Wednesday, June 29, 2005
I probably won't be blogging for a couple weeks. I'm going to Everdale tomorrow and I'm not taking my computer. Sorry, folks. Don't miss me too much. :P
Y'all should do some farming yourselves. Go have some wilderness rituals while you're at it. :)
Y'all should do some farming yourselves. Go have some wilderness rituals while you're at it. :)
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Monday, June 27, 2005
NEW YORK The dollar fell Monday amid concerns that oil prices could threaten economic growth, while the euro gained comfort from an improvement in German business confidence.
"The market is of the view that the rise in oil prices is going to be around for a while, and that generally is negative for the dollar and the yen," said Adam Cole, a strategist at Royal Bank of Canada. "Europe also imports oil but is less dependent than the United States."
...
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Saturday, June 25, 2005
BRITISH AIRWAYS: Surcharge raised on long-haul faresMaybe I should book whatever flights I expect to need now, before fuel prices really start to go up...
Bloomberg News
Published June 25, 2005
LONDON -- British Airways PLC said Friday that it will raise surcharges as much as 50 percent this month to recoup part of the cost of record fuel prices.
Passengers will pay $43.60 a flight on long-haul routes starting Monday, up from about $29, the London-based carrier said.
Crude oil for August delivery rose 43 cents Friday to close at a record high of $59.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil earlier touched $60.
"The continuing rise in global oil prices to almost $60 a barrel means a further surcharge increase is regrettably unavoidable," said Martin George, British Airways' commercial director.
Anybody here have any opinions on South America? Rumour has it that I have German relatives living in Chile. They go by the name of Frankenstein. No joke.
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Thursday, June 23, 2005
This movie is even better (completely different): The Price of Milk. It's made in New Zealand. It's hilarious. It's about a dairy farming couple and the girl's attempts to spice up their relationship. It's full of very unlikely situations - totally insane, some of them - but they manage to pull it off so well. The actors are so good. The music's not bad either. Very beautifully done, and very funny. Highly recommended.
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I just saw Blue Car, and I liked it. It's a drama about a high school poet chick and her English teacher. It's a bit reminiscent of American Beauty in plot, but not in execution. I thought this film was a little more serious and realistic. The characters are treated more three-dimensionally than in AB. It's silly that they have the girl holding a rose on the cover, because the film has absolutely nothing to do with roses (I don't think I saw a single rose in it); maybe that's just become the universal symbol for Older-Man-Falls-for-Young-Girl, and they had no choice but to use it.
So it's a movie worth seeing.
So it's a movie worth seeing.
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Sunday, June 19, 2005
Here's a short review of The Long Emergency by Kunstler. More of the same (you know all this by now, right?), but I just like Kunstler's "no bullshit" attitude. I want to read that book.
Run, don’t walk (and certainly don’t drive) to your nearest bookstore and buy the Long Emergency. It will define the discussion for years to come.
Why? Because it points out that our economy for the last hundred years has run on a “massive one-time endowment of cheap stored solar energy” and that the jig is up. That the easy pickings are over and the remaining oil will be more expensive and difficult to extract. That political turmoil in producing countries will turn off the tap long before the oil runs out and much sooner than we think. That the Hydrogen economy is a “laughable fantasy”.– “instead of finding a new fuel to run suburbia, a far more sane and intelligent response might be for Americans to live in traditional walkable communities serviced by public transit”. That Biomass is a joke- the fuel used to grow the corn that is mulched for biomass is greater than the output.
The book’s position is extreme and apocalyptic. But the conclusions are logical:
Suburbia is dead- the average American makes 11 car trips per day getting milk, picking up kids. This is over and the endless tracts of housing in the suburbs will be depopulated. Fortunately, due to the nature of the construction materials used to build them, they will not take too long to disintegrate.
Universities and our confidence in a knowledge based economy are dead- 50 years ago 30% of us were farmers and now only 1.6% of us are. This will reverse as growing food locally will become the most important job around. MBA’s are useless- farmers are not.
Continued...
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Tuesday, June 14, 2005
We passed the record... 21 smog days for 2005 - and it's still technically spring! I'm so proud of my region. I knew we could do it. (Note the sarcasm.)
But it's worth noting the following, which I just found out:
But it's worth noting the following, which I just found out:
Monday's record-tying advisory may need an asterisk, however, Mr. Steele said. The previous record, he said, came before 2002, when the ministry changed its criteria for declaring smog advisory to include small particulate levels.
"Small particulate is a threat to human health because the small particles of dirt are inhaled deeply into the lungs," Mr. Steele said.
Small particulates boil over from a variety of sources but primarily from coal-fired generating stations, motor vehicles and certain types of industry, such as the steel industry.
The hot and humid weather patterns in central Canada for the past two weeks have moved up through the United States, he said, carrying the pollution from more than 200 coal-fired generating stations.
"We only have four coal-fired generating stations in Ontario, compared to the 200 in the states," Mr. Steele said.
While the inclusion of small particulate in smog advisories is more likely to trigger winter smog alerts (such as the four experienced this winter), they can lead to summer advisories as well, Mr. Steele said. The different criteria make it difficult to compare the two record-setting years.
For the years since the criteria changed in 2002, this year has scorched the others. Toronto experienced 18 advisories in 2002, 12 in 2003 and 14 last year.
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Sunday, June 12, 2005
A picture of me at the solar workshop up at Everdale a week ago that my buddy Sean took:
Thanks, Sean!
Thanks, Sean!
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<GeekRant>
So I'm coding this program for George Brown using ASP.NET. It's taking a lot longer getting up to speed; I never realized how different it was from regular ASP. I'm writing in C#, which is a lot like Java in many ways, so that part's pretty straightforward.
But man. Is ASP.NET ever a mess. I guess I can respect Microsoft's intent: trying to make web-based application development like traditional GUI-based development. It seems reasonable, right? I think they were trying to do that back with ASP too, but with little success. I suppose ASP.NET is a little better in that sense; you can actually use web "controls" more or less the same way you use Windows GUI controls, and probably create a reasonably functional web application with them if separation of layers isn't a concern.
Of course, as is the tradition with Microsoft, they improve "ease of use" (or try to) at the expense of power and flexibility. As a result, ASP.NET really forces you to design your application according to rules they invented that they thought were best for good software design. Yes, the folks at Microsoft, they would know best how applications should be designed, right? After all, they are most successful software company in the world. You'd think they'd know a thing or two about good software design by now.
I'm not so sure. Apparently they still haven't grasped the whole idea of separating user interface from business logic. It's evident that they tried, but it's still far from perfect. Unless you want to jump through hoops (and I will to some extent), you still usually have to hard-code presentation code into your C# code. ASP.NET has this "templates" concept that's supposed to prevent you from having to do that, but it's so incredibly complicated to use - ridiculously - that it's much easier to avoid that altogether and just suffer with the fact that you can't cleanly separate the two layers.
Not only do they seem to have issues with UI concepts, but MS web developers also don't seem to have grasped the concept of separating data access from business logic. It seems they haven't even heard of it, as if they've been living in a cave all this time. (Meanwhile, any competent J2EE web developer has probably known how and why to do this for many years.) Read this article to see what I'm talking about.
But anyway, I'll keep working on it, and suffering.
</GeekRant>
So I'm coding this program for George Brown using ASP.NET. It's taking a lot longer getting up to speed; I never realized how different it was from regular ASP. I'm writing in C#, which is a lot like Java in many ways, so that part's pretty straightforward.
But man. Is ASP.NET ever a mess. I guess I can respect Microsoft's intent: trying to make web-based application development like traditional GUI-based development. It seems reasonable, right? I think they were trying to do that back with ASP too, but with little success. I suppose ASP.NET is a little better in that sense; you can actually use web "controls" more or less the same way you use Windows GUI controls, and probably create a reasonably functional web application with them if separation of layers isn't a concern.
Of course, as is the tradition with Microsoft, they improve "ease of use" (or try to) at the expense of power and flexibility. As a result, ASP.NET really forces you to design your application according to rules they invented that they thought were best for good software design. Yes, the folks at Microsoft, they would know best how applications should be designed, right? After all, they are most successful software company in the world. You'd think they'd know a thing or two about good software design by now.
I'm not so sure. Apparently they still haven't grasped the whole idea of separating user interface from business logic. It's evident that they tried, but it's still far from perfect. Unless you want to jump through hoops (and I will to some extent), you still usually have to hard-code presentation code into your C# code. ASP.NET has this "templates" concept that's supposed to prevent you from having to do that, but it's so incredibly complicated to use - ridiculously - that it's much easier to avoid that altogether and just suffer with the fact that you can't cleanly separate the two layers.
Not only do they seem to have issues with UI concepts, but MS web developers also don't seem to have grasped the concept of separating data access from business logic. It seems they haven't even heard of it, as if they've been living in a cave all this time. (Meanwhile, any competent J2EE web developer has probably known how and why to do this for many years.) Read this article to see what I'm talking about.
But anyway, I'll keep working on it, and suffering.
</GeekRant>
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Wrote this when I was 15:
The scary men were riding through the dark and gloomy towns.
Each and every one of them would show such frightening frowns.
Some were old, some were young, and some had aftertastes.
Aftertastes of gruesome food: they'd eaten snails' waists!
They rode their horses wandering around to find more food.
Aggressive, quick and awful cruel they were, and hungry, dude!
They'd changed their minds: instead of eating snails' waists they'd eat plums.
But trying to catch those sneaky plums, those dumb men were all thumbs!
On their voyage what did they see but a flock of crows!
The crows were hungry too and they aimed at the men with bows!
The men were scared, but then they thought, "You know, those crows we'll eat!"
Therefore the men just grabbed those bows and shot the crows for meat.
They rode away, so satisfied! They were hungry no more.
They found out that crows tasted good with plumcake. They did roar!
Oh my, I forgot to tell you how they travelled home:
They digged and digged until they came out of the earth at Rome!
Boy, were they hungry!
The scary men were riding through the dark and gloomy towns.
Each and every one of them would show such frightening frowns.
Some were old, some were young, and some had aftertastes.
Aftertastes of gruesome food: they'd eaten snails' waists!
They rode their horses wandering around to find more food.
Aggressive, quick and awful cruel they were, and hungry, dude!
They'd changed their minds: instead of eating snails' waists they'd eat plums.
But trying to catch those sneaky plums, those dumb men were all thumbs!
On their voyage what did they see but a flock of crows!
The crows were hungry too and they aimed at the men with bows!
The men were scared, but then they thought, "You know, those crows we'll eat!"
Therefore the men just grabbed those bows and shot the crows for meat.
They rode away, so satisfied! They were hungry no more.
They found out that crows tasted good with plumcake. They did roar!
Oh my, I forgot to tell you how they travelled home:
They digged and digged until they came out of the earth at Rome!
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From who knows when:
Once upon a time there was a darling of pure meat and feathers. She had just been congenital, so she didn't undergo on how to fleet yet.
One effulgent, aesthetic, summertime's epoch, her matriarch alleged, "Sweetheart! You must acquire on how to fleet in the zephyr."
So her matriarch fleeted circuitously and circuitously the mahogany, to present itself on how it was fried. But then some magnanimous, deleterious, parsimonious hunters coveted to squander her; they assassinated her. She reiterated, "OUCH!" and then a chasm subsisted through the retinas of both her right and left cruxes.
"Yum! Oomtcha-oomtcha! We will nibble her to our aortas' ecstasy!" said the hunters. They encompassed away with the matriarch and corroded her.
"My mammy! My mammy! Is she defunct or is it just my daydream?" said the lass. "Oh well, now I won't ever pick up the steps on how to fleet."
The lass acquired a livelihood until she was one hundred, and she nevertheless didn't cognize on how to fleet. Then a fashionable, callow aristocrat of one hundred and ten came to ask her paw in go-between.
"But I don't fathom on how to fleet further!" argued the lass.
"But I will animate to you merely if you lead to the altar with me nevertheless!" said the prince.
"Acceptance. I consent. I allege yes. Affirmative," hubbubbed and squealed the lass.
So they were linked when the lass was one hundred and fifty and the aristocrat was one hundred and sixty, and on the inaugural fountainhead of their wedlock, the aristocrat quickened her how to flap. And he rendered. At the moment the girlfriend familiarizes how to maneuver.
They had nine hundred and eighteen consequences. But they weren't elapsable inasmuch as they were anthropomorphic.
The Denouement
The Darling Who Couldn't Fleet
Once upon a time there was a darling of pure meat and feathers. She had just been congenital, so she didn't undergo on how to fleet yet.
One effulgent, aesthetic, summertime's epoch, her matriarch alleged, "Sweetheart! You must acquire on how to fleet in the zephyr."
So her matriarch fleeted circuitously and circuitously the mahogany, to present itself on how it was fried. But then some magnanimous, deleterious, parsimonious hunters coveted to squander her; they assassinated her. She reiterated, "OUCH!" and then a chasm subsisted through the retinas of both her right and left cruxes.
"Yum! Oomtcha-oomtcha! We will nibble her to our aortas' ecstasy!" said the hunters. They encompassed away with the matriarch and corroded her.
"My mammy! My mammy! Is she defunct or is it just my daydream?" said the lass. "Oh well, now I won't ever pick up the steps on how to fleet."
The lass acquired a livelihood until she was one hundred, and she nevertheless didn't cognize on how to fleet. Then a fashionable, callow aristocrat of one hundred and ten came to ask her paw in go-between.
"But I don't fathom on how to fleet further!" argued the lass.
"But I will animate to you merely if you lead to the altar with me nevertheless!" said the prince.
"Acceptance. I consent. I allege yes. Affirmative," hubbubbed and squealed the lass.
So they were linked when the lass was one hundred and fifty and the aristocrat was one hundred and sixty, and on the inaugural fountainhead of their wedlock, the aristocrat quickened her how to flap. And he rendered. At the moment the girlfriend familiarizes how to maneuver.
They had nine hundred and eighteen consequences. But they weren't elapsable inasmuch as they were anthropomorphic.
The Denouement
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Saturday, June 11, 2005
This is probably from 1990:
One day in Toronto, Ontario, some builders came to make some buildings. About a year after that they had finished one building. It had a point on the top and elevators going up and down it. The next day the building had looked as if it had shrunk.
Everyone yelled, "A building shrunk! A building shrunk!"
The next day the building shrunk even more. It shrunk more than yesterday! Everyone thought it was haunted. Lucky there was a detective named Andrew J. Colin. He was not very famous but he was famous enough to be a detective.
Everyone told him. He asked the builders if they had shrunk it. They said no. He asked them if he could explore their house. They said yes.
He explored all the closets except one. He found the last closet. He explored it. There was some machine in it. It could shrink stuff! So he knew they had shrunk the building to scare people away so they could have it. CASE CLOSED!
The Mystery of the Shrinking Building
One day in Toronto, Ontario, some builders came to make some buildings. About a year after that they had finished one building. It had a point on the top and elevators going up and down it. The next day the building had looked as if it had shrunk.
Everyone yelled, "A building shrunk! A building shrunk!"
The next day the building shrunk even more. It shrunk more than yesterday! Everyone thought it was haunted. Lucky there was a detective named Andrew J. Colin. He was not very famous but he was famous enough to be a detective.
Everyone told him. He asked the builders if they had shrunk it. They said no. He asked them if he could explore their house. They said yes.
He explored all the closets except one. He found the last closet. He explored it. There was some machine in it. It could shrink stuff! So he knew they had shrunk the building to scare people away so they could have it. CASE CLOSED!
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Friday, June 10, 2005
Something else I wrote way back when. Do pardon the silliness, I was only yay old.
One day Big Bird and Oscar were talking loudly and stupidly at Sesame Street. What joy they, well, Big Bird, was having!
"Hey Oscar!" said Big Bird. "Check out this new electronic gizmo my father, grandad, grandma, mother, sister, brother, uncle, auntie, cousin, step-cousin and other mother gave me for my birthday. It says what time it is, like, you know, what part of the continuation of things moving and happening and doing stuff is. It's really handy. I can look at what part of the day it is one time, and then look at what part of the day another time, or any other time I want to know what part of the day it is!"
"Oh shut your trap, you worthless piece of %#$**&+!" hollered Oscar. He was unhappy. "I was asleep!"
"Sorry."
"Think nothing of it. Hey, do you think I should go on vacation? Do you? Do you?"
"Why, that's a great idea! Go on vacation and then you'll have fun and over here we will have a jolly time because you would be on vacation, I think."
"I was planning on going to Yugoslavia. What do you think, you stupid idiot?"
"Well, I think you should go to China."
"But why?"
"'Cause I like the food. I think you don't need to eat. Do you have a pet cat?"
"I don't have a personality. You are right, I don't need to eat."
"But I have heard that the sights there are very lively and beautiful! Boy! I think you should go there because I love the weird things there. I think all the people hate the Chinese except me. I really think you should go there."
"Well, maybe I'll get someone else's opinion. I mean, yours is the %$###%**!!*@$ worst one I've heard in all my life!"
"Okay, suit yourself. I'm going to invent the radar. Bye!"
"Yeah, see ya, whatever."
So Oscar jumped and hopped in his little garbage can all the way to Maria's house. He asked her if he should go on vacation too.
"Why sure, Oscar!" said Maria. "If I were you, I would go to China, or is that Japana? No, I think it's China."
"But why?? Why, why, why, why, why??!?" confused Oscar.
"Chocolate tastes like my fur. I just think that it is the best place on earth to go on vacation. I haven't even been there; I haven't even read anything about China, and I think you should go. It must be a great place if I even say it is good."
"Well, everyone says it is good; I guess I might as well go." So Oscar flew on an aeroplane, some flying contraption, to China.
He hopped and jumped around a bit, and got used to the place. Then an old Chinaman spoke in English, "Stay away from ghostly sheep-dog! Stay away from ghostly sheep-dog! Stay away from ghostly sheep-dog!"
"Oh, shut up, you gay moron!"
Oscar then found a great, catless, dogless, spatulaless alley to sleep in. It was almost dark too, so he went to sleep because of his weak heart, not because it was almost dark, but because of his weak heart.
Then he woke up, hearing strange, whistling noises from inside the alley. He opened his garbage can and WHAM! POW! POP! PLOP! CRASH! YEOW! YIKES! There was the old, ghostly sheep-dog the old man was talking about.
"What do you want, you $#@**!@#@ &^%$$**???? You woke me up, stupid!"
"Please help me! A spell was put on me when I was a sheep, or was it a swan? I think it turned me into this animal, whatever I am."
"Oh shut your %*! face!"
"Are you being mean to me, or is it just my daydream?"
"Yeah, I'm being mean to you!"
"HOW DARE YOU! No one will be mean to me and survive!"
"Oh will you shut up already!"
So the ghost killed Oscar with its hand, and disappeared. The alley was quiet. As quiet as a mouse.
Meanwhile, everyone was worried at Stupid Sesame So-called Street. They all thought he was dead. Snuffalufagus and Telly already died of worrying. Everyone else was really sad.
The End
Sesame Street
inOscar's Vacation
One day Big Bird and Oscar were talking loudly and stupidly at Sesame Street. What joy they, well, Big Bird, was having!
"Hey Oscar!" said Big Bird. "Check out this new electronic gizmo my father, grandad, grandma, mother, sister, brother, uncle, auntie, cousin, step-cousin and other mother gave me for my birthday. It says what time it is, like, you know, what part of the continuation of things moving and happening and doing stuff is. It's really handy. I can look at what part of the day it is one time, and then look at what part of the day another time, or any other time I want to know what part of the day it is!"
"Oh shut your trap, you worthless piece of %#$**&+!" hollered Oscar. He was unhappy. "I was asleep!"
"Sorry."
"Think nothing of it. Hey, do you think I should go on vacation? Do you? Do you?"
"Why, that's a great idea! Go on vacation and then you'll have fun and over here we will have a jolly time because you would be on vacation, I think."
"I was planning on going to Yugoslavia. What do you think, you stupid idiot?"
"Well, I think you should go to China."
"But why?"
"'Cause I like the food. I think you don't need to eat. Do you have a pet cat?"
"I don't have a personality. You are right, I don't need to eat."
"But I have heard that the sights there are very lively and beautiful! Boy! I think you should go there because I love the weird things there. I think all the people hate the Chinese except me. I really think you should go there."
"Well, maybe I'll get someone else's opinion. I mean, yours is the %$###%**!!*@$ worst one I've heard in all my life!"
"Okay, suit yourself. I'm going to invent the radar. Bye!"
"Yeah, see ya, whatever."
So Oscar jumped and hopped in his little garbage can all the way to Maria's house. He asked her if he should go on vacation too.
"Why sure, Oscar!" said Maria. "If I were you, I would go to China, or is that Japana? No, I think it's China."
"But why?? Why, why, why, why, why??!?" confused Oscar.
"Chocolate tastes like my fur. I just think that it is the best place on earth to go on vacation. I haven't even been there; I haven't even read anything about China, and I think you should go. It must be a great place if I even say it is good."
"Well, everyone says it is good; I guess I might as well go." So Oscar flew on an aeroplane, some flying contraption, to China.
He hopped and jumped around a bit, and got used to the place. Then an old Chinaman spoke in English, "Stay away from ghostly sheep-dog! Stay away from ghostly sheep-dog! Stay away from ghostly sheep-dog!"
"Oh, shut up, you gay moron!"
Oscar then found a great, catless, dogless, spatulaless alley to sleep in. It was almost dark too, so he went to sleep because of his weak heart, not because it was almost dark, but because of his weak heart.
Then he woke up, hearing strange, whistling noises from inside the alley. He opened his garbage can and WHAM! POW! POP! PLOP! CRASH! YEOW! YIKES! There was the old, ghostly sheep-dog the old man was talking about.
"What do you want, you $#@**!@#@ &^%$$**???? You woke me up, stupid!"
"Please help me! A spell was put on me when I was a sheep, or was it a swan? I think it turned me into this animal, whatever I am."
"Oh shut your %*! face!"
"Are you being mean to me, or is it just my daydream?"
"Yeah, I'm being mean to you!"
"HOW DARE YOU! No one will be mean to me and survive!"
"Oh will you shut up already!"
So the ghost killed Oscar with its hand, and disappeared. The alley was quiet. As quiet as a mouse.
Meanwhile, everyone was worried at Stupid Sesame So-called Street. They all thought he was dead. Snuffalufagus and Telly already died of worrying. Everyone else was really sad.
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Thursday, June 09, 2005
A sweet pic my Swiss friend Marco took on his recent trip to Locarno. How beautiful is that??
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Hmm... is one of you signing me up to mailing lists without my permission? Whoever signed me up to the Air Quality Ontario list, I do appreciate the thought, but I'd prefer to manage my mailing list subscriptions myself, thank you. Also, I avoid using my real e-mail address for any kind of mailing list subscriptions (and it's that address that was apparently used to subscribe me to that mailing list). I always use a Sneakemail address so that my real one remains free of spam.
You may answer anonymously if you wish. :)
You may answer anonymously if you wish. :)
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Wednesday, June 08, 2005
"Let's say we are born with such a predisposition--that humans, like bees, are drawn instinctively to flowers. It's obvious what good it does bees to be born liking flowers, but what conceivable benefit could such a predilection offer people?
Some evolutionary psychologists have proposed an interesting answer. Their hypothesis can't be proven, at least not until scientists begin to identify genes for human preferences, but it goes like this: Our brains developed under the pressure of natural selection to make us good foragers, which is how humans have spent 99 percent of their time on Earth. The presence of flowers, as even I understood as a boy, is a reliable predictor of future food. People who were drawn to flowers, and who further could distinguish among them and then remember where in the landscape they'd seen them, would be much more successful foragers than people who were blind to their significance. According to the neuroscientist Steven Pinker, who outlines this theory in How the Mind Works, natural selection was bound to favor those among our ancestors who noticed flowers and had a gift for botanizing--for recognizing plants, classifying them, and then remembering where they grow. In time the moment of recognition--much like the quickening one feels whenever an object of desire is spotted in the landscape--would become pleasurable, and the signifying thing a thing of beauty.
But wouldn't it make more sense if people were simply hard-wired to recognize fruit itself, forget the flowers? Perhaps, but recognizing and recalling flowers helps a forager get to fruit first, before the competition. Because I know exactly where on my road the blackberry canes flowered last month, I stand a much better chance of getting to the berries this month before anyone else or any birds do."
- Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire
Some evolutionary psychologists have proposed an interesting answer. Their hypothesis can't be proven, at least not until scientists begin to identify genes for human preferences, but it goes like this: Our brains developed under the pressure of natural selection to make us good foragers, which is how humans have spent 99 percent of their time on Earth. The presence of flowers, as even I understood as a boy, is a reliable predictor of future food. People who were drawn to flowers, and who further could distinguish among them and then remember where in the landscape they'd seen them, would be much more successful foragers than people who were blind to their significance. According to the neuroscientist Steven Pinker, who outlines this theory in How the Mind Works, natural selection was bound to favor those among our ancestors who noticed flowers and had a gift for botanizing--for recognizing plants, classifying them, and then remembering where they grow. In time the moment of recognition--much like the quickening one feels whenever an object of desire is spotted in the landscape--would become pleasurable, and the signifying thing a thing of beauty.
But wouldn't it make more sense if people were simply hard-wired to recognize fruit itself, forget the flowers? Perhaps, but recognizing and recalling flowers helps a forager get to fruit first, before the competition. Because I know exactly where on my road the blackberry canes flowered last month, I stand a much better chance of getting to the berries this month before anyone else or any birds do."
- Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire
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Monday, June 06, 2005
It looks like we're making progress!
Today was the 14th smog alert day for 2005 in the GTA. We've already matched the total number of smog days we had last year, and it's not even officially summer yet!
Congratulations, Toronto, Oakville, and friends! You're well on your way to setting a new record that we can all be proud of!
Hip, hip, hooray!
Hip, hip, hooray!!
Hip, hip, hooray!!!
Today was the 14th smog alert day for 2005 in the GTA. We've already matched the total number of smog days we had last year, and it's not even officially summer yet!
Congratulations, Toronto, Oakville, and friends! You're well on your way to setting a new record that we can all be proud of!
Hip, hip, hooray!
Hip, hip, hooray!!
Hip, hip, hooray!!!
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Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Unmeeting Weatainmance
Guess where that came from? My dream last night. Yes, I had another dream. And guess who it was about - again? Yes, good old Derek. Also my good friend Nathan, who sometimes spontaneously morphed into Evan. I guess that's allowed in dreams. Since it didn't seem to matter whether he was Nathan or Evan, I'll call him Ethan for simplicity.
I met Ethan in some office building in Oakville, I believe. He seemed to have some insider knowledge of how to get Derek to join us there. He said if we somehow let him know before 6:40pm that we wanted him to visit us at 7:00pm, he'd come.
"But how do we let him know? We don't know how to contact him," I said.
"Post onto Open Eyes, he still reads that."
Ethan showed me to the restroom, where instead of a sink there was a computer. It was about 6:30pm. I logged into Open Eyes and started to compose the post, asking Derek to join us at this place. I asked Ethan what I should put in the subject line.
"I know he reads all posts that have the subject, 'Unmeeting Weatainmance,' so use that."
So I did. And sure enough, when 7pm rolled around, I could hear Derek coming up the stairs. (By the way, the bathroom had transformed into Ethan's bedroom at this point.)
As he entered the room he smiled and said: "Hey guys! Sorry for my little reclusive spell. Thanks for your understanding. So what's up?"
And then I woke up.
Guess where that came from? My dream last night. Yes, I had another dream. And guess who it was about - again? Yes, good old Derek. Also my good friend Nathan, who sometimes spontaneously morphed into Evan. I guess that's allowed in dreams. Since it didn't seem to matter whether he was Nathan or Evan, I'll call him Ethan for simplicity.
I met Ethan in some office building in Oakville, I believe. He seemed to have some insider knowledge of how to get Derek to join us there. He said if we somehow let him know before 6:40pm that we wanted him to visit us at 7:00pm, he'd come.
"But how do we let him know? We don't know how to contact him," I said.
"Post onto Open Eyes, he still reads that."
Ethan showed me to the restroom, where instead of a sink there was a computer. It was about 6:30pm. I logged into Open Eyes and started to compose the post, asking Derek to join us at this place. I asked Ethan what I should put in the subject line.
"I know he reads all posts that have the subject, 'Unmeeting Weatainmance,' so use that."
So I did. And sure enough, when 7pm rolled around, I could hear Derek coming up the stairs. (By the way, the bathroom had transformed into Ethan's bedroom at this point.)
As he entered the room he smiled and said: "Hey guys! Sorry for my little reclusive spell. Thanks for your understanding. So what's up?"
And then I woke up.
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