October 31, 2003
Timon & Lori
Timon and Lori were out in San Francisco for a conference this week and popped down to visit me and took me out to lunch. It was great fun to see them and to get to show off my town! Of course it was the first rainy day we've had all season...
October 30, 2003
Life of Pi
Finished Life of Pi by Yann Martel today on the bus. I chose it because its one of the options for Silicon Valley Reads. (I actually voted for Daughter of Fortune since it seemed more appropriate)
Life of Pi was great though! Its a crazy story of an Indian boy shipwrecked for months on a lifeboat with a Bengel Tiger!
October 29, 2003
Hay, Libraries & The Tech
Spent a fun day with Alan and Margaret. Alan and I started his Hay-in-Art web site. Then we met up with Margaret and some folks from her library to tour the new King Library. We had some tapioca bubble tea, took a quick trip to the Tech museum and then came back here to look at family photos.
October 28, 2003
All Volunteer Communication Meeting
Tonight was an All-Volunteer Communication Meeting, which we hope to have quarterly. I was the emcee and tried to video tape it but carelessly didn't check the sound and had a microphone with a dead battery so I have an hour of video with absolutely no sound at all. Oh well. I had hoped to put video clips up on the online community, but we'll have to settle for screenshots and notes this time around.
October 27, 2003
Flowers & Fruit
Some new collages I've been working on:
Magazine clippings and paint over digital photos.
October 26, 2003
Dewey Decimal System of Love
Finished The Dewey Decimal System of Love by Josephine Carr. Pretty awful. I was hoping for a fun, light book with a librarian lead, but this was pretty terrible. Nice slice of Philadelphia life though.
October 25, 2003
Leonardo's Laptop
Finished Leonardo's Laptop by Ben Schneiderman. Not great, but maybe I've just been around user-centered design too long already.
Pieces of April
Saw Pieces of April at the Pruneyard. Katie Holmes makes thanksgiving dinner for her dysfunctional family.
October 24, 2003
More Friday Fun
Another fun Friday with a Michael's shopping trip, a Power Puff Girls birthday cake, Krispie Kremes, and Ellen on TV. BobbiLynn even tried to teach me to crochet (though I was so awful I may go back to trying to knit instead).
October 22, 2003
Birthdays
Happy birthdays today to BobbiLynn and Alan (coming soon: hayinart)!
October 21, 2003
Quicksilver
Just finally finished Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1) (it helped to have a nice long plane ride to dedicate to it). He's one of my favorite authors (loved Cyptonomicon, Diamond Age, Snow Crash, etc.)
Part II, The Confusion, is supposed to be coming April 13, 2004.
October 20, 2003
After the Wedding
Apparently Karen's sister Cheryl is making t-shirts that say "After the Wedding" since so much was put off for all the amazing work that Brian and Karen and everyone involved undertook to plan this wonderful event.
I've posted a few pictures from
and please feel free to email me others and I'll add them, or I'm sure they'll be posting some on their web site once they're back from the honeymoon.October 19, 2003
The Reception
Here are some photos from the reception!
The first dance
The perfect flower girl
Two cakes -- one chocolate and one not...
Mom & Bill with the Dahls
Betty, Mom, Emily, Brian & Eduard
Grandma Reich with Aunt Judy & Uncle Gil
Hanna & Brian
and me and Hanna (photo by Jane)
Mom and Bill (photo by Aunt Barbi)
More coming soon!
The Wedding
Brian and Karen are married! The announcement is in the NY Times!
(click to enlarge photos)
Breaking the glass
Here are some from Aunt Barbi (added 10/26)
The Vows
Betty's Reading
Emily's Reading
Lighting the Unity Candle
Time to kiss
October 18, 2003
Rehearsal & Rehearsal Dinner
At the rehearsal, Karen carried a bouquet made from all the ribbons from her shower gifts.
(click to enlarge photos)
Brooke, Brian, Eduard and Betty at the Rehearsal Dinner
Uncle Jim, Aunt Joan, Grandma Reich, Aunt Judy and Uncle Gil
Dad & Jane, hosts of the event, welcome the friends and family
Karen and Brian
Charlie Shilling roasts the groom. Cousin Jennifer and Matt celebrate their one year anniversary tomorrow and will always be able to celebrate with Brian and Karen.
and here are some from Aunt Barbi (added 10/26)
October 17, 2003
Off to Boston
I'm off to Boston for Brian and Karen's big wedding weekend. I'll post photos when I get home!
Morality for Beautiful Girls
Started and finished Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith yesterday. Its the 3rd in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. There's a new one in hardback that I'll have to go get now.
October 16, 2003
Al Roker at the Tech!
Al Roker was broadcasting from the Tech this morning! Of course to broadcast for the 7am EST Today Show he was there at 4am PST, so I couldn't go and see him in person. He hosted the Tech Awards there last night.
October 15, 2003
Week 6
This week's assignment was to try to resurrect and save a past collage
Before
Made quickly from random pieces.
After
I may have overdone it, but I added lines, a new 3d leaf for a focal point, sponge painted the edges, tried to tone-down some of the brighter colors with light-colored tissue paper and a lot of glue, etc.
I also took a pretty awful painting (unfortunately forgot to get a before-photo of it) cut it up into squares and added it with some magazine images in the same general colors to make this one:
October 12, 2003
The Alphabet Versus the Goddess
I finally finished The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image, by Leonard Shlain. I've been reading it in bits and pieces on the bus and light rail so it took me a lot longer than it should have to get to the end. I really enjoyed it though and highly recommend it! The premise is basically that literacty reinforces the masculine left hemisphere and devalues the right (which processes tasks traditionally female) and that this factor inflamed misogyny in literate societies. He shows how basically every society went crazy (for a while anyway) when literacy spread (resulting in the destroying of images, burning of witches, etc.). He does end with the optimistic view that television and the Internet are helping to reinforce images again which is allowing for much better treatment of women and values such as respecting the environment and diversity.
"Trapped in the center of a spinning washing machine, it is difficult for anyone so positioned to appreciate that the clothes tumbling violenty about are becoming cleaner." (p. 418)
October 11, 2003
Intolerable Cruelty
Saw Intolerable Cruelty at the local movie theater. Not bad but not as good as the last movie I saw (Lost in Translation). Still, a nice way to spend an afternoon...
Week 5 Collage
This week's collage assignment with the preliminary sketches.
(click to enlarge)
and the actual collage
October 10, 2003
Tech Volunteers Potluck
Tonight was the first potluck for the Tech Volunteers and Staff thrown by the Fellowship Subcommittee of the Volunteer Advisory Board (which I currently chair, the VAB that is, luckily not that subcommittee). It was a great event with over 50 people, good food, a fabulous view from the roof of the Tech Museum, and even games and prizes. I made pasta salad (pictured).
Here's BobbiLynn and her husband Glen (http://www.glenandbobbilynn.com) with Tech President Peter Giles. Plus a view of the crowd.
October 09, 2003
No oven
I was kind of hoping I'd come back from class today with a fixed oven so I could bake something for tomorrow's Tech Volunteer potluck... but no such luck.
October 08, 2003
Not Much
I treated myself to a whole day at home to catch up on stuff (I moved my Tech shift to tomorrow so I didn't have to go downtown 4 times this week since that's about 3 hours of transportation time a day) but didn't get nearly as much done as I would have liked. I did finish the paper that's due tomorrow at least, and did a first draft of Mom & Bill's RTM mailing.
I feel like my to-do list is a mile and a half long...
October 07, 2003
Sad Day to be from California
Looks like its Governor Schwarzenegger for us! Yikes!
People keep calling and emailing me to suggest I move back East (or North). Looks like the Bay Area voted the right way at least -- perhaps we could secede and keep our governor (not that he was such a gem really).
October 05, 2003
Have an easy fast!
Wishing any of you who are observing the holiday an easy fast for tonight and tomorrow!
October 04, 2003
BobbiLynn & Glen on TV
My oh-so-glamourous friends are now TV stars (at least in the Bay Area TV market). You can download the clip from their web site.
Week 4 Collages
This week's lesson was on the design principles of Harmony, Unity & Balance
Harmony
Magazine ads in similar muted colors
Unity
Repetition of patterned paper and newsprint
Balance
and my value sketch
of this collage
October 03, 2003
Honey Cake
Mom and I made honey cake and chocolate honey cake (for a sweet new year) but seem to have broken my oven in the process...
Tasted good though!
October 02, 2003
Congratulations Ellen!
Ellen showed up at class tonight engaged!
October 01, 2003
Grossology Training
Grossology training today at the Tech. Its really a first class exhibit and despite the fact that the content is truly and utterly gross, it should be a lot of fun to work with.
Grossology will be at the Tech from Oct 4-Jan 4. The photo is of my friend Laura with "Nigel Nose-It-All."