bicyclemark

Sweeeeedish

Normally a Sunday morning wake-up call is not something to look forward to. But this past weekend I was most pleased with the digital voice of one Mart in Sweden.

Mart loves the man in black, and taught me to appreciate Live at Folsom Prison. He also loves his Swedish girlfriend… and I think she’s great too. Way back before the move to Sweden, I remember the boys being impressed because she collects comic books. Everyone take notes, if you’re doing a sociological study of the male psyche… female comic book collecting is hot. Apparently… I mean.. I’m just the observer.. the Margaret Mead with a penis, if you will. (that should get me more search hits, everyone looking for a hermaphrodite anthropologist)Anyway, he was and is one of my closest friends on this sometimes green earth, and the conversation got the memory banks working overtime. Again I’ll go look at how much flights to Stockholm are. Seems to me there’s a forest in the middle of that city.

As I was telling the torontonienne last night over ye ol MSN, I’ve been listening to blogosphere radio from Edmonton. YES.. blogradio. Boring you say? Nerdly you say? Perhaps. But hey, I like listening to the latest news about the blogosphere and blog software. And they also interview other bloggers, which is fun. Consider it the Johnny Carson of blogging. Don’t know Johnny? OK then.. the Conan O’Brien? Still nothing… maybe more like the Oprah.

Discussing United Nations Reform via email (yes we have these discussions) JAck and I agree on a certain standard, an international law “Killing people is bad.” I think from this starting point we can make a better world. As far as the Security Council is concerned, I say banish the current permanent seats and veto powers, create a permanent seat for each continent, and require a consensus to pass resolutions. That way the world will be more culturally and geographically represented, and resolutions may actually be respected by each country involved. That’s just one of my reform ideas, which is pretty simple but all you get before 10am. If you’d like to get involved in the email discussion, it can be arranged.

Today’s Music: G. Love – The Hustle (still loving it)

Got that Style

My brother, the man behind Foggy Recollection, send me a mpeg video of A-Ren being fed. Like any loving and far away uncle, I was captivated. I kept replaying it over and over, each time noticing something different about where he’s looking, how he blinks, how he seems to forget the spoon is coming towards him, because he noticed something far more interesting in the galaxy above. I think it’s time to book my December trip to New Jersey to experience these feeding rituals first-hand. And furthermore we have similar diets, Organic-Soy something something.

Oh and while I’m on the subject, I must welcome my associate in Lisbon, J.P., to the secret society of uncle. ::insert fancy handshake:: He has just become an uncle: Antonio Porfirio is the lad’s name, or as I have renamed him T.P. (nothing to do with Tony Pierce.) Viola, only a few days old and he will already be listed in google after this post.

Before settling down to my long-fall nap last night, I was enthralled with reading this post on Weblogg-ed, which is a great blog for all you blog readers interested or involved in the world of education, nudge-nudge. It concerned blogging styles as well as how using weblogs in the classroom fulfills core curriculum requirements. Here are my highlights of how he breaks it down:

-Engage in the full writing process by writing daily and for sustained amounts of time.

-Use the computer and word-processing software to compose, revise, edit, and publish a piece.

-Write a range of essays and expository pieces across the curriculum, such as persuasive, analytic, critique, or position paper.

-Use primary and secondary sources to provide evidence, justification, or to extend a position, and cite sources, such as periodicals, interviews, discourse, and electronic media.

-Foresee readers? needs and develop interest through strategies such as using precise language, specific details, definitions, descriptions, examples, anecdotes, analogies, and humor as well as anticipating and countering concerns and arguments and advancing a position.

-Demonstrate personal style and voice effectively to support the purpose and engage the audience of a piece of writing.

Interesting no? Let’s get beyond the ol “Put Computers in the Classroom” battlecry, and actually put those computers to use – through weblogs/

One last thought, in politics, or history really, did you know Donald Rumsfeld is on the Watergate Tapes? Yeah… telling Nixon that he had connections with the Gallup Poll people if the president wanted some under the table info. Majikthise was talking about it and I was left with two thoughts, 1 – Never believe polls especially from Gallup 2- Do you really trust a man who’s on the Watergate tapes? Why isn’t he embarrassed and resigning? OH yeah.. he has no shame.

Today’s Music: Azure Ray – Hold on Love (I love sleepcore)

No Stoppin Me

It was inevitable, the communiqu? is going DAILY! Yes it’s true. I’m tired of fighting the urge.. everyday I feel the need to blog, so therefore I’m giving daily blogging a go. If it turns out no one likes it, or I suddenly write like crap, I might just revert to my every-other-day methods. But nevermind that.

This weekend I’ve a visitor from Siam… which apparently was renamed Thailand in 1939. Did you know Thailand was the only country never to be colonized by western powers? I did.. I learned it not from Wikipedia or reading history, but in fact from that semi-decent flick Anna and the King. What? It was pretty good, what can I say.. I like Jodie Foster and if she wants me to shoot Reagan… then she is my queen and I will do her bidding.

Umm.. oh… where was I? Oh yeah.. Thailand… my dear Thai visitor is having a fine time in Amsterdam I hope, even though she has to deal with my insisting on hopping on the internet for hours at a time, instead of running around doing tourism. I’ve also decided I will definitely go to Thailand soon, it will be my first destination ever in South-Asia.

During a mad news reading rush I had yesterday morning, I started going through every single little article in the Village Voice… just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. And sure enough, I ran into Ward Harkavy’s blog-style net-column called the Bush Beat. Now although I never got to meet him during my time at the voice.. I did see him often.. I think he’s an excellent journalist. What I do not understand is why his column looks like a blog: published daily, with what look like permalinks, filled with external links, and lots and lots of cursing like a sailor. I love that.. but yet its not a blog. No permalinks.. no commenting system. A blog without comments is like breakfast without soymilk. What are you doing Ward? Is it the Voice that won’t allow you to run a real blog? Do you need my help? I could advise you as to what a blog really involves and how to go about it! Yes. I shall email Ward and offer my help. Maybe I’ll get mentioned in his semi-blog.

Today’s Music: Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros – Old Stuff

Devil Cats

It feels like months since I blogged at 2am. Still kicking around the idea of going daily. One blog per day. It’s really tempting. I remember when Hugh in Indiana talked about going daily, and it seems to work well for him. On occasion, bloggers such as he get into baseball. I admit I don’t really follow organized sports of any kind, except what I hear via the blogosphere.

But I was interested, as an admirer of DC, in the idea of the Montreal Expos moving to DC. So who better to consult on this subject than the infamous DC mover and shaker: D-Rock. Now my initial thoughts were: BAD IDEA. Bad for the Orioles in Baltimore and generally ils sont toujours les Expos, always French-Canadian as far as I’m concerned.

But again… what do I know.. so D-Rock broke it down: they should be called the Senators, new stadium, a short metro ride and you’re there, lots of Virginians would come, Baltimore is too dam far. But then we started talking team names, to which he declared:

I hope they don’t name the baseball team a stupid freaking name like razor bob devil cats, or some stupid crap like the wizards what was wrong having the Bullets? Oh look at us we’re the wizards…we dress up and play dungeons and

dragons…ohh I’m going to put a spell on you, oh did you read the

newest Harry Potter? Fucking Horrible!

The devil rays, thunder, raptors, avalanche all of its crap!

Giants, Redskins, Yankees, Cubs, White Sox, Flyers, Brewers (my favorite)

Those are team names!

So there you have it.. direct from one DC horse’s mouth.

Crazy Dr. M who was hanging out at the bicyclemark ranch this evening, referred me to NEWSMAP. This project takes all the news stories.. I guess via the google news aggregator.. and shows the prevalence of certain stories based on square sizes. Well, something like that, see for yourself what stories are getting big squares. I still find it annoying what a big square this Dan Rather story is getting. Go away Dan Rather, I promise this blogger doesn’t give a shit what you and your network do or don’t report on. PS- You can Take Fox or NBC or whatever call letter network you want, with you. Maybe leave us the BBC and NPR.

Hey doesn’t it seem a bit late in the game for debates? I mean, usually don’t the US presidential debates take place by now.. end of september? I did a quick yahoo search (as opposed to the usual google) and found this debate between Bush and Gore from Oct. 3rd, so we haven’t missed that date yet. THIS JUST IN– I just noticed the first one scheduled for the 30th of Sept. My money is on yet another in the long history of bland, empty talking, back and forth, with no direct answers. I’ll be counting how often the candidates agree with each other… because with Bush-Gore I thought they were going to make love on stage. (just sex would be too crass)

Today’s Muic: The Hidden Cameras – as per Torontonienne’s recommendation

Polyglot

One of my emails yesterday was simply this sentence:

plantage middenlaan and kerklaan, koosje at 21h30. see you then. i have brown hair.

I wandered that caf? for a good 15 minutes greeting lovely brown haired ladies who I thought looked Canadian. Kept thinking, this is no way to meet a new friend.

Well that’s not true… I changed the plan and my new Canadian friend came to the bicyclemark ranch to drink fancy tea with exotic chocolates. I mention this for one major reason, beyond being an evening of really fun conversation, this torontonienne’s job prior to moving to Amsterdam, was promoting CYCLING in her home city. I repeat- Promoting Cycling!

Yeah.. I was both jealous and in complete admiration. She informed me that the number of cyclists in “Torono” is on the rise, and they know this because part of their function was to keep track of the numbers. I kept imagining someone running next me in Amsterdam, clip-board-in-hand, counting me and asking questions about my cycling habit. Anyway this is what Amsterdam so often is for me… a big collection of people with fun backgrounds deciding to come do their thing here. I also thought this earlier in the evening when I started chatting with the man behind the Known Universe, who – to my surprise- has also lived in Amsterdam at one time.

In other news I have a pair of reflections regarding the United Nations to share. The first involves the opening statements of the General Assembly this week. I was disappointed at how the delegates applauded GW Bush’s speech. Naively.. I had hoped they would keep in mind how his decisions had undermined the work of the UN, and simply hold their applause as a sign of disapproval. But sure enough, most delegates conveniently forgot and applauded him like he was Eleanor Roosevelt in her old-lady black dress. Fortunately Kofi was there and to his credit, he had the nerve to hit back against all sides contributing to war and terrorism in the world.

The other thing is in his speech he said “welcome to the US and welcome to NY” now I might be knit-picking, but someone should finally explain to him that the UN is located on international territory, so he shouldn’t welcome them, it should probably be vice-versa.

Finally today, I’m prepared to issue a statement regarding the CBS-Dan Rather boring-ass memo scandal, which A-list bloggers have beaten to death:

Who cares what CBS news does? It’s ironic title “CBS NEWS” I mean, since when do we actually expect journalism to come out of that or any television network?

Dan Rather might quit you say? Is he still alive?

Conservative bloggers brought the scandal to light? So I guess bloggers are now famous for being crappy-network watchdogs. And apparently traveling in packs. I wonder if soon I’ll have a blogger-gang, then we can go out and break shit.

Today’s Music: Broken Social Scene – Feel Good Lost

Trains,World Order, and Moms

Part of the reason I am such an avid blog reader is simply the fantastic quality of writers presently populating the blogosphere. Some being extremely popular and others seemingly only read by a handful, either way – truly talented and all-around-fun people. In this case I wanted to refer to two such beings who’s recent posts were especially an adventure and a pleasure to read.

First comes Tony Pierce+Busblog’s tribute to his mother on her birthday. Like him, I will someday lay out a huge thank you and tribute to my mother, not mention my father as well, for being the incredible people that they are, and helping me get where I am. (where am I?) But nevermind me, his post is fantastic, not to mention the timeless photos, and I’m sure all of us Busblog readers will be referring to it throughout the blogosphere.

Now I also wanted to point out another insane-genius who does not get as much press: No Coins. This week’s recounting of his city-to-shore MS Bike ride from Jersey to Philly was funnier than funny. I’m not only entertained by his madness, it makes me wish I was there! Now that’s good writing, ain’t it? (by the way, I’m leading the campaign to bring ain’t officially into MY English language cause it adds style and flows well)

The AGV That being said, climb aboard won’t you, because it’s time once again to talk trains. Now I heart trains, they rank just below bicycles on the “transport that best represents me” list. I love looking at trains, riding in them, and picturing future trains. So needless to say I’ve been reading every little article in today’s FT special on the rail industry. Here are my favorite details so far:

– You thought TGV was hip? Or maybe I did. Well, Alstom has developed the AGV (Automatrice ? Grande Vitesse) which has distributed power and will pull into a station like a warm summer’s breeze baby. Maybe minus the baby.

– The ICE-3 (Aka: Velaro), which can be found in Germany and I swear I’ve seen it in the Netherlands, is a stylish but pricey little serpent. It’s about time I head to central station and hop on one of those. I should also by a ticket beforehand to ensure a comfy and legal ride.

– Automated, Driver-less metros are getting more popular. Paris’s line 14 is what the FT talks about. The first one of these I was ever on was in Lyon, France back in 2000. While I was disappointed that there was no driver (and a bit scared) but I must admit there’s nothing quite like that view sitting right up in the front.

We could, of course, talk a bit about rail travel in North America, but I was hoping to go out on a positive note. So instead I’ll refer to the guy who found a memory card in a taxi and is now creating a story for each picture. Amazingly odd. I just noticed the blog has suddenly been stopped, I wonder if the owner found the photos and got pissed. I would definitely feel a bit violated… but also highly entertained.

Today’s Music: Coheed & Cambria – Delirium Trigger (I’m addicted to Coheed)