Events

Origami Festival - Pacific Asia Museum - Recap

Another wonderful day enjoying the bounty that is Los Angeles! Today we visited the Pacific Asia Museum for the first time. This was a special day, an Origami Festival, and we all had a good time. Admission was free (usually $5/person) and there were activities set up in the courtyard of this historic building in Pasadena.

Joe fell asleep as we arrived at the museum, so the adults had a bit of time to inspect the small collection in the museum proper. The museum collects artifacts from all areas of Asia and presents them in a well organized and intelligent manner. There are plenty of interpretive guides for both adults and children. The ceramics and clothing displays were quite beautiful. Even after that Joe continued to sleep, so we headed a few blocks away to a very nice bookstore, Vroman's. After a bit of browsing, and a little nosh in their well-designed cafe, we headed back to the museum.

Several activity areas were set up in the courtyard, all related to origami. The courtyard itself has many mature trees and a lovely koi pond with huge fish. Flute music provided entertainment throughout the day. At one table you could make traditional cicada and ladybug origami, another group focused on all manner of folded hats, still another was creating cranes and other assorted animals. After checking them all out, Joe wanted to make a paper boat to float in the kiddie pool specifically provided for racing. We went through several boats in testing and finally created one last boat for the race itself. Joe was the last one to be called for the race (we were on a standby list) and only got to race because someone else didn't show up. Wouldn't you know it, he won! He blew and blew on the boat and pushed it to far end of the pool just ahead of the others. He was quite the gentleman as he ascended the steps to receive his prize of an origami kit and a first place ribbon, made using origami, as well.

Visiting the Pacific Asia Museum would be an enjoyable few hours on any day, but their Family Days add even more fun. You can find information on future events at their web site.

Pictures of our day are available in this gallery.

Computers

AppleCare Tech Info Library -Security Update 7-18-02

From the site...

Security Update 7-18-02 delivers a more secure Software Update service, as well as an updated Software Update command line tool, to verify that future updates originate from Apple.

Computers

Another America Online (AOL) OS X Beta

Yet another Beta (YAB) of America Online. It looks as if they are getting a lot of bugs out.

From the site...

New to build 14D

* The WWW Preferences have an improved look and new functionality
* The AOL for Mac OS X software no longer places an alias on the desktop
* The AOL for Mac OS X installer will open the Applications folder automatically after launching software for the first time (similar to AOL 5.0 behavior in Classic)
Fixed Issues for AOL for Mac OS X build 14D
* Long HTML e-mails should now show the entire text
* Access numbers no longer disappear when highlighted in the AOL Setup
* The Mail Center icon on the Welcome Screen now shows the correct state of the Online Mailbox
* The Local information on the Welcome Screen should now appear properly
* Embedded images sent from Beta software can now be seen by Internet e-mail addresses
* Empty Cache Now button now works
* Find in Top Window now enabled for browser windows

Events

GERRY QUOTSKUYVA: Hopi Katsina Carver
Saturday, August 3, 2002
Sprague Auditorium, Southwest Museum

Sponsored by the Southwest Museum's Collectors' Club, katsina carver Gerry Quotskuyva will discuss his work. Free to members and guests and with paid Museum admission Call 323-221-2164, ext. 221 for information.

My wife and I visited this artist's studio the last few times we were in Sedona, Arizona and were quite impressed with his work. I was pleasantly surprised to see that he will be bringing his work here to Los Angeles at the Southwest Museum. It provides a good reason to go check out the Southwest Museum if you haven't already.

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What I'm Reading...

Poems to Read by Robert Pinsky

A new favorite poem Project Anthology. Favorite poems recommended by others. A book to open in random places and ride on the back of poetic synchronicity.

San Fernando Valley: America's Suburb by Kevin Roderick

An excellent history of the San Fernando Valley. I learned more about "The Valley" reading this book than in my entire 16+ years living here. Warning: Even though I am not a Valley native, I found a certain sense of loss as I read the text and examined the pictures.

Horse sense for people by Monty Roberts

Robert's applies his philosophy of horse training to humans...and there are some startling comparisons.

Winterdance: The fine madness of running the Iditarod by Gary Paulsen

Unexpectedly, Paulsen had me both laughing myself to tears and cowering in fear over his stories of training for and running this amazing dogsled race.

365 things to do with your kids -- before they are too old to enjoy them by Bill Adler, Jr.

A great source of ideas for time with Joe and a sense of pride in having already done many of the suggestions.

Brush up your Shakespeare by Michael Macrone.

Delve into the wealth of words and sayings that Shakespeare brought to the English language for the first time. You might be surprised at the original meaning of many phrases we now take for granted.

Wailing Wind by Tony Hillerman

Hillerman's latest Jim Chee/Joe Leaphorn mystery continues a fine series.

Repacking your bags: Lighten your load for the rest of your life by Richard J. Leider & David A. Shapiro

An interesting book and eay read that just might help you make your next 30 years even better.

Career Opportunities Column

Career-Op: Waiting
by Douglas E. Welch, ComputorEdge Magazine

As odd as it might sound, you will find times in your career, and your life, when waiting will be the best action you can take. Let me be clear, though, that I am not talking about being inactive, only that you might find yourself waiting for the best combination of events and effort so that you can move to the next level. In many cases, waiting can end up being very productive.

(Continued)

Events

Great Paper Airplane Contest - Overview

Palm Springs Air Museum , 745 N. Gene Autry Trail, Palm Springs, CA 92262, 760-778-6262

From Digital City...

Kids create winning wings and things at the annual Great Paper Airplane contest. The competition is sponsored by the Palm Springs Air Museum where kids can draw inspiration from its collection of World War II aircraft.

Politics

Stop Policeware - FIGHT THE CBDTPA

Copyright law is on the ropes. No one seems to know how to bring it into the 21st Century. Is the crippling of all new technology an answer? I don't think so.

Instead of trying to protect the dead horse that is Copyright Law, our representatives would be better advised to find a replacement. Otherwise, it seems that nearly everyone will be a copyright criminal.

Bills such as this one remind me of some laws from the turn of the last century. In order to avoid scaring horses, automobiles were required to be led by a walking man waving a red flag. That law didn't last long and neither will this. You cannot use the law to halt technology in its tracks, no matter how much you might want to try. The law must adapt to new technology and develop ways to integrate new technology into society.

From the site...

You, if you're one of the millions of Americans who uses your computers to burn music CD's, listen to MP3's, share video files, etc. You'd face up to five years in federal prison and a $500,000 fine.

Think you'd be able to get around the law by removing the policeware from your personal computer? Think again -- anyone who defies the government by disabling or tampering with the policeware on their own computer, in the privacy of their own home or business, would also face five years in the slammer.

Since alternative operating systems like Linux and FreeBSD would most likely refuse to incorporate government policeware into their code, users of these open-source systems would also be eligible for hard time.

Gardening

A Gardener's Notebook - Weeping Willow - October 1996

For whatever reason, this is one of the most popular files on my site. I would guess that there are 5-10 people a day who are looking for information on weeping willows and Google is more than happy to send them my way.

Science

A bigger picture of a big sunspot

This link gives you a clearer picture of the sunspot group described in Tuesday's post.

Via Astronomy Picture of the Day

Web

MegaFauna

Another neat site from Kokogiak Media showcases some very interesting prehistoric mammels. Would you know what to do if you ran into a Giant Beaver (Castoroides ohioensis), a Beautiful Armadillo (Dasypus bellus), or a Bone-crushing Dog (Osteoborus cynoides)?

Fun

The MegaPenny Project

Visualizing large numbers can be troublesome to most human beings. When you get above a couple of hundred, most of us just can't mentally grasp it.

The MegaPenny Project is an online version of projects we were all probably familiar with during our elementary school years. You would try to collect a million of any object so you could get a feeling for this very large number. This project goes to 1 million....and beyond!

Computers

Apple - iTunes - Download iTunes 3

Another anouncement from Macworld. This latest version of iTunes is only available for Mac OS X.

From the site...

iTunes lets you create your own personal digital music library, allowing you to manage and play your collection of high-quality MP3s with drag-and-drop simplicity. iTunes 3 adds the ability to create Smart Playlists, plays audiobooks from audible.com and includes many new MP3 tags for greater customization. iTunes 3 is available for Mac OS X only.

Events

Page Museum - 25th Anniversary

Last Sunday we loaded up the car and headed down to museum row along Wilshire Boulevard. The Page Museum, was celebrating its 25th year of collecting and studying the artifacts of the La Brea Tarpits.

Although we didn't visit the museum itself on this trip, there was plenty to see and do in the (recently refurbished) park that surrounds the Page Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (LACMA). Several booths offered kid-related activities, such as touching a reproduction of a complete saber-tooth cat skeleton, rubbing and rubber stamping crafts, a kid-sized, walk-though board game and even giveaways and a limbo contest care of Radio Disney.

There were speeches from local council people, a steel drum band and a short talk, with Discovery Channel host Nigel Marven of Nigel's Wild Wild World. He brought along 3 ancestors of the animals that once prowled the area of the ta rpits including a timber wolf, red-tailed hawk and an adult mountain lion.

Pit 91, the main excavation site at the tar pits was open and you could watch workers dislodging bones from the tar while volunteers answered questions in the observation gallery.

Even though the day was quite hot, we had a grand time exploring all the activities and stepping back in time thousands of years.

Computers

Real.com - RealOne Player for OS X

This must be the week for long lost OS X upgrades. This software is still Beta, so use at your own risk. Still, it will be nice to be able to listen to The Splendid Table and Prarie Home Companion on my Mac again.

Via Web405

Web

The Risks Digest -- Forum on Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems

This mailing list has been around for years and is one of the best sources for information and discussion about how, when and why technology fails.

Science

Remarkable Sunspot is Crossing the Sun

Cosmiverse has some great pictures and animations showing this event currently underway on the Sun. The site is a great source of astronomy information and photos.

From the site...

A remarkable sunspot is crossing the face of the Sun. The large active region stretches 15 Earth-diameters from end-to-end and poses a threat for powerful flares.

Via Fark.com

Computers

Macromedia Flash player X

This is the latest player for those of you using Mac OS X. It doesn't solve the problems with slow playing animations, though. Macromedia seems to be blaming that problem on Apple. although it might be solved in the upcoming Mac OS X 10.2.

Via Versiontracker.com

Entourage X Palm Sync Problems

Macintouch has a user letter regarding data loss on a Palm 705i when used with this conduit. It appears that there are still some bugs to work out when using this software with certain Palm configurations.

Microsoft Handheld Synchronization for Entourage X

Finally! Now you can sync your Palm to Entourage for OS X. What more is there to say?

From the site...

If you own a Palm handheld, you can synchronize, or transfer, items between Microsoft Entourage? and your handheld. When you synchronize, Entourage copies the contacts, tasks, notes, and calendar events to and from your handheld. For information about using Microsoft Handheld Synchronization, see Synchronizing Entourage data with Palm handheld data.

The Northridge Farmers Market & Family Festival

07/31/2002

The Farmers Market & Family Festival at the Northridge Fashion Center offers fresh, seasonal produce, flowers, live entertainment, pony rides, a petting zoo and local crafters. For all ages.

5 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Oct. 23.

9301 Tampa Ave., Northridge. 310-899-2900.

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