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31 December 2010

 
The summer part of 2011 wasn't bad.
Overall I just slipped down in a big way, especially in the autumn.
Given my situation 2011 can only be worse as the rattletrap runaway wheeled conveyance picks up speed and zooms downhill to a big crash.
Good thing I'm brave.

Just spoke with Deborah and Richard, tried ringing Anji again but no answer, talked to SJ for a second, talked to Enj today and determined that I'd been calling the wrong number :-D

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I like old film.

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I might have something like this for shoes next, God willing. I just blew these together just now using a Haeckel print, but personalised shoes might be neat.


 

Weirdly that same records post on the 15 December that mentioned Ogden's Nut Gone Flake also mentioned the Long Winters, which I hadn't heard anything about for something like eight years until today when I was in the car returning from jin shin. If you want to hear about some long-lost anything-at-all just let me know and I'll edit that post to add it in ;-D

I'm just barely functioning so out/back was very difficult. And it was cold and very icy here, which came as rather a surprise. I wouldn't've gone out had I known.

I did finally dig out my final remaining pair of flaming shoes, which I was saving but have now started using (I said I was going to before but then didn't), an indication of giving up. The flames are embroidered onto suede. I <3 these shoes, which is why I haven't worn anything else for a million years. The worn pair are pretty beaten up.



30 December 2010

 
Farewell, Kodachrome



Kodachrome movie tests from 1922.


 
Human Age News

I'm STILL persisting with HA, which is just a simple little game, but which has much more interactivity amongst players at the medieval stage than previously. I didn't like the graphic for women and so I am a man :-D When the English language game started the mining was very unbalanced and what should've been cheap iron ingots became costly as gold, and resulting crafted items such as helmets couldn't be sold for anything like their cost. Although anyone can mine, only a smith can make ingots (I'm a smith) and so we were hot properties for marriage.

My wife Lyoko is an engineer (she's aware I'm female irl - in fact she said she usually plays as a male but accidentally became a woman in this level). We have two daughters, Sakura (a grown up graphic haha!), and Saskia (a little girl graphic). Lyoko named Sakura, and I named Saskia (after Rembrandt's wife).

Everything requires energy, which refills little by little on the hour, so travel, fighting, hunting, tending crops, and so forth (even giving a flower graphic to one's spouse graphic to increase the couple's percentage of graphic love) must be done at the right time.

I'm the mayor of the first village founded in the Egghead kingdom. It was founded by our then-queen, who handed it over to me ages back. The duties of the mayor include making sure the various roles are filled (builder, captain, town crier, etc.). The village has loads of buildings that require constant upkeep. We skirmish with other villages and gain XP. We hang out in the pub and talk smack, and I've tried to get people who have a sense of fun involved in the village. Our current king lives in the village and is a big flirt.

Because it's a graphics-only kind of game it attracts people who are interested in having a very low-stress and gentle gaming experience. There seem to be three major groups of gameplayers that I've identified: people who have stressful jobs in real life and who just want to do something distracting and low-key (i.e. nurses, paramedics), Romanians who are using the game as a way to learn the language, and people who are very religious and want to play a game with no naughty bits.

I'm not very interested in accumulating wealth graphics, so I generally just give things away or sell on the market for a reasonable amount. My graphic needs are small. The market is quite interesting, as it's more mature now and there is a use for most things we make at our trades. Trades include smith, engineer, tailor, alchemist, armourer. Anyone can mine, excavate stone, cut trees, raise crops or livestock, but to transform those into more complex things one is required to progress at one's trade. I'm near the end of my training, but it all requires very rare components now so my progress is slow, yet who cares? If I finish sooner rather than later it won't really mean anything. I'm fond of my fellow gameplayers, and although it's sort of a boring game that, in a way, is why we like it.

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29 December 2010

 

Cybernaut Molly Montale sent me links to the story of Vivian Maier, a photographer whose work has only come to light recently after her death. Unseen by any but the photographer, about 100,000 negatives of mid 20th century Chicago surfaced by accident when the unclaimed contents of a storage locker were auctioned off. Only a drop in the bucket have been scanned so far, and much winnowing needs to take place, but the trove is a real find.

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Graphic Violence

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28 December 2010

 
Possibly It's Best To Be An Only Child

When I was about five my brother was mowing with a push mower and I was being a brat asking if I could do it. There was a small slope in the garden; he said, "Here," and let go of it and I stuck my hands out to catch it and had the end of my finger chopped off.

When I was about six my brother accidentally-through-not-caring-where-his-sister-was whacked me in the head with a cricket bat. I can remember waking up in my parents' bed and looking out the window and thinking it was a different season.

When I was about six and playing with my sister, she, as an evil witch, pretended to cut me in half round the middle (where a belt would go). As an evil prop she used a British Marine's knife, sheathed - but the leather sheath stiching over the blade was gone so she did actually cut me a bit (scarred!).

When I was about eight and we were all swimming in the Pakradooni's lily pond, we had a plastic rowboat. As a joke when I was under water my brother kept me from reaching the surface until my lungs were bursting by moving the boat over me.

...etc., etc.

When E was a baby I dropped her - as I recall it I threw her up but didn't catch her.

When E was little she ran the hoover over my waist-length blonde hair as I knelt on the floor doing something, which was extremely painful. It would've been less so had she turned it off right away.

...etc., etc.

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Today

Mr Landlord came last night (I was on my beam-end - just a very draining day) and explained that the carpeteers were coming today and he was spending the night to be able to meet with them. At about 9am they hammered on my door (mistakenly), and later on a cheerful couple hammered on my door (looking for Mr LL). Just now Mr LL and the couple hammered on my door. The couple have rented the place and will start moving in right away.

I was introduced but their names went in one ear and out the other. He's a school principal and she's a school counselor at different schools, and they seem very nice. They are going to get the mail, which is superb. I haven't had regular mail since John left six months ago.


 
The first time I saw the logo for Smeet I thought it said "smest"aided by the fact that it's reminiscent of the Crest toothpaste logo.


 


/me rolls around on the floor with the giggles.

Another from The Daily What.

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Pointed out on The Daily What, subtitled "Kurt Cobain is alive and well and busking in Novosibirsk." Bwahaha! Seriously, I have always liked this song a lot and this dude does a fine cover.

Cue Candide to say how much Nirvana sucked ;-D

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27 December 2010

 
The end of the Kodachrome era arrives as the last processor in the world prepares to halt processing when it runs out of chemicals.

"Kodachrome was used to film the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Abraham Zapruder taped the assassination of President Kennedy on it, and it produced iconic National Geographic images such as Steve McCurry’s 1984 portrait of Sharbat Gula, the green-eyed Afghan girl. Even the final photolab, Dwayne’s Photo, in Parson’s, Kansas, seems to be as full of history and myth as Kodachrome film itself. The film, first created in 1935, was beloved by professional photographers because of its colour accuracy and storage longevity. The downside was how incredibly difficult it was to process – meaning anyone working in Kodachrome sent their roll of film off to one of an ever-diminishing number of labs, and experienced the added frisson of not knowing whether their pictures had worked or not until the slides or transparencies were returned."Link



26 December 2010

 
*Cue Theremin*

As we all know I get mail about two or three times a month lately - just often enough that I've just managed to get my two Netflix movies. I asked the man beneath me if he'd mind getting it, and he said he would. I said At least three times a month, and he said, I'll get it three times a week. I gave him my key.

*Mail comes!*

I twiddle my thumbs.

After a couple of weeks my landlord comes and I ask him to get it. He does, and leaves it unlocked.

*Mail! w00t!*

OK, so NYers and xmas cards and bank statements and junkmail, basically. I don't read NYers in any order or even one at a time, so I was just in the kitchen drinking a cup of tea and reading the 13th Dec issue and lo and behold, in the letters, there's a reference to Ogden's Nut Gone Flake by the Small Faces. I bought that album in 1968 and I can guarantee you I've seen no reference to it in forty years. When I referred to it in this blog on 15 December I hadn't seen the New Yorker reference. It's like an Ogden's Nut Gone Flake jamboree! Not really synchronicity perhaps - or perhaps it is. Maybe it's like the discovery recently that students who studied AFTER an exam scored higher than those who didn't study afterwards.


 


:-D


 
I've been in lots of snowstorms. I used to live in Canada. I'm quite familiar with all aspects of snow.
Except one.
I've never seen lightning in a snowstorm.

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I shot this just now. It ISN'T in black and white.


 
Diet consumed by male mice can affect gene expression in offspring

Interesting.


 


Over on the blogorums Vryl Valkyrie pointed out this video about the circa 1995 virtual world Starbright, which linked hospitalised children and gave them access to social life, learning, and fun. To me the most illustrative exchange:
Steven: And where are you right now? (meaning in real life)
Child: By the castle. (meaning inside cyberspace)

Just so Second Life is a place and should be treated as one, NOT a product.

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25 December 2010

 


Not very inspiring pictures, but oh, well.

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Ugh.

Well I didn't sleep very well Thursday night but I didn't sleep AT ALL last night :((((( It's horrid to look at the clock and see 5:57 am. Don't anyone bother me, I'm barely functional as it is.

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I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas



24 December 2010

 
Pwnage


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23 December 2010

 
Clarification

Just to explain: the reason I have a phone book on the floor is that in the past, once, I was weak with a fever and wound up on the floor for a couple of days (until rescued). Consequently I tried to put within reach anything I might need if there's a similar situation. Anything above about two feet might just as well be on the moon; also my electricity is off periodically due to the area I live in. It isn't a Luddite thing; it's just an emergency-preparedness thing.


 
Besides CEO of Linden Lab as of today, who is Rod Humble?

  • Former Sims dude
  • Seems to have a soul


 

San Francisco Rainbow over the Bay Bridge
Originally uploaded by Lisa Bettany {Mostly Lisa}

San Francisco Rainbow over the Bay Bridge




22 December 2010

 
I wanted to see what shapes people used for subdermal implants, but just glancing at Page One of the Google image search results made me feel sick.

Ugh.



 


from Laughing Squid:

"Here’s why I think you should consider giving a year-end donation to EFF: this tiny organization manages to rack up victory after victory, year after year, in the defense of your digital rights. Just this year, they succeeded in freeing your smart phone from restrictions against jailbreaking, fought back against copyright trolls shaking down individuals for alleged infringements, and helped you take better control of your privacy on Facebook. Just this month, they scored two additional major victories: they helped convince a federal court to rule that your email is protected by the 4th amendment, and they secured better protection for your cell phone location information. The EFF international team alone does the work of several organizations." --Hugh d'Andrade


 

ZeFrank's Young Me/Now Me is fun :-D


 
Those net neutrality rules...

I don't feel like I understand the impact completely - although I have read various articles and things.


 
Ever Vigilant, Sort Of

The CIA has created a taskforce to examine the Wikileaks output, naming it Wikileaks Task Force. Er, just so, just so.

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21 December 2010

 
w00ty!

I rang my brother yesterday but they weren't home - he just now rang me back. We do need to keep in a *bit* better contact, however there never feels like there's a gap. Speaking of telephones he brought up something I'd never heard before, that in Hampshire when Mummy was carrying me she had some sort of female emergency and sent Steven (6 and a halfish) to a neighbour to have her ring for help. The annecdote was to underline the emergency/important-communication-only aspect of telephone usage for us growing up. After I was born he said he rode to school with Daddy on his motorbike.

Anyway, I explained how stubborn I am to keep staggering on, and Eileen replied that Steven's the same.

Just home when the phone rang, so haven't yet removed my shoes :-D


 
Winter Solstice 2010


I was up at 7 just in case the carpet measurers come at 8am (unlikely but possible). It seemed much warmer than last night at midnight when I was shivering through the eclipse because there was no wind - it was ferocious then.


 
Molly Montale sent the link to a group of early Christmas recordings, including this one: Santa Claus Hides in the Phonograph, from 1922.


 
C-c-c-c-cold :-D

My view wasn't this good BUT SAME MOON!

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse from William Castleman on Vimeo.

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20 December 2010

 
Uh... SNOW??? In Oz... in summer???

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Yesterday
Mr Landlord came to muck out the ground floor, and came in somewhat disheartened to say he would have to replace the carpet. He asked me if I'd hand the key to carpet measurers, which I said I'd do gladly. I asked him to get my mail as I gave my key to the person below who'd kindly said he'd get it then retrieved it but once a couple of weeks ago. There was a ton, of course. I seem to average twice a month lately, which isn't very good for Netflix.
Last Night
I lay awake all night - well, up until 4am. I spent the time thinking about 3D VWs. The downstairs people were noisy but sometimes I'm not quiet, so live and let live. At least they weren't doing laundry at 1am as has been the case.
Today
I had +2% energy w00t! I made soup that Enj had sent me, with .25k pounds of organic broccoli added.
Overnight
Total lunar eclipse! Extremely cloudy with a strong gusty wind (boo!) Electric beehaving erratically. Note to Trizzities: Only go out if there is a view of the eclipse.
Tomorrow
Solstice! Carpet measurers at dawn! Jin shin at 1!
Wednesday
Becky and Tiff visiting, possibly.
Thursday
Or
Becky and Tiff visiting, possibly.


 
Mirrorworld


 
Klick's viral extravaganza:

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19 December 2010

 
My Cardboard Life: follow the bear across teh intarwebz!


 
Flickr

When Ludicorp announced Game Neverending was ending they said, "But take a look at our spiffy brand-new photo-sharing site called Flikr!"So I joined Flickr, which was Good, and so I was disheartened when stupid Yahoo bought Ludicorp. But oh well, life went on, and now it's being bruited about that Yahoo has cut the Flickr workr force and may sell it to Microsoft or someone. I may be alone in not minding Microsoft but despising Yahoo. If Yahoo were a font it might be, oh... Comic Sans (i.e. just horrible and universally despised). Microsoft would be Arial (i.e. a knock-off). AOL would be... uh... Papyrus (never greeted with a smile) or maybe Westwood (annoyingly ugly).

If I were a font which would I be? Probably one that is irritatingly unreadable, made by an amateur, and rarely used. Becross? Kaela? Boron?

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Superior, Speed Fly from Marshall Miller on Vimeo.



Going down a mountain quickly.

"Mount Superior" seems like a lousy name for a mountain. So many mountains seem to have silly names - like north of me "Mount Olympus" which was so named in the late 1700s.

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Lighthouse Encased in Ice

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18 December 2010

 

Fake newspaper clipping I made when Emma Metropolitan gave her reading at the bookshop and - wasn't it Hippip (who wanted to started a gossip magazine name SLander?) who called her out and started a row? I missed the streaming video completely as it wasn't working for me, but he was seated there the entire time so one presumes it was streamed.

"Vixen Blues" isn't quite the nice small-town girl story the town expects!


 
Enjah's video of her Second Life made me want to make a list of some of the overlapping chapters in my Second Life - and I'm sure I'll forget some but here goes (not really in order but TRYING to be in order the started):

  • Making clothes for DarkLife
  • Making clothes for SimCast
  • Involved with Elf Clan since it began
  • Making clothes and selling them
  • The Photography Studio of Grignano (photography contests every month-ish for 3 or 4 years - entrants had to use the backdrops and sometimes early on I had people stay in the studio ALL NIGHT)
  • From the Shadows play (Enj, Ida, Luc, Vlad acted, Enj wrote it, I directed and made sets - we won the first prize at the New Globe MOU challenge)
  • Combat Cards game dev with Doc
  • First big machinima I Heart Mutants (with Enj, Ida, Theo acting we won the Fox Atomic first prize)
  • Virtual Parks and Rec - Higbee's brief offshoot of his longtime SL parks project
  • The Grignano Broadcasting Company (video news with Enj and Ida as reporters)
  • The Show Must Go On - variety show for several seasons
  • Did machinima for various performance arts groups
  • Did tons of machinima
  • Built giant car building for Ask Patty then involved with Pontiac's Motorati
  • Built sim for Motorability
  • Alonso's brief video career - jokes and reviews
  • DUCKS
And other things but I'm tired and need to phlop.


 


*somewhat confused*

Errr... OK.

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Silver cybersurfer Molly sent this url. I only saw Cap'n Beefheart once, circa 1970, and I don't really remember much due to the way thingas were at the time. He was a unique personality.

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17 December 2010

 


Sorry my blog is so bitty - I'm just not capable of doing anything much.

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Vikings tripping in the New World
"Back off!"

Not unenjoyable if you like grit (but there should've been steam from the entrails), this film is diminished by its sense of its own importance. Some attractive shots. Violent-ish but not the kind that bothers me - YMMV. Raises portentiousness to 11 at minute one and remains there all the way through.*

* It reminded me of Fight Club, at which I laughed all the way through. FC seemed like it was a distillation of manly-man wannabee pipe dreams that revealed more than the adherents bargained for, i.e. it was ridiculous and so are they revealed to be.

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Word Lens - augmented reality translation app for the iPhone.

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16 December 2010

 

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Luceh sent this url with her Christmas greeting:

Imagine from PlayingForChangeFoundation on Vimeo.




15 December 2010

 
Children's amazing furniture at auction.


 

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Going Postal

A U.S. Postal Service carrier said he felt bad and stupid after being arrested for delivering mail to a law firm while buck naked.
orly?
David A. Goodman, 52, said he was only trying to cheer up a 21-year-old female employee of the law firm who had "seemed to be stressed out."
I wuz just trying to halp!
The police report states he admitted making the naked mail delivery and said he was only trying to cheer up the woman and make her laugh.
It was a pubic service!
"He stated that he took off his clothes, laid them next to the doorway and knocked on the door," the report says.
OK
"After (the woman) let him in, he could immediately see that he had upset her and immediately felt bad and stupid. He apologized, left the office and got dressed," the report states.
I wonder why.
Goodman told officers the woman had seemed stressed out and had a lot going on with school and work.
And afterwards? Was she all better?


 
Records

I believe the first album I ever bought was Help, and it cost five dollars. I don't remember where I got it, but a bit later I frequented little record shops that sold all kinds of things including bootleg albums. I had all kinds of bootleg albums, but alas, records at that time were frequently stolen. I think I *might* still have a few ordinary albums from that era - like Raw Blues, a John Mayall production.

When I got married I took all my records and sold them, being told it was quite a nice collection. The only one that stands out in my mind (only because of the super-annoying cover which was multiple joined and folded-together round bits) is Ogden's Nut Gone Flake.

I was never interested in tapes; I went from records to CDs. But it was a facinating time, the tape period, because EVERYWHERE along the road were billows of brown tape and the wind blew clumps of tangled tape like tumbleweeds, which caught on sign posts. It was ENDLESSLY FACINATING to me.

After my husband gave me a CD player for xmas 1988 or 9 or maybe 87 I just bought CDs, mainly from either the bands themselves at shows or from small CD shops. Then I started buying CDs online from funny indie labels like Barsuk. Then I stopped buying CDs at all and just wandered around listening to various bits and pieces on the internet.

Except for opera CDs and a few things like Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus I really don't play anything anymore, and the dopey CDs are in various points in the house gathering dust. I decided I'd get rid of them if I can do it, and tossed some into a little box just now. I'd wager it's about what anyone has from that time period (the last ones I bought were AGES ago - the Long Winters was among the last I think). I was trying to divide (just the small group that fit in the box) into bands I'd seen and bands I hadn't, but there's a third category, bands I might've seen but I can't remember for sure.

For instance, seen:
Gas Huffer
Rev Horton Heat
Dandy Warhols
Butthole Surfers
Screaming Trees
Dub Narcotic Sound System
Six Finger Satellite
Mudhoney
For instance, not seen:
Pearl Jam
White Town
Meat Puppets
Skinny Puppy
Stone Roses
Nirvana
Filter
Everclear
Green Day

Have I seen Southern Culture On the Skids? Not sure. Quasi? Hemi Cuda? Dunno.

If I try to remove CDs incrementally I *might* be able to accomplish it. Mr Monster asked me if I'd saved all the contents on my pewter, but if I haven't played them in eight years would that make sense? I don't really care anymore, anyway.



14 December 2010

 
OK, but what about breaks?

ROME — An Italian hospital director sent a memo to doctors and nurses asking them not to snort cocaine while on duty, the ANSA news agency reported.

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Windy

There was a big windstorm last night - not so much near me, but regionally. Mr Landlord rang me up this morning to see how we'd fared. A tree fell into his next-door's house and it was on the news, he said, so he'd expected us to've lost power (we lose power at the drop of a hat). Although it was flickering in a threatening way it never went out, strangely, however today the wind has been rather unpredictably gusty so it has another chance to wreak havoc.

I suppose I should make sure the roads are open before I leave today.

Record Report
"A record high temperature of 57 degrees was set at Seattle WA WFO
yesterday. This breaks the old record of 55 set in 2004."

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More of the lake outside the window.

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Slip-Sliding Away

"Rainfall of 2 to 5 inches over western Washington lowlands and up
to 10 inches over the mountains from the storm this last weekend has
resulted in high levels of soil moisture around western
Washington. This amount of rain will put extra pressure on soil
instability leading to an increased risk of landslides. The
elevated risk will persist over the next day or two.

As of early this afternoon... 29 landslides from this storm have
been reported in western Washington. 17 landslides have impacted
city or County roads... 7 have impacted highways... 3 impacted
railways... 2 impacted homes... and 2 impacted powerlines.

Cumulative rainfall over the last three weeks have increased soil
wetness to the point where they are above the USGS landslide
index. When cumulative rainfall over the previous three days and
previous eighteen days combine to exceed the USGS landslide
cumulative threshold index... rainfall induced landslides are
possible during intense rainfall or when rainfall amounts exceed
two inches in 24 hours. A diminishing risk of landslides will
continue for several days after the rain ends."
-Special Weather Statement




13 December 2010

 


Mary and Max is a stop-motion film about penpals. I enjoyed it.

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Mine's Profoundly Boring
Everyone was doing it so I jumped off the cliff too, but it's boring.
It took Pummelvision ALL DAY to make it.



Here's Enjah's with lovely photos:


And HeadBurro's:



Kumi started us on the road to Pummelvision perdition:

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Ukraine set to open Chernobyl as a tourist attraction in 2011, "Hopes" to finish building a new shell for the exploded reactor by 2015 that won't leak radiation as the current one does.

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12 December 2010

 

2007-0001-0016
Originally uploaded by smadness



Bokeh

DIY by following this tutorial or read this conversation.


 
A lot of rather extreme weather around the world at the moment, it seems.

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MakerBot has started selling the 3d printers we've been watching for years - ~$1k for a Thing-O-Matic.

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11 December 2010

 


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I wanted something to fill my brain and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo did that perfectly. A harsh thriller of impeccable acting and plotting as intricate as it is distasteful, the Swedish title translates as Men Who Hate Women and they ain't kidding.

I did want to know why she didn't do something, though. Why not? All those years, all those lives.

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Pineapple Express

There's a Pineapple Express weather system (from the Hawaiian Islands) here at the moment which means a lot of rain and warmth. All the rivers have flood warnings and it will probably be in the 50s F. It hasn't really started at Summit Lake yet although it's been raining all day.

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10 December 2010

 

Pong

Last week I was thinking about how people now probably couldn't even abide, smell-wise, people from the Fifties, let alone the 1700s. That sparked a conversation with Candide that ran from strigils to dress shields, and made me think of Doctor Panto Fogo, a memoir I read in the Sixties (if you've read it you know why). My 'rents had literally thousands of good books and our outings revolved around used bookshops often. A lot of the ones I remember vividly were memoirs or biographies, like Dr PF, Guerilla Wife, Return of the Tiger, The Girl With the Swansdown Seat, Time I Was Dead and bazillions of others including Pepys and Boswell, which are all worth digging out and reading today if you get the chance.

The difference is due to washing/laundry habits, woolen or otherwise less-washable clothing, lack of antiperspirants, etc. Women wore "dress shields" which were crescent-shaped things in their armpits. Some people used deodorant and some didn't but of course they still sweated regardless and some are naturally more sweaty/smelly than others - nerves, diet, and so forth.
If everyone is smelly no one smells it - it becomes the baseline so we've raised ourselves up so now things need to be smell-less to be considered normal. Lucia has a great poem about the body as a leaky vessel, which circumstance increases with disease.

Today, thinking about the Fragrance issue it occured to me that the recent semi-serious purported time traveller photos, if genuine, would feature a nose-muffling scarf or nose-cone or other Pong Inhibitor. Until such a time as a photo surfaces of a time traveller with a proboscis swaddled in gauze or such it's quite obviously NOT a time traveller at all, however much we'd like it to be so.

And speaking of Lucia, she's won more awards and leaves tomorrow to give readings in D.C. I ran into Jim today, which is how I know, then just now spoke on the telephone with Lucia.


 


Morning Benders - Excuses



09 December 2010

 


The Leningrad Cowboys always cheer me up.


 
MOCA mural offends someone and gets painted over before it's even dry.


 
BBC shows Nazi rally instead of weather

"Cold temperatures tonight with wind from the northwest and a chance of Godwin."


 
Philanthropy

If multi-billionaires decide to "give" away money rest assured they are not losing anything.
For instance, I consider Monsanto in the top tier of evil-doers.
The Gates Foundation is in bed with Monsanto.
If multi-billionaires cared about humanity they certainly missed plenty of opportunities on their way to power; in other words, the people who care about the quality of life on earth for all creatures including Man never become multi-billionaires as they pay their workers decently, and do their philanthropy on the way up.
Filthy rich people should be deeply ashamed.


 

Woolley Says Financial Industry Is Too Large, `Unstable'
Uploaded by Bloomberg. - News videos hot off the press.

Not new, but I hadn't seen it.


 
Eat the Rich

The evil-doers gain the support of the clueless by feeding them a few lies, which makes it very hard to fight with the only strength ordinary people have - solidarity. The power they use to retaliate is disproportionate to anything we can muster until we act as one.


 
The Big Picture has photographs from a sulpher mine today.
Pointed out by Candide.

I wonder what the life expectancy is for sulpher miners.

With all the trouble in my life I still have things better than 99% of all humans who live now or have ever lived.


 


WikiWecaps Wun

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08 December 2010

 


Harmless Child's Play

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Maps

Yesterday morning I fired up gmail and there was a kneemail that said YOU are eligible for a FREE Chrome Netbook! I thought it was analagous to Nigerian prince missives so reported it as spam. Then it turned out it wasn't spam so I dragged it out and filled in the form. In the spirit of fun I made a video response that took me at least ten minutes and doesn't say anything much, but at least it got finished even if it isn't good. I did notice that so far it's the only video response from a non-male.

It would be awesomely interesting and kewl but so unlikely I'm going to stop thinking about it now.

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Thirty years ago, before information spread easily and freely, a reporter phoned in the story of John Lennon's murder.Link



07 December 2010

 
Nuit Blanche

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Club Fight*

Last week I had the llama song stuck in my head for several days. It was awful. It was so bad that one morning I woke up with Ombra mai fu playing in my head and thought, "Yay! The llama song is gone!" Whereupon it commenced forthwith. D'oh. It's gone now, thank heavens.

Obviously the llama song could best Ombra mai fu in a club fight.

That reminds me of the Helvetica v Arial fight. We** should make a website where one can plug in two opponents and have them fight, with the result calculated by an assessment of Google results and tweets and so forth.

* The first rule of Club Fight is you never talk about Fight Club.
**"We" has no meaning in this context.



06 December 2010

 
*surfs around for a while*

I don't remember Jack ever being "a hero and a legend" to SL customers. That seems like hyperbole to me. Surely I'd've known if it were true in any degree at all. I think perhaps Philip fills that spot with some people, although there is no across-the-board thinking for us. Some feel that way about Torley. Others feel the opposite about Philip and Torley. Jack always seemed highly skilled at implementing whatever it was he wanted to get done, but what he was doing never seemed like it had much to do with making customers happy.

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From Aviary's blog - Real-Life Photo Editing



05 December 2010

 
2Dai

My niece found me on Facebug today, a place I rarely dally although I've been there for ages. I'd plugged in HER name and not come up with anything, but she finally looked for Osprey and sent me a friend request so we chatted until she was called away.

I was truly good for absolutely nothing (say it again) today. I did clean the kitchen - not that it was very dirty, though. I shot some very crooked video. I should ask Lucia if she's using my tripod or would mind me taking it back. I'm using an itsy bitsy tripod + Mildred's sculpture stand (after all these years I finally have a use for it) but its top is warped and the tripod is less than square so I have difficulty getting thing straight.

Mr Downstairs kindly fetched my mail, which turned out to be 75% mail for people other than me, and catalogues. Looking at the mail I saw the name that was on the UPS "urgent letter" last week that I told them was no one in the house or known to me (so they are picking it up tomorrow), so that must be Jess's boyfiend. I'd say "Oops" except A) I didn't know his name, B) He doesn't live here now and I don't know where he is, and C) *shrugs* He never lived here officially.

I ate some soup and some toast and some yoghurt at about 8:30. I'm not going to work on my project for Bmp today as I'm too flopsy bunny.


 

Duck-On-A-Bike News

From Ilianexsi:

"For various reasons, I was up in the wee hours of the morning today... I was watching the last ten minutes or so of some crazy movie, I think it was called Blown Away?

Anyway, in the scene I was watching, Jeff Bridges was in a car, trying to disconnect a bomb while his wife drove wildly around. He was getting under the dashboard and trying to disconnect the device that hooked the bomb up to the car's wiring.

So, he finally found the device in question, and what was it? That's right, a DUCK ON A BIKE!! Exact same one. The eyes glowed red and the propeller spun... it was crazy to see one of those ducks in a movie. :D"

Explantory note for Topher: Luceh told a story about how she uses the duck-on-a-bike wind-up toy as an all-purpose gift, and so to surprise her on her birthday I made a duck avatar in Second Life and everyone got together and sprang out at her (related video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeIEKdnEASs). We then had a few quackmobs and we are due for another soon.
Fake movie trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4nVEbsjuGo
At Bay City: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svrSPufW0IY

Is that a duck??? Looks like it to me!

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04 December 2010

 
A Guided Tour of Computing History

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The King of Kong is an engrossing look at video game competition.

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Great-niece and great-nephew in Brisbane

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Prims Are Scary!

The Arctic Circle from Kevin Parry on Vimeo.



From Candide

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CGI news is always good for a laugh. I love the "jump the shark" reference.

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03 December 2010

 


Molly sent me the link to this video just now.

The last time I saw the Aurora Borealis was one summer when I was staying at a house by the Pacific Ocean and had driven in to Olympia to attend a meeting. Driving back, late at night, I was caught by surprise when the sky erupted into shimmering waves of the Aurora Borealis. It wasn't as intense as in this video but was amazing nonetheless. I pulled off to the side of the road and watched.

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02 December 2010

 
Steampunk Rickroll

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Candide sent me this link:

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A moment ago at Summit Lake

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01 December 2010

 

Merry Christmas!


 
This has been World AIDS Day.
It makes me think of long ago in SL making the AIDS quilt with Olmy. I'm sure wherever he is his activism is directed towards alleviating the suffering of those afflicted with HIV/AIDS. We've come a long way, yet there is further to go.


 
In the sequel they'll get plastic surgery:



Where are the zombies, though?

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1 December 2010
A beautiful day
I'm off to la dentista later.

Update: We all lolled a lot at my dental office as usual. Someone came running up while I was in Thew Chair and gabe me a Scooby Doo sticker. They also gave me a pen with a tuft of fabric flowers floral-taped to it, toothpaste, and some weird teef pokers with tiny bristles on them. Me: Better than last time or worse? Jill: Oh, same as always. Upon arrival I said what a beautiful morning it had been but had turned grey and wintry and they scarcely believed me - apparently it was only nice chez moi.

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More than half a century ago in Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat as Jim Crow laws would have had her do. A stellar act of bravery.

 

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I want to ask for thoughts about improving the world -- what do people need? How can things be organised?