Watched Hollywood fluff, Hostage starring Bruce Willis last night. It is worth it for the openng credits which totally rock. Sexy title sequence. The movie was super slick and very tense and I enjouyed every tense moment of the story. The house where all the action takes place is stunning, the camera work is fantastic as was the editing and the music so complelling. If you feel like an escape movie, some chasing scenes and tension, this is your puppy.
Had a major homesick feeling today. Annual skating show in Toronto aired today, with host Kurt Browning and the awesome fun Canadian band, Bare Naked Ladies. I got a little homesick. Watched the whole thing wrapped in a blanket drinking tea. You're not really Canadian unless you have a twinkle in yer eye when it comes to skating. The Great Canadian Tripod can be seen far and wide...it starts from 2yrs old on skates with a hockey stick. Bare Naked Ladies represent the Canadian spirit, funny, energetic and melodic, you're a dick if you don't kinda just enjoy them. I've met them a number of times and they are the nicest folks, plus they love music and they love performing. They have brought international attention to obscure Canadian songwriters. I was bartending in 2000 near their recording studio and they came in for lunch all the time, they were so cool and friendly and great attitudes. (yes, they tipped really well too) If you want to watch some of the skating show, or even the whole thing, go here. (John Zimmerman is so fricking hot, it's crazy!)
Saw a shocking movie. Death Of A President. Now I don't believe in censorship, and I am pretty openminded but this movie is really almost in bad taste. The premise rides on the assisination of the current President of America. It is quite disturbing. Other than that...it is very effective at portraying the kind of racism and fear some of the dominant culture has towards Middle Eastern people, even if they were born in America. The story is told through fake doc style using securitty cameras, interviews and newsclips. This makes for an innovation we haven't seen the extent of until this movie. It feels like Blair Witch Project meets Manchurian Candidate. Film buffs must see.
New Rose Hotel directed by Abel Ferrera adapted from story by William Gibson. It would hardly seem possible to mess up a movie based on Cyberpunk writer Gibson, but it was done. Movie slow, Christopher Walken is still worth seeing as he's always good. Movie put me to sleep, which sucked because this is one of my favourite genres: other Cyberpunk films.
The best show on tv wrapped up last week. The Wire. If you haven't followed the last four years of this brilliant program, just go rent the first season. It's sick. If there is any remote titch kind of truth to the fiction...then we are in a world of shit. Some interesting music notes regarding the program? The opening song, Down In The Hole, is written by Tom Waits, and various bands or musicians cover it each season. Steve Earle made a breathtaking cameo in season finale and Paul Weller had a cover of a Dr. John song, I Walk On Guilded Splinters. Are you watching this show, or are you down in the hole?
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Friday, December 15, 2006
The End of Ingenuity
An article in New York Times by Thomas Homer-Dixon.
A better measure of the cost of oil, or any energy source, is the amount of energy required to produce it. Just as we evaluate a financial investment by comparing the size of the return with the size of the original expenditure, we can evaluate any project that generates energy by dividing the amount of energy the project produces by the amount it consumes.
Economists and physicists call this quantity the "energy return on investment" or E.R.O.I. For a modern coal mine, for instance, we divide the useful energy in the coal that the mine produces by the total of all the energy needed to dig the coal from the ground and prepare it for burning - including the energy in the diesel fuel that powers the jackhammers, shovels and off-road dump trucks, the energy in the electricity that runs the machines that crush and sort the coal, as well as all the energy needed to build and maintain these machines.
As the average E.R.O.I. of an economy's energy sources drops toward 1 to 1, an ever-larger fraction of the economy's wealth must go to finding and producing energy. This means less wealth is left over for everything else that needs to be done, from building houses to moving around information to educating children. The energy return on investment for conventional oil, which provides about 40 percent of the world's commercial energy and more than 95 percent of America's transportation energy, has been falling for decades. The trend is most advanced in United States production, where petroleum resources have been exploited the longest and drillers have been forced to look for ever-smaller and ever-deeper pools of oil.
A better measure of the cost of oil, or any energy source, is the amount of energy required to produce it. Just as we evaluate a financial investment by comparing the size of the return with the size of the original expenditure, we can evaluate any project that generates energy by dividing the amount of energy the project produces by the amount it consumes.
Economists and physicists call this quantity the "energy return on investment" or E.R.O.I. For a modern coal mine, for instance, we divide the useful energy in the coal that the mine produces by the total of all the energy needed to dig the coal from the ground and prepare it for burning - including the energy in the diesel fuel that powers the jackhammers, shovels and off-road dump trucks, the energy in the electricity that runs the machines that crush and sort the coal, as well as all the energy needed to build and maintain these machines.
As the average E.R.O.I. of an economy's energy sources drops toward 1 to 1, an ever-larger fraction of the economy's wealth must go to finding and producing energy. This means less wealth is left over for everything else that needs to be done, from building houses to moving around information to educating children. The energy return on investment for conventional oil, which provides about 40 percent of the world's commercial energy and more than 95 percent of America's transportation energy, has been falling for decades. The trend is most advanced in United States production, where petroleum resources have been exploited the longest and drillers have been forced to look for ever-smaller and ever-deeper pools of oil.
Comments Continued
Logging in with an old Blogger account to post a comment on the new Blogger is giving a “please try again later” error. Until we fix this, it may work to log in first at http://www.blogger.com/login.g, and then go to the comments page on the new version of Blogger in beta. — latest update on Thursday, December 14, 2006
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"I NEED CHOCOLATE" t-shirt
gay rights in western world
gnostic widgets
platos allegory phases
Mayles Grey Gardens
gnostic depression material world
photo's of drag queens from the 1800's
432000 hamlet's mill
square whorl spindles
tingling in hand flax oil
mechanism second hand card
gnostic celebrities and artists
giordano chocolate
"You Are The Only Student You Have" meaning Rumi
place where canibals can be seen
gun crack (these are always from eastern europe)
comedy begins in a world represented as a normal world, moves into the Green World, goes into a metamorphosis there...and returns to normal world
"love is love" hip hop definition
paralel axis theorem
how to draw giraffes
hobo art
gnostic angel
resurrection cooperative
women aqualine nose ( I resemble that remark)
the omnivores dilemma
dream energy hand tingling december amazing
tingling hands coffee
how gay marriage threatens hetrosexual marriage
transubstantiation
"I NEED CHOCOLATE" t-shirt
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Comments on Blogs
1) Apparently people are having trouble making comments on some blogs especially "beta blogger". This has been for the last few days...and has made me realize how important feedback and discussion is for blogging. It feels a little lonely out here without hearing from others. How important are comments to you on your blog?
2) Visiting other peoples blogs, and making comments is as important and fun an activity as blogging aand making posts on my own blog.
3) I visit and comment on a about 10 blogs per day. A couple times a week I may visit 20-30 blogs and read them, usually always making a comment. I find the activity very relaxing and also a good way to put my own issues or problems or even ideas at rest for a while. It really is a form of "listening" by going to other blogs. And listening feels good.
4) Comments remind me that I am part a community of people who have incredible ideas, inventions, artistic and intellectual talent and coping skills. I am always inspired by the things people are able to make and common sense and wisdom they have for so many situations.
5) How to Comment Like A King "These and other good commenters are also in tune to the emotions I portray in my blog and often comment just to encourage me. They are part of my life"
6) The Importance of Comments a little dedication article to comment makers.
7) Geek Sugar has a live comments page.
8) Sort of advice on how to GET more comments and visitors.
(9) Blogs "as an early warning system for traditional journalists." Wired magazine a couple of years ago.
10) Senator McCain against blogs, and here.
These last three are all I could find out about what has been wrong with the comment function on my blog:
To leave a comment on this blog you will have to log in as "other" till beta blogger fixes the problem Thank you! :)
11)Users who have switched to Blogger in beta will not be able to login to comment on blogs that have not switched. Commenting using the “anonymous” or “other” options will still work. Update (9/12): We have started working on making this possible, however the change is substantial and will take a little while before it is ready. Update (9/19): This has been fixed. You can use the “Sign in with your Google Account” link on the Blogger comment form to log in with your Blogger in beta account. — latest update on Tuesday, September 19, 2006
12)Users are seeing errors when posting comments with current Blogger accounts to blogs on the new version of Blogger in beta. Until we fix this, the workaround is to preview the comment before publishing. (You only need to preview once per account.) Update (9/13): This issue has been re-written to clarify the core bug and offer the workaround. Update (9/19): All fixed. — latest update on Tuesday, September 19, 2006
13)The comments Atom feed gives an error message for some blogs/posts. Update (9/7): This has been fixed. All comment feeds should work now. — latest update on Thursday, September 07, 2006
This is week #19 for me in Thursday Thirteen.
Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
2) Visiting other peoples blogs, and making comments is as important and fun an activity as blogging aand making posts on my own blog.
3) I visit and comment on a about 10 blogs per day. A couple times a week I may visit 20-30 blogs and read them, usually always making a comment. I find the activity very relaxing and also a good way to put my own issues or problems or even ideas at rest for a while. It really is a form of "listening" by going to other blogs. And listening feels good.
4) Comments remind me that I am part a community of people who have incredible ideas, inventions, artistic and intellectual talent and coping skills. I am always inspired by the things people are able to make and common sense and wisdom they have for so many situations.
5) How to Comment Like A King "These and other good commenters are also in tune to the emotions I portray in my blog and often comment just to encourage me. They are part of my life"
6) The Importance of Comments a little dedication article to comment makers.
7) Geek Sugar has a live comments page.
8) Sort of advice on how to GET more comments and visitors.
(9) Blogs "as an early warning system for traditional journalists." Wired magazine a couple of years ago.
10) Senator McCain against blogs, and here.
These last three are all I could find out about what has been wrong with the comment function on my blog:
To leave a comment on this blog you will have to log in as "other" till beta blogger fixes the problem Thank you! :)
11)Users who have switched to Blogger in beta will not be able to login to comment on blogs that have not switched. Commenting using the “anonymous” or “other” options will still work. Update (9/12): We have started working on making this possible, however the change is substantial and will take a little while before it is ready. Update (9/19): This has been fixed. You can use the “Sign in with your Google Account” link on the Blogger comment form to log in with your Blogger in beta account. — latest update on Tuesday, September 19, 2006
12)Users are seeing errors when posting comments with current Blogger accounts to blogs on the new version of Blogger in beta. Until we fix this, the workaround is to preview the comment before publishing. (You only need to preview once per account.) Update (9/13): This issue has been re-written to clarify the core bug and offer the workaround. Update (9/19): All fixed. — latest update on Tuesday, September 19, 2006
13)The comments Atom feed gives an error message for some blogs/posts. Update (9/7): This has been fixed. All comment feeds should work now. — latest update on Thursday, September 07, 2006
This is week #19 for me in Thursday Thirteen.
Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Housework
I've got to do something about the chaos around here. Yes, that is a magenta disco tree next to the computer. In a fit of madness last night I bought it. It has silver stars dangling from it. We had to go to a corporate book store last night because I was determined to get a particular book for our friend Jim last night. The store was open till midnight. Stagg and I shouldn't be allowed to shop at midnight when we both have sleep dep. He has slept through his alarm for several days now. No other neighbourhood book stores had this particular rock and roll American music book. It might help if I actually managed to take the garbage out. We keep making more garbage I feel like the Jeffery Dahmer of nature. My house is a mess. I am a bad person. Hey, that's Cappy's blog on the computer. Look, we have booze just sitting on the kitchen table. Ambulance.
My studio looks like some kind of a nightmare. When am I going to get in there and tidy it up? Hmmm...I walked over there the other day, and all that paper for collage on the floor is extremely slippery. I took a hell of a header the other day. Just right bailed.
That's a bag of gifts and booze to go to Stagg's parents tomorrow. The note taped to the bag says Don't forget COOKIES in freezer. I am making Thimble Cookies, right now to send over, in those tins right there on the floor in front of the book shelf. I don't know why I have the tins on the floor like that. The stuff on top of the shelves is all "to do" stuff. Like a bag of batteries to take to the Toxic Waste Depot.
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