27 September, 2002:

Posted at 18h07. Permalink.

"A group of 5 messagebirds drops onto the far platform of my desk, their last communicative chirps to each other fading as they stow their wings carefully, flush with their ovoid bodies. I notice immediately from the yellow chevrons on the middle bird's wings that it has come from the Department of Public Perceptions, and will be, in their eyes at least, of the highest priority." There's a new Upsideclone up today, by Simon Batistoni, and it's one I've been impatient to publish since it landed in the submissions queue a few weeks ago -- read: Message Centre. (And if you liked that, there's more of his writing out there.)

For anyone who doesn't know: Upsideclown and Upsideclone are two writing sites. 'Clown is a group of six (used to be seven), myself and five friends. We've been going two years, knocking them out at twice a week, have printed a book which is likely to be reprinted (and has been read in the desert). 'Clone is the year-old sister 'site with an open submissions policy (you can find submissions details at the bottom of Message Centre) with some regulars and some not-so regulars, and it's all good and unusual stuff. Both 'sites also publish by email, subscription info is at the bottom of each front page. We do it cos it's fun to write, not for an audience and not because we have to. It's silly, serious, mostly fiction but sometimes not, experimental, or just a story. All of that is why I love it. And occasionally, like today's Upsideclone, it's just really really good.

26 September:

Posted at 16h46. Permalink.

Tagmetics. "The central concept is the tagmeme, defined by the relation between a syntactic 'slot' or function, such as subject or object, and a class of units, such as noun phrase or pronoun, that can 'fill' it. Constructions, or syntagmemes, are accordingly characterized by sequences of obligatory and optional tagmemes: e.g. that of The people were leaving by one in which there is an obligatory subject slot, filled by the noun phrase, followed by an obligatory predicate slot, filled by a verb phrase". Even though I don't understand it, it's still a beautiful word.

Posted at 15h03. Permalink.

Not since I was young have I been fooled and surprised by an optical illusion. Until now [via scribot].

Posted at 8h41. Permalink.

The Potential of Local Currency [via riothero]. I need to learn more about the concept and meaning of currency.

Posted at 8h38. Permalink.

Groupthink: "a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action" [via kottke]. Consider, if your brain is a highly cohesive group of with different incentive operating in different places, isn't groupthink the same process you undergo as an individual? Once the decision is made (because the brain has to decide) it's more difficult to see alternatives?

Posted at 8h22. Permalink.

The Guardian Best British blog competition results are out.

24 September:

Posted at 14h44. Permalink.

I've just discovered Tranquility. Best game ever. Divorce yourself from time and space. Navigate by the music. Wow. Update: I've been playing for another hour. Feeling quite lost, spaced out. When they finally get around to building VR, this should be the first game implemented, lean to move, breathe out to sink. It would be killer. Incredible.

Posted at 10h48. Permalink.

"Letterboxing is an old English pastime combining orienteering and treasure-hunting skills with craftsmanship and inventiveness ... Traditionally, this is a nice countryside rambling activity. Now we're going to do it in the city" -- Urban Letterboxing [thanks Warren]. (Some friends and I tried the dead letter drop idea round London a while back. It's harder than you'd think to find a good place.)

22 September:

Posted at 16h04. Permalink.

A beautiful new issue of This is a Magazine is now on the shelves. (Including some bizarrely b3taish giant kittens, about half way through.)

Posted at 10h51. Permalink.

"Nor did she know how far their awareness spread out beyond her like filamentary tentacle to the remotest corners of universes she had never dreamed of; nor that she saw them as human-formed only because her eyes expected to. If she were to perceive their true form, they would seem more like architecture than organism, like huge structures composed of intelligence and feeling". From The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman [good Pullman interview, with spoilers].

Barely related, You Can Call Me Al. "He looks around, around/ He sees angels in the architecture/ Spinning in infinity/ He says Amen! and Halleluiah!"