Conversion. What is it? Who converts and why? Strictly speaking, to convert simply means to change from one form to another. To editorialize on that dictionary definition a bit, I'll add that to convert is not quite to transform and a bit more precise than simply change. Convert is a special kind of word, a special kind of change - it's not the same as transform, revolutionize, invert, or simply adjust. ... +more+
George Orwell would be 106 years old, just a few years shy of today's oldest man in the world. Quite a bit less than that lifetime ago, Orwell foresaw a world controlled by double-speaking oligarchs who manufactured information, global conflict, and the war machines to wage it in order to control human beings as resources owing service ...
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Seems like a good day to quote myself.
Despite the bummer beginning, I think my prologue to this site ends with a bit of hope. I'd be kidding you if I said this was a direct response to the events of 9-11 or Hurricane Katrina (both of which deserve remembering right about now), but I'd be kidding myself if I denied that ...
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The following post is taken from notes I made January 2, 2007 (ho-hum is duly omitted):
“Poles, who first sang the Marseillaise in 1794 as they resisted the carve-up of their country, sang it again in 1956 in revolt against Soviet tyranny. In 1989, as France commemorated the Revolution’s 200th anniversary, the same anthem of defiance was heard in Beijing, among the... +more+
My good friend Jim (Happy Birthday, yo!) once hipped me to a deep dark truth about Jon Bon Jovi and the record industry. Apparently, New Jersey's second favorite rock god, was forced to rewrite one of his early hits, Your Love is Like Bad Medicine. Instead of the refrain every 80s teen knew whether they wanted to or ...
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In January of 2007 I began work on a much too large and too undefined writing project. I called it 'Peregrinations' because I needed to begin without a set a path and with the intention that the journey to figuring out what I was on about would be part of the story and the most important part of the experience personally.
I ...
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I'm in the midst of trying to learn and/or become proficient at over a dozen things these days: ukulele, Drupal, PHP, MySQL, Playwriting (yes, still), non-fiction writing, online writing, WordPress, CSS, XHTML, gardening, drawing, Italian, Spanish, French, Unix, healthy cooking, Tai Chi, being a good boyfriend, staying healthy...
Every one of these things, these fields of learning, has depth and every ...
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Strangest thing happened to me last Wednesday after work: I experienced an odd gap in my vision. A scotoma, if you want to know the technical term. I noticed it first when looking at the branding for a Chevy Milan while parking. The first leg of the 'M' went missing. I couldn't make myself see it, but I knew ...
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A quick nod to my pal Jen Getzinger.
The WSJ quotes her in a nice piece on Mad Men, her current show.
I'll admit I was a bit slow to catch on to it, myself. Not for lack of interest, but lack of the other thing: time. I'd caught an episode once or twice (Jen's TV directorial debut among 'em - ...
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Apropos of my mention of Burma in yesterday's post, the BBC has a news update about the trial of Burma's pro-democracy activist Suu Kyi. Looks like a clumsy American with a hallucination problem is going to be responsible for her doing much harder time than her prolonged house arrest. In other Burma news, an update from EarthRights International landed in my work inbox today pointing to an EarthRights Alumn's ... +more+