Archives Under "miscellaneous" (RSS)
Hey look, I posted something!
1 March 2007 | miscellaneous | 4 Responses
I’ve been thinking a lot about dreading my blog lately. I think it’s the date-stamps. They’re oppressing me.
I heard Anil Dash talk at Northern Voice last weekend, and he explained the date-stamp as a kind of social-contract that says to people ‘I promise to post more here soon.’ That was pretty timely for me — I’d been thinking about taking the date-stamps off of my blog, so that I could feel like less of a turd when I don’t post anything for months and months. I still might. Who knows?
Anyway, I’m sorry I broke my promise. In the interest of our friendship, dear reader , I’ll be perfectly honest (I mean, it’s not like there’s many of you, so I think I can get away with it) — I can’t promise that I’ll post more here soon. All I can promise is that in between now and the time that I post again, which will likely be months from now, I’ll be feeling guilty about this gaping void of a blog at least once daily.
Cheers to that!
Touching: the Big Six from SecondLife
23 October 2006 | miscellaneous, tech | 1 Response
I wish all life was like Second Life… (and I haven’t even logged on yet).
Check out their inspired (and well-writ) Community Standards. I wish the rules for RL were this simple and straightforward! In fact, it’s really fun to read these standards and substitute ‘Real Life’ or ‘Vancouver’ for every time you see the term Second Life. Try it!
Here’s an example:
Intolerance
———–
Combating intolerance is a cornerstone of Vancouver’s Community Standards. Actions that marginalize, belittle, or defame individuals or groups inhibit the satisfying exchange of ideas and diminish the Vancouver community as whole. The use of derogatory or demeaning language or images in reference to another Resident’s race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual preference is never allowed in Vancouver.
Isn’t that sweet?
Here’s the rest of the Big Six guidelines. Have fun!
Second Life: Community Standards
================================Welcome to Second Life. We hope you will have a richly rewarding experience, filled with creativity, self expression and fun. The goals of the Community Standards are simple: treat each other with respect and without harassment, adhere to local standards as indicated by simulator ratings, and refrain from any hate activity which slurs a real-world individual or real-world community.
Behavioral Guidelines - The “Big Six”
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Within Second Life, we want to support Residents in shaping their specific experiences and making their own choices. The Community Standards sets out six behaviors, the “Big Six”, that will result in suspension or, with repeated violations, expulsion from the Second Life Community. All Second Life Community Standards apply to all areas of Second Life, the Second Life Forums, and the Second Life Website.Intolerance
———–
Combating intolerance is a cornerstone of Second Life’s Community Standards. Actions that marginalize, belittle, or defame individuals or groups inhibit the satisfying exchange of ideas and diminish the Second Life community as whole. The use of derogatory or demeaning language or images in reference to another Resident’s race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual preference is never allowed in Second Life.Harassment
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Given the myriad capabilities of Second Life, harassment can take many forms. Communicating or behaving in a manner which is offensively coarse, intimidating or threatening, constitutes unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual favors, or is otherwise likely to cause annoyance or alarm is Harassment.Assault
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Most areas in Second Life are identified as Safe. Assault in Second Life means: shooting, pushing, or shoving another Resident in a Safe Area (see Global Standards below); creating or using scripted objects which singularly or persistently target another Resident in a manner which prevents their enjoyment of Second Life.Disclosure
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Residents are entitled to a reasonable level of privacy with regard to their Second Lives. Sharing personal information about a fellow Resident –including gender, religion, age, marital status, race, sexual preference, and real-world location beyond what is provided by the Resident in the First Life page of their Resident profile is a violation of that Resident’s privacy. Remotely monitoring conversations, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs without consent are all prohibited in Second Life and on the Second Life Forums.Indecency
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Second Life is an adult community, but Mature material is not necessarily appropriate in all areas (see Global Standards below). Content, communication, or behavior which involves intense strong language or expletives, nudity or sexual content, the depiction of sex or strong violence, or anything else broadly offensive must be contained within private land in areas rated Mature (M). Names of Residents, objects, places and groups are broadly viewable in Second Life directories and on the Second Life website, and must adhere to PG guidelines.Disturbing the Peace
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Every Resident has a right to live their Second Life. Disrupting scheduled events, repeated transmission of undesired advertising content, the use of repetitive sounds, following or self-spawning items, or other objects that intentionally slow server performance or inhibit another Resident’s ability to enjoy Second Life are examples of Disturbing the Peace.Warning, Suspension, Banishment
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Second Life is a complex society, and it can take some time for new Residents to gain a full understanding of local customs and mores. Generally, violations of the Community Standards will first result in a Warning, followed by Suspension and eventual Banishment from Second Life. In-World Representatives, called Liaisons, may occasionally address disciplinary problems with a temporary removal from Second Life.
I won a bool! Hoorah!
22 October 2006 | miscellaneous, vancouver | 4 Responses
Hey, I won a bool! Yippee! Monique from SoMisguided held a bool recently, and I was the lucky winner. Not only was it fun, but it was super-fun. Not only was it super-fun, but I also won a prize! Not only did I win a prize, but I actually won lots of prizes!
You must be thinking what the smuck am I talking about?
A bool is a treasure hunt, a good joke, something fun, that ends in an RC, or a candy bar, or a story.
But Scott was a bit of a nutter himself. There are good bools, like the one he’s left for Lisey, and there are blood bools, like the ones his father introduced to him. Blood bools are bloodletting, when you cut to release the bad-gunky.
Lisey’s Story is about bools: blood bools and good bools.
But Lisey’s Story itself is a mothersmucking good bool.
– Monique, SoMisguided.com
Learn more about bools, and prizes, and other things like books and tap dancing and salmon and marketing over at SoMisguided. Maybe you’ll win something too!
Supporting our Troops
18 October 2006 | miscellaneous | No Responses
There’s a great conversation happening on darrenbarefoot.com and robcottingham.ca about whether one can ’support our troops’ without ’supporting the war’. I really encourage y’all to check it out - it’s very interesting.
Tags: canadian forces, peace, warGVRD Legislates Recycling of E-Waste
15 October 2006 | miscellaneous, news, vancouver | No Responses
I mean, I think that’s what’s happening, anyway… According to Dave Watson (of Dot Comment fame), the GVRD has passed legislation that will soon require e-waste to be diverted from the regular waste stream (yeck - a garbage stream) to soon-to-be-created official drop-off facilities.
I did a little research (and I mean a little), and I turned up this article (from my old employer, the North Shore Recycling Program, no less!) that seems to confirm Dave’s good news. According to the article, the GVRD, in partnership with Encorp Pacific & the EPSC, will be implementing an electronic product stewardship program by summer 2007. While the fine details of the plan are still being developed, it looks like the first instance of the program will allow for recycling of the basics: personal computers, monitors, televisions, laptop computers and printers. The program will be financed in part by ‘environmental handling fees’ that will be collected on all electronics products at the time of purchase. (For more info, check out the EPSC website.)
I think this is great news. I used to work at a recycling facility in North Van where one could only recycle computers as scrap metal, while tv’s, printers, etc. were just plain garbage. Obviously there’s a lot of valuable material that can be reclaimed from these things, but there’s never been an infrastructure here that allowed for easy collection & reclamation. This new partnership will mean (literally) tons of waste diverted from the garbage dump. Huzzah!
Silent Summer Nights 6
5 September 2006 | miscellaneous, music, movies | 1 Response
Saturday & Sunday night it was my pleasure to volunteer for Silent Summer Nights at Grandview Park on Commercial Drive. SSN is a really neat project co-produced by the Eye of Newt collective, Radix Theatre & Rumble Productions. Each year they get together & present silent movies in the park, accompanied by live orchestras.
Saturday’s features were two Chinese animated films: ‘Three Monks’ and, um, something slightly longer about dragons. Both were very nice, but I think I liked 3 Monks best because it was really cute. Both movies were accompanied by the Orchid Ensemble, an incredible blend of experimental jazz & traditional Chinese music. Their music blended so well that I soon forgot they were even there. Amazing.
Sunday’s film was Fritz Lang’s 1927 classic Metropolis, accompanied by the ‘Monster Orchestra’, a 30-person collaboration of three orchestras (NOW orchestra, Eye of Newt & Orchid Ensemble), simultaneously conducted by all three conductors. The music that emerged was pretty amazing. It was like experimental jazz improv meets, uh, experimental orchestral music? Seriously, I dunno what you would call it, but it was pretty awesome. It didn’t feel like the music was very attuned to the film, especially since the conductors were most often standing with their backs to the screen, occasionally glancing over their shoulder for inspiration. Still, there were some pretty magical moments.
Here’s a brief audio snippet from Sunday night that I recorded on my phone. It’s pretty terrible quality, but it might give you a sense of what it was like from my vantage point, behind the band at the ‘box office’ (more like a box than an office, really). Enjoy!
Tags: jazz, theatre, vancouver