JWL.Freakwitch.net

Fuel

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Wed, 21 May 2008 05:21:00 +0000

I took a nice ride tonight on our scooter, about 60 miles round trip, down Route 35 (mostly) from New Gloucester to Hollis. It's still chilly in Maine, it's been going into the low 40s at night. Tonight it was raining for the second half of the trip.

I've been reading several books by Emma Restall-Orr. I have 3 of her books, all of which approach various subjects from the point of view of druidry. Her newest book is about Pagan ethics, which is a subject near to my heart; there are many overlaps between this book and the book I've had in my head for a while. It's philosophical, but not academic. Another of her books discusses being with your environment, tuning in to what is happening around you. So while it was cold, and wet, it was great fun just whizzing through it at 37 miles per hour.

It was good to clear my head. Since I started working from home a few months ago, I don't get out of our place much. I've been spending lots of time outdoors lately, building garden beds. They're done now, we'll plant this weekend. I've been so busy with everything, I've not had as much time for my normal creative endeavors, mostly music and writing. My creativity has gone into the new job, and into the garden beds.

I'm not bitching, just describing. There is plenty of time for everything.

The warm weather is nearly here. Summer is coming. This is a good thing.

a numbers milestone: 100, 411, and 309.8

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:56:00 +0000

So what is 100 pounds? 200 rolls of toilet paper. 1 cubic foot of topsoil. 6 average car tires. 23 2-liter bottles of soda. 7 Edgars (my daughter's poodle). 3,024 compact discs.

100 pounds is also the amount of weight I have lost from my highest known weight, about 15 years ago.

I once weighed 411 pounds. Very likely, I weighed more than that, as after seeing that unfathomable number on the scale I went for several years without weighing myself.

This morning, I got on the scale, and it read 309.8. For the first time I am below 311, which means I've lost more than 100 pounds.

There are many reasons for the weight loss (walking, eating vegetarian/vegan, shovelgloving, the No-S Diet, t'ai chi, yoga) but my latest round of weight loss has come from the master cleanse fast. I'm presently on day 7 of the fast.

It is possible that when I break the fast I will put some weight back on. I'm already budgeting for this mentally, but I have some ideas about how to stabilize and continue the weight loss. Overall my weight stays pretty steady; I've been at 325 fairly consistently for 2 years now.

Anyway, forgive this moment of exuberance and self-indulgence over personal accomplishment, but GO ME! :-D

fukk da pope!

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:41:00 +0000

Can you believe this nonsense? The pope and George W hanging out like old buddies, with all the pomp and ceremony around it?

And listen to what they're saying: the pope was talking about the sexual abuse scandal among catholic priests in the US, but changed to subject to say: ""What does it mean to speak of child protection when pornography and violence can be viewed in so many homes through media widely available today?"

Yeah, widely-available pr0n is the problem. Not the destructive behavior of sexually-repressed men in positions of spiritual authority. Let's blame the fact that kids might see sex on a screen somewhere. Not those who actually decide to attack and violate these children.

Then to show just how full of cr@p all of this is, George W piped up: "In a world where some treat life as something to be debased and discarded, we need your message that all human life is sacred."

Sigh. Where to begin.

But don't worry. Things will be better soon when Obillary is in the White House.

Mmm hmmm.

No, really.

Q&A

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:08:00 +0000

A Seeker's Question: Why do we continue to do things to ourselves that we KNOW are not good for us, that we know will harm us and bring no enduring benefit?

A Shaman's Answer: Because we are not yet good enough at loving ourselves.

1000 True Fans, or, art patronage in the 21st century

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:30:00 +0000

I just came across this fascinating article called 1,000 True Fans. It is basically a manifesto on how, with web/Internet technologies, a creative person can make a sustainable living if they have just 1000 "true fans":

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

The idea here is not new, but it is a nice articulation of a formula that bands have followed for years. For example, Marillion (one of my all-time favorite bands) first began exploring the potential of the Internet in 1997, when their fans (me included) donated money ($50, $10, $100 etc) to get the band to be able to come tour the USA, a venture which would have been cost-prohibitive otherwise. Then in 2000, they again tapped into their fanbase to finance their album, Anoraknophobia.

The challenge, of course, is to find 1000 true fans. Not a simple task.

Speaking of "true fans" (LOL), I wanted to note here that my band, Freakwitch, has finished our new album, Interconnected. If you are a myspace person, you can here 6 of the 8 songs on our myspace page. Or, you can listen to the full album right from your browser by going to our RPM challenge page. Or if you are "old school" net music aficionado you can download the mp3s directly from us (though PLEASE use the other 2 to save bandwidth if you are able).

We took part in the RPM Challenge in February, which is something like the National Novel Writing Month, except that you record an album rather than write a novel in a month. We decided to go for it, partly because we were tired of not getting recordings done, and partly because we wanted to give my new recording rig a test drive. Enjoy it, and if you do please consider becoming one of our 1000 true fans. :-)

Concentration of Power

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:27:00 +0000

Ok, you can make the argument that this post is in response to seeing a headline that Rush Limbaugh is ordering his cult to cross the lines and vote for Hillary in Texas. Sheesh.

Clearly, there was a deal made here somewhere. Some money (or another form of concentrated energy) changed hands somewhere.

And in the matter of Clinton vs. Obama, this is demonstrative of the reason why I cannot endorse Hillary Clinton.

It's not about her shady past, her questionable profiteering, her womanly laundry capability when it comes to stained blue dresses, or anything like that.

It's about her obvious connection to existing power structures. When Rush Limbaugh of all people is openly campaigning for Hillary Clinton, you know that there is a connection there. This is the existing power structure trying to preserve itself. And it says a lot about how much they fear Obama.

Speaking of Obama, let me take you back for a moment.

It's 1991. A young Democrat takes the political world by storm, and convinces people that there may indeed be a way out of the oppressive dominance of the Republicans and back to more compassionate, sane values. He was a breath of fresh air and inspired hope when he spoke. He was intelligent, articulate, and conveyed an honest passion that was refreshing from the usual scope of politician of the day.

He wins the election.

/cue Monty Python/
"And there was much rejoicing." *Yay, hooray*

And from my point of view, not a heck of a lot changed. Capital, (or the corporations, the neocons, whatever you want to call it) expanded its power got wealthier, thousands are people were killed in the name of profit, etc etc. Things did indeed feel better immediately, but I soon realized the rush of euphoria (I can't believe We(tm) actually won!) wore off quickly. The Clinton Years were, in my mind, characterized primarily by a relief that the velocity of destruction and greed seemed to be slowing.

Before you accuse me of believing that there is no difference between Demicans and Republicrats (yes I voted for Nader in 2000, but don't worry, Gore "won" Maine) I concede that, obviously, Bush II is "worse" than Clinton. But this is only because Bush is 8 years further down, and at the opposite polar point of, the same trajectory that Clinton rode for 8 years.

I now am aware of the difference between Democrats and Republicans. The 2000 election taught me that, as I've written before. They each serve the power structure in different ways. Republicans push the line as far as they can while in power, then the Democrats maintain that power until the next Republican is elected. Lather, rinse, repeat. This give and take is now the sum total of American political consciousness, such that anything that exists outside of this power structure is seen as not valid or "not realistic" or other such dismissal. This dance between the two goes back decades. Think about it:

1992-2000, the Clinton years. The golden age. Wealth, prosperity for many. American didn't actually invade and occupy any countries, we just bombed them from afar.
1980-1992, the Reagan/Bush years. Destroyed labor unions, several wars, the rich got richer, etc etc.
1976-2000, the Carter Years. End of Vietnam, the country heals after Watergate with another young fresh breath of trustworthy air.
1968-1976, the Nixon Years. Vietnam. Watergate. All kinds of outrageous scandals, corruption, genocide, standard Republican nonsense.
1963-1968, the Johnson Years. Vietnam, and the empowerment of the Military Industrial Complex. This is a Democrat, no less....
1961-1963, the Kennedy Years. Another golden age, another young politician who charms people, etc etc. This one had people feeling so good they killed him for it.

And so on. Push the envelope, then provide some relief because things don't seem to be plummeting as quickly. Push/pull. Give/take. Take it all together, and over time you see that this energy pattern is a downward spiral.

Anyone who is connected to this energy pattern, this concentration of power, should NOT be voted in to power. Anyone reading this from Ohio (my birth state) or Texas should read this as a suggestion to vote for Obama. There, I've officially done my part to counter Rush Limbaugh's endorsement.

After the stolen elections of 2000 and 2004, in general I am not inclined to vote these days. Obama is the only one I would actually vote for, I think. But I know this: I will not limit my participation in American politics to this one event every 4 years.

EDIT: someone pointed out to me that Obama is still very much a part of the system, and I completely agree with this. My point is, at present Obama is less entrenched into the system than Clinton is. Perhaps in 15 years they will be similarly invested. This underscores the point that the problem is with STRUCTURES of power, and not with individual people. This point was brought home by Al Gore; here's a guy who participated in the atrocities of the Clinton years, who votes Bush into power in 2000 when they stole the election for him, etc etc. Now that he is removed from the power structure, he's doing good work with his films and environmental activism.

So yes, I am quite suspicious of concentrations of power, and the reason Obama is so attractive is because he is, for the most part, outside of that structure at present. This is also why I am suspicious that things will change, because if he does win the presidency he will then be assimilated into the power structure.

Yes, I still love Maine in the winter...

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 06:06:00 +0000

We had a winter storm pass through. We got 12" of snow, then it turned to freezing rain and then rain. Truly a "wintry mix." The snow is piled about 2/3 of the way up our garage at the edge of the driveway. Our power went out for almost 24 hours.

But yes, I still love Maine.

I took some photos, and (finally) started a Flickr account. There are 9 photos in the set. Here are some thumbies to give you something to check out:

Whose side is the RIAA on?

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:06:00 +0000

In case there was any doubt about whose side the RIAA is on, this article clears things up. The public perception they would like to create is that the RIAA is busy fighting for the artists, by suing those artists' biggest fans.

Mmm hmmm.

But now the RIAA is arguing that the artists get paid too much. I mean, getting 8 whole percent of the sale price of a 99 cent digital download, DAMN those artists are greedy. What do they think they do, write, perform, and create the product we're selling or what?

According to papers filed by the RIAA at the Copyright Royalty Board, the labels want the board to reduce the rate to 8% of wholesale revenue. The current rate is about 9 cents per song, but it often is lowered in negotiations with the record companies. That money usually is split 50-50 between the publisher and the songwriter.

So yeah, that 8 per cent royalty rate is actually split between the artist and the publisher. So in actuality, the artists only see 4 percent.

It gets better. They also want to ELIMINATE royalty payments for streaming audio. This is when you click on a link on a webpage somewhere, and the music starts playing on your computer without you having to save a file or download. The RIAA is arguing that this does not constitute a "mechanical" royalty, which is paid whenever someone buys a copy of a song. The fact that streaming technology necessitates transferring a copy of the song from the server to the listener's computer seems to elude the RIAA.

Yet another example of how the RIAA misunderstands the digital age, and its application to outdated business models. Their business model is doomed, and they know it. For 70 years, the RIAA has been nothing more than the gatekeepers between artist and fan, and now there is new technology that makes that position completely moot and irrelevant.

So rather than adapt to the new reality, they grip ever tighter to the old paradigm, to the point where they are suing their best customers and ripping off their artists.

Good plan. Uh-huh. That'll work.

Penultimate Shift

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 07:28:00 +0000

I just finished my penultimate shift working @ AAA. I've accepted a new job working for RealTraps beginning on Monday. Lots of changes in our reality... good changes.

Lots of details to come, not the least of which is the laptop-wrangling I've done this week. I have a new laptop, and I'll be writing about Liberating it from Vista. I will need XP for my job, and I've worked very hard to get XP up and running on my new laptop. Linux went in much more easily, of course.

Of course.

Anyway, tomorrow is the final shift at AAA. I like the turn of phrase on "penultimate shift" because it reminds me that something new is always around the corner.

Gulf of Tonkin redux? and, Zeitgeist

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:43:00 +0000

Those who pay attention to what is being said in the corporate media understand that they are, by and large, tools of propaganda to shape public opinion. I still keep an eye on cnn.com fairly regularly so that I can continue to see this. I'm particularly interested in what is said about both Iran and Venezuela, since it is likely that these two countries will be future targets of the US Military machine (given that these 2 countries have among the largest oil reserves in the world).

Anyway, on cnn.com today there was another story that reminded me of the Gulf of Tonkin incident that launched the Vietnam War. It was reported that Iranian ships 'harass' U.S. Navy, officials say.

Are they for real? What armed force, anywhere in the world, would knowingly "harass" the US military without provocation? Knowing the technological superiority of the US military, and knowing the US military's unabashed willingness to blow the crap out of anyone they perceive as "enemy," I think anyone who would "harass" the US military would have to be insane. I just don't think it's likely.

Of course, anytime you have boys playing in their war machines, one must account for increased testosterone levels, so who knows. But then again, increased testosterone levels are known to bring about insanity.

On another note, a friend mentioned the Zeitgeist movie in a comment a couple entries down. I've watched the film; it's fantastic. I highly recommend watching it, though I will say that if you are Jewish or a Christian, and unwilling to have your BS (Belief System) challenged by rational argumentation grounded in both history and world myth, don't bother as you are likely to simply be offended. The film does do a great job of showing how religion (and here I mean organized religion, or as my father would say, the "Big-C" church) is little more than a mechanism for social control and domination, teaching people to submit to external, arbitrary authorities and stop thinking. Or as they say in a quote in the movie, to take authority as the truth rather than truth as the authority. Brilliant.

You can watch the video entirely online, it is available on Google video.

Linux Audio

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 07:47:00 +0000

I was very glad to see this primer on Linux audio: Audio Production Tools for Linux. It looks like audio for Linux is getting closer to ready for prime time.

In general I have the attitude: no matter how many bells and whistles exist in commercial software apps, if I can get the job done with Free software then I should do so. It just so happens that Free software tools have in many places gotten better than what commercial offerings can provide.

In particular, Ardour is growing incredibly, and Hydrogen looks wicked cool as well. Ubuntu Studio is probably what I'll try first, it also has some video features which look intriguing.

The Joys of Home Ownership

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:25:00 +0000

For the most part, I love "owning" my home (though I still have philosophical differences with the notion of "owning" land and homes). It gives me freedom to do whatever I want with the place, and of course the economic benefits are well-known.

But sometimes it's just a pain in the ass. Like, say, the past 18 hours. We have about 18" of snow on the ground, and last night it got down to below zero, BEFORE the wind chill.

So last night I went to make dinner.... no gas. Hmm, I thought. If there's no gas in the stove, then that means..... no furnace.

Indeed, the furnace wasn't working. It was still reasonably warm at this point. So the first thing I did was go out to see if the propane tanks were full. After a fair amount of time digging a path to them (18" of snow and all) I discovered that, indeed, they were all about half full. I called our gas guy and he had some advice for me. I tried what he suggested (cleared off the roof around the furnace chimney, and restarted the gas) and, no luck.

So we all spent the night in our room with the space heater on (Mo, LM, myself, our dog, and my daughter's new gerbils). It was actually warm in there, but of course coming out of the room this morning was no fun.

After another phone call I decided to investigate the regulator at the back of the house. It's just off the back porch; sadly we have no way to get down from the back porch, it's basically a small balcony overlooking the hill and our woods. I could, however, see that the regulator was frozen solid.

I looked up, on the edge of the roof, and sure enough there were a bunch of icicles hanging down above where the regulator is. The exhast vent for the stove is right there; the warm air from the stove melts the snow on the roof, and then the water drips down and lands on the regulator. This is why it was encased in ice. Bad engineering.

So I went around to the back of the house and dug another path through the snow along the edge of the house to the regulator. After some gentle TLC with a hammer and chisel, the regulator was cleared out. I made double-sure the vent was clear; the vent being clogged with ice was the cause of the problem. When this happens the gas flow is designed to shut down.

After that I came back inside, turned on a burner on the stove, and sure enough there was the telltale hissing sound and the smell of propane. Yay!

So I re-lit the pilot lights and we were back in business. In fact the heater just kicked off again a few minutes ago, which means the house is back up to 68 degrees F.

I can't move the regulator easily, so soon I'll build a small shelter to cover the regulator, so any dripping water will be deflected away from it.

Don't wanna have to do this again. Though at least we're warming up now, we're up to 6.8 degrees F. :-)

conspiracy theory? Well, duh....

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 23:45:00 +0000

I've been very interested in the corporate media reaction to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. The headline in my local paper reads "Conspiracy theories arise in wake of Bhutto's death." This is mirrored all over the corporate media, and frankly talk like this burns me up.

"Conspiracy theory" has become a smokescreen phrase; whenever it is applied anywhere -- ESPECIALLY in the mass media -- it is a cue for people to stop thinking, and consider the person to whom this label has been applied as a crackpot nutjob.

Which of course makes no sense at all. The Bhutto assassination, the 9/11 attacks, the Kennedy assassination, etc etc etc are ALL events that were not carried out only by one person (despite the Warren Commission's characterization of a "lone gunman"); therefore, any theory about What Really Happened(tm) must by definition be a "conspiracy theory."

Pretty much anything that happens in politics must also by definition be a conspiracy theory. This obviously included Bhutto's death, the fact that it was a "conspiracy" goes without saying. There was another attempt on her life in October, and witnesses report both bombs and gunshots going off.

I just wish we could get beyond reactionary ostrich-like putting our heads in the sand at certain trigger words. There are many of these; "conspiracy theory" is one. "Freedom" is another.

But then, as I've said many times, there's a reason they call it "television programming."

David Byrne on the music industry

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:23:00 +0000

There are a fascinating pair of articles on Wired involving David Byrne. First, and most interesting to me, is David Byrne's Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists — and Megastars. Byrne does a good job of outlining 6 possible business models for musicians becoming apparent now that the Major-Label music industry is dead. Definitely a good read for people interested in music and how to earn income from it.

Secondly is David Byrne and Thom Yorke on the Real Value of Music, which is Byrne interviewing Yorke (of Radiohead), mostly about how they released their most recent album, where they offered it as a free download, giving people the opportunity to pay whatever they think it to be worth.

I find this passage from Byrne's article interesting:

one of Radiohead's managers, Bryce Edge, told me, "The industry reacted like the end was nigh. 'They've devalued music, giving it away for nothing.' Which wasn't true: We asked people to value it, which is very different semantics to me."

Different semantics indeed. This way of thinking ("they've devalued music") is representative of the muddled thinking so often present in corporate/capitalist reality. Whitehead would have called it the "fallacy of misplaced concreteness," which is "mistaking the abstract for the concrete." In other words, it's not music that is being devalued, it is an outmoded form of parasitic economic exploitation, known as The Major Label Music Industry, that is being devalued.

new gigs

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:02:00 +0000

I just realized I haven't posted about this. I have 2 new gigs going on. I'll still be doing weekends at my old gig, so that's remains unchanged. I still have no free weekends except on rare special occasions. :-(

The first is that I am in the process of opening up Crafted Recordings: Quality on-location audio recording in Northern New England. I'm surprised I haven't blogged about this yet, but I've had a separate website going for a while. Hop on over and check it out when you can. My recording rig isn't quite finished, and I've hit some (not insurmountable) snags on the portability end of it. I'll need to get a truck and/or a trailer to haul it around, and I still need to finish building the rack lids so I can safely move them. I have the materials I need, I'm just waiting for the stars to line up with time and good weather so I can do the carpentry. This is very exciting, as it gives me a chance to earn a living doing what I love.

The second is that I’ve entered into a part-time consulting relationship with Realtraps. Realtraps, "the experts in acoustic treatment," is an acoustics company run by Ethan Winer (and his partner Doug Ferrara, as well has a half-dozen-ish employees). Ethan wrote the single best introduction to listening room acoustics that I know of; this article was my point of departure in developing an understanding of how to make rooms sound good. In addition to this (and other) articles, Ethan is more than generous with his expertise on various forums online that I hang out on. We started communicating a while ago via these forums, and we became friends.

So these are exciting developments for me, as both of these mean I will be starting to earn (at least part of) a living through music.

PCLinuxOS

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 05:03:00 +0000

After all this time, I've finally gotten round to reinstalling Linux, both on the laptop and on the desktop. I tried Ubuntu again, but at this point I am of the opinion that PCLinuxOS completely smokes Ubuntu.

Full featured, easy to install. No hassle. It just works, with all the software you will ever need.

If you are contemplating whether or not to run Vista, just don't. Get PCLinuxOS instead.

Internet Bill Of Rights

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:25:00 +0000

Looks like the Brazilian and Italian governments are getting together to draft an Internet Bill Of Rights. This is a good idea, and it would appear that they are on the right track, since they are discussing

Privacy, data protection, freedom of expression, universal accessibility, network neutrability, interoperability, use of format and open standards, free access to information and knowledge, right to innovation and a fair and competitive market and consumers safeguard.

Among the signees of this resolution are Gilberto Gil, a Brazilian musician who is also the Brazilian Minister for Culture. I have respect for Gil and what he does as a politician. I remember Lawrence Lessig writing about an encounter he had with Gil a couple of years ago:

This was a scene that was astonishing on a million levels. I've seen rallies for free software in many placed around the world. I've never seen anything like this. There were geeks, to be sure. But not many. The mix was broad-based and young. They cheered free software as if it were a candidate for President. But more striking still was just the dynamic of this democracy. Barlow captured the picture at the top, which in a sense captures it all. Here's a Minister of the government, face to face with supporters, and opponents. He speaks, people protest, and he engages their protest. Passionately and directly, he stands at their level. There is no distance. There is no "free speech zone." Or rather, Brazil is the free speech zone. Gil practices zone rules.

Let's hope this sees the light of day; the values contained in this declaration do need to be foregrounded in discussion.

please tell me I don't have to boycott Harry Potter....

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:36:00 +0000

Yes, I happily admit that I'm a Harry Potter fan. I think it's a great series, incredibly imaginative, reasonably well-written, and the movies aren't bad.

It goes without saying that J. K. Rowling has become one of the most famous authors in the world, her books have sold millions in dozens of languages, academics are studying them and writing about them, along with other famous writers firmly established in the western canon. Tolkien comes to mind; they are similarly famous, in related genres, and both have had blockbuster movies made within the past decade.

But, J.K. Rowling has gone over the top. Apparently, she is suing a publisher for having the audacity to publish a reference book about the Harry Potter universe.

Rowling's argument is clear, albeit misguided:

It is not reasonable, or legal, for anybody, fan or otherwise, to take an author's hard work, re-organize their characters and plots, and sell them for their own commercial gain. However much an individual claims to love somebody else's work, it does not become theirs to sell.

If this argument were sound, then there would be no reference books at all for any copyrighted work, apart from reference books published by the original copyright holders of the material.

No Cliffs Notes.

No reference books on Lord of The Rings.

No reference books on Narnia.

No reference books on Star Wars.

No reference books on the His Dark Materials trilogy.

And curiously enough, no Harry Potter reference books, dozens of which have already been published.

I truly hope that J. K. Rowling isn't vain enough to actually believe that she, the richest woman in the UK, richer than even the Queen, should exclusively profit from the hard work of other people, in this case people who compile the reference materials.

If she does, well. It's too late to boycott since my family already owns all 7 books.

Which brings up another point: does Rowling truly believe that people are going to buy these reference books INSTEAD fo the original novels? That there will be ANYONE who buys this reference book who doesn't already own all 7 books, probably in both paperback and hardcover, all the DVDs from the movies made, and at least a dozen tickets to each movie in the theater?

Reality check. J.K. Rowling is often portrayed as a hardworking mom who struck big with an imaginative idea. That may have once been true; but if she really believes this then she is now nothing more than a fabulously wealthy node in the corporate network.

The science is beginning to come in....

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:52:00 +0000

And sure enough, suing your best customers is probably not a good idea.

Now, you have ISPs shutting down websites for hosting copyrighted material.... even though the same people who own the website hold the copyright! It's out of control...

The music industry (defined as a near-monopoly by a few major labels) is doomed. They are panicking. Too bad for them.

living in the woods

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 05:44:00 +0000

I've lived in the suburbs. I've lived in medium-sized midwestern cities. I've lived in small coastal cities. I've lived along the beach. I've lived on a beautiful hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

But living in the woods is easily my favorite. At least so far.

meta-critiquing The Secret and other New-Wage musings

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:54:00 +0000

I ran across The Wrath of the Secretrons by Connie L Schmidt. In it, she coins the very amusing term "New Wage" movement, which is her term for "the prosperity-obsessed, MLM-loving segment of the New-Age and motivational crowd."

Basically, she dismisses The Secret and its emphasis on the Law Of Attraction in promoting personal wealth, which I agree is a somewhat dubious motivation for spiritual enlightenment.

One of her biggest critiques is that the Law of Attraction "is presented as a scientific law akin to the law of gravity." This reveals her misunderstanding: The Secret, What The Bleep, and all this other stuff is metaphysics, not physics.

Metaphysics cannot be proven one way or another; it either makes sense or it doesn't. They all are theories and cannot be scientifically tested; whereas metaphysics speculates on the whole of the universe and how it operates, scientific theory must rely on isolating variables (ie, cutting off the interesting variable from the rest of the universe and testing it in lab conditions). One cannot do this with metaphysics.

I agree, The Secret and What The Bleep and countless other metaphysical offerings have their problems. But they shouldn't be taken as science. They are more metaphysical in nature; they suggest to us ways of being in the world as opposed to solid, provable, repeatable, and peer-reviewed hypotheses about isolated chunks of existence.

we are all made of stars

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 17:21:00 +0000

An interesting bit of science:

The Cardiff team suggests that radioactive elements can keep water in liquid form in comet interiors for millions of years, making them potentially ideal "incubators" for early life. They also point out that the billions of comets in our solar system and across the galaxy contain far more clay than the early Earth did. The researchers calculate the odds of life starting on Earth rather than inside a comet at one trillion trillion (10 to the power of 24) to one against (emphasis added).

The technical name for this theory is panspermia, which invites its own lewd metaphorical joke. But maybe Tim Leary was right -- ashes to ashes, dust to dust, from outer space to outer space.

Maine collectibles

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 06:37:00 +0000

There are lots of junk shops, antique shops, and the like in Maine. It's a big, rural state, with a small economy, where lots of people with money own second homes (which of course drives up the property prices, further repressing Maine's economy).

You can find just about anything in these shops. That's probably where this collectible severed hand was found.

Did you ever....

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 06:48:00 +0000

....wake up one day, look around, and realize you live in a really amazing place?

That happened to me the other day. And a few times since.

All of our stuff is unpacked now, and I've been quite busy around the house doing lots of fix-it type things. I've built 8 bookshelves (4 quite small, two quite large, and two medium-sized), a new compost bin, and a bench seat for my daughter's loft bed. I've also lowered her loft bed (she can now sit up in bed!!!). I installed a new kitchen faucet, and caulked our bathtub. Whee!

In all seriousness, I really love this kind of work.

Soon now, I will begin turning my attention to the outside. In the short term, I have compost to cook, garden beds to plan and landscape, and a yard to get ready for a party in September. In the medium term, I have a studio to build. In the long term, I'd like to put a screened-in-porch and a deck behind the house.

Fun fun fun. The woods behind our house are very cool. I need to spend more time in them.

We're in....

noreply@blogger.com (JWL) — Wed, 30 May 2007 05:58:00 +0000

We've moved in to our new house, in the sense that all of our belongings are on our property. Many of them are even in the house. A few of them are put away....

Lots of work is ahead, though. Tomorrow's big project is some carpentry. There isn't much storage space in the place, and shelves are needed. This will allow there to be an "away" to "put" many of our belongings.

We also bought a futon today. So we'll have much better crash space than a sleeping bag on a floor....

My to do list is a mile long, and I don't even want to think about how much my credit card debt has increased.

But all in all, it's a very exciting, if exhausting time.