I used to despise the word “blogging.” I suppose one tiny particle in my brain still winces at the word (I’ve been known to avoid “fads” or anything with a lot of hype, like Harry Potter… don’t ask), but I’ve succumbed to doing it, anyway. Let’s face it, it’s the writer in me, and it allows me to write plotless things because I’m not good at plot.
So right now I’m not enjoying the phrase “Second Life.” Be it a craze, something I roll my eyes at, or something I’m maybe afraid of, it’s got that edge that just irks me. I’d compare it to MySpace or YouTube, although I signed up for MySpace just over a year ago. It brought me something wonderful that changed my life (call it luck or fate), which I won’t discuss here, but I’ve sort of dropped off the face of the MySpace non-planet since — I do have a first life, and it’s called SCHOOL.
I’m taking a social sciences/studies course about blogging, confession, user-generated content and YouTube. Our discussions cover a wide variety of interesting things, and it seems we tend to agree. Then again, we’re all around the same age, we go to a smallish school with a specific range of creative types, and we all live in Vancouver. Not everyone is from Vancouver, or even Canada for that matter, but somehow our ideas seem to fit. Either that, or the people who disagree aren’t speaking up.
Continue reading Second Life? »
A funny little coincidence, perhaps? A classmate from my social studies course on blogging posted about a particular talk at Northern Voice 2007. It’s called “Why do we blog?” Presenters are Darren Barefoot and Alex Waterhouse-Hayward, two Vancouver bloggers and professionals. The funny thing about it is that I visit Darren’s blog regularly, so a familiar name was a pleasant surprise. (I’ve had NetNewsWire closed more than open for the last month, however, to concentrate on my studies, so my activity everywhere has been more sparse lately.) Darren will talk, among other topics, about his research survey results. Please take his survey about blogging. You could win a prize! More information about the event(s) at the Northern Voice website. It’s missing a link to Darren’s blog.
UBC
Saturday, February 24th
3:00 – 4:00 pm
Room 2
Wishing everyone a joyful season and happy holidays! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I thought you might enjoy this animation I made for Christmas 2002. I edited it just now to slow it down a bit. (Flash player required.)
Last night we finally got a tree — just a little one, about 5 feet, and just the right size for the small number of decorations we have. I’ll take a few photos tonight now that the camera is charged up again. At last, the living room feels merry. Just adding a string of LEDs around the window (thanks, Mom and Dad!) — and now it’s actually around the window instead of dangling halfway across the wall to reach the outlet 🙂 — made a big difference. Adding the tree with presents underneath really makes it sparkle, and makes ME smile every time I walk into the room. I managed to clean the living room quite nicely, then messed it up again wrapping presents! On the other hand, the kitchen is clean at last, with a beautiful holly-print table runner, some candles and my mother’s angel chimes in the middle. My Santa mug and more candles decorate the stove. (We have a small kitchen with no window, so the stove ledge acts as a windowsill.)
Continue reading Happy Holidays »
112 of the world’s thinkers
100 questions from the public
1 table
Berlin, Germany
September 9, 2006.
dropping knowledge
Seated around the worlds largest table in historic Bebelplatz square, these inspiring individuals, renowned for their lasting creative or social contribution, will engage with 100 questions out of the thousands donated to dropping knowledge by the international public.
It inspires me to desire to be more than just a designer.
Why change the world?
Because every human and animal deserves a fair chance at a life of peace, love, health, growth, amusement, and respect — no matter what their fate.
I found this article on Dr. Mercola’s website: “Politically Incorrect: The Neglected Nutritional Research of Dr. Weston Price”.
You know, it’s funny how seemingly misunderstood food, nutrition, and a “balanced diet” are, considering how important it is. I remember high school; the triangle. They were right about the sweets at the top, and perhaps the carbohydrates at the bottom have been challenged. HOWEVER, I’ve always found the low-carb thing to be somewhat preposterous because I was always told we gain a lot of energy from carbs. The painting contractor chickie makes an interesting point about the whole low-fat thing as well: “Fat free, lite and diet foods make people fat, by the way. Only fat people buy these products. Ever noticed?” If it doesn’t make them fat it might kill them, because aspartame is deadly, and will kill ants… in case you have an ant problem. (Might wanna try boiled potato leaves instead.)
But I digress.
The article I referred to above is about the findings of Dr. Weston Price. He discovered that Native peoples with their traditional diets were incredibly healthy, and had “on average, less than 1% of tooth decay”! (I’ve heard about this before, but what are we going to do in our society anyway, since we’re basically screwed.) Do read about his findings; I think they will surprise you.
My grad project will explore what the food industry has done to ruin nutrition. If I can, I’ll be a little more politically charged and criticize the pharmaceutical industry as well. I think they’re all in cahoots. It’s capitalism. “But we are a capitalist nation!” you say. I can’t remember the clever statement I had in response to that, but why should we deny our bodies what we fundamentally need, just because a handful of people are greedy? Are those people, too, eating foods abnormally high in sugar, and tomatoes that might as well be plastic? Cardboard potatoes?
Man, potatoes are so good, too. I want a vegetable patch! Is nothing sacred?
This afternoon whilst confined to lying on the floor with my feet up so my swollen toes don’t fall off (if you didn’t catch my post about my bee sting), I turned on the TV and started flipping channels. There’s rarely anything good on at noon on a Saturday, but today is CANADA DAY (where’s my temporary tattoo???) and CBC Newsworld had a special documentary on called The Canadian Guitar.
The one-hour documentary includes interviews with various Canadians — stories of our heritage, our First Nations and our immigrants, and our families. The final masterpiece, debuted today for celebrations in Ottawa, features pieces of Canada’s story: the Golden Spruce of Haida Gwaii, Wayne Gretzky’s hockey stick, an old seat from Toronto’s Massey Hall, Trudeau’s canoe paddle, Winnipeg’s St. Boniface Museum, and Pier 21, among others. The luthier is Hungarian-Canadian George Rizsanyi, whose own history, too, contributed to the beautiful guitar.
The documentary airs again at 7 & 11pm ET today on CBC Newsworld. That’s 4 and 8pm PT on cable 26 for those in Greater Vancouver. I suggest you watch it — tape it, PVR it if you’re out celebrating tonight — and have a Happy Canada Day!
Here’s one more for ya, Canadian Mysteries. Old or ancient mysteries always seem more exciting than current ones, and people seemed to be more strange, like the man climbing mountains to the Yukon in 1931. Yes, indeed, folks… the Holy Grail is buried in CANADA.
I’ve discovered that in Movable Type one can set their preferences to allow images in comments. So that means it could be a viable medium for doing a community magnetic poetry site. The problem is I can’t seem to make it so that comments automatically appear on the index page.
That also got me thinking about how it would work. People post their poetry… to one single entry? Multiple entries in different categories? How do the categories work? By subject is too broad, and not everyone uses a poetry form like a haiku. Do we make a new entry every day or every week? (I guess that would depend on its popularity.)
Just to reiterate, this would be a blog/site for people to share their magnetic poetry, either by image or by text.
Any ideas?
Lately I’ve gotten back into doing magnetic poetry compositions on our fridge. I FINALLY got around to putting the rest of them up there (we moved in a month and a half ago and I had only put up a fraction of it), and the two of us here are enjoying making weird, funny, and perverted phrases. We have the Original Magnetic Poetry kit.
I found interesting but older article about a writer’s fest where the little magnets were invovled, San Francisco’s Litquake Festival. (This year’s is in October for those of you in or near SF, which I am definitely not.)
Anyway I got thinking… what about starting a blog or website (maybe a Flickr thing would be more appropriate) specifically for the public to post their magnetic poems? I think images are the best way because it translates the thinking and the physicality of the poetry. Not everyone has a digital camera though, or a webcam, so making text-only available is smart as well. Is anyone interested in helping me with this? What do you think is the best format?
Alternative to comments would be to email me.
i’m always proud of my heritage.
check out this young Finnish bluegrass band from Helsinki, Rautakoura. click on Musiiki to download some great, happy music.
original post at boingboing.net with the link, posted by Cory Doctorow
photo © Владимир Ролов
posted at Bitacle.org, this is a “collection of Soviet era B&W photographs.”
Photos of urban Soviet life, 1950s and 1960s
>> more by the same photographer (or so i assume)
(please forgive any errors, or the photographer/copyright holder’s name not showing up because it’s in russian, which i can’t read!)
