Folks: If I was a fed, I would be happy not to go there! That has got to be the most uncomfortable place to hold a conference like this. It's been over 100 degrees there lately. That is hot and uncomfortable!! Can we please move this thing to a place that's cooler and more comfortable, like Seattle or Portland, Oregon??????? Mark

If you are in the Portland, Oregon area; may I please suggest you look at Free Geek for cables and stuff? Their thrift store has a pretty good selection of stuff and it's cheaper then BB or Amazon. I buy the wall-warts that need for my lighted sculptures there. Another place, but it requires more diligence in hunting, is the Goodwill outlet store; the one that us locals call 'The Bins'

Thank you.

So what? Amtrak has seat-side power for your computers. What you say does not make sense. (

Thank you for writing these comics!

I also watch movies and listen to music while working on stuff. I have my workbench next to my computer with DVD drive. I put on a movie and then go at it.

I can do stuff such as saw metal, engrave glass, grind and polish gemstones; all while watching and listening to a movie.

I can generally get the plot line of a movie while listening; I don't have to keep my eyes glued to the screen all the time.

The one thing that I have yet to master (and give me time) is to sing and dance with Julie Andrews in the Sound Of Music while welding without burning my finger off :(

Folks:

I am creative. I create artistic clothing and jewelry.

I also use slashdot.

Right now, I am welding together a necklace. I am on slashdot now because I have to let the welds cool down so that I can move the work and then weld another section. If I don't wait for the weld to cool down, I will burn my finger off. And that means 'ouch' and a trip to the emergency room.

So, I use slashdot to kill time until my weld cools off and I can move the work for my next weld.

Well, I guess it's cooled off enough now, so bye bye slashdot.

This whole thread has introduced me to a new definition of the word 'house concert'!

I have been to house concerts here in Portland, Oregon and they are **far** different that what is alleged here

One house concert was a string quartet in somone's living room that started at 7 PM and ended at 9 PM. You could not hear anything from outside.

The other house concert was a small chorus (un-amplified) with a baby grand piano. It was also in a living room. And you could not even hear it from the front walkway of the home, let alone the neighbors. It was over at about 9:30 PM

The third house concert was a Christmas carol sing along where the family invited many of the neighbors over dessert and singing. It ran from about 8 PM to 10 PM. You could barely hear anything from the front walkway.

And Boston wants to ban these?????

Great post! Well said!!!

Well, if you enjoy your work, then it is not work and is not depressing.

What do you define as work?

Charlie Brown calls work the crab grass of life.

I happen to enjoy what I am doing. I love to solve problems and clean up other people's messes. It gives me a great ego boost.

When I am done with that, I then do more of what you call work to creat my artistic jewelry and clothing.

Folks:

First thing; they have got to get off the darn donuts! :(

I just got royally chewed out big time by my doctor to stay off of donuts from now on because of my high LDL.

I have never been reamed out like this before. He told me that I was killing myself by eating donuts!

I suggest that if they stop eating donuts, they just might get more energy to do more than just sit around.

This has to do with surveillance because I know that I am indexed, spidered, cookied, and monitored by the various facebooks, twitters, googles, bings, and so on and that it benefits me to increase my visibility. More people are aware of my art without me having to spend $$$ on advertising.

I do the same as well. I make lighted jewelry and clothing. I spend just about every spare minute outside of my job engaged in these hobbies.

However, I still have to purchase my tools and raw materials on line. So the powers to be know I make lighted clothing and jewelry. I have a web site for crying out loud! (www.allyn.com).

I do extensive searches on Google, Wikepedia, LinkedIn, and Facebook for techniques in TIG welding, Sewing, Lapidiary, Engraving, Plasma Welding, and many other crafts. All I do on my computer at home with cookies and all.

So now the world knows that I make lighted jewelry by tig welding scrap pieces of steel together and then polish it with tools that I purchase on line. I then light it with LED's I purchase on line from three large LED vendors.

I also make lighted clear plastic raincoats. The optical fiber I use for those I purchase on line. The high power LED's I purchase on-line. The lithium batteries I purchase on-line. The only thing I don't purchase on line is the clear vinyl, but I am engaged on an on-line discussion on LinkedIn on what materials I can use to replace the PVC for my clear raincoats.

I wear my lighted clothing and jewelry out and about. Undoubtedly, there are numerous pictures of me dressed up on-line that I don't know about. So what? Should I care?

Local police know that I do this stuff. Most likely the local FBI, CIA, Secret Service, and other 3 letter agencies know about this. You do a google search for lighted clear plastic raincoats, you will see me right up there in the images section.

And, so far, cross my fingers, no one has sent me to Guitanimio or any other place.

:)