Big View, originally uploaded by Austin ampersand Zak.

A simpler view of that space we liked today.

Pine Street Panorama, originally uploaded by Austin ampersand Zak.

This is a panorama of a 635sqft studio space we just visited at the Pine Street Arts and Industry Building. We really liked this space. It's got three huge windows with a nice view, it's an awfully spacious ~600sqft, and it's cheap. As is often the way when we go hunting for these kinds of things, this is the most featureful and least expensive unit that we've seen.

Fluxbuntu, originally uploaded by Zak Hubbard.

I've been trying to get some life out of my aging desktop, Josie. It was fast enough to run Ubuntu proper but productivity could drag from slowdowns and swapouts. I installed Fluxbuntu for fun and I'm hoping that the smaller system footprint will translate into increased productivity. Meanwhile, it's as if I've travelled six years back in time. The ncurses Debian installer; XMMS (with my favorite skin, XawMMS pulled out of an old home directory backup); an unstable, stripped down browser calling to mind Firefox from back in its Phoenix days; command line everything; configuration files as the norm; it's like going broken home again.

Dilators, originally uploaded by Zak Hubbard.

Bakelite butt plugs at the Bakelite Retrospective in Connecticut.

The Office, originally uploaded by Zak Hubbard.

I made this panorama of our office in honor of it being nice and clean.

Booting, originally uploaded by Zak Hubbard.

Now with pictures.

I got an interesting comment from, I guess, a shill for the Oak Island Tourism Society.

The Oak Island mystery isn't all crap! There are new excavations happening on the island as week speak! New investors from Michigan have teamed up with Dan Blankenship - (island resident and long time treasure hunter) in yet another attempt to search for the riches.

I know some are skeptical about the treasure on Oak Island, but for a mining company to fork out a few million dollars to invest in the project, lets hope we will soon know what is REALLY down there.

The tourism folks seem awfully well integrated with Oak Island Treasure, a news outlet concerning modern day excavation on the island.

Oak Island Treasure is pleased to annonce that Oak Island Tours Inc. (Dan Blankenship and the Michigan Group) has received the Treasure Trove License formerly owned by Oak Island Exploration Company. This means that the team can now move forward with exploration of Oak Island this year.

They go on.

Strange man made artefacts have been recovered from the pit over the years, to this day, the treasure still remains buried. Pirates , the Knights Templar or Francis Bacon - no one is sure exactly who created this mysterious Money Pit or why. With excavations set to begin in 2008, discover the World's greatest treasure hunt for yourself!

Bear in mind that people have been digging on this island for centuries and the most exciting man made artifact to come out of any of the dozens of bore holes and re-bored holes scattered around the vicinity of what is said to be the original site is a scrap of wire. The contamination of the area by past excavations is near total. Bear in mind also that the original story of the kids who stumbled upon a tackle block and some disturbed earth in the 1700s is unverifiable and most probably false - a retcon to justify digging later in the 1800s.

In the meantime, the Oak Island Treasure folks sound familar...

Steve Currey's Expedition Company of Provo, Utah, has chartered a Russian Nuclear Icebreaker from Adventure Associates and is standing by to take the first 100 people to sign up for this historic voyage.

This expedition will conduct scientific observations in the Arctic that is hoped will resolve once and for all whether the hollow earth theory has any validity.

Don't miss this chance to personally visit that paradise within our earth via the North Polar Opening and meet the highly advanced, friendly people who live there. We are of the opinion that they are the legendary Lost Tribes of Israel who migrated into the North Country over 2,500 years ago and literally became lost to the knowledge of mankind.

That visit, scheduled for last summer, was canceled. A non-refundable deposit, however, was required for reservations.

• The reason I've missed two danger days - my distribution keeps pumping new versions of the Firefox 3 beta down my throat and I hate the new history/bookmarks management feature. In the past, I composed these entries by skimming my browser history for the previous week. I wasn't using anything fancy like del.icio.us (I'll have you know that I was so early to del.icio.us that I nailed down zak for my username. *cockwaggle*). Also, no, I do not hate Firefox 3 enough to argue with apt.
• David "Yazz" Allen, wtf? - It's impossible to follow the news about Antioch because it is all written by this raving lunatic.

  EVERYTHING was done by the USA government Nixon and his successor Ford ran to assassinate Antioch College. The FBI office in Cincinnati OH was detailed to engage COINTELPRO assassination activity against Antioch in the 1970's

• Are You Not Devo? You Are Mutato. - I didn't know that Mothersbaugh's music house employed the rest of Devo. That is pretty awesome. Also, he owns the Electronium
• Raymond Scott, inventor of the Electronium and composer of every song you've ever heard.
• Psyche Rock - remix. Also, duh.
• A Conversation Between Errol Morris and Werner Herzog.
• You should know about the interrotron.
• Some typefaces.
• The Leila Texts - I met this person once. She receives any text message sent to LEILA on the Verizon network.
• Star Trek Chess manufacturing guide
• Ever since I saw that episode of In Search Of, I'd believed in the story of the Oak Island Treasure Pit. It's the story of an impossibly well fortified and booby-trapped hole in the ground at the bottom of which was said to lie an immense fortune. People have been digging after it for almost two hundred years. My favorite part of the story is the bit about how the whole island was engineered to frustrate treasure hunters. The beach was, supposedly, artificial - a device of coconut fiber and fine gravel designed to filter sea water into man made underground channels that would flood the treasure pit with every tide. All crap. Childhood: ruined.
• Something about a computer brain. I am tired now.

• Sensual Service - Some filler and some helpful housecleaning tips. For the submissive woman, apparently?
• See also, Chore Wars - An oldie, earn XP for housework.
• Also see, Fly Lady - When I read this years ago, I became depressed because I had a ceramic sink and could not shine it to a mirror finish as directed.
• The Washington Monthly - every day.
• Bento Porn - Trying to comfort myself over the idea of an office job, I imagined packing Mr. Bento lunches. In fact, my house is only a few minutes away from the office so I could just come home for lunch time.
• Just Hungry - I have been having inappropriate Japanese food fetishism tiemz.
• Advanced Technology - Pregnant nerds and nerd spouses: how many times have you been sent this comic in the past week?
• Overqualified - Basically? Funny cover letters.