Thursday, February 07, 2002
Edgework
You can skip .NET or XML-RPC
or any of the other alphabet soup technologies being touted as the next best
thing on the web—the real innovative stuff is at the edge. Here,
for instance, or try Shredder 1.0, a
site that shreds other web pages to form art, or linguasso (my
personal favorite), which creates random works of art out of text.
And then there is the work jwz has done, like the WebCollage, with its everchanging image of links.
All else is icing
I read in Stewart Brand's How Buildings Learn that the average American buys a new house every eight years. Eight years. My paternal grandparents have lived in their house for … oh … fourty years or so. I have two aunts that have lived in their homes for over twenty years. I've lived here in Condo Conner for close to 14 years (well, a bit less since I spent a year and a half in Boca but my Mom lived here at the time so it's been in the family).
To think that had Mom gotten a fifteen year mortgage, it would have been paid off in a year, and my living expenses (sans utilities) would have fallen to $200/month!
But as I look around, except for Kelly (who still lives in the house he grew up in, but is moving to his new home once it's finished Real Soon Now, oddly enough), I don't have a single friend that has lived in any one place for 14 years, much less eight years (since I inherited the place from Mom) in any one place.
Then I do the math, and I realized that I have moved, on average, once every three years. Now, by age five I was averaging once per year, and by age ten, it was almost averaging once every two years. My family moved a lot when I was younger.
It wasn't until I started visiting my paternal grandparents every summer did I get a feeling for a permanent home—some place that would always be there, no matter where we (my immediate family) lived. It was home away from home (and that probably did more to turn me off traveling than anything since September 11th since I associate visiting friends and family than I do places, but that's another story). It was stability in an ever changing world (and believe me, moving to South Florida showed me just how changing the world could be). It's a rock from which the universe revolves around. And now, Condo Conner has become that rock (since my paternal grandparents house is no longer in the family) and now I have to find a new rock from which my universe will revolve around. A new point of stability.
Yes. I'm moving. As I have said, I have my health. I have my family. I have my friends. All else is icing.
Secret code in Bible tells the future!
In packing, I found a copy of the Weekly World News with a headline (in what seems to be a 100pt font) screaming: SECRET CODE IN HOLY BIBLE TELLS THE FUTURE!
Lucky for us, this is from July 1st, 1997! The article says that a secret code has predicted the stock market crash of 1929, the Vietnam War, the AIDS epidemic and the first moon landing and then goes on with predictions for the future.
Shall we see how accurate they were?
Early 1998—A world leader will go insane and release a dealy nerve gas on his own people—killing more than 30 million people and nearly wiping out the entire country.
Late 1998—A sudden and complete breakdown of the ozone layer will allow too much sunlight to pass through our atmosphere and cause millions worldwide to go blind.
1999—A comet will pass so close to Earth that temperatures will hit 140 degrees in some countries. Millions will die. The even will cause panic among millions more who will think the world is about to end.
1999—Somewhere in America or Europe, a strange storm will bring a torrent of healing rain. Any ill or injured person who is touched by the drops will be cured. Even cancer patients will get well. After three days and nights, the rain will stop as suddenly as it started.
2007—All the countries of the world…
Um … eight year skip there. And nothing at all about events in the past year or so, which are some pretty significant events. Oh wait a second, that's right, these were predictions of another time line and not of this one.
Okay, I feel better now.
