Stung Eye ::
From instincts to consciousness
There are times when certain ideas consume me.
Looking back to when life was first emerging on this planet:
Organisms were evolving mechanisms for survival. These early mechanisms would have dealt primarily with food consumptions, self-defence and sexual reproduction. Through sexual reproduction, the blueprints for these mechanisms would be passed along to the offspring via the genetic code. Paired within the genetic code with these survival mechanism would be hard-coded instructions for how and when to uses each mechanism. (For a tool without instructions is of no use to an organism incapable of thought.) These hard-coded instructions are the lowest level of instincts: Cellular Mechanism / Instruction pairs. These low level instincts can also be seen as a type of inherited memory.
With basic survival mechanisms/instincts covered, cellular organism began to evolve mechanisms to gather information from the external world. Senses alone, however, are of no use to a pre-thought organism. Much like the survival mechanisms needed to be paired with instructions, the senses needed to be paired with hard-coded responses that could be passed on to offspring. These Sense / Response pairs were the next level of instincts (i.e. the next level of inherited memory). It should be noted that these sense/response instincts were then subjected to a form of Darwinian evolution. The sense/response pairs that enhanced the survival of the organism would be kept in favour of pairs that did not. Over time, these inherited sense/response pairs grew in number and complexity and thus began the formation of an automatic nervous system.
At this point I know there is no turning back. The thought has infected my brain.
Today, many micro-organisms still thrive at this level of instinctual evolution. Their actions and reactions are bases solely on their inherited internal-mechanism-instincts and their external-sensory-instincts. Having no memory of their own, they are guided through life by the inherited memory of their species.
At this point we will leave the internal-mechanism-instincts behind and follow the evolutionary path of the sensory-based instincts.
Sensory instincts based on inherited memory can be limiting since the instinctual response does not guarantee a positive outcome. It merely guarantees a statistically high success rate. (As mentioned before, instincts that lead to statistically low success rates would be weeded out of the inherited memory over time.)
The next evolutionary leap for thought was the ability to use the outcome of a sensory response as the input for a higher-level instinctual response. This created a feedback loop, where the output of the first order instinctual response would be paired with new sensory input in order to generate a higher order instinctual response. The study of control systems, (organic or inorganic), tells us that this is the first step towards memory. In order to create a feedback loop, the initial outcome has to be held (remembered) over time. These feedback loops within the early nervous system are the root of short-term memory. The higher order instinctual responses are now added to the collective memory of the species and inherited by the offspring as part of its nervous system.
Again, we can see many examples of this level of instinctual evolution in the world around us. A goldfish is said to have a memory of only a few seconds. This may not seem like much, but this allows the goldfish to use its senses to perceive the outcome of an instinctual response and to react with a higher order instinctual response. This feedback process can be iterated many times, (the number of iterations limited by the duration of the short-term memory).
At what point do these high order responses become conscious choices?
An organism with only a short-term memory is doomed to repeat the same feedback loops time and time again. With the evolution of a long-term storage bank for sense/response pairs, the organism can begin to break away from inherited biological instincts. The sensory input and short-term memory feedback loop can now be circumvented or adjusted if a matching scenario can be found in long-term memory. The outcome of this memory-generated response is then fed back into short-term memory. Here, the effectiveness of the response will then be judged based on current sensory inputs. If the response proves ineffective for the situation, the lower-level instinct/short-term memory feedback loop will take over, (unless the long-term memory wishes to circumvent once again!).
This long-term storage will evolve with the experience of the organism building on the perceived effectiveness of instinctual responses as well as long-term-memory driven responses. As this long-term storage of sense/response pairs grows in size and complexity, the drive for an organism to circumvent its inherited instinctual patterns will also grow. This is something that can be observed in human culture, for the circumvention of inherited instinctual patterns is not without cost. This circumvention leads to an internal stress as the intellectual level of the human organism attempts to suppress its inherited biological instincts.
But where is consciousness in all of this? Is consciousness merely the pattern of high order instinctual response? Looking back it became clear to be that I’ve already brought consciousness into the picture without knowing it.
We have now reached a point in this thought experiment where the brain has evolved to include short-term memory, long-term memory, various levels of instinctual responses, and a response evaluation system.
In the context of external stimulation, this response evaluation system is tasked with assigning a value to a sense driven response. (This response being either instinctual or based on a pattern stored in long term memory). Above, we stated that a response is assigned a high value if it proves effective for the situation at hand. But what is the gauge for effectiveness?
There is even room for this dynamic assignment of response value at the evolutionary level of the instinct/short term memory feedback loop discussed above. How else is the instinctual response fed back into the system paired with the current sensory information? Can a goldfish make a conscious choice based on value? At a low level this "gauge of effectiveness" can be tied directly to survival. So I suppose in this sense, a goldfish can make conscious value choices.
Is this "gauge of effectiveness" the root of consciousness? Let’s re-cap and see where that leads us.
Organisms evolved instincts (collective memory) to allow future generations to thrive by reacting with set responses that lead to a statistically positive outcome.
Sense/response feedback systems evolved to allow for higher-level instinctual responses.
These sense/response feedback systems could not function without a method to evaluate the effectiveness of an instinctual response.
As the higher-level instinctual responses grew in complexity, this “gauge of effectiveness” began to drift away from its roots as a gauge for survival.
Once long-term memory came along, the organism could build a databank of experienced sense/response pairs.
This long-term memory abstracts the organism’s “gauge for effectiveness” (AKA it’s conscious assignment of value) even further away from its roots.
The organism can now use this assignment of value along with its long-term memory to completely circumvent its instinctual drives.
This circumvention of instinctual drives paved the way for communication and the formation of complex organism-based societies.
The impact of the developement of language on the evolution of consciousness is often stressed. This lead me to believe that language was the tool we used to externalize our assignment of value. I guess at the same time as it was allowing us to externalize and share our consciousness it was adding new levels of complexity to our internal value assignment system.
These externalized value patterns defended society in much the same way as our internal value patterns protected us. In turn, in order to defend these external value patterns, higher-level external value patterns were formed. Religion is a great example of these higher-level value defence systems. Values at this level were simply called Morals and they held society together.
These thought path core-dumps were inspired by the novel, Lila.
***
A treat for sticking with me: A slice of Canadian prairie hip hop at it's finest:
***
Update (04/12/03) : The above post has been edited to increase clarity and to re-work some of the ideas near the end.
posted by on 11/28/2003 10:31:00 AM [+] - Comment
Standing Room Only
Click thumbnails to view photographs.
The above photographs were captured in the rust garden behind my former place of employment. Never a boring lunch hour with a site like that so close by, (and a value village across the CN land).
The rust garden is hidden behind this: (Note: they left out the 1000s of Canadian geese and all the associated goose shit.)
Terracon Park photos care of http://www.terracondevelopment.com
***
From today's Winnipeg Free Press:
"Man falls out hotel window. A 35-year-old man remained in hospital in stable condition yesterday after he apparently fell from a third- floor room at the Viscount Hotel in St. James hours earlier. Police said yesterday they believe the man was high on drugs and accidentally fell out the window at about 4:45 a.m. There was no sign someone else was in the room or had broken into it. The man suffered head, neck and other upper body injuries. Police also said he has so far not co-operated with investigators."
I man who was high enough to "fall" from his hotel window, only to suffer head and neck injuries, has yet to co-operate with the police. Is that really a news worthy surprise?
Remember kids, (paraphrasing the late Bill Hicks): If you think you can fly, you don't need a window or even a tall building. Try taking off from the ground.
In other news:
"Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is mearly energy condensed through a slow vibration, we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, life is only a dream and we are the imaginations of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather." B.H.
posted by on 11/26/2003 09:48:28 AM [+] - Comment
Mixed Nuts
Today's flash experiment deals with streaming video. I've decided to showcase a short clip from Richard Linklater's Waking Life. In this clip, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke reprise their roles as Celine and Jesse from another Linklater film, Before Sunrise.
Watch The Waking Life Clip
This movie clip deals with some interesting ideas: Past lives, collective memory, dream consciousness and more.
On the technical side of things, the clip was taken from a DIVX rip of the Waking life DVD. Since flash doesn't support the DIVX codec I had to use AVIUTL to capture the clip and convert it to a supported AVI codec. The conversion process left the audio and video out of sync. To fix this, I imported both the audio and video separately into Cubase SX where I re-sync them. I then noticed that although you can import video into Cubase SX, you can't export it! I had to export the re-sync'ed audio and use Virtual Dub to add it to the video clip. I then imported the resultant 118MB audio/video clip into Flash MX where it was compress down to a 14MB flash stream. What a maze!
***
As a side note: I bottled my batch of beer today. 58 bottles of sweet sweet cream ale! All for the low price of 25 dollars. The bottled beer will be ready to enjoy in two weeks time.
UPDATE:
In-depth analysis of Waking Life via AboutFilm.
posted by on 11/24/2003 05:55:05 PM [+] - Comment
Past
From: Someone
To: Someone else
Subject: Re: dunno (Thoughts and movements in reverse flow time-space)
Date: Then
The winamp pseudo-random oracle sent me the following musical mystery message when I began to read your email: The first track of weezer's album Pinkerton began to play. Pinkerton just happens to be my favourite Weezer album. Listening to the album with daydream imagescapes from your distant adventures floating in my head I came to see Pinkterton in a new light.
Pinkerton is a story about dealing with love, lust, companionship and understanding. The album name is a reference to Captain Pinkerton from Madame Butterfly, which also happens to be a story about love, lust, companionship and understanding. The lyrics also make reference to Cho-Cho-San (a.k.a Madam Butterfly). I've decided to include my new found Pinkerton insight in this email rather than answer you directly.
Why?
Why not I guess. Exploring Pinkerton yesterday helped me sort out some of my thoughts. They say misery likes company... Maybe the story of Pinkerton will help you deal with your own story. Maybe not.
Track One - Tired of Sex
"I'm tired, so tired
I'm tired of having sex
I'm spread so thin
I don't know who I am"
Our story begins with the protagonist realizing that he's been locked into a pattern of meaningless sexual relationships while he really wants to find love. His nightly sexual escapades leave him feeling hollow and he thinks that finding true love will help him deal with a life that he has trouble understanding.
Track Two - Getchoo
"This is beginning to hurt
This is beginning to be serious
It used to be a game
Now it's a cryin' shame
'Cuz you don't wanna play around no more"
Our protagonist makes his first real attempt at a "real" relationship, only to discover that as things get serious he opens himself up to the possibility of getting hurt. This in turn makes him look back on the hurt that he has likely inflicted on others in past relationships.
Track Three - No Other One
"My girl's a liar
But I'll stand beside her
She's all I've got
And I don't wanna be alone
My girl don't see me
when she's with my friends
She's all I've got
And I don't want to be alone"
The search continues as our Protag imagines he has found true love. There's quite a bit that scares him about his lover. He doesn't really understand her, and yet he forces himself to stay with her for fear of being alone.
Track Four - Why Bother
"I know I should get next to you
you got a look that makes me think you're cool
But it's just sexual attraction
Not somethin' real so I'd rather keep wackin'"
Still with his "true love", Protag begins to wonder if their relationship is based on sexual attraction and nothing more. As fears of losing her grow in his pessimistic daydreams (day-mares maybe?), he considers beating her to the punch and leaving her for another girl he has his eye on.
Track Five - Across The Sea
"Why are you so far away from me?
I need help and you're way across the sea
I could never touch you - I think it would be wrong
But I've got your letter and you've got my song"
Protag becomes somewhat obsessed with a girl he cannot have: She's 18 years old and lives in Japan. He pours his heart out to her via long-distance letters because she is a safe target and they cannot hurt each other emotionally. He sees her as his saviour and yet is conscience that the whole thing is but a one sided fantasy (or is he?)
Track Six - The Good Life
"I don't wanna be a old man anymore
It's been a year or two since I was out on the floor
Shakin' booty, makin' sweet love all the night
It's time I got back to the Good Life
It's time I got back, it's time I got back
'n I don't even know how I got off the track"
Protag decides it time to return to the "good life" he used to have before he became obsessed with finding true love. He wants to party and hook up with girls. Was he putting too much pressure on himself in tracks 2 through 5? Can he admit to himself that all he really wants right now is some "sugar in his tea"?
Track Seven - El Scorcho
"For all I know you want me too and maybe you just don't know what to do or maybe you're scared to say: "I'm falling for you"
I wish I could get my head out of the sand 'cuz I think we'd make a good team
and you would keep my fingernails clean
but that's just a stupid dream that I won't realize
'cuz I can't even look in your eyes without shakin', and I ain't fakin'"
Protag's return to the woman and party lifestyle is filling him with guilt and emptiness. He begins to fixate on a new girl who he again sees as a saving grace. He projects his emotions on her and assumes his feelings of obsession and attachment are mutual. Is he too scared to tell her how he feels or is this his way of keeping the fantasy alive?
Track Eight - Pink Triangle
"When I'm stable long enough
I start to look around for love
See a sweet in floral print
my mind begins the arrangements
but When I start to feel that pull
turns out I just pulled myself
she would never go with me
were I the last girl on earth"
Our hero has found the perfect "safe obsession", a lesbian. They're as good as married in his mind and because a relationship is impossible the fantasy can last forever.
Track Nine - Falling for You
"I can't believe how bad I suck, it's true
What could you possibly see in little ol' 3-chord me?
But it's true - you like me, I like you too
I'm ready, let's do it baby"
Protag takes another look at his love from tracks 3 and 4. Maybe she really is the one for him? Once again however, he looks at the relationship from a one-sided point of view. He assumes that just because he's re-discovered his love for her, that she will jump back on board. It also looks like he has yet to figure out that the ladies aren't impressed by self-deprecation. She sees past his faults however and opens up her heart to allow him in.
Track 10 - Butterfly
"Yesterday I went outside
With my momma's mason jar
Caught a lovely Butterfly
When I woke up today
And looked in on my fairy pet
She had withered all away
No more sighing in her breast
I'm sorry for what I did
I did what my body told me to
I didn't mean to do you harm
But everytime I pin down what I think I want
it slips away - the ghost slips away"
Just when everything is looking good for Protag he flips the script on us. He had placed so much importance on finding love, accomplishing his goal now feels like a let down. He worries that he has destroyed his Butterfly by taking possession of her love. Much like Captain Pinkerton, Protag decides to leave his fragile Butterfly behind and never return. One can only hope that he realizes the pain he is going to inflict on her. Does he not remember that Cho-Cho-San attempted suicide once she realized that her Captain Pinkerton had left her?
In the end we find Protag a little older and maybe a little wiser. He's well aware that he's been fixating on goals he believes will fulfill him, only to find that once he pins them down his interest diminishes.
Is love nothing more than a game of search and conquest?
Is he destine to live a life of fantasy; a life of chasing butterfly?
The album doesn't present us with the answers to these questions. The fate of Protag is left up to the listener who has "become" Protag over the course of the disc. We the listener, much like Protag, have grown up in a world where we are groomed from young to become grooms. Western society seems to present us with two main goals that we are suppose to work towards to find 'the good life": Make money and find a soul mate.
Growing up, I placed so much pressure on myself when it came to girls. I needed a girlfriend to "fix myself". I was incomplete without one. All my problems would go away once I found my better half: the yin to my yang. Her love would allow me to love myself. This pressure made things overly convoluted. I didn't see anything from the female perspective. I expected nothing less than perfection in my future mate because that's what I was told was waiting for me. A Soul Mate: Perfection in the form of a sexy girl. Things got a lot easier when I started to see girls as fellow human beings. They are going through all the same things the boys are, with their own sets of society-imposed pressures. The first time I stopped to analyse my requirements for a perfect girl I realized how bizarre it would be growing up as a girl having these requirement imposed on them via pop culture. Boys are raised to want a lover, a goddess, a mother, a whore, a friend, a teacher, an existential companion all rolled in one.
I'm not sure if this email was much help to you. Did any of my ramblings apply to your personal situation? For me, it was great. I haven't thought about a lot of this stuff in a while and it's always a good thing to investigate the things that drive us in life. Don't get me wrong on the whole soul mate thing. I'm not saying that great relationships aren't possible. In fact I'm saying just the opposite. It's all about perspective and experience. It took me a long time to figure out that a relationship could be an amazing part of my life without it being my entire reality. Love isn't the end goal, but it sure can make the path easier to walk down. Just don't try to drag someone else down your path with the hopes that they will be your guide.
Hand in hand. Side by side. Charting new territory together. That's the bomb.
Oh... and by the way... drugs and new relationships do not mix. I thought I made this clear in the past ;)
Peace.
WG
***
Sometime after that was written, I came across an eerily similar anaylse on Everything2. Thus began my investigation of a global consciousness. I wish I could post a link, but Everything2 is down while they move servers. Fodder for a future post.
posted by on 11/21/2003 09:29:29 AM [+] - Comment
Mad Hatter
***
Looking around, you may notice that a small degree of house keeping has been carried out; cobwebs swept down from the angles; dust moved with pan to bin; navigational cues rearranged. I do believe that we are now due for a paint job. I need only pick out the colour swatch. (If anything appears to be broken, please let me know via a comment or an email.)
For the Winnipegers:
Hot Hot Heat, Metric and The Unicorns are playing the Pyramid on Tuesday November 25th. Indie-pop/rock heaven.
From the ChartAttack Winnipeg buzz: "On a sadder note, Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club seems to be in a spot of trouble. In one of his semi-regular email newsletters sent out earlier this week, the local venue's President and Janitor John Scoles expressed discontent over tightened regulations handed down from the province's Liquor Control Commission, coupled with an unhappy landlord who is threatening to allow the sports bar next door to expand into Scoles' space." From info here.
In other news: David Lynch wants to bring the world peace, through meditation.
posted by on 11/19/2003 01:15:45 PM [+] - Comment
Can you imagine that?
Last week the Chef pointed out that we always produced our best work at school while under pressure. So I've decided to add a time limiting component to my audio and flash sketches. This morning I gave myself 3 hours to toss together a mash-up between John Lennon's Imagine and a hip-hop beat from mcenroe's album Billy's Vision:
Download hi-fi mp3 (3.8MB) -or- Play low-fi mp3 through flash (1.4MB)
I'm pretty happy with the result. The beat loses sync here and here, but I think the two songs sound good together. Things would have been easier if old John Lennon had used a metronome. Check out this old post of mine on Mash Ups.
posted by on 11/18/2003 06:02:42 PM [+] - Comment
Images from other eyes.
Here are some pix from DJMose and Chen.
DJ Mose - The new OCAD building in Toronto:
Chen's Travels:
Click thumbnails to view photographs.
posted by on 11/18/2003 03:06:30 PM [+] - Comment
Found!
Today's sketch is flash and audio based. The flash side of things involved creating a percentage-bar-preloader and a button that would trigger the audio. The button was really easy. The preloader took me about 4 hours. (Geek note: Flash MX was loading the audio in front of the first frame, rendering the preloader useless. Once again, thank goodness for Google Groups.)
The audio portion of the sketch is me trying to learn how to sing. I thought it might be fun to sing rather than rap on an upcoming track. I'm hoping that it will also help me develope an intuitive sense of pitch, (thus accelerating my study of music theory). For this sketch I've looped a piano sample and recorded myself singing a single phrase with myself. (i.e. I recorded myself singing the phrase in various different ways over top of previous takes. Some of the singing works. Some does not. Some of the layering works. Some does not.) The audio will sound somewhat "dirty" because I ran it through a old-vinyl simulator for fun.
The Sketch: A Part Of Myself.
In order for a relationship to continue to evolve it is often necessary to allow a portion of oneself to get lost within the other person. Although you may appear to have misplaced a portion of yourself, in reality that portion is just exploring another reality. It is also comforting to know that while this portion of yourself is out on an adventure, you have gained the "lost" portion of your better half.
P.S. The piano loop is from the Menomena song Rose. Their webpage is strange. Read this review for their latest album, I Am the Fun Blame Monster: "There's hardly a bolder statement you could make about your band's penchant for innovation than inventing software specifically to aid your own distinctive compositional style."
posted by on 11/17/2003 05:30:58 PM [+] - Comment
Lost?
I thought I posted this sticker series back in September. But they seem to have disappeared from the images section:
-> Low Res - High Res.Related -> Stickers in waiting:
posted by on 11/16/2003 10:01:34 PM [+] - Comment
Teddy Bear's Picnic
I get wrapped up in details. I find that this slows down my learning process. To combat this, I've decided to post all of my flash and music "sketches" here. A form of educational closure. Otherwise I could probably continue tweaking each experiment forever, instead of moving on and learning more.
Today's flash experiment is a trip to a small city park. I spent many hours playing within what I believed to be a massive forest. Looking back, I must either have been really small or had a great imagination. (I guess it was a combination of the two)
A 360 Degree View Of A Shrunken Forest - Had this not been a "sketch", I probably would have spent hours trying to seamlessly stitch the photos together.
***
The beer has recovered. The new yeast is busy converting sugar into goodness:
posted by on 11/15/2003 01:43:14 PM [+] - Comment
A Flash In The Pan
Well, here it is, my very first flash animation: Walking and Praying. Fairly simple, but it's a good starting point. Hopefully I can provide you with something a little more interesting down the road.
I'm little worried about the batch of beer I brewed up on Wednesday. The yeast doesn't seem to be activated. No yeast activation = no alcohol. I just spoke with Scott from Grape and Grain and he has advised me to add another package of yeast. I'll add that after lunch. Cross your fingers for me.
posted by on 11/14/2003 11:08:37 AM [+] - Comment
Connections. Added Complexity.
Links to things and ideas I've been enjoying. I can't be arsed to fill in the vias today.
posted by on 11/13/2003 12:15:17 PM [+] - Comment
Let Me Introduce...
Ok? I'd say it's about time I share some of the music that I've been digging of late.
Zen and the art of hip-hop:
I know you've been missing good rock too:
Ok. One more. (in order to show how great this album is):
Quirk pop at it's finest:
Mission: Find this album, (out there in the real world, not on the internet), buy it. Listen. Deal?
Pretend this song is about your hometown. Do too many love to hate it?
Right click on song titles to Save As...
***
The G7 Welcoming Committee (the record label that put out the first two Weakerthans albums) has a great ideas page. New left-ish articles and essays posted every week. Check out their catalogue too.
Another FL.
Ellen Kooi - Photos: Colourful yet dark.
posted by on 11/7/2003 09:41:07 AM [+] - Comment
Nobody Said That The World Was Fair
Click thumbnails to view photographs.
***
I took the bus down to the Winnipeg Art Gallery yesterday in order to check out the Tom Thomson show.
From today's Free Press: "The English-born friend and forerunner of the Group of Seven lived, fished, painted and guided in Ontario's Algonquin Park. Both a commercial designer and painter, his significant output was created between 1912 and 1917, with important works purchased in his lifetime. His reputation grew posthumously after an early and accidental death.
Click the following thumbnails for some fine examples of Tom's work:
(Images found here.)
The show was really great. I was blown away by Tom's grasp of light/shadow and his (at times almost psychedelic) use of colour. However, I think the best part of the show was it's scope. It was really inspiring to be able to observe the evolution of Mr. Thomson's skill and style.
It is very tempting to believe that talented artists are innately talented. It's easy to overlook the years of dedication and hard work that go into perfecting ones craft. To quote a past posting of mine:
Sure, you probably have to be born with a certain propensity for your craft, but to say that the talent is purely innate is to show a total lack of respect for the true artist. It takes the kind of hard work and dedications that one rarely gets to witness in our present day of apathy. I'm talking total devotion to the point of near insanity.
This devotion was clearly illustrated at the Thompson show and as I said, I was quite inspired. I guess that's one of the greatest gift's of life: Inspiration is all around us. You might have to dig a little, but it's there. Use it.
***
I've started a fotolog. Most of the images will be familar to regular visitors of this site. I really enjoy FL and I wanted to add to it. Check out one of the images I stumbled upon today.
posted by on 11/6/2003 11:24:23 PM [+] - Comment
Time
The chef asked me to take some winter snapshots. So, if you are interested in what an early winter looks like in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada:
***
I was downsized by my employer a little under 2 weeks ago. Soon after that, I founded Clever Glutton Media and began to re-climb the corporate ladder. Today, I stand before you as the CEO of CGM and effective immediately, I will be taking a sabbatical year* to attend Glutton University. Some of the subject I will be studying at Glutton U: Music Theory and Composition, Digital Sound Manipulation, Macromedia Flash MX, Photographic Experimentation and Literature.
*Actual length of sabbatical may vary.
***
On the literature front, I read Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's last night. Having never seen the movie, I didn't really know what to expect. What I discovered was a truly engrossing short story. The characters drew me into their world, their joy, their pain. Please tell me they didn't give the movie a typical Hollywood ending!
Truman Capote - A Black and White Tribute.
And perhaps on a related note, Raising a glass to the literary alcoholic. (Via Cupa)
Update:
Arachnophobes heed this warning: Do not follow this link.
posted by on 11/5/2003 10:25:25 AM [+] - Comment
why say yes to democracy when fascism works so well?
I still can't get over this. My friends to the south seem to be headed to a strange place. This Toronto Star article from October 25th details some very disturbing trends. I'm hoping some of this comes to light for next year's US federal election. If freedom of speech is at stake, what's next? Will the second amendment be the next right struck down? We've all got a good reason to be scared... more than usual.
posted by on 11/5/2003 08:14:37 AM [+] - Comment
Trinity
A true winter's day deserves a true summer's memory.
Click on the thumbnail to view the triple triptych.
posted by on 11/4/2003 10:51:55 AM [+] - Comment
Stay Right Here
-> Low Res - High Res.***
Halloween has come and gone. What a blast. The punk and the Hippie. What a couple.
The punk Dj'ed too: a nice hip-hop / downtempo set at the Symptom Tech Halloween bash.
The following evening found us at a house party over at Chef Quix's place.
***
posted by on 11/3/2003 10:01:51 PM [+] - Comment
ARCHIVES...
