NilPerOs

This is very unlike me. I’m always a little bit late or a little bit early when taking a photograph. I seem to have an unnatural lack of awareness, which is why I usually take pictures of things when they’re still. I’m still trying to figure out how I managed this whilst visiting the geysers in Haukadalur, Iceland.

It’s an amazing sight to witness, as is the rest of the small part of the country we got to see. I can’t recommend it enough. Some more shots on my Flickr.

What’s the most important thing to you about last night’s election result? To you, individually, what’s the most important thing? What put that spring in your step this morning? What kept you up until 3.30 am, watching the results roll in and afterwards sleeping the soundest 4 hours you have in a long time? What was it that made you smile a little broader at the person who served you your coffee on your way to work? And what is it that now has you pouring over the newspapers and websites that all confirm something that your barely allowed yourself to believe?

There’s no doubt that Barack Obama is an incredible orator and his ability to make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck is a gift bestowed on few, especially politicians in the modern age. As Europeans (a more relevant context than Irish, considering the impact such a result has on the world) I think most people were convinced that he was the right choice for the American people to make. And as Europeans, we tend to have this somewhat patronising attitude towards the American electorate, feeling that we know what’s best for the world as a whole. The fact of the matter is that Americans, like every other citizen of every other democratised country on this earth, vote for a candidate based on domestic issues, not a wider world view. I’m not saying that foreign policy is an irrelevance, it’s just that it’s the effect that a country’s foreign policy has on domestic issues that’s important to the electorate, or at least more important than the wider consequences. And why should it be any different?

To me, the most important thing about last night is that it brings us one step closer to the immanent departure of the incumbent administration, and I say that as a European as well as an individual. The last 8 years of Bush, Chaney and Rice has been a fairly miserable experience for everyone, American citizens included. I think we Europeans were much less inclined to separate John McCain from that administration than the American electorate were, especially after his questionable choice of running mate which succeeded only in reinforcing a Republican stereotype in our left of centre minds. Perhaps if he had not chosen Palin we would be looking at a different result today, and perhaps that may not have been a bad thing. I believe John McCain to be a good man, and I believe he was sincere in his wish to turn America away from the route it had adopted under Bush. But the fact remains, not one of us was comfortable in the knowledge that we were a 72 year old’s heart beat away from that remnant of neoconservatism taking the highest office in the free world. 

So was Obama’s victory a good thing? Yes, absolutely and without doubt, for both America and the rest of the world. But remembering that I say that as a left-leaning, bleeding-heart liberal, was it as much of an open and shut case as we had it in our minds? I’m not so sure. I long for this presidency to deliver everything that we were hoping for and that it does not turn into the sort of disappointment that Jimmy Carter’s election in ‘77 did. But there is no doubt, outside of what happens from this point forth, that there has been a sea change in American attitudes towards what can be considered and eligible candidate for the presidency. Obama’s victory speech was as spine tingling as ever, but perhaps John McCain’s was more telling as a representation of how far America has come on the race issue. He accepted the result with good grace and humility and seemed proud that the country he lives in could elect a man regardless of race, rather than as a consequence of. As Europeans, we can no longer look down our noses and trump out the tired old cliches that America is inherently and institutionally biased in favor of the white Anglo-Saxon male, supported by a red-necked & ignorant majority. The fact now remains that America has proved itself to be the least racist country in the western world, and that we have some catching up to do.

Good for them.

Valentine Warner’s debut television outing ‘What to Eat Now’ on BBC2 really has been a joy to behold over the last few weeks of broadcast. It has an uncanny knack of softening the blow of the onset of winter, instead inspiring a little anticipation of all that comfort food that comes with the season. I suppose the idea is nothing new, as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has been a great advocate for the sourcing of seasonal & local ingredients through the ‘River Cottage’ television series & books. In fact, there is a danger that this point is being oversold at the moment as it seems every television food personality is jumping on the bandwagon. Not that there is anything wrong with the idea, but the practicality of most of us city dwellers heading out on a crisp Thursday morning in October to bag a brace of Woodcock falls somewhat short of the reality of the situation. And the notion that my local (and very good) butcher would offer a number of varying local breeds of pig for me to stuff my bacon sandwich with on a Saturday morning is frankly an unfairly high standard to expect.

I suppose what I like about Valentine is that his approach is decidedly un-preachy. Rather than prattle on about food miles & carbon footprints, his tack is to sell it to you on the most obvious level; food tastes better when it’s fresh, and by logical extension the best fresh food is from the local suppliers in your community. By the same token, the best local fresh food is what is in season at that time. In the case of this series that’s autumn & winter. Here’s hoping he gets around to spring & summer too.

All of this aside, the reason I’m compelled to write this post today is because on Saturday I went to the local bookshop & bought the inevitable cookbook that always accompanies a television series of this sort these days. I like cook books, and like a lot of people I know, I will quite happily sit down and read a good one even if I have no intention of cooking anything from it. However, I did buy this one based purely on the quality of the recipes on the program, but I got much more than I bargained for. This guy can write. I mean really write. Endearing as he is on television, his real personality seems to come across when he commits pen to paper. He talks about food in a way that only someone who thinks deeply & often about it can. I have no doubt if he were to commit to writing a piece of fiction that he has all the necessary vocabulary, turn of phrase and feeling required to produce something of worth, but he must physically shine when he sits down to write about food. Ok, there has been many a wordy and textural introduction in a cook book before, and there’s spades of that here too;

‘Find soups to warm the extremities when frozen hands feel like they might smash like china, and slow-cooked succulence for the returning walkers moving towards the pumpkin glow of home at dusk. Overall this book is to accompany the browns, oranges and yellows of falling leaves - the first frosts, bigger coats and log fires - and to encourage joyful activity instead of 4pm gloom.’

But the best thing is it doesn’t stop there. All the recipes are written with the same excitement and care. The first page I flicked to was ‘Scrambled eggs done properly’ which contained the following lines;

‘Keeping the pan on a low heat, stir the egg constantly and thoroughly, getting into the corners and bottom of the pan. While doing this, meditate on how much you love someone or how sweetly the robin sings. After what seems a fair while, your wrist will be slightly sore and the eggs will start to coagulate. Pay attention, for this moment is critical.’

Now you could definitely argue with some legitimacy that this is somewhat flowery, and he is perhaps opening himself to ridicule as a result of writing in this way. I don’t think so though. I believe him and I believe he feels that strongly about a simple dish that everyone thinks they can cook.

The series continues on Monday nights on BBC2 at 8.30pm. The book is beautifully photographed, beautifully designed and beautifully written. As it happens I will have a lot of free time on my hands over the next couple of weeks, something I may talk about on another post. I intend on filling at least some of that time by reading this book from cover to cover, and maybe even cooking a dish or two, but I’m not promising anything. In the meantime, bring on winter.

I have a real weak spot for great applications. The twin worlds of the open source community and the indie software developer really fascinate me. I have been known to subscribe to their sometimes rather technical blogs, most of which I don’t understand, but I love tracking the development process and problem solving. I sort of like the idea of being locked away in a room and tinkering with code until you’ve honed a useful, intelligent, intuitive and polished application that’s ready for release to the world. Of course I lack the education, patience and work ethic, but hey, a guy can have nerdy dreams. On the flip side though, as a user, I get to enjoy the fruits of the labour of some really brilliant people, sometimes for free, and sometimes for a fee that I’m more than happy to pay to ensure the future of a developer that is producing some really good apps. (I’m not sure I like the abbreviation ‘apps’. Ever since the launch of Apple’s ‘App Store’ it seems to be abused and overused to the point of becoming embarrassing, and maybe just a little too cool for school. I think I’ll revert back to ‘application’ from now on). Given limitless processing power, limitless memory and limitless funds (none of which are immediately likely) I think I’d make the collecting of applications a hobby. I regularly have to stop myself from hitting the ‘Download Now’ button, trying to remember that one day too many applications are going to do some serious damage that I’ll definitely be too lazy to clean up. Anyway, here’s a list of my current favorite applications. There’s a few things to remember though;

1. They’re all Mac applications. I’m sure there’s PC versions of some of them, and I’m sure there’s better PC applications, but I use a Mac. So they’re all Mac. So there.

2. They are (mostly) from open source, indie software developers or small software companies with the right attitude. There are lots of applications that I use every day that I’d be lost without that are made by huge corporate companies. They are great, and you know all about them, so there’s no need to bang on about them.

3. They are in no particular order.

4. All paid applications cost less that US$30

I wanted an Airport Express for ages. It made total sense to me as a natural tool for getting the best out of my wireless network, and it really annoyed me having to run an audio lead from my laptop to my amplifier. I couldn’t however justify the €99 at the time, so when my sister asked me what I’d like for my birthday last year I let it be known that I wouldn’t be overly disappointed if I were to get a little box from Apple. Being the generous soul that she is, she duly obliged. I’m not sure why Apple decided to limit the audio to iTunes content only, but it soon became apparent that this was going to become a point of annoyance. Airfoil fills this irritating gap in usability really well. With it I can stream the audio from any application to my Airport Express, opening up a whole beautiful world of Web 2.0 aural loveliness. It’s maker, Rouge Amoeba, make some other cool applications that if I start to get into now then we could be here all day. It costs US$25, and when you combine it with the free Airfoil Speakers, you really can live the dream of a single music library that you can enjoy in any room in the house.

Nobody reads this blog, largely due to the facts that I don’t tell anyone about it and that it’s crap. I don’t care if anybody reads it, I get a great deal of joy out of writing it and that’s what’s important. The joy of writing it has lately been due in no small way to MarsEdit. I know I’m not supposed to have favorites, but this really is the very definition of everything that I’m talking about in this post and probably the reason I wrote it in the first place. I just finished my 30 day trial about a week ago, and I was more thank happy to part with the US$30 for my full license. There was an opportunity for feedback when I was purchasing, so I passed on my thanks and praise. The guy emailed me to thank me for my comments and say how much he appreciated the feedback! How cool is that? Can you even begin to Imagine Adobe doing something similar after they deprive you of about a million euro for CS3? Not a chance in hell. This is compatible with Wordpress, which is what I use, and a lot of others by the sounds of it. If you have a blog and a Mac then just do the 30 day trial. I can guarantee you won’t want to let it go at the end and won’t want to live without it. It’s that good. He’s also got one of the aforementioned interesting blogs.

I used to get all my RSS feeds through Safari. Yes, I know, schoolboy error, but I’m pretty old you know? And relatively new to this intimate relationship with the internet. Anyways, I was pointed in the direction of NetNewsWire by my good friend, Nes. I’m sure a lot of what I find indispensable about it could be said of a lot of other feed readers, but this really is a great piece of software. It’s transformed the way I use RSS, and is a constant source of torture trying to keep up with everything that’s coming in! It just works, and works well. The join with MarsEdit is seamless for reposting blog entries (not that I do that very often, but nice to be able to) and it has the look and feel of an application that’s written for a Mac by a Mac user and all the loveliness that comes with that. And hey, it free. What have you got to loose? Never again will you have to deal with that clunky web interface on your aggregator service.

Right, Part II tomorrow, unless I get too comfy in the pub after work. It is Friday after all.

Great lecture from the ever brilliant TED were Robert Lang talks about the historical development and practical use of the art of paper folding.

For further reading here’s his website where he even offers the code to design your own pieces.
BTW, if I were a better man, this is the lecture I should really have posted. Fascinating stuff from Kevin Kelly on what the next 5,000 days of the web might hold in store.

Unbelievable back catalogue of live music, studio sessions and interviews from pretty much any decent musical act you can think of. This is almost BBC-esque in terms of volume of content, covering as it does all affiliated stations right across the US. If you couldn’t bring yourself to pay the extortionate €131 to see Mad Ol’ Tom in the Phoenix Park recently, then one of the featured live concerts is the full 2 hours and 21 mins from Glitter & Doom recorded in Atlanta.
And that really is the tip of the iceberg.

I may have convinced myself that this is true over the course of the few years that have passed since I was last in Balbriggan, but I’m pretty sure there was a video shop (or was it a music shop?) called ‘Planet of the Tapes’. And I think i heard tell of a cheese monger in London called ‘Cheeses of Nazarath’. Ahhh, the glorious art of a good pun. Here’s a rather excellent list of 50 best pun stores.

I’ve been looking forward to this moment for quite some time. In fact, ever since watching the extra features on 300 and a conversation that went something like this;

Frank Miller: “So how do you do something like The Watchmen as a movie?”

Zack Snyder “I don’t know. Very carefully.”

Truth be told, I’ve been looking forward to this moment ever since I first read the greatest graphic novel ever written.

[Via IrishURL's]

Update: Glorious HD version now available on the Apple Website. Totally worth the wait if you have the bandwidth and/or the patience.

Bembo’s Zoo

Clever, beautiful children’s book by Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich: animals from A-Z, illustrated using only letterforms and punctuation from Bembo. Buy it at Amazon.

(Via Daring Fireball.)

Yet another brilliant idea that I haven’t had and someone else has. Muxtape brings you back to the days when you would slave for hours with an audio cassette and your record collection to make a mixtape for someone you were doubtless trying to impress. This site was only launched in March of this year and is bound to become something really fantastic. I’m working on mine! Here’s the philosophy;

“Muxtape is a living music platform in its early stages. Our goal is to redefine the mixtape on the internet as a model for music discovery and social interaction, and to do so in the most elegant way technology allows. We believe that music is better when it’s presented to you by a person with care.”

Update: Muxtape have very kindly introduced last.fm scrobbling. How considerate of them.