randomWalks

Late-80s stoner fave Jam Session is now a free download. (It’s not unlike le piano graphique.)

Mac-nostalgists can also grab M.O.R.E., a still-great outliner of similar vintage.

originally posted by xowie

The image below is a finger labyrinth. You can "walk" it on screen with your finger or mouse. Print it for later use. Tracing the path in the labyrinth can be relaxing. It also can be balancing as you journey back and forth to the center. Repeat several times in succession to get the most benefit. Try it with your non-dominant hand for more of a challenge. It will help you to give up control and break out of your routine response pattern.

Even San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown - who has been on the receiving end of some tough reporting by the Chronicle - got into the act. "I only wish the person who suggested Mr. Bronstein remove his shoes had advised him to go in naked,'' Brown is reported to have said.

originally posted by xowie

Big Tobacco buys Ashcroft.

originally posted by xowie

"He'll be given a good home," said Mike. "He will not be turned into a purse."

originally posted by xowie

Looking into the Chesapeake Bay crater.

originally posted by xowie

Some of us work on the plantation.
Some of us own the plantation.
Facts are facts.
This hat is for those who own the plantation.

As James Baldwin wrote, the white man here is trapped by his own history, a history that he himself cannot comprehend and therefore what can I do but love him?

Deconstructing Harry, redux. thanks, george.

"I got real good at talking to promoters or hall owners. They’d ask, ‘What kind of music do you play?’ I’d say, ‘Oh, it’s a rock group and a little bit of jazz in there.’ That’s a trick — the ‘jazz’ word is always useful when you’re stopped by police or authorities."

originally posted by xowie

I hope you’ll consider participating in the “Roll Your Own” Blackout tonight. Just shut off all the lights and appliances that you (reasonably and safely) can between seven and ten p.m. your time. According to the Q and A, “your darkened house, and the utilities' lower demand figures, will signify your vote of ‘no confidence’ in the energy policies now coming from Washington.” Realistically, it’s unlikely that the power companies will even register the action, but I like the idea for two reasons. One, it will be a nice moment of political solidarity with like-minded folk across the country. And two, (two even works for those who aren’t turned on by the ideology) this is an opportunity to get a new perspective on my relationship with electricity – not to mention with our sun, Sol. This is his day, after all.

SECRET UNDERGROUND CITIES: something to do the next time you’re in Britain.

From Taiwan to Hong Kong to ChinaTown to the East Village to DC: boba, or bubble tea, the name for a variety of beverages served with little balls of tapioca or sweet potato flour.

From a list of 20 ostensible Eskimo snow-words: igluqsaq. This is a compound word meaning 'house-building material' (note the familiar 'iglu' at the beginning): it can mean plywood or brick just as well as snow. If we pulled the same trick with English, we would start counting words like "etiology" (a slip on snow can cause injury), "projectile" (you can throw snowballs), "food" (you can eat snow as long as it's white), and so on. Hmmm.

Today I pass the time reading
a favorite haiku,
saying the few words over and over.

It feels like eating
the same small, perfect grape
again and again.

originally posted by xowie

Killing the Buddha is a religion magazine for people made anxious by churches, people embarrassed to be caught in the "spirituality" section of a bookstore, people both hostile and drawn to talk of God. It is for people who somehow want to be religious, who want to know what it means to know the divine, but for good reasons are not and do not.

Sarah Rothe, an eighth-grader at Lake Braddock Middle School in Burke, said such words "are as common as the word 'like' " at her school. Classmate Christina Jagodnick said "there's a big difference" between anti-gay slurs and other derogatory terms. "If we were to say other words which we all know are wrong," she said, "someone would stop us."

Cops and ravers.

originally posted by xowie

Polish woman says she was denied entry to U.S. because she has ‘rough hands’.

Episodic Genovese wiretaps.

originally posted by xowie

Les agradecemos y les decimos que el pr ximo a o lo haremos otra vez.

originally posted by xowie

Mired is reporting that Butterfly of Digable Planets has died of a heroin overdose. I hope it’s not true.

"It's amazing how many calls I've gotten from ladies trying to arrange behind-the-scenes tours with the Komodo dragons for their husbands,'' joked zoo director Manuel Mollinedo.

originally posted by xowie

Sea dogs.

originally posted by xowie

I’m a trip to Radio Shack away from being able to surf the web and do email from my Palm.