Archive for the ‘Journal’ Category

How I listen to podcasts.

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

 

  1. Find the RSS feed http://www.democracynow.org/democracynow.rss
  2. Subscribe in Google Reader. http://www.google.com/reader/view/#overview-page
  3. Have a filter in Google Reader to get all the podcasts subscriptions into a Podcast folder, easy to review!
  4. Slide *episodes* over into the Firefox download box if I think I’ll like them, or will have time to listen.
  5. From the Download Folder slide all those mp3s into iTunes as music. Give them the Podcast Genre. That means they go into a smart playlist, and onto the iPhone.
  6. Walk! Listen. Rate. Once they are rated they leave the Podcast playlist. Soft reboot to clear the list.

I call that my Tuned In Podcast System TIPS. Cumbersome? Tell me a better way.

I get exactly what I want. They stay in the Playlist till I’m done & then they go.

I can’t get that control with the built in Podcast folder, or the iTunes subscription system.

I made a post about this system before, has some more details.

How to get some sanity

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

I listen to Democracy Now more than any other news or current affair program. I find it gives me a better picture of the world than I can get from any NZ source. Left, not liberal, not sectarian. Amy Goodman – a hero!

I wish more people would listen to it. I found myself chatting casually about the plight of Haiti over the years because US interference and people though I was espousing conspiracy theory. Ordinary left thinking New Zealanders!

I’ll post up how I listen to Podcasts. The great thing is I walk & listen, good for my body. Good for the dog. Multitasking.

Speed Reading

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

Looks like one that will work!

http://semanticrestructuring.com/lookma.pdf

Power concedes nothing without a demand.

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Josh sent me this quote, it came up in our conversation.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must pay for all they get. If we ever get free from all the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and, if needs be, by our lives, and the lives of others.

Here is the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass

Four Movies I’ve seen Recently

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

I liked them all, **** , none get five stars though. All forgettable, or is that my age?

Nothing but the Truth, Shutter Island, 500 Days of Summer, The Edge of Darkness

Images and very biref comments and links to IMDB follow.

Click to continue reading “Four Movies I’ve seen Recently”

Walking home from the movies in Wellington

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Someone hates Nature

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

This is on the South Coast Walk in the Royal National Park
From My Facebook (if it works!):
This is on the South Coast Walk in the Royal National Park, just South of Sydney. There must have been more than 5k of this grid. Why!! Ugly, unpleasant to walk on, expensive, and if it is there to prevent erosion, the rest of the 25K would have had heaps less with a bit of decent track marking and better drainage.

Librivox: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

Brothers Karamazov is now in an audiobook! This mammoth task has been completed, thanks many readers and Rainer.

I read this book in 1967, at the Cragieburn ski-field where I was a custodian. I was upstairs in the sleeping loft of the ski hut, and often there would be a loud party downstairs. I’d read it by candle light or with a torch. I made notes! I may still have them. It was part of a few years of delightful self education, prior to going to the University of Canterbury, which by comparison was like a padded cell of the mind, though I have no regrets. I am looking forward to hearing the book read to me.

wouterje
Click for larger image.

I have converted the mp3 for the first book into iPod Audiobook format (keeps track of where you are up to). Book 1 m4b Audiobook format

Links follow to the download page, Librivox, notes on a stage production where I found the image, and Wikipedia – where there is an excellent summary of the characters & their various names!

Click to continue reading “Librivox: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky”

Jan Kruis Illustrates Woutertje Pieterse

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

I just ordered the book after a horrendous experience trying to log in to various dutch sites. They don’t recognise a NZ postcode, though they ask for a country, and then finally after fudging one, they tell me the don’t deliver overseas. But, I found one where they would take my money: http://www.occidentbooks.com, I hope they deliver as well!

wouterje
Click for larger image.

Item from an art show follows, the first two paragraphs translate the dutch ones in the earlier post.

Click to continue reading “Jan Kruis Illustrates Woutertje Pieterse”

Woutertje Pieterse

Friday, February 5th, 2010

My dutch name is Wouter.  I anglicised it myself in 1952, when I was about 8. I have been reflecting on how easily I made that transition to becoming a little Australian kid. On the one hand it was a good thing, I fitted in reasonably well. On the other I faked not being Dutch, I learned to cut off a whole other Dutch/Australian life. I built a wall dividing two cultures.

I was named after Woutertje Pieterse in a book by Multatuli. Researching that!  Here is an image of the character I was named after!


Van Gogh Museum – Jan Kruis tekent Woutertje Pieterse:

Het Van Gogh Museum toont de originele schilderijen en tekeningen die striptekenaar Jan Kruis vervaardigde voor de geïllustreerde versie van Multatuli’s Woutertje Pieterse. Aanleiding voor deze tentoonstelling is de presentatie van dit boek, uitgegeven door De Bezige Bij.

Woutertje Pieterse gaat over de onbevangen, maar onbegrepen Woutertje die opgroeit in een kleinburgerlijk 19de-eeuws milieu in Amsterdam. Als hij leest over de roverhoofdman Glorioso en van zijn leraar, Meester Pennewip, de opdracht krijgt een gedicht te maken, wordt hij geïnspireerd tot het Rooverslied. De inhoud daarvan schokt zijn familie en kennissen hevig. Met vele andere levendige gebeurtenissen en treffende personages geeft Multatuli zo een mild-satirische beeld van het bekrompen 19de-eeuwse burgerdom. Tegelijkertijd schetst hij een boeiend psychologisch portret van een kind, iets dat in zijn tijd uniek was.