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-Keith Pelczarski

Random Nuttiness
Why go nutty?
Recalling London
Drink me
RageBoy Speaks!
More equal
Wonder Woman
Raging King, Fear Driver
31 Flavors
Refreshing?
On the edge?
Good Morning, Sunshine

Where is that post?

Go Nutty WWW

Interesting Voices
Randy Cassingham
Jonathan Coulton
Kevin Fox
Vince Hanks
Mark Hurst
Jason Kottke
Jeffrey Martian
Kerah Pelczarski
Max Pelczarski
Dave Pell
RageBoy
ResearchBuzz
Doc Searls
Tracy Sigler
Oliver Thylmann

Sites of Note
All Music Guide
Boing Boing
Financial Engines
The Fray
Google
Google News
How Stuff Works
Internet Movie Database
Memepool
Metacritic
The Motley Fool
Netflix
The Onion
Slashdot (/.)

Your Momma for President

:: Keith 22:14 [link] :: 0 comments ::

Paris Hilton for President?

Not sure how closely y'all have been following the presidential campaign. For those who haven't been following, Obama had a kick-ass world tour visiting troops and making speeches rock star style in front of crowds of literally hundreds of thousands of people in Berlin while McCain had lunch at Schmidt's Sausage Haus in Pennsylvania. The following week, McCain's campaign issued a bunch of lame attack ads including one super-lame one that basically suggests that Obama is too popular to be a good leader. Huh?

Anyway, that lame attack ad included short clips of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, feebly attempting to insult both them and Obama. Paris Hilton has fired back with a a Funny or Die video (below). I've always been fairly "whatever" about Paris Hilton, but gained some respect for her after watching this:

As Paris would say, "That's hot."

:: Keith 21:30 [link] :: 0 comments ::

Sites to help you make stuff online

Here's another post from the my-desktop-is-too-cluttered file. This time we'll look at some websites that help you create something.

• Tikatok
  Write, illustrate, and print a children's book. Child not included.
  
  
• Mixwit
  Online mix tape maker. Teenage angst not included.
  
  
• Scripped
  Write the screenplay for the next summer blockbuster. Elevator pitch not included.
  
  
• Last.fm
  Streaming music tagged to help you find new artists similar to your favorites. Headphones not included.
  
  
• Read at work
  Stories and poems formatted like Powerpoint presentations for surreptitious cubicle reading. Mind-numbing job not included.
  
  
• Polyvore
  Mix and match to make sets and get your fash on. Fabulousness not included.
  
  
• Ponoko
  Create, share, buy, and sell plans for laser-cut goods, fabricated on demand. Lame joke not included.

That is all. As you were.

:: Keith 22:54 [link] :: 0 comments ::

DIY project roundup

Following Maker Faire, I had a bunch of DIY projects that I wanted to do, and I have a bunch of browser windows open as reference. Since I haven't been able to get to the projects yet, I'm posting them all here in the hopes that maybe someone out there might actually do something with them other than just blog about them. Or maybe someday *I* might actually do something about them. Without further ado....

• How to Make Play-Dough
  The good folks at Instructables offer up this easy recipe for making Play-Dough for your kids (or yourself).
  
  
• The Infamous Marshmallow Shooter
  This one's from Howtoons, and gives simple instructions on how to create a marshmallow blowgun out of half-inch PVC pipe. They had some of these at Maker Faire, and they were launching those mini-marshmallows halfway across the expo floor.
  
  
• How to Build a Giant Dinosaur
  Toolmonger shows how to take one of those small wooden dinosaur models that you get at museum gift shops and turn it into a nearly life-size dinosaur model.

:: Keith 22:34 [link] :: 0 comments ::

All shook up

The earthquake(s) in China have been making a lot of news lately. If you want to keep your eye on what's shaking around the world, dig this earthquake map from the USGS. And if you've always wondered what the deal is with earthquakes and why they happen so often in some places and not others, dig this tectonic plate map.

:: Keith 00:16 [link] :: 0 comments ::

Green Porno

Isabella Rosellini wrote, co-directed, co-produced and stars in "Green Porno" -- a series of short films where she narrates and acts out the reproductive habits of a variety of creepy-crawly critters while wearing some great costumes. I never knew that snails were such sado-masochistic hermaphroditic super freaks.

:: Keith 23:50 [link] :: 0 comments ::

Picture this

Here's an interesting "periodic table of visualization methods." It's a great resource if you're grappling with how to visually convey a complex set of concepts.

:: Keith 23:40 [link] :: 0 comments ::

Fire on the (Santa Cruz) mountains

The Summit Wildfire is still raging in the Santa Cruz mountains. Pretty smokey here in Palo Alto, but no real danger for our family from this fire (or really any other wildfire) since we live in town relatively far away from the unkempt wild. There's a good Google map of the fire at the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Our thoughts are with those families who have already lost their homes, or who are evacuated and keeping their fingers crossed. We're also hoping that all the firefighters can stay safe out there.

:: Keith 09:35 [link] :: 0 comments ::

Save our skoolz!

A lot of things in my life have changed in the five years since I became a parent. Tonight I had a watershed moment in the life of a parent -- my very first PTA meeting (all right, it was a "community forum" not a hardcore PTA meeting, but still... not something that I had ever really pictured myself doing). The forum was a screening of John Merrow's "First to Worst", a documentary about California's public schools, followed by Q&A with a pretty impressive panel of speakers: John Merrow, Marshall Smith, Deborah Stipek, and Delaine Eastin.

It was nice in a lot of ways... well-made documentary, good panelists, engaged parents, free snacks, ample parking, etc. So what was the downside? Well, there was the one crazy older lady next to me in the front row who did *way* too much hissing and booing and talking at inappropriate times during both the movie and the Q&A, but she wasn't the real downer. No, the real downer was the state of near-total paddlelessness for many public schools in the state of California.

Here's the CliffsNotes version. Please note I am by no means an expert on this stuff, this is just what I've gleaned tonight from the forum and from some reading online. Anyway, here's my understanding of the state we're in:

1. California used to have excellent schools in the 50s and 60s. Some were more excellent than others (I'm looking at you San Dimas), so a class action was taken to, um, level the playing field.
   
2. In the 70s, a series of California Supreme Court opinions on Serrano vs. Priest did level the playing field. Unfortunately, the result was revenue limits for each school district, effectively bringing down the level of funding for good schools rather than bringing the poor schools up.
   
3. In 1978, Proposition 13 was passed, capping property taxes which severely limited the amount of revenue available for schools at the local level. At that point, the state government became the major source of funds for most schools. Of course, there are lots of, um, challenges getting money from Sacramento.
   
4. In the 90s, Pete Wilson championed legislation that limited class size, without any corresponding funding for things which are required to meet that limit... things like classrooms and teachers.
   
5. California public school districts remain limited in the ways that they can raise additional funds needed to improve schools:
   • School facilities bond measures: require a 55% vote, reduced from 2/3 by prop 39
     
   • Parcel tax: a local property tax requiring 2/3 vote... often a tough sell, especially when typically <20% of voters have kids in school
     
   • Private donations: many foundations have sprung up to provide funding for public school programs like music, art, computers, libraries, etc. Wealthier communities tend to have these foundations, while lower-income districts get whatever the state provides... So much for equality.

The takeaway for me as a Palo Alto parent was that the Palo Alto Unified School District was doing a great job, due to the affluence in our city coupled with the efforts and advocacy of teachers, administrators, parents, and private foundations. Just down the road in much less affluent East Palo Alto, though, it's a different story. And that's a huge bummer, not just for me and other people who have kids, or who care about kids on general principle, but also for our society as a whole. As the panelists put it, the next time you fly on a plane, think about all the public school graduates (mechanics, air traffic controllers, etc.) that you rely on for your safety and well-being. It's a dramatic example, maybe overly so, but the point that we live very interconnected lives is still quite valid. Given the number of kids in the California school system, this is a problem that affects not just people in California, but the entire country.

For more information, here's the list of resources provided at the Palo Alto PTA meeting tonight:

• Sixth District PTA
  
• California State PTA
  
• California School Finance
  
• EdSource
  
• John Merrow, "First to Worst"
  
• California Budget Project
  
• League of Women Voters (click on "Education")
  
• CA Dept. of Education
  
• "Getting Down to Facts"
  
• California Educational Opportunity Reports
  
• Legislative Analyst's Office
  
• Williams Case

In the immortal words of Jeff Spicoli (a graduate of California public schools):

"What Jefferson was saying was, Hey! You know, we left this England place 'cause it was bogus; so if we don't get some cool rules ourselves - pronto - we'll just be bogus too! Get it?"

Don't be bogus, people -- support public schools. And if you live in Palo Alto, vote yes on Measure A on the June 3rd, 2008 ballot.

Class dismissed.

:: Keith 23:00 [link] :: 0 comments ::

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