8.17.2005
Mosquito Coast
I'm going to Burning Man. Prehistoric dry bed of a lake, it’s the opposite of Savannah. The last time I camped in the desert, I was on a family trip to Yemen tagging alongside another important man in my life. We brought our cat, who more closely resembled the carvings on the pyramids than her fluffy contemporaries Jack and She-ra. She had oversized ears and eyes, a slender neck and short, stubbly fur. Jam-Joom came with us to Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, experienced snow on a Pennsylvania farm, and died shortly after quarantine in Honolulu. She came to Samoa too fat to run, never having known trees, and was eaten by a feral dog, then thrown in a ditch by the neighbors kids. We buried her in a small Samoan mound by a waterfall, and decorated her grave with shells. Strange life for a cat.
The Yemenis have curly brown hair, high cheekbones, hazel eyes. The eastern end of the peninsula is mountain country. The boys herd goats, walking up steep paths, hands on hips. They wear short wraps from waist to knee, fragrant vines in their hair and jeweled knives on their belts. At the market, they would not let the women in my family out of the car, and refused to sell my father a knife. We hid our daytime meals until we were sure ramadan had passed, lived in a square canvas bedoin tent on a mountainside, and wore scarves and abayas. I don't have those clothes anymore, but I feel like they would be perfect for Burning Man. In a dry, hot environment, its actually more sensible to be fully clothed. Coldland sunlovers wear sunglasses, minis, shorts, wifebeaters and babytees. Our precancerous limbs dehydrate and burn.
The Yemenis have curly brown hair, high cheekbones, hazel eyes. The eastern end of the peninsula is mountain country. The boys herd goats, walking up steep paths, hands on hips. They wear short wraps from waist to knee, fragrant vines in their hair and jeweled knives on their belts. At the market, they would not let the women in my family out of the car, and refused to sell my father a knife. We hid our daytime meals until we were sure ramadan had passed, lived in a square canvas bedoin tent on a mountainside, and wore scarves and abayas. I don't have those clothes anymore, but I feel like they would be perfect for Burning Man. In a dry, hot environment, its actually more sensible to be fully clothed. Coldland sunlovers wear sunglasses, minis, shorts, wifebeaters and babytees. Our precancerous limbs dehydrate and burn.
8.15.2005
I Hate aSmallWorld
This is how they bill themselves. Friendster for the VIP set. Not theBigWorld everyone else is forced to live in. If you have not received an invitation to aSmallWorld, you can ask your friends to invite you. If you have no friends who are members yet, you simply need to be patient.
Patient for what? For the revolution to come and for aSmallWorld and any so-called friends of mine insubstantial enough to join to find themselves first against theWall? If so, too slow.
Why do I hate it? Let me count the ways.
1. Class warfare.
2. Class warfare.
3. I really think its class warfare that underpins my hatred.
4. Because aSmallWorld self conciously recreates the social aspects of power distribution on the internet.
5. Because of the snivelling nouveau riche posts all over the internet, begging, 'can I have an invite?' Its like watching the whoring outside an exclusive club, except in broad daylight, I'm sitting in my office, theres no cleavage involved, I'm not drunk, and those posts will be cached somewhere for google to find forever.
6. Because I lived in a first contact town where they sold the beaches, including the land between the high tide mark and the shore.
7. Because its true.
I would love to see someone hack that place to pieces, just because.
Your moment of Zen:
so i have just signed up for asmallworld, courtesey of marc cantor. thank you marc. now i am reading about it and i made one post last night to the forum. i checked it out last night and i found out you can even chat with VOIP! today i see that they have partnered with skype which is awesome! they had a fashion forum section where you could post all kinds of things and the people were all very good looking! yes, i did a search and found naomi campbel, and i wonder how active she is in the community. xeni is there...all the stars. very exclusive. there are warnings everywhere saying if you get too many "no's" from contacting people, you will get booted out. so i was afraid to contact xeni but will ask mark if he could make the introduction. lets see what he says. i think this is finally the right network service (with practical buisness fashion going on) for me!!! finally people i KNOW and LIKE! and the user interface is way cool. totally ergonomic. very excited to see what's up and going on there.
Patient for what? For the revolution to come and for aSmallWorld and any so-called friends of mine insubstantial enough to join to find themselves first against theWall? If so, too slow.
Why do I hate it? Let me count the ways.
1. Class warfare.
2. Class warfare.
3. I really think its class warfare that underpins my hatred.
4. Because aSmallWorld self conciously recreates the social aspects of power distribution on the internet.
5. Because of the snivelling nouveau riche posts all over the internet, begging, 'can I have an invite?' Its like watching the whoring outside an exclusive club, except in broad daylight, I'm sitting in my office, theres no cleavage involved, I'm not drunk, and those posts will be cached somewhere for google to find forever.
6. Because I lived in a first contact town where they sold the beaches, including the land between the high tide mark and the shore.
7. Because its true.
I would love to see someone hack that place to pieces, just because.
Your moment of Zen:
so i have just signed up for asmallworld, courtesey of marc cantor. thank you marc. now i am reading about it and i made one post last night to the forum. i checked it out last night and i found out you can even chat with VOIP! today i see that they have partnered with skype which is awesome! they had a fashion forum section where you could post all kinds of things and the people were all very good looking! yes, i did a search and found naomi campbel, and i wonder how active she is in the community. xeni is there...all the stars. very exclusive. there are warnings everywhere saying if you get too many "no's" from contacting people, you will get booted out. so i was afraid to contact xeni but will ask mark if he could make the introduction. lets see what he says. i think this is finally the right network service (with practical buisness fashion going on) for me!!! finally people i KNOW and LIKE! and the user interface is way cool. totally ergonomic. very excited to see what's up and going on there.
8.04.2005
Counterclockwise, stupid
I don't care if the boy calls me John Bolton, I am having difficulty stomaching the IRB. Protecting human subjects of research is a great and noble cause. But government bureaucracy makes a mockery of ethics. Come on. In 50 years, we went from Nazi doctors to this?????
(20) HHS regulations at 45 CFR 46.116(d) require that the IRB make and document four findings when approving a consent procedure which does not include, or which alters, some or all of the required elements of informed consent, or when waiving the requirement to obtain informed consent. OHRP recommends that when approving such a waiver for research reviewed by the convened IRB, these findings be documented in the minutes of the IRB meeting, including protocol-specific information justifying each IRB finding.
(21) OHRP recommends that each revision to a research protocol be incorporated into the written protocol. This practice ensures that there is only one complete protocol, with the revision dates noted on each revised page and on the first page of the protocol itself. This procedure is consistent with the procedure used for revised and approved informed consent documents, which then supersede all previous versions.
On a related note, its been amusing watching Georgia drivers acclimate themselves to the rotary (roundabout) the traffic-calmers built down the street. Nobody knows what to do or where to go. A week ago, someone put up a weirdo metal statue of a guy pointing, and ONE WAY signs around the circumference of the rotary. This morning, the signs were sticking out every which way. Some uncalm Boss Hogg fool blasted right over and through the median circle in the center.
(20) HHS regulations at 45 CFR 46.116(d) require that the IRB make and document four findings when approving a consent procedure which does not include, or which alters, some or all of the required elements of informed consent, or when waiving the requirement to obtain informed consent. OHRP recommends that when approving such a waiver for research reviewed by the convened IRB, these findings be documented in the minutes of the IRB meeting, including protocol-specific information justifying each IRB finding.
(21) OHRP recommends that each revision to a research protocol be incorporated into the written protocol. This practice ensures that there is only one complete protocol, with the revision dates noted on each revised page and on the first page of the protocol itself. This procedure is consistent with the procedure used for revised and approved informed consent documents, which then supersede all previous versions.
On a related note, its been amusing watching Georgia drivers acclimate themselves to the rotary (roundabout) the traffic-calmers built down the street. Nobody knows what to do or where to go. A week ago, someone put up a weirdo metal statue of a guy pointing, and ONE WAY signs around the circumference of the rotary. This morning, the signs were sticking out every which way. Some uncalm Boss Hogg fool blasted right over and through the median circle in the center.
