Tripping

Imagine: Travelling a foreign city at exhaust level, ducking and weaving through the traffic.

Imagine: Anyone with a service to offer making the offer in person rather than by discreet advertising.

Imagine: Suffering from heat exhaustion and then catching a cold.

Imagine: Shopping malls that open only Monday to Friday.

Imagine: The time of your life but you can't say why because although you feel ill you totally love everything.

Imagine: Colours you last saw in dreams.

Imagine: Kindness that melts even your jaded heart.

Scary Art - Chris Jordan

This was retweeted by Douglas Coupland on Twitter. It is one of the most horrendous, vital things I have seen on the internet.

http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=11

Anybody who doubts that the human race is a wasteful, unthinking, stupid one can surely find it difficult to justify their worldview here. Those of us who know this will still find it shocking.

It certainly makes me wonder if consumerism can be sustained much longer. We read about cyanide-contaminated rivers and waste dumped into the sea by companies wishing to remain anonymous (their own, leaked, report is here). It certainly makes me wonder how far away a major rethink is.

Google Wave - again

I found out how to waste time with Google Wave. use the term "with:public" and search for public waves with whatever you like, e.g. "music spoon" gives you public waves that mention music and Spoon.

However, Wave is doing funny stuff at the moment, like saying I have 26 waves to read, all blank with no contact info or anything. Teething troubles, I know, but kind of annoying seeing as it's a semi public beta.

Video: Typhoon Aftermath

Basically wind and a very full Kandagawa River. Shot exactly one week ago.

Nice Weather for Ducks

What is it with Wednesdays lately? Last week there was a typhoon and this week it's thunder and lightning all over again.

It seems to coincide with masses of laundry and an empty-pantry situation too.

Google Wave - 754,322nd look

So, I finally got a chance to look at Google Wave, the new hi-tech email system thing from Google.

Is it any good?

Well, you can Twitter from it and then drag and drop individual tweets into waves to be commented on and further. Soon I'll be able to embed waves into blog posts, which for discussion-based blogs like Embarrassing LPs should be good when it eventually works.

So far I have one contact, which I suppose is what it must be like to be one of the first ever people to have email.

So to answer the 'Is it any good?' question, the answer is 'Let's wait and see.'

Top wish lists for Wave apps: something to integrate delicious.com; a flickr tool would be nice too.

Ants

Woke up the other morning and found I have a colony of ants, a small colony but a colony nonetheless, living in in my bathroom.

I used to have a fly problem. The flies are now gone. Ants are a bugger to get rid of too. There's a trap laid, with no takers for the poison.

Maybe next it'll be beetles who eat the ants. Or grasshoppers like in the film Antz. Insects are foul when they live in your house.

I am, however, thanking my lucky stars I haven't seen a cockroach for ages.

What Is Home To You? Follow Up

Madeleine Bunting in the Guardian. A really interesting article.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/04/home-localism-rootlessness

What is Home to You?

Part One


Part Two


Part Three


Part Four


Part Five