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insert clever quip about ubiquity here
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new XO laptop.
one laptop per child - laptop starts to look a lot better...
Full page screen captures.
Take full page screen caps with Mac OS X
ifixit.com.
learn how to fix your mac products - yourself.
bike to work pants.
dave proudly wears bike to work pants.
somedays
bike chalk trails.
leave a chalk trail from your bike tyre to remind motorists that bikes ride on the road, and to encourage other cyclists to ride.
nothing to see here.
messages to TSA through metal plates in your baggage. that's just asking for a cavity search.
would you name your kid nokia?.
better than Unavailable...
finder ferret.
electronics information made simple
nixon and mao · Feb 25, 09:30 am
i like margaret macmillan. she brings creativity and her own personal style to historical views. maybe i just like women writing about history, but somehow the past i thought i knew sounds more appealing from her pen.
if you haven’t already read 1919 – grab a copy – sit down with a big cup of coffee (i mean BIG) and enjoy.
if you like that – try nixon in china and see if you rethink the week that changed the world.
Categories: books / | comments?
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i know you're as excited as i am · Dec 13, 12:08 pm
canada has a new poet laureate: John Steffler
you may be asking yourself what a poet laureate is. if you are, wikipedia has the answer for you.
basically it’s a position set up by the government of canada – with the sole purpose of making poetry more popular, and active in daily life. this is by far, the best thing in the world in my opinion.
they give the laureate an office, and a salary of $13k a year – for a 2 year term.
robert pinsky – a laureate in the us – started the favourite poem project where everyone from the president to people in the streets read their favourite poems out loud.
steffler – according to his cbc interview says he wants to promote writing and literature in general in canada
i’m delighted we have this post in canada, but i’m sad that it doesn’t pay enough to support a writer full time.
Award-winning novelist
Born in Toronto, Steffler holds an BA in English from the University of Toronto, and a master’s degree in English from the University of Guelph. He has taught at Guelph and, most recently, at Memorial University’s Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in Corner Brook, N.L.
“Mr. Steffler has spent a good part of his career teaching others about his craft,” Milliken said. “I welcome his appointment to a position that seeks to enhance Canadians’ appreciation of the value of poetry in our society.“
Steffler’s books of poems include That Night We Were Ravenous, The Wreckage of Play and The Grey Islands. A novel, The Afterlife of George Cartwright, was shortlisted for the 1992 Governor General’s Award for fiction and won the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction award.
Steffler, now retired, lives in Montreal.
The poet laureate’s duties include composing poetry, especially for use in Parliament on special occasions, sponsoring poetry readings and advising the Parliamentary librarian on the library’s collection and acquisitions to enrich the collection’s cultural holdings.
Categories: general / books | comments? [1]
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growth of the soil · Oct 3, 07:00 am
i recently read knut hamsun’s “growth of the soil.” i tip my hat to charles bukowski for the recommendation.
this book begins with painfully beautiful plain language. the words are pure and straightforward, like earth from the garden in your hands. it’s hard to imagine the simple life depicted in the first few pages filling the many pages of the book. if the first 2 pages were a short story you would know all you need to of the main character.
i was trying to think up appropriate praise, but h.g wells does it better than i could:
Categories: books / | comments?
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what the? · Sep 25, 10:33 am
amazon.ca is a big company, and i’m sure they have untold resources dedicated to figure out where customers are getting lost, and how to help them find their way to purchasing books.
however, i mis-typed a URL earlier, and got this:
apparently, when you’re lost, a hand-drawn cat will help you feel better.
feel better!
Categories: web / books | comments? [1]
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book of longing - leonard cohen · Jul 9, 08:59 am
i have always loved the writings of leonard cohen. he brings the body together with the spirit in a way that is unexpected yet familiar at the same time.
his writing has a feeling of human and heartfelt directness. when i read his books i feel he knows just a little too much about me, and is describing just a little too much of himself at the same time.
his previous works have been full of sex and passionate energy. this book is full of vigour, but the subject matter of the opening poems is more often the conquest of his bowels than his bedroom.
poetry is a graphical language. the presence or absence of words on a page is as important as the words themselves. the book of longing has sketches throughout, sitting underneath, beside, ontop, or above poems. the book feels like a notebook, or unfinished work. ‘unwashed words from the street’ to paraphrase neruda. personally the drawing interferes with the poetry more than it compliments.
there is an incredible breadth of time represented in the book of longing. poems appear from as far back as the seventies and eighties, right up to modern writing.
the book feels more like a curated work rather than an authorial voice. theme and style are well represented, but there is no passionate narrative running through the whole work.
i always love loenard cohen’s writing, but this book feels as though it was hurried to press for a paycheque rather than crafted out of love and longing.
the hands.
the drawings are an interesting idea, and while they distract and play with the text they don’t disrupt my reading. when a poem carries on to another page there is a small monty python-esque hand to indicate the continuing text. for most people the lack of a title on the next page would be enough to indicate a poem is continuing. i hate these hands.
i enjoyed the book and you might too
Categories: books / | comments? [1]
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