L’azile

Some guy called Jonathan Keller from Motor City has been photographing his face every day for the last eight years and posting the photos on line. It is a strangely fascinating experiment if you are into that sort of thing and yet it is actually very ordinary somehow but for some reason I find his follow-through quite admirable.

He claims in the oft entertaining FAQ that the project will continue until the day he dies and that “only then will it be complete, and worth its true value”, though “unfortunately, [he] won’t ever see it finished”.

He has created a timelapse animation of the series called “Living my life faster” and it really is quite something to see though I must admit it almost triggered an odd epileptic seizure.

Aside from the hair (facial and otherwise), he has not changed much in the last eight years but I imagine that, if he can keep going (and, barring any unfortunate circumstances, I imagine he will), it will be kind of interesting to see the changes in the long term. Which I guess, or at least hope, is ultimately the point.

As I mentioned recently, I have had a flickr account for a couple of years now. I do not get a ton of traffic and actually, that is fine with me. I mean, it is nice to get comments, especially from people I know, or to have people favourite a photo of mine once in a while. But at the time, I started my photoblog more as a way to work through some stuff and there is still always a part of me that feels a bit unconfortable about what I put out on the Web anyway (which is one of the things flickr is useful for, i.e. figuring out how I feel about what I put out there).

It has been a lot of fun at times and not so fun at other times. And it certainly has been a learning experience. I am by no means a great photographer. I am not even a good one. Sometimes, I am happy about a certain photo I took because I think it is pretty or because I think I actually succeeded in conveying whatever it was I was trying to convey. But most of the time, it was just a lucky shot either way (especially considering what a really crappy camera I have; I have dropped that thing so many times I am amazed it still works). But I see it more as a personal visual log and I do not expect other people to find it interesting. So I am often perplexed by what some people find interesting in my photos. Or what could have possessed them to favourite something I posted.

Three days ago, I posted a few photos to flickr. Nothing special, or so I thought. A random picture taken in a post office, one of the black squirrel I have kind of befriended and throw peanuts at every morning and one of a rather ordinary poster I photographed during my last visit to the rehab institute. Of these three, the photo of the rather ordinary poster received an insane amount of traffic and it took me a few days to figure out why.

Continue reading… the sum of my parts

The title of this post is actually inspired by a short story by Kathy Kachelries, published in September 2005 on 365 tomorrows, called The Nine Billion Names of God. And when I read about the new street view service recently concocted by Google, I was instantly reminded of this creepy story about how, in the not too distant future, Google has swallowed up the Internet and basically defined who we are.

Anyway, this article, found via maxdesign’s always useful “some links for light reading” feature, illustrates exactly what I have been trying to get my flat-mate to understand in the last year. That privacy can not be taken for granted, even in one’s own home. That, for example, if you leave your curtains open in the evening with all the lights on full-blast, you can bet that someone out there will not be able to resist taking pictures and, why not?, post them on flickr for all the world to see. Now I admit, this has been a topic of moderate dissent between us but up until this morning, he just did not seem to (or want to) get it. After I showed him the aforementioned article, he just gave me the look, the one that means “shit, she has a point” but that he can not bring himself to say out loud. Euh, whatever.

Continue reading… the nine billion eyes of god

Or maybe that should be “The diplomats! The diplomats!”

Sorry to disappoint but no, Tattoo has not come back to grace us with his cheeky presence. But perhaps just as cheekily, the virtual game Second Life now has its very own “Diplomacy Island”, thanks to the Diplo Foundation, a non-profit “knowledge organisation” that promotes meaningful participation in international affairs through, among other things, the development of information and communications technologies (ICTs) for diplomatic activities. As explained on the Diplo Foundation Web site:

“Diplomacy Island is the next step in over a decade of research and development in the field of Virtual Diplomacy. Through Second Life, Diplo will explore new possibilities for diplomatic representation and interaction. Diplomacy Island will also be another channel for Diplo’s main mission of assisting small and developing countries to participate meaningfully in international relations. At the Island, Diplo will also promote development issues among Second Life citizens.”

My first thought when I read about this was “the end of the world is near”. Now, do not get me wrong. I think that ICTs are without a doubt useful tools for a wide range of human activities and we sure have come a long way in the last couple of decades.

Continue reading… the plane! the plane!

The other night, through some serious meandering, I came across ZoomInfo, and more specifically, what ZoomInfo had to say about me. I was so annoyed by what I found that I was plagued all night long with bizarre dreams of attending a boring fundraiser with TBL, in a pink Chanel suit (very much like this one), getting lost going to the ladies’ room and ending up wandering aimlessly in the métro (and just to be clear, Sir Tim was not the one wearing the pink Chanel suit, although that probably would have made the whole thing much more interesting). No point in asking me how my mind works, the important thing is that it does.

Continue reading… know your stuff… better

Google posted a blog entry yesterday, visibly geared towards Joe-boîte-à-lunch, on how to use and especially how not to use their name. And judging from the related posts elsewhere linked to at the bottom of the article, a lot of people are not very happy.

I think we need to see this for what it is. Simply that Google is once again doing what is expected to protect their trademark, which will be useful in the future when they decide to sue the pants off whoever they please (or more likely whoever had one of their lawyers break out into a tepid sweat). After all, it would be harder to cry trademark infringement (or whatever the legal term is) if they can not prove they have done a minimum to protect it. So now, not only can they say commercial entities have been warned but regular folks as well.

Continue reading… do not google unless you really mean it

This morning, I was quietly sipping my coffee while reading my e-mails and making my usual RSS rounds. Just an ordinary Friday morning. When I got to this week’s issue of the Web Design Update newsletter, I almost spit out my coffee. My first blog post on accessibility was among the items included.

While I am pleased that someone thought it worth people’s time to include my ramblings, needless to say I was shocked as :

1. I have only started this blog last week and am still not sure what I want to do with this space.
2. I have told no one about this blog and am surprised that someone already found it.
3. I might have euh, held off a bit on personal stuff had I imagined that someone might already be reading me. (edit: and after thinking about it for a couple of days, I decided I was somewhat mortified and removed said personal stuff, for all the good it will do but whatever)
4. I am still getting used to this WordPress thing so things are far from perfect (ditto for my English writing skills).

So anyway, to all those people who suggested that I should start my own blog, well guess what ? I did. But then perhaps you already knew that…