Oy.. my laptop is really hosed. It won’t boot up no matter what I try… . I think it has a motherboard problem.. and I have a super busy week coming up. I’m going to be working from Linux for a while..(I am now)  I like it better anyway .
    I may not have have gotten Windows working on my computer..   But.. I still had to  work on our windows.. Diane, Gabe and I mounted the exterior storm widows this afternoon.  A major ritual of the changing seasons. We usually wait until a freezing cold rainy day in late November to do this.. but today was exceptionally nice and warm.. in the 50’s and sunny.   I have to admit I sort of enjoy the job.. I know i’s been going on for this building for at least 100 years.. first you dig your way to the storms hidden behind mountains of summer time stuff in the front closet. The closet used to bye a bathroom for the school.. then it was like a little jail cell.. Our friend skip remembers being locked in there by his teacher… our fried Janet.. in the late 50’s.. She says it never happened.. and I tend to believe her.
   Anyway..once you’ve reached the windows you have to drag them outside  It’s not that bad.. but they’re more than 7 feet hig and 3 and a half feet wide.. and heavy as heck…

Once they’re outside you need to wash off the last winters’ grime.. then comes the task of matching the window to it’s frame.. which goes where.. yo would thing with n28 years of practice, we’d have developed some sort of fail proof marking system.. but somehow.. every year it’s the same old guessing game.. there are so many old labeling systems on each window.. with  some of them telling contradictory stories.. that it’s usually a guessing game for the last couple.. It’s all part of the fun..

Some of the windows have been modified over the years to fit the weird nooks and cranny’s fo the window frames.. that makes them easier to match.. and gives them more character.

There sre about five differnt fastening systems for the windows.. another fun challenge when you fill your pockets with tools.. Here’s one of the ‘new’ turnbuckles.. these I like

Many hands makes light work.. with three of us working the whole job took less than an hour…   I remember spending 4 hours or more in the early days of owning this lace..

I was up on a ladder today as diane held one of the windows.. one of

the toughest to put in.. when I saw a Sam butto wedge inside the window

.I hae a vaque memory of our friends putting them up in the days after

sam’s passing.. I remember trying to help.. but not being very uselful..   Our freinds are so wonderful to us.

Ahhhhh. done.. the house is now warm.. and .. so quiet.  the double panes block out so much more of the outside noise…

Here’s a statistic for you.. during winter, our house has 508 individual panes of glass in its windows.. not counting the barn.. 508.. incredble !

WIn addition to getting the windows up today, we cleaned the garage so the cars can get in, remoutned some of the themral shades , reversed and cleaned the ceiling fans so we’re all ready for winter… which is why it’s goign to be in the 60’s tomorrow.. We’re goign to roast ! 🙂

    We did stop and have some fun today.. Gabe d a dry land practice for MMMSC at Burton today.. they had one ral set up with trucked in snow.. I missed that.. but I did get there for the skateboard work.. First they warmed up on the half pipe.. then Gabe worked the bowl for the first time.. in 10 minutes he got it.. and was getting good !

OK.. not much else to report… I think I’ll go work on the movie Gabe and I are making about engineering…   Talk to you all tomorrow.. Nite all.. Nite Sam
-me

Uh-oh.. my laptop seems to have really died.. It’s got a persistent blue-screen of death (BSOD)with a PAGE_FAULTIN_NON_PAGED_AREA error code.. smells like bad memory.. I’m dooooooomed.. i stell you.. dooooooooooomed !

I think it’s only ‘cuz I’m so very sleepy that I’m not freaking out.. I’m bloggin on our upstairs computer.. but my laptop is a doorstop right now.. that will make work pretty interesting net week… but .. that’s why they call it ‘next week’

I have a few more pics from LA.. Last night I met George, Allison and Allison’s BF Scott at a friend of George’s bar.. Lot’s of beautiful LA folks..   Somehow.. if you saked a random person to point out the engineer in the room. I would have stood out… but … not so fast…..

Allison’s boyfriend Scott is an engineer.. What you can’t tell by this picture is that he’s nearly 9 feet tall.. ok.. maybe 6′ 4″.. but really tall.. and, as it happens, really nice and smart. Wile we were on the show, I kept telling Allison that she needed to find a nice engineer .. and it seems she has.. he’s an awesome guy.. He wants to be on the next seasnon of the Colony (Kristi.. you reading this ? )

It was about 9:15 when I looked at my phone and realized I might miss my plane.. but  I wasn’t about to run without a picture.. here’s Geroges freind.. (name ?.. shoot.. can’t recal, ) George, Me (I think) and Allison

I actually got tot the airport pretty quickly.. it was only when I got there that I realized I was completely out of gas.. Wheew !..

Something was wrong with the Delata checkin computer.. it took ages.. so I had to run for my plane.. I got in just before they closed the door.. That didn’t stop me from takign a picture of this ‘What up Dog’   Diane had told me that our dog  Chai had eaten another rock.. or somethign else and wasn’t feeling very well.   She as so much on my mind all night

I got home to VT around 10:30.. all afternoon we’ve been taking care of Chai.. I think she ate some paper towels.. she’s feeling better.. but I can tell that she just doesn’t feel herself. It;s tough to see her not feeling great with no words to say whats up.. I think she’s doing fine now.. I better go check on her though.. so I’ll finish up here 

Satori watend her picture here too,,  don’t want any blog jealousy

OK.. I’m going to do the jet lag thing and fall asleep at 9PM.. more tomorrow.. night folks, night dogs,.. night Sam
-me

The feeling came oer me even as we came in site of the city.

First stop on Wednesday (man.. am I remiss in posting pictures !)   was University of Southern California. I’d never visited USC, the campus is huge and bustling .

I’d managed to arrive 2 hours early for my event so I worked a bit.. ,then found a nice sunny bench and meditated. I was trying to take the edge off that traveling sometimes gives me .. This worked.. an hour later I was peaceful again.

Around 3 I made my way to the USC school of cinema, our hosts for the event.

It’s a beautiful new building built with generous donations from Steven Spielberg.. who just happened to be there… whihc was pretty exciting.. you could feel the students buzz as he walked past..

We got a tour of the film school from the Dean.. it was an amazing facility.. here’s the  Foley room.. where sound effects are made.. it’s full of interesting junk.: old shoes to clomp, various types of grvel to crunch through, old film for dry leaves, looked like lots of fun !

We had some interviews, met with the dean, talked with the other panelists.. then.. around 6:30 we filed into the hall for the panel..  The topic was .. ‘Life in 2050’  there were about 200 folks there… I was nervous as I always am. I had no idea what I was going to say in my opening position piece.

Despite my jitters, I thought the panel went really well..   we were all IBM or ex-IBM folks, we had Prof Richard Weinberg from USC school of Cinematic Arts.. acomputer animation guy.  Don Eigler, Almaden IBM Fellow, ex-hippy, sailor, dog lover  and mover of atoms (Gabe saw him in a movie at school last week ) , Winfried Wilcke – Almaden IBM battery guy, pilot, sailor and one of the founders of HAL computer.  Tom Zimmerman- IBM Human interface guy and education outreach zealot., Melissa Cefkin, IBM Anthropolgist.. yes Anthropologist !.. Very cool .. Me, then Irving Wladsky-Berger – Former IBM Exec, now a Prof at MIT and Imperial College in London.. and a wonderful human being.   All really nice folks..

THe panel went well, we each gave our vision for what life in 2050 would be like.. we talked about nanotechnology, virtual interaction, thinking computers..  cyborg assistants , the Singularity, energy, transport..     I’m sad to say that my notes aren’t any better than that.. I think the whole thing was filmed.. I’m interested to see what we all said..

One thing of note.. the Yankees game was goign on during the Panel.  I’m not a baseball fan.. but I got kind of cuaght up in the drama of the series.. . Irving and I kept checking the score..   We stopped the  panel breifly to tell folks that the Ynakees had won.

THere were receptions before and after the panel. We got to talk to the students and faculty.. bot were fun and energizing. I love thinking abotu how technology and the arts can mix… there’s no better way than putting them in a room together with food and drink !

Around 11 I drove Dona nd Winfried to their hotel and got hopelessly lost in doing so.. There’s something not so terrible about getting lost when you have such interesting peopl ein the car.. We had a beer

.. then I headed up to Laurel Canyon to Geroge’s house.. I got there around 1:30.. What a place !!  It’s at the top of a steep hill. The house has a beutiful porch which hangs out over a cliff with an amazing view of LA..
George lives there with his sister, Lauren and her two kids Fred and

Noah..    George was working the night shift at the hospital (he’s an

ER Doc).. Lauren was in Orlando… and the kids were with their Dad..

Nick,  .. who is coincidentally also my freind from the Colony

production staff..  Anyway.. I had the place to myself.. so at 2AM  I jumped into the hot tub and looked out over LA.. An owl was sitting in the tree over my head keeping me company.. Magical

Around 2 I went back inside to sleep..There were great pictures of both of George’s grandfathers. He’d talked  about them often during the show. His Greek grandpa had died several years ago.. His other Grandpa… the one in this picture.. I knew was very ill… I loved this picture.. it was taken in Afganistan in the late 1930;s..

George showed up around 8AM… and the first thing he told me is that his grandfather had passde away peacefully the night before….  It was strange and nice that I’d been staring at his picture then…

 The family is all headed to Pittsburgh for the Memorial today..

George was sad.. but OK..they were expecting his grandfatherspassing.. and he’d lived a good long life.. I heard stories abotu him for the rest of the day.. He sounded like a great man .

I’d already been working about 3 hours that mmorning.. early calls because of the time differnce… When george came back I took a break and we headerd out for Breakfast.. Vlad surprised us by meeting us at the restaurant. It was great hangin out with those guys !   George brought his fgood ‘ole dog June with us,..   he hung out under our table as we talked..

It was great catching up with Vlad.. hes doing well, too . we all talked about our post-postapocolyptic lives.. It’s amazing both how much the show changed our lives   and did not change our lives.. 

I had to jump back in a work call for awhile.. so George and Vlad sat and caught up.. then around 12 we headed back to georges .. I was telling George about the ‘flagpole’ manuver that my brother and dad and I would always do fror pictures.. so.. Vlad took this shot of Geroge and I for my dad and bro…     (try it.. it’s not as easy as it looks !)

We got back to Georges .. then I had to drop back into work for a bit..     Here’s george on his balcony.. witht he hollywood sign in the distance.

Later in the day I had a meeting with friend Paul Z (aka Beekman form Beekman’s world).. If you follow this blog you knwo that he’s workign on a stage show abotu the Brain for kids.  We got together for a few hours to brainstorm… He’s such an amazing thinker…   I picked him up at his house. hich is like a tiny museum of the bizzare.. Check out some of these peices…    The centerpiece is an anotomical drawing of an earthworm’s insides.. ewwwwwwww

Here’s Paul and his daughter with Pres CLinton when he was beign recognized for Beekman’s world contribution to Science Ed.

After the art tour we headed to a vegan restaurant just down the street that had this cheery welcome outside… huh  ?

The place was really great !.. It remindided me of Red Bamboo.. one of Max’s favorite restaurants in Brooklyn.. all Vegan.. We go there often when I’m in the city ..

When I mentioned Red Bamboo to Paul, this girl at the next table literally squealed.. I guess Red Bamboo is her favorite restaurant too !   She was in town for a conference…  Very nice kid.. Reading meditation for dummies.. that cracked me up.. but she said it was actually pretty good !

Paul and I worked on some of the ideas for the brain show..  I’m particularly excited abotu one we came up with. I’m goign ot try and  build something that maps brain activity to sound… not particular sounds, mind you.. just something that changes with stimulus  Most of what’s hard about building an EEG is removing the signal from the noise and cleaning it up.. In this application I think I only need to do the former.. Anyone out there reading have any ideas on EEG stuff ?

I interrupted the conversation to do an impromptu experiment with the residual red cabbage from our meal.

The super nice waitress brought me vinegar and baking soda to help me out..   First step is to crush the red cabbage in water..

You then mix in baking soda.. when the mix gets alkaline enough it turn bright blue !

Then you add in vingar until it goes acidic and it turns back to red.. very pretty.. and a big mess…

We said goodbye to meditation girl and the nice folks at the restaurant.. then I dropped Paul it his place and went back to USC. My friend Irving was giving the second of two Panels for the day on how social media is transforming traditional media.. Very interesting discussion.. it’s Th panel included several USC profs and  several IBM folks. including Irving, and Michelle from last night and Steve Canepa, the GM of IBM’s Media industry business. I really enjoyed speaking with the three of them afterwords.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay for the dinner.. they got this cool guy Josh to drive me back to my car in his electric cart.. we were doing slolom weaves through the picnic table.. the hiligt of my night !

The reason I had to run is that we were having a dinner in honor of Mike aka Big Dumb Monkey’s birthday. Vlad had found an excellent chinese place.. We ended up wiht Mike, his freind Mark, Vlad, Morgan George and me..

I include this picture because it has an amazing ‘ghost ball’ in it.. They appear in pictures every so often.. there wasn’t anything to cause this.. there wasn’t any extraneous light. no schmutz on the lens.. I don’ understand how they occur sometimes these balls make me think of Sam.. like he’s messing with my pictures..

Mark snuck in a birthday cake for mike… It was scary seeing Mike with a weapon again !

After dinner I had to drive George to his car.. we decided to take a run by the warehouse for old times sake.. They were filming soemthing in there again !/ We didn’t go in.. but took some pics for old time sake..

We then went back to George’s… the night was clearer and the view was spectacular

Again I stayed up too late… and again I had very early meetings.. I got about 4 hours sleep.. then woke up around 5:30 and went out for a run.. I had about 5 hours of back to back phone meetings.. but the yuck factor of that was tempered by tking them while looking out at the view from Georges house…

Early afternoon I went to see my fireds at Original just to say hi. I went by a new show that Thom B is making.. I own’t give it away, but they were filming a scene from he weirdest story I’ve ever heard.. ==========. and let me tell you.. that’s something coming from me at this point..   I followed Thom and Jarrod back to Original and prowled th halls for awhile saying hi to old firends.. it felt good to be back there..

Here are John G and Jarrod yuckign it up in fornt of one of the leftover Colony relics..

From there I went back up to Geroges for a bit to meet his nephews.. then we all went out to meet up with Alison and her boyfreind Scot for a quick dinner before my plane

I think that’s it for the week. A good trip all around.. I got lots of work in, saw some good friends and got in some outreach brainstorming..  Not bad !

OK.. I’m going to hit save before I loose all this.. More later.. See ya folks.. Later Sam
-me