Letting the days go by

Life in the Lego Garden

2007-06-21T13:49:00.000-04:00

What are you doing?

2007-06-06T12:44:00.000-04:00

bring your brain on-line

2007-06-04T21:36:00.000-04:00

. . . the human brain can be visualized as a complex interacting network that relies on nodes to efficiently convey information from place to place. Very few jumps are necessary to connect any two nodes . . .

"This so-called 'small world' property allows for the most efficient connectivity," said Dante Chialvo, a physiologist at Northwestern University. Other networks -- social and biochemical -- rely on the same principle.

suddenly it all makes sense

2007-06-03T02:05:00.000-04:00

It's time for an upgrade to wizmical web 2.0

This blog remains as a more traditional part of the ever-expanding fuzzy network of wizzy websites.

I've also added some new venues for quicker and easier posting, joined some "social" networks so I can have more friends, and generally emerged from the dinosaur age.

the Atlantean paradigm

2007-05-15T10:49:00.000-04:00

As stated in scripture, the "Holy City / New Jerusalem" is built of cubits.

thus spoke vonnegut

2007-04-14T11:57:00.000-04:00

"A key to great writing, he added, is to never use semi-colons. What are they good for? What are you supposed to do with them? You're reading along, and then suddenly, there it is. What does it mean? All semi-colons do is suggest you've been to college.

Make sure, he added, that your reader is having a good time. Get to the who, when, where, what right away, so the reader knows what is going on.

---

Live one day at a time. Say 'if this isn't nice, I don't know what is!'

You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.

The greatest peace, Vonnegut wraps up, comes from the knowledge that I have enough. Joe Heller told me that.

I began writing because I found myself possessed. I looked at what I wrote and I said 'How the hell did I do that?'

We may all be possessed. I hope so."

- Kurt Vonnegut , 11/11/22 - 4/11/07

voluntary simplicity

2007-03-13T12:35:00.000-04:00

"I think like an alcoholic bottoms out on alcohol, consumers have started to bottom out on consumerism. We had a free conference at USC recently for Seeds of Simplicity, a voluntary simplicity movement group...people were lined up outside to get in. There’s a great hunger for this. People find themselves working two jobs, trying to make more money; chasing what they feel is their dream. Then they finally sit down one day and say, “What is this dream? Wait a minute! What I’m working harder for is a second home, a third DVD player, a third car...But that isn’t what I really want.” What people really want is to spend more time with their family, to spend more time painting or playing the flute or whatever it is that brings them joy. People are getting fed up with the orgy of consumerism, and they try to do less. That’s the great thing about the voluntary simplicity movement: All are welcome." - Ed Begley, Jr.

chillin with Ganesh

2007-03-06T20:24:00.000-05:00

planet X

2007-01-31T13:15:00.000-05:00

"X11 operating code language is standard protocol for advanced computing systems as well as stable networked communications. Since most planetary affairs are completely interdependant on this architecture, this in a most literal way reveals we have migrated a large portion of a previous reality to planet X"
- HAL

turn and face the music

2007-01-16T09:14:00.000-05:00

This Battle of Armageddon is a test for both the Man and the Magi, who are centre-linked as one. It is no place for the timid cave-men of the Lower Kingdom. They are heading for extinction. Our job is to gather up survivors and tell them about the new world, and the whole new way of life we bring, when they will be as angels, not as men. 9.11

Armageddon is a one on one war. 7.5

Armageddon is simply a series of images competing for domination of the human psyche. 3.7

cf. The Cube

the end game

2007-01-14T22:47:00.000-05:00

turn light into weight into speed
- WGB

"This thickness of the left brain cement is horrendous. My most loving mother had carefully explained that getting a good job is the way to make progress in life. Dad had been a Civil Servant and this is what my ambition should rightfully be. Looking back in the rear view mirror it is clear to see that generations of parents had instilled the same goals of "getting ahead" in their offspring. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS! Education gets you ahead in the consumers race! is the cry of the left-brain cement head.

Wheel and Whoa! Stop and think for a moment my Action Core friends. Come out of the house of bondage and lets go up to the Observation Deck of the MOTHERSHIP. On the Observation deck we can see that the Light Beings have everyone's vibe-phone number. Anyone can tune in when their inner turbulence has died away and the line is not always busy with left-side roof brain chatter. Anyone, that is, who has broken free of the dominance of invisible mandarins and is not enshrined in solid left-brain bureaucratic cement.

As the MOTHERSHIP starts pulling away from her moorings it causes a lot of turbulence down-under as the tidal wave of light hitting the earth shakes up the cocoon of the Cosmic Egg that we have been nurtured in. The cement starts cracking, light comes in through the cracks; the egg-shell becomes transparent. Then comes the qwiff-pop reaction. The WEIGHT of bureaucracy starts shifting as the magnetic tug overcomes the gravitational drag."

- Cosmic Cube, Circuit 8.6

wikipiphany

2007-01-06T22:24:00.000-05:00

Happy epiphany everybody! It's a balmy day in Astroland.

today at coney island beach

The Magi have returned, bearing cosmic cubes (and working round the clock to complete the wikification of the known universe . . . before time runs out).

Just take your hands off the throttle to receive your gifts - we've entered the noosphere at warp speed and we passed mountains of gold frankincense and myrrh ten minutes ago!

please note: Rome has dictated a drag coefficient of 666 for all starships in the empire - but you hold the original blueprints, and the reality warping powers to make it so: light into weight into speed!

ye are machines?

2006-12-30T17:26:00.000-05:00

- Light Bulb by Eric Drooker

"THE human brain is, in surprising part, an appliance powered by electricity. It constantly generates about 12 watts of energy, enough to keep a flashlight glowing. It works by sending out electrical impulses — bursts of power running along the cellular wires of the nervous system — to stimulate muscles into motion or thought into being."

Ghosts in the Machine,
Op-Ed by Deborah Blum, NY Times, December 30, 2006

or maybe this

2006-12-29T17:06:00.000-05:00

embrace genetic mutation . . .

it's your destiny

This is what they meant

2006-12-22T20:25:00.000-05:00

Power

2006-05-19T07:36:00.000-04:00

When they said, "You are gods", this isn't what they meant:

Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

By the way, when approving the Chief Executive's recommendation to build more fences and install electronic surveillance along our borders, has anyone considered that fences keep people in too?

Buckle up - this could be a rough ride

2006-05-15T09:10:00.000-04:00

Ever been stopped at a checkpoint? In the U.S.? I have, on several occasions since the 9/11 paradigm shift: once on the interstate in VT - looking for drug runners; and once on a country road in NC - looking for drunk drivers.

We used to think that kind of thing was reserved for communist countries or war zones. Now it's happening right here and we seem to accept it for the reasons given.

"The 'Click It or Ticket' campaign involves checkpoints, patrols and advertisements to help enforce seat belt laws. It runs from May 22 through June 4."

Got feeds?

2006-05-10T22:48:00.000-04:00

Google Reader makes it easy to get your favorite web pages from anywhere (especially if you have a google account).

Psalm of Extinction

2006-05-08T22:22:00.000-04:00

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

- Psalm 8:5-8, KJV

Geneva, Switzerland, 2 May 2006 (IUCN) – The total number of species declared officially Extinct is 784, and a further 65 are only found in captivity or cultivation. Of the 40,177 species assessed using the IUCN Red List criteria, 16,119 are now listed as threatened with extinction.

This includes one in three amphibians and a quarter of the world’s coniferous trees, on top of the one in eight birds and one in four mammals known to be in jeopardy.

The 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species brings into sharp focus the ongoing decline of the earth’s biodiversity and the impact mankind is having upon life on earth.

President Bush makes his own laws

2006-05-03T22:26:00.000-04:00

'There may as well soon not be a Congress. . . . And I think that most members don't understand what's happening."

- Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee

Deconstructing Time and Money

2006-04-08T20:34:00.000-04:00

Instead of observing movement through the linear, mechanical lens of "time", allow yourself to invoke movement through passionate, creative, powerful, playful exploration.

Instead of observing power through the linear, mechanical lens of "money", allow yourself to invoke power through passionate, creative, powerful, playful exploration. Abolish "work", and set yourself free.

Life Imitates Art -Vendetta in Belarus

2006-03-25T11:00:00.000-05:00

By STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writer

MINSK, Belarus - Riot police clashed with protesters in the Belarusian capital Saturday, forcing demonstrators back and hitting several with truncheons. Four explosions were heard, apparently percussion grenades set off by police.

The clash broke out after a line of riot police blocked the path of hundreds of protesters heading to a jail where demonstrators arrested in previous protests were being held. Police beat their shields with truncheons and advanced on the crowd.

The protesters began to disperse, yelling: "Fascists!" But police detained some 20 people and loaded them into large trucks.

At least two people were seen lying on the ground after the clash, apparently seriously hurt. An ambulance came to pick up the injured.

The main opposition candidate in the vote, Alexander Milinkevich, denied media reports that he himself was detained.

He told The Associated Press that his spokesman, Pavel Mazheika, was detained in a separate incident. Milinkevich went to a precinct house to attempt to secure his release.

"No, I have not been detained," he said. "I came to the (police precinct house) to help my press secretary, who was carrying equipment and was detained," he said.

However, Alexander Kozulin, an opposition leader who called on protesters to head to the jail after the rally, was beaten and detained during the clash, his spokeswoman, Nina Shidlovskaya said.

The violence came after an opposition rally drew thousands of Belarusians peacefully in a park to denounce President Alexander Lukashenko after a disputed election returned him to power.

Rows of black-clad police blocked the central October Square where opposition leaders had called for a rally at noon, pushing crowds back in a bid to end a week of unprecedented protests in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic. Demonstrators shouted "Shame!" and "Long live Belarus!"

Tensions mounted swiftly as police in full riot gear arrived by the busload to shove protesters back. The crowd at a major intersection near the square — where Lenin Street meets Independence Avenue — quickly swelled from a few hundred to some 3,000.

After gathering on the other side of the sprawling square with a crowd of about the same size, Milinkevich led supporters to a nearby park and the group swelled to as many as 5,000 people.

"The authorities can only confront the striving of the people for change with persecution and violence," Milinkevich told the crowd. Demonstrators held flowers and waved the red-and-white historic flag of the opposition.

"The people have come out today, they have come out in the face of truncheons, in the face of arrests. We are working against dictatorship," Milinkevich said. "The more the authorities conduct repression, the closer they bring themselves to their end." . . .

leave your fear behind

2006-03-21T20:52:00.000-05:00

you are the revolution you've been waiting for

We look with the eyes of the ancestors

2006-03-15T15:30:00.000-05:00

Before Mindscape there was Wilderness . In the unpublished first volume of a projected trilogy, Andrea Hairston created the future world she describes in Mindscape and the people who inhabit it. That material forms the backstory to the present work, and other characters from the first book are represented by chapter-heading epigraphs. They include Lawanda Kitt's equally Ebonic sister, Geraldine, and an Ouagadougouan philosopher of the past, Vera Xa Lalafia. Their writings, imagined by Hairston, constitute the cultural ethos of this fictional world and add up to Hairston's personal credo. Here's a sample:

"The stories we tell, tell us."

-- Geraldine Kitt, Junk Bonds of the Mind

"You see what you think you see. You find what you look for. If you can't imagine it, it won't happen for you. Imagine the impossible, imagine the spirit of your enemies, imagine miracles, imagine the last moment of your life, imagine eternity. Imagine what you can't imagine."