Random Flickr-Blogging

June 2, 2006 / / 3 comments

I’ve been spending way too much time browsing images at Flickr. There are just so darn many of them–millions of them, with tens of thousands more being uploaded every day. I find it fascinating to browse at (more or less) random…and I end up killing hours at a time.

Not everyone renames the images they upload; a lot of the images are just titled with whatever image number the camera gave them. Of these, some have tags or descriptions, but others have no contextual information at all. I find this irritating. I also find it intriguing. Browsing untitled images, I’ve run across wedding photos, unidentified landscapes, a picture of a guy throwing up, a photo of a tank in Afghanistan. You could find anything.

And I had an idea: random Flickr-blogging.

So now I’m recruiting bloggers to participate.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Every week, we all start with the same randomly-generated four-digit number (call it ####).
  2. Go to Flickr and search for “IMG_####”. There should be anywhere from a few hundred to a couple thousand results.
  3. Choose an image from among the results, post it to your blog (be sure to include attribution and a link back to the page where the image appears–this is done automatically if you use the ‘blog this’ feature in Flickr).
  4. The rest is up to you. Write about the place shown in the image. Make up a story about it. Connect it to some issue you care about. Or just post it as an image you really like. Do whatever you want.

I’m going to start doing this on Mondays (because Mondays really need more amusement). If anyone is interested in participating, post in comments or e-mail me at tvhilton [AT] gmail [DOT] com. The more bloggers we get on board, the more interesting it’ll be.

Update: Debra, Maurinsky, SAP, Nobody in Particular, Ben Varkentine, and Foxydot are all joining the fun.

[Cross-posted at If I Ran the Zoo]

Friday Random Ten

June 2, 2006 / / Comments Off on Friday Random Ten

Siouxsie & the Banshees – The Passenger
John Foxx – Europe After the Rain
Wire – Two People in a Room
Material – The Hidden Gardens
Scenic – The Mid Hills
Single Gun Theory – Words Written Backwards
Talking Heads – The Big Country
Chris Isaak – The Lonely Ones
Shriekback – Black Light Trap
The Seeds – Pushin’ Too Hard

Post your own in comments…

Quote of the Day

June 1, 2006 / / Comments Off on Quote of the Day

Actually, yesterday…but who’s counting. Here’s Jim Henley, on the right-wing outrage at Google (for not having a special Google Doodle on Memorial Day):

Most of these people spent the 1990s urging others not to be so freaking sensitive about every little thing. Babies.

Mapping the American Taliban

June 1, 2006 / / 6 comments

Via Shakespeare’s Sister, here’s a great site that ranks the 50 states on the basis of reproductive and sexual rights, and support for families. It’s a great resource for anyone concerned about these issues.

Not surprisingly, South Dakota is number 50.

Fortunately, there’s something we can do about that. South Dakota Healthy Families spearheaded a successful petition drive to get an initiative repealing the abortion ban (passed by the SD legislature earlier this year) on the ballot. It looks like the initiative has a good chance of passing, and donations from outside South Dakota (on both sides) may well make the difference.

They also have a list of South Dakota legislators and how they voted on the abortion ban, in case anyone feels moved to donate to the good ones or to those challenging the bad ones.

If the South Dakota Taliban can be defeated, that would be a huge victory for the forces of good…and it would make the wingnuts in other states think twice about restricting abortion rights.

[Cross-posted at If I Ran the Zoo]

Hello There

June 1, 2006 / / 2 comments

Many thanks to Deborah for the kind introduction, and for her gracious invitation to post here in her absence. I did promise not to rail against vodka martinis or argue that David Niven was the best Bond (I guess I can always do that at my own place), but otherwise I pretty much have free rein.

It’s a little intimidating writing for a new audience. I don’t know all that much about Wicca, and I know next to nothing about Bond (or so Deborah tells me), so I’m afraid two out of the three constituencies here are likely to be disappointed. I will, nevertheless, try to keep you all entertained in the meantime. I have no idea what people want to read; but then, when I stop to think about it, I realize this is true of my own blog as well. So I’ll just post stuff and hope y’all like it. And, um, see how that works.

Liar’s Tarot

June 1, 2006 / / 2 comments

We came up with the coolest ritual. Okay I did. Entirely my invention. So cool.

New moon is a traditional and opportune time for ritual divination, so we decided to experiment with Tarot in the circle. So we’re passing cards around, la la. Anyway, then I said “Let’s play Liar’s Tarot.”

I shuffled the deck and everyone drew a card without looking, and then we all held up the card, facing out, on our foreheads, so that everyone else could see. One at a time, each person read everyone else (so everyone got multiple readings). When everyone had taken a turn reading each other person, we all looked at our cards.

Did I mention cool?

Really, try it.

Heeeeeeeere’s Tom!

May 31, 2006 / / Comments Off on Heeeeeeeere’s Tom!

Tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. (shock! alarm!) I depart for Sao Paulo, Brazil. During that time, I have no idea how much, if any, time I will have with a computer. (I hope to at least check my email daily.)

To keep you company in my absence, Tom will be here. Tom is a blogger of great renown. Seriously. I met Tom on a message board in 1999 and I quickly learned that, in a political discussion, the best thing to do was to wait until Tom posted and then post “What he said.” He’s smarter than me and more astute politically.

Tom has many flaws, chief among them that he says disparaging things about the East Coast. Although this makes him a very bad person, I forgive him because he’s really quite loveable. And I think I mentioned smart.

Please welcome him warmly.

What’s a Festival Like?

May 31, 2006 / / 5 comments

Since I go to a lot of Pagan festivals, this is a question that I get asked. Especially by Pagans thinking about going to their first one. Or by non-Pagans wondering why I camp when there’s dirt and bugs and air mattresses and aren’t hotels nicer?

Anyway, via Jason, here’s a fabulous account of Lothlorien Elf Fest. I’ve never attended this particular festival, and each has its own personality, but in terms of what it feels like to be there, this is a perfectly typical, indeed quintessential, description.

Part of my time is spent cruisin’ the strip.
There’s a gravel road that makes a circle through the campground area. I walk this strip, round and round. The merchants are set up on either side of it so I get to see who’s selling what. I get to say hello to the merchants who come back year after year, and see what new things they have and what kind of barter they’re willing to participate in. It’s a lovely walk, too. This also gives me a feel for what the mood of the festival is like. I can kill HOURS doing this, because I nearly always wind up in some deep discussions along the way.

Read the whole thing.

Women’s Magazine

May 31, 2006 / / One comment

This came up in comments. How come a “women’s magazine” (“woman’s magazine”?) means Vogue or Cosmo or Good Housekeeping or Glamour or Marie Clair, but does not mean Ms. or Bitch or On Our Backs?

Three minutes in the shower

May 30, 2006 / / 10 comments

A few days ago, I was discussing hair treatments with my sister. (If you just snickered, bite me.) I’d recommended she try this conditioning treatment, and I was asking her if she’d had a chance to use it. And she said, yeah she had, but she just didn’t have time to use all these treatments, and who had the extra three minutes in the morning to do the deep conditioning anyway?

A day later (I’m slow) I thought, You don’t need three extra minutes. You put the treatment in when you first get into the shower, then you do all your washy showery stuff, and then you rinse your hair.

(Maybe my sister was kidding. Doesn’t matter.)

I thought everyone knew that. Or I never thought about it, even long enough to assume it (because it is, after all, just conditioning your hair and has very little effect on world peace). But if asked, I would have said well, yes, that’s how it’s done, that’s how everyone does it.

The grooming part here isn’t fascinating. What’s fascinating is how none of us truly know the private inner mind of another human being. We think everyone knows the stuff in our head, and we hope they don’t. We assume everyone is like us and we assume we are unique, and we never really know. » Read more..

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