Archives: February 2005
Mon Feb 28, 2005
Checking Out
I wrote this last weekend, but forgot to post it:
Susie Bright wrote a wonderful tribute to Hunter S. Thompson today. I didn't read too many of his books, but his writing influenced me, as it did all of us who were young journalists back when "New Journalism" was still new. She also wrote something interesting about the end of life for all of us.
More...
[4] comments (1304 views) | link
Sat Feb 26, 2005
Knots
Something else I'll probably have to wait until I'm retired to dorf around with : drawing celtic knots. I found a great article in a pagan magazine that shows in detail how to draw them.
[2] comments (596 views) | link
Found: A Favorite Author
One reason I lost interest in reading science fiction after college is because nothing later seemed to be as good as these three books: "Titan," "Wizard," and "Demon" (aka the Gaea trilogy) by John Varley. I was excited when one of his stories was made into a movie, "Millennium" until I watched it and learned along with everyone else, that it was crap. After than disaster, I figured that we would never see a movie made of the the Gaea stories. For a few years after that, I would periodically look around for other books by him, but eventually gave up. This was long before the web, of course. I don't remember why, but last night I thought to google "John Varley", and found his website, a long list of novels new to me, and the news that the movie rights to Gaea are not yet sold. More...
[1] comments (605 views) | link
Thu Feb 24, 2005
Century-Old Color Photographs
Via Chas Clifton, here is an exhibit at the Library of Congress: the photographs of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, photographer to the Tsars. The photographer used color filters to create three plates per photograph, and then projected them as a single color image.
[2] comments (584 views) | link
International Coalition of the Willing Humor
This blogger didn't site the source, but it is pretty fun. More...
[4] comments (509 views) | link
Wed Feb 23, 2005
A Landing in Oakland
Let's say you find yourself in downtown Oakland with the day at your disposal and a need for a fast and free internet connection. Let's say that you'd like to eat, and you'd like to be comfortable. Then walk directly to Jahva House on at 1428 Alice Street. Its just up from Lakeside Drive, and down the street from the library.
[4] comments (677 views) | link
Tue Feb 22, 2005
The Grammarian Remembered
Eleanor Gould, the Grammarian of the New Yorker for fifty-four years, has died. She is not as famous or infamous as Hunter S. Thompson, but I believe she shaped writers and their writing more.
[4] comments (537 views) | link
An Honest Publisher is Hard to Find
Many years ago, when I was a famous writer, one of my publishers was Cecelia Tan, who founded Circlet Press. Go there now and see if any of her books would interest you. They probably wouldn't really interest me, anymore, but I never know about you. Today I received a check from her for $54.72! More...
[5] comments (769 views) | link
Sun Feb 20, 2005
Small World: Two Examples
Just through I'd record two coincidences I experienced today. More...
[3] comments (583 views) | link
Sat Feb 19, 2005
My Final SLC Adventure: Gilgal Garden
I've put off writing about what happened at Gilgal Garden because I wasn't sure that I wanted write about it. Sometimes an event in life is so pleasant and magical that I choose to let it fade into memory rather than fix it into words. I decided to share the adventure in Gilgal anyway. More...
[1] comments (669 views) | link
Fri Feb 18, 2005
Utah Is for Committed Lovers
Imagine how excited I was to learn that Utah was celebrating "Marriage Week." More...
[2] comments (597 views) | link
Salt Lake City Trip: Collected Posts
For my own--and perhaps others'-- convenience, here are the links to all my posts from my recent trip to Salt Lake City. More...
[2] comments (601 views) | link
SLC: The Technical Part
I posted my notes on the Internet2 Joint Tech's meeting I was attending in Salt Lake City on my work-related website.
[0] comments (580 views) | link
Providing Physical Security
University of Utah created a solution to the problem of people stealing those cute hair-dryer iMacs. I'm sure the design is functional, but my natural anthropomophizing made me wince. More...
[0] comments (519 views) | link
SLC: Tree Shrine
One night while I was in Salt Lake City, I decided to return to the Oasis Cafe because the brunch I had there was so good. I got off at the Trolly Trax stop, and at 600 E and about 300 S I saw this: More...
[0] comments (833 views) | link
Wed Feb 16, 2005
Plural Marriage and Drug Wars
In the Temple Square area of Salt Lake City is still preserved The Beehive, Brigham Young's home and office. Tours are free and frequent, and I joined one. I recommend doing this the next time you are in Salt Lake. Listen, and keep your mouth shut. More...
[0] comments (589 views) | link
SLC: Temple Square
One thing I noticed about the LDS Temple and the smaller "Ward Chapels" is that they are not topped by crosses. The other christian churches stand out because they have the usual symbols that are unnoticeable in other cities. More...
[1] comments (661 views) | link
Tue Feb 15, 2005
SLC: Notes on the Natural World
The University of Utah where I'm staying (and working) is in the hills on the eastern side of the city. The pass of the Donnor Party and other pioneers is quite near to here. On Saturday, it snowed; one of the few time's I've experienced snow falling from the sky. More...
[1] comments (601 views) | link
Mon Feb 14, 2005
Fort Douglas, Utah
I'm staying at the University of Utah, in an area called Fort Douglas. More...
[0] comments (833 views) | link
Salt Lake City: a Few Observations
Firstly, I really like visiting this city. I had time to walk around downtown Friday afternoon, and Sunday morning because there was nothing on the conference program. The streets are wide, but not crowded. The streetcar is clean and easy to ride, and convenient to the University of Utah, where I am staying. The city seems old, and prosperously old. There is a quality to the houses and the public buildings that I'm not used to. And I haven't seen many bums, except at the library. More...
[0] comments (585 views) | link
Salt Lake City
I'm in Salt Lake City right now, at a conference for work. I don't have net access in my room, or even in the University Guest House lobby, although it seems to work for others. But until now I haven't had a chance to sit and write while on the net. I have been making some notes on my adventures here, however. I've had some time to sitesee, and have been reading a book with a remarkable connection to the Book of Mormon. Completely coincidentally, of course.
[0] comments (587 views) | link
Tue Feb 08, 2005
The Brain is Not the Mind
On the day I found Nina Graboi's memoir, I also found Ralph Abraham's "Chaos, Gaia, and Eros" on a shelf near it. I happened to recognize that Abraham's was one of the books that had been in her library. At the same moment, another book caught my eye: "The Sense of Being Stared At" by Rupert Sheldrake. The book seemed to be speaking its title to me, as since the book itself, as I looked at, it was experiencing the sense of being stared at. weird. More...
[0] comments (609 views) | link
Mon Feb 07, 2005
Sight and Vision
Here's another clue in the mystery about the mind and the brain. The New Scientist reports on experiments looking at how a man who has been blind since birth is also a brilliant painter. More...
[0] comments (581 views) | link
Santa Cruz County Gov't Loves Gays
I received this from my local gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered alliance group: Valentines for Our Allies Because our elected officials in Santa Cruz have been very supportive of our fight for marriage equality, we don?t see a need to protest them, but to thank them by bringing or sending them Valentines. (Protesting one's allies on an issue about which they've been supportive is both rude and counterproductive; we're very grateful that we can thank them, instead.) More...
[2] comments (666 views) | link
Sun Feb 06, 2005
Neighborly Diversity
Today my next-door-neighbor's cat met our across-the-street neighbor's iguana. More...
[8] comments (1344 views) | link
People's Bank
The People's Bank building is one of my favorites downtown. It hasn't had a good tenant since the I.D. went out of business. Last weekend, as the sun set it, reflected off the old "County Bank" building across the street, and I thought it looked even prettier. More...
[0] comments (603 views) | link
Easy To Understand
I work on a project that has a security plan that is illustrated by this photo.
[0] comments (509 views) | link
The Gayest Thing
Via Metafilter: bloggers post the gayest thing they have every done: Part One and Part Two
[0] comments (484 views) | link
You Knew, But You Didn't Know
Stories about gay cartoon characters always crack me up.
[0] comments (461 views) | link
Fri Feb 04, 2005
Ireland's Brigit at Broadway and Van Ness
The day MacWorld ended, I was on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco and saw a church I had never seen before: St. Brigid's. I had been reading about St. Brigid, the Saint of Ireland, and her life as Brigit, the deity of Ireland, where fire has burned in her honor for thousands of years. More...
[1] comments (749 views) | link
MacMini Review from the PeeCee side
I thought this essay was hilarious. I heard about it via MacSlash, where some people didn't realize it was satire.
[0] comments (463 views) | link
Wed Feb 02, 2005
Link Madness
I don't usually offer my readers lots of links, but today I have a small list of them. I stopped in at the Help Desk to test something, and shot the breeze for a while with the Help Desk technician there, an undergraduate. He told me about some of his favorite websites. More...
[2] comments (547 views) | link