art project

for those of you less skilled at the intertubes, I should mention my little art project was a success. :)

Oh. happy day !

Got back from a little party in the desert, to some great news.

Today was the first library day for my son in 5th grade. His book find ? I, Robot! Sweet!

We had a little talk about the Three Laws, Asimov as an author, and the implications for UAV's.

F Ticketmaster

Just a quick tip that if you are trying to get tickets to the Hollywood Bowl, LA Philharmonic, or their affiliates call them directly and f*ck Ticketmaster.

They try to hide the number, but it is 323-850-2000. The representatives are *very* helpful and knowledgeable (unlike the 'tards at Ticketmaster) and you don't have to pay the Ticketmaster fees.

Out of the mouth of babes ...

My son overhears his grandfather is going to Burning Man.

His 2¢ ?

"He is probably going to Jiffy Lube"


You can't buy the kind of laughter that followed.

Meeting Karaoke

I recently downloaded the new Google Mobile App for Blackberry, which has location based searching and voice input. I was playing around with it during a meeting and discovered something fun. If you hold down the input key while someone is speaking during the meeting, the term Google tries to search for is pretty funny.

Here are what I got -

• jet air ohio is for allah
• crime in stereo in jersey city
• 2 officers and literacy west law
• ivy cap on and off
• youtube williamsburg working class hero bag
• the river ranch florida 100 warrenton
• meeting in san jose charity

Best ice cream in LA ?

We went to Fosselman's in Alhambra for ice cream this weekend. While they have good fresh ice cream in lots of flavors literally made in the same building you eat it, I have always been a bit disappointed by them.

I think these days for ice cream (not gelato or frozen yogurt!) my two favorites are Dr. Bob's and Scoops.

Dr. Bob used to teach at Cal Poly Pomona and decided to quit to make ice cream. It is pretty dang good. However the do not have retail stores. You can get it at the LA County fair, but that is only once a year. Frank's Kitchen in La Crescenta has it all year 'round though.

Scoops is a kind of hipster place over near LA Community College. They have a lot of ever-changing wacky flavors (like Brown Bread and Fig Goat Cheese). They are always happy to let you taste them all and their prices are cheap. If you go late tough, they may be out of most or all of the ice cream for the day.

And while I am on a roll, I will mention a couple out of town places.

Dewar's in Bakersfield is great old fashioned fountain that makes their own ice cream. It like it a lot (don't miss their candy either). The Disney soda fountain next to the El Capitan in Hollywood serves Dewar's ice cream, but somehow it is just not the same.

Amy's in Austin is also quite good. Kind of like a Texas Ben and Jerry's type place. I want to try in again when I get back there.

ps - I first blogged this at work, but figured it would be a good post here too.

Renting a car in Austin ?

If you are flying to Austin and need to rent a car, do yourself a favor and pick the cheapest thing possible from Advantage. Apparently their lowest end car at the Austin airport is a Hyundai Sonata. For only about 20 bucks a day, it is a good deal ! They will even let you pre-buy 1/2 a tank for gas instead of a whole tank.