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August 30, 2004
Recreational Ocean Fishing Has Significant Impact
The New York Times - Sport Anglers Said to Catch More Fish Than Thought
Up to a quarter of the catch of some overfished saltwater species is from recreational fishing.
(As I've posted previously, an important link for ethically minded fish-eaters, is this list of endangered fish to avoid eating.)
Posted by Nick at 02:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 29, 2004
Idiotic Bush Quote
Refering to the Iraq war:
"Had we to do it over again, we would look at the consequences of catastrophic success, being so successful so fast that an enemy that should have surrendered or been done in, escaped and lived to fight another day."
Hmmm, I'm not sure I understand this definition of success.
From: Yahoo! News - Tens of Thousands Protest Bush in NYC
Posted by Nick at 06:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Gondry Video For "Mad World"
I don't have MTV (no TV, actually) so I'm not always up on things right away, but evidently Michel Gondry (who I was just fawning about in this post below) recently made a video for Gary Jule's remake of Tears For Fears' "Mad World". Here's a good Windows Media link from the Universal Records site.
It's an awsome video, and I was stoked because I really like Gary Jules, so a Grondry+Jules combo seemed like a no-lose situation.
Posted by Nick at 06:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
In Hartford, Hereford, and Hampshire...
Tropical Storm Gaston is currently wacking South Carolina, a hundred miles south of me, on its route up. (both links are pictures)
Meanwhile legit hurricane Frances (photographed above by astronaut Mike Fincke aboard the International Space Station) creeps ever closer on its slow trek across the mid-atlantic.
Let's hope we get some surfable swell out of these!
(Update: Big waves, but too much dang wind. Went just bodysurfing. Intense sideways ripcurrent and random slamming peaky sections. Got tossed.)
Posted by Nick at 10:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 28, 2004
Video Brilliance
I think people use the label "genius" when they see a stupendous output which they can not fully understand, and know they could not reproduce themselves. The way I feel when watching the work of Michel Gondry: Genius.
I just rented the Palm Pictures DVD "The Work of Director Michel Gondry", part of their Director Series (one in a trilogy, with Spike Jonze and Chris Cunningham).
The DVD is excellent and his work simply blows my mind. I had seen about half of his music videos already, but did not know always whom to attribute them to. I'm a huge fan of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (so/so on Human Nature) and it will be fascinating to see what he does in the future.
(When I see work of this caliber it is at once equally inspirational and totally depressing. It makes me feel inadquate. But also stoked that creativity like this is extant in the world.
I have a constant driving need to make great things, yet fail to do so day after day.)
Posted by Nick at 04:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Speaking of Genius...
-I had to post this out of chonological order, so as to put it in thematic order. (One of a blog's seemingly inherent problems)-
Here is a well written review, dabbling around with the word genius:
The New York Times > Sunday Book Review > 'Cloud Atlas': History Is a Nightmare
(Though I found the except not entirely engaging (three pages hardly accounts for a whole book), his first sentence is great: "Beyond the Indian hamlet, upon a forlorn strand, I happened on a trail of recent footprints.")
Posted by Nick at 04:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 27, 2004
Peaceniks Unite!
Wonderful, funny, nonviolent and poignant article in Slate today: Manifesto - A press release from PRKA. By George Saunders(one page). These are his People Reluctant To Kill for an Abstraction:
Since the world began, we have gone about our work quietly, resisting the urge to generalize, valuing the individual over the group, the actual over the conceptual, the inherent sweetness of the present moment over the theoretically peaceful future to be obtained via murder. Many of us have trouble sleeping and lie awake at night, worrying about something catastrophic befalling someone we love. We rise in the morning with no plans to convert anyone via beating, humiliation, or invasion.
Sadly filed under the inevitable, yet humorous, section-heading of: "Low Concept - Dubious and Far-fetched Ideas."
(Slate actually has a number of good articles today explaining things, in the way I used to enjoy how 3-2-1 Contact did. Such as: why the killer bees aren't killing us yet, and how the technique for throwing heavy things in competition has slowly developed over the ages.)
Posted by Nick at 06:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Flash Fancy
My friend Bradly Summers Washburn (pictured cooking below) has just put up a funky/funny kick-ass resumé site. Endeavoring to be a Macromedia Flash Master, it is all animated. (Check out particluarly, the About page (talking squirrels) and the wonderful Contact page).
Posted by Nick at 02:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 26, 2004
Don't Ask Surfer Girls About Politics
This interview (with Daize Shayne, pro longboarding champion) is not just hilarious, it's hilariously scary. She and her band are playing at the GOP convention, getting manipulated for a little youth flavor, while protests rage outside. Let me quote a few of her bon mots:
-I just want to support a president who has the same morals as I do, you know. I'm not even qualified enough to say who's a better president. I'm voting for Bush because he prays, he believes in traditional marriage, and he loves God, and I love God too.
-Honestly, I'd rather fight a war on someone else's territory than mine. Everyone's always talking about how Bush is such a bad guy, but at the same time these terrorists are coming and killing innocent people every day. Over here, over there, they just want to take over the world.
-They wanted us to chant "four more years" at the convention and we're, like, we're not here to rally against anybody, we're here because we want to support our country.
-...I mean, aren't all Republicans not for the environment? Isn't that, like, a normal thing? Aren't, like, Democrats for pro-choice and aren't Republicans against environmental things and more for oil, money and power? And I don't agree with that. To be honest, I've never been a voter until this year. We're, like, surfers.
Yes, surfers who were manipulated into forwarding the republican agenda.
Surfing Mag Interview: Daize Shayne and the GOP(one page)
Posted by Nick at 06:11 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 25, 2004
This Guy is Quickly Becoming My Hero
Tom Hodgkinson. He has written a book on the benefits of being idle. (In an earlier post I linked to a section of it reprinted in the Guardian, check it out). Probably a genius (of some sort).
He is interviewed here. (via Maud)
And they refer to his website, in which, while living the bucolically splendid slacker life, he ruminates about the fickle habits of tomato plants. (And I agree. We have like four of the fuckers in our yard, and have received a mere single tomato for all of summer.)
Posted by Nick at 09:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Porn Could Reach My Computer Even Faster??
Yahoo! News - Ultra-Fast Broadband Is Here
100 megabit line into my house? *drool*
(yet, by "here" they don't mean the US... they just mean "in existence". bastards!)
Posted by Nick at 06:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 24, 2004
Still the Best Longboarder in the World
Joel Tudor has just won the Converse Hawaiian Open (a high paying event, where the winner takes home all of $4,000) after dominating the 2004 World Longboard Championship in Biarritz, France last month.
(As a bonus, here are some sweet QT videos I stumbled upon of Joel and Bonga on some big waves. Plus (at bottom of the page) is a longboarding contest set here in Carolina Beach (showing our typically wonderful wave selection)).
Posted by Nick at 12:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 23, 2004
Efficiency - What a Wonderful Word!
Salon article today about an inventor who modified his VW Beetle with an aerodynamic wing to increase fuel effeciency.
Salon.com Technology | Beetle on the wing (two-pager)
Efficiency is the smart horse for the future. Fuck the fuelcell and the hydrogen switch-over! Energy is energy, it almost does not matter in which form it comes is stored. Extracting and transporting (and use) will always take a toll somehow. We need to learn that.
The twentieth century's techno-explosion created the modern dependance on commodified energy. So the twenty-first century should be the smart expression of its delicate use. This is supposed to be the information age, for god's sake!
(Extra: Spark, a semi-informative enviro/techno/future site sponsored by the Toyota Prius at the Guardian)
Posted by Nick at 07:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Distinction Between Meta-fiction and Postmodern Fiction
An entry over at The Reading Experience discusses Metafiction in a way that particularly interests me. Dan there, did his doctoral dissertation on it.
At a time when the idea of self-reflexive art has become commonplace, if not itself a kind of established convention, it may be useful to reconsider the original appearance in contemporary literature of what came to be called "metafiction."
I left a comment on the post trying to make some distinctions between the movements, but I really haven't read enough about literary theory.
Posted by Nick at 06:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What's Up Tiger Lilly?
From an amusing (in a geek fashion) link that Nate sent me, I discovered these dudes: Red vs Blue. An odd collective of guys who use the game Halo to make little quirky animated movies.
This one, lampooning real life vs. net life, is worth watching. (.mov file)
Posted by Nick at 03:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 22, 2004
Ah, Duke
Wonderful Doonesbury today (click for full size):
(reprinted here in miniature without permission)
Posted by Nick at 04:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Governator Does Something Right
Yahoo! News - Calif. Plan Aims to Add Solar Energy to Homes (short article)
Posted by Nick at 03:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
NYT Gallo Interview
Quick, succinct, and pointed interview with narcissistic auteur Vincent Gallo.
The New York Times > Magazine > Gallo's Humor
(And actually, besides just that, there are a few quite good articles in this Sunday's NYT Magazine. Two especially on brain chemistry [1,2].)
Posted by Nick at 12:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 21, 2004
Politics: The Ultimate Windowdressing
Sometimes I just don't understand my country. So much pointless fussing. Because oh, god-forbid we debate actual issues!
Yahoo! News - Veteran Backs Kerry on Silver Star Account
Let me rant a bit:
I'm in the camp of frustration. I voted for Nader twice. (Recently lampooned by Trudeau). And I might vote for him again. If there is one thing he's correct about, it's his attack on the basic nature of our politics. Sure it's money-based, yeah, we live in a capitalistic society. But more importantly, it is stagnant. Hunter is right, as quoted below. I don't have much love for where the Me Generation has led us. Stupid boomers. Once so idealistic, now so bankrupt. When will a simple idea like sustainablity enter the public mind??
Nope, just keep the machine oiled and rolling...
Posted by Nick at 07:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Fear and Loathing Everywhere
Says Hunter S. Thompson:
The American nation is in the worst condition I can remember in my lifetime, and our prospects for the immediate future are even worse. I am surprised and embarrassed to be a part of the first American generation to leave the country in far worse shape than it was when we first came into it. Our highway system is crumbling, our police are dishonest, our children are poor, our vaunted Social Security, once the envy of the world, has been looted and neglected and destroyed by the same gang of ignorant, greed-crazed bastards who brought us Vietnam, Afghanistan, the disastrous Gaza Strip, and ignominious defeat all over the world.
From his sports column(?!). Which I discovered via this article at the Washington Post (discovered again, via the Arts & Letters Daily).
He's got a book out collecting his columns entitled: Hey Rube : Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness - Modern History from the Sports Desk
And as evidence to all this: Guantanamo, New York. Scary.
Posted by Nick at 02:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
That Virtual Reality RPG I Want to Play is Getting Closer
Technology Review: Shifty Tiles Bring Walking to VR (via Nathan Nicholas)
Posted by Nick at 10:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 20, 2004
Bloglicity
Apropos of this previous entry: publicity is a bitch.
There are a million weblogs, tons of fiction, magazines, newspapers, and plenty of neatly collected piles of information out there. (That last is a particularly fun/useful/artistically-disheartening link).
So where do -->I<-- squeeze into this conglomeration?
I've been sending out emails and posting comments and generally scouring the relevant web-landscape, to get my site into circulation. And I've got about 350 uniques here so far, not terrible.
I'm not sure how other sites do it, but I think there are only so many ways.
I've emailed such internet luminaries as Cory Doctorow, co-editor of Boingboing and a published sci-fi author, thinking maybe he'd dig it. He wrote back, said he liked it, but didn't go for the formating. (One of the reasons I changed it). Quite nice of him really. Though he did not link to me, I did not ask (I thought it presumptious, since boingboing gets like 50k people a day and everyone would love to be linked there obviously, I figured Cory could decide).
I've also tried trackbacks a bit. (Like this, this, this, and this (and if you came here through one of these, sorry, I know it's a little gratuitous and irrelevant to the actual post, but hey, it's just internet fun)).
But the best publicity so far has come from Tribe.net (which is a like a cool mix of Friendster, Craigslist, and Yahoo Groups), a wonderfully generous post by Joey deVilla, and Technorati, for some reason I don't know.
Of the few literary sites that I've emailed, not one has (yet) posted my link. Not sure why, but it makes me a bit bummed. (Though I should not be suprised, I guess, that anyone tracking the lit/publishing establishment (new or old) would not really care for my writing, since it's not the type that is currently in vogue and people often need entrenched popularity to appreciate something as subjective as fiction (regardless of the fact that I'm not a great writer, but still, I thought maybe they'd see what I'm going for and view it in that regard; a single link is a pretty ephemeral thing anyway).
Oh, and one last think, if you like my site and have some way of letting other people know about it, please do so! Thanks. (One really has to be quite shameless about all this).
[BTW, I'm not sure at what point I'll put a new story up on the front page, what trigger will cause me to, but somehow I think it will be soon.]
Posted by Nick at 06:02 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
August 19, 2004
Heat Ramblings
It's hot today. First time back in the 90's in a while. Too hot to sit long browsing cold cyberspace before your bum is wet and sticky on the seat. So while I'm waiting for low tide, without any great links to post, I thought I'd ramble a bit:
One - Part of the reason surfing is addictive and joyful, is that such a small amount of time is actually spent doing it. Paddling, sitting, waiting, falling, paddling and more sitting and waiting, all for that one ten-second ride. But damn, when it's good, it's totally worth it.
Two - The Strokes are sweet. At first I rather blew them off as over-hyped, over-hip. But they're really just a quintet of dorky guys who make good rock-pop. Addendum: (It's probably stuff like this that puts me in the sarcastic critical frame of mind. Gawker-type commentary can be soul-killing. But pithy, dismissive gossip is just addictive sometimes.)
Three - The interweb is more than a little like high school: popularity, cliques. I'll get back to this later.
Four - Content can be more important than style. (For some who know me, the author of this will be of particular interest).
Okay, Ryan's back, time for the ocean.
Posted by Nick at 03:46 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 18, 2004
3D, Animated, Breakdancing, Transformers
Shockwave gets down (video).
Sweet Gen-X nostalgia.
Posted by Nick at 06:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Two Links For/About Friends
-Pictures of Eli's trip to Greece and Cyprus.
-Pictures of Nate's Wedding.
Posted by Nick at 04:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Important Goings-on In My Home State
Yahoo! News - Bear Drinks 36 Cans of Favorite Beer
Ah, I miss Washington.
Posted by Nick at 12:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 17, 2004
Girl Surf
Saw a showing of the new surf flick Sprout last night. Quite quite excellent! From The Moonshine Conspiracy, a group of amazing surfer filmmakers (including the multi-talented Jack Johnson) whose movies, IMHO, go well beyond simply a display of surfing and on into a display of life.
Sprout particularly had a solid representation of women surfers (photo above is Kassia Meador hanging a great ten) and longboarders. Which is always great to see.
Posted by Nick at 06:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
People Love Politics, Especially in Cartoon Form
Pointed and funny anti-bush toons at Serious Americans.
I liked particually the giant cockroach discussing war and press conferences at a cocktail party. Check the archives.
Posted by Nick at 05:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 16, 2004
Blogging: The Uphill Battle
Clay Shirkley, the internet philosopher, on Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality. Or, "Why don't more people come to my weblog?"
Posted by Nick at 07:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Next Week's Headline: NYC Uses Imperial Storm Troopers for 'Added Peace of Mind'
Yahoo! News - FBI Tracks Potential GOP Protesters
The intelligence unit of the New York Police Department has been closely monitoring Web sites run by self-described anarchists. It also has sought to infiltrate protest groups with young, scruffy-looking officers posing as activists.
Gosh, aren't there any clean-cut protest groups??
Posted by Nick at 02:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory?
Ever wanted to help find gravity waves from space? Now you can! With Einstein@Home
So much more rewarding than looking for ET. That pie in the sky adventure.
Posted by Nick at 01:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 15, 2004
A Few Quick Links
-Why not be a writer?
-Static Movement Illusions
-The Visual Thesaurus
(each of these via: idiolect.org.uk)
The visual thesaurus is much like Music Plasma, which is pretty dang cool if you haven't used it before.
Posted by Nick at 08:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
...On Literary Commotion
Things move a little slower in the book world (compared to the hyper-speed of everything else). The uproar caused by a pair of (sometimes scaulding) writer/critics: James Wood and Dale Peck, has been going from boil to simmer and back for a few years now. They both came out with recent books (1,2) collecting their ripping editorials and letting people rehash the tumult. (There's a lot of commentary and links about all this, and some of the soap-opera nonsense surronding it, like Stanley Crouch slapping Dale Peck at some NYC resturant in revenge of a bad review.)
Anyway, back in '01 (shortly after 9/11) when Wood was originally getting on about "hysterical realism" (about which I tend to agree) Zadie Smith had a reply that I'll quote parts of here since it's really quite wonderful:
"When I was 21 I wanted to write like Kafka. But, unfortunately for me, I wrote like a script editor for The Simpsons who'd briefly joined a religious cult and then discovered Foucault. Such is life. And now, when I finish a long day of CNN-related fear and loathing mixed with eyeballing my own resolutely white screen, I do not crawl into bed with 500-page comic novels about (God help me, but it's OK; I'm going to call on the safety of quote marks) 'multicultural' London. I read Carver. Julio Cortázar. Amis's essays. Baldwin. Lorrie Moore. Capote. Saramago. Larkin. Wodehouse. Anything, anything at all, that doesn't sound like me. Sick of sound of own voice. Sick of trying to make own voice appear on that white screen. Sick of trying to pretend, for sake of agent and family, that idea of putting words on blank page feels important. I think -- I'm not sure, but I think -- that I and other 'comic' writers Wood mentioned in his article now have the most pointless jobs in the world. Even Posh Spice et al surely fall into the cheering-the-troops department. We are more like a useless irritation; the wrong words, the wrong time, the wrong medium. Obsessed with our knowledge when the last thing people want is the encyclopaedic. . . . It's all laughter in the dark - the title of a Nabokov novel and still the best term for the kind of writing I aspire to: not a division of head and heart, but the useful employment of both.... I think Wood is hinting at an older idea that runs from Plato to the boys booming a car stereo outside my freaking window: soul is soul. It cannot be manufactured or schematised. It cannot be dragged kicking and screaming through improbable plots. It cannot be summoned by a fact or dismissed by a cliché. These are the famous claims made for "soul" and they lead with specious directness to an ancient wrestling match, invoked by Wood: the inviolability of "soul" versus the evils of self-consciousness and wise-assery, otherwise known as sophism.... Personally, I find myself more and more struck by controlled little gasps of prose, as opposed to the baggy novel. I admire the high reverence for the blank page shown by Kafka, Borges and Cortázar. Cortázar (recommended to me, actually, by Foster Wallace) writes as if every extra word is a sort of sacrilege. The instinct is almost religious, as if to say: and if it is to be stained, proceed slowly and with the utmost care. Which seems the exact opposite of the American/English instinct: I must cover the world in my shit immediately. Is it this reverence, this care, this suppression of ego that Wood wants to see from us? It is what I want to see from myself, but whether I will manage it is another matter. It will take sympathy -- a natural instinct, a sentimental reflex -- but it will also take empathy, which I still contend is largely a matter for the intellect. Your brain must be up for it, for making that necessary leap. At the moment, my brain feels like catfood. So I may never prove to be much of a writer - a real writer, the kind I like to read -- but then again, maybe I will. I'm not sure how much it matters any more. But we shall see.
Two extra links: A Recent NYT David Foster Wallace review, (read it quick because it will be archived in the expensive NYT vaults soon), and Heidi Julavits' semi-statement of principle which kicked-off the Believer Mag, a response to critical "snark".
Posted by Nick at 06:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 14, 2004
Charles Blows His Wad
Took refuge at Ry's sister's house in town today as it rained and stormed and rained some more. Pretty fantastic downpour accompanied by some hefty winds. Got off the island just before they closed the bridge.
Nothing like in florida, but I still figured it best not to lounge around in my mobile home. These things are natural disaster magnets. And I was a tad concerned during the last one, which didn't even come ashore.
Anyway, we got back tonight to a big piece of someone's vinal siding sitting our front yard and one of our screen doors ripped off its hinges. But nothing more than that. Could have been worse:
Posted by Nick at 11:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 13, 2004
Hurricane Charley is a' Comin'
More storms moving through means more surf.
Pulled a double session today, totalling five hours. Totally exhausted.
It took some serious power bars, Sobe energy drink, herb, and Ryan-wave-excitement to get me back out for the second time. But it's been glassy, peaky, and peeling all day. Rediculous. And almost no wind.
Now I'm just toast, lightly toasted.
Posted by Nick at 04:43 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Good Kinda-Comedy Writing
Posted by Nick at 12:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Total Surveillance
Boing Boing: Big Brother goes to the Olympics
-The eyes and ears consist of 1,000 high-res and infrared videocameras peppering the city. Cell and landline telephone calls are being recorded, converted into text, and "scanned for phrases that could be linked to terrorist activity."-
Ah, the future.
Posted by Nick at 12:29 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 12, 2004
Storm Evening Surf
I was out in a hard rain tonight. The border of the clouds two miles out in the ocean I could see was still sunny, but above me, coming straight down, killing the wind, pattering around me sweetly, dappling the water in all directions like the flattened surface of some giant golfball, the rain kept pressing, while smooth humps of swell were slowly rolling in at me, in the dusk paddling. They had this odd look like wind-swept sand dunes, only moving, towards me. I stroked and caught a few, and riding down the line in the rain is really the oddest thing; it hitting your face like you're riding a bike in a storm, but you're trying to surf, blinking, gasping, trying to stay with it.
Unusual.
Posted by Nick at 08:05 PM | Comments (2)
Self-Indulgent Critical Analysis
Figuring that it was simply good enough to get someone to even read my story, I kind of didn't care if anyone actually "got" it. But, secretly, I of course hoped someone would, and perhaps, think it decent enough to ponder on. These days the lines of pretension are drawn close and yet being a onetime philosophy major, I'm that kind of nerd enough to spend time and worry in trying to detail out my mind. Maybe that's merely ego, but still, I sit around here thinking about this shit all the time and plugging it into my obtuse fixations, so maybe there is someone out there interested enough as well.
That nonsense said, I've updated the about page.
Posted by Nick at 03:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 11, 2004
Liberal Poli Map of Middle Earth
Redesigned Political Map of Middle Earth @ The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century.
Amusing. Geeky. True(ish).
Posted by Nick at 09:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Two Sci Links, One Philo
Very short article about how cacti follow the Fibonacci sequence. (I'm sure I'm not the only one who would find that interesting).
Longish interview with Lawrence M. Krauss about which Big Questions most plague the current physics. (Again, not just me right?)
And finally a cute scholarly article about the German Philosopher Christoph Lichtenberg who is refered to as a "charming, hunchbacked, lecherous hypochondriac."
Posted by Nick at 02:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Short Short Story Contest Which I Lost
The five finalists for a David Eggers sponsored fiction contest at The Guardian were just announced. I entered it, though needless to say, I am not among the finalists. Here is the bit which I submitted:
She was small, yet powerful. Her body, like a rubberband ball felt taunt and packed. When she was under me, when I tried to envelope her with my own body, I could still not possess her, for she simply radiated out past me, between the cracks of us, red and glowing through my thinner skin. And I had no protection from her, no shield for her radiated influence upon and beyond me. She had a tattoo in the very center of her chest saying "trust" every time I read it and kissed it and I can still well remember the first time I uncovered it and my blank stare, which I hid from her, that came from facing such an insistent prerogative. I know I maybe blushed, but pressing my whole head into her I covered myself, pleading pleasantries. She owned me; sadly.
Evidently not what they were interested in.
Posted by Nick at 01:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
This will only get worse
Yahoo! News - Pollutants From Asia Appear on East Coast
And this from a similar NYT article: "By 2010, for example, scientists project that a third of the smog-forming ozone in California air will originate in the booming economies of Asia."
Great.
Posted by Nick at 11:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Girl Defends Tampon, Crassly
Random, quite humorous, hungover rant.
Posted by Nick at 02:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 10, 2004
A Lil Layout Change
I altered the story on the front page from this to the current. I hope it's an improvement. I got a few complaints about readability. I don't particularly care for the design all that much, but it's tough. Especially when I'm using MS Word as my webpage editor. I really need to get Dreamweaver.
Posted by Nick at 08:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 09, 2004
Nostalgia For Friends And Times
Ah, Portland.... (via Eli's now-fairly-defunct website)
Posted by Nick at 07:50 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Mythopoeia
There are some rather funny thematic similarities between Gangs of New York, Star Wars, and North Shore. So if you've seen all three of them, think about it for a moment (and only a moment because that's about all it's worth).
Posted by Nick at 07:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 08, 2004
A Bit More About Surf & Waves
Above is Taj Burrow, another fantastic surfer. One of Ry's favorites.
His book has been meandering around our house of late (from living room to bathroom). And it's a pretty good intro-to-advanced surf/life instruction kit.
Along with quite helpful entries about how to ride, there are also such gems as this mellow advice from the margins:
FREEWHEELING. Don't Wear tweeds or boxers under your wetsuit or trunks. No need. They don't add warmth nor aid comfort. Rattled by a small package? Don't be. Even if you've got a massive prong, your gear will hang down. And if you're playing the small prong blues in trunks, don't worry. No on can see your barb when you surf and when you're walking up the beach, position your prong behind the chunky fly.
Now isn't that stuff we all need to know?
Posted by Nick at 04:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
"I am the Walrus?" "Shut the fuck up Donny!"
Quality NYT piece about the long legacy, and cult of, the arguably best Coen Bro movie.
You're Entering a World of Lebowski.
(I drank my share of white russians after we saw it in the theatre more than a few times).
Posted by Nick at 02:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 07, 2004
Games, ah games, I Miss You...
As I'm sure we're all aware, the long-awaited Doom 3 has finally shipped. If I had a computer decent enough to play it, I'd buy it. (For as you may recall from a previous post, I whiled away plenty of time being more than just a player.)
For a while I really wanted to be a game designed. Tragically, I hate coding and am not good at it.
Though in my estimation, a great game designer is a great artist.
The Temple of Doom - Why do gamers worship John Carmack?
Posted by Nick at 04:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Justifcation of Laze
A brilliant treatise on the right and necessity of doing nothing. I could quote the heck out of this, but for anyone who knows me they'll see many the common theme.
Guardian Book extract: How To Be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson (via boingboing (and it's terribly ironic that the seemingly very busy Mr. Doctorow would post this))
Posted by Nick at 04:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 06, 2004
Site Improvement
At least I hope so.
Didn't find so much great to link to today but added this bit of java script over at the right there (took me a while, fiddling with the fucker). Click it and all external links (links that don't refer back to my domain name) will open in a new window.
Kind of messes up the look of the site a bit I think, but function over form!
How about leaving me a comment about whether this is a good feature? (all you masses of silent readers!)
Posted by Nick at 08:10 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 05, 2004
The Gritty Truth From Bruce
If anyone will tell it like it is, The Boss will.
Chords for Change (via whatevs)
Posted by Nick at 06:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A Taste of Riding
Above is Joel Tudor, master longboarder.
He is one of the few best and the best are collected here: Shelter.
Mellow, amazing, style-god.
Posted by Nick at 05:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Still Going / Slowly Dying on Mars
Like the Energizer Bunny these two.
But winding down...
Yahoo! News - Glitches Dog Both Mars Rovers
Posted by Nick at 10:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Where Is It, Where You At?
Just saw the movie Scratch. Sweet. Documenting one main aspect of HipHop: DJing. (As we all know, one of the four HipHop pillars, along with MCing, graffiti, and breakdancing).
I'm a huge fan of the likes of DJ Shadow and DJ Krush. (And anything Trip-Hop).
If only the world of fiction and lit could maintain the same level of cooperation, helpful competition, and progress and cohesion that Hip Hop possesses (or at least possessed).
Posted by Nick at 12:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 04, 2004
If Nobody Reads This, I'm Still Having Fun
Putting together a blog and blogging, it's rather like that summer after tenth grade I spent designing Doom levels. Hours of work and only a few people saw it (my levels were cool though!). The basic geek in me really enjoyed it.
There's something fun, constructive, egotistical, and nerdy about writing a weblog.
Maybe, as this contentious article says, "The sassier the voice, the more successful the blog is likely to be." Probably true. And I'm not very sassy.
The internet is basically fad-oriented. (hehe, that thing is still funny).
I intended to write a lot about literary things here, but there's already quite a few blogs that do that. And they know more than I do. All I have is my opinion, but that's just what everyone has.
Anyway, just rambling. This site's more about the story on the first page anyway.
Now I'm going to go have a PBandJ and a glass of soymilk, because I'm hungry after a frustrating surf. (This sure seems to be turning into a personal weblog).
Posted by Nick at 06:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Fish for Thought
A Reuters article today: "Drop Cod for Pollock Say Marine Conservationists" is a good reminder of the damage being done to the ocean.
If you eat fish, it's helpful to remember which fish are endangered.
The article has a link to The Marine Conservation Society but an even better and simpler reference comes from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Posted by Nick at 01:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 03, 2004
Steve Jobs Cancer Surgery
The New York Times - Apple Chief Has Emergency Cancer Surgery
Posted by Nick at 11:10 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
How to Write a Blog (?)
Weblogging is definately a bit of an art, and maybe takes a bit of a talent. I've only been practicing for a week, so I'm only slowly getting my blog-legs.
There are numerous different styles of post: Long and lyrical, short and precise, long and linky, journalistic, straight info dump, and I could go on and on.
Of course there's lots of different sorts of blogs. Popular. Celebrity. Nearly Corporate. Corporate. Conceptual. And just plain personal.
I must work out my mojo.
Posted by Nick at 05:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sketch!
Ryan just got out of the ocean after his second surf. He (excitedly/nervously) told me about how he and a few other shortboarders saw a four foot shark jumping out of the water chasing a fish. One guy speculated that it was a Bull Shark. Though I doubt that. (At least I want to doubt that.)
Ry turned to the guy nearest him and asked what he was going to do.
"Take my watch off," he said and did.
Ryan took off his watch and put it in his pocket. They kept surfing.
Posted by Nick at 04:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Tropical Storm 'Alex'
Last night was a dark and stormy night.
Wind and rain rattling against the "house" all night. Flimsy fucker.
(House in quotes because I live in a single-wide. It's two blocks from the beach. And you know these suckers are like cardboard boxes!)
The waves have been crazy all week and today was particularly of interest surf-wise, since as the storm moved north of us the swell and wind direction changed completely (duh) which makes it rather different to ride.
Fairly clean conditions, waist to head-high. Not throwing quite as much as before and less choppy. Still rather hard to catch, expecially at high tide (and for amateur waveriders like moi).
Posted by Nick at 03:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 02, 2004
Speaking of Art; Art I've Found
The postmoderism/modernism debate in the previous post was focused on the visual art world. I'm more interested in the lit art world, but I love the pure basic expressions that painting has taken on since the invention of the photograph. (Not that painting before the mid-nineteenth wasn't often spectacular, just that a way of directly recording images obviously freed up the painters, sending us into the spectacular impressionists and post-impressionists and so on).
I don't know the exact state of the art world right now, and I don't know if anyone does.
Yet here are three people producing art that seem to me to be beyond PoMo restrictions. Two of them are rather satirical, which is a common theme these days, but the other is not.
I would hope I would not be accused of being middlebrow. Whatever that means.
Mark Ryden/John Currin/Tiffany Bozic.
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