Month: January 2009

your neighbour’s house – part 1

Your neighbour’s house is burning, what do you do?
(I’ll get to that question in another post).

So there are people dying in Gaza. I hear 50% of them are women and children, this means the other 50% are men. There are a number of good resources as to what you can do.

There is also this: http://www.demandastance.com/gaza/. It allows you to find your government representative and send them an email (letter). There are American, Canadian and British versions.

So go ahead, use it. But don’t stop there. Pass it on, forward emails, blog about it, post it in message boards etc. Don’t spam, participate.

(To be continued…)

your nose

i saw someone with a nose
a nose that can only be described
as the nose you carry
perhaps you had lent it out
or maybe it’s the latest fashion
but it reminded me of you
as it should have
it was practically your nose

no strings attached: the way out

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9

The weather keeps getting heavier, the snow keeps falling, the roads and sidewalks keep getting slipperier. The street car stops to pick up more commuters. Harry, still seated, puts his palm against the glass and waits for a few seconds. He removes his hand and watches his palm take shape in the dew. He draws an octagon to enclose the shape of his palm.

For a moment Harry considers giving up his seat to someone else, but he doesn’t. He puts his elbows on his knees and his palms on his forehead. One of his palms is still a little wet. The level of the street car seems to sink with each climbing passenger. The doors close and one commuter, running as he tries to get to the doors, slips and falls. The street car moves on.

Harry reaches for his phone, one of his palms still supporting his forehead.

“You’ve reached Sam, and if you’re calling you probably know who I am”, says the recording, “Wait for the beep and leave a message, your odds might be better if you call again.”

“Hey, uh… it’s me. I know I said a few things today and I umm… I just wanted to…”, Harry pauses to take a deep breath and that very moment a giant, out of control construction truck collides with the street car in the spot where Harry was sitting.

Harry did not know what hit him.

THE END.

on creating

I posted this a whiles back and I don’t think it’s gotten to me quite yet as much as it should. It’s good, so it’s worth re-quoting:

when you don’t create things, you become defined by yours tastes rather than your ability. your tastes only narrow and exclude people. so create.

_why

It’s interesting, this process of “creation”. It’s odd, this desire to create something. Something that is beyond me. It doesn’t have to be done alone, in fact it is probably better done in collaboration. Something that people love and something that I love. It doesn’t have to be big, it doesn’t have to have my name plastered over it. It just has to be. But I don’t know what that something is. No idea.

The other thing about creating is the concept of good and bad. The concern that what I create needs to be “good” sometimes prevents me from getting started at all. That is probably not a good thing. At the same time, I get started on a lot of not so good things too. So I suppose it balances out. But that’s the thing! To get started regardless of good or bad, regardless of how big or small. To just get started and to just create.

But creating is not good enough, because practise alone does not make “perfect”. There has to be a feedback loop of some sort. You create, pause, observe, listen, reflect, and recreate. And repeat. I think.

I need to get back into the flow and create stuff.

The Matrices

From 2004:

Note from now: I’d be interested in watching the last two movies again at some point to see if I still think the same.

Name: The Matrices
Directed and Written By: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
Type: Science Fiction, Action
Year: 1999-2003
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving.

Hmmm… what can I say?
This movie has become an icon for ages to come. “Witty” one-liners, never before seen action and computer graphics, wowing people off their seats.
That was the first movie.
Almost nobody got it until they saw it for the 4th time. That’s because people stopped paying attention to the story line and looked for the action more, because the story line is rather clear. Humans connected to massive computer which gives them an illusion of reality.

The first movie was good, but let’s not forget it has it’s share of cheese. Like the scene where Trinity (Carrie-Anne) kisses Neo (Keanu) in real life, and he wakes up from death in The Matrix. Cheese.

First movie gets an 8.5/10.

I held my judgement for Reloaded, I said to myself, “it’s the first part of a two part movie, so let’s not judge it yet”.
Then I saw Revolutions. I was disappointed. I think I hated the movie. It was horrible. The only part that was worth watching was when Neo is trapped in the train station, when we finally get to see some brown people. Other than that, Hugo Weaving who plays Agent Smith did a real good job in the two movies until it came to the last scene, which was royally screwed up by the Brothers.

The last two movies get a combined 3/10.

Possible Spoilers

Why is Trinity’s “residual self-image” so ugly?

When Neo fights Agent Smith in the second movie, and eventually flies away, why doesn’t Agent Smith fly after him? Seeing as he can fly freely in Revolutions.

Why haven’t the oh so smart machines figured out a way to get over the clouds and harness that solar energy?
Or why haven’t they machines made a mega fan that blows away these clouds? Surely that would be easier than destroying Zion every so often.

Why does Neo see Agent Smith with sunglasses when he goes blind?

Why does Neo say “There’s too many” while destroying the sentinals? When is “too many” too many for our The “I can can see when I’m blind” One.

Why didn’t the Oracle see her shell change coming?

Why can Sati (the Indian girl) control the Sun in the end of the movie? Is the martix going haywire? Why can’t Seraph control the trees in that case?

Why don’t the machines just use a powerful bomb to destroy zion? why do they have to only use bullets?

I can go on forever.

Overall series: 6.5/10

no strings attached: 1 year ago – the way around

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9

Samantha opened the door that now read “Fire Ex”, but everyone knew what it meant and everyone knew it wouldn’t set off the alarm. She found Harry to her right.

“Hey Sam, what’s up?”, said Harry, letting the ashes from his cigarette hit the ground.

“Don’t start with me! I’m furious right now. Harry, you can’t just mouth off like that in a meeting. You just can’t.”

“I think I just did.”

“Yeah, you did. We’re going to have to try real hard to dig out of this one. You’re making things difficult.”

“You know what? You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“Are you really?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Good, and can you blow the smoke in that direction?”, said Samantha as she pointed away.

“Sorry.”

“I had a dream about you the other day”, said Samantha, in a calmer tone.

“Oh?”

“You were trapped, in chains.”

“Hah, doesn’t feel like a dream.”

“But then you got out. You broke out of the chains.”

“What do you think that means?”

“I don’t know. I think it means you’ll be fine. I think it means you’ll find a way.”

“I hope so”, Harry pulled a cigarette half way and held the pack out toward Samantha.

“No”, said Samantha, with a slightly irritated look on her face, “You know I quit a while ago.”

a word, a call

From Haroon Moghul:

Remember, when you call or write media, the need of the hour is a ceasefire. All life is sacred, and civilians cannot and must not be targeted on either side. Condemnation that is one-sided is fundamentally flawed; respectfully, the conflict has causes and solutions, but right now, the first step is a cessation of violence. A three-hour ceasefire is not a ceasefire, it is buying time to keep up an onslaught that cannot distinguish between combatant and non-combatant, as Gaza is a severely crowded and remarkably tiny strip of land.

Find out, and just call/email.

Postal Code:

 

no strings attached: 3 years ago – the way up

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9

It was another late night at the office for Harry, another tight project.

“You know why I’m here, right?” said Samantha, as she walked up to Harry’s desk.

“Yeah.”

“So you know what to do.”

“I don’t want to.”

“That’s nice, and I want a second season of Firefly, but that’s not going to happen. But this, you can make this happen. All you have to do is add the analysis to the proposal and they’ll probably approve it.”

“I shouldn’t have to. That’s time wasted doing analysis that should be obvious.”

“Listen kiddo, I’m on your side here. You give a little, you get a little. Hell, you might even get a lot. You just have to make the extra effort, even if it obvious to you. You don’t make the effort, you get nothing. I assure you that.”

“Okay.”

“So you know what to do. Don’t make me come back here.”

Steve Steeples was the man to convince at the proposal presentation.

“Hmmm… yeah, I think it’s doable. Great analysis Harry,” said Steve, everyone in the room started to loosen their grips on the chairs and slowly emptied the room.

Samantha approached Harry with a smirk on her face.

“You can say it, say ‘I told you so’” said Harry.

“I won’t,” replied Samantha.

“They’re all idiots anyway.”

music and reading

I’m finding now that I’ve stopped listening to music while I’m reading on the subway and this allows me to concentrate and read more.

Oddly enough, I think this is something that would apply to other situations. That if you listen to music because you think it makes you more productive in what you’re doing, it probably doesn’t. Unless you’re exercising or jogging, but if you’re doing something that requires using your brain, thinking and reflecting, then music doesn’t help all that much.

Or so it seems.