Nein!!!

This was posted on the forsaken FriendFeed this a.m. = c

Douglas Coupland: Generation A

Douglas Coupland’s new book is due in September of this year: In the near future bees are extinct—until one autumn when five unconnected individuals, in Iowa, New Zealand, Paris, Ontario, and Sri Lanka, are stung. Immediately snatched up by ominous figures in hazmat suits, interrogated separately in neutral Ikea-like chambers, and then released as 15-minute-celebrities…

Learning Not Alone

One of my interests is instructional design. I think this is primarily due to being subjected to training and other instructional situations that left me feeling not empowered and confident but muscled around, confused and sometimes even empty. I find that I am influenced by the most unlikely sources, which I incorporate into my own…

Ry and Lu’s house

Our pals in Juneau suffered a tragedy yesterday when their house caught on fire in the middle of the night and burned out. The source of the fire came from the house next door, which only suffered a fraction of the damage. We can hear Ry’s and Lu’s voices laughing about finding out what’s covered…

The Rain in Spain…

…does not always fall on the plain – regardless of what we’ve learned. Having just returned from a week’s travels into the Pyrénées and the coast, we encountered weather much like that of our former residences in Southeast Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. We visited San Sebastián, Munitibar-Arbatzegi Gerrikaitz and Ansó. Which isn’t to say…

El Peor Terrorista

“El peor terrorista” translates into English as “the worst terrorist” – meaning the graffiti I photographed this weekend means, “the worst terrorist is the capitalist system.” [thanks, Fonz] Being from the States while in Europe means that Europeans often ask about Obama and are as excited about his election as we are – feels good…

Flight of the Bergey

I’m not one who usually rides on the back of anything except maybe a horse. Yesterday, however, I couldn’t pass up a chance to ride through Barcelona on the back of my friend’s scooter during rush-hour. = c

1-minute stories

Today we begin shooting 1-minute stories with the students here. What can you tell in 1-minute? Commercials that don’t suck can tell a lot: = c

PSAs

This week at the school, we’re looking at and making our own PSAs. Broadcast PSAs came into widespread use in the late 1940’s with the famous “Only you can prevent forest fires” tagline of Smokey the Bear. The students are creating PSAs around many issues, including littering, drugs, creativity, oppression, etc. = c

timelapse : does it ever get boring?

I can watch timelapse after timelapse and never ever get tired of them. A fella made this one on a flight from Amsterdam and it’s a good one:

The Wilhelm Scream

Heard of it? I hadn’t until my pal, Lars, turned me onto it and next thing I knew I was combing the Web, looking for as many stories about it as I could. Turns out, this scream sound effect has been used as a bit of a tribute in more films than you can shake…

Feel-Good Commercials Don’t Suck as Hard

Commercials have a way of kicking the authenticity out of our ability to be spontaneous. People do things “spontaneously” now, more than ever, for Facebook or whatever social-networking site they subscribe to, which can be a drag but if it gets us off our butts and back into a playful, whimsical state-of-mind, it sure can’t…

Stolen Stollen

Literally: Two couriers at a package distribution center stole a Christmas cake destined for a German newspaper and mailed in its place a package of credit card data, prosecutors said Friday. The mix-up triggered an alarm over lost bank customer details. A batch of microfilmed data including names, addresses and card transactions ended up at…

history : bicycle : internal hub : epicyclic gearing : sun

from wikipedia : The first patent for a compact epicyclic hub gear was granted in 1895. This was a 2-speed but was not commercially successful. In 1896 William Reilly of Salford, England patented a broadly similar 2-speed hub which went into production in 1898 as ‘The Hub’. It was a great success, remaining in production…

So long, Facebook

Today i say goodbye to social networking. I no longer wish to opt-in to additional consumer surveillance. If i had an office job that bored me to tears, i would surely feel differently and continue to click my way through mob, zombie and other such mindless *wars*. Alas, i have no such job and after…