It's just an ordinary day.

Our microwave has a button that, once pushed, will generate a perfectly popped batch of popcorn. It's labeled "Popcorn".

I'm living in the future!!!!

Lest the reader think I've never seen such a thing before, fret not. Many a microwave in my lifetime has claimed the honor of the Popcorn Button. But they have been false witnesses, all.

It's almost too late to sign up for many CSA programs. I've got a short list, but I'd love to hear your recommendations. I can do pick ups in Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, or San Jose (downtown preferred).

I know many folks on my friendslist are members of CSA's. I'd love to hear where, and roughly how much, and get pointers to web sites, etc. B and I grow our own tomatoes, strawberries, and herbs, but I'd like to get a little more regular infusions of vegetables and support a CSA Farm.

Creative Commons founder and Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig is giving his final presentation on Free Culture, Copyright and the future of ideas.


Event is free to the public. Everyone is welcome.

Y'all recommended a lot of restaurants, and I realized that my priorities might not be similar to other people's, so I'd like to get a bit of reasoning behind the recommendations.

Oh, if you don't know one of the answers, just leave it blank. And yes,
1 == I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy
10 == it eez zee food of zee gods! I die! I die in ecstasy!

For price, just assume that 5 == dinner for one person works out to about $25 (with tip), and scale up or down as you feel appropriate.

( a new poll )

Incidentally, we tried to go to Sushi Zono last night, but they're apparently closed on Sundays. So we redirected to Yuki Sushi. It was loud, close, tiny, and the food was mediocre to good depending on what you ordered. The service was pretty good. The wait wasn't long considering that we were the second table of 6+ they were asked to put together, and the restaurant probably only seats ~50 at any given time.

***SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM***

How Science Thinks: The Science and Engineering of Science and Engineering
Prof. Jeff Shrager
Associate Professor in Symbolic Systems, CommerceNet

Thursday, Nov. 29th, 2007
4:15-5:30 pm
Building 380, Room 380C (Math Corner)
MAP: http://campus-map.stanford.edu/index.cfm?ID=01-380
(Parking in nearby lots at no charge after 4 pm)

ABSTRACT:

For over three decades cognitive scientists have been studying how science works and how scientists think. What have we learned about scientific cognition and about science as a human activity? ( Read more... )

And lo, though they are not here, neither are they gone.

If I could hug you, maestrateresa, motogrrl, I would.  Right now.  Quite fiercely.

(For those who don't know this, Symbolic Systems is the program in which I am currently majoring.  I say "currently" because I expect to switch to CS instead, but as I'm not in classes at the moment the decision can be put off a while longer.  )


I should mention that this event is open to the public, but it will not be taped or recorded for later viewing.

I went through and pruned today. Contemplating doing that meme for my entire flist brought me to realize that I had over 300 friends, plus another thirty or more rss feeds. I mostly took off people I didn't think were reading anymore, feeds I hadn't followed in months, that kind of thing. If you were taken off and you *have* been reading and want to continue to do so, feel free to comment or email. I'm not removing anyone because I don't like them, I'm just trying to simplify the list. It was really mostly feeds pruned, anyway.

Er, comments screened, why exactly I don't know, it just felt right.

So, I'm exhausted, and I'm guessing that B is more so, since he's still abed. The party wound down around 11:30 PM, and I would feel bad about being old and decrepit for shutting down so early in the night, but we *did* start at 2 PM. Almost ten hours of partying is a lot for two introverts.

We had the best possible problems to have: we have too much food, and too much to drink, and too much cake. I somehow had thought I'd told people we'd have the grillables, a range of beverages and dessert covered, and to bring side dishes. Apparently I forgot to mention the dessert part. B and I had three cakes from The Prolific Oven, angelkatharine  and polkamadness  brought one or two more from another good bakery, and other people brought home-baked goods that were also lovely. We have an entire quarter-sheet cake (Apricot Bliss) that didn't get touched at all. We're trying to figure out if we want to take it to work, or if we want to send it to parties going on today that we know about. The main thing is, we both really want a piece of it, and we have so many errands to run that we can't just haul it around with us until we hit somewhere social. It's an awful dilemma to have, let me tell you.

There was a bit of drumming and dancing, there was much conversation and laughter, lemons, strawberries, and tomatoes were picked and consumed (fresh strawberry lemonade!) and a good time was had by all (or most, at least). No one went home hungry, that's for certain. And we still have too much food and drink.   Some of that was lack of prep-chopping, and some of that was me buying enough to cover all our yeses and maybes.  Mmm, food.

Many thanks to:  jd5p, miss_emelia, tenacious_snail, ziggybecket, joedecker, and everyone else who pitched in, came early, mowed the lawn, swept the yard, hauled tables and chairs around, hung decorations, picked up cakes, and generally made it possible for us to throw a party in what had been a wilderness of a back yard only an hour before.  Things were pretty grim around noon when no one was here and a million things needed to be done and B and I were both too hurt to do them or to do them quickly enough.  Lowering expectations helped a lot, and it worked out just fine.  Just fine, indeed.