Heart beat scarf

In the spirit of not working over Thanksgiving break, I made a scarf using Eric's heart beat circuit. And documented the whole process! The trade-off is that I owe many email/text replies to friends.


The scarf's for my wearable electronics collaborator Eric, so the monogram has his initials behind the typical electrocardiogram (ECG) waveform:



Video form:

Silhouette Machine Giveaway

Silhouette Machine Giveaway

Ugh. I want. Not quite as cool as a laser cutter but not bad, right dB?

Sound-responsive dress

My newest creation is a dress that lights up in response to sound intensity.

My awesome housemate helped take photos and video. We did some shots at the park on a Friday night edging on midnight - glad there weren't cops enforcing park curfew or weird bums.

I need a real model...

Sniff-controlled wheelchair

My former advisor has created a human-machine interface, where a patient's sniffing is translated into a code for controlling a wheelchair:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10819014

Ingenious!

Moving back to the Bay Area

Only the bay will seperate us now in all our cuteness. To celebrate the momentous event, the New York Times' fashion spread is about us dB: proudly small breasted and San Francisco "style" such as it is.

Despite such a homecoming, i've certainly had my resevations about his move. Nonetheless, here's to a gloriously unknown future.

Worst Recall Ever?

Hip implants.

Sleepy

Can't wait to not feel so unsettled. Also vaccines suck.

Cal panties

I got my first commissioned light-up order this past week for a pair of panties. It was an engagement present of a Cal alumna, so what better way to show her blue and gold than to make UC Berkeley's motto (Let there be light) literally happen...on her panties.

Back of the panty

Close up

Power up!

Push to glow!

Go Bears!

Dairy Queen

My friend, E, who i'm staying with in Portland is known for her milky complexion. But also for the vast amounts of dairy she (and therefore we) consume.

I already started with a new love in the first part of my trip: yogurt based popsicles (a three layer berry/apricot/berry from Zuni when I was in the city.) Delightfully tart and zesty.

Last night was a pretty awesome buttermilk ice cream--a must try to make in the home ice cream maker!

Today we hit the road to the Tillmook cheese factory where we had samples, bought squeeky curds and an ungodly amount of cheese, had a wonderfully milky smooth (not grossly clot-y) clam chowder, and for our hearts sake, some roadside berries.

-------

Also there were all these signs around Tillmook for "Pig N Ford". Well, we didn't know what that was. But there did seem to be a lot of fancy old roadsters around the area visiting the cheese factories. Once we got home to look it up:


Think we just missed something great.

*UPDATE-mac'n'cheese made with smoked pepper cheddar and dark IPA-yum

Portland

Bracingly cold, freshly green, beer, yarn, books, food.

Private to the boy: wish you were here.

World Cup Part lB

Yes you look quite fetching as a Spanish flag, dB. (And the tapas at the bar afterward were delicious and spiced nicely with crazy, enthusiastic Spanish chanting/dancing/kissing). But I watched the game at a very different venue than you: my big gay Mexican friend had a delightful beer-brunch in the Castro to celebrate.

And the important things I learned about football:

1. No matter how close to the screen you get, you cannot makeout with the hot Spanish team members.

2. There was a lot of overdramatic injury antics--and the finely flambouyant men I was with had suprisingly little patience for it.

3. On the field, a football player's "sex face" is most likely to be seen during the close-up head bunt shots.

Needless to say, my company knew as little about football as I did ("Go Orange!" "What's happening?" "Is this suppose to take so long?" "This is kinda like softcore porn--no penis!") but were enthusiastic nonetheless.

Good times.

I'm a Spanish flag!

I watched the World Cup final match in San Francisco, dressed as a Spanish flag.

Here's a better comparison of me and a real Spanish flag:

Food P*rn

I won free tickets to see I Am Love on Monday. As much as I adore Italian melodramas (and this one has the benefit of Tilda Swinton), I wasn't excited to see it until this.

RIP Jose Saramago

I'm almost always inthe middle of reading one of his books. Sigh.

Shabby Apple Queensland Swimsuit Giveaway

Need a new swim suit since I joined the Y.

Though I don't think these will work, they're pretty lovely.

Shabby Apple Queensland Swimsuit Giveaway

Bean for lB

We spotted a little bean-shaped apricot last weekend post-dim sum:

It's almost as cute as lB! ^_^

Things lB made

Little Bean came with gifts, which I've photographed below:

A couple of our friends are having their first baby, so lB knitted this colorful jacket for them. I love the multi-colored duck buttons.

And here's the awesome bunny for me! His hat and goggles come off to make him the cutest bald plushie I know of.

Bringing gifts

Uplift in mood. For no really good reason--the flight was pretty bad and the train ride (in both Chicago and Bay Area) even worst.

However, a finished baby sweater, a bunny for a bunny... well that can make the difference I guess.

Plan for today: pattern testing knitting, resume revamping, cover letter writing, absolutely superb co-op pizza (Arizmendi-not Cheeseboard! why do co-ops make the best pizza?), hospital, maybe a concert tonight--some folks I know are playing in the city.

Summer Music

Been out of the loop. Listening to last years tunes (via NPR) at work. But I shouldn't. Phoenix just makes me depressed not to be on a French, or even a California, beach.

EDIT: NPR, I take back every bad thing I say about you being square. The entirety of new LCD Soundsystem is posted... easing my data entry torture.

Yarn Love

Congratulations Doctors

To those getting their PhDs this spring, a happy congratulations to you! Best luck on your future endeavors. I'm sure you will cure many people...of stupidity.

Like-mindedness is overrated...

Otherwise, dB, we would not be friends. For me, dispositions are meant to compliment, fit together like puzzle pieces--alike and different at the same time.

But more importantly, for me, is a sense of what I can only describe as feeling at home. And who can really measure the warm embrace, the ease of a favorite t-shirt, or the smell of fresh baked bread?

I've temporarily given in to a purchased fried chicken (Chicago's own delicious and at the same time stomach-curling, Harolds). But there will be a great effort soon. Planning dinner parties, garden exploits, and even more sewing.

Also I have a bunny to show you.

More on that when I get the camera-computer-clicky thing together.

Homophrosyne

What does it even mean - like-mindedness? Does it mean to have similar dreams, lifestyles, personalities, values?

I get such different answers. My mom thinks common language and culture are vital. Others emphasize religion: "I would have married him/her, but I would have had to marry God too." Yet when I see my married friends A & R with such contrasting personalities, culture, and religions, I can feel the homophrosyne. I wonder if I exuded that foursome years ago. I need perspective.

On a tangent, while lB perfects her Thomas Keller fried chicken, I'm working on mastering fried yuca as a side for pabellón. Last Sunday I selected my personal best yuca root, and the resulting fries were quite delicious. Learning to cook by trial-and-error sure takes forever...but imitating the Keller's Hispanic analogue Ferran Adià is unfathomable!

My take on homophronsyne drawn a couple years ago:

Neurd socks

Aside from chocolate, I bought knee high socks while lB was in town. That Saturday night while she was out with friends, I started embroidering my socks with some nerd love. Or more accurately, neurd love - the best neuro + nerd fusion there is. TED talks provided an appropriate ambiance. Adora Svitak moved me with her gravitas and eloquence surpassing mine many fold.

Anyhow, back to socks - I finished them the following day:



They're part of my "neurd" collection. Recall that I crafted a previously blogged tunic top.

Fried Chicken

Crispy, greasy, flavorful fried chicken has been on my mind for over two weeks. I think I need to have it be sated. And reading this and this did not help. I want Thomas Keller's fried chicken (and Ad Hoc At Home). Bad.

Also should I buy that mini-food processor I've been eyeing? Pesto making is really the only thing I want it for. But isn't that enough?

Scissor lust

Why don't I let the boys use mine? Well, I do right now because I own lots of various cheap scissors. Their number and single use designation make their cheapness tolerable and keep me from going crazy when they're used to hack stuff.

But someday I'll want to invest in the separating kitchen blades, Gingher dressmaker shears, Tweezerman's for fine papercutting and those beauties. Stupid huh?

lB's visit = Cal + chocolate + crafting!

lB was in town this weekend, just in time for an East Bay favorite "holiday" - Cal Day!

We donned Cal colored clothes that we crafted - lB had sewn herself a cheerful yellow dress back in Chicago, and I wore a Berkeley bioengineering t-shirt I designed a while back:

After a swim through the sea of blue and gold, we made it to Prof. Pieter Abbeel's Robot Learning Lab, where one of his students demonstrated their autonomous helicopter. I took a quick video. Click on the photo below for the youtube link:

That afternoon we went shopping in Union Square mostly for chocolate. It's become my habit to buy El Rey chocolate at Bristol Farms in Westfield Shopping Centre, but they no longer carry that. =( I will probably need to switch to Chuao.

We essentially went chocolatier-hopping all afternoon. We tried some dark chocolate from Charles Chocolates, which opened a couple months ago in Westfield. I may return there to try their tea infused truffles. I bought some unique flavors elsewhere: Vosges's dark chocolate with bacon and sea salt, Bristol Farms' homemade chocolate-dipped bacon, Godiva's mango truffle, a jasmine tea infused chocolate at CocoaBella, and Oriol Balaguer's olive oil chocolate at CocoaBella.

From left to right: Vosges' bacon chocolate (excellent), Godiva's mango truffle (way too sweet, mango too jam-like), Bristol Farms' chocolate bacon (good, not great)

On left jasmine tea chocolate (ok, too sweet), on right Oriol Balaguer's olive oil chocolate (excellent! muy bien!)

Oriol Balaguer's olive oil piece was divine! I need to visit his store the next time I'm in Spain - missed it last time, because August is vacation month in Spain.

What I did today

1. Bunny's roommate's grandmother was here this morning. Cutest old Taiwanese lady ever.

2. Cal day--an event I NEVER attended as a student but I had fun at the two labs we stopped in on. How to control flying insects and how to program a computer to program itself to fly a helicopter. Makes me wish I studied my sciences harder.

3. Eating and shopping downtown. Bought the most expensive bra I've ever owned--not fancy, but fitting and functional--am I growing up? And more excitingly chocolate. We stopped in pretty much every chocolate shop we saw and I had my first piece of Oriol Balaguer (olive oil flavored=absolutely amazing).

4. Dinner with old friends in which food was the topic, event and object of our dreams. Not to mention the sort of hilarious sight of the civilian safety group in fantastically cheezy military-gay ware.

Perfection.

Feelin' Old

Tired, sitting in a coffee shop whittling away some time in my old college town, being recognized by someone who's face doesn't ring a bell for me... ugh.

But listening to the all to precocious young'uns around me (yes, I was most certainly like them in the not too distant past) I've learned that Pavement is having a reunion tour. How did they know that before me?

walking

Chicago: 3/4 mile, daily, tops
SF: 4-6 miles + average 30 degree incline

I love walking here. I find something about my feet hitting the rolling pavement of this seaside town that is pure serenity. And I seem to know where to naturally walk even if i'm not paying attention (ie. to the yarn store).

Eating too much. Watching movies in musty theaters. Knitting in the park.

I might have also bought a ramen bowl.

The only thing missing was getting my butt in gear on the night I flew in. I could have gone to a Noisepop concert for old times sake. I also miss the careless comfort of a certain somebody's monkey arms.



dB, will I not see you this go around?

Nopalito

I've been eating a lot of mexican pork belly dishes recently. Today was no exception other than the fact that i'm in another state. Full, tired, content. And it's warm. It's never warm when I visit Amy, even in the summer let alone February-March. Plans for the next few days: eat, knit, read, drink tea... outside.

Bright Star

The snow has been getting me down. And I just feel unsettled. But boy did I love this. Achingly beautiful and sad. Maybe its the (silly) upcoming "holiday" and hormones-but I haven't been so haunted and cried so much at a movie since Nobody Knows (and children-really cute Japanese children-die it that).

Am I getting soft or what?

Sidenote: making special pretzels tonight. Maybe will post picture if I can figure out my new phone.

Thanks google

Sometimes you receive helpful nudges from strange places. Like google's tribute to Rockwell today. "Little Spooners" was just the pick-me-up I needed. Hope it is for you too.

Snowed--Again

I feel slightly unhinged recently. I wanted to yell at the fact that there was snow on the ground today.

Handcrafted Earrings

Thanks lB for the year of cuteness! It's so kawaii! =) Hope you and your boy are sleeping well.

My Noisebridge-affiliated art has expanded. We're now working on two projects - the pulse choker (convertible to bra) that will light up in different patterns in time to the wearer's heart beat and a wearable breathalyzer armband (convertible to necklace). The convertible versions demarcated in parentheses will be jazzed up and chic, i.e. all electronics will be hidden with no black boxes peeking through. It's become much easier to camouflage circuits now that we've found the sewable circuits Aniomagic offers!

Last week my collaborator built the truth wristband kit, which has provided tons of fun. There were a couple mirrored pieces of plastic shaped like lightning bolts that were extraneous from the kit. We thought that they'd make for cool earrings. And yes, they do:

Lightning storm earrings

Mirrored plastic piece as bolt, wire as cloud, Swarovski crystal bead as rain drop

While I was at it, I turned some laptop keys into earrings. These earrings cater to the web programming geek with one earring as the '<' key and the other as the '>' key that go around your head to stand for the <head> command used in html programming of web pages:

<head> earrings

laptop keys, wire, plastic beads

One last shot with all the earrings together:

Insomniac

This cross stitch sampler pattern is for you, dB.

I'm living with another one. Maybe it's me, but every roommate, boyfriend and house guest I've had to share a bed at some point can't sleep a wink for a couple days straight. Now, my attitude towards it is to be as patient and kind as possible and otherwise ignore it. I (extremely frustratingly) can't help matters and any advice, assistance or aid is snapped at angrily (no offense taken--they haven't slept in a while).

But I expect I'll be tired and wanting to sleep for 10 hours and not leave the house soon anyways (not because i'm pregnant). Also my body wants weird things when I don't go to the hospital enough. In order, cravings list dependably includes:
1. Soda, any kind but preferably something with caramel flavoring and spicy.
2. Sushi - seaweed and raw fish in particular, but sweet shrimp (with fried head) something awful too
3. Cheeseburger
4. Ramen, cheap kind with flavor pack, bonito flakes, fried egg and oyster sauce
5. "Mongolian" lamb with leeks - though I seem to only have it at Muslim restraunts
6. Jook, with that chopped salty pickle stuff my grandma serves it with
7. Chocolate mousse (but only towards the beginning when i'm not too tired to think about making it).
8. Cheese--enough said

Also i'm very proud and excited for my boy. Now I gotta step up and find something permanent in this silly, high taxation town.

RIP Eric Rohmer

I famously love his films but only ever want to see them when I'm totally peaceful and serene or high. Go figure. Check out Slate's particularly lovely eulogy.

Another light-up bra

After meeting Nwanua and Ali, the founders of Aniomagic, this past weekend, I found great parts for my next bra-hacking project.

This bra has 5 LEDS of various colors that can be flashed with different patterns. The flashing patterns are controlled by a neat schemer chip Aniomagic has developed. The programming of the chip is so elegant. It's done online in a beautiful user-friendly interface that literally flashes different patterns of light onto a photoresistor to reprogram the schemer. There's also an on-off switch, which I've placed near the edge where the bra cup meets the strap.

I hid the center blue LED behind a pink Swarovski crystal bead, which serves to diffuse the light and keep the bra looking non-geeky by keeping all of the electronics hidden. The rest of the LEDS are behind the black lace and peak out from the centers of the lacey flowers.

Below is a photo of my pink geeky attire - the light-up bra and my USB necklace, which I made a while back:

For the grand finale, the bra in blinky mode:

Still so much to learn about soft circuits! And the brain! Hopefully I can get hired in the future - definitely not going to become a politician with the type of art and science I do. =P