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These are my daily musing, where I list pages I've started each day. Some I will extend later. Some not. This page should serve as a record and chronology of my thoughts throughout the day. At least to some degree. It's much less formal than my blog. If Perpetual Draft is a compost heap of my ideas, this is where I do the pitching and turning.
16 February 2006
We received by email this war story. Very moving.
Just discovered Hidden Connections by Fritjof Capra. Love Capra's other works. And I finally found a copy of TheWikiWayByLeufAndCunningham. Been waiting to own a copy of this for a while.
Watching Tucker Carlson's Olympic Overview Show. It's actually really interesting. Very loose, but informative.
How's this for a Damn Interesting story lead:
Had some trouble with Category page listing my TheWikiWayByLeufAndCunningham page. Turns out, I had a filter in the pagelist directive that was filtering PmWiki and I think "Pm" and "Wiki" got separately filtered, thus removing the Wiki Way title from the Books Category listing...How ironic?
I like the Snowboard Cross event. BMX racing on snowboards. Very cool. And the Skeleton event makes the Luge look sane. Headfirst, 85 MPH, two inches off the ice. If that ain't insane...
HillbillyVasectomy - Hilarious! Passed to us by a Port-a-gee from Arkansas
The Long and Short of Olympic US Skater Evan Lysacek
17 February 2006
While writing about the book HiddenConnections, I was reminded of Isaac Asimov's story The Last Question.
What is the value of an imperfect memory...for humans and computers?
What we say...
White Balance in photography is something I'm not clear on. I understand about color temperature and film, but I haven't thought through how this translates to digital images. Looks like this article could help me understand it. Got it from http://www.pixes.com/, which looks like a blog with a photography feed from somewhere. Pretty simple...Or maybe it's not a feed. Could be hand selected from feeds. Anyway, looks like a good source of photography articles.
18 February 2006
War Stories Correction
About my relative's war stories, I found out that originally it was reported he flew in a B-52. Now, I'm told by other military family, that it was a B-17. B-52's were not around during WWII. Production didn't even start on B-52s until the mid 1950's. (Is it 's or just s ?) Correction made. Unfortunately, poor Carl can't confirm because he died in a car crash in Texas quite a few years ago. We only have the failing memory of family to fill in, and perhaps embellish, these stories. Which brings me back to the question of yesterday: What is the value of 'imperfect memories in humans and computers? I still haven't begun an answer.
We Come From an Unbroken Line of Cells
I read more of HiddenConnections. More a re-view. I'm still struck by the obviousness of Capras observation, that we come from an unbroken line of cells and not just DNA. DNA by itself is nothing. It's not alive. It's a component of a living system (for lack of a better word), composed of the cell AND it's environment. The two, cell and environment, are key. They have no meaning OR consequence separated.
Perpetual Draft My Online Memory
This is becoming an form of memory, an online memory of me. Which AGAIN gets me to the question: What is the value of an imperfect memory in humans and computers?
19 February 2006
RecoveringScratchedCDOrDVD - Suggests using toothpaste as a cleaner, though it notes it could create some minor scratches. Might be worth trying...carefully.
20 February 2006
Hubble Heritage Image Gallery - Gallery of selected Hubble images, thumbnails. Gorgeous! Awe-inspiring, breath-taking are both too weak to convey their impact. I know these are enhanced images, and the colors are not "real." But it's still astounding stuff. Makes me feel small. Makes the universe seem gargantuine.
According to psychotherapist Steven Hayes (and Buddha), HappinessIsNotNormal.
21 February 2006
Did early humans socialise to avoid getting eaten??
22 February 2006
To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.
~ Robert Pirsig
Sanity is not truth. Sanity is conformity to what is socially expected. Truth is sometimes in conformity, sometimes not.
~ Robert Pirsig
23 February 2006
mystagogue 1. One who prepares candidates for initiation into a mystery cult. 2. One who holds or spreads mystical doctrines.
par·si·mo·ny n. 1. Unusual or excessive frugality; extreme economy or stinginess. 2. Adoption of the simplest assumption in the formulation of a theory or in the interpretation of data, especially in accordance with the rule of Ockham's razor.
sar·to·ri·al - Pronunciation Key (sär-tôr-l, -tr-) adj. Of or relating to a tailor, tailoring, or tailored clothing: sartorial elegance. ''' pa·tri·cian''' (p-trshn) n. 1. A person of refined upbringing, manners, and tastes. 2. A member of an aristocracy; an aristocrat. 3. A member of one of the noble families of the ancient Roman Republic, which before the third century B.C. had exclusive rights to the Senate and the magistracies. 4. Used as a title for members of a class of honorary nobility appointed by the Byzantine emperors. 5. A member of the hereditary ruling class in the medieval free cities of Italy and Germany.
I was reading The Soul's Code: In search of Character and Calling by James Hillman. In lieu of a preface, he presents a small collection of quotations. Here are my favorites.
And this by Nabokov is...beautiful
We watch entirely too much TV at home. I need to get one of those generaters hooked up to a stationary bicycle, so we'd need to bicycle to power the television...I know that kind of thing exists. Need to research it. It's the Olympics! I'm hooked!
24 February 2006
Watching Curling, a very strange Olympic sport. The object is to slide a granite "stone" down an alley of ice, resting as close as possible to a bulls-eye at the other end. Two teams of four slide eight stones per team, alternating turns. It's a lot like shuffleboard, if I remember that game right. Consequently, curling seems like an old folks' game. It's quite cerebral, more so than a lot of the other sports I've been watching during the Olympics. The pace is slow and the players polite. Lots of strategy and discussion. As such, it's not much of an American sport. But those on our northern border just love it, and they have just won Olympic gold over Finland. Viva la Canada!
To learn more, explore CurlingBasics.com.
Wikipedia Pictures
Found some beautiful images on wikipedia. They have a featured pictures section where members vote for great pictures to be featured each day. I love this image of Antarctica. And this one of broccoli. Here's one of deer at night surrounded by a wild fire. Here's a beauty of a natural arch.
Here's an interesting one of the Himalayas, however what makes it interesting is that it was taken from the international space station. Amazing. Here's one of the international space station itself.
And here's the Jupiter's Io moon.
For my morbid curiousity, the Wikipedia Feb. 2006 death page and a site featuring celebrity deaths.
27 February 2006
Watched Lord of War with Nick Cage, directed by Andrew Niccol, who did GATTACA and The Truman Show. Stellar.