October 14th, 2009
Vegetarian Shoes - Apollo Black
My new shoes have just arrived from UK-based Vegetarian Shoes! They make high quality footwear using no animal products and this is the 3rd time I’ve bought from them. I’ve got no affiliation with the company, just one satisfied customer.
Part of my lifestyle includes an effort to avoid actions that directly require killing other creatures. This has mainly led to me being a vegetarian and choosing not to use products made from new leather and other animal remains.
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Tags: consumerism, ethics, philosophy, shoes, vegetarianism
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October 2nd, 2009
I went out to see Michael Geist talk at the WISE Hall in Vancouver last night. He’s incredibly articulate and has a great grasp on the wide variety of issues that modern copyright reform lays at the feet of citizens. I especially appreciated his focus on the protection of the freedom of citizens within the new digital paradigm.
He also reminded me that I hadn’t yet posted my submission to the Canadian Copyright Consultation.
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Tags: competition, consumerism, copyright, internet, law, michael geist, philosophy, politics, technology
Posted in law, politics | No Comments »
September 28th, 2009
Red and white sides of a Rubik's Cube completed.
After about 2 weeks worth of effort I’ve managed to complete 2 adjacent sides of a Rubik’s Cube on my own! I remember doing this as a child but had no recollection of how I had managed to do it back then.
I find one side easy, but even now I’ve got some doubts about whether I can reproduce the 2 sides very easily. We shall see! I bought the cube recently when I heard someone at work reminiscing. I decided that I wanted to see if I could solve it on my own and learn how to reproduce the solution.
To that end I’ve been leaving the cube out in a common area of the house and letting people mess it up for me. Every time I come back it’s in a different configuration so I’m forced to rethink my next plan of attack.
It amazes me that there are so many combinations from such a simple little device and that so much confusion can be found with a few moves. Slowly my mind is starting to understand the effects of certain actions.
On towards 3 and more sides!
Tags: conditioning, discipline, focus, play, puzzle, rubik's cube
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October 15th, 2007
Today is blog action day and I thought I should join in with the last hours of the day waning.
The subject for mass action is the environment. As I’ve mentioned previously , I’ve been involved in getting the Vancouver chapter of Free Geek off the ground. This innovative venture has been “helping the needy get nerdy” by taking in old computer hardware and either making it useful or recycling it responsibly. It’s an organisation that celebrates the power of the collection of individual actions toward a greater goal.
And it’s been taking off!
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Tags: blog action day, blogging, e-waste, environment, free geek, home, recycling, technology, volunteer
Posted in environment, technology | No Comments »
September 8th, 2007
It’s common for people to spend a lot of effort planning a trip away. Even the shortest excursion can be smoother and safer given good foresight. But few give much thought, if any, to the difficulties they might encounter upon their return.
I recently came back from 2½ months away on a meditation retreat. There were little breaks here and there but I was mostly shrouded within a very focused and protective environment, letting the rest of the world whirl and change without me. These retreats are not new to me, but I usually go for only 10 days. While I knew coming home would include an adjustment period, there’s never really any way to know what you’ll get until you arrive.
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Tags: environment, focus, home, integration, meditation, philosophy, travel, vipassana
Posted in meditation, travel | 7 Comments »
March 27th, 2007
An article over on WorldChanging discusses whether purchasing “green” options can help us stem the current global waste crisis. It points out the necessity to develop environmentally responsible computers and other electronics.
But another thing to consider is whether the latest and greatest is really what we need at all, and even whether alternate economic models may encourage us along greener paths.
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Tags: consumerism, e-waste, environment, free geek, free software, green, linux, open source, recycling, technology, ubuntu, volunteer
Posted in environment, technology | No Comments »
December 26th, 2006
I tend to believe that ethics is a sort of sense, a faculty that is developed by making sound and unsound choices and gaining experience from living through the results.
Those aspects of an action (mental, vocal, or physical) that lead to benefit of any sort for any being push the action toward the ethical end of a scale, while harm of any sort to any being push it towards the unethical. In this sense most choices have some mix of the two and it is often the case that we find ourselves having to compromise, though generally through lack of awareness of the true nature of the situation.
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Tags: conditioning, ethics, health, meditation, philosophy
Posted in philosophy | 2 Comments »
December 7th, 2006
This is a long one!
I’ve always liked computers. I liked that they could play games and produce documents. I liked that you could use them to draw and even make music. I liked them even more when the internet landed and you could use them to communicate. But it’s long been apparent to me that without software a computer is just a fancy electricity sucker. And in the past few years I’ve become more and more aware of how the quality of and intention behind the software can affect the usefulness and even usability of the computer. Bad software and poorly motivated software development can seriously affect the social empowerment of the end user.
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Tags: amiga, environment, free geek, free software, home, internet, langara, linux, open source, philosophy, school, technology, travel, ubuntu
Posted in philosophy, technology | No Comments »
November 2nd, 2006
In a computer programming forum recently, I was chided for being competitive when I asked if anyone had managed to solve a particular problem in less lines than I had done. My critic then poked fun at another forum writer, suggesting that the amount of time spent working with computers was an indication they didn’t have a girlfriend, ending with “I’ll lend you a few of mine…”
I’ve spent a fair bit of time pondering questions on the nature of competition, and what purpose it serves.
So, what exactly is competition? And is there such a thing as healthy competition?
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Tags: competition, cooperation, footbag, hackey sack
Posted in philosophy | 1 Comment »
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