Bye bye Mr. President. I hardly got know you. POTUS Obama and posse left just in time for him to deliver a eulogy at the memorial service for the 29 men that died in the coal mining accident earlier this month in West Virginia.

Those drivers really put the “motor” in motorcade. Hammer down through my neighborhood. My house is just a few doors down from this intersection. Once they started closing streets everyone figured they were about to depart. It turned into a regular block party. My (favorite) neighbor, who will remain nameless walked back to her house and mixed up some mimosas for the adults and lemonade for kiddos. Here’s to you President Obama. Don’t be a stranger.

P.S. Thumbs up for the Asheville Police Department, at least the guys at this intersection. They were, very, serious when it was called for, but the rest of the time they were chatting with the crowd and giving out various APD trinkets to the all the kids.

Trust me. You’ll enjoy this. Our emotions are in charge…

James Surowiecki speaks with Michael Mauboussin, the Chief Investment Strategist at Legg Mason Capital Management and the author of “Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition,” about common investment mistakes, how to improve decision-making, and what investors can learn from the recent stock-market woes. They met last week in New York City.

Article at the New Yorker

I love this video, and it’s right on time. Feel like the “tiger” is out to get me! Run!

We recently inherited this gerbil from some friends. I made simple wood apparatus to give her more to do. I just bought a couple cheap pine boards, sawed them up, drilled some holes for her to climb through, and then glued it together. I was on the verge of turning this into a Bauhaus rodent art project, but quickly came to my senses. She loves climbing the towers and hanging out on the bridge. I also made a couple recessed screens (not shown) for the top. You can buy a kit at the hardware store to make screens to any size you need.

I (and the dog) voted no to bringing another mammal into the house, but we were over-ruled. We already had the 75 fish tank from our last home (didn’t try to move the fish) and I figured we might as well give the little lady more room to run.

I got tired of looking at those mystery person silohuette avatars I have on the various social sites so I made this graphic. To me, it’s funny. Those fists are actually Hulk Hands ™ that I bought on eBay and sprayed with chrome paint. The knuckle letters were inspired by some of the ideas at KnuckleTattoos.com. But “GIVE” and “TAKE” actually came from a drawing in the liner notes of one of the more recent Metallica albums.

My brother Grayson and I went to China this past week to meet with a factory that is a new partner for us. We also had the opportunity to meet in person with our rep from another, long-time supplier to Lumenlab.

It’s a long trip from the east coast of the US to inland China (over 24 hours), but it was definitely worth it. I had talked to several companies that import from China and work with manufacturers there and every one of them said “you have to go there.” In person, we were able to quickly get answers to our outstanding questions; get agreement on product details, delivery dates, production capacity; see the factory in action, and much more.

One morning we got a tour of the home appliance market in the Chenghuang district. (See pic below) This area was massive with block after city block filled with very small shops. These shops are primarily wholesale storefronts for various domestic brands of everything electronic, from speakers, to personal media players, to spare parts. It was a strange commercial environment unlike anything I’ve ever seen in the US, sort of an ongoing product expo.

On top of all that our excellent hosts made sure we got to see a lot of what is great about their home town, Chengdu. This major city is known as a “place for relaxing” according to our hosts. Wikipedia has a great page about Chengdu.

One of the non-business highlights was seeing the Sichuan Opera (Chinese language only site, but great pics!). It was less opera than I expected, and more like a variety show with a “cinema and draft” type atmosphere. There were loose chairs and tables with peanuts and non-stop tea. There also were people walking around and performing massages. One of them grabbed Grayson’s shoulders and said “massage-y? massage-y?” G shrugged him off and then he moved over to me. I thought “why not?” and let him proceed to beat the crap out of me while I sat in my bamboo chair. At one point he even had his fingers stuck in my ears and was mashing my head all over the place. To be honest, it was slightly nauseating, but somehow when it was all over I felt great.

It’s a good thing I was loosened up because about an hour into the show these knife throwing jokers came on stage and before I knew it I was drafted to go up there too. The basic set up was that the thrower wasn’t very good so the “target” decided to get someone else from the audience. Even though we were sitting in the middle all the way in the back I had a feeling it would be one of us. We were the only two laowai in the whole joint. So, I get up there and they first let me hold the knives and confirm that they are the real deal. Then, as I lean against the board one of the guys gets right in my face and says to me in his best, clearest english: “Take it easy. Take it easy.” Will do. Then, the thrower says something that I can only guess equated to “One! Two! Thre… Wait a minute, put the hood over his head.” Then, the count off again, quickly followed by the sound of two knives sticking into the board, close to my body. They remove the hood so I can see what happened. This went on a few times as I stood there essentially blindfolded, and the audience roared with laughter.

Then finally, they pulled out a balloon. Well, I knew right away where that would end up. Will it balance on his head? No. Maybe his shoulder? No. I know, let’s put it between his knees. Just when he was ready to throw he tells his partner to move it up a little higher. Oh yeah, put the hood back on. Pow! At this point I’m just glad to have the hood on. They take it off one last time and have me stand back and look at the board. I applaud their work. They each shake hands with me. We three join hands and take a big bow. As I’m walking back to my seat people on the aisles are giving me the thumbs up and clapping like crazy. I get back to my seat and Grayson says “you know what was going on, right?” “Uh, no. What?” “The thrower would count and his partner would just stick the knives in the board on cue.” “Oh, right.” It was fun, and one guy even came up to shake my hand in the street after the show. “You are a star!” he said, I think.

Have some tea, play mahjong or cards with some friends, and relax. You’re in Chengdu. (Grayson getting his tea buzz on at the Wenshu Monastery.)