{ 05.31 } The project I've been working on for the past six months has just gone live. And... breathe.
{ } Word of the week (and meme currently entering the second wave) is rhizome (and it's partner rhizomic).
"We're tired of trees. We should stop believing in trees, roots, and radicles. They've made us suffer too much. All of arborescent culture is founded on them, from biology to linguistics": instead, it's the rhizome, the interconnectedness. That article, by the way, is part of Mus(e)ings on Deleuze & Guattari, a collection of short essays tramplings on a fundamental metaphor set that underlies everything. From strata in rhizomes to positive ontologies (the this-ness of the is-ness), every single one is worth more than just a read. (Thanks Mr Sweeney.)
{ 05.30 } In Mrs Blackmoor's class there was an edutainment table. One particular item was a pencil with a piece of card sellotaped to it. On one side was drawn a bird, on the other a cage. Spinning the pencil you'd see a bird in a cage. Entertaining. Informational. One afternoon class assembly, and this is when I was five years old (maybe four) by the way, Mrs Blackmoor announced that the toy had been destroyed - the pencil had slipped out - and the culprit should step forward. No one stepped forward. If they didn't (she said) the whole class would be in trouble. We all felt terrible. Still nobody came forward. We couldn't believe nobody would tell the truth about what they'd done.
A while later I realised that I had broken the toy, that same day, not long before.
This is the first time I remember remembering that I'd forgotten.
A year earlier I looked at the word "making" and realised that it didn't have the letter "e" in it, despite the spelling of the word "make" and the rule of putting "ing" on the end of doing-words. This is the first time I remember noticing. It was in the wendyhouse and there was a girl there too (she'd started school earlier than me, but had been off sick for a few weeks. When she turned up I introduced her to the dinnerladies who already knew her, and this was my most embarassing incident for many years). The word was written in large print on a piece of paper on the wall, to the left of the door (inside), at eye height. I stared at it. And noticed.
{ } Whisper the Songs of Silence, a Wired article on the Lowercase music movement (includes MP3s). Very quiet, very subtle, very beautiful. Shades of Audium.
{ 05.29 } Score one for the UK Goverment. The new E-Minister has a weblog [article here]. (The E-Minister is responsible for UK industry activity on the internet, as opposed to the E-Envoy who takes care of how the government makes use of it. The E-Minister has historically been a bit useless, where-as the E-Envoy has been good and his office clued-up and forward looking.)
{ 05.28 } My new favourite internet radio station: cliqhop idm at SomaFM. Now, if only someone would create a streaming-MP3 to radio broadcast gateway, and a device to let me tune in. I've a feeling I'm going to have to write something to capture the stream during the night and upload to my iPod first thing when I wake up for that morning commute.