be the change you want to see in the world

Have you thought about making music with your computer, but haven’t tried it yet. Intimidated? Too daunting? No software or hardware?

Try this: The world’s tinest synth, made in flash. I guess there could be smaller ones out there, but I haven’t seen them.

BTW, eye4u is a legendary vector graphic pioneer. Their original home page and demos blew my mind, and are still pretty cool seven years later. Check this out. Be sure to go to the showroom. The page and music haven’t changed since I first came across it way back when the dotcom boom was riding high. Imagine how choppy it was on a Duo 280.

Lying is the core value of our society. The brightest, most creative minds in our society are liars. Paid liars. I’m talking about advertising people (not all of them). Political writers (not all of them). Sales executives (not all of them). In fact, at the heart of all transactions is a core of lying. The more margin, the bigger the lie somewhere back along the transaction chain. What we can get away with without getting called on it. Pushing the limit of the truth to maximise advantage or profit.

Since when is pushing the limit of the truth not lying? A little lie is not as bad as a big lie, I guess. But the big lie is more readily accepted. And more profitable. Everyday hundreds of millions of people buy into big lies. They do so because some smart person had the guts to tell a really big lie and get paid a lot of money for doing it.

I’m tired of it. And if you need me to provide you with examples, you are not paying attention.

From TSN:

Commissioner Gary Bettman says officials who don’t call penalties as warranted during the NHL playoffs will soon find themselves watching the post-season from the sidelines.

That message has been made clear to Colin Campbell, senior executive vice-president of hockey operations, and Stephen Walkom, director of officiating, he said on a conference call Wednesday.

“My instructions to Colie and to Stephen are if an official puts his whistle away, they should put the official away for the rest of the playoffs,” Bettman said.

“How long you work in the playoffs is discretionary. It depends how well you are working. And if a guy decides he’s putting the whistle away, then he’s done.”

Finally, the NHL playoffs have a chance of being something more like hockey and less like the WWE, where a closed-fist punch is illegal, but results only in a finger wag and a cheer from the crowd. I know some hockey fans will dislike that comparison, but if the most popular aspect of your game is actually against the rules, you have a problem with the core of your game. If enforcing the rules means the fanbase of the NHL no longer includes the drunken idiot sitting behind me screaming “f&*%#n’ kill ‘em” while little kids are sitting right below him, that make me happy. He can stay home and watch UFC.

The NHL is emerging from its Dark Ages, where expansion into unlikely US markets drove the sport to a lower skill level and higher brutality level. I see a reversal, and the goons sat for most of the past year as a result.

Scroll thorugh my iPhoto Browser and this is what you’ll see, page after page after page. Digital photography makes baby photography irresistable.

Not to take anything away from the little tyke. Great rookie season and great for an 18 year old. He had some help with the obstruction crack-down. Only Hawerchuk did it as a rookie before him. But one thing is missing from the gushing analysis. Gretzky scored 104 points as a 17/18 yr old in the WHA, and 137 points as an 18/19 year old in the NHL. Gretzky does not hold any rookie records in the NHL because he was not a rookie in his first NHL season, even though he was only eighteen when his first NHL goal was scored. TGO’s birthday is January 24th, and Crosby’s is in August. I give it to Crosby that he was the first to score 100 points at his age, but Gretzky scored his 100th NHL point in 61 games, just 28 days after his 19th birthday. So, yes, let’s celebrate Crosby’s achievement. But let’s also keep it in proper perspective. There is and will be only one Great One. Crosby had a great year, but is also the beneficiary of being born at a different point in hockey’s cycle.