Surf Camp, Day Three

Conditions were a tiny bit better. I had a very hard time getting past the first break in the morning. In fact, I didn't. So, even though I caught one wave, I wasn't able to get up on my board. Fortunately, our surf instructor was nice enough to help me out in the afternoon. I finally caught a wave long enough to get a feel for the wave.

Oh, I ripped up my foot pretty nicely this morning. That picture above is the duct-tape makeshift bandage that Jarin helped me craft. Kept me in the water long enough to get up on the board.

LKQ, the instructor brought us sponges (kind of--they had fiberglass bottoms) today. You called it!

Surf Camp, Day Two

Conditions weren't that great. Only 2-3 foot waves and wind, wind, wind.

Sport got up on her board twice and I only managed to do it once. I tried to get past the initial break and out to the bigger waves, but I kept getting beat back. Paddling is pretty brutal work.

Surf Camp, Day One

Waves were between 2-4 feet. Spent quite a bit of time on the Indo Boards,

BUT...

I did get up on the board and even rode a few in. Sport caught the hang of it quicker (heck, she grew up in the surf), but I managed to find my footing. Tomorrow, paddling. I'm hoping that I can start on turning before the week is over.

FYI, the new Banana Boat spray and O'Neill rashie works well to keep away the burn. Thanks for the advice, LKQ!

It's Here

Women Aren't Faulty Men

Even though my title seems like a no-brainer, people have been making this assumption since forever (don't believe me? Go read about it in Aristotle's On the Generation of Animals, Book II).

All of this is to get you to read Joss Whedon's (of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly fame) blog post on the disturbing trend of openly promoting rapacious and homicidal misogyny as spectacle. Go read it. Seriously.

Electrate Monkeys

The New York Times has a well-written and in-depth story about Jonathan Coulton's (and other artists') use of social media to create a music career (free registration required). The "reveal" of the article is that Fame2.0 requires an immense amount of personal interaction with the fans who create music mashups, fan videos, and other assorted types of letters and fanfic.


Of course, those who have crafted a career in any of the performing arts can tell you the majority of their work as an artist looks less like people would think of as "art" and more of what a lot of people consider "management."

The article includes some of the more sinister complications of extimacy, including a good "coachspeak" analogy:

*snip*

There’s something particularly weird, the band members have also found, about living with fans who can now trade information — and misinformation — about them. All celebrities are accustomed to dealing with reporters; but fans represent a new, wild-card form of journalism. Franz Nicolay, the Hold Steady’s nattily-dressed keyboardist, told me that he now becomes slightly paranoid while drinking with fans after a show, because he’s never sure if what he says will wind up on someone’s blog. After a recent gig in Britain, Nicolay idly mentioned to a fan that he had heard that Bruce Springsteen liked the Hold Steady. Whoops: the next day, that factoid was published on a fan blog, “and it had, like, 25 comments!” Nicolay said. So now he carefully polices what he says in casual conversation, which he thinks is a weird thing for a rock star to do. “You can’t be the drunken guy who just got offstage anymore,” he said with a sigh. “You start acting like a pro athlete, saying all these banal things after you get off the field.” For Nicolay, the intimacy of the Internet has made postshow interactions less intimate and more guarded.

/*snip*

Money quote:

All the artists I spoke to made a point of saying they would never simply pander to their fans’ desires. But many of them also said that staying artistically “pure” now requires the mental discipline of a ninja.

If You Are in New York City Right Now

If you are in New York City right now, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum is having an intersting exhibit--DESIGN FOR THE OTHER 90%.

Those of you reading this blog know that I have been tracking the Nicholas Negroponte's 100 dollar laptop (it's official name is the the One Laptop Per Child [olpc] iniative). That effort will be highlighted along with inexpensive homeless shelters, cheap hand water pumps that can irrigate multiple acres, and a bicycle designed to carry more than 100 pounds of cargo.

It's Different Up Here

We had an April snowstorm a few weeks ago. Our local paper, the Fargo Forum published this picture.

And now? Seventy degrees and sunny.

Go figure...

Semiotics of Power: Part 3

Instead of touching this electrified chain of signification, I think I'll just send ya'll down the rabbit hole.

John Swift has an interesting parodic take on a conservative comic using racist imagery to attack Hillary Clinton. Semiotics of power meets the reproducing signification of XML.