Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Bad Show Good Music
I love the soundtrack to *shudder* the Vampire Diaries.
The show is just below watching paint dry on my list of things to do with about an hour of free time, but while she who must be obeyed has control over the TV I've heard Neko Case, The Stars, MGMT, and Peaches.
It's ridiculous.
Why juxtapose ($10 dollar word alert) quality music against drivel-drama?
I'm tempted to actually watch an episode just to see if I catch a Destroyer track or maybe some They Shoot Horses Don't They in the background whilst some broody dark twenty something dude chats up some random tart.
Good on whatever must-be-a-Canadian producer is slipping solid gold into a smeg production.
The show is just below watching paint dry on my list of things to do with about an hour of free time, but while she who must be obeyed has control over the TV I've heard Neko Case, The Stars, MGMT, and Peaches.
It's ridiculous.
Why juxtapose ($10 dollar word alert) quality music against drivel-drama?
I'm tempted to actually watch an episode just to see if I catch a Destroyer track or maybe some They Shoot Horses Don't They in the background whilst some broody dark twenty something dude chats up some random tart.
Good on whatever must-be-a-Canadian producer is slipping solid gold into a smeg production.
Cooking
I like cooking, a lot. Really, I like it more than lots of other things like cleaning, accounting, roofing, contract negotiations, and being in malls... that kind of stuff doesn't do it for me like making a good meal from scratch.
I'll shirk other responsibilities by spending time cooking. Like this weekend, when I could have been running around finding the last few things we need to finish off the baby-room, I cooked.
Cooking without recipes is something I'm happy to have gotten a handle (should that be ladel?) of, because finding great recipes can be a bit of a chore. allrecipes and the foodnetwork are alright, but hating malls and grocery stores so much generally means I don't have some of the ingredients, so I generally wind up just winging things anyway.
In the spirit of successful food-winging-it is my latest foodernet find:
Cookthing - how to cook anything.
It's an awesome tool for picking the things you have to cook, and finding inspiration on what to cook with them.
Go make something tasty.
I'll shirk other responsibilities by spending time cooking. Like this weekend, when I could have been running around finding the last few things we need to finish off the baby-room, I cooked.
Cooking without recipes is something I'm happy to have gotten a handle (should that be ladel?) of, because finding great recipes can be a bit of a chore. allrecipes and the foodnetwork are alright, but hating malls and grocery stores so much generally means I don't have some of the ingredients, so I generally wind up just winging things anyway.
In the spirit of successful food-winging-it is my latest foodernet find:
Cookthing - how to cook anything.
It's an awesome tool for picking the things you have to cook, and finding inspiration on what to cook with them.
Go make something tasty.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Running, and running, and running, and...
Eddie Izzard's just finishing off 43 marathons in 51 days.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8256589.stm
Not that it's a world record, but he's a comedian not an athlete. And in 51 days his marathon time dropped from 10 hours (more of a walk really) to 5.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8256589.stm
Not that it's a world record, but he's a comedian not an athlete. And in 51 days his marathon time dropped from 10 hours (more of a walk really) to 5.
Stats
Not the study-in-college kind, but a nice set of factoids brought to you by google's new internet statistics site.
http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/internetstats/
http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/internetstats/
"1 in 3 YouTube users are DIYers." - TGI Net, April 2007-March 2008
"On March 23rd 2009, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) predicted that global trade will plunge by 9% this year - the steepest drop since the second world war.Economist, March 2009" - Economist, March 2009"
"According to a study done by OTX, 33% of young people (12 - 24 year olds) globally (UK, US, Germany, India and Japan) are contactable at all times, even in their sleep." - OTX Research, March 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Things ain't looking good FROM HERE
UBC has this thing going on.
I really just want to save some of the responses I find funny because who knows how long they'll last.
To be fair, the first 50 or so are all quite complimentary, but things seem to have headed downhill quickly.
I really just want to save some of the responses I find funny because who knows how long they'll last.
To be fair, the first 50 or so are all quite complimentary, but things seem to have headed downhill quickly.
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
I Love Lego
screwit, no response to request to use an image, then a complaint, blech.
I don't post enough about lego - check out ArchDaily for a writeup and photos of a lego house. Hollow blocks... I wonder what the R rating is...
I don't post enough about lego - check out ArchDaily for a writeup and photos of a lego house. Hollow blocks... I wonder what the R rating is...
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Libraries, literacy, and community
Crossposting from the Daily Gumboot where this article originally appeared, only because I know a different group of people read my blog and it's an important issue. If you have thoughts to share why not check out the original post on dailgumboot.ca and comment.
Literacy, both reading-and-writing and community literacy, are critical components of a strong community.
Informed discussion, enlightened imagination, and literal comprehension are the pillars of an active and engaged people. They enable organization, planning, and debate; all of which are critical to a healthy and functioning society.
CC -publicdomainarts on flickr
It is difficult to overstate the importance of libraries and literacy.
While it is true that communication tools have led to improved access to information, the effectiveness of that access in terms of promoting local community development and community literacy is greatly diminished by the quest for monetization and the decentralized and isolated nature in which we receive it.
One of the great defining aspects of libraries, beyond providing access to a wealth of information, is that they are communal in nature. Scan the offerings at your local library and you will find activities, courses, support, services, and events that help build strong communities at a grassroots level.
Helping parents raise literate and informed children, helping students and teachers with research and access to information, and opening our eyes to publications from around the globe that provide insight into every aspect of our lives. All provided not for profit, but for our collective good.
Libraries serve as a critical grounding during a time where we are all-to-easily distracted by links of the day, explosions on television, and celebrity gossip publications.
They reveal and support the best in us all. The loss of any of these services would be detrimental to our communities, yet at the moment we find that loss a very real possibility.
Literacy, both reading-and-writing and community literacy, are critical components of a strong community.
Informed discussion, enlightened imagination, and literal comprehension are the pillars of an active and engaged people. They enable organization, planning, and debate; all of which are critical to a healthy and functioning society.
CC -publicdomainarts on flickrIt is difficult to overstate the importance of libraries and literacy.
While it is true that communication tools have led to improved access to information, the effectiveness of that access in terms of promoting local community development and community literacy is greatly diminished by the quest for monetization and the decentralized and isolated nature in which we receive it.
One of the great defining aspects of libraries, beyond providing access to a wealth of information, is that they are communal in nature. Scan the offerings at your local library and you will find activities, courses, support, services, and events that help build strong communities at a grassroots level.
Helping parents raise literate and informed children, helping students and teachers with research and access to information, and opening our eyes to publications from around the globe that provide insight into every aspect of our lives. All provided not for profit, but for our collective good.
Libraries serve as a critical grounding during a time where we are all-to-easily distracted by links of the day, explosions on television, and celebrity gossip publications.
They reveal and support the best in us all. The loss of any of these services would be detrimental to our communities, yet at the moment we find that loss a very real possibility.
BC provincial public libraries have not yet received their 2009 annual operating grants from the provincial government, nor have they been told how much money they will be receiving – both of which usually happen earlier in the fiscal year. There have been strong indications that the Province has decided to stop funding libraries and that this funding may be cut from the current and subsequent budgets.
http://www.stopbclibrarycuts.ca/public.htm
With articles in community publications across the province, the reaction to this holdback by media points to the importance of libraries to our communities.
Hopefully that coverage leads to informed debate and action that results in a long-term plan to support libraries and the communities of British Columbia.
It’s our chance to support those that support us, to bring positivity to a political debate that is all-too-often debased with uninformed comment, and to steer our representatives towards a very real way they can support the communities from whence they came.
You can find out more about what funding means to British Columbia’s libraries, and how you can become engaged through the British Columbia Library Association. If you're interested they have an official response and list of other resources as well.
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