In response to this New Yorker page on the drug war, one of my good friends made a statement: "Organ donation should be an opt-out system."

Thoughts?

Bill and I are in the latest Boing Boing TV: BBtv "Hacker HOWTO": Cold Boot Encryption Attack.

According to the US Census population clock, we've hit a remarkable number:

One of my best friends that I've known for my entire life is traveling to the UK for the first time. He's perhaps a little worried about not knowing anyone. I'd like to help introduce him to some friends and perhaps even some strangers. He's a really stylish graphic designer, he's a wildly brilliant artist, a solid human on every front and humorous at the right times.

He'll be in London around the 24th of May and he's planning to travel to Scotland sometime during his trip. I believe he'll fly out of London on the 8th of June to return to California.

If anyone reading this has an interest in meeting a great guy, I'd really appreciate it. I'm certain he would too. Drop a note here and I'll give you proper introductions...

I'm sitting on top of the sensor board for 2piR at the Maker Faire in San Mateo. I just finished putting the final touches on the Debian machine that controls everything. We're in the process of hooking up the ignition system and the sensors to the controller board. Soon we'll do a leak test and then we'll burn some fuel off!

If you're in the San Francisco bay area this weekend, I highly suggest you come down to the Maker Faire on Saturday evening (find us in the fire area of the map) to play with our interactive fire project!

Sometimes there are moments so great that it can only be accurately described with a euphemism from another century.

"It's the bee's knees"
"The cat's whiskers"
"The cat's pajamas"
"The eel's ankle"
"The elephant's instep"
"The snake's hip"

I've decided that this is the year that I will go to Japan. This is a big deal for me. I've wanted to do this for a very very long time. I have lots of things in my head and I'm sure I won't be able to accomplish all of them.

I will visit with some of my friends who live in Japan. I'm going to see about staying long enough to study Aikido at the first Aikido dojo. I want to try to meet and possibly photograph my very favorite Japanese artists. I also want to start studying Japanese in both written and verbal form far before I even land.

This is the obligatory post stating that this has begun.

If you have advice about Japan, Japanese culture, learning to read and write Japanese (such as things that are useful, schools you'd suggest, etc) or anything Japan or Asian culture related (even specific history books) - Please let me know!

I gave notice today at Kink. I have two weeks left and hopefully I'll be able to hire someone to replace me.

I have a lot to say about why I left, where I'm going, what I'm doing with my time, about the experiences I've had here and how I feel about leaving.

I imagine that they'll replace me, if anyone is looking for a Senior Unix Administrator position with a focus on security, drop me a line.

I'm kinda sick and at ToorCon Seattle. I love the weather here. ToorCon is great.

I'm guessing this art process and project will upset nearly everyone.

Yesterday was rough. Somehow it took in excess of 25 hours to return to my house after leaving Graz. Ugh. I am quite jetlagged. As a result, I am flying to Seattle on Friday evening to speak at ToorCon and returning to the bay area on Sunday night:

Depart Apr 17 Thu Nonstop OAK-SEA 979 Depart Oakland (OAK) at 4:25 PM
Arrive in Seattle (SEA) at 6:20 PM
Return Apr 20 Sun Nonstop SEA-OAK 436 Depart Seattle (SEA) at 9:50 PM
Arrive in Oakland (OAK) at 11:50 PM

I went to the Neubauten concert with Audrey, Anika, Annika, Johannes and a few of Annika's friends. It was really quite low tempo, relaxing and beautiful. We were in the front row and it was picture perfect. The last time I saw Neubaten play they were selling CDs of the live concert and this time was the same. I think the CD is going to be pretty wonderful. I also managed to have an off by one error with my clean clothing. So I bought a shirt too.

Seeing Neubatuen was a nice end to my trip to Europe, holding Audrey five feet from Blixa singing was pretty dreamy. While I'm sad that I was unable to extend my stay, I really enjoyed improving my German and I look forward to working on it more when Audrey returns. She's going to be even better by the time that we see each other again. I was also quite happy to see everyone in Vienna, Prague and Graz. It was great to see Daniel and Anika with their first baby. It was also awesome to visit the Metalab and to spend time doing laser graffiti with Michi. Soon some of monochrom will come to San Francisco and we'll get to spend more time together. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone again so soon.

In just four hours I must wake up (though it's unlikely that I will sleep) and head to the train station in Graz. I'll take the train to the Südbahnhof in Wien and switch trains for another station. Hopefully Michael will meet me with a few cases of Club Mate and I'll be able to check it into my luggage at the CAT station. I think if I don't drink a Mate, I will be very silly by the time I get to the airport.

In the next few weeks, I think good things will happen. Big changes are coming in my life and I hope they're as good as I believe them to be. I'm going to miss Audrey but I'm certain that things will be even more wonderful when we see each other next.

I think this t-shirt is pretty much the best play on Lennon ever made:

I've started using Dopplr. Who's using it?

Prague was wonderful and relaxing. We had a really enjoyable time walking around the old town and the river banks. The entire city is filled with cheap Vegan food and great art. I really love all of the old occult markings across the city. Too many churches but that's Europe I suppose... The weather was at first a little rainy and then on the last day, it was warm like early summertime. It was nice to see some old friends that still live in the Czech republic, I took a bunch of photos of Brian and of Audrey as well.

Yesterday we took a trip to the Sedlec Ossuary. I've been before but Audrey hadn't, she was taking photos with stitched film. We decided to go back to Vienna on the latest train of the evening. I think that I will never take a train that switches at the Czech and Austrian border again. At least not with a 30 minute wait at 04:10 in the morning. It was cold and hilariously silly. The entire train station is an affront to my love of German trainstations. Nothing open, only small covers over the direct platforms. The platforms aren't near each other. Cold and windy. Police but without the ability to do anything beyond stand on the most far off platform possible. Everyone was confused.

Delirious and tired, Audrey and I returned to Vienna. Huzzah.

Audrey and I are going to Prague. I think we'll be back in Vienna before the weekend is over.