- for the benefit of those reading via RSSThe live version of <a href="http://danielsjourney.com">danielsjourney.com</a> is different today. Over the next few days i will be working only through the installation that is my home page. (Assuming you can get to the site--there are some problems with my host's name servers right now, so be patient.)<br /><br />28DesignDanielThu, March 20, 2003publish
- tangent 2 that did not end up in last postI had a conversation yesterday which wasn't weird or disturbing <em>per say</em>, but it did make me wonder about who's reading this blog and what they may think or do based on that reading (since I've been called a missionary and a diplomat in the past couple of months it's obvious things aren't clear or can be made up from the white space in between words).<br />
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I stopped talking about politics, whatever little talking I was doing about it anyway, last July when we moved to DC. My emotions and conscience, however, have still been a frequent topic; and, especially lately, said emotions and conscience have been troubled by {}.<br /><br />
But talking about it here doesn't help. So I'm not. Just go read <a href="http://theyblinked.com/blog/">theyblinked</a>.<br /><br />
While the world outside swarms around us I will be spending more time alone, looking inward and upward.<br /><br />
The time for begging leaders is over. It is time to beg God.<br /><br />27CommentdanielWed, March 19, 2003publish
- re blogging but with major tangentsNot sure if this belongs in "comment" or not, but here goes.<br />
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Everyone knows I'm for blogging. The benefit of blogging/blogs is it allows one to produce and consume information in small quantities that make their way through the information overload. Those bits can still be either useful or unuseful, but they at least get through; they at least get written. I haven't had the time or propensity to write fiction since we moved to DC, and perhaps it is because this has been a transitionary time, maybe it is because I have been in a long planning period. Whatever the reason, I have been able to blog. I'm not NOT writing, just not what I WANT to be writing.<br />
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What to consume is also a question. It is a very weird period of history right now. I'm finding I'm having to do more and more to comfort an increasingly troubled spirit. Today I've only been able to listen to <a href="http://www.pastemusic.com/artists/innocencemission.html">The Innocence Mission</a>, <a href="http://www.pastemusic.com/artists.asp?t=artist&search=denison+witmer&browse=">Denison Witmer</a>, and Chris Rice, i.e. all very chill and hopeful music. Comfort music.<br />
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I recently got to test the new version of <a href="http://www.methodize.org/nntprss">the RSS reader I use</a>, which allowed me to keep feeds in my configuration but not poll them (I already wasn't reading them). I mentioned a few: <a href="http://evhead.com/">Evhead</a> and <a href="http://scriptingnews.userland.com/">SN</a>, to my friend and said "Once their heads get small enough for them to pull them out of their asses, I'll start polling them again." They are fine blogs, actually, I'm not trying to talk shit about them, what I'm trying to say is I have decided not to read them. I am being my own filter.<br />
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Which leads me to the point: today, there is another one to add to that list.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ambiguous.org/">ambiguous.org</a> was one of my usual reads. I found it one of the few well done group blogs in existence. <a href="http://www.ambiguous.org/archive.php3/2003/03/18#robin2003318.1">A post today</a> made me start to wonder about its authors, and so I immediately started to dig a little deeper and found out that the two major authors are <a href="http://www.ambiguous.org/quinn/poly.php3">both</a> <a href="http://www.ambiguous.org/robin/me/poly.html">polygamists</a>.<br />
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At the risk of ruining my "dangerous" reputation, I will say this: I have a real problem with polygamy (they call it polyamory--perhaps this is the gender-neutral version of the word?). I remember about 1.5 years ago I found out a member of the faithmaps listserve was a polygamist, and I don't doubt that that led to my eventual retreat from that forum. It's just that major alarm bells go off inside my heart whenever I come up against it. From everything that I know and feel, the human soul was meant to be in deep romantic and sexual relationship with one other person. When people do otherwise, whatever the context but especially in polygamy, I always think, "Who is damaged, and who is going to be damaged?"<br />
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I'm not so paranoid around singles who are sexually active, and I dare say that if I hadn't spent my years between 18 and 22 (when I got married) in a highly restrictive religious context I might have been one myself. But polygamy, the intentional, knowledgable, and open rejection of monogamy in a long-term emotional and sexual context, seems to my heart to be an exponential move off the spiritual and social commitments of millenia.<br />
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Maybe I'm being paranoid, after all David had *many* wives (and still couldn't control himself), and he was a man after God's own heart. But something tells me, just my Spidey-sense, to make a wide berth around such people. Which in this case is too bad, because I enjoyed their opinions about other things in life. But I wouldn't be able to read their words the same way again after today.<br /><br />26CommentdanielWed, March 19, 2003publish
- <a href="http://www.bcheights.com/news/393725.html?mkey=878583">bc band shows promise</a> <em>c.p.m.'s debut release, the red lion ep, perfectly blends slower, melodic music with its faster, harder choruses. this melodic/punk boston college band displays a lot of promise with this four track demo. with thought-provoking lyrics and solid instrumentals, c.p.m. adds a fresh talent to the pool of bc bands.</em><br /><br />25ElsewheredanielTue, March 18, 2003publish
- <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134653764_tsasign15m.html">the seattle times: rebuke written on inspection notice</a> <em>tucked in his luggage was a card from the transportation security administration notifying him that his bags had been opened and inspected at seattle-tacoma international airport. handwritten on the side of the card was a note, "don't appreciate your anti-american attitude!"</em><br /><br />24LinksdanielTue, March 18, 2003publish
- <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2003/03/17/international/17cnd-kurd.1.ready.html">chevrolet</a><br /><br />23LinksdanielTue, March 18, 2003publish
- <a href="http://www.idlewords.com/">idle words</a> <em>fighting francophobia since wednesday</em><br /><br />22LinksdanielMon, March 17, 2003publish
- <blockquote>...This is not me. This is just a dream and I am just making this up. Because this cannot happen to me. Not to me. I have a family. I have a mother and a father and nobody can do this to my family, nobody. <br />
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OK so my mother is gone. Gone. Why is my neck hurling so much. No it is not hurling at all. I don't even feel it. I feel NOTHING. This is a film and I am the leading actress. <br />
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No this is not true. My mother and my father are building a house where they are going to live and my mother is going to work tomorrow...</blockquote><a href="http://mischabar.tripod.com/weblog/id36.html">Mischa's Journal, 1994</a><br /><br />21ElsewheredanielMon, March 17, 2003publish
- Flattery does go far, I must admit...<br /><br />but to get the link it must be far too <em>Gr&ouml;&szlig;</em> a display of honest adoration.<br />
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To reach your goal you must find a gem of meme unmatched throughout the blogdom. Good luck.<br />
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ps: <em>Pat Robertson's urine stream</em> is a good start.19ElsewheredanielMon, March 17, 2003publish
- more shamrock festThis is just for those interested in Rotoscope and/or concert photography--black and white shots from last Saturday:<br /><br /><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/images/shamrockfest/bw01.jpg" border="1"><br />
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<img src="http://danielsjourney.com/images/shamrockfest/bw02.jpg" border="1"><br />
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<img src="http://danielsjourney.com/images/shamrockfest/bw03.jpg" border="1"><br />
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<img src="http://danielsjourney.com/images/shamrockfest/bw04.jpg" border="1"><br />
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<img src="http://danielsjourney.com/images/shamrockfest/color01.jpg" border="1"><br />
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...had to get one shot of Drew in there! :)18ImaginingdanielMon, March 17, 2003publish
- <a href="http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/">1984 by george orwell: a searchable online version at the literature network</a><br /><br />16LinksdanielMon, March 17, 2003publish
- <a href="http://www.antipixel.com/blog/archives/2003/03/17/no_war_is_inevitable.html">Richard Powers -- <em>Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance</em></a><br /><br />15LinksdanielMon, March 17, 2003publish
- <a href="http://www.ucomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/03/17/">calvin and hobbes</a> i attribute all my current thinking to the influence of calvin and hobbes. today's was particularly inspiring.<br /><br />13LinksdanielMon, March 17, 2003publish
- Haystack<a href="http://haystack.lcs.mit.edu/index.html">Haystack</a> is a very interesting PIM based on RDF coming out of MIT. (Enough 3 letter acro's there? How about this: it all relates somehow to SWM. :) Of particular interest is their <a href="http://haystack.lcs.mit.edu/publications.html">publications</a> section. Grrr.<br />
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Figure 7 of <em>RDF Authoring Environments for End Users</em> struck a thought: This uberPIM that I've had in this little humble brain of mine since summer of 2001 comes from a graphic place like the classic org chart, or a Visio diagram, but it zaps it with a nonlinear paradigm and kills the hierarchy in preference to a molecular paradigm, where any atom can relate to any other without any kind of hegemony. Very hard to explain textually, need some graphics, but I'm not sure I want to even go there right now. If this makes sense to anyone and spikes your interest, do contact me. Point is, if SWM is an RDF mCMS for the web with a desktop client, it can then grow into the uberPIM that I have been thinking of, and it will be a natural progression. If groups like this one at MIT keep making interesting RDF based toolsets it could be a very bright future indeed.<br /><br />12DesignDanielSun, March 16, 2003publish
- WhereIsRaed rants<br /><br /><blockquote>What is bringing on this rant is the question that has been bugging for days now: how could &quot;support democracy in Iraq&quot; become to mean &quot;bomb the hell out of Iraq&quot;? why did it end up that democracy won't happen unless we go thru war? Nobody minded an un-democratic Iraq for a very long time, now people have decided to bomb us to democracy? Well, thank you! how thoughtful.<br />
</blockquote><blockquote>And there is the matter of Sanctions. Now that Iraq has been thru a decade of these sanctions I can only hope that their effects are clear enough for them not to be tried upon another nation. Sanctions which allegedly should have kept a potentially dangerous situation in Iraq in check brought a whole nation to its knees instead. And who ultimately benefited from the sanctions? Neither the international community nor the Iraqi people, he who was in power and control still is. These sanctions made the Iraqi people hostages in the hands of this regime, tightened an already tight noose around our necks. A whole nation, a proud and learned nation, was devastated not by the war but by sanctions. Our brightest and most creative minds fled the country not because of oppression alone but because no one inside Iraq could make a living, survive. And can anyone tell me what the sanctions really did about weapons? </blockquote><blockquote>Do you know when the sight of women veiled from top to bottom became common in cities in Iraq? Do you know when the question of segregation between boys and girls became red hot? When tribal law replaced THE LAW? When Wahabi became part of our vocabulary?<br /><br />
It only happened after the Gulf War. I think it was Cheney or Albright who said they will bomb Iraq back to the stone age, well you did.</blockquote><a href="http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/2003_03_01_dear_raed_archive.html#90779364">where is raed</a>11ElsewheredanielSun, March 16, 2003publish
- the bluesLast night we went to see a friend play some jazz-tinged blues at a jazz club in Alexandria.<br /><br /><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/images/jazz1.jpg" border="3" style="border-color:#cccccc;" /><br />
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<img src="http://danielsjourney.com/images/jazz2.jpg" border="3" style="border-color:#cccccc;" /><br />
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<img src="http://danielsjourney.com/images/jazz3.jpg" border="3" style="border-color:#cccccc;" />10ImaginingdanielSun, March 16, 2003publish
- mirror projectI didn't know my pic was in until yesterday, when on a whim I did a search for myself. I submitted this pic <a href="http://www.danielsjourney.com/index.php?file=blog_2002_11_18_new.xml&id=17">last fall sometime</a>. <br />
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<a href="http://www.mirrorproject.com/mirror/?id=11500">number 11500</a><br /><br />9ImaginingdanielSun, March 16, 2003publish
- Shamrock FestivalToday I made it over to the Shamrock Festival to see friends <a href="http://rotoscope.com">Rotoscope</a>.<br /><br />
<a href="http://danielsjourney.com/images/shamrockfest/roto01.jpg"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/images/shamrockfest/roto01_crop.jpg" width="200" height="100" alt="roto01_crop" border="3" style="border-color:#cccccc;" /></a><br /><br />
<a href="http://danielsjourney.com/images/shamrockfest/roto02.jpg"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/images/shamrockfest/roto02_crop.jpg" width="200" height="100" alt="roto02_crop" border="3" style="border-color:#cccccc;" /></a><br /><br />
<a href="http://danielsjourney.com/images/shamrockfest/roto03.jpg"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/images/shamrockfest/roto03_crop.jpg" width="200" height="100" alt="roto03_crop" border="3" style="border-color:#cccccc;" /></a><br /><br />
<a href="http://danielsjourney.com/images/shamrockfest/roto04.jpg"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/images/shamrockfest/roto04_crop.jpg" width="200" height="100" alt="roto04_crop" border="3" style="border-color:#cccccc;" /></a><br /><br />
<img src="http://danielsjourney.com/images/shamrockfest/sumo.jpg" width="300" height="220" alt="sumo" border="3" style="border-color:#cccccc;" /><br /><br />
<img src="http://danielsjourney.com/images/shamrockfest/common_grounds.jpg" width="300" height="225" alt="common_grounds" border="3" style="border-color:#cccccc;" /><br /><br />
<img src="http://danielsjourney.com/images/shamrockfest/danville.jpg" width="300" height="205" alt="danville" border="3" style="border-color:#cccccc;" />7ImaginingdanielSat, March 15, 2003publish
- <a href="http://www.apple.com/hotnews/articles/2002/11/sinch/">apple - hot news - sinch</a> <em>the viditar --a multimedia instrument... the viditar lets him weave a wide range of custom video elements and special effects into the band's performances in real time.</em><br /><br />5LinksdanielSat, March 15, 2003publish
- <a href="http://www.back-to-iraq.com/">back to iraq 2.0</a> another reporter blogging from the middle-east<br /><br />4LinksdanielSat, March 15, 2003publish
- <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0314/p10s02-comv.html">english sans french - csmonitor.com</a><br /><br />3LinksdanielSat, March 15, 2003publish
- <a href="http://www.kevinsites.net/">kevin sites blog</a> <em>first-person account of a news correspondent's life on the front lines.</em><br /><br />2LinksdanielSat, March 15, 2003publish