The buddha board is fascinating. I doodle aimlessly. I think, ah, that looks like a small balsa airplane. I try to make it look more lake a small balsa airplane, and it immediately looks ten times worse.
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04:05:02 PM,
Tuesday 31 July 2007
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I have a Buddha Board. It's delightful; a thin clay tablet that you 'paint' with water. Much of my problem with sketching has always been hiding the evidence. The website is also delightful, but along a rather different axis. Beware, it has sound. It's one of those things, where you have to respect it somewhat for being such a thorough-going and whole-hearted whatever it is.
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09:39:10 PM,
Monday 30 July 2007
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Car Talk, the animated series, which is an appalling notion. The laugh track should consist entirely of them. Speaking of local celebrities, I just discovered that Sven Birkerts, who some of you will remember from his rather striking lecture, lives in town. In case you've forgotten him, this extract from his defense of print book reviews should remind you.
For as exciting as the blogosphere is as a supplement, as a place of provocation and response, it is too fluid in its nature ever to focus our widely diverging cultural energies. A hopscotch through the referential enormity of argument and opinion cannot settle the ground under our feet._
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03:53:22 PM, Monday 30 July 2007
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The trouble with exaggeration is not that "IT IS SO WRONG AND MEEEEAN" as a wise person once said. It is that it makes conversation impossible difficult and antagonistic. I feel as though the purpose of it is to silence. Overstating a case does a couple things. First, it invites people who want to disagree to mistake the exaggerist for one of their collection of strawmen. People are always ready not to take each other seriously. Secondly, it puts people who want to talk in a bind. They know the exaggerist don't actually mean what they said, but don't really know what they mean. If they point out the obvious silliness of the statement, then the exaggerist takes it as disagreement with what they meant. So normally they just let it go. This helps make everyone silent and stupid, and creates at atmosphere where people speak only in anger, and thought becomes something done in private, with thoughts only to be lobbed over the wall when it's properly armored.
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(39)
09:22:53 AM,
Monday 30 July 2007
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inflatable sailboat! I could put a sail on my kayak! They sell plans! This is not a sensible use of resources.
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(1)
08:09:36 PM,
Saturday 28 July 2007
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Also, last week I saw someone sailing some kind of crazy homemade sailboat with a lanteen rig and a sail made out of tarps, which made me happy.
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07:42:35 PM,
Saturday 28 July 2007
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It turns out those people messing around out on Spy Pond every summer in kayaks between nets are a serious Kayak Polo club, with several national championships and people on the national team. There is a tournament this weekend. I think I'll go out there and watch tomorrow.
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07:29:44 PM,
Saturday 28 July 2007
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That someone holds ideas you can't accept, this is not a symptom. They do not suffer from an underlying syndrome that needs to be analyzed. Address their ideas and not their childhood traumas. That is all. (I was reading an example of the pathologicizing of black conservatism, ie. what is wrong with Clarance Thomas, but it applies everywhere, in politics, history and religion) It's an easy way of belittling people and skirting the real issues without engaging with them.
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(18)
01:38:11 PM,
Friday 27 July 2007
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There should be some way to build a garbage compartment in refrigerators, so you could throw food away without having it spoil.
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05:27:51 PM,
Thursday 26 July 2007
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Since I've started working at home, I've stopped wearing shoes. I like the theory that this it should make my feet happier and healthier, but unfortunately for the past two weeks my right heel seems to have developed some sort of injury which isn't going away, and is making walking a bit uncomfortable.. I've cut out the DDR completely, but it still isn't better. It seems to match the description of Plantar Fasciitis pretty well. But the notion of actually wearing shoes really doesn't appeal. Though it isn't shoes exactly. I've got shoes that don't massacre my wide toes too badly. The real trouble is that I dislike socks. This is all to say, if I start wearing crocs, please try to find it in your heart to forgive me.
But I'm really quite put out about this. I really bought into the "shoes are unnatural and abhorrent" thing. I don't like that my feet can't operate properly without them.
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(24)
03:57:28 PM,
Wednesday 25 July 2007
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Types of dragonflies on the pond:
little blue damselflies with black tails
medium red dragonflies with double wings that never seem to land
Big green dragonflies
Big black dragonflies with electric blue bits
little red damselflies
Almost certainly others as well.
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(2)
04:43:22 PM,
Sunday 22 July 2007
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What with all the excitement, I nearly forgot: 2 cygnets gone since last week, both pairs are down to 3. The near pair are now large-duck sized. The white one is pretty spectacular, and th far pair are practically tame. No pictures, though.
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11:58:55 PM,
Saturday 21 July 2007
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site & script courtesy of Moss
