- = S A M O L O G Y = -

Mr.

2010-11-05T21:33:07Z

My email to Paul Krugman earlier this afternoon went something like this;

"Dear Paul,

Your recent Times article, The Focus Hocus-Pocus, contains repeated use of the phrase "Mr. Obama," a style choice which I find to be bothersome because it is unusually formal.

I would be happier to see "President Obama" on first reference, as you have it, followed by simply "Obama" on subsequent references.

My opinion is that it is preferable to treat Obama the same way we treat Clinton, Reagan, Nixon and even Bush (yes, both of them).

Kind regards,

Sam T
Brooklyn, NY"

After I clicked Send, I was then haunted by the rampant irony of there being so many grammatical errors in my letter. Oh, wells...

Anyway, I'm sure Paul's going to jump right on that and not use "Mr. Obama" ever again, and word will get around the entire media industry, not just print but also broadcast, so I can stop hearing "Mr. Obama" every 3 seconds on NPR... Right?

Getting Ready for Pinferno V

2010-10-28T16:29:09Z

Sip slowly, Dear Reader;

It is that time of year again. The time of year for the third Pinferno of the year, to be exact. Pinferno is a competition of pinball players from around the entire world, and by world I mean mostly New Jersey, and also some guys from Brooklyn, usually. And you know how the saying goes;

"Nobody Knows Brooklyn, Because Brooklyn Is The World!"

I take it back, you did not know that saying. Let's move on.

More about Pinferno; each contestant plays his or her pinball-loving heart out for six long hours, hoping just to make it to the finals. A brief pause at 6pm allows time for sobriety tests to be administered and anyone with a blood alcohol content below 0.08 is politely asked to take their business elsewhere. The remaining finalists then stand about watching Sean Grant make sweet, sweet love to Doctor Who as if this were some post-nuclear scenario where there are only pinball machines left, and well, if Sean is going to get it on with a pinball machine it is sure as shit going to be Doctor Who... "That poor, defenseless pinball machine!" we all silently exclaim to ourselves, not wanting to hurt Sean's feelings. The process is awkward to witness, but it is also a necessary part of the Pinferno Mating Ritual slash Life Cycle slash If The Police Raid Were To Happen Right Now That Would Be Even More Difficult To Explain Than Usual But Hopefully They Might At Least Forget To Search Peace...

What?

Besides this, what can I say about Pinferno that has not been said before? Let's try a few;

"Pinferno will not cause Elephantiasis of any part of the body (except perhaps the liver area, slightly)."

True, this has not been said before about Pinferno. And another;

"If you were to stack all 32 Pinferno contestants end-to-end, how frickin' weird would that be? It just seems unnecessary. Why would you even think of doing that? More importantly, would it make for good television? How about Japanese television? I am authorized to sell the broadcast rights at a substantial discount, if it will bring us closer to a deal today. We may choose to incorporate Snapple(tm) and/or Cialis(tm) directly into the plot line to sweeten the deal even further."

Yes, these are unusual things to say about Pinferno, indeed. Dare we tread further?

"Pinferno is melancholy. But it is also the antidote to melancholy. Thus Pinferno is the absinthe of the pinball art form. No wonder we are all so addicted to it. No wonder some of us are inclined to mate, perhaps violently, with Doctor Who. Please do not watch us while we do this."

Keep going, I would like to hear just one more;

"Start with bacon. Crispy, crispy bacon. Add Pinferno to the bacon. I cannot tell you what to do after this because I am starting to get choked up with emotions just thinking about the result of such a marriage. Please turn the cameras off for a moment while I collect myself. I feel ashamed and very vulnerable right now... Do you know where there might be a Doctor Who that I could be alone with to console myself, just for a few minutes? I promise to be gentle. Firm, but gentle. You may need to re-wax after I am done, incidentally. Please forget I said that last part."

Oh well.

Let's do this thing; Pinferno V lays ahead of us gloriously. May Pinferno V wash over all of us and remove our sins. Except for the sins of mating with pinball machines, which we must proceed to have absolved elsewhere, probably in some dive-y hipster bar, thus beginning the cycle afresh.

~Sam T is the author of "The Pinferno Manifesto" and has published several electronic works appearing in your Spam box, and also on his blog which the Internet apparently doesn't know about yet even though it has been online since 2003. Sam T's achievements include recently putting GC on the High Roller Casino at Max Fish, and also once getting to Lost In The Zone (LITZ) on a Twilight Zone that was admittedly suffering from dead slingshots at a Pizza Hut in St. Cloud, Minnesota about 15 years ago. Remember the Dessert Pizza from Pizza Hut? Sam T sure does. Sam T also performed a Tour The Mansion and put High Score #3 on an Addams Family in front of a sellout crowd at Sharlene's Bar last Wednesday. The sellout crowd consisted of one bartender. The bartender was not actually paying any attention. Sam T then swore at the Bride of Pinbot which was there, because it was suffering from semi-dead flippers and you can't even make the left ramp when it's like that.

Origami Dodecahedron

2009-07-22T15:33:47Z

Much may be said about the origami dodecahedron, but "easy" it ain't.
I can't get one to stay together without holding the bottom parts in
place, like so.

This one is held together by rocks... it took me about 4 hours to get
this far.

Sparks over Fort Greene

2009-07-22T15:15:26Z

b-day a la britely

2009-07-20T22:30:32Z

over the weekend a fellow mobile apps developer shared his creation, a
lite-brite emulator for the Android operating system; it was D's bday
party, so there it is then...

Samology Resurrection

2009-07-15T03:12:55Z

Moved to a new hosting service, this be the inaugural phone pic... it
is a sky...

Superman at Bryant Park

2008-08-19T06:42:35Z

Pre-race view last Saturday

2008-06-20T21:48:12Z

Lunch

2008-04-15T23:10:58Z

Fog over Hanson Pl, Brooklyn NY

2008-04-11T22:40:29Z

Mass MoCA

2008-04-06T00:41:26Z

Feats of Strength

2008-03-07T22:41:49Z

Well it's been an unusual week here in Lake Wobegon, as I seem to be in a kind of Zen mode of heroic superhuman sports powers;

Point 1) On Tuesday my 8-ball and 9-ball opponents were completely defenseless against my full-on billiards slaughtering capabilities.

Point 2) Wednesday I swam (swamded?) 100 yards in 1min 25secs and did not barf immediately afterwards.

Point 3) Last night at Tien's b-day party I bowled a 167 for the first time in my life- that's not the best part, my first three frames were strikes and the next two were spares, I was like the pool equivalent of Tiger Woods for about 10 minutes, even doling out advice to the lowly earthlings in the vicinity from aloft my tall, tall mountaintop of bowling knowledge.

Tonight just to test fate I am going to try bench-pressing Paris the cat for 1 repetition; HOME VIEWERS, DO NOT ATTEMPT!!! DO NOT ATTEMPT!!! THESE ARE TRAINED PROFESSIONALS ON A CLOSED TRACK!!! BENCH-PRESSING PARIS THE CAT MAY RESULT IN: STRAINED UPPER DELTOIDS; EXTREME MEOWING; CLAW MARKS TO AREAS OF EXPOSED SKIN!!! DO NOT TAUNT HAPPY FUN BALL!!!

Okay, maybe not.

The Park in a Hard Place

2008-03-02T23:07:32Z

Speaker Building

2008-02-09T00:26:45Z

A couple weeks ago my Uncle Ivan helped me build a pair of speakers, a project I have been trying to get done since seeing the plans online at zaphaudio.com.

Humble beginnings...

Ivan's very exact measurements made sure all the edges lined up real nice. It took about 8 hours to cut and route all the pieces, a lot longer than I expected. I have a newfound respect for the art of cabinet making!

After I got the pieces home, there were a couple more steps. Okay there were a lot more steps. According to my notes;

Glue sides to bottom of box 1/21/2008
Sand box tops even 1/22/2008
Glue box tops 1/22/2008
Make port tube holes bigger 1/24/2008
Sand baffle edges around tweeter holes 1/25/2008
Cut 8 triangle corner pieces 1/24/2008
Shape 8 triangle pieces to fit corners 1/25/2008
Glue 8 triangle corner pieces 1/25/2008
Drill practice baffle mounting hole / try hex + hurricane bolts 1/24/2008
Apply acoustic foam to 5 inner sides 1/26/2008
Test crossover seating 1/27/2008
Drill terminal holes 1/26/2008
Drill mounting holes in baffle 1/26/2008
Drill mounting holes in 8 triangle corner pieces 1/26/2008
Drill pilot holes for woofer screws 1/26/2008
Sand baffle smooth 1/26/2008
Spray baffle w/ primer coat 1/28/2008
Spray paint baffle 1/28/2008
Do preliminary sanding of box 1/26/2008
Seal mdf "ends" with diluted glue (x2) 1/26/2008
Seal surfaces w/ Minwax 1/28/2008
Sand surfaces smooth pre-veneer 1/26/2008
Apply veneer / vinyl laminate to 5 sides 1/29/2008
Apply weatherstripping to frontside edges ...
Insert Terminals 1/29/2008
Insert Port Tube 1/29/2008
Screw woofer into baffle 1/29/2008
Seal woofer with silicone 1/29/2008
Epoxy tweeter into Baffle 1/29/2008
Solder crossover to terminals 1/29/2008
Mount crossover 1/29/2008
solder tweeter crossover wires 1/29/2008
solder woofer crossover wires 1/29/2008
bolt baffle to box 1/29/2008
enjoy 1/29/2008

Okay. At least by 1/29 I was "enjoying" some new speakers. They look like this;

Not too shabby! Thanks again Ivan!

If I have time later I'll post pictures of the inside of the speakers, there's all sorts of electrical wiring in there for the crossover that looks pretty neat. A crossover basically takes an audio signal and splits the frequencies into "high" and "low" parts that are fed to the woofer and tweeter separately (the larger and smaller circular shapes on the front of the speaker). This is so the tweeter is not damaged by low frequency signals.

View From BBQ Hut Brooklyn NY

2008-01-16T00:25:48Z