Earth Hour the event is over, and now the most important part begins: what do we do now? If we just go back to business as usual, then we have missed the point entirely. Lowering our electricity usage slightly for an hour has symbolic value only, and the symbolism is meaningless is we just hop back into the SUV, and go back to cranking up the A/C and the house lights. We need to change our lifestyle and make some painful choices to really make a difference.
Archive for March, 2008
30
Mar
Earth Hour: The Day After
Earth Hour the event is over, and now the most important part begins: what do we do now? If we just go back to business as usual, then we have missed the point entirely. Lowering our electricity usage slightly for an hour has symbolic value only, and the symbolism is meaningless is we just hop back into the SUV, and go back to cranking up the A/C and the house lights. We need to change our lifestyle and make some painful choices to really make a difference.
posted by john in Environment and have No Comments
18
Mar
Old Poetry
On a shelf in my home office are two hard bound blank notebooks, dating from the late 1970’s when I was in high school; both are filled with what is pretty bad high-school teenage angst poetry that I wrote at the time, and for whatever reason, I just never seem to get around to disposing of them.
I have no illusions about the quality of the verse; it’s pretty cringe-worthy, and when I look at it from time to time I shudder. And no, I am not going to quote any samples here 
. I certainly haven’t saved a whole lot of other things from that era, and there are things I’ve lost that I wish I still had, like my early edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master manual…
It was certainly a creative time, when writing verse came as naturally as breathing. In recent years, except for parody and occasional song lyrics, my muse has been largely absent. Maybe I keep the volumes as proof that yes, creativity used to be that easy
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15
Mar
On the Log #10 Nice Workers, If You Can Get Them
In this episode of On the Log, I rant about the upcoming labour shortage, and how attitudes about older workers, and “blue collar” work will have to change.
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posted by john in Podcasting and have No Comments
09
Mar
Again, the clueless media uncritically swallow the crap they are feed …
Reading this article in the Toronto Star, my blood is boiling. Greg Quill uncritically presents factoid after factoid about music download, e.g. “85% of available bandwidth is used for piracy”. He makes no effort to mention this these “facts” are from groups that have been caught out before pulling numbers out of their asses and presenting them as gospel truth.
Quill is either naive, lazy, or in on the game. As it is his piece reads like a press release for the RIAA.
Tags: Copyright, Music, Canada
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08
Mar
New episode on On the Log posted!
A new episode of On the Log has been posted. In this episode, I interview Keith Burtis, traditional wood turner and Web 2.0 enthusiast in Buffalo, NY.
Tags: On the Log
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posted by john in Podcasting and have No Comments
05
Mar
What happens in Podcamp cannot stay at Podcamp
My thoughts on three verticals for PodCamp
In the blog post listed above, and the interesting dialog in the comments that follow, Mark Blevis and others discuss the future of Podcamp events (in the wake of the very recent Podcamp Toronto 2008), and what the future may (and/or should hold). I’ve also had conversations with a couple other of the attendees, and I would like to comment from a different angle.
I know we live in an increasingly secular society, but as I thought about the issue, the conceptual framework that I modeled my thoughts around was actual the Podcamp as church service. If we look at the attendees at a typical mainstream denomination church service we se a certain percentage of true believers, newcomers, visitors, and perhaps some people who are looking for something. (I’m not counting the people who come to grumble about the priest or just drink the coffee at coffee hour!) In a sense, the make-up of podcamp is similar — “true-believer” veteran podcasters, people involved in other types of Social and/or traditional media), and newcomers to the medium, who have come to learn and ask questions.
And like a church service, no matter how insightful, effective or moving the service or podcamp is, if the “vibe” never makes it outside the church door, or the door of the facility at which a podcamp is held, then the institution is in deep trouble. Members of a church are exhorted to “spread the good news” to those they encounter outside the church, and likewise as podcasters, if we want the podcasting movement to grow and continue to succeed, we need to spread the word one new podcaster or one new listener at a time. Think of these encounters as mini-podcamps; informal and intimate, but with potentially large pay-offs.
So every time we help a newcomer record his or her first show, or lend/give them old gear to give them a leg-up, or just answer questions and offer encouragement, it’s a flashback to Podcamp. Thus, I’m not too worried about the format of Podcamp; let’s keep experimenting, keeping it informal, and not get too hung up; the most important part of podcamp happens after 5 pm on the second day.
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Tags: podcamp, podcamptoronto, podcamptoronto2008, podcasting
posted by john in Podcasting and have No Comments
01
Mar
Watching a TV news piece about the Beijing Olympics
It’s early on a Saturday morning and I just finished watching a news item about the new airport terminal that was built for the upcoming Summer Olympics. From a visual point of view it certainly is impressive and the news item is quite positive, but I can’t share the enthusiasm.
Recently, I followed a link (which I don’t have any more) to a page with graphic photos of the execution of political dissidents in China. One picture I saw was one of those that I wish I hadn’t seen, as it will haunt me for a long time to come: it was a picture of what was left of a woman’s head after being shot with a high powered rifle at close range.
Then there are the stories I read of how people have been brutally dispossessed of their homes in Beijing, to make way for Olympics-related building projects.
The scariest thing I find here is that there must be powerful business and political interests in the West who look at the Chinese model (unbridled capitalism and riches for a few, grinding poverty for many, with the overarching reality of political repression) with approval. Democracy can be so inconvenient….and I’m sure these interests would love to see Chinese style control (with them in control) in the West.
As it is, I won’t be watching any of the Olympics from Beijing, and I urge others to give it a pass as well.
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posted by john in Politics and have No Comments