I never think of this when you're around, Lady D, but I heard this city arts and lectures program a while back with this guy talking about redesigning the field of design, away from "built-to-last" and toward "makes good leftovers", "makes good trash". So that when people get the new stuff, the old stuff is good for making more new stuff with ( Read more... )

Now, most of this bit of winter here is not unfamiliar to me, though I had begun to hope I had moved away from it. (And I would still much rather be in Portland than Montana tonight, I'm sure it's colder and nastier there.) I had almost managed to forget what a pain in the ass it is to walk through snowdrifts ( Read more... )

I am in some ways a huge snob about what I'm willing to bother with reading. Not to deny that I am a reading addict and will read the back of the cereal box if that's all there is. But given a choice, I have priorities ( Read more... )

The water delivery came today, those big blue jugs, and they had started to freeze when we got home and brought them in. Mick put one on the stand and the ice had frozen in big sheets that you could see waving back and forth as the bubbles came up from the bottom of the jug, like some kind of leaves or something.

It was snowing and dark and no one was out and I stood on my balcony in the dark listening to the very very quiet sorta crystaline tinkling sound snow makes when it falls ( Read more... )

Because here we are, like Lord of the Flies, not a small group on a desest island but whole neighborhoods and generations of children not quite taught really much of anything useful in any real way. Lost in the twilight zone between the enforced mindlessness of public schools, the well-intentioned parents with no time and little clue, the ( Read more... )

A big part of the problem is, our current economic realities tend to make money flow toward whatever legal entity is most ruthless in its pursuit ( Read more... )

Two discussions on lj I was interested in have completely vanished recently. I had not until then realized how much the medium lacks the documentary reality email has. In an e-list one can go to archives and verify what someone actually said. In lj whole discussions can vanish without a ripple. It's true and I'll have to just work with it, but ( Read more... )

Vaccine rant correction ( Read more... )

since flu is an issue of the moment ( Read more... )