wArchives:

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wThe Locals and Beyond

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visits since 07/15/02 
wSaturday, July 13, 2002


I returned from seeing Star Wars Episode II: Attach of the Clones just now. I left the theatre and stepped into stifling heat under cloudy skies. It's like you need to grasp for breath. Anyway, I enjoyed the movie a lot more second time around. For some reason, having seen it once reduced greatly my expectations for a second viewing, and I was more relaxed as a result, getting caught up in the story.

I paid closer attention to detail, special effects, sound effects, etc. Marvelous all around. I ignored the wooden acting of Christensen and Portman, chalking that up to Lucas's direction - it's not their fault, they did what he wanted them to do. Both of them have proven they are better actors in other work they have done.

I can't get used to seeing Samuel L Jackson as Mace Windu, and seeing Victor Sifuentes - sorry - Bobby Simone - damn it - Jimmy Smits as Senator Organa didn't resonate well with me. Ah, petty complaints, all.

The heat affected my brain, and I still can't determine the connection between Jango Fett and the clone army. The clone army is modeled from Fett's DNA, yet the army becomes the property of the Republic - ok, fine, Obi-Wan had arrived, convincing the clone army creators that he presented the original buyer. Yet Fett is in cahoots with Count Dooku of the Federation.

I be confused so easily...so I read the information on Fett, and ... I'm still confused. Must be the heat. Dooku (as Tyranus, a decade earlier), had approached Jango with the offer of using him as the template for a clone army. So why was Dooku so surprised to learn that the Republic had a large army. Why didn't Fett tell him about Kenobi when he arrived on Geonosis? And why was Dooku building his own army of robots on Geonosis? When will the Red Sox win the World Series?

Why do I hear people telling me to get a life?

posted by Me at 6:37 PM


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There has been much debate over the issue of downloading music from the Internet via services like WinMX, KaZaA and Napster. I have mixed feelings about it as a member of the AFM and a librarian who supports copyright collectives virtually by default. However, I am on the side of free downloading, as I am able to listen to artists whose work I would otherwise ignore. I am able to find and burn onto CDs music that is long out-of-print, so to speak. I have also discovered music that I've downloaded, and subsquently purchased the CD to get more of that artist's work rather than spend time finding more to download. Unknown artists, who outnumber bands like Metallica a zillion to one, are able to get there music "out there", dramatically increasing the chances someone outside their geographic area might discover them. I found artists like Kate Schrock, Emmet Swimming, and Kristen Cifelli during times I was surfing the net. My best pal Jessica Owen uses the net for all its worth to spread her music to the masses.

I wonder if the music industry has considered the benefits of copyright collectives?

There are no easy answers to copying music onto CDs or cassettes. I do think that if the industry moves in the direction of selling only encrypted CDs, including ones that won't play in DVD players, then sound the death knell now. In any event, one of the strongest, albeit biased, arguments I've read in favour of free downloading is by Janis Ian, who as an artist who has been working for 35 years in the business, knows about what she speaks.

posted by Me at 7:26 AM


wFriday, July 12, 2002


With the temperature in the mid-30s (that's low 90s for my American friends), I am without energy to pursue the problems I am having with the archiving template and settings for Blogger. So I'm going to take a powder and pass for now.


posted by Me at 8:15 PM


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Edmonton is experiencing its fifth heat wave in 105 years. The temperature will hit 32C today, 34C tomorrow (93.2F), and 32 again on Sunday.

There was a fascinating article in NYTimes Magazine (June 16 2002, Page 49, Column 1) about a company in Quebec that takes a spinning gene from a spider and implants it into the egg of a female goat. When the goat begins lactating, the milk can be used to spin silk, which the company calls BioSteel (it is five times as strong as steel). As thin as nylon, the fabric created from the silk could stop a bullet. The article is called "Got Silk" by Lawrence Osborne. I can't link to the story because it is from the "Premium Archive", which means you need $ to look at it. Try to find it in a local library.

posted by Me at 9:07 AM


wThursday, July 11, 2002


So...what you are seeing below are all my posts dating back to Day 1, 3 July 02. I gave up trying to repair the first blog, and copied and pasted everything into a new one with the same name (the old one is blown away).

It is still 33C, and I'm roasting in my computer room. Time for a Corona and an episode of Six Feet Under.

posted by Me at 9:19 PM


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I am frustrated with parts of the blogging management feature. I seem to be unable to archive anything, and I've lost the posts from the first day, 3 July 2002. I have since learned that I had my settings set to keep one week's posts on the main page. However, since I can't determine how to make the archives function, I've reset it to 10 pages, and thus the 3 july 2002 posts have reappeared.

Since purchasing a 10'x10' blue canopy for my small backyard deck, I am spending more time under it reading and making notes, and less time looking at television. It feels like another room in my house has appeared. It is 33C here at the moment (91.4F) and sunny.

posted by Me at 9:18 PM


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On one of the website notification services to which I subscribe, I found this little gem: Nutrient Data Laboratory: The Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides detailed information about the nutritional values of more than a thousand foods here. Users may search by individual food, including many brand-name products, or by nutrient, e.g. calcium, fiber, and fat.

The Globe and Mail published an article two days ago about junk food that had frightening statistics on calories and fat content in things like Big Macs (590 cal, 34 gr fat), Tim Hortons chocolate dip donut (233 cal, 10 gr fat - can you ever eat just one!), Taco Bell Mucho Grande Nachos (1,320 cal, 82 gr fat). The only good news: Subway's Veggie Delite, 6 inch sandwich: 200 cal, 2 gr fat.


posted by Me at 9:17 PM


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Sitting and staring at the screen for inspiration isn't helping. I quickly scanned some of my favorite blogs to see what other brilliant commentary and observations are being written. But that's kind of like cheating while taking notes or something. This was an ok day. Once again, bbq'd burgers and had cherry pie for dessert. Continued reading Prager's book, and worked out for the third day in a row. As Bill Maher might say, "Who gives a rat's ass?"

Speaking of Maher, it's a shame ABC cancelled his show. Then I see on CNN today that Dennis Miller is ending his show. :-( Miller is my favorite entertainer, even if I can't get HBO because it's not permitted on Canadian cable.

I've just spent a fruitless 15 minutes looking for any report on the web about Miller ending his show. Can't find a thing, and checked all the right places (hey, it's what I do for a living...) (But now as I repost on 11 July, I did find something.)

posted by Me at 9:16 PM


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OK, so now I've changed it to a light blue background with dark blue links. I've also discovered that this page doesn't open up in earlier versions of Netscape. *sigh*

posted by Me at 9:13 PM


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I am frustrated because of my limited HTML skills. I would like to manipulate this page to change its appearance, and merge it somehow into my main site, which if you've been paying attention, has been changing a bit every week (including its name). All I've done so far is change the background colour to a solid teal for now. I've also changed the hover, active and visited colours of the links to a shade of red. Is it any easier to read? Please let me know if it works. Also, for some reason, clicking on the time I post something leads to a non-existent page. *sigh* Here's an example of the kind of layout I'd like to pursue for my own page.

posted by Me at 9:13 PM


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Kill me now.

posted by Me at 9:12 PM


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My friend Derryl Murphy sent a link to The Political Compass. I took the test, my score: Economic Left/Right: -6.25, Authoritarian/Libertarian: -4.2.

posted by Me at 9:10 PM


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A few items of interest... I recently purchased an item called a Creative PC-300 CAM, a webcam and digital camera. The price was a bargain - $115 Cdn. It takes 128 high resolution pictures (640 x 480), 255 low resolution pictures (320 x 240), 75 seconds of video, and about 34 minutes of audio only. It can take 5 high speed high res pix in a row, and has a timer. It also functions as a web camera.

Another book I want to read is Francis Fukuyama's Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution. Biotechnology is a hot research topic on our campus right now, in areas as diverse as chemical engineering and biological sciences. Fukuyama created a stir when he published an article called The End of History in The National Interest, Summer 1989. Three years later he expanded the discussion into a book called The End of History and the Last Man. Read the introduction. I haven't read the book, but a review can be found here.

What's up with this? Is this real? I didn't believe it at first, but damn it if you can't buy the gobbler at CD NOW. And Lesley Gore's website mentions it too. Lesley Gore singing Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap? Don Ho singing Shock the Monkey? It's the end of the world as we know it.

Nick Hornby on the World Cup

posted by Me at 9:09 PM


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It's late. It was a good day (7 July 02). I have heard from a few friends in reaction to this exercise of a blog. Thank you for responding, and hello New Jersey!

My friend Jessica Schoenberg is now known as Jessica Owen. Please check her site, and listen to clips from her recent work, and her upcoming new album. I'm so proud of her, and grateful for having worked on her first recording in 1994 when she still lived in Edmonton. I love her tons.

posted by Me at 9:09 PM


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I purchased a blue 10'x10' canopy this afternoon (7 July 02). Already I'm enjoying my back yard more than ever before.

posted by Me at 9:08 PM


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Apparently musicians are smart. I am a musician. I am, therefore, smart.

The trailer for the new Star Trek Nemesis movie is, well, engaging. The production values suggest it will be the best one yet. We'll see...

posted by Me at 9:08 PM


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Another Goobita influence is The Friday Five. Here are my answers:

1) What are you doing right now? Sitting in front of my computer at 12:28 am MDT. Just finished eating grapes and watching an episode of Six Feet Under on tape.

2) What have you lost recently? Hmm. I've misplaced a photo of my parents, but also lost my favorite, worn out cotton sweatshirt.

3) What was the first CD you ever purchased? Does that embarrass you now? I can't remember, but the first CD I acquired was Hejira by Joni Mitchell. Not a bit.

4) What is your favorite kind of writing pen? Probably a Uniball Micro blue.

5) What is your favorite ice cream flavour? Butterscotch.


I've finished 13 chapters of the Prager book. In Ch 12 he notes that "...many people avoid some of the things that would bring them the deepest happiness, such as marriage, children, intellectually challenging pursuits, religious commitment and volunteer work. They fear the pain that inevitably accompanies such things and therefore devote more time to "fun" things that bring little happiness, such as watching television". This describes me to some degree. (Ouch!).

posted by Me at 9:07 PM


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I am interested in ethics, and am looking forward to reading Randy Cohen 's The Good, The Bad & The Difference. Cohen writes a column called "The Ethicist" for the NY Times Magazine

posted by Me at 9:07 PM


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Saturday morning (6 July 02), great weather. Determined to read more of Prager's book today, and to work on an assignment given to me by a fitness/nutrition counsellor.

Cut to 1:00 pm...finished the assignment, made notes on first 10 chapters of the book. A good start!

I subscribe to this to help with my NYC obsession. The only problem is that I receive the weekly issue about 3-5 weeks after publication. :-( Thankfully, the Sunday NYTimes is in my mailbox on Sunday morning by 7:00 am!

posted by Me at 9:06 PM


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Saw Minority Report again tonight. It's about PreCrime, and it's good, very good, despite the flaws in the plot.

My father is an artist. Check it out. This is one of my favorites.

I have much reading to do, and continue to fall behind. I'm currently reading Joe Queenan 's Confessions of a Cineplex Hecker and Dennis Prager's Happiness is a Serious Problem. Next up is Michael Moore 's Stupid White Men. Now if only I could find the time. As for Moore's book, if you haven't heard, after 11 Sept 2001, his publisher wanted him to rewrite considerable parts of the book the publisher (Harper Collins) now considered offensive, else they wouldn't release it. (The book had already been printed). A librarian heard him speak about this in early December 2001, and posted messages to various listservs, rallying the library community around him. Read one of her initial postings.

Despite having been largely ignored in the book review community (which digusts me), the book has been #1 on the NYTimes Best Seller List, and has been reprinted at least 15 times.

posted by Me at 9:04 PM


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Thursday morning. Need sleep. The "euro" ad running in the UK is causing controversy.

posted by Me at 9:00 PM


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My first attempt at a blog. I don't even know at this moment if the information I entered a few minutes ago is correct. Anyway, credit to Laura (in Austin TX) and Geoff Harder in Edmonton for quietly inspiring me to try this (simply by my reading their blogs). Thanks. (Geoff, why isn't your page working?)

posted by Me at 8:57 PM


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Frustrated with trying to understand and make the archive work, and getting deeper and deeper into blog-quagmire, I've deleted the damn thing and am starting over, by reposting all the old stuff. Bear with me...

posted by Me at 8:55 PM



wWhatever

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Reading
Francis Fukuyama
Eric Schlosser
Joe Queenan

Listening
David Baerwald
Norah Jones John Mayer
Paul Westerberg