♥ ¢¢ ♥ ♥

Don't worry ladies, I have nowhere to put a rock garden

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 18:09:58 GMT

Supergirl is also a dick

Emporter means "take out"

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:53:33 GMT

Emily C introduced me to this amazing series. It's called Les Concerts a Emporter and it's bands doing acoustic sets in public.

This one is my favourite:

Architecture in helsinki - #58.1 -Heart it races
Uploaded by lablogotheque

Here is REM doing a bunch: http://www.blogotheque.net/R-E-M

Update:
This one is intense. Who plays a magazine for percussion?

#41 - Arcade Fire - Neon Bible & Wake Up
by lablogotheque

Guys I think I want to be in a band again.

CHINA

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:38:34 GMT

http://cache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/chinamil_07_09/chinamil8.jpg

LOOK

Band/Albums

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:00:00 GMT

This has been done before but back then I didn't have a free hour and photoshop.

So when Gilyan brought it back up again...

Go to Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article title that you get is the name of your band. Make it the first random wiki article that isn't someone's name.

Go to Random quotations:
http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

Go to flickr and click on "explore the last seven days":
http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

This is from the Monster's experimental "wide album".

Power Macintosh had a brief stint in the 1970s but their reunion tour was sued to oblivion by Apple.

Oh Musica, there are 5 lines in a staff.

Nordic Center in India liked In Rainbows too much.

Hay Mikey

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:13:32 GMT

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=130915&l=f7f58&id=729490466

Indoor Gardening Tips from a Man who is Very Scared of Plants

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:35:42 GMT

Jon and Morgan told me about this and the Peter found it on the Internet.

I've watched it approximately ALL the times.

Plus, big hi to SNL: putting your skits online for everyone to watch and sticking an ad in front is CORRECT and much smarter than making your fans criminals. Good work.

Internet famous'd

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:40:08 GMT

I GOT KOTAKU'D.

I have A Plan

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:42:33 GMT

Freed from the constraints of an office job, an engagement and an apartment - bolstered by no longer needing to make sure that my finances can handle a wedding, ESL teacher training and a trip to China - I find myself free to do whatever I want.

I have A Plan.

In the wake of the break up, a lot of friends and family have been offering me places to stay and I would like to now take all of you up on the offer. I would like to spend the next several months travelling the continent and visiting my friends and family. I can work from anywhere that I can find an Internet connection.

Maggie and I have the apartment until the end of August. Between now and then, I want to either sell or lend out everything that I own. My goal is to end up with nothing more than my backpack and a suitcase worth of clothes, laptop and whatever. I also want to do a few short trips.

Sometime towards the end of August, the big trip will start. I'll be looking to coordinate plans with everyone, possibly buying a rail pass. My sort of working idea is to make my way West as the weather gets colder but that's all up in the air.

I would like to visit: Halifax, Montreal, DC, New York, Newfoundland, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and Seattle. And anywhere else people suggest.

I'm a pretty OK houseguest? I can cook and clean for you, help out with expenses and stuff. All I need is a place to sleep, as I can find cafes with Internet just about everywhere.

Here's my tentative agenda:
End of June: Visit Montreal and maybe Ottawa?
Early July: Pack and sell stuff.
Late July / Early August: Vancouver and Seattle.
August 15th: Radiohead concert in Toronto
Rest of August: Pack and sell rest of stuff.
Late August / Early Sept: Go! Perhaps starting out East.

I'd love to see you! Drop me a line and let me know how your fall is shaping up.

Also, do you want any of my stuff? It's available (except for the Wii - that's Katherine's)!

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:30:59 GMT

There must have been a moment at the beginning, where we could have said no.

But somehow we missed it. Well, we'll know better next time.

-Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead.

Onstad!

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:47:44 GMT

Dear Achewood,

You needed to pick this fucking week for a marriage story arc?

A Journal entry that is a journal entry

Tue, 27 May 2008 14:01:43 GMT

Hello Internet,

How've you been? I've been in Montreal, taking that vacation that I've been meaning to take for 4 years. Patrick let me stay at his place for far longer than is reasonable and I won't lie to you, I've been enjoying a life where my only possessions are a laptop and some clothes and the wireless is everywhere and free.

I've decided to make a serious go at writing about videogames in a way that I find interesting. I updated the look and domain name of my blog and started posting 3 times a week. Maybe you've checked it out? http://www.quietbabylon.com/ Big thanks Jacob for helping me fool around with the layout and to Helvetica for being Helvetica.

I'm finally making real progress on learning to program. It's all thanks to Jon who sent me the skeleton of a game in Java and helped me set up an environment and has been far more generous with his time and help than is reasonable. Everyone says that you should start small on learning to program games. I say fuck that, I'm working on one of my more ambitious ideas that I've had percolating for awhile. I'm still working my way up but it will be through a series of increasingly complex prototypes of a game I'm excited about instead of, you know, implementing Tic Tac Toe, and then Checkers.

I saw Alex which was Important. I saw Alice, Dave and Callum. I saw Jonah, Mike and Greg. I met some Pleiades people and some punkish people and some nerdish people. I ate at Scwartz's and Al Taïb, and bought groceries at the store where I used to buy groceries after riding the bus I used to ride almost every day. I helped cater a surprise vegan birthday party for a girl who's birthday it wasn't. I played mainstream board games and indie video games. I learned how to crack WiFi and install home brew Wii software. I talked about entrepreneurship and hustling for money. I spent a day in bed wishing for death and watching Internet-only 'documentaries' about the conspiracies that plague our world. I explained to countless people why Toronto is a much better city than they think.

I'm ready to come home. I miss my fiancée and my friends. But bus tickets are cheap, the couches I can crash are plentiful and the wireless is everywhere and free. So I think I'll be back sooner rather than later.

For my LJ friends who only read my blog if I post about it

Fri, 16 May 2008 02:18:33 GMT

Hi Alice and the rest of you! I made a lj feed of the blog, so that you can add it to your friends list! And then I don't need to post about it manually. Everyone is happy?

http://syndicated.livejournal.com/quietbabylon/

This is fun

Thu, 15 May 2008 08:40:37 GMT

Indiana Jones official desktop icons. Unlike most movie tie in type icons, these are actually stylish and cool.

http://iconfactory.com/indianajones/

Npr on Gender Roles

Thu, 08 May 2008 14:52:47 GMT

Wow.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90247842
Because Ehrensaft sees transgenderism as akin to homosexuality, she says, she thinks Zucker's therapy — which seeks to condition children out of a transgender identity — is unethical.

But that isn't how Zucker sees it. Zucker says the homosexuality metaphor is wrong. He proposes another metaphor: racial identity disorder.

"Suppose you were a clinician and a 4-year-old black kid came into your office and said he wanted to be white. Would you go with that? ... I don't think we would," Zucker says.

In Grand Theft Auto, you can kill people and also pay for sex.

Thu, 01 May 2008 16:54:51 GMT

In which I go on at some length about whether or not GTA:IV is misogynist.
http://www.toothdemon.net/doingitwrong/2008/05/01/killing-hookers-gtaiv/

We were not meant to be

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 14:36:07 GMT

Watch this video:

It start out boring, but then you get to the bit where the guy kicks it and it's all OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL. Later, it goes on the ice.

Trust me.

Climbing

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:50:40 GMT

Does anyone want to come rock climbing at the Rock Oassis at 11:00am on Friday? Lemme know!

I guess it's Earth Month now?

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 07:35:46 GMT

Maggie and I stumble upon the earth day rally today. It was depressing. After being asked to sign a petition by an activist who knew less than I did about the state of Kyoto (she claimed that Canada wasn't even a signatory yet) I listened to the speeches.

They were a weird mishmash of political views, many of them conflating random other left-wing positions with climate change. One guy led us in a chant of "jobs not bombs" (what?). Another one ran a long impassioned plea that we must dismantle capitalism utterly before we can save the environment. "Capitalism and environmentalism are incompatible," he claimed.

Activist culture is so frustrating. I mean their hearts are generally in the right place (most activists and anti bad things and pro good things) and they're out giving more time to the cause than I am, but so much of the energy is so counter-productive.

"It'll be interesting to see what's done in the year ahead with all this momentum from today."

What momentum?

By coincidence, here is an article published today that expresses better than I can the malaise I feel about a lot of activist culture.

"First, even though the activists who attend the conference each year represent a distinct minority of the American left, their visibility is disproportionately high. And because this wing of the left specializes in shrill ideological pronouncements, it has served to limit the overall appeal of the American left with its most important audience—the American public.

"Secondly, the “explain it all” ideology that is so characteristic of the far left (everywhere, not only in the United States) siphons off a significant portion of the overall pool of potential activists. Unfortunately, instead of becoming involved in relevant political work, all too many of these activists wind up wasting their time on the abstractions of stale “ideological struggle.” Or worse, Nader-style Third Partyism."

Grade 1 Curriculum

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:21:56 GMT

Hey guys,

I forget what we learned in Grade 1. Anyone wanna lay a quick summary on me beyond what Wikipedia says?

Wikipedia says basic Math, (counting) basic reading and alphabet. What else would Grade 1 kids need to learn? Names of countries? Other vocabulary?

Also anyone know what they teach grade 1 kids in gym?

Trapped in an Elevator

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:58:17 GMT

Man, I am such a sucker for the feature article "story interspersed with details about something you might not otherwise be interested in" trope.

Here's the New Yorker doing it well.

Smart elevators are strange elevators, because there is no control panel in the car; the elevator knows where you are going. People tend to find it unnerving to ride in an elevator with no buttons; they feel as if they had been kidnapped by a Bond villain. Helplessness may exacerbate claustrophobia. In the old system—board elevator, press button—you have an illusion of control; elevator manufacturers have sought to trick the passengers into thinking they’re driving the conveyance. In most elevators, at least in any built or installed since the early nineties, the door-close button doesn’t work. It is there mainly to make you think it works. (It does work if, say, a fireman needs to take control. But you need a key, and a fire, to do that.) Once you know this, it can be illuminating to watch people compulsively press the door-close button. That the door eventually closes reinforces their belief in the button’s power. It’s a little like prayer. Elevator design is rooted in deception—to disguise not only the bare fact of the box hanging by ropes but also the tethering of tenants to a system over which they have no command.

A show

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:55:23 GMT

Guys, I am thinking of going to go see this: http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/worldstage/performances/everytime/

it is at 7:30

The guy does live animation with acetate and an overhead projector and talking. It is $15.

Let me know if you also want to come.

Where's my highway escalator?

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:42:25 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S18LCISRm4

Holy god, I can't begin to tell you about this movie. The incredible beautiful "if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail" logic of the highway is so astoundingly powerful here that you begin to forget how utterly insane this is. And then they start talking about things like freight rockets or atomic tunnellers.

And then there is this wonderful oil-sponsored cartoon about Earth from the perspective of Martian explorers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WQvaLhqSsk

If you only click on one link, click on the first one.

Food processor

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:04:21 GMT

Guys, how did I get this far in life without knowing about food processors?

She sends her regards

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:18:32 GMT

I don't think of myself as someone who is 'good at poetry'. Not in the writing sense, but in the appreciating sense. Short stories and novels (and comics and movies and TV) have always held my attention in a way that poetry never seemed able to.

Like coffee, wine, and grindcore, poetry is an acquired taste, just one that I never really got around to acquiring.

That being said, Famous Blue Raincoat gets me every time. The tight, restrained text of the letter, pregnant with unsaid things and tense references to a shared history captures the scraping bitterness, sadness, guilt and anger of the aftermath of being cheated on in a way that prose never could. Here is a place where the form truly enhances the function.

Forgotten more than we'll ever know

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:26:19 GMT

Chariots of the Gods is one of those books/movies that I want to reserve the word "offensive" for. It's from the 1960's and it examines things like Easter Island, the Pyramids, the land paintings in South America and these tremendous ancient ruins in Africa. The central thesis of the book is that Aliens helped make all that shit.

There's some circumstantial evidence involving things like mythological figures riding fire chariots and depictions of humanoids with heads that seem a lot like NASA helmets, but the main thesis is "we can't figure out how they made all these ancient stone wonders, and we're pretty smart, so there's no way ancient humans could have figured it out." With an undertone of "especially not AFRICANS."

The sheer paucity in imagination and the presumptive arrogance of this line of reasoning infuriates me. It's the same sort of thinking that leads to "off the top of my head I can't really conceive of how evolution could work, thus I know that it doesn't". Pathetic.

Anyway, here's a dude who seems to have worked out how he could make Stone Henge on his own.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lRRDzFROMx0

Here's his website:
http://www.theforgottentechnology.com/newpage1

I AM NOT JOKING GO AND WATCH THE YOUTUBE VIDEO