If I have seen further into Virtual Reality [than certain other persons] it is by peering over the shoulders of geeks.

I’m being fecetious, but seriously – look at the photo above! I thanked the cyber-gods for Google and Wikipedia, so I could tutor myself while participating. Everyone used their laptop as an immediate reference tool during the presentations. Damn, learning is gonna be so cool for our kids!

This is symposium was Andrew’s forte, but I feel like I’ve had a big glimpse into what’s coming up in VR and I’m diving in, or rather my avatar is diving in boots first. Not to mention how cool it was to be at Nasa-Ames and meet some very, very clever folks!

One of the best surprises was having the chance to meet Rudy Rucker. I took a couple of my old, yellowed paperbacks on the second day, stared at my feet like a gob-smacked groupie, and asked for an autograph. These books in particular are dear to me because they were the first of his work I had read. I’m not a science fiction reader, but I was taking a physics course at Indiana University when a very cool book seller (from The Book Cellar – Geez, I hope it’s still there) turned me on to Rudy’s books. He was the coolest thing, my secret find. Okay, obviously I still think that, though I realize he is local and quite well known out here. The Clash were right – Rudy can’t fail!

This is so clever, thanks to that sexy hunk of haggis, Andrew Duncan Johnstone, limey light of my bloody life. Click the word link to view 17 California overwinter sites of the Monarch Migration. You must have Google Earth installed to run this file. I’m sure I can pimp this a little in the future, but I’m playing catch up with technology here, so I just wanted to get it out to share. Check it out!

Here’s another Monarch Migration site that is pretty straight forward if you want to know more.

I’m definitely not the rhinestone and stilettos kinda girl, and I’ll probably still be wearing Doc Martins when I’m pushing my walker. I don’t jump in the pit any more, but I’ll pogo my ass off! Anyway, I found a killer pair of blue velvet docs on the internet, which spawned the blue velvet evening dress, appropriately cut off into a micro-mini and the finishing touch, blue morpho butterfly wings! Interference paint rocks, by the way.

Check out the photos from Sea of Dreams, New Years Eve 2007. There’s nothing more visually pleasing.

Not a psychological bobsled to hell, ala Tennessee Williams nor a romp through an eighties video by The Motels, and yet…another metamorphosis.

Sophie wanted me to do some kind of birthday party at her summer care. We talked about fairies, High School Musical, all the popular themes, and if I might digress for a moment, when the hell did Bratz become a cool thing? Aside from the connotation of the word, dressing like a 20 year and whining for a credit card is not something I want my six year old to emulate. Who buys this crapola? No Dennis Miller rant this time, though. Why? Because my little girl delighted me by saying, “I want the Bug Lady, I’ve never met her”. Ahh, the breakthough!

I dusted off the old lab coat, took the day off work and brought my buggy science show to Alameda Island Kids, complete with collections, a slideshow (I discovered kids love this ancient technology of shining pictures onto the wall) and live critters. You can get a lot of entertainment mileage out of a hissing cockroach, by the way. The teacher told the Alameda Recreation and Parks Dept. and I ended up doing some more shows for the local summer programs. Now at least once a week I get a curious kid with an insect question when I come to pick up Bug Gurl, as she is now known. What fun! I’m glad Bug Lady is back – I’ve missed her!