Entries Tagged 'mess' ↓

Life cannot be planned for. You can make plans, sure, but you cannot account for the unexpected randomness that is sometimes thrown your way.

Best to embrace it.

Even if it is kicking you in the teeth.

A week and a day ago, Chris Skinner was killed. And he was a friend of my friends. And it doesn’t make sense. it’s of no use to think that he was a guy who I’d only met a few times, because he affected my life more than that. He was a friend of my friends. So he was my friend. Though he didn’t know that. And neither did I. And it was irrelevant. But it’s no less affecting. I want to cry out and rage, but it’s somewhat subdued by embarrassment. After all, I hardly knew him and I was number 999 in a funeral of 1100+ so what could I do but hold hands and share tears and pray to the benevolent God up above that this would never happen to me or anyone I knew but then I stopped. Because it did happen to me. It happened to all of us. To us and all of our friends that we ever thought twice about and we left to get home when we thought we shouldn’t or didn’t walk home because the cab was too close well no more. God will no longer provide our salvation. We must make our own. I will take the time to make sure that the people I love are safe home in their beds before I do the same. The evil is the same, but their safety matters more to me than mine. I can no longer allow my friends’ sexuality to be criminalized - to the judgment of death. Their lives are my life. Their breath is my breath. Their love is my love. The last seven days have been trying. And i cannot let the next days to be more so. Bless you all.

I have no side in the current conflict, but when one group has another pinned in a 2km wide area and there are civilians present then you have to take the right path. These aren’t combatants, even if they hate you. They’re civilians. Make concessions. Let them run for their godforsaken lives. God knows they’ll soon all be dead anyway.

Versus WAR. Versus CONFLICT. Versus RELIGIOUS SEPARATION. Versus SEMANTIC DISTINCTIONS

Sri Lanka has pledged to end the war in the next 48 hours. Think about what that means. 2-1 = Unity.

…it’s done.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/15/news/economy/500dollaroil_okeefe.fortune/index.htm

http://www.designobserver.com/archives/entry.html?id=37924

Designers can make recycling mean something again.

http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumerconsequences/

This US site provides an interesting method of measuring your footprint. I mean, I’m a big guy and yes, if everyone on Earth was my size we probably would need another planet. But if everyone on earth behaved like me we’d need 2.5 Earths. I’m depressed now.

http://www.greengraffiti.nl/pages/Home.html

I always thought most of Europe could use a good pressure washing.

Hopefully this doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, but imagine the possibilities for public art.

While it’s always a dangerous thing to try to revisit your youth, I think I successfully accomplished it this week.

Iron Maiden hit Toronto on Sunday for their Somewhere Back In Time tour with their Powerslave set and a slightly revised Somewhere In Time set list.

One of the good things about seeing these nostalgia tours is that a lot of bands have been rich for long enough and long past the drink and drugged out days of their youth that they’re in better shape than they were back then and genuinely appreciative of their audiences. Certainly Bruce Dickinson looked better than he did 20 years ago and sounded just as good.

Sure, there was a bit of Spinal Tap about the show, but a lot of fun nonetheless.

And this sure makes a good desktop background:

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Astraeus/Boeing-757-23A/1323950/L/

Beijing has promised the air will be clean and clear for this summer’s Olympic Games.

Am I the only one that finds this a bit troubling?

If I lived in Beijing (a Beijinger?) I’d be pretty pissed that the country is willing to let me live in such terrible pollution for my entire life, bar the 2 weeks of the Olympics. China isn’t even debating the air quality. They’re admitting it’s crap.

Why isn’t the carrot of the Olympics being used to affect necessary change? Already, the world record holder in the marathon, Haile Gebrselassie, is withdrawing and a number of teams are training outside of China. But, the damage that Chinese industry is causing affects us all.

We are losing a significant opportunity to make a real difference. The Olympics can have a huge and lasting impact on a city and country in terms of exposure, infrastructure and tourism. Why hasn’t there been the caveat that China can have the Olympics as long as it meets two conditions: clean up your human rights record and clean up your industry.

For more than two weeks.