Monday, February 28, 2005

Walking to a Movie



I love going to movies and living in a small town in rural Nova Scotia means that seeing a movie usually involves a drive. But now there is a functioning movie theatre in downtown Wolfville and I can walk downtown to see more alternative movies. Last night I walked down and saw "I Heart Huckabees"... it was nice to have a walk and organic popcorn, but unfortunately the movie was a fascinating car wreck to watch. It had the feeling of a film that would have been made in the late 60s or early 70s and would have been hailed as brilliant, but decades later it would seem dated. But the theatre is still cool and I love the marquee that gets lit whenever there is a show.


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Saturday, February 26, 2005

A Consuming Experience: Technorati tags: an introduction

A Consuming Experience: Technorati tags: an introduction provides a solid and comprehensive introduction to the amazing things that Technorati is doing with tags.
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Monday, February 21, 2005

The Doctor is Out

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.

Hunter S. Thompson is dead.
What an amazing journey he took us on. I haven't read everything that he wrote, but I've loved everything that I've read by him. When I picked up "Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas" I couldn't put it down and raced through it. The sentences and paragraphs flowed in a demented and brilliant stream that almost seemed impossible. In a strange way he blazed the path for many types of personal writing and could be seen in some ways as a patron saint of bloggers. But he wasn't a blogger - he was a writer who sought out the truth and didn't let the facts stand in the way. Always entertaining in his writing and his life and not afraid to say things that needed to be said. He documented the death of the American Dream with an eloquence and a swagger that few can ever match. It's a sad day when you lose a powerful intellect and a strong voice. I'm having a drink and thinking of a great writer now. Good bye and cheers to the founder of the journalism known as "gonzo".
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Sunday, February 20, 2005

Just Us Coffee Cooperative

Wolfville is a funky place. It’s a small town with a university and a tourist and farming industry. One of the neat things that I discovered when I first moved here five years ago was that there was a coffee cooperative that roasted fair trade coffee. They seem to be doing well and they recently raised money through a community investment fund that also gives you a tax credit. For the past few years I always think of investing around tax time. But money is a bit too tight this year, but I want to invest at some point soon to help them grow.

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Monday, February 14, 2005

Great Films on DVD

Two of my favourite recent films are finally coming out on DVD. One of my favourite films of 2002 was All About Lily Chou-Chou, (directed by Shunji Iwai) which I saw at the Atlantic Film Festival and it was a powerful, haunting, and challenging film about the lives of teenagers in Japan. All About Lily Chou-Chou is out on DVD tomorrow. The other film, which was on my 2003 favourite films list is Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, which was directed by Lone Sherfig. Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself is another complicated, sad and beautiful film that doesn't neatly fit into categories, but it's one of my favourite films that resonated with me. Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself is out on DVD next week.
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Sunday, February 13, 2005

What's Next for Blogger?

I'm wondering what's coming up with Blogger. Things have been relatively quiet for a while, but there have been lots of amazing things happening in the Googleplex with great local stuff, maps, and the amazing Gmail, which I use many times a day now. Some neat Javascript stuff is part of Blogger now, but I'm sure that something bigger is waiting. I personally would love to have some tagging stuff added as it's a bit of a pain to manually put the tags in. I like the simplicity of Blogger and how it works, but what could be next? Some stuff with Google Groups? More templates? Community stuff? There are so many interesting and exciting things happening with Google, Technorati, Flickr, Del.icio.us, and 43 Things that I hope that Blogger will do something neat and exciting soon.
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Saturday, February 12, 2005

Watching tv shows

I don't have a Tivo, but I do have a VCR, but there is something about watching a show when it is broadcast that feels a bit different than watching something recorded. I've been trying to watch all of the new season of 24 as it airs. I haven't missed any yet and it's good, slightly-guilty fun. What is it about live tv and radio, maybe it's the knowledge that other people are watching it at the same time, making it a shared experience. That's probably why people post to blogs and share things that they want to do as well.

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Sunday, February 06, 2005

Google Local

I've been trying out Google Local Canada and I'm impressed. It's very promising and an easy way to find out what is close to you. I like how you have a map and can get directions as well as limiting the geographical range that it searches within. It's great for Halifax, but not as great for Wolfville. You can find things in the area, but the maps lack the street names, which makes for an interesting and abstract map and it almost works if you know what the streets are, but if you don't, it's just a bunch of lines.
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Saturday, February 05, 2005

O'Reilly Network: Stewart Butterfield on Flickr

The O'Reilly has a interview by Richard Koman of Stewart Butterfield on Flickr. I'm still addicted to Flickr and wish that I participated more in the community. I think interesting people make interesting communities...it's not what software you use that matters, but the connections between the people. When there is love there it makes a big difference.
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