beattie on france and warI don't mean to blog so much today before I get some work done and then catch up with all the things I want to blog about but haven't had time to, but it's just easier right now to just blog the stuff... <a href="http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/20030215.html#223657">Russell Beatie: History Lesson: The Statue of Liberty</a> I'm not one to normally defend the French or France, but I'm so embarrassed by what I've seen lately in the news and on blogs that I just wanted to give my American compatriots a history lesson which they so desperately need. When you see the Statue of Liberty in the harbor, or on TV and think of the liberties and freedoms she represents, remember that it is France that gave you those liberties, for without their help we would never have been able to win against the British. Our ancestors in the U.S. were farmers and merchants fighting against one of the world's great super powers for independence, and the ancestors of those in France right now came to our aid when we needed it. More on Franco-American relations from the History channel. "After Congress declared independence in July 1776 its agents in Paris recruited officers for the Continental Army, notably the Marquis de Lafayette who served with distinction as a major general. Despite a lingering distrust of France, the agents also requested an alliance. After readying their fleet and being impressed by the American victory at Saratoga in October 1777, the French in the following February concluded treaties of commerce and alliance that bound them to fight Britain until American independence was assured. "Later a fleet and an army commanded by the Comte de Rochambeau arrived in the United States. At the crucial victory of Yorktown in October 1781 French forces outnumbered Americans. ... In all, the French contribution to American independence was decisive." For all those cries from my countrymen of France not remembering history and not being grateful, it is they who are the forgetful ones. We saved France during WWII and they have been continually grateful despite our ramming it down their throat for 60 years. But the fact is the score is even. We simply returned the favor in 1944 they gave us 140 years earlier. Being against the war isn't the same as being anti-American. I'm a proud American and I'm against the war and the precedents it makes. Don't let the warmongers make you think otherwise. 50ElsewheredanielSun, February 16, 2003publishbest explaination of the Google purchasethe first ? that pops into your head is why? i think <a href="http://interconnected.org/home/">Matt Webb</a> has nailed it. i am adding a link to this text to an entry of his i have had in my "to read" and "to blog" folders for about a month. it makes more sense in the context of this one (and i still need to read it a 2nd time and try to understand it better. interconnected is to tech what theyblinked is to theo): <a href="http://interconnected.org/notes/2003/02/Google_buy_Pyra_2.txt">Google buy Pyra 2</a> 5: God that's it.: GOOGLE ARE BUILDING THE MEMEX.: They've got one-to-one connections. Links. Now they've realised - like Ted Nelson - that the fundamental unit of the web isn't the link, but the trail. And the only place that's online is... weblogs.: There are two levels to the trail:: 1 - what you see 2 - what you do ("And what you feel on another track" -- what song is that?) And the trail is, in its simplest form, organised chronologically. Later it gets more complex. Look to see Google introduce categories based on DMOZ as a next step. So, the GOOGLE TOOLBAR tracks everything you do on the web, giving you low-level anonymous trails tying the web together. These are analagous to the strings of physics, or the rows and columns of Excel. This is 1, what you see. Now there's the semantics, the meaning extracted from these, and that's done with the human mind. This is 2, what you do. What you choose to elevate. Now these trails are the basic units. The combination of the two is startling. Oh, and you can analyse how people search to add extra data. Stop and start points. Imagine, searching at Google, and then: - this trail is highly followed - do you only want to see what people suggest, or where people went? - here's a worn track in the interweb. Follow the Google Pixie! - this trail is uncommon, but made by someone we see (by your weblog) that you value And next, it's the true Memex. The Google appliance based on microfiche, punchcards and cameras... 6 Last thought, because I think I've reached what's really happening with the Memex. <a href="http://interconnected.org/home/2003_01_12_archive.shtml#90174091">I'm back onto the push (find a goal, push at it, don't interweave with the ecosystem) and pull (grow grow grow, what happens happens</a>. More like nature). Google, Microsoft, etc: these people are Push. Sometimes Push leaps ahead. And sometimes they'll do it really well. But they're grist to the mill for Pull. Pull will happen slow and steady, like BSD appearing under Mac OS X. Sooner or later these Google ideas will distribute, appear as interlocking parts in the net, tied into the ecosystem. At the moment, the trail can only be built centrally, with Push. And it's being done because it's True To The Medium and *has* to be done. But it changes the shape of the environment. There's now an incentive space to encourage building trails. So Pull will come along, build gradually, and in another decade trails will be part of the foundations, and Xanada and the Memex will have won. 49ElsewheredanielSun, February 16, 2003publishGoogle buys Blogger<a href="http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/000802.shtml#000802">Google Buys Pyra: Blogging Goes Big-Time</a> Google, which runs the Web's premier search site, has purchased Pyra Labs, a San Francisco company that created some of the earliest technology for writing weblogs, the increasingly popular personal and opinion journals I figure this can only be good news. Evan jizzed his shorts you know it. 48ElsewheredanielSun, February 16, 2003publishMatthew Herbert the mechanics of destruction <a href="http://www.themechanicsofdestruction.org/">http://www.themechanicsofdestruction.org/</a> <img src="http://www.overloadmedia.co.uk/images/artists/small/matthew_herbert.gif" align="left">the entire record is available for download on this very well done site. here's the track listing and some info about the record: radio boy (matthew herbert) - the mechanics of destruction (2001 accidental records ac03) 01 00:02:00 05:53:65 mcdonalds 02 05:55:65 02:05:40 manufactured music 03 08:01:30 05:49:47 rupert murdoch 04 13:51:02 00:28:28 television 05 14:19:30 05:00:47 hollywood 06 19:20:02 00:30:63 marlboro and bacardi 07 19:50:65 02:46:00 the gm food chain 08 22:36:65 03:43:22 gap 09 26:20:12 04:58:45 oil 10 31:18:57 05:21:65 coca cola 11 36:40:47 00:33:28 henry kissinger 12 37:14:00 03:39:50 starbucks 13 40:53:50 00:39:25 nike 14 41:33:00 00:08:37 rwanda 15 41:41:37 01:05:38 the whisper of friction cd 42:45:00 sound sources: a big mac meal, hear'say cd, the sun newspaper, a philips black and white tv, a bugs life dvd and starship troopers on vhs, 10 marlboro and a bottle of bacardi, nestle golden grahams and kraft cheese slices, 2 pairs of gap boxer shorts, 2 oil drums and a bottle of brake fluid, 1 can of coca cola, henry kissinger's unsettling tones, starbucks frappucino and caramel latte, ltd edition air max 98 trainers and adidas shoe box, mayday protests 01.05.2001 in london. field recordings in mcdonalds taken in japan by moyunijumo, akihito nakatsura and norihiro higo. see also: <a href="http://www.magicandaccident.com/">http://www.magicandaccident.com/</a> 47MusicdanielSat, February 15, 2003publishMilosevic Trial Public Archiveat <a href="http://hague.bard.edu/">http://hague.bard.edu/</a> 46BalkansdanielSat, February 15, 2003publishthe dullest weblog in the world<a href="http://www.wibsite.com/wiblog/dull/">http://www.wibsite.com/wiblog/dull/</a> February 3--Deciding not to post anything: I logged onto the internet and thought about posting something on my blog. I continued to think about it for a little while. Eventually I decided that I wouldn't post anything. 45ElsewheredanielFri, February 14, 2003publishcurry!I'm taking a short-short break from the constant frustration that is ColdFusion to bring you this totally hillarious RealMedia video on the illicit curry trade in New York City!!: <a href="http://www.maxg.org/~ryan/curry.ram">curry.ram</a> 44ElsewheredanielThu, February 13, 2003publishcfapplication name=blog causeaddiction=yes&lt;cfapplication name="blog" causeaddiction="yes"&gt; &lt;cfset baseurl="http://www.danielsjourney.com"&gt; &lt;cfif not somethinginteresting=""&gt; &nbsp;&lt;cfif obtaintime("thursday")=""&gt; &nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;CF_STAGE FAVORITES="to_blog" URL=somethinginteresting&gt; &nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;cfif getinterestingsomethings("to_blog") >= 10&gt; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;CF_WARN WHO="reader" WHAT=<a onclick="javascript:alert('Blog queue constipated-- Beware forthcoming movement');" href="#">message</a>&gt; &nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/cfif&gt; &nbsp;&lt;/cfif&gt; &lt;/cfif&gt; 43MinutiadanielThu, February 13, 2003publishmore on the pacifism articlei promised, but real quick: i got some feedback and wrote some to the seven blog regarding <a href="http://www.sevenmagazine.org/index.php?archive=022003_07">my article there</a>. i mirror it here since blogger's archives/permalinks don't work. Hey I got an email that said "but did you ever consider the implications of the murder of Christ and his non-resistance, etc...?" Uh, yeah, of course. He's who I'm trying to be like. I follow his example. But it's funny that when I was writing that piece, it never occurred to me to mention Jesus' example. Maybe I thought it obvious and self-evident. Maybe I've just stopped writing "Christian" articles. Maybe I just avoid sounding preachy (in the Christian sense) to a fault. The friend who emailed me later said in IM, "You are for once taking the moral highground, why not pull the Jesus punch? Why not make Christians at least think about it, about his example?" (I'm paraphrasing big time.) Well, consider Him mentioned. To be honest, I'm not sure who my audience is with that piece. No mainstream American Christian is going to resonate with it. And I don't consider most mainstream American Christians to be concerning themselves so much with Jesus; with their church, their pastor, the Republican party, their bible study, Paul even, but normally not so much just about Jesus. So how much weight does the Jesus mention bear with them anyway? To the rest, those with whom the piece might resonate, they probably, like my friend, put the spiritual pieces together themselves. Anyway, Dan's article does a great job talking about what Jesus stood for and did. Check out the heading "The Activism of Jesus." Maybe I'm just a humanist. Maybe I'm going into a region that had ethinic and religious-based conflict of unimaginable consequence; where, if we're honest, the Muslims were predominantly the victims. Maybe our own country represents Christianity to the world and has it's eye on dominating Muslim people the world over. Maybe the name of Jesus has simply become so tarnished in our modern age that I dare not speak it in public. I dare only to whisper it in private. I use it only to frightenly call to Him who I consider to be deity. Maybe his name has been dragged through so much mud throughout well over a thousand years, every day in this world, this country, this state, this city, I just didn't want to even try. Anyway, those are my only thoughts as to why I didn't think to mention Jesus, the ultimate pacifist of history, in my pacifism article. 42CommentdanielWed, February 12, 2003publishpower, importance and all the trappingspower last night we went to the slovak embassy for a piano concert by one of the premier slovak pianists. it was quite the contrast after the <a href="http://www.danielsjourney.com/index.php?archive=blog_2003_02_05.xml&id_pass=32">last</a> <a href="http://www.danielsjourney.com/index.php?archive=blog_2003_02_05.xml&id_pass=15">two</a> major folk concerts i went to {folk in the sense of "for the regular folks"} thoughts: 1. all art has intellectual and emotional aspects. but high art is more intellectual than folk/pop art and folk/pop art is more emotional than high art. imho. high art is more intellectually stimulating. i can't listen to much classical music while working, but if i take a break and just listen to classical music, it stimulates a million thoughts and new ways of approaching things. even last night the pianist, when she spoke, seemed to feel a need to make metaphorical statements about everything (even the flowers she received at the end). 2. somehow i am able to appreciate all these different types of art, equally but differently. i remember, i have no idea how, but i think it was middle school, i found out about, and got into, <a href="http://www.kronosquartet.org/">kronos quartet</a>. my parents took me to a kronos concert based on that interest, which was a very cool thing to do as parents, i must say. also, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000005J1C/qid=1045061278/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-8557930-2747830">one of my favorite pieces of music of all time is a classical piece</a>. 3. did you know that <a href="http://www.warhol.org/">andy warhol</a> was of slovak decent? did you know the slovak embassy has some <a href="http://www.imageexchange.com/skuimg/7097.jpg" title="one among others, and not just the poster either!">warhol work</a> on its walls? 4. i wanted to take a picture of the spread available after the concert (but there were too many ravenous slovaks {and americans} huddled around it). veal, salmon, wine, liquor. my thought: "Slovak taxpayers' money at work!" i had one piece of cake and some water. <img src="images/metro.jpg"> 5. took this pic on the way home. those of us who use public transportation, particularly the various subway systems in urban areas, share a common bond that suburban drivers cannot understand. everytime i see a picture from a subway on the web i relate. the commonality, the closeness of experience of a group of people in a metro car is so opposite of one or two people in a car, isolated from the rest of the world, frustrated because they cannot travel fast enough. in a car you are in control but you are not in control, you can only go as fast as traffic allows. on the metro, you are at the mercy of the train schedule. you might as well just relax. the train is coming in 5 minutes. driving: isolation, frustration, high blood pressure, apathy, death. subway: exposure, risk, shared experience, commonality, life. {you should've been there the morning of the protests! smashing room only and a serious amount of energy on that train! everyone happy as can be, even without room to hardly breathe.} i'm going to spend a day on the metro snapping pics one of these days. call it an installation. the result will be some of the most interesting pictures and people i have ever captured. go try doing that on I-95. importance my itin for today: 01. stop fucking blogging 02. play the fucking guitar (for the 2nd time in 3 weeks) 03. take a shower before fucking 12 noon 04. stop saying the word fuck (as an adjective at least) <s>05. deploy moveabletype on christianpornmachine dot com 06. discover the {information} architectural panacea that will make SWM simple yet powerful and just ****ing brilliant.</s> 07. deploy <s>said architecture on</s> islandwatersports.com, <s>sevenmagazine.org, and danielsjourney.com</s> update: we are finally ready to roll over there. a billable day is a good thing! no problem. 7 things. the number of perfection!41MinutiadanielWed, February 12, 2003publishreal girls eat beef<img src="http://www.cool-2b-real.com/images/beef_check_logo.gif" align="left">I'm thinking about adding this logo to my website. {Go halfway down my "about" page if you are confused.} <a href="http://www.cool-2b-real.com/">Check out this page</a>, kinda scan it, see if you notice anything weird, and then check out the very bottom of the page, where it says "Funded by America's Beef Producers (sm) (c)2003 Cattlemen's Beef Board, National Cattlemen's Beef Association and Circle 1 Network" via <a href="http://simon.incutio.com/archive/2003/02/07/#realGirlsEatBeef">simon willison</a> who comments Real girls are "keepin' it real" by building strong bodies and strong minds... and they're feeling great about themselves! It has health and fitness tips, tips on feeling good about yourself, a poll ("What type of beef do you most like to eat with your friends?"), and a set of Smart Snackin' recipes such as Nacho Beef Dip, Beef on Bamboo, Easy Beef Chili and Roast Beef and Veggie Wrap. And beef games too. Real girls eat beef.40ElsewheredanielWed, February 12, 2003publishCD Price-Fixing Settlement Explained<a href="http://www.baratunde.com/sproj/PriceFixins.html">CD Price-Fixing Settlement Explained</a> Amount Fed Trade Commission accuses industry of overpricing during period in question: &#36;480,000,000 Sum of Cash and Non-Cash Industry Payments: &#36;143,075,000 Return (&#36;): &#36;336,925,000 Return (%): 235% Conclusion: Not a bad investment!!! <a href="http://www.bayarea.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/gmsv/5155896.htm">via marc's voice</a> 39ElsewheredanielWed, February 12, 2003publishdvorak keyboardNote to self: Sometime, after you've learned Bosnian, Slovak, and German (and maybe Spanish depending on Miriam's careerical whims?), learn the <a href="http://www.sotto.org/2003/02/11/000489">dvorak keyboard</a> so you can write faster. 38ElsewheredanielWed, February 12, 2003publish<a href="http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/new_york_new_york/photo_new_york_ny.shtml">Photo: New York, NY</a> at <a href="http://www.themorningnews.org">the morning news</a>. 37ElsewheredanielWed, February 12, 2003publish<a href="http://www.theonion.com/onion3905/index.html">Saddam Enrages Bush With Full Compliance</a> WASHINGTON, DC&#45;&#45;President Bush expressed frustration and anger Monday over a U.N. report stating that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein is now fully complying with weapons inspections. "Enough is enough," a determined Bush told reporters. "We are not fooled by Saddam's devious attempts to sway world opinion by doing everything the U.N. asked him to do. We will not be intimidated into backing down and, if we have any say in the matter, neither will Saddam." Bush added that any further Iraqi attempt to meet the demands of the U.N. or U.S. will be regarded as "an act of war." 36ElsewheredanielWed, February 12, 2003publishguilt and innocence...mean nothing down here. There is no justice. Only the powerful and the weak. i.e. <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2751207.stm">Milosevic trial a legal marathon</a> On a number of occasions Mr Milosevic spent far more time on subjecting witnesses to questioning than the prosecution did in presenting the evidence against him. Mr Milosevic has given every appearance of relishing the chance to cross-examine witnesses. On more than just a few occasions he scored valuable points by undermining the reliability of some of those testifying against him. <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2648547.stm">No fast track at Guantanamo Bay</a> A year ago the first al-Qaeda suspects arrived at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. They arrived in hoods and shackles, described by the US as the "worst of the worst". The Bush administration is still holding some 650 prisoners on Guantanamo Bay without charging them, and with no immediate plans to let them go. The White House refuses to classify them as prisoners of war or give them a trial. As well as large numbers of Afghans and Pakistanis, there are Britons and Australians at the camp. Conditions at the prison are grim. The detainees have no access to families or lawyers and they are only allowed out of their tiny cells for two 15-minute exercise breaks every week. 35ElsewheredanielWed, February 12, 2003publishBen Hammersley on warI had been thinking the exact same thing about Europe when I was doing some of my online research about Bosnia and the Balkans...And just now I read <a href="http://www.benhammersley.com/archives/004070.html">this post by Ben and he nails it on the freaking head</a>: ...From the traditional "if it wasn't for us, you'd all be speaking German", to cries of "Munich! Munich!", the warbloggers of the American Right have found all sort of new ways of invoking the old cliches. It's very tiresome. Tiresome, yes. Because surely it's time we put WW2 in the past. It's been sixty years and two generations. I wasn't born then. My parents weren't born then. It's from a time before the transistor, before the Space Race, before common household television, before international jet flight. From a time when America was segregated, when Russia was Soviet, when India was a colony and China was a republic. Japan had an Emperor, Taiwan was a province. Israel, Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia didn't exist. Vietnam was part of France, and Cuba was a playground. It is a past so utterly foreign, so utterly ago that to keep referring to it, especially using it as a example of reasoning why one should support the bombing, and certain death, of thousands of Iraqi civilians and conscripts, shows not only a total lack of imagination, but a lack of real reasoning. If you can't show why bombing Iraq right now, say, is a good idea without invoking the values and stereotypes of a war you don't remember and probably weren't alive for, then you most likely don't have a good reason at all. Remembering past conflicts for their horror, however, is another thing altogether: and this is perhaps why we now have Rumsfeld talking about the "Old Europe" reluctance to fight. Geography, as they say, is Destiny. and here in Europe we have a lot of geography. There isn't a town that doesn't show, in some way, the effects of war. From the bomb-cratered walls that every British MP walks past on the way to Westminster, to the vast swathes of Berlin so obviously built post 1945, there isn't a single day when people living in the European capitals aren't reminded of war. It's not the heroics suggested by the Washington monument, but the crushed, burnt bodies and screaming destruction of massive bombing. If you want to know why the French, the Germans, and the Russians don't want to fight just yet, walk down their streets. 34ElsewheredanielTue, February 11, 2003publishTheDanielWayneMillerAmericanaProjectAll my friends are making records. I've been meaning to make another record since I made the last one 5 1/2 years ago. I'm thinking studio time and CD printing is wicked cheap in the Balkans. (tenative) 01. American Dream Town 02. Just Say Yes 03. Numb Us 04. You Say 05. I Radio Heaven (Over the Rhine) 06. I Really Need a Chorus 07. Comon' 08. The Road that Never Ends 09. Closed for the Year 10. Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)33MusicdanielTue, February 11, 2003publishthe big show last nightLast night at IOTA was the big local boys done good gone on tour and come back to play one big night back home. Paul Casey <s>fucking</s> fooking rocked the house, an unbelievable talent from the island famous for just such...<a href="http://www.paulcaseymusic.com/">definately check him out</a>. Next up was me frrend <a href="http://www.boboroshi.com/">John Athayde</a> and <a href="http://rotoscope.com/">Rotoscope</a>. He told me they were going to be loud, and he was right! Glad I snagged one of the last pairs of earplugs out of the free dispenser. (And major kudos to IOTA for having such a thing.) End with the hits, I said, and sure enough, they finished their set with all the hooks money could buy (or John is blessed with, as the case may be). This morning I woke up with <a href="http://rotoscope.com/files/mp3/wl_watershed.mp3">Watershed (mp3)</a> going through my head (but not the na na na part, believe it or not). Something about a falsetto that just keeps going higha and higha makes a song stick in yer head. Last up was the mob boss of the arlington music scene, <a href="http://mikeholden.com/">Mike Holden</a>. Very rockin' with a full band I must say. Pictures below are crops (inspired by <a href="http://hunkabutta.com">hunkabutta</a>) that link to a full version. Captions hidden in the alt text (hover over the pic for a sec to see them). <a href="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/paul_casey_2.jpg"><img src="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/paul_casey_2_crop.jpg" width="399" height="100" border="3" style="border-color:black;" alt="paul casey rocks the house with mad guitar skills"></a> <a href="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/paul_casey_1.jpg"><img border="3" src="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/paul_casey_1_crop.jpg" width="402" height="100" style="border-color:black;" alt="of course being irish he sing like a wee angel"></a> <a href="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/rotoscope_1.jpg"><img border="3" src="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/rotoscope_1_crop.jpg" width="401" height="102" style="border-color:black;" alt="what is a rotoscope again?"></a> <a href="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/rotoscope_2.jpg"><img border="3" src="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/rotoscope_2_crop.jpg" width="401" height="101" style="border-color:black;" alt="can you say 'sax on the beach'?"></a> <a href="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/rotoscope_3.jpg"><img border="3" src="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/rotoscope_3_crop.jpg" width="400" height="100" style="border-color:black;" alt="earnest. very earnest"></a> <a href="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/rotoscope_4.jpg"><img border="3" src="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/rotoscope_4_crop.jpg" width="400" height="99" style="border-color:black;" alt="full band"></a> <a href="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/rotoscope_5.jpg"><img border="3" src="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/rotoscope_5_crop.jpg" width="400" height="100" style="border-color:black;" alt="flash (and filters)"></a> <a href="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/holden_3.jpg"><img border="3" src="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/holden_3_crop.jpg" width="400" height="100" style="border-color:black;" alt="movin to the mic"></a> <a href="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/holden_1.jpg"><img border="3" src="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/holden_1_crop.jpg" width="399" height="100" style="border-color:black;" alt="hey man just taking your picture no need for the evil eye"></a> <a href="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/holden_2.jpg"><img border="3" src="images/athayde_holden_show_iota/holden_2_crop.jpg" width="399" height="100" style="border-color:black;" alt="hey sorry i didn't mean to blind you on this one. i thought i had turned _off_ the flash, but i was pretty buzzed. anyway here's the result"></a>32MusicdanielTue, February 11, 2003publishroundupNYC Wifi Note to dumb self: If you still can't connect to the computer that's 10 feet away from you, even after trying fifty million times, you might want to make sure you're logged into your own wifi network, and not one of the 3 neighboring ones that surround you. Note to dumb neighbor: Turn off file sharing. And run a spell-check on that cover letter before you send it, or there's no chance that place is going to hire you. [<a href="http://www.dashes.com/anil/index.php?archives/005058.php">Anil Dash</a>] <hr width="70"> More on powerblogs grr! Frankly, I'm not all that interested in Clay Shirky's latest on "Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality," where he explains why "freedom of choice" amongst more and more blogging outlets "makes stars inevitable." Instead, what I'm still trying to get a handle on is a tangential topic that was discussed at Werbach's Supernova: given the proliferation of media outlets and a truly finite resource called "attention," is the average info diet shifting from "bigger" (roughly defined) to "smaller" or "independent" (again, roughly defined) outlets. Is the average Internet user exposed to a wider array of voices (if not viewpoints), thanks to the proliferation of push-button publishing and dead simple broadcast channels? [<a href="http://sippey.com/archives/000244.php">sippey.com</a>] (via anil's links) <hr width="70"> Uh, yeah <a href="http://www.bodysculpter.com/anorex.htm">when consumption goes haywire</a> <hr width="70"> <a href="http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/personalities/starfucker.shtml">It was the best thing to happen to my party banter since alcohol.</a> 31ElsewheredanielMon, February 10, 2003publishChuck P fav author<a href="http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/books/nonfiction/hempel.htm">She Breaks Your Heart</a> by <a href="http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net">Chuck Palahniuk</a> from <a href="http://www.laweekly.com/">LA Weekly</a>, Sep 20-26, 2002 Where Chuck gushes about his fav author, and gives us a lesson in minimalism all at once. Oh, and in minimalism, no abstracts. No silly adverbs like sleepily, irritably, sadly, please. And no measurements, no feet, yards, degrees or years-old. The phrase "an 18-year-old girl" -- what does that mean? In The Harvest, Hempel writes, "The year I began to say vahz instead of vase, a man I barely knew nearly accidentally killed me." ...Amy Hempel does this. Instead of telling us the boyfriend in The Harvest is an asshole, we see him holding a sweater soaked with his girlfriend's blood and telling her, "You'll be okay, but this sweater is ruined." <a href="http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/author/palahniukesque/hempel.htm">the Hempel page at chuckpalahniuk.net</a> <img src="http://kiosk.mdlf.org/imgbank/image-U7LA2WUQZL.jpg" alt="" align="left">....meanwhile <a href="/miriam">Miriam</a> is on her second book written in Bosnian. Hello! It is comprised of stories from the seige of Sarajevo. The cover shows (I pressume) the author, typing by candlelight. Next November I plan on participating in <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">national novel writing month</a>; I hope that life will be settled and organized enough at that point to do so. And I plan on getting myself a nice old typewriter, one where you can feel the key engage under your fingers and that makes a loud *crack* noice with each letter. And I plan on writing, if not some new idea, then at least the <a href="http://www.danielsjourney.com/index.php?archive=blog_2003_01_17.xml&id_pass=209">Newspaperwoman</a>. And maybe at night I'll turn off all the lights and light a couple candles to write by, in memory of the time we missed. 30ElsewheredanielMon, February 10, 2003publishmp3.com m3us still goodHey I was just checking my mp3.com m3u's and they still work. I uploaded them for your enjoyment, should you have not gotten over there and grabbed the good stuff before <a href="?archive=blog_2003_01_17.xml&id_pass=203">it went bye-bye</a>. There are all the hi-bandwidth stream versions. Also you can probably download the actual files from the information in those m3u's. Also I noticed someone found my ChooseLife mp3 and posted it to a message board or something, my logs have a lot of downloads of that one. I had forgotten about it, so I'm going to take it down tomorrow sometime, so if you want it or the Walmart mp3, grab them from there a while too. Anyway: <a href="http://www.danielsjourney.com/media/">danielsjourney.com/media/</a> 29MinutiadanielMon, February 10, 2003publishRelevant does it againI don't really go by <a href="http://www.relevantmagazine.com">relevant mag</a> anymore because the content there reeks of their evangelical and modern roots. However today I was perchance at <a href="http://thebridge.blogspot.com">a blog</a> that linked to them, and I cam across this atrocity: <a href="http://www.relevantmagazine.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=841&mode=&order=0">When Artists Say "Give Peace a Chance"</a> and I'm so livid I have to respond. If you read it, and read my stuff at all, you'll realize why I'm so pissed. The anti-artistry and just war themes are evident in each paragraph. i.e. True peace is not an ideal birthed from passive intentions. To live peace means to preserve it. To live peace means to be bent on it and to be emphatic about it. This kind of peace expresses itself in actions that give back to the world, that seek out the hurt in the world and preserve all that is good. Is that what the majority of America's pop stars mean when they flash the peace sign? No, they mean, "Let's not fight ...Let me sing my song and return to the Hills so I can stay safe in my surroundings and income." {aside: they are using the damn microsoft curly quotes, which breaks my XML, so i'm not going to be able to quote much.} I don't even have to talk about just war. Just go read <a href="http://www.sevenmagazine.org/index.php?archive=022003_07">my article in sevenmagazine</a>. {aside: think relevant would run the article? with that image at the top? maybe they could crop it and make it look cool.} The author here, Bobby Anderson, <s>might have to google him</s> (update: no first page results for this particular Bobby), is obviously a just war advocate. That's fine, he's free to say his opinion there, although I wonder about statements like However, if the mathematics are done correctly, there is a time for both, and war can be instrumental in securing peace, when and if it is threatened. This kind of war would not be based on hungry colonization or political pride. Rather, it is a defense mechanism. It is an opportunity to preserve the quality of life and ideals that are highly respected, such as freedom, love and goodness. If these ideals are threatened, they must be defended. If we are to lose these ideals, then we are indeed lost. If the mathematics are done correctly there is a time for both?? I expected a bible quote, but if the mathematics are done correctly?? But let me come back to my first quote there, the one about artists going up to the Hills (capital H), safe in {their} income. Clueless. I'm sorry, but fucking clueless. The only artists Bobby encounters are on his TV set and in the movie theatre and in People magazine and Rolling Stone. The fact is that the average artist salary is somewhere around 20k a year. If you think Chuck Prophet or Tom Conlon or...I could go on for pages and pages...are safe in their income, you need to educate yourself. Yes Madonna is an artist too, but the Madonna Bobby sees, and whose art he consumes, and spends his money on, is the artist that a corporate machine has marketed to you, has forced upon you with their monopolistic production and distribution chains. Ooo I get pissed over this stuff. This is why one of the main objectives of Integration Research is to educate. Hopefully those of you reading this blog are getting some of that. Thanks for listening to me rant. 28ElsewheredanielMon, February 10, 2003publishfeb sevenmag<a href="http://www.sevenmagazine.org/">the feb issue of seven is now up</a>. it deals with social action and activism. i highly recommend <a href="http://www.sevenmagazine.org/index.php?archive=022003_06">dan hughes' piece, Empire, Terrorism and The Other Kingdom</a>. amazing writer that dan. i wrote a piece on pacifism, one i started but did not publish on this blog, <a href="http://www.sevenmagazine.org/index.php?archive=022003_07">Working out Pacifism: the unreality of impossibility</a>. you can see the post that started it all, in its original entirety now, <a href="http://www.danielsjourney.com/?archive=blog_2003_02_05.xml&id_pass=21">here</a>. it differs a little bit from the seven article, i'm obviously more pleased with the finished product over at seven. the original post is there now just for historical reasons, if you're really interested in reading the very rough first draft. i meant to write about <a href="http://www.danielsjourney.com/?archive=blog_2003_01_17.xml&id_pass=205">Intelligent Consumption</a> for the issue, but it's just not written yet and this pacifism thing just kinda came out after an evening with some Bosnians. the pictures in the article are from the haviv photoessay i <a href="http://127.0.0.1/djdc/index.php?archive=blog_2003_02_05.xml&id_pass=23">blogged about yesterday</a>. <a href="http://www.danielsjourney.com/?archive=blog_2003_02_05.xml&id_pass=20">i also posted the full post on blogging</a> 27ElsewheredanielMon, February 10, 2003publishSwitch to LinuxJohnny Baker pointed me to a switch to Mac flash anim that was funny, but i liked <a href="http://www.ubergeek.tv/switchlinux/">the switch to Linux one</a> (flash anim) better. 26ElsewheredanielSun, February 09, 2003publishlearning to love you more<a href="http://learningtoloveyoumore.com/">learningtoloveyoumore.com</a> (via <a href="http://consumptive.org/weblog/blog.html">consumptive</a>) 25ElsewheredanielSun, February 09, 2003publishmore on pacifismthe American believer fights for their beliefs. the pacifist believer dies for their beliefs. how does history remember Christian soldiers? how does history remember Christian martyrs? how does God remember them? 24CommentdanielSun, February 09, 2003publishBlood and HoneyIf you were a little overwhelmed with yesterday's Bosnian linkfest, do at least check out this site. Amazing photos from a journalist who was there during the entire war. <a href="http://photoarts.com/haviv/">the site for the book, Blood and Honey</a> (on <a href="http://photoarts.com/">photoarts</a>) <img src="http://photoarts.com/haviv/bosnia/image/refugeesm.jpeg" alt=""> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1575001357/qid=1044815343/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/103-8557930-2747830?v=glance&s=books">the book</a> (I just bought the 9 clam used copy, sorry) "First I was a Yugoslav. Then, I was a Bosnian. Now I'm becoming a Muslim. It's not my choice. I don't even believe in God. But after two hundred thousand dead, what do you want me to do?" --A resident of Sarajevo I was/am profoundly impacted just by this website. This photographer captured more than words could possibly say in just a few images. I do hope you take the time to explore this photoessay and to think about what happened in Bosnia, and about the effects of war, "just" or no. 23BalkansdanielSun, February 09, 2003publishPersonal Puzzlement Index Escalated<a href="http://www.kungfugrippe.com/previously/002011.php">Personal Puzzlement Index Escalated: Darker Grey</a> <img alt="Personal Puzzlement Index" src="http://www.kungfugrippe.com/pix/currentalert.gif" width="322" height="147" border="0" /> 22ElsewheredanielSat, February 08, 2003publishnew principlesA while back I was back in Pennsylvania having a discussion about values, politics, whether I was a pacifist, and most importantly principles. <s>Ed. note--I have hidden most all of this entry. I am still hashing it out. Check back later. For now enjoy these lyrics:</s> First on the pacifist question: first go to the <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/faithmaps/">faithmaps</a> group and <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/faithmaps/messagesearch/15791?query=pacifist%20pacifism">start doing a search for pacifism</a> for some really good info/discussion of the topic. The main point of the pacifism discussion in PA was the *classic* question "someone has a gun to your wife's head and you have a gun, do you shoot?" I answered those months ago with "yeah" and of course I was no longer a pacifist. But I've thought really quite too much about the question since then and I've realized, even more than I did realize it then, that that question is the most fucked up thing in the world. My answer, by the way, is No. I would not shoot the guy about to shoot Miriam. Why? Because 1) I would refuse to believe that he/she were really going to shoot the person I love with my life. That is an impossible human situation that I know people have been in, albeit not many people, and the impossibility of the situation makes it an impossible question that anyone with any intellectual rigor would not pursue in a rhetorical fashion (it is a great question for those supporting war or just war or gun rights, they just go "hell yeah i'd blow the fucker's head off!" no problem) and 2) I wouldn't have the balls to pull the trigger. I cannot imagine killing someone intentionally (or not for that matter), no matter the circumstances (one ludicrous exception forthcoming). Even if I did then witness the impossibly tragic event presented (someone murdering my soulmate...thanks again to this rhetorical question for allowing my mind to think about that impossible situation), and still have the gun in my hands (by the way how the hell does a pacifist walk around with a gun in his hands anyway? more on this in a sec), I still wouldn't get my revenge, or inact instant justice on this person. What good would it do? They have already taken away everything about my life worth living. There can be no justice for me in this life. They can go on living, I can, we both can, we both could not, it does not matter. Now you're thinking I've already thought about this issue too much? HA! How about this: There is ONE situation where I would shoot (again, chances of me having a gun?), and that would be if someone were raping her. (Again, these are horrible and morbid and impossible thoughts, feel free to take a break but if this is an issue you've thought a little about maybe my overthinking about it will help with your own beliefs.) Now, I wouldn't shoot right away. More likely I would physically attack the demonic person and try to otherwise neutralize their ability to do harm in some less (but still obviously) violent way. SO that leaves ONE situation where I can think of pulling the trigger (on the, once again, impossibly obtained weapon), that would be where they have the wherewithall to both abuse the victim and hold me at gunpoint (theoretically a standoff, I guess, if I am also pointing a weapon of similar desctructive powers), where I have no other option if I were to stop the abuse. Because in my conscious, that is the one act of human treachery that trumps killing; and to protect that victim from further abuse, and if there were no other option to me, I would kill the perpetrator. (Just for clarification, I am in no way saying convicted rapists should be executed. I am against the death penalty entirely, even for the most heinous offenders. This has only to do with stopping an abuse that is in progress where I have no other option. If I walk in 1 sec after the rape we are back to square one. There would be no justice; killing the offender would be meaningless {IMHO} to the abused.) (Another aside: assuming this wasn't during war, that there was rule of law, this would be manslaughter, right? Or self-defence since he pointed a gun at me?) But now we get back to the ridiculousness of the hypothetical "proof" to begin with. I cannot conceive of firing a weapon at another human being except in one particular impossible situation which god willing nobody is ever put into. So why do I have a gun to begin with? Is this a war and: 1) I am a civilian victim roaming the streets, and I see a gun on the ground and pick it up for potential future protection? 2) A friend gave it to me and said, take this in case of...? ...Because I sure as hell didn't obtain it under any kind of normal circumstance and if this is a war I am probably 1) dead already or 2) a refugee, having fled ...because being a pacifist I would be a poor draft pick, not firing my weapon ever and all (I guess I could be in the military media pool but then I have this other crazy principle about telling the truth), and I would also make a really bad resistance fighter (although I would take great pleasure in subverting evil agressors in nonviolent ways, <a href="http://www.theyblinked.com/blog/2003_02_02_theyblinked_archive.html#88701163">hacking perhaps</a>?) for the same reasons. Conclusion (this has become so long I thought I'd point it out): Last night we were again hanging out with Bosnians. Some things you should understand about Bosnians, most all of them have experienced things no human should have to experience. If you meet them in the USA, they were likely displaced during the war, and even though they may love this country and have adjusted fully and not care to return to Bosnia, the fact of the matter is if it were not for the war they would be perfectly happy, still living with all their family still intact and in the same place, that place being Bosnia. Refugees, no matter how it happened (meaning if they snuck out of a country on their own, like a lot of Bosnians, like Miriam's family don't forget, or if in a massive wave following a full-on attack), will carry that experience with them for the rest of their lives, whether they are able to return to their homeland or not. Same for victims of seige; with which an entire city's worth of people I will be living amongst come May. Same for victims of war; with which an entire country's worth of people I will be living amongst come May. My new principles have nothing to do with man's right to live independent of government or man's "rights" (to, e.g., own a gun) or any of these kind of things free people can take the time to think about and discuss. My new principles: There is absolutely no just war. Because there is absolutely no just war, there is other option for human conscious than pacifism. If you can justify one small act of violence, you can justify any type of war. If you can trick your heart into not torturing you over the murder of one person, you can trick it into suffocated silence over the rape and murder of thousands, even millions. Murder by numbers, 1, 2, 3... This has nothing to do with guilt or innocence. It has nothing to do with personal or national defence. It sure as hell has nothing to do with morality. Morally, there is no just war. Those who disagree talk to me when there is an army about to overrun the USA. I doubt I will change my mind. {It is a personal issue, and I would rather die justly than survive unjustly, even if I am the only one who thinks it to be so. This country has no idea what it means to make these decisions when your home and livelihood are actually at stake. This country has always been the agressor. We were attacked by an outside force once, 1812, and considering what we were doing to Africans and American Indians at the time, it doesn't really count.} Otherwise it is you who have the damaged moral compass, at least as far as I'm concerned. Go ahead. Shoot. Me. Yeah, that's right. That way I'll find out who's right first. You can stay alive down here...with your conscious to keep you company. Murder By Numbers by Sting and Andy Summers performed by the Police Once that you've decided on a killing First you make a stone of your heart And if you find that your hands are still willing Then you can turn a murder into art There really isn't any need for bloodshed You just do it with a little more finesse If you can slip a tablet into someone's coffee Then it avoids an awful lot of mess It's murder by numbers, one, two, three It's as easy to learn as your ABC Murder by numbers, one, two, three It's as easy to learn as your ABC Now if you have a taste for this experience And you're flushed with your very first success Then you must try a twosome or a threesome And you'll find your conscience bothers you much less Because murder is like anything you take to It's a habit-forming need for more and more You can bump off every member of your family And anybody else you find a bore Because it's murder by numbers, one, two, three It's as easy to learn as your ABC Murder by numbers, one, two, three It's as easy to learn as your ABC Now you can join the ranks of the illustrious In history's great dark hall of fame All our greatest killers were industrious At least the ones that we all know by name But you can reach the top of your profession If you become the leader of the land For murder is the sport of the elected And you don't need to lift a finger of your hand Because it's murder by numbers, one, two, three It's as easy to learn as your ABC Murder by numbers, one, two, three It's as easy to learn as your A, B, C, D, E 21CommentdanielSat, February 08, 2003publishmore on blogsSomeday I will write an entire piece on blogs, but right now I'm too busy reading and writing blogs to write properly about blogs. But besides, I'm just formulating my thoughts, and a blog is a great place to do just that. Information overload has to stop at some point. Our mental survival depends on it. <s>Ed. note--I have hidden most all of this entry. I am still hashing it out. Check back later.</s> refs: <a href="http://www.shirky.com/writings/powerlaw_weblog.html">Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality</a> <a href="http://www.beaverlaw.com/2003/02/04.html#a162">Weblogs vs. websites</a> <a href="http://127.0.0.1/djdc/index.php?archive=blog_2003_01_17.xml&id_pass=169">Here's the post where I first started to formulate these thoughts.</a> <a href="http://www.beaverlaw.com/2003/02/04.html#a162">Here's a piece on weblogs vs. websites</a> which I bring up just for history. Yesterday I had a new visitor to my site who immediately emailed me...she gravitated towards the "standard" content vs the weblog content. I've been catering to the daily (or close to) reader for so long I've sort of forgotten that most people can't handle the weblog. Too unorganized. Speaking of unorganized, these historical links are useless without a search function. These days it takes me a long time to find an important historical post I'm looking for. Add to the list of features that *must* be in place before a semi-public beta of SWM. To my main purpose of this post: The main purpose of weblogs, IMHO, is a) hashing things out for myself and b) microContent consumption. The weblog allows me to start <a href="http://www.danielsjourney.com/index.php?archive=blog_2002_12_02.xml&id_pass=2">ideas I may never finish</a>, further hash out ideas I just may finish (like this post), and as other people do the same thing, and I am able to consume that information in very small portions every day (or close to), their hashing-out interatively feeds back on my hashing-out, and our collective hashing-out improves, and, theoretically, so does the final product produced after all that hashing-out. At the same time, <a href="http://ftrain.com">some</a> <a href="http://hunkabutta.com">people</a> inspire me to write less, more finished pieces, to use the blog more as a "proper" content publication device. And the idea behind SWM is that that is what it is, and it can just happen to also be used for blogging. And once I get my act together and can use it for that, you will see the "proper content" areas of the site (writing, photos, activism, intstallations, music) go up and be updated in such a manner. But in the meantime I hash out the damn details here, and every so often it helps to come back and see where I was at on Feb ??, 2003. Most of the time, though, there is so much iterative feedback that I get stuck in a loop and don't get to the "proper" production at all. The main thing is, with this blog at least, is you are watching me learn. <s>Which makes me think about the month or so around when we move to Bosnia that I will not be updating or reading weblogs. There will be a month of meme that I will just miss out on. And that will be ok. But what effect will that have on the overall process? Will it help or hurt? Even once I get connected in BiH it will be much more limiting than my always-on broadband I have here in Virginia. Again, ? I think my productivity might go up. Then again, I think the whole thing would cycle anyway. People stop blogging and reading blogs all the time for different amounts of time. I am the same.</s> 20CommentdanielSat, February 08, 2003publishBosnian art linkfest <a href="http://www.artreachfoundation.org/main.htm">The official artreach foundation website</a> (<a href="http://www.artreachfoundation.org/bosmain.htm">and Bosnian specific page, although all their work thusfar has been there)</a> <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/in3/wendyfoster/bosnia1.html">two personal pages on artreach bosnia</a> <a href="http://www.artreachfoundation.org/photo2001.htm">more photos</a>--some great ones like <a href="http://www.artreachfoundation.org/IMAGES/PHOTOS/tunnel%20entrance.jpg">this one of the Sarajavo tunnel</a> with a <a href="http://www.artreachfoundation.org/tunnel.htm">page about the tunnel</a> which has links to <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1280328.stm">this BBC article on the tunnel</a> and <a href="http://www.rnw.nl/hotspots/html/sarajevo020104.html">this Radio Netherlands article</a> which has <a href="http://www.omroep.nl/cgi-bin/streams?/rnw/hotspots/sarajevo020104.rm">this Real Audio report (14min 40sec long)</a> that I will have to check out sometime and finally <a href="http://radio.cbc.ca/news/w6docs/sarajevo/thetunnel.html">this page</a> which led me to <a href="http://radio.cbc.ca/news/w6docs/sarajevo/default.html">Virtual Reality: Young Artists in Post-war Sarajevo</a> This site rocks! Check out all of it! ...Which led me to <a href="http://www.scca.ba/index01.htm">the Sarajevo Center for Contemporary Arts</a>, which has some *amazing* online installations, can't imagine what the actual center is like! and <a href="http://www.media.ba/">Media Center Sarajevo</a> which has a lot of great things, <a href="http://www.media.ba/links/links.htm">this links page</a>, and a <a href="http://www.media.ba/medialib/medialibrary.htm">media library</a>--specifically a <a href="http://www.media.ba/videolib/videolibrary.htm">video library</a>--that I am definately going to have to check out once we're there. and <a href="http://www.sff.ba/">the Sarajevo Film Festival</a>, which I think I've linked to in the past actually <a href="http://www.unsa.ba/eng/sarajevobh.html">The University of Sarajevo</a> (english site) (cul <a href="http://www.unsa.ba/">flash intro</a> on their homepage) (here's the actual <a href="http://www.unsa.ba/eng/home.html">english home page of the university</a>, I linked to their Sarajvo/BiH info page before) <a href="http://www.warchild.org/artists/pavarott/sarajevo.html">Miss Sarajevo</a>, performed as part of <a href="http://www.warchild.org/artists/pavarott/p-friend.html">Pavarotti & Friends TOGETHER FOR THE Children of Bosnia</a>, via the <a href="http://www.warchild.org/home.html">warchild</a> website, "a network of independent organisations working across the world to help children affected by war." <img src="http://www.warchild.org/artists/pavarott/sarajevo.jpg" alt="miss sarajevo"> <a href="http://www.rnw.nl/special/en/html/sarajevo010625.html">Sarajevo Stories on Radio Netherlands</a>, again with Real Audio. <img src="http://u2exit.com/gfx/u2exit-F-concert-sarajevo.jpg" alt="u2 concert sarajevo"> <a href="http://www.corpse.org/issue_11/foreign_desk/graubard.html">Exquisite Corpse--Sarajevo Notes</a> <a href="http://www.wibblywobblyweb.com/mac/minemap.html">minefield maps from 1996</a>, just in case you were wondering how bad it was <img src="http://www.siemens.cz/siemens/site/spls/regions/bosna/images/sarajevo.jpg" alt="beautiful, eh?"> <a href="http://www.wibblywobblyweb.com/index.html">a diary, images, and links re: sarajevo</a> <a href="http://www.wibblywobblyweb.com/day1/index.html">here is day one of the diary, with links on to the rest of the days, images with each entry</a> 19BalkansdanielSat, February 08, 2003publishhaircutoh yeah, and i had M cut my hair a little bit yesterday. just a little bit. 18MinutiadanielFri, February 07, 2003publish...artists...living in the true style of the American chanteuse, writing authentic music that speaks to our true culture, transcends the market fray, and reeks of real life while simultaneously lifting us above our surroundings with its beauty. .Me :) Someone call the ambulance. She's completely nude, standing on the fence. .Chuck Prophet, Storm Across the Sea 17QuotabledanielFri, February 07, 2003publishTVLast night the other story Chuck told was about a reality TV show idea he has. <a href="http://blogfodder.com/archive/000960.html">Today's blogfodder</a> is If your life was a reality show, what would the premise be? Of course I've already mentioned <a href="http://serialtext.com/display.cgi/0tvtv">TV!TV!</a> Yesterday's Calvin and Hobbes pretty much says it: <img src="images/ch920205i.gif"> <img src="images/ch920205ii.gif"> I've watched exactly 1 hour of TV since we moved to our new apartment in September. Last July and August were banner months for TV watching for me. Wouldn't be so pinched right now if it weren't for that. But still, it is safe to say that if it weren't for two events--the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, both of which weren't even on TV in the USA until recently--I would watch less TV in one year than most people do in a week. That's why I love the web. It appeals to my very short attention span, but I am actually reading after all. From <a href="http://www.designforcommunity.com">Design for Community</a> by Derek M. Powazek, a quote <a href="http://designforcommunity.com/display.cgi/200204301419">from Howard Rheingold</a>: And if there's more noise in the channel than there is information, then people will abandon it. It will be less useful. You know, television was once regarded as the great educational medium of the future, and the early years showed a great deal of promise, and then, you know, it gradually became crap. Will that happen here, too? There will always be groups who are strongly motivated to use a medium. But will it be a mass medium such as print in which there is a widespread literacy? I think that's the most important question about the future. 16CommentdanielFri, February 07, 2003publishChuck Prophet<img src="http://www.unsavoury.net/~henning/prophet/gallery/manchester/4.jpg"> Of course I went to the Chuck Prophet show last night! The inner compass always directs one to true north. :) Forgot the camera but there were definately some highlights: .Snowing outside, so small crowd, not that smoky, pretty chill. .Just Chuck and Stephanie (last show he introduced her as "the woman who rules my house with an iron fist" :) acoustic. Very intimate, chill; perfect for last night. .I had been totally flaking on picking up some of his CD's, meaning to since the last time I saw him play, so last night was a great chance to pick up a few, and skip the middlemen. I've got his latest in the player right now. Amazing. I do recommend. At the same time, not being yet too familiar with his songs, I can testify that they totally stand up and entertain live, without the help of prior hearing (you'd be surprised how much music couldn't pass this test, most of you probably mostly see bands you've been listening to in the stereo or on the radio...the true test is to be totally enraptured with live music you've never heard before). .During the very first song, I was standing just inside the door still because I was waiting for a friend (who never made it out for the snow), it was just Chuck on stage at that point, I actually had the thought this guy is one of the most truly authentic artists of this country. I meant it then and I mean it now. This guy is one of the very few. A very real person telling remarkable stories. .The dude can freaking play. Just him and an acoustic guitar last night and he made that thing sing. Really amazing skills. Last show I was swept up in the full band and the antics and all...which of course I love; but last night, stripped down, the musicianship was apparent and awe-inspiring. .Good stories. I wish he'd talk more from stage, but then it is a thin line between leaving us wanting more and talking too much, and he probably understands where that line is more than anyone. Great story about somebody giving a 15 clam Starbucks gift card to Sheryl Crow. After the story: I'm a fan of Starbucks. It's comforting, when you're on the road, to know that there is someplace besides McDonalds that is always the same. Same temperature. Same everything. Is that sad? Maybe a little bit. .Hanging out afterwards. Here's the coolest part. After picking up my CD's from Stephanie, who was immediately so cool and down to earth (and I dare say hot!--more so in person than in pictures, something I consider indicative of a true beauty and aura; Miriam is the same way, pictures can't do the true level of beauty justice) even within the context of such a short and relatively commercial transaction. But then I kind of moseyed over to Chuck, who was sitting on the other side of the stage with maybe two other guys standing there talking to him. He signed a couple of my CD's, and before I knew it I was telling him how I'm moving to Sarajevo and oh he has a friend in Sarajevo he should connect me with. !What? Yeah, totally. It was so not like a rock star who just played the show and is now signing your CD's for you. It was so like somebody just introduced us at a party and said hey you guys would get along. He's a really genuine person. The actual context was something like this: Are you going to play around here again before May or do you play in Europe at all? Yeah, we play in Europe all the time. How far east do you guys go? Heh heh. Guy next to me: "How far east are you talking? Heh heh." Why? Where are you going? (aside: rock stars don't ask questions of normal people. not even non-rock-stary-rock-stars.) Sarajevo. Oh yeah? I know this guy... and on he went. The conversation eventually moved on to <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2722299.stm">Phil Spector</a> (you can imagine the other fans around me were not too interested in Sarajevo) ...And he didn't just shoot her once like "oh my god." He shot her four times! and other things, but I once again had that same thought...one of the truly authentic artists...and because of that, he is one of the most important artists... I ended up talking to Stephanie a little bit more, asking if they'd heard of Paste Magazine (of course they had, <a href="http://www.pastemusic.com/artist/10183">they're on pastemusic.com</a>). I said that I wrote for a book, and the publisher of that mag also wrote for the book, and I was looking to inquire about doing some writing for them; and I would of course love to write about Chuck. She had me talk to Chuck, and he was totally into it. Got his card, his phone number and email address right here in front of me. I fell asleep dreaming of hanging out with him, chatting over some grub in some indiscriminate and yet wholly American haunt. This morning I'm constructing the angle for the piece in my head, and have to email Paste and see if I get anywhere with my "hey we worked on the same project" cred. <a href="http://www.unsavoury.net/~henning/prophet">chuck prophet dt com</a> or just hit the little G over there -> 15MusicdanielFri, February 07, 2003publishMiriam i Daniel MBTINot much else needs to be said (<a href="http://www.capt.org/The_MBTI_Instrument/Overview.cfm">MBTI Overview</a>). I know this was the trend a few months back, putting your MBTI on your blog and all. I only think it's blogworthy because of the humor derived from seeing M's and mine next to each other. Kinda explains alot though. :) Miriam (top) and Daniel (bottom): <a href="http://www.typelogic.com/estj.html"><img src="images/mbti-miriam-web.gif"></a> <a href="http://www.typelogic.com/infp.html"><img src="images/mbti-daniel-web.gif"></a>14MinutiadanielThu, February 06, 2003publishahh yes the planet of south floridaI'm super torn about going to see Chuck Prophet tonight. <a href="http://www.danielsjourney.com/index.php?archive=2002_09_22_new_archive.xml&id_pass=82228300">Last time</a> I went to his show it was one of my best live music experiences ever. But tonight I am still hacking up lungs, it's about zero degrees outside, and while a smoke free auditorium at 7pm last night was no problem, <s>a smoke-filled bar at 11pm just might be. So I'm still undecided.</s> But Chuck still rocks, no matter what. (Of course if I wasn't leaving country for so long in a couple months I would just wait, but that fact both contributes to my desire to see as many acts as possible and the impossible busy-ness that keeps me from doing just that.) In completely unrelated events...Yes this sounds about right. Almost makes me nostalgic: <div style="margin-left:20px;">WHY I LIVE IN SOUTH FLORIDA The Miami Herald reports today that the chief of police of my town, Coral Gables, accidentally shot his gun in the bathroom of the police department Wednesday. Last year he accidentally shot his gun in a fitness club. Sooner or later, he is bound to hit a criminal. I say this because our criminals are not the sharpest knives in the drawer; if you scroll down from the police-chief item -- past the item about the trial of the gastroenterologist charged with having sex with a patient who was under anestheisia while being treated for varicose veins -- you come to the item about the sentencing of a man who robbed a bank and then, during the getaway, shot himself in the pants. Two items below that is an update on an injured pygmy sperm whale, Kokomo, who had been staying in the swimming pool of a motel. These items all appear well inside the paper, because down here they are fairly unremarkable. This is not the planet Earth. from <a href="http://davebarry.blogspot.com/">dave berry's blog</a></div> 13MinutiadanielThu, February 06, 2003publishExploding Stove<a href="http://www.kungfugrippe.com/">kungfugrippe</a> has a new look and Merlin launched <a href="http://www.explodingstove.com/">explodingstove</a> as the new refrigerator for to which I will magnet most of my fingerpainting about web stuff, content management, project management, and Macs... Why it was necessary I don't know, but it was good of him to try out all the OS PHP CMS's for me before I had to. But he was right when he said one of the biggest factors that keeps a lot of people I know from using open source portal sites at all is that they all look like "one of those sites." in <a href="http://www.kungfugrippe.com/archives/2003/01/28/index.php#001972">this important post</a> where he also says I doubt I'm alone in thinking MT has really raised the bar for what non-nerds expect from content management, and I'd be interested to hear what others think--especially writers, non-developing designers, and other non-nerds. Which is exactly where I'm coming from with SWM...I want a very simple, easy to implement CMS for creative people. So far I'm still having to either build it myself or figure some plug-in for some existing app...*sigh*...{aside: I am about to do a major MT deployment for one of the sites I do pro-bono, for my own information and because it will fit their CM needs; but overall I think MT is headed down the wrong path with the piles of needless blogdom features and not creating a solid CM platform, as they easily could.} 12ElsewheredanielThu, February 06, 2003publishwhelmed, over, is the key word. 11MinutiadanielThu, February 06, 2003publishtestI'm testing for my new LastModified feature, which most likely means nothing to any of you. 10DesignDanielThu, February 06, 2003publishA Heartbreaking National Tragedy<a href="http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/2/3/95729/40505">A Heartbreaking National Tragedy</a> It happened one morning, on your drive to work, or while channel surfing on your 400-channel cable-satellite or whatever-mind-numbing-media outlet you feed the desires lurking in your mental cage. The Heartbreaking National Tragedy. So sudden. So devastating. No one saw it coming. And who could believe it happened? "Honey, did you hear? It's devastating!" Even the Dr. Pill show is interrupted. Little Cousin (the incestuous child of Big Brother) comes on with pancake-makeup face and shellacked hair carefully arranged to hide his receding hairline.... BREAKING NEWS FROM "C.U.P." NETWORK: SOMETHING TRAGIC HAPPENED! SEVERAL LIVES WERE LOST! Apparently, at 10:13 a.m...p.m....b.m....i.m....a national tragedy happened. Americans died. They were in a shuttle...an office building...an airplane...just being Americans. Several lives were lost. Emergency crew members already on the scene say that there are no survivors. What you are about to watch now is a video of the Heartbreaking National Tragedy. 9ElsewheredanielThu, February 06, 2003publishIraqi Blogger<a href="http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/">http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/</a> You just make it sound so easy, you know it's not. But what the hell, after watching the victorious American army march thru the streets of Baghdad you'll just turn CNN off and look for another show. 8ElsewheredanielThu, February 06, 2003publishBree SharpIt's a big commercial grin It wears me down till I have to give in There's a barcode where my heart should be Oh, TV, tell me what I need I don't care how it got to the store Just give me more, more... --<a href="http://breesharp.com/music/mp3/Bree_Sharp_Lazy_Afternoon.mp3">Lazy Afternoon (mp3)</a> 7QuotabledanielThu, February 06, 2003publishPeter Dvorsky concertLast night we went to see the famous Slovak opera singer Peter Dvorsky. <a href="http://www.danielsjourney.com/miriam/2003_02_01_archives.html#88627883">Miriam has the full report and pictures with the star himself</a>. What she doesn't tell you is how smooth we both were going backstage to say hi to him. I'm quite sure it was her looks. ;) 6MinutiadanielThu, February 06, 2003publish~Yugoslavia~ no longerYugoslavia on Tuesday officially buried what remained of the bloodied federation after a decade of Balkan wars and formed a loose union of Serbia and Montenegro to take its place. The federal assembly cleared the final hurdle for establishing the Western-brokered state union by passing its founding charter with an absolute majority in both houses, consigning the name Yugoslavia to history after almost 75 years. "I hereby declare the Constitutional Charter of Serbia and Montenegro adopted," speaker Dragoljub Micunovic told an historic joint session after the two houses voted separately. [<a href="http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2003/02/06/193500">ref</a>] We had been talking about this for a while in our Area Studies class--one class we had Montenegro's special envoy to the US speak to us, and found out all about the joint institutions and the seperate institutions; at that time Serbia had not budgeted any money towards the joint institutions...heh...don't know if they finally did, I guess so if the charter passed. Nobody really called it Yugoslavia anymore anyway, but now it's official. [<a href="http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/5115824.htm">see also</a>] [<a href="http://www.rnw.nl/hotspots/html/yug030205.html">see also</a>] [<a href="http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/02/05022003164409.asp">see also</a>] 5BalkansdanielThu, February 06, 2003publishMiriam proves her dominance once againAt the risk of being campy myself and <a href="http://www.danielsjourney.com/miriam/2003_02_01_archives.html#88551277">linking to Miriam's site, I thought I'd post this</a> just in case for some unfathomable reason you hadn't already read it, or needed clarification of some sort. The language ranking system in the Foreign Service is 1-5, 5 being the topmost, totally fluent native speaker. You get two scores, one for speaking and one for reading. In case you missed it <a href="http://www.danielsjourney.com/miriam/2002_07_01_archives.html#78914973">a while back she only got "4+/4+" in her native freaking language</a> (but she took it so well) just because she didn't go to University in Slovakia! Hello?! She spoke better Slovak than the people testing her! Well anyway, she just had a progress test for Bosnian, which she has only had full time training in for a handful of weeks, and she already scored a 3/3. A-freaking-mazing. <s>Only trouble is, now they might send us even earlier, or worse, make her work at the main St. Dept!</s> (Update: Miriam worked her magic again so no chance of that!) No one will be negotiating those contracts with the local Bosnians as well as Miriam, ever! (P.S. If you had bad thoughts re: the title of this post hit yourself upside the head for me.) 4MinutiadanielWed, February 05, 2003publishdeath by marketabilityThis would fall into the "as if we needed another reason" series, but it is more subtle and therefore requires a bit more comment: <a href="http://www.foursoulsthebook.com/">FOUR SOULS</a>: Four Friends Embark on a Worldwide Odyssey in Search of the Epic Life (via <a href="http://myvalentine.blogspot.com">myvalentine</a>) Disclaimer: I am not commenting on the authors of this book, their intentions in its publication, or its contents! I have not even read it, and may never. I DO very much like the fact that the <a href="http://www.foursoulsthebook.com/foursouls.htm">entire thing is online for free</a> (every few chapters they ask Tired of reading from your computer screen? {hell yeah I am!} Visit www.foursoulsthebook.com today! &#36;10.00 on the website - a savings of &#36;4.99 off cover price! Free shipping for 3 or more copies! {well let me just find my Visa card!}). I am also not judging their intentions for their journey in the first place. And I DO very much like <a href="http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=jabezshirt">the shirt</a>. Here is the gist of the book, from the homepage of the site:<blockquote>Hungry for adventure and a purpose that would endure, four young men ventured out on an odyssey around the globe. They returned convinced that the very thing they sought - what they called the epic life - was not to be found "out there" but only in abandon to Jesus Christ in the ordinary minutes of everyday life... They sought what they called epic life . . . Who hasn't dreamed of it? Setting out on the open road. Traveling with your closest friends. Experiencing the world. The call of adventure pulls with Herculean force on the daring soul. But this wasn't just high adrenaline travel. These four young men--Matt, Jedd, Mike, and Trey--stepped off the path of graduate school and careers to search for something bigger. Something epic.</blockquote> Great, right? Well... Why write a book about it? Why <a href="http://www.foursoulsthebook.com/bios.htm">plug your speaking engagments</a> from your site? Why use the e-van language? Why <a href="http://www.foursoulsthebook.com/video.htm">talk in that special xian hushtone all the time</a>? Why not? Well, yeah you got me there, but then <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=travel+weblogs">plenty of people have traveled and written about it</a> and <a href="http://myvalentine.blogspot.com">not turned it into a marketable thing</a> or a career or anything. They just go back to their regular lives and back to their regular jobs and back to their regular friends and regular haunts. They go on living their <s>epic</s> artistic life. Yeah they might do a book, they might speak somewhere, but that would be incidental to the experience itself. They share out of a need to share, not out of a need for a living. Is ambition wrong? Is finding sustainability in something meaningful wrong? No and no. Christian marketing/marketing to Christians <a href="http://www.grouppublishing.com/prayerpath/kit.htm">just sucks is all</a>. Sucks worse than the RIAA or M&#36; or Big Oil. Sucks more because it's just so damn campy. It's like <a href="http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/02/05/unabashed_media_whoring.html">Mark Pilgrim said today</a>: Pretty soon we'll have a privacy policy and a mission statement, and it's all downhill from there.3CommentdanielWed, February 05, 2003publishuh yeah<a href="http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20030204/bush_deficit_graphic.gif">Tax cut?</a> It's funny I'm old enough to remember the Republicans always barking about balancing the budget, when the Democrats were going to spend us out of a country. 2ElsewheredanielWed, February 05, 2003publishthank you thank you no reallyI just fixed the bug (nothing on your end) that had left me frustrated enough to park actual coding for a couple weeks (a couple weeks ago) (major architecture reconsiderations, finally getting around to testing more of the numerous other major blogging apps, and getting really sick not withstanding). Grr! :) It was one line, something I forgot to stick in a function way back when. :P It's always like that. 1MinutiadanielWed, February 05, 2003publish