Mitt liv som Tobin

Daytrip yesterday to Bremen. Drank freshly brewed Becks in a Viertel bar called the Wohnzimmer that could double as part of an Ikea showroom. Also: the German emigration museum in Bremenhaven.

Of the states of Germany, a few are city-states. Berlin is surrounded entirely by Brandenburg. The city-state of Bremen is entirely surrounded by our own state of Niedersachsen (aka Lower Saxony). Bremen exists in two disjoint pieces.

Today, some work on the gliders. More fiberglass maintenance. The flying season begins soon.

CeBIT is this week. I might go for a day. Also, the Banff films[1] are playing here on Thursday.

[1]: http://www.banffcentre.ca/mountainfestival/worldtour/

Diane and I picked up Kenny and Michelle today and we all went to the Ashby Flea Market. I think this was only my second time at the Ashby Flea Market (which is weekends 7am-6pm at Ashby BART), the first time being two years ago when I was looking for a bicycle.

The place was bustling with the usual swap meet fare, plus some interesting oddities. Someone was selling orchids, and another was selling these cool wooden masks from some exotic land. One guy was selling old photographs of bay area scenes (ie, new prints from old negatives). I thought it was completely wonderful but at the same time I was incredibly envious that he must have inhereted this incredible treasure trove of old negatives. So I started talking to him, and it turns out he just started this hobby/business, and his source for the old negatives is ebay! coolness! Seems like something fun to play with over the summer.

Afterwards we drove to Alameda to eat at one of the many restaurants on Park Street, and ended up stuffing ourselves silly at some mexican place (I think it was just called "Viva Mexico!" or something like that). We wandered over to the beach and Kenny admired the giant kites in use by kideboarders, and Diane built a sandcastle.

Back in Berkeley, we helped Michelle move to CZ, where she'll be living for the summer. Lo and behold, their geodesic dome has taken shape. It's a huge structure (maybe 8 feet tall in the center?) on the roof, made of electrical conduit tubing. Allegedly they are building triangular "windows" to make the dome into an actual shelter; these will be triangular pieces of plywood with washing machine windows set into them, i.e. Possibly The Awesomest Thing Ever. It's thrilling to see such a thing actually be built (and at a co-op!) but I'm sad we never built one at Wilde (when I was on the geodesic dome kick a year ago). The secret is the conduit tubing as a construction material. (Geodesic dome construction information.)

I was thinking that, while individual co-ops are decently "cooperative," there's really very little communication between co-ops. Sure, we go to each other's parties, but it would be interesting to know what nifty projects / solutions to common problems they've found. This includes the low-down on projects like water filters and solar panels. Getting a water filter or bottled water service is proposed at Wilde House just about every semester, but has always been shot down because it's (1) too expensive and (2) doesn't actually do anything. It would be nice to develop a repository of commonly proposed motions and the research that's been done. (Yes, another WikiApplication.)

JennyJo and Alex really did go on their wiki escapade, although not all of the results have been posted. Check out the cool new image on the Wiki frontpage. Also there is apparently a guerilla marketing campaign!!