Trebsworld: May 2005 Archives

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May 31, 2005

Chelsea Sunset: 20th & 6th Avenue

While on my way home from running errands at around 7 on Sunday evening, I came across this amazing scene on 20th street looking west towards the Hudson. There was just a certain way that the light was catching on the brick that made me grab my camera and start shooting. As I was shooting, I overheard someone in a group of people walk past say "Look at the beautiful freight elevators" (Insert mocking tone here). Interestingly enough, I heard a few "wow's" when they realized what I was really taking pictures of. On a separate note, I absolutely have to find a better way to upload pictures for viewing online. Movable Type in it's default form absolutely sucks at this.

Posted by Thomas at 11:40 AM | Comments (1)

Other things besides downloading the RIAA doesn't care for...

Pretty funny...

Comic by Francis Heaney. His book of illustrations is here. Found via: Boing Boing.

Posted by Thomas at 11:13 AM

May 29, 2005

Coney Island - Eak the Geek

How do you pay the rent when you're tatoo'd from head to toe? Apparently you supplement your income with HSBC print ads:

Spotted this afternoon on 23rd & 6th Avenue...

Eak the Geek is currently performing with the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, which Michelle and I checked out this past Saturday. (I'd been several times... it was M's first time...). It's definitely one of the highlights of any trip to Coney Island. (Another standout in the current lineup is Heather Holiday, the worlds youngest sword swallower... she's just too cute!)

May 11, 2005

Time Management for Anarchists

I found a wonderful flash animation a while back by novelist Jim Munroe.
From his site:

I've just finished a Flash adaptation of my Time Management for Anarchists seminar. I started doing the talk a year and a half ago at Canzine and have done it a half-dozen times since, mostly at infoshops and political bookstores (Austin, Montreal, Berkeley, Vancouver) and also at a couple of events (New Orleans Book Fair, the Vegetarian Food Fair). It's based on the paradoxical notion that anarchists have to be more organized than average if they don't want to depend on power structures, and presents some ideas on how to kick the boss habit.
(I've posted the actual animation rather than just linking. You'll find his original page here: Time Management for Anarchists: The Movie. It has a Creative Commons license and he's encouraged re-mixing. (The original .fla file can be found on his site.) The animation is about 8 minutes long and has alot of great tips that are well presented.

Posted by Thomas at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

Real ID: You won't see this on NBC

Or CBS, or ABC or any other main stream media outlet it seems. You had to read about it on Boing Boing, or some other tech-centric media.

Real ID passes in US Senate
Privacy advocates' efforts to stop legislation that would create a federally-approved electronic ID card failed today. A military spending bill which contained the so-called Real ID Act driver's license reform passed unanimously in the U.S. Senate. Snip from Declan McCullagh's report at News.com:

President Bush (...) is expected to sign the bill into law this month. Its backers, including the Bush administration, say it's needed to stop illegal immigrants from obtaining drivers' licenses. When the act's mandates take effect in May 2008, Americans will be required to obtain federally approved ID cards with "machine readable technology" that abides by Department of Homeland Security specifications. Anyone without such an ID card will be effectively prohibited from traveling by air or Amtrak, opening a bank account, or entering federal buildings.
--- Here's the full article on CNET. Major change. No debate. Slipped into the ass end of some funding bill that no one will question because it would be "un-patriotic". Lovely.---
Posted by Thomas at 06:19 AM | Comments (0)

May 10, 2005

GTD + Tiddy Wiki = Sweet!

Damn, this is breathtaking...Check out the GTD TiddlyWiki.

I'm a huge fan of David Allen's Getting Things Done, and back in September I made a post about Tiddly Wiki when it first came out. At the time, Tiddly Wiki seemed cool, but I still couldn't get a handle on the whole "how to save your work" part. This most recent adaptation of the original concept has streamlined the process of saving your edits and made it GTD ready. I've begun playing around with using it locally on my HD, making the GTD Tiddly Wiki my homepage in Firefox. This way my next actions and projects are all one click away. Sweet!

Posted by Thomas at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)

May 02, 2005

Don't Forget... Mother's Day: May 8th

There's still time to purchase those cards and flowers, folks. Or at the very least remember those who brought us kicking and mewling into this world!

History of Mothers Day

"It started in Rome and became a United States national holiday less than 100 years ago.

You may think it was all started by Hallmark in an effort to sell cards, but that's not the case at all. Mother's Day dates back to the ancient Romans and made its way to the United States in the early 1900's and finally became a national holiday in 1914.

The earliest tributes to Mother's Day date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated a Mother's Day of sorts during a festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England the holiday was expanded to include all mothers. It was then called Mothering Sunday.
In the United States it started with one woman named Anna Jarvis. Jarvis was an Appalachian homemaker and she organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions of her community. She thought the day would be best advocated by mothers and called the day "Mother's Work Day".

When Anna Jarvis died in 1905 her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Anna remembered that her mother said there were many days dedicated to men but not for mothers. Anna then began to lobby the politicians of the time to support a day dedicated to mothers. Anna Jarvis talked to many politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt hoping they would support her campaign.

Jarvis organized a church service to celebrate her mother in 1908 and Anna handed out white carnations to those in attendance because the white carnation was her mother's favorite flower. Anna Jarvis' hard work began to pay off five years after that service in 1913. The House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for officials of the federal government to wear white carnations on the day many began calling Mother's Day, the second Sunday in May.

Finally on May 8, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a Joint Resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.

"Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the said Joint Resolution, do hereby direct the government officials to display the United States flag on all government buildings and do invite the people of the United States to display the flag at their homes or other suitable places on the second Sunday in May as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country."

That was the first official Mother's Day and the tradition carries on to this day. In fact, Mother's Day has flourished in the United States. The second Sunday in May has become the most popular day of the year to dine out, and telephone lines record their highest traffic, as sons and daughters everywhere take advantage of this day to honor and to express appreciation of their mothers."

via Everything Mothers Day.

Posted by Thomas at 08:13 AM | Comments (0)