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Info
- Computer & Network Security | Greater Detroit Area, USExperience
- Jun 2012 - PresentProduct Manager / Duo Security
Duo Security's hosted two-factor authentication service brings strong, scalable security to organizations of any size. Duo's unique, high-availability architecture provides centralized management, self-service enrollment, and interactive secondary login through an intuitive web interface, eliminating the high costs, complexity, and confusion associated with traditional two-factor systems. Every day, over 500 organizations around the world, with users in 80+ countries, rely on Duo for their security.
- Dec 2010 - PresentCommunications Committee / Jim Toy Community Center
The communications committee is responsible for all technical and marketing aspects of the Jim Toy Community Center.
The Jim Toy Community Center is a resource center that exists to provide information, education, social events, and advocacy by and for the Queer and Ally community in the Washtenaw County area. The Center welcomes all who support its mission to participate in its activities.
- Sept 2009 - PresentAssistant / Baron Glassworks
Maintain IT infrastructure, help with organization, marketing, administration and assisting novice students.
Our mission is to cultivate a diverse environment where people from all walks of life can satisfy their curiosity and creativity using glass as a medium. We offer classes and rental space and count a number of local glassblowers among our members.
- Jul 1997 - PresentSecretary / monkey.org, inc.
International online monkey cult.
Education-
1993 - 1998University of MichiganB.S. in Computer Science, Japanese
Additional Information-
Websites:
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Status
- If Cher's singing voice gets any lower we will be able to use it to discover oil.
- After 3.5 years, I finally no longer feel incompetent at the glass studio; success is planned, and no longer accidental.
- These two days are like the 'O' in a climate-induced weather LOL. Thursday: will suck.
- Anti-union governor is passionate about loss of 750K union jobs over 10 year period. What? Oh well, we're all still a big family of 10 million people, right? (Except you queer people.)
- I don't know about angels, but I do know this: when my team was down to four players tonight, lo, but what in the rafters should appear? Brigid and Ann Marie! Hallelujah!
- The sky is exceptionally clear over Ann Arbor tonight: go look at the stars.
- in advance of the impending viral foolishness, i'll see you in the new year. if you want to get me something for xmas and you haven't already, here's something really easy: step away from the social network for a couple of days, and enjoy the people, pets or video game controllers that surround you. merry xmas + happy new year!
- Typed 'Ohio' into the phone; autocorrected to 'Phoo'—debated leaving it as it was.
- Guns... all I can think of is the kid two doors down who accidentally killed another kid with a gun when I was 4 or 5, and then spending my teens in a country where civilians couldn't have guns, and being kind of thankful for it.
- I don't know why, but the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever has a calming effect. Perhaps the falsettos of the Bee Gees, perhaps it was one of four 8-tracks in the family car when I was three. I also don't know why there are small children at the supermarket at 11pm. Did they jet in from Hawaii?
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Tweets
- freckles or 5 o'clock shadow? #gingerproblems
- People can be such entitled millennial dicks on twitter. Try it out, don't wait until I document it for you, dipshit.
- What do I do before a party? Hang an obi with my Mom, no big deal. (with Kathy) [pic] — http://t.co/Wqabq06Ki2
- @MyehMyeh also Fall, Winter, Spring, last month, next month, Tuesday, Friday, Sat. morning, in the next 10 minutes…
- Nesting robins are deranged little birds.
- falling rodent parts / a bird of prey swooping past / spring in michigan
- work contest winner http://t.co/awQoQgVcbt
- if you enjoy dye, you will have to eat it separately @ CVS/pharmacy http://t.co/xmGIwULK9i
- Spa is like a kryptonite cage!! says Tova #catsofinstagram http://t.co/2jPfqBFpFn
- Truncated transcript from today's SCOTUS argument - courtneymilan: For those of you who don’t want to read... http://t.co/ccQsTOXDX2
- Photo: Topical. http://t.co/61Z4kyiRBZ
- News flash: Gay man supports gay marriage, questions simultaneous use of pink and red: http://t.co/1Ykswys7uzMar 27, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Just posted a photo @ Hill Auditorium http://t.co/Fx04eMKdSW
- banana / バナナ #catsofinstagram http://t.co/HaNkUF0t84
- Video: I’m pretty sure Mary J. can cast out demons when she belts. FF to 3:00 to see her take on some TVs. http://t.co/lAyAIXBf44
- Eliminate the bi-annual time change caused by Daylight Savings Time http://t.co/FqDKHLYBAo
- always a bit glamorous when boarding a small jet in the night @ Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) http://t.co/VArDyMGleF
- @netflix i never left you, you just don't have tools to properly merge and manage my homosexual household, so we have but one queue now.Feb 24, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- booting into Windows 8 feels like 1987 again #pcsupportneverends @ Baron Glassworks http://t.co/Ac5ztSB2
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Posts
- Apr 20, 13
Background
I’m not from Michigan… I think I’m from California. I remember my first impressions the day I stepped off the plane in Kalamazoo, Michigan, after a flight from Orange County airport in California: these people are very pale. I had a full head of sun-bleached hair, and every visible inch of me was covered in freckles. I’ll be back in California before too long, or so I thought. I certainly didn’t think I’d be in Michigan 20 years later…
That first year I experienced real snow (snow days!) and winter. I’d lived briefly in Virginia as a toddler and remember the snow, but it was still novel. The novelty finally wore off in the early 2000s, and I had to find a way to cope.
You see, I like having seasons: in each season, we do different things, and so you appreciate each of them as they pass in contrast with each other. The long winter makes you appreciate spring that much more, and as the days grow longer and warmer, summer keeps us active outside until the late hours. At the peak of summer, the sun is out until 10:30 at night.
And then the warmth begins to seem a bit fatiguing when fall settles in, bringing perfect sleeping weather, fires, the start of a new scholastic year, and a return of the nose to the grindstone. And then there’s Halloween, Thanksgiving, the winter holidays, and finally the new year!
And then after a month or so, it’s bleak. Whatever St. Valentine’s Day, YOU ARE COLD.
Some northerners depart the tundra for warmer climes for a week or two if they can. The closer you can place it to the end of the bleakness, the better, because when you return it seems like things are getting better, and you might just make it to another spring.
This year, we returned to the land of my pre-teens, the high desert in southern California: Palm Springs, Yucca Valley and Twentynine Palms. We decided to make the Rock Reach House in Yucca Valley our home for the duration of our stay.
The April 2010 issue of Dwell magazine featured an article on pre-fab housing, and I was immediately envious of the fantastic home set in the desert. After searching around, I discovered it was available to rent on VRBO! The owners were genius: build an awesome home, and then rent it out while not in use! Three years later, I finally had the opportunity to stay in it.
The Setting
Simply put: “The Flintstones”.
Specifically, it’s a basin-and-range desert, which is defined by abrupt changes in elevation, alternating between mountain chains that have flat, narrow valleys running through them. Historically, it’s been a sparsely populated area of the country, but the last twenty years have seen a large influx of people, a combination of retirees looking for warm weather and people looking for more affordable housing options. While there’s plenty of infrastructure, it’s not uncommon to find yourself turning off a paved road and driving through sand for a few miles to get somewhere.
“It looks like the moon.”—someone who hasn’t ever been to the moon.
Outside
The house is on 2.5 acres, and the features are spread out to enjoy.
There’s:
- A separate car port down the walk that has solar panels on it used to power the house
- A soak tub for use on hot days
- An outdoor patio with a big fireplace
- A hottub up the hill from the house, with amazing views of the surrounding area and the stars at night
- A grill
The setting, while looking somewhat alien and hostile, is very restful. With rare exception, it’s very quiet and still. There are several grocery stores (and one small local health food store), so lay in some supplies and head up the hill.
The owners have thought of everything! There are flashlights where you might need them, switches to turn lights on at the start of a path, and more switches to turn them off at the end in case you want to view the stars. The landscaping is thoughtfully lit up at night, if you choose, and there are many places to hike and sit around the property. On top of it all, the house is very environmentally conscious and “green”, without ever really feeling like you’ve given anything up.
Carport with our trusty Chevy Captiva—a Saturn Vue before they killed Saturn—the perfect vehicle for this trip.
Hot tub!
It was amazing to sit and look up at the stars at night. Thousands and thousands of stars, stitching drawings together in the night sky.Inside
The inside of the house is very sleek, with concrete floors, modern furnishings, all the modern amenities, including Internet access. The floor plan was open: a living room, dining room and kitchen on one wall occupied half of the house, and the rest was divided into two large, equally sized bedrooms with a single bathroom in between.
I loved the ventilation hood in the kitchen: to turn on the fan and light, you simply pulled it forward. Elegant, streamlined and easy-to-use!
Shallow, undermount sink on a vertrazzo counter. Mostly taking the pic for the counter, which is made from recycled glass.
While there was plenty of beautiful wood, so many of the surfaces were made of nice wood that you need a coaster to set anything down, which made it feel a little less like home, and more like a museum—those were the moments where the fantasy sort of breaks down and you realize you’re in someone else’s home.
In the morning, we’d wake to sun coming in the windows, a warm concrete floor and blue sky as far as the eye could see, and forget all about the coasters.
Getting There
It’s about three hours from the greater LA area, and an hour from Palm Springs. If you can fly into Palm Springs, it’s probably the best way. The PS airport is small, but nice, featuring outdoor walkways between gates, encased by glass. I remember it was just open to the world as a kid.
Rent a small SUV if you can. You’ll be driving through the San Gorgonio pass, which is really windy, and then up through a twisty mountain pass near Morongo Valley, and then up a big hill into Yucca Valley. You go from about sea level to 3000 feet in 30 minutes or so. Once in Yucca Valley, you take Old Woman Springs Road up another thousand feet in elevation, turn left, and start offroading. After a few miles, lots of hills, twists and turns, you’re there!
If you decide to rent, the owners will send you a great writeup explaining everything about the place, and how to get there. And they note that GPS systems may have trouble finding the address, so it’s best you pay attention to the directions and map they provide. I recommend getting there by the light of day if you can, although it’s not impossible to do it at night: we did.
You may see a few characters along the way…
- Apr 04, 13
Who am I?
We probably all ask that on occasion. Family stories, assumptions people have made and some frustrating things I assume are genetic have had me asking it more often lately.
Shortly after the start of the year, a friend of mine shared some results on Facebook from a site called 23andme.com, which has a goal to sequence the human genome through lots of people choosing to submit theirs. The benefit to you is you can:
- See what diseases for which you’re a potential carrier
- See your ancestry
- Meet genetic relatives you may not know you have
- Learn more about yourself as they continue to learn more about all of us
My friend was surprised to discover some unexpected ancestry, so I checked it out. After reading this cool article and seeing it cost $99—down from $999—I signed up! I wanted to know if it was true that I have French ancestry, however little, and if I carry the genes for lung cancer. When I was a kid, Mom ominously told me I could smoke if I wanted to, but to know that all the men in my father’s family die from lung cancer when they do so. She also told me my eyes would get stuck if I crossed them, and we know how that turned out.
What did I find? Well, I’m not entirely sure I’m French, although I have a lot of “nonspecific European” DNA. I’m not genetically Japanese, so there’s something to be said for environment influencing who we are. I’m more of a neanderthal than I thought, and…
Mom? Dad?
Are you sitting down? I have something I have to tell you.
I’m black.
What?! No, really.
Click here to view the video on YouTube.
More on that later…
The consent form that I had to sign made me hesitate, and as someone who understands the security implications and sells two-factor authentication, I’m here to tell you it’s a big concern that my genetic information is protected by only a username and password.
Despite that, I decided to share my results for research purposes.
It took about 2.5 months from the moment I ordered to when my results came in.
My timeline:
- Sunday, January 13 – order kit
- Tuesday, January 15 – kit is shipped
- Friday, January 18 – kit arrives
- Saturday, January 19 – I process the kit, more on that below
- Monday, January 21 – I mail the kit back
- Saturday, February 2 – kit arrives in LA, about two weeks later
- Wednesday, February 6 – kit processing, with an estimate of 6-8 weeks
- Tuesday, March 26 - my initial results, more on those below
- Wednesday, March 27 – the rest of them
From start to finish: 10.5 weeks.
So I was excited about it, okay?
Processing the Kit
The kit shows up in a small, nicely designed box. You open it up to discover a lot of red-on-white lettering on how to go about using it correctly to get a sample. (I would love to see all the mistakes they receive at the lab, because you know people still manage to get it wrong.) It has a smaller plastic container nestled inside, which in turn contains the sample tube and a plastic bag to put it in, which then goes in the box for return.
Registering the Kit
This is where things began to concern me. First you enter in your barcode, you read the terms of service, and then the consent form comes up…
You can read the consent document in full here, but here are some of the more concerning parts:
- “If we are required to do so by law, 23andMe may release the individual-level information.”
- “Your genetic data, survey responses, and/or personally identifying information may be stolen in the event of a security breach. In the event of such a breach, if your data are associated with your identity they may be made public or released to insurance companies, which could have a negative effect on your ability to obtain insurance coverage. Although 23andMe cannot provide a 100% guarantee that your data will be safe, 23andMe has strong policies and procedures in place to minimize the possibility of a breach.” [Uh-huh. I saw a movie once, where it was paramount to avoid a breach. Guess what happened? DOOMED.]
I’d already set up an account on their site, so it matched my accounts.
Taking a Sample
After all that reading, it was time to make some spit! Aside from being concerned about my future ability to obtain insurance, generating enough spit was probably the most difficult part of the process.
My Results
When I was notified that my sample was being processed, it said it would take 6-8 weeks, so I figured I’d hear back sometime between March 20 and April 3. I was so anxious to find out, I checked in once a week to see, and then everyday after March 20th. Of course, the day I finally got over it and decided to just wait to hear from them was the day I was notified that my results were in!
They came in two parts, and the first was pretty much everything but genetic ancestry information, including:
- health risks
- drug sensitivities
- inherited conditions
- genetic traits
- haplogroups for my mother and father
- neanderthal ancestry
Most of the information they have about you is provided immediately, but they hold some things back, e.g. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and ask you to agree to see your results before showing you.
So what did I learn?
WHAT?
Physically, I’m more like the guy on the left in the image above. That said, all the men in my family are able to speak to each other by grunting, so maybe there’s something to it. And on occasion, a few people have seen a side to me that probably makes them wonder what kind of animal hybrid I am. Joking aside, it’s currently theorized that neanderthal language was highly musical, pre-dating the separation of music and language into different modes of cognition (Mithen, The Singing Neanderthals, 2006)
Tootle-tweet.
What else?
- I never thought about it, but I have slightly increased odds for: type 2 diabetes, venous thromboembolism (like all non type-O blood types), and esophageal cancer.
- Higher odds of developing melanoma (not surprising!) based on one set of genes, but a protective genotype and therefore lower (cool!) in another which also results in a large number of moles as a kid that eventually disappear (nice to know).
- Really surprised by three times the odds of developing a particular type of glaucoma—I’m glad I’ve been getting tested for it.
- Lower risks for prostate cancer, macular degeneration (you can stop worrying now, Mom), pancreatic cancer, testicular cancer, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s…
- Typical risks for assorted other things, just like most of you!
In the drug response department, apparently I’m more sensitive to caffeine than most people are: something we figured out empirically is now confirmed genetically! Probably wasn’t such a great idea to subsist on Mountain Dew throughout high school…
I don’t have any forty or so inherited conditions they can test for, although I’m a carrier for hemochromatosis (high iron levels).
They also said I probably have red hair, blue eyes, don’t flush red when I drink, I don’t think brussels sprouts taste foul, am resistant to norovirus (hello, cruising vacation!) and am a likely sprinter, among myriad other things.
The next day, my ancestry information came in! 100% me!
WAIT. WHAT?
No way. But my skin is so white, it’s pink. Sometimes, I’m lucky and I freckle. I’ve spent too much time identifying as a soulless ginger that you can’t just come along and tell me I might have a little soul in me.
I found out that I’m :
- 0.1% Sub-Saharan African—meaning 1 out of a thousand—which doesn’t sound like much. Who knows how long that bit of DNA has been hanging out on the chromosome, but it’s essentially the equivalent of having a completely Sub-Saharan African ancestor who was born in the 1750s. Based on the chart, I think this is on my Dad’s side of the family.
- 1.6% Scandinavian, meaning the equivalent of a completely Scandinavian person born sometime in the 1830s managed to create a branch in the family tree, a great-great-great-great grandparent. I can thank my Mom for my innate sympathy for the Swedish Chef on the Muppet Show. BORK BORK BORK.
- 31.6% British and Irish: no surprise there.
- The rest of it, “standard European”, although poking around a bit elsewhere on the site found people with French and Polish backgrounds. The French isn’t a surprise, but the Polish? Who knew?
Regarding being “black”: I don’t mean to be glib and do a disservice to the history of an oppressed racial minority. However, under the ridiculous “one drop” Jim Crow laws, I would have been considered “black”, which may seem just as ludicrous as those laws actually were. They never would have known, of course, but there it is. And we all agree that those laws were bad, right? Just like we’re going to look back one day and agree that anti-gay laws are also bad, right?
I wonder how those genes manifest themselves, if at all. I have lots of ideas, and perhaps at some point they’ll be able to tell me exactly what I can credit to them. In the meantime, it should give everyone pause when it comes to judging and stereotyping people: you never know what’s on the inside. I think it’s pretty cool to find out, though.
They also give you a view of the data based on genetics you share with other people who self-identify as being from or of a particular nationality or country. Information about “old world” countries is a bit more revealing than “new world” countries. For example, I share genetics with people who are from the UK, Ireland and France, all things I expected. The Polish ancestry was a surprise, but are via genetics I share with someone who has two parents who are both from Poland.
Trinidad and Tobago? I don’t think I have ancestors from there, but it’s more likely that someone from there and I have a common ancestor from elsewhere.
My expectation is that the results will continue to be refined as more people submit their DNA for testing and the site acquires more data.
I’ve discovered I have at least some second cousins on the site, and a number of people are coming out of the woodwork who want to share genetic information. I haven’t taken that step just yet, although I still would recommend that you sign up if you can afford the $100!
Maybe we’ll find out we’re related.
- Mar 27, 13
Pink and red aren’t exactly complementary, and few people can pull it off. I haven’t tried, myself. I’m not even sure why they’ve been chosen. I haven’t looked it up, either, because I don’t really care about that aspect. I didn’t change my profile picture, because if you know me, you should know that I’m gay, and I think two consenting adults should be allowed to be married in the US, regardless of their genitalia. I’m kind of on the in with this one. Implicit, not explicit, so to speak.
I’m also well aware that changing your Facebook photo isn’t going to change how the Supreme Court rules, but despite that, it’s nice to know that for all the years of:
- Getting picked on as a kid for innate behavior, largely out of my control
- Wondering, as a child, if I was simply doomed to die, since gay men got sick and did so when I was growing up, and the growing suspicion I might be One of Them
- Worrying that I’d never find someone to love, and even if I did, if my family would disown me
… there are now people who think I should be allowed to get married, legally. That finally, I’m considered fully (mostly?) human, after praying as a little boy for a higher power to change me into something acceptable.
My prayers were answered, just not in the way I’d ever anticipated: it’s inspiring to see the sea of support. It makes up—a little—for all those years of nagging doubt despite my best efforts otherwise.
However, I also wonder if we live in an echo chamber when it comes to the people with whom we associate, because I wasn’t seeing a negative response. I’m guessing Facebook’s algorithms work to screen these kinds of things as a side effect of how interests intersect otherwise. Or maybe people are just being quiet, figuring their stance is just as implicit as mine.
So I went looking, and found a few things. I found that some people, while they disagree, aren’t taking a political stance on Facebook. Thanks: I appreciate it. I think it’s important to have people in your life with whom you disagree, and people who understand that idea are worth having around, even if you do disagree. Sometimes you can learn things.
Is this for or against gay marriage? I know some gay Christians who agree that God is love, and a plus can be used to add any two things together. Vague messaging, needs better marketing. Does the Red Cross know about this?
A literal interpretation of Genesis? You may want to consider studying the Bible—that means its origins, not just reading it. If you want literal, there was only one rule in Eden: 2:17. Also, the honey badger would disagree with 1:28 and dominion over all the animals.
But there is a line: I don’t want to be friends with people who explicitly make it a stance to deny me my humanity. It triggers a fight-or-flight response—this is survival—and I’ve spent my life doing well by others, my community, and largely living by the tenets, morals and principles set by my family and church growing up. I’m not going to consciously allow myself to be stomped on by the fallibility of man. I’ll listen to an argument, and we may even do business, but we’re not going to be friends.
If you don’t like gay marriage, here are some tips:
- Don’t have one.
- Don’t go to one if you’re invited.
However, please understand: there is a separation between church and state, and eventually this particular institution will be realized within that context.
And to those of you who support us, thank you. It means more than you may realize.
Click here to view the video on YouTube.
- Mar 13, 13
Click here to view the video on YouTube.
When I was a first-grader in Catholic school, we got a primer on the Pope. John Paul II was installed when I was three years old, so I don’t remember the process, but as a six-year-old, I did think it was really cool that white smoke would billow when God chose a new Pope: it seemed like magic, and magic was cool. I also remember thinking that maybe I wouldn’t have to go to church between popes.
I never tested that theory, because the next Pope didn’t come along for another 25 years, by which point:
- I understood white smoke was a chemical reaction based on people casting votes.
- I was no longer a practicing Catholic.
I have to congratulate my cousin Adrienne on being the second family member to have a Pope elected on her birthday. The first was my sister Kris, back in 2005, and I predicted it well in advance, much to her surprise. You’ve been POPED.
I can’t say I have much feeling one way or another, aside from raising an eye at his comment that “gay marriage is a machination of the Father of Lies“.
In response, I’d like to point out:
- A same-sex marriage in the church in 1061
- A hypothesis about the intent of a now-unused rite
- A number of conveniently ignored things in those old books
Eventually attitudes will change, and at the very least, it doesn’t appear that Petrus Romanus has appeared.
If they don’t change, well, it won’t matter in a half-billion years when everything crisps up anyway.
- Jan 01, 13
Last year, I gave up Facebook for Lent—I’m not a practicing Catholic, but it has a few handy practices—and decided to keep a diary about the process.
After two days, I realized I didn’t care enough to continue writing things down. Basically, the first few days were the hardest, like… breaking any habit. Interestingly enough, a paper I read on social interaction design commented that it takes 3 days to come off social media habits. While I couldn’t find a cite for it, it does seem to hold true for me. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and their ilk are desire engines. Effectively, despite all your rage, you’re still just a rat in a cage. It’s no longer enough to dazzle people to get attention; instead, sites and products must instill habit, and they do. Fortunately, there are ways to break habits by recognizing exactly what it is they reward.
At the end of the year, I decided to do it again for a couple of weeks because of several days of reactive behavior:
- The Sandy Hook shooting just had happened and people were arguing about gun control;
- Instagram made a mistake and people were freaking about that;
- Someone posted a (fake) video of an eagle snatching a toddler into the air;
- The next day was 12/21/2012.
Critical thinking had died.
I’m back—who cares, really—and here are some observations about things on Facebook:
- Arguing about gun control and posting crappy images, one way or another, immedately after Sandy Hook seems really, really tactless if you go review it all now.
- The next time some free social media service changes their Terms of Service, give them a few days before you react… chances are they’re just not thinking particularly clearly. They’re not geniuses, they’re just people like you and me.
- Google something before posting it as truth, especially if it seems pretty fantastic.
Some observations about Facebook withdrawal:
- People check in via texts and messages when they notice you’re gone; that’s nice.
- It takes a bit to shake firing up Facebook when you get bored or frustrated.
- I use Facebook to keep on top of current events; moreso than news websites: regular news websites have their own (entertainment) agenda and can be slower than Facebook.
- Facebook messages, while sometimes spotty, can be more reliable than regular email.
- I missed seeing my family.
Some positive things:
- I occupied myself, e.g. finishing all those online articles I meant to read later.
- I felt like time slowed a bit, because life was more quiet.
- Created more, consumed less.
I recommend the experience. Another friend is doing it for a year, which is pretty impressive. I’ll miss him, but I’ll just have to find him in person to see how life is going. Personally, I’m going to limit myself, but I’m not quite sure how, yet. I like being connected to people, so how often? Once a day? Once a week? What do other people do?
- Nov 27, 12
There’s a bunch of meaningful stuff I’d like to write about, but this seems short. Also, fashion.
Two weeks ago, I misplaced a scarf. It’s a wool blue tartan scarf, from Scotland, made by BEGG. BEGG was founded in 1869 by Alexander Begg, and is currently located in the seaside town of Ayr, Scotland. They make beautiful scarves. I’d link to one of their several websites, but the useful one is under construction, and the other ones are outdated and require Flash. I.e., these guys are so good they don’t even care about their website. Wish I could say the same.
This scarf was given to me by my sister. It’s beautiful. It feels wonderful to wear, and it’s visually stimulating. I was really distressed to have misplaced it. I’d been wearing it most of the day, and remember playing with the ends during a meeting at the end of the day. The time between that moment and the realization it was no longer on me when I arrived home amounted to less than an hour.
Did I take it off? Did it fall off somewhere? How would I miss that? Am I really beginning to forget things so easily? I’m not that old. I went back to work to search the parking lot and our office, and ultimately sent out a few messages to coworkers and building mates. And then I did my best to embrace my inner Buddhist: it’s only stuff. I was sad.
After celebrating my birthday over the weekend, I went to the office on Monday and discovered a gift on my chair. My friend (and coworker) Zoe and her wife Rachel surprised me with a fantastic blue scarf! It wasn’t exactly the same, but it’s sleek, it’s modern, it’s me. And it meant a lot that they’d thought of me and my predicament. Suddenly losing the scarf didn’t seem so bad.
Today I happily wore my new scarf to the office. I didn’t get a chance to model it for Zoe—she’s a busy person, on the go, making things happen—but it went well with everything else I was wearing, and seemed to fit right into place where the old one had left off. It turns out there was another surprise to be had: at the very end of the day, after a strategic meeting that left me feeling slightly drained, Zoe’s boss walked in holding my original scarf in his hands.
I couldn’t believe it: I had searched all over the office, under things, in closets, even going through garbage cans in case I’d thrown it out instead of the actual garbage I’d had in my hands—you’ve done it, you know it. I hugged him; apparently, this is my week for spontaneously hugging the sales people: watch out!
It had slipped off my neck and into the cushions of a chair.
- Nov 04, 12
Tuesday’s ballot has a few sections for electing judges—you know, that part of the ballot where you go OH HELL, I WISH I’D READ / STILL HAD A CITY PAPER—so here’s where it matters. Nobody’s challenging some of the incumbents, so we’ll just skip those. The Michigan Supreme Court nominees are elected to eight-year terms for the entire state; the 22nd Circuit Court is specific to Washtenaw County. I’m not going to tell you who I’m voting for, but if you know me well as a person and a designer, you’re not going to be surprised. I did this mostly so I’ll remember who to vote for… writing things down makes it easier to remember them later.
Justice of the Supreme Court—U Pick 2, like @ Panera
- Doug Dern—Natural Law Party—Doug, you need a website!
- Connie Marie Kelley—Liberal
- Stephen Markman—Conservative—Incumbent
- Bridget Mary McCormack—Liberal
- Kerry L. Morgan—Conservative
- Colleen O’Brien—Conservative
- Bob Roddis—Conservative
Justice of the Supreme Court (Partial Term ending Jan. 1, 2015)—Pick 1
- Mindy Barry—Conservative
- Shelia Johnson—Liberal
- Brian Zahra—Conservative—Incumbent
22nd Circuit Court Judge, Incumbent—Pick 1
- Timothy P. Connors—Liberal—Incumbent
- Michael Woodyard—Liberal
22nd Circuit Court Judge—Pick 1
- James A. Fink—Conservative
- Carol Kuhnke—Liberal
- Jul 09, 12
The concern over the ACA being upheld this week reminded me of the subject of a few videos I saw recently: bees. Like most of you probably, I’ve had an interesting relationship with bees. As a very young child, I was warned to avoid them. Despite that, I still managed to get stung pretty badly on the throat at a neighborhood gathering. I didn’t provoke the bee, but it happened, and subsequently, I was terrified of them.
We moved to Oceanside, California, where bees flourished in the good weather and ample flowers, probably helped by our next-door neighbor, who kept a couple of apiaries. At least at that time: we lived in a subdivision that was carved out of old farmland, largely still used as farms. Our sub was a first of many, and so now the area is unrecognizable to me, and the bees are probably all dead.
Anytime a bee would come near me, I’d freak out completely and try to whack it to death while running in the opposite direction. Poor bees. That behavior stopped around the time I witnessed a bee mistakenly sting an inanimate object and disembowel itself, slowly, and then die. Poor bee, I thought, I am sorry your life was cut short in such a futile way.
I decided it would be best to just avoid anything that flowered.
Several years ago, just prior to the rise of Colony Collapse Disorder, I took a personal interest in bees again. I had a neighbor who owned vicious dogs, and I wanted to see what the local laws were about dog ownership. I didn’t find anything directly useful about dogs, but I learned that I could keep chickens and up to TWO apiaries on my property. I thought it might be pretty novel to get a couple hives, mount them on the fence between our properties and let nature take its course. There are even local beekeeping courses! My plan never unfolded, but I had a new respect for bees.
Here are some pretty impressive videos about Japanese hornets vs. bees of European and Japanese varieties. The first video is a 3-minute video of a Japanese Giant Hornet scout coming across a hive of Japanese honeybees, and how the bees respond to the scout. The Japanese name for the giant hornet is “Giant Sparrow Bee”—and you can see why:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EZtXNIT5QQ
What’s interesting is that it omits the rather creepy and possessed sound the bees make when the intruder enters the hive. It’s surprising the giant hornets haven’t learned they should get out of there when the bees start harmonizing, around 20 seconds into this clip. For fun, press the CC button, turn on captions and then turn on translate (the narration and music is far more excited in this clip, which even includes a heatmap of the bee ball):
This next bit is the hornets vs. the European honeybee. We don’t have these terrible hornets in the west, but the Japanese farmers like the European honeybee because their yields are higher. Unfortunately, these bees don’t have any learned defense against the giant hornets. It’s depressing to watch, and I recommend watching the Japanese bees kicking ass again after this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L54exo8JTUs
If you’ve seen Isabella Rossellini’s “Green Porno” series, you won’t be surprised to see her latest collaboration with Burt’s Bees. These film shorts seek to educate about the honeybee and encourage people to create hospitable environments to encourage bees to thrive in adverse conditions. In these three clips, “Burt”, played by Rossellini, meets the queen, discovers the plight of drones, learns the social structure of the hive, and how honey is made:
Back to the ACA: like the bees taking care of their society, we’re all in this together. And unlike the case of European bees sentenced to a horrible death in Japan, if it really doesn’t work out, we can always change things.
Be nice to bees. Plant some wildflowers if you can.
- Jul 03, 12
My grandfather would have been 92 today, and this marks the first Fourth of July I’ve been away from my family in a long time, and the first without him: he was our Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Pappy—always stylish—telling stories with friends at his 60th in 1980. Check out the festive napkins in the back!
As a young child, before I understood what exactly Independence Day was, I couldn’t quite believe that people set off fireworks for my grandfather’s birthday. But I discreetly accepted it: he was involved in city politics, people loved him, and that must be why someone ordered up fireworks every year. Those other city employees, maybe they just weren’t as loved—but I was glad my Pappy was!
Pretty much every year that I had the opportunity, I spent the 4th with my grandfather on his day. As a teenager, this led to some ire on the part of friends who thought it was some weird cover for getting out of going to whatever party they were having at their house. As a kid, the 4th meant good food, family, pool and fireworks at my wily Uncle Jack’s house. A lot of the cities in southern California banned fireworks at the time, so this was a pretty big deal. (That I had the opportunity to blow my fingers off as a kid in Japan a few years later, where there was no age-restriction on purchasing fireworks, was an even bigger deal. And unexpected, in such a safety-oriented culture…)
In more recent years, I really made the effort to be home for his birthday—I didn’t really know how many more we’d have left together. I only missed one in 2008, at his request: I’d just sold the house, and was under duress because one of the contingencies was that I move out in 3 weeks. When the housing market looked like it was about to go over a cliff, I was willing to do anything to get out! He understood, so I made sure to be there the next year.
This year I know the family will get together, and it will be different. But I can also hear my grandather saying, “Good heavens, my dear boy, don’t be silly and waste time on me. Go have fun!” So I wanted to celebrate a little differently too, and recognize my grandfather’s love of travel: I’ve spent the week exploring Michigan’s upper peninsula. Last night, we were in St. Ignace, and for the 4th, we’ll be going over to Mackinac Island for the day. It is especially fitting, because the last extended road trip he and my grandmother took was to Mackinac Island, about 13 years ago.
Yesterday, when I crossed a river that shares his last name, I knew I was headed in the right direction.
Happy birthday, Pappy, and happy fourth of July to everyone!
- Feb 21, 12
I signed up for Facebook sometime in the Fall of 2007. After Friendster (why?), Orkut (too closed—and G+ didn’t learn anything from that; BRAZILIANS!) and MySpace (getting there, but indulging everyone’s inner kindergartner a little too much), I really didn’t think much would come of social networking, so I promptly did nothing.
I don’t even know why I signed up.
In Feb. of 2008, I traveled to Savannah, Georgia, to attend the IxDA ’08 conference. While there, I realized I didn’t have a calling card: my business cards were out-of-date (and embarrassingly boring) and my personal website was stuck in 1997. The organizers had made an attempt to create an online social group for the conference that required you to build a personal profile. When it came to website… I hesitated.
And then realized that Facebook might just come in handy.
I switched over and set up my Facebook profile, adding a photo and filling out various bits of information. Unfortunately, at that time, Facebook was more closed and less user-friendly: the URL looked ugly, and when you clicked on it, you couldn’t see much other than the fact that you and I were not friends.
I made no friends that way, but suddenly, Facebook was a little more interesting. Friends of mine commented on my spiffy new photo and invited me to play Scrabulous (“Words with Friends” in 2008). Photos? Online games? It was like The Sierra Network in 1993, or AOL. The public internet had finally crossed the chasm and embraced what it made fun of when the AOL newbies were unleashed upon it in 1993.
I use Facebook frequently now. I keep up with my far-flung family, I get news from it, I find out about cool upcoming events: it’s very handy! But I find myself checking it—without even thinking—for that little hit of dopamine, more often than I’d like. And frankly, people are just not updating or doing things fast enough to keep up with my addiction. I have become a rat in a cage. So I’m going to take a break and see what it’s like. It’s been four years, Facebook. We need a little time away.
See you in the spring.
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- Truncated transcript from today's SCOTUS argument
For those of you who don’t want to read the transcript of the oral argument in Hollingsworth v. Perry, which is all of 82 pages long, or whose heads exploded when you tried to read it, I’ve written a helpful summary. It’s available below the jump.
This summary is still fairly long, but it’s shorter and I’ve worked to make things as accessible as possible to those without legal training.
As a result, there are some places where I might have oversimplified the legal argument. My summarizing might be partially colored by my personal viewpoints, but this is basically what happened, plus or minus the aliens eating children.
I’m pretty sure Mary J. can cast out demons when she belts.
FF to 3:00 to see her take on some TVs.“Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.”
Much has been said about how creativity works, its secrets, its origins, and what we can do to optimize ourselves for it. In this excerpt from his fantastic 1991 lecture, John Cleese offers a recipe for creativity, delivered with his signature blend of cultural insight and comedic genius. Specifically, Cleese outlines “the 5 factors that you can arrange to make your lives more creative”.
This is a look that says “No, you will NOT be getting one of those cute corgi wrapped in lights photos”
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- Apr 29, 13
We’ve got new Baron Glassworks Studio Sessions available starting May 7!
For the curious novice who’s been looking for a great one-day introduction to glass, we offer the following one-day classes through Ann Arbor RecEd.
Our mission is to create a diverse environment where people from all walks of life can satisfy their curiosity and creativity using glass as the primary medium. Among the people who are served at this studio:
- The curious novice
- Established artists exploring new media
- Aspiring artists and artisans in need of incubation
- Art Collectors seeking a deeper understanding of the workings of glass
- The Renaissance man or woman who recognizes a good opportunity when he or she sees one!
- Apr 24, 13
If you’re in the southeastern Michigan area and love glass, you should check out the exhibit going on at Habatat Galleries in Royal Oak!
It starts this Saturday, April 27th and runs through May 25, 2013.
More information can be found here.
- Mar 30, 13
Are you interested in blowing glass, but concerned about investing in regular 8-week studio classes? Come and get a taste of what it’s like by enrolling in one or more of our Ann Arbor Rec & Ed classes!
Starting in April, we have several different options to choose from! The links below will take you directly to the registration info for that specific class. You can read more about the class at the link itself.
Please note you must contact Ann Arbor Rec&Ed to register for these classes! More info can be found on their site.
- Jan 12, 13
Chelsea Community Hospital recently completed a multimillion dollar expansion started in 2011. As part of the new expansion, the new space is filled with carefully selected artwork. Members of the hospital’s art council, which is composed of a group of community members, used an outdoor, nature theme when selecting pieces used to decorate the facility.
As part of that theme, Annette Baron was commissioned to create a piece, shown here at the studio and titled Succulent, which is now on permanent display in the Atrium, the new main entrance to the hospital. You can visit it and all the other artwork in person at Chelsea Community Hospital, at 775 S. Main Street, Chelsea MI 48118.
- Jan 10, 13
Graham Gerdes from Community High School in Ann Arbor stopped in to the glass studio a few weeks ago, and had this to say about it:
Hot, dangerous, delicate and beautiful. At Baron Glassworks in Ypsilanti, MI, local artists are fusing together their ideas and inspirations to form functional, and aesthetic art.
Annette Baron, sole proprietor and founder of Baron Glassworks, has been blowing glass for 23 years. “I have had the studio for 16 years. It was 1997, and then I lit the furnace Nov. 24 1998. This furnace has been on ever since,” said Baron.
You can read more here.
Annette does take younger students on an individually assessed basis: please contact the studio if you’re looking for a wonderfully engaging and creative outlet for your young artist.
Thanks for stopping by, Graham!
- Dec 05, 12
Three time’s a charm! If you haven’t had a chance to visit Annette during Art on the Lake or at the Holiday Open House, she’ll also be at Art on Adare again this year! Bring your friends and family! Come for the art, and stay for the refreshments!
Art on Adare will be held Sunday, Dec. 9th from 11am-5pm, at 1510 Kearney at Adare, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
- Nov 25, 12
Some of our student work from Fall 2012 is available for viewing!
- Nov 24, 12
In advance of, or if you can’t make it to next week’s Holiday Open House, Annette will be part of “Art on the Lake” this weekend. Art on the Lake is located at 505 Lakeview off Liberty, and the times are 11am-5pm on Sat., Nov. 24, and 12pm-4pm on Sun., Nov. 25.
- Nov 03, 12
Artists’ Holiday Open House—Fri., Nov. 30, 5-9pm
Join Annette and several of her fellow artists at an open house on Friday, November 30th from 5pm to 9pm, featuring: glass, watercolor, fiberart clothing, jewelry and photography!
The open house will be located at: 4061 S. Michael Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48103, in the Saginaw Hills subdivision located between Wagner and Zeeb. Feel free to call (734) 994-6080 for more information, and tell a friend!
- Oct 28, 12
These are the final Baron Glassworks sessions for the year! We have a few openings remaining in our one-day classes, and in our 8-week sessions.
- Furnace Glass: Solid Forms
Sat. Nov. 3 2pm-5pm—$79—CANCELLED - Fused Glass: Jewelry Sampler
Sun. Nov. 4, 2pm-5pm—$79—1 Left! - Furnace Glass: Blown Forms
Sat. Nov. 10, 2pm-5pm—$79—FULL - Glass Leaves, Pumpkins and Ornaments
Sat. Dec. 1, 2pm-5pm—$79—FULL
The 8-week sessions run from Monday, October 29 through Friday, December 21. If you’re interested in participating, please call the studio at (734) 482-8829!
- Furnace Glass: Solid Forms
