Moving Notice

Everything is gone to http://boronowski.ca

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.

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.

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.

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/

"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

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 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...

Watch This

Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs Inc. from Chris Cairns on Vimeo.

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.

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.

Toronto, we really do love you...

Coors pulling B.C. billboards as frosty mugs from Toronto call new beer ads tasteless.

"colder than most people from Toronto."

The billboard, which was part of Molson Coors' "Colder than . . ." summer beer campaign, went largely unnoticed by anyone east of the Rockies until a Toronto newspaper carried a complaint from a Toronto resident who saw the ad while on vacation.

Within hours of the story, Molson Coors backtracked and cancelled the campaign after it received complaints from people who thought the ads offended residents of Canada's largest city.

Via Vancouver Sun

If only the ad was for a beer worth drinking.

Eastside Culture Crawl

Last night I had the great pleasure to meet a bunch of artists involved in the Eastside Culture Crawl to talk social media and how they might use these tools for promotion.

WendyD and the promotions/advertising board are already doing a good job maintaining a website and using twitter to connect the community to artists and the Crawl. Some of the artists are onboard with social media and self-promotion too, and are maintaining blogs and personal websites.

I had a good time and wanted to give a shout-out to the cool people I met last night. Obviously a group who work hard on creative pursuits, they brought great questions and an insight into what matters for artists.

Monday

RIP Les Paul

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Les Paul, the guitarist and inventor who changed the course of music with the electric guitar and multitrack recording and had a string of hits, many with wife Mary Ford, died on Thursday. He was 94.
-AP

Les Paul was one of the most influential and important figures in modern music and recording.

Take a minute today to think about music.

First anniversary lessons

Things I have learned in my 1 year of marriage:

1. I’m a pretty lucky guy.
2. There is nothing I hate to watch more than movies in the romcom genre. I even hate the name, romcom... ugh.
   
3. Having someone around to remember things for you is great.
4. If you get your spouse’s birthdate wrong on 1 extended medical form because of the whole mmddyy or ddmmyy thing you will have to battle for months to convince them that yes that is your wife and yes they should update that field so that you can actually claim something.
5. A bird in the hand is worth about $20 if you adopt it from the bird-rescue, but it might crap in your hand. (this has nothing to do with marriage...)
   
6. Having friends is more important than you think.
7. Having family isn’t important, having supportive and accepting family is.
8. Sharing a bank account makes you more fiscally responsible.
9. Good wine can solve any problem other than needing to sober up.

Final Fantasy Onstage in a Storm

Came across this via CBCradio3.




Just watch, it's worth it. He's a great musician and the energy he has for what he does really comes across in the performance.

It's basically all about me...

Well, it's really about the way my "crafts" turn out.

http://craftastrophe.net/

Come by, have coffee, witness my hand-quilted bodum-cozy - you'll see.

Sea Organ

Croatia has a sea organ!

I Love Winter, I Love Summer

Free Videos - Videos About Being Free

These snowboard, ski, skate, and surf videos help me love life and remember that being outside is better than being inside - which is where I see them. Then, I go outside and enjoy living life.

(int) Factor Films presents THEY CAME FROM... from factor films on Vimeo.

Nike Debacle from mike on Vimeo.

Canadian Privacy Laws & Online Networking

A report form the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has found that facebook breaches Canadian privacy law. The report responds to 24 complaints, and while most were unfounded or resolved there are four cases that are of concern.

Here's a bit from the executive summary (bolding by me):

On the remaining subjects of third-party applications, account deactivation and deletion, accounts of deceased users, and non-users’ personal information, the Assistant Commissioner likewise found Facebook to be in contravention of the Act and concluded that the allegations were well-founded. In these four cases, there remain unresolved issues where Facebook has not yet agreed to adopt her recommendations. Most notably, regarding third-party applications, the Assistant Commissioner determined that Facebook did not have adequate safeguards in place to prevent unauthorized access by application developers to users’ personal information, and furthermore was not doing enough to ensure that meaningful consent was obtained from individuals for the disclosure of their personal information to application developers.

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

It's something I rarely think about as I generally avoid apps, but it makes me wonder how many third-party applications are created just to harvest users' information.

CBC has a good quote from Jordan Plener, the UOttawa student who filed the complaint on behalf of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.

"For a hangman application, for example, there is no use for the developer to know where the person lives or have their personal email address."

cbc.ca

That sounds on the money to me - but really, should we have any expectation of privacy at all on facebook? Our Minister Van Loan doesn't think so.

What do you think? Is it time we give up on protecting our personal information online?

Letting go of What you Know to Progress

Last night Wachtel on the Arts took over Ideas on CBC1, and her interview with Milton Glaser was pretty awesome.



Glaser is an artist - I say that because he is beyond being a designer. It can take a lot to get past design when you work in a commercial business, but Glasser's work has consistently been right at the front of the pack.

He and Wachtel discussed the approach and philosophies of Giorgio Morandi (under whom he studied) and Picasso.


Morandi's body of work is cohesive and well tied together, in stark contrast to Picasso's progression and variation through approaches and movements.

Glaser described really clearly what I find so fantastic about Picasso - and I'm sorry I can't find the exact quote - by praising his drive to abandon a style or pursuit once accomplished, and move on to something new.

He said "Once you've learned something, and you can do it, it's time to let it go and move on to the next thing."

I like that.

It's not the way to become a specialist, but it's a fantastic way to become an excellent generalist specialized in adaptation.

Adaptation, it makes us human.