Sustainable fire spinning

I found out from this wikipedia page on fire spinning that you can use biodiesel as a fuel. This has been my first incentive to want to learn how to make biodiesel, but when I looked at some instructions on how to make a small batch, it sounded really scary, so maybe I can buy some off of a local producer instead of buying kerosene, which smells soooo nasty; I'd rather smell french fries. I wonder if I can get it to burn without mixing it with white gas as suggested...

Fire staff tutorials

Recently I found this great resource on fire staff spinning and other manipulation, [ mcp - fire staff tutorials ] . I discovered this page when I watched one of this guy's videos on Google Video. Note that the files on the web page are in .wmv format, but you can get all the videos in .avi format on Google Video. These new tricks should keep me busy for a while.

Back to the blog-o-sphere

Well, my life has been pretty closed source lately. As much as I love being a socialite, I also love being to myself, it makes it easier for me to engage in certain things:

• phone calls and e-mails
• writing: songs, journal entries, diagrams, computer programs, show programs
• book reading and other independent study
• thinking, musing, pondering
• playing my baritone ukulele and bongos
  
• crafting that requries detail and precision (crafting in general can be quite fun in groups, I hope show up at Spins and Needles one of these months, I was too exhausted and I finished work pretty late last Wednesday)
• meditation and yoga

I'd like to do more things than involve more people, but I have a tendency to end up by myself when I am not living with or close to people I know and care about.

It would be false to assume I do all of those solitary activities regularly. I aim to maintain practice of these things in some sort of fashion, but I'm challenged in juggling all of the things

• personal journaling (in ink) and personal blogging
  
• Free Culture activism (updating carleton.freeculture.org and www.creativecommons.ca)
• Software development: right now I'm only working on one project for graphic design image plotting, it's one man show right now, but I hope to make it Free Software soon and integrate it with Inkscape
  
• Cooking: it occured to me that I should aim to cook 1 new recipe per week; usually my cooking is improvised, so I usually end up with something new every time, but I want to learn to expand my knowledge of flavour combinations using recipes as a guide. Maintaining my efforts in sustaining the G-Spot it closely connected with this interest
  
• Learning how food grows : I'm volunteering at the community garden across from my house and I work with is very enthousiasticly demonstrative man; maintaining this relationship is valuable
  
• Performance arts: staff spinning, juggling, clowning, and other fun acts (I practice staff manipulation almost once a day, it's a good break from sitting at a computer because it opens up all your arm, wrist, and shoulder muscles)
• Creative writing: this sure comes in fits and bursts. I never just sit down and say, "OK, I'm going to write", I just get inspired with ideas and then write them down. Often I don't end up with a well-contained work, part of the reason why I rarely perform or publish my creative writing. I have been compiling some songs I wrote for circus performance, and when I get around to creating my own wiki (how can I be a wikinator without a personal wiki **raising hands in the air**)
• pursuing a path to inner peace and empowerment: physical health through nutrition, and exercise as well as taming and exercising the mind in various ways

Right now I'm at a point in my life where I'm somewhat unattuned and misaligned with my goals. A message just keeps comming back to me that I need to seek some form(s) of mentorship or even council from those further in their life's path. Mentorship was recently described as "someone who offers advice where it is not specifically asked for". Good parents play the role of mentons as well as needs providers, but when an adolescent reaches a certain age, it seems like they learn all they can from their parents. Adolescence brings a need for self-realization and this often leads youth to push away from the advice of their parents. But after the youthful rebellion, many are faced with more responsabilities w. The path that the average middle-class North American youth take at a certain age usually leads them away from their home and not necessarily toward any mentors to help guide them on their path. Many go away to educational instituions like universities and colleges and spend most of their time around people who are roughly the same age as them. Some students may find mentors in instuctors/professors but the institutions don't often foster these relationships. I may just be projecting this onto university because this has been my experience, but I have a feeling it's more than just a delusion. Regardless, I will remain open to discovering relationships for mentorship and council.

Well, that was a pretty heavy note to start out on for such a long gap... an explaination ? I think I'm going to do some bloging time travel and fill in these gaps. Then you'll never know just how long it's been unless you monitor this regularly. But how likely is that :-P

Geeks + Activists + Beer

So, it's been a while since I put anything remotely political on this blog, so I traveled to rabble.ca to see what's in the news. I looked at the headlines on the homepage and said to myself "I feel so distant from all of these stories". But then I discovered a new podcast on the Rabble Podcasting Network: Social Tech Brewing Company Podcast so I thought I'd give it a feature. This reminds me of GOSLING and Copynight.

Seeking dough-nations in a celebration for a rich nation

I just returned from the market area of Ottawa where I was doing some busking for Canada Day. It was my first time busking in Ottawa. I was with a friend who often drums in the market. I was doing staff spinning and juggling while he laid beats. It was fun to busk with someone else but the combination was somewhat disharmonious. At about 3pm (we had been around since 11am) we decided it would be best if we parted ways. My friend left me the lucky pennies, but I put some back into his cup and as soon as I got up to take off, a bunch of people started putting money into my friends cup. After we parted ways, I did some staff spinning on the stairs that lead to Majors Hill Park. I encountered several people I hadn't seen for ages. Also managed to give a couple of lessons. After deciding to call it a day, I wandered around and caught some of the busking shows, you know, the ones where lots of people gather around in a circle around the performer. It was a good lift to my spirits, as I was feeling a bit drained (I missed lunch, was a bit dehydrated, and tired of soliciting donations). I feel like I have a lot to learn before I can hold people's attention like that, but I will eventually. Sometimes I felt like I shouldn't have been busking because I'm just an amateur, but I won't let those insecurities get the best of me. I know I have something valuable to share, and I'm going to continue busking and sharing the art. It's good practice. Practicing across the street at the techwall is one thing, but engaging people's attention and convincing them to share (in) the wealth, that's a whole-nother game. I justified my monetary solicitations by arguing (to myself and others) that I and friends needed to pay off some collective debt that was incured by what I would call a "natural disaster". You see, on our way back from the In:tent gathering I mentioned earlier, the Winebago we were in sprung a leak in the radiator. We tried to patch it up with gum, but that just made it smoke like crazy. Next we tried driving until the car overheated and then letting it cool down. When we were going up the hills we were egging the vehicle on by chanting "you can do it Bella" (the name of the Winebago) , but despite this, it just wasn't working, so we ended up calling a friend and asking them to rent a van to come pick us up, about an hour outside Ottawa. When the driver arrived to pick us up, we found out that while he was in the rental vehicle by himself, a bear basically ran into the vehicle. The driver swerved and fishtailed, and the bear ran away. Everything seemed OK until we found out that the bear had incured some minor damage that we hadn't noticed. Although it was minimal, it ended up costing us $500 because they had to replace the whole panel and of course there was an insurance deductable. So that's my story for the day. Now it's time to go party.

What's in the mix

This morning I was enthralled to find out about what looks to be really good cross-platform DJing software Mixxx , and what looks to be a really good FLStudios alternative for linux, LMMS. I'm surprised that I haven't come across these applications yet, as I've been doing research on Linux audio for a while now. On the this Free Culture Carleton blog post I expressed interest in learning more about sound production; I feel like I already have so many things on my plate already, but I'm a juggler. I will learn to mix activities ... like they were audio streams !

Today's album reccommendation

Today I'd like to feature a gem of an album under a Creative Commons license available on jamendo.com :

Revolution Void - Increase the Dosage

If you like breakbeats, loungyness, jazzy sax and organ interludes, dope-arsed scratching, and psychedelic synths, check it out. Arguably one of my favourite full length CC albums.

Banana Brass Monkey

Today when I was juggling at the tech wall ...uhhh... for those who've never been to the tech wall this flickr photo may help. Anyway, I was juggling over at the left by that blue head and some guy poped out over ther overhang where the community garden lies and he started being friendly with me. To be honest, I didn't really reflect his friendliness all that much; I answered his questions in a polite but standofish manner. I guess I was just more into practicing juggling than casual chat with some stranger that I percieved to possibly be one of the fractured souls that usually hangs out in the area to abuse alcohol and other drugs (though he didn't seem intoxicated).

Sometimes I hang around with people that others may consider low-lifes or bums or addicts or what-have-you. I often find that these people did not have the nurturing environment that I have had throughout my life. Drug abuse (includeing alcohol) was often in the family or social circles. Many of them have been repeatedly abused by their parents and/or partners and/or peers. Many of them abuse themselves and the people around them physically, mentally, spiritually. But many of them have hearts too. And when I spend time with these people, I work to look through all the ugliness and see that goodness in them and draw it out. At the same time, I don't put up with their B.S., and I'm not afraid to call them on it. Hanging out with them can really be a drag, a tap to my energy I feel, and sometimes I just can't handle it. I'm just too sensitive to others sometimes. Or, I sometimes feel it's a poor investment of energy to spend time with these people, and that I should instead invest energy into my interests.

I diverge but now I reconviene. It turns out that those impressions somewhat subconcious were a false. I found out this when the guy out of the blue offered me some unopened 40 oz of beer; he didn't drink, and someone hanging out there had left him it. I jumped up the perpendicular wall (barely showing on the right hand side of the picture) to grab it. I found out he was camping there because he moved to Ottawa with the expectation/promise of being able to stay somewhere here, but that fell through, so the guy and what looked to be his female partner (who stayed back from our conversation) started camping out there. I found out that Rosemary Taylor who runs the Nanny Goat Hill Community Garden up there gave them permission to stay there after she discovered them there; big props to her on that one. I know Rosemary because I started volunteering at the garden in the spring to work on the common areas of the garden. I just remembered that there was an article comming out in the Citizen about the garden, and found it here for the first time now as I blog. Anyway, our dialog became much friendlier after the man made an offering to me, and introduced his situation; I was glad to to find that he persisted in his friendly engagement despite the somewhat cold responses I gave him initially.

The beer he gave me was a 40 oz. of Carling Black Label 8.0% beer. I hadn't drank something this nasty since my high-schoool days as far as I can remember, but I was really in the mood for a cold beer. But the beer was warm, and I was supposed to meet with someone in the evening, so I didn't have time to let it cool down in the freezer. So I thought, "Brass Monkey on ice", which I hadn't ever mixed myself, but some people shared it with me once and I thought it was alright. For those of you who don't know, a Brass Monkey can be a drink with a strong 40 beer or malt liquor with orange juice added, although the wikipedia definition is a bit fuzzier. Anyway, I went out an got a carton of orange juice, threw some ice in a glass, poured beer in, and topped it up with about 1/8th of a glass of orange juice. I found it to be quite delicious; I was surprised at how well that bit of orange juice did at disguising the taste of the nasty beer. Unfortunately the first one gave me an acidic stomach (possibly due to a dischordance with the remaining food in my belly), so instead of stopping the drinking (I was out for a bit of a beer buzz after I found out my plans had fallen though) I decided to search the internet for foods that were basic, or that had antacid properties. I found bananas to be one, and I had some frozen bananas so I placed some of these "fruit cubes" on top of the ice in the next drink. So I was sitting here a while ago sipping away at my "Banana Brass Monkey" and thinking "I should blog this", and so here I am, and here I go. Later.

Under the lense

This morning I met with Steve Sharlow to talk about doing some artistic modeling for him. He showed me some of his work, which I really appreciated. We chatted about the intelllectual property rights of the photos and the contract between model and photographer. Basically, Steve would have the copyright for the photos, and I wanted to be assured that photos wouldn't be used in ways other than artistic display and selling without my consent. I was given this assurance, which will take the form of a written contract. A friend who knows this man better than I do told me he was a trustworthy man, and after meeting him I felt assured. If anyone is interested in doing some modeling, let me know. He's looking for "normal people" in the age range 22-65 for the purposes of artistic nude photos.

Modeling pays well, and it's pretty easy work, but even more appealing than that, this is work that is supporting an artist. My interest in doing artistic modeling started in St. Johns. One of the people I was living with out there was doing some modeling for an arts school, which piqued my interest. One day I answered the phone and it was the arts school in desperate need of a model at the last minute, but the model in the house wasn't around, so I offered to fill in for her and recieved acceptance. The job consisted of me in a bathing suit posing in different positions for different lengths of time for people who were sketching with pencil. After it was done, I managed to get photocopies of some of the sketches, which was kind of a neat memento.

I am willing to go to the arts schools in Ottawa and apply as a model, but first I need a portfolio. I thought this was just a collection of photos of myself, but as I found out this morning, it's a little more than just that. There are certain things that they are looking for, and this is something Steve knows lots about. He offered to help me put together a portfolio (which would normally cost a lot of money) pretty much for free, and in return I'm going to help him find some models. I love growning mutually beneficial relationships.

Festivities

I've just returned from a gathering called In:tent . I had some mind-blowning experiences there. Great people. Great music. Great workshops. Great food from the Kind Kitchen. Great fire dancers. Great natural camping site. Next gathering I attend I intend to come with more things to share. A staff spinning workshop, info about Free Culture, better costumage, goods to share and trade. I will be attending the Evolve festival in Nova Scotia in August. A bunch of friends are going to Eclipse trance festival. So much going on ...

Flash in the pan

I know this blog badly needs updating, yet I don't have time to give a decent update of everything that's been going on since last month, so I thought I'd just give a quick flash. I recently got a job at the Wild Oat. I've been volunteering/attending the National Community Radio Conference, and working on some personal projects. More details to come...

Job #1: get a good paid job

Searching for a job has always made me so depressed because I have a sense that I'm just going to end up working for something that results in me feeling miserable. It's not so much that I hate work; I can take pleasure in the most unapealing of jobs (washing dishes, being a cashier, cleaning), but it's the feeling of working for something that I don't believe in that that gets me down so much. I've yet to get a job working for something I believe in, although I put care into every single job I've had. This must change if I am to maintain my sanity. With this in mind, I am doing a call out to the world to help me find a job that is a good fit for me. I'm committed to doing so. It's time to get my priorities straight, so with this in mind...

Job #1: to get a paid job (I've got lots of non-paid jobs already) that meets one or more of the following criteria:

• is in an IT-related field, especially in a position that challenges my technical knowlege and engages me in figuring out solutions to problems, although I'd accept jobs like data entry and technical support as well
• involves entertaining, teaching, or caring for others, especially young, elderly, and differently abled people
• is in a store, restaurant, or processing facility for healthy food (and preferably veg*n)
• involves talking with people, aside from agressive sales positions. Examples that come to mind are canvasing and table/kiosk demonstrations
• involves writing. Although I don't have any formal experience in writing-related jobs, I think I'm a decent writer. Particularly, I'd love to get paid to write letters and proposals.
• that is in the non-profit sector and particularly that is in the public interest. I'd especially like to get a job working towards the ends of Free Culture, food security, or human/environmental health.

Docin' (re)marks on format

I'm getting really tired of seeing official documents published in a .doc format. These types of documents should be published as pdf. OpenOffice exports documents to pdf, unlike Word. And if you insist on using Word, then you can use PDFCreator to print essentially anything to a PDF file as you would print to your printer.

Porno veggies, get me hot

Today I was invited to an art party out in the boonies on June 24th (if you want to go, contact me). The invitation contained a warning that I must not bring "oddly shaped vegetables" to the party. Being a G-Spoter and all, I was a bit offended by that comment, so I posted this to my flickr account:
These were found in the rather scandalous G-Spot zine that some folks made for the Anarchist Bookfair in Montreal last year. I recently recived an electronic copy, and I'd like to put it up on the net, but I have to bring this decision to the collective in our meeting this Sunday.

Which reminds me, after the meeting I'm going to be spinning fire with some friends this comming Sunday. If you'd like to come, the details are on this flier I made.

Wearing novelty thicker with each day

I've been looking for good staff spinning videos on the net for inspiration, but most of them I see are not very impressive. I've only been practicing for a year, and I've yet to see in real life anyone who's as good as me. That's not to brag, it's just that it's not as popular as poi is; I like how I have the benefit of novelty in this sense. When I think about visual artists or musicians who have been practicing their art for 10 or 20 years, it makes me imagine how mind-blowing this could get if I keep it up. One video that impressed me (but didn't quite blow me away) was this video on Google Video, so far probably the best I've seen (but I know there's more talented staffers out there). On a related note, my friend showed me some crazy hoola-hooping videos from GrooveHoops.

Hit the Play Button

I'm sitting inside on a beautiful morning coding my imaGEneration software (see "My Photos" on the right for some sample results). The goal is to get it GPL'd and eventually integrate it with Inkscape. The fact that I didn't get into Google's Summer of Code for this project has somehow driven me to work on this even more. I guess I just love working for Free. Maybe some day soon I'll get paid to play so I can work for Free.

Currently downloading onto my computer is the movie Elephant's Dreamwhich is :

the world’s first open movie, made entirely with open source graphics software such as Blender, and with all production files freely available to use however you please, under a Creative Commons license.

This is going to be a great hit on the Free Culture scene. Which reminds me, the movie Alternative Freedoms will be comming out pretty soon. Also in production is the film Copyright Criminals .

Well, that sun is calling me. I think it's time to go practice my works of play.

Open Source Beer

So, what to show... well, my blood was boiling today, due partially to some major disappointments in my life recently, but I decided to simmer down and keep that to myself.

Today I went to a particularly bubbling GOSLING meeting. It's so nice to have a bunch of experienced Open Source activists meeting every Friday for beers a block away from my house. Even though I'm not a government employee, I'm still very welcome there.

At this meeting I met The Parliment Hillbillies, who do a podcast about political issues in Canada. One of the members spoke of his experience with request for access to information concerning the lack of security checks for the software used for collecting the online census.

Now I'm going to continue working on some projects that are nagging at me.

From LiveJournal to Blogger

Today I decided that the LiveJournal community just wasn't really for me. I'm moving from my account bubblyfool to here. I feel my blogging was just starting to get interesting towards the end, so take a peek at those last posts if you will. I appreciate that LiveJournal is very dedicated to Open Source technologies, but the reason why I joined it in the first place was for the social factor, and I'm just not getting what I want out of it. I recently joined a couple of communities on LiveJournal and browsed around a bit more, searching for some interesting content, but it mostly seems to be innane drivel. I think there's a difference between a "blog" and an "online journal" (though it can be fuzzy). Blogs are more like journalistic (as in "the media") endeavours, more objective, wheras journals are more personal and subjective. There's only a couple of LJ users I read. I find that people who are serious about presenting ideas, events, and organizations are more into blogger.com. So here I am. Not just journaling, but BLOGGING ! Next post I'll have to introduce myself....