with whom I used to work, was in Tokyo while I was living there, and is back in SF now) is really into music and I love her taste. If she recommends a show, I go.

Dav posted about this so I'll let that describe the music and just add my phone videos here. I wish they were better quality ... that theremin instrument was wild, beautiful, and eerie all rolled together ... the "sex kitten" Dav mentions was amazingly seductive in her puffy white opera wig of curls, exaggerated long pearl necklace, and tight dress with peeking cuts and random words stuck on the back. She convinced me that she was serious when she moaned, "L.A......freeeeeeeewaaaaaay." The pictures of her here show her during the 2nd half of the show when she came out fully covered in gold, with her hair sticking up in 5 directions, twirling pink glittery nun-chuks.

And yes, when we got to finally hear Tussle live, that was cool. I don't know how to describe them, but they are totally worth it. They really play well together.

Very fun night!