Archive for the ‘poems + prose + rambles’ Category

the sound of azuki beans

Saturday, March 6th, 2004

refamiliarizing myself with the self-healing cookbook, i decided to cook up some azuki beans. one half-hour into their simmer they should be cold shocked.

listening to the beans boil against the pot, i was enjoying the rhythm in which they scraped against the metal vessel. as if the bubbles rattling the beans were coming from a bellows. the sound of submerged, scraping beans was padded with the quiet rumble of escaping vapor.

the balance changed over time (as the beans soften, the high-tones degrade). slowly, the highs muted away until finally, the sound of bean scraping metal was gone. then i looked at the time and saw it was the half-hour point. which made me wonder if this was how the half-hour point was chosen.

Ode to Glenna

Thursday, March 4th, 2004

pick pick
poke poke
what’s that?
oops, it’s bleeding.

Revelation of Possibility

Tuesday, January 6th, 2004

ah. well, it reminds me of when i get that rush in my chest, as if a giant wave of water and oxygen and possibility were moving through me, connecting me to the past, the future, and other beings.

Sasha

What some of us tech steeped peoples go through from time to time when we think about the possibilities of social technology. A great revelation of the possibility of things. Naively, i feel it is akin to something like satori.

I want to believe this feeling is related to the process of cellularization and interconnection we see in the natural world. That there is a similarity between why we find the view from a mountain top so beautiful and the idea of beings becoming increasingly interconnected so exhilirating. I like to believe it is a deep recognition of an underlying, universal structure.

Putting People in Possession of Knowledge

Friday, December 26th, 2003

It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of truth.

– John Locke

This quote reminds me how knowledge is passed around in geek communities. It is not enough to explain that someone is wrong, we tend to require backup (references) of our claims and sometimes will forgo even the mention of why someone is wrong and just yellout “RTFM!”.

It appears this line of reasoning is also becoming a staple in grassroot organizations. It is the mantra of truthout (where the quote was found), can be seen as the footnotes in the Daily Misleader, and was one of the operating principles in the Matt Gonzalez mayorial campaign’s attempt to educate the voters (instead of muckrake the opponent).

Perhaps a product of an online world where providing reference links is part of our writing system and a response to the FUD we find ourselves constantly bombarded by.