He plays the drums as a meditation<img src="files/2005/05/DSC_0003.jpg" align="right" />He plays the drums as a meditation. The joy that spreads across his face as he plays, striking the skins harder and harder, the sound of the beat permeating that place, it beams from his eyes and his smile like a lamp on a hill. Then the guitars come in, surrounding him in a peace-inducing flurry. The sounds of the cymbals are a chorus no angels have ever produced, the kick drum fire and brimstone from the bully pulpit. And he plays and plays, still wanting more, laughing harder than a Torontian pentacostal, transcending for those precious moments, worshiping loudly at the altar of the almighty.28004156FictionDaniel2005-05-28T12:41:40stagenot sure what i'm saying hereI just read <a href="http://boxesandarrows.com/archives/cognitive_psychology_ia_from_theory_to_practice.php">this article</a> from August 11, 2003 that I printed out to read on March 14, 2004. This is my life. The rest of this post shall be devoted to pictures of my dog, who is teaching me new things everyday. <img src="files/2005/05/pav3.jpg" /> This dog's name is <a href="http://leeharveys.com/pages/dogday.html">Ruby and she's the house dog</a> at <a href="http://leeharveys.com/">Lee Harvey's</a>. She wasn't allowed to play with the other dogs for a couple weeks because she bit one a while back. They let her back out the other week, when Pavlov was the only other dog there as of yet. They played like they'd known each other forever and she even let Pavlov kick her ass a time or two. <img src="files/2005/05/pav4.jpg" /> Discovering the joys of sticking one's head out of the window of a car moving at a high rate of speed. <img src="files/2005/05/pav6.jpg" /> With his best friend Perlican. Butt-In-Your-Face: a classic dog move. <img src="files/2005/05/pav7.jpg" /> CRAZY DOG!!22015422MinutiaDaniel2005-05-22T01:34:16stagevignettes<img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/daniel103_smal.jpg" alt="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/daniel103_smal.jpg" title="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/daniel103_smal.jpg"> i wonder if we're all simply trying to be ourselves...and events and other people somehow impinge on that ability, in either constructive or deconstructive challenges to our identities. we all want to be accepted for who we are, but be it an unhappy partner, a rejection, the lack of accomplishment in our work environment, deceit, whatever the thing/s may be, they challenge that identity and in turn impede that attempt to simply be ourselves. <img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/daniel104_smal.jpg" alt="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/daniel104_smal.jpg" title="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/daniel104_smal.jpg"> <img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/daniel105_smal.jpg" alt="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/daniel105_smal.jpg" title="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/daniel105_smal.jpg"> we are drawn to people who reinforce that identity and groups that are homogeneous primarily in their ideals -- xians, hipsters, goths, punks, shoegazers, skaters, painters, activists, thieves, murderers. <img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/daniel114_smal.jpg" alt="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/daniel114_smal.jpg" title="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/daniel114_smal.jpg"> Hal and I hung out for a little bit the other night. You can read his account <a href="http://halsamples.com/blog/index.php?id=202">here</a>. <img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/daniel128_smal.jpg" alt="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/daniel128_smal.jpg" title="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/daniel128_smal.jpg"> Hal pretty much just threw the camera at me and for a few minutes I had a blast framing the world through a lens again. I have <a href="http://www.danielsjourney.com/blog/index.php?file=2005_02.xml&id=03023119">jettisoned</a> many things for the sake of mere survival and <a href="http://integrationresearch.org">attempts to change the world</a> and attempts (mostly failures) to <a href="http://www.danielsjourney.com/blog/index.php?file=2005_01.xml&id=16043030">be smart</a>. I realized snapping a few shots that night that I really miss that form of visual interpretation and communication. Capturing the light and the darkness. <img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/laugh_thumb.jpg" alt="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/laugh_thumb.jpg" title="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/laugh_thumb.jpg"> <a href="http://www.43things.com/entries/view/27258#comments">#</a> 21144536ImaginingDaniel2005-05-21T02:44:27stageTonight: Maktub and Salim Nourallah at the Gypsy Tea RoomIn a welcome relief from real life, there is a great show tonight at the <a href="http://gypsytearoom.com">Gypsy Tea Room</a>. Three great reasons to attend: 1. <a href="http://salimnourallah.com/">Salim Nourallah</a> is an amazing musician and local legend. 2. <a href="http://maktub.com/">Maktub</a>, from Seattle, includes <a href="http://www.danielspils.com/">Daniel Spils</a>, part of the <a href="http://robotcoop.com/">Robot Co-op</a>, makers of <a href="http://43things.com">43 Things</a>, and <a href="http://www.43things.com/people/progress/daniel/131017">one of his goals is to meet 43 Things users while on tour</a>. 3. It's <a href="http://www.myspace.com/ryanjewell">Ryan</a>'s birthday / going away party. Ryan runs a lot of the show at both <a href="http://landmarktheaters.com/Market/Dallas/Dallas_Frameset.htm">Landmark Theaters</a> here in Dallas and from what I understand he's moving to Chicago to open a new Landmark there. Update: So it turns out <a href="http://www.maktub.com">Maktub</a> is really good. See this band whenever you have the chance. Bad turnout tonight in Dallas but they still rocked for at least an hour and a half...great tunes, great mix, great stage presence...they have it all. I also was able to talk to Daniel Spils before and after the show...until the GTR people kicked everyone out at 12:45...WTF? <img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/maktub1.jpg" /> <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/maktub2.jpg" />2 <a href="http://www.43things.com/entries/view/27258#comments">#</a> <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/maktub3.jpg" />3</a>19143408LocalDaniel2005-05-19T02:13:00stageHalls of the Machine at IR GalleryJust posted some images from this weekend's Halls of the Machine concerts at IR Gallery: <a href="http://www.integrationresearch.org/gallery/archives/2005/05/halls_of_the_machine_sound_installation_may_14_images.html">night 1</a> and <a href="http://www.integrationresearch.org/gallery/archives/2005/05/halls_of_the_machine_sound_installation_may_15_images.html">night 2</a> (all images by Sarah Jane Semrad). <img src="http://integrationresearch.org/gallery/archives/hotm_images/hotm_022.JPG" />16021652ImaginingDaniel2005-05-16T02:15:28stage...<img alt="" src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/07/closed.jpg" /> <img alt="" src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/10/DSCN1265.jpg" /> <img alt="" src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2004/06/DSCN2728_thm.jpg" /> <img alt="" src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/images/2004_01/london/hh/london_04_01_45.jpg" /> <img alt="" src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/images/2004_01/london/nero/london_04_01_32.jpg" /> <a href="http://zed.cbc.ca/go?POS=5&CONTENT_ID=9968&c=contentPage&FILTER_KEY=_category%20children%20v3_786178627880785178647863786578667867786878697870787178827872787478757873787678777878787978837859">#</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679781552/qid=1116147524/sr=2-4/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_4/103-5659850-4759052">#</a> <a href="http://www.thislife.org/pages/descriptions/98/114.html">#</a> <a href="http://carissabyers.blogspot.com/2005/05/if-ever-camera-phone-was-in-need.html">#</a> <a href="http://blogs.salon.com/0001772/2005/05/12.html#a493">#</a>15140055ImaginingDaniel2005-05-15T02:00:33stageBilly was the smartest, best looking, loneliest gay man parking his car on the street in front of the club at that moment<img src="files/2005/05/DSCN2529.jpg" align="right" />Billy was the smartest, best looking, loneliest gay man parking his car on the street in front of the club at that moment. He crawled out of the driver's side door, a passing dog sniffed his foot, the person the dog was walking lit a cigarette. There was no car behind him, only the entry for the club parking lot, but for some reason Billy's OCD kicked in and he felt sure that someone had just tapped his back bumper. He walked around the car and looked carefully, but failed to find a mark. This club was familiar with Billy. And his usual seat was free. The club was always too big now, a few people gathered in small green bunches around the tree after harvest. The walls practically cried for their headier days, and Billy cried with them into his gin. The place had slowly morphed into a gay club. They still had their hip hop night, which attracted many black men spewing testosterone, as anxious to prove their heterosexuality as a redneck in east Texas. But most nights it was the same crowd. The same crowd of Billies. He knew that he would go home with one of them. He knew that he would wake up the next morning just as lonely. He knew that he would return soon enough. It was a never ending downward spiral—from where you are, it always looks like where you started from, and always seems to be the same distance to the bottom. Billy straightened from his staring-at-his-bumper stance and walked towards the front door. Then the gunshots began. One, disbelief. Two, registration. Three and Billy's heart picked up about 75 beats and a single drop of sweat popped out of every single pore on his body. Muscles he never knew existed tightened fiercely. Muscles deep inside of him. And Billy thought he was pretty familiar with that deep inside of him. Four and an intense burning sensation commenced upon his upper arm. His entire body instinctually flinched him to the side opposite, landing him awkwardly upon a car's passenger door. He grabbed at his arm and found a black hole in the sleeve of his oh-so-fashionable shirt...and a divot of red flesh left below it, as if someone had had at him with a very sharp, small <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=kitchen&field-keywords=mellon%252520baller&field-browse=284507&search-type=ss&bq=1&store-name=kitchen/ref=xs_ap_l_xgl79/103-5659850-4759052">melon baller</a>. The pain demanded his focus for approximately two additional seconds, after which a young, skinny, disheveled black man went running by, trailed after by a new flurry of bullets, headed every possible direction but straight ahead. This was fortunate for the speeding target of a man, who stumble-ran frantically down the sidewalk. The shooter, a dirty old white man with a tan <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001VGDUE/sr=1-1/qid=1116049035/ref=sr_1_1/103-5659850-4759052?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=1036682&s=apparel&v=glance">Mackenzie hat</a> and matching tan trench coat, long white hair, and a scraggly white beard walked behind, arms moving aimlessly, a pistol in each hand, fingers jerking back on the trigger at odd intervals. As he passed Billy the noise from the guns rang like a million prayer bells, echoing between the wall of the club and the cars parked alongside. Once his prey disappeared around the next corner, the strange gunman stopped shooting and ran down the street in pursuit. By the time he had rounded the corner, Billy could hear police sirens approaching. Billy climbed to his feet and shuffled to his car. Moving his hand away from his arm, he noticed he wasn't bleeding very much—a few solitary drops made their way along two trails down his arm and off his elbow. He opened his door, briefly anxious when he realized he had forgotten to lock his doors, climbed in with a soft grunt, jammed the keys in the ignition and twisted his wrist. And that is the end of the story. Upon returning home, Billy threw away his shirt, washed his wound with antimicrobial soap left over from his piercing, <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=glob">glob</a>bed on some Neosporin, shoved a cotton ball into it, and wrapped his arm in gauze. Many weeks later it became a thick, impressive scar. But Billy returned to that club before the gauze came off, nose in his drink, waiting for another lonely Billy to stand next to him, ordering a drink or two, glancing down, Billy looking up, the world in his eyes. <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/03/leeharveys_3.jpg"><img src="files/2005/05/Image(38).jpg" /></a>14002717FictionDaniel2005-05-14T12:26:37stageholy ajax batman<a href="http://del.icio.us/dealingwith/ajax"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/img_home_visual_3.jpg" /> that list</a> will grow (and i'm being selective) none of the rest of this has to do with ajax: i can't believe it's thursday i can't believe it's may i <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/art/installations/confessional/refer/refer.html">am getting nailed</a> by google image search, and i couldn't be sure all the hits were from there, so i built <a href="http://danielsjourney.com/design/code/refer/">a really (really) simple referrer script</a> i have a ton of these kind of things but they're hard to package ... this one was so small that it was easy enough to12014014DesignDaniel2005-05-12T01:39:20stagenew stuff out therefrustrated I took a break and found some good stuff. <a href="http://www.asthmatickitty.com/more.php?id=14_0_1_0_M"><img src="http://www.asthmatickitty.com/image/sufjan_cheerleaders.jpg" style="margin:1px;" align="left" /></a> <a href="http://www.asthmatickitty.com/music/hhc_thy.html"><img src="http://www.asthmatickitty.com/image/covers/hhc_thyword.jpg" style="margin:1px;" /></a> mp3 links etc. at <a href="http://del.icio.us/dealingwith/music">del.icio.us/dealingwith/music</a>. Thanks to those hosting these images.09021428MusicDaniel2005-05-09T01:58:46stageOn Tags and Taxonomies<img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/050424_delicious.gif" style="border:0px;" align="left" /> This is going to be very notish-y for the time being. This is for me ATM. More work than comment to be done ATM, particularly in this area. <a href="http://del.icio.us/dealingwith/tags">My del.icio.us links tagged "tags"</a>. My primary experience with tags has been the recent creation of a <a href="http://del.icio.us/">del.icio.us</a> account, done for just that purpose. Plusses: <ul> <li>All the usual hype about tags and bottom-up metadata creation/categorization/data structuring/architecting and the social effects blah blah blah.</li> <li>Provides the positive reinforcement of making it easier to tag the more I tag.</li> <li>The click-to-add-tag and the recommended tags.</li> <li>The <a href="http://dietrich.ganx4.com/foxylicious/">Foxylicious</a> Firefox plugin.</li> <li>Proper/smart use of RSS 1.0 (RDF) as the delicious RSS format (<a href="http://del.icio.us/rss/dealingwith">example</a>).</li> </ul> Wants (del. specific): <ul> <li>Click-to-add-tag in edit, from any tagword on page.</li> <li>"Tag with same tags as {blank} link."</li> <li>More sorts (of my own links)...particularly by popularity, with some kind of cross reference to the other tags ppl have used for that link.</li> <li>A barebones, *documented* API. (REST/SOAP/DONTGIVEACRAP.) (Although is this necessary with RSS?)</li> <li>Tag consolidation. (Much like <a href="http://43things.com">43Things</a>' "This goal is like {blank}," except just within my own darn links, which are outnumbered by tags.</li> <li>More speed. It's slow. Product of centralized service?</li> </ul> Problems/Thoughts (more gen): <ul> <li>The word <a href="http://google.com/search?q=tags">tag</a>.</li> <li>Tags == Keywords. WTF is the big dealio?</li> <li><a href="http://www.zeldman.com/daily/0505a.shtml">Much of what is discussed in this Zeldman article</a> and its <a href="http://apartness.blogspot.com/2005/05/remove-forebrain-and-serve.html">resultant comments</a>. From the latter. A soundbyte: <blockquote>We have such an information overload these days, that we are currently looking for more and more ways to cut the data. </blockquote> And a thread: <blockquote>I think successful navigation in some instances can be developed using both conventional and unconventional systems. So if flikr (for example) introduced a flag called "Location" and this was a proper parent child structure, users could add a location and all it's parents by just adding <blockquote>Fulham (which knows it's in London which knows it's in the UK). </blockquote> This could then be overlaid with a tag cloud of Bar or Club or Football and by combining both navigation styles (and further adding in mined data (e.g search results) you could give people the best of both worlds? </blockquote> <blockquote>I agree that the parent-child relationship loses it's meaning when the child takes on more meaning than the parent. The thing is, to some people, 8 mile would be more important than Michigan, so would that be considered a parent of the state? Is this a relative thing? If a place is considered logically...every tag would be "Earth". I think I'm delving deeper than I wanted to here. There should be a tag structure that relates to parent-child relationships, which would give the same weight to all levels. </blockquote> <blockquote>Can we scroll back a little please - if you could apply 'tags' to a printed book how would you do it? Probably with postit notes sticking out or something, right? Little flags of interest. Everyone who comes along adds their own postit and soon you can't close the book, but if you look closely it's only certain pages that are "postit tagged" heavily. Switching back online, is this any different? Pickup a book, with no 'tag's. What do you have. A title that tells you you have the correct book, a table of contents that tells you the structure of the book and where each major section starts. Page numbers so you can find those sections. Possibly an index at the back with "tags" linked to page numbers. Cross references within the book.</blockquote> <blockquote>Where I think your problem with tag clouds begins is the fact that "popularity" is about as far as tags (and also link-trackers) have come in terms of their sophistication. When tag clouds are sliced yet again -- by time, another tag or two, a keyword, an author -- they start showing their power. ...Cutting the data in this way can turn a simple popularity cloud into a fantastic data mining technique. The relationships between the tags are what's important, not so much the tags themselves -- in this way they're just a means to a greater end. If, of course, someone's willing to take them to the next level. </blockquote> Ok I don't have any more time to parse those comments.</li> <li><a href="http://www.subtraction.com/archives/2005/0424_all_you_can_.php">Centralized services that hold my data</a>. The centralized service should hold only the social elements. Back to an API; I want to post to my SWIM "links" and THEN have it post to my delicious links, not the other way around.</li> </ul> Our thoughts over the course of a number of weeks in regards to <a href="http://underde.com/swim">SWIM</a>* and tags has been that there needs to be some way of graduating from keywords to tags to taxonomy. I say again: <blockquote style="text-align: center;">Taxonomies ^ Tags ^ (mined?) Keywords</blockquote> Later: screengrab or spec of such a system in SWIM. * which has always favored more "strict" hierarchy/taxonomy, despite trying to solve the SAME EXACT problems those proponents of tags are trying to solve Some kind of P2P/XFN/trackback system for tags, so that the social effects of tags are not centralized, but rather spread out and trusted.04153233DesignDaniel2005-05-04T03:32:12stageimages from the weekendAll these shots from <a href="http://www.sarahjanesemrad.com/blog/000499.html">SJS's new D70</a>. <a href="http://www.sarahjanesemrad.com/blog/000500.html"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/DSC_0017.JPG" alt="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/DSC_0017.JPG" title="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/DSC_0017.JPG" /></a> <a href="http://blog.kevintodora.com/"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/DSC_0033.JPG" alt="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/DSC_0033.JPG" title="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/DSC_0033.JPG" /></a> <img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/DSC_0172.jpg" alt="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/DSC_0172.jpg" title="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/DSC_0172.jpg" /> <img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/DSC_0184.jpg" alt="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/DSC_0184.jpg" title="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/05/DSC_0184.jpg" />02145424ImaginingDaniel2005-05-02T02:47:39stagea man can dream, can't he?<img src="files/2005/04/gsa_2u_rtside.jpg" /> Under[de] presents The <a href="http://underde.com/swim">SWIM</a> Appliance: <blockquote>The SWIM Appliance provides all of the capabilities of SWIM in a hardware appliance designed for minimum administration and maximum security. No matter what your company's size, you can have the power of SWIM on your corporate intranet and public websites. The SWIM Appliance connects your employees, partners and customers to the information they need. Plug it in to your network, behind your firewall, and you're ready to go. No software installation is required. The SWIM Appliance also opens tin cans and makes a mean espresso.</blockquote> <a href="http://www.socialtext.com/products/appliance/" title="completely plagiarized">#</a> <a href="http://www.google.com/services/" title="completely plagiarized">#</a>01110129FictionDaniel2005-05-01T10:51:45stagenonlin<a href="http://nonlinear.blogspot.com"><img src="http://danielsjourney.com/blog/files/2005/02/nonlinear.jpg" /></a> Blogged a lot on <a href="http://nonlinear.blogspot.com">nonlinear</a> yesterday.01103302ElsewhereDaniel2005-05-01T10:32:27stage