mandamonius in the house of the flying internets

Truckies strike this morning against increasing road user...

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:55:38 +1200

Truckies strike this morning against increasing road user charges. They’re lining the streets, horns blaring, and not ready to back down! HELL YEAH!

Damn, I love me some protest.

Kira Cochrane on the apparent backlash against feminism

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:08:29 +1200

Kira Cochrane on the apparent backlash against feminism: excellent article from the guardian. don’t let it happen!

don't you dare:

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:31:00 +1200

don't you dare:: you know what? i’m pissed off.

i buy locally made, i recycle, donate to charity and take public transport. i work hard and pay taxes and rates and every other damn bill that comes my way. i vote and i try to be a responsible member of my community… [read the rest of “don’t you dare” at livejournal]

introducing zoe

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:08:00 +1200

introducing zoe:

The crazy weather of late has really been freaking Ziggy out. This is not to mention how lonely she seems sometimes for a very friendly cat who likes to make friends with other cats when she is at the cattery and sometimes brings other cats round to our place.

A few people had suggested getting another cat to keep her company (and for double the awesome/cuteness factor) and on Saturday we finally decided it was time… [read the rest of “introducing zoe” at diy.dontcom.com]

magazines

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:57:33 +1200

i love nice magazines with their layouts and their ideas. i guess it is also their alluring “don’t you want to read about things you never knew you cared about?” and “we know this is a really generic headline but you will thumb through to page 142 to see if it really is that good!” the allure of magazines for me is a lot to do with the temporal nautre of their information and apart from a very few select ones (jpg, wired) they get recycled a few months after purchase.

what i don’t love is the pile of magazines which stack up at my house making me feel guilty - both for the resources plundered to produce them, the money i could have spent better elsewhere and the fact that i just don’t like the clutter of out of date paper. if you have seen my desk at work you will know that i fully advocate the paperless way of life, except in terms of mail art, correspondence and handmade items.

before anyone says “but manda, don’t you love the library?” i will answer: yes, yes i do. the library is a wonderful amazing place which i like to spend a lot of time in where possible. however, libraries are not that great with transient items not built to last the distance - not to mention, the more recent magazines seem to regularly be out, or my choices not well-stocked by the library system. dammit.

i am thinking of trying to cajole some like-minded person into some kind of magazine subscription club thing with us - or wait! perhaps something like this actually exists already? must check… in the meantime, if you might be into some kind of magazine subscription sharing (likely topics: nerd stuff, design, interiors, pretty things, etc) let me know. if you just want to dump a whole lot of magazines on me - lose my email address buster!

lifeasart:Why did I write? Because I found life...

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:16:00 +1200

lifeasart:

Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory.
-Tennessee Williams, 1955

(Ref: need for epiphany.)

Steven Poole: Fugitive pieces

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:53:16 +1200

Steven Poole: Fugitive pieces:

distorte:

“I think that at least potentially (and demonstrably for many authors), the prospect of the writing appearing in book form makes a writer try her very best, because of this confluence of timescale, technology and social context. The very permanence of the physical book format has for centuries pushed writers to raise their game. The prospect today of blogging elbowing out other forms of writing is comparable to the prospect of an 18th century known to us only through its pamphlets, and none of the great long-form satires and novels. That would still keep a few houndstooth-jacketed academics in business, but would anyone else really care?”
An interesting read comparing the perceived and actual value and quality of internet writing vs. books.
A lot of it is context I think. If the first great novel of the 21st century were published online serially right now, it would simply never be recognised as such. The critical mass of people capable of making such a distinction would not read it. Not yet anyway.
(If this is the bit where you get all huffy about elitism, etc, please just take a look at the Sunday Time bestsellers list and recognise that there are “elite” standards of literature and we really, really need them. God I hate the Internet sometimes, why won’t you just shut up.)
Anyway, all I’m saying is nobody who matters must be reading great writing on the internet or else i would be getting some telephones calls, right?

the first annual nzff club

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:17:00 +1200

(and may be extended to other film festivals, who knows?)

the aim of the group is to actually see more than 1 film festival movie and not have to cast around madly for someone to see it with. i doubt i can actually get to all the below so register interest or suggest other films by emailing me (if you don’t know my email address, you definitely can’t be in the club).

these are the movies i have picked out so far. i got a bit bored reading through the programme as it went on so may have missed some - suggestions welcome. this is only a first cut. i am definitely open to other films and pretty much made some harsh choices due to the growing list which i am likely to be happy to revise.

sessions are also changeable though i do really like the lido as a venue and hate going near skycity - not to mention parking in town sucks and can be really stupid.

Apron Strings, Thursday July 10 @ 7:15pm, Civic
A Complete History of My Sexual Failures, Sunday July 13 @ 6.30pm, Skycity
Jar City, Monday July 14 @ 8:45pm, Civic
Ben X, Tuesday July 15 @ 8.30pm, Civic
Lorna’s Silence, Thursday July 18 @ 8.30pm, Civic
Caramel, Saturday July 19 @ 6.15pm, Lido
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S Thompson, Sunday July 20 @ 11.15am, Skycity (is it wrong to be near a casino at this time on a Sunday?)
Be Kind Rewind, Sunday July 20 @ 6.15pm, Lido
A Song of Good, Monday July 21 @ 9.15pm, Skycity
The Wave, Thursday July 24 @ 8.30pm, Civic

the final list as based on consensus and personal wants will be available as a shared google calendar or something. stay tuned (also i can’t believe in this DAY AND AGE that you can’t export your schedule as SOMETHING from this website. there has been enough ranting about this website today though from others as well as myself so let’s leave it at: one of the worst festival websites i’ve ever seen).

so…hit me back.

wanted: an epiphany

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:42:42 +1200

i am so bored of this website.

i’m bored of considering lifestreams and blogs and linklogs and the bits and pieces and posting an occasional photo and not having things all in one place but needing to continue the community aspects of those sites which do it better than i could reproduce.

what to do? what should this become?

i have always believed that if there is content you want and it’s not out there you should create it. i consider this the first tenet of self-publishing.

however, the second tenet of self-publishing is have pride in what you have created, and i don’t at the moment. i need some way to pull this all together, invigorate it, make it fucken awesome and something that i push in everyone’s faces because it’s a must read or a must do or a must LINK.

then i’d probably start to care about page views and referrers and all that kind of shit again (though i do love to look at the RANDOM ways people find this stuff).

i’m just taking up digital space here because that’s what i’m used to, and have done as almost a matter of habit for over 10 years now.

I NEED AN EPIPHANY.

diy worry

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:12:00 +1200

diy worry: So today we have a man coming to fix the hole in our driveway. For some reason this hole was covered with a wooden board when it was first created and no one can think why. My suspicion is that it was the previous owners and their lax atttitude. Every time someone drives over the board it makes a banging noise and it’s really starting to grate on my nerves - not to mention that the board itself is breaking down.

However, I have this fear that someone is going to draw something obscene in the cement while we are at work or drive through it despite the fact I warned the neighbours that this work was coming up.

"Scenius is like genius, only embedded in a scene rather than in genes."

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:38:34 +1200

“Scenius is like genius, only embedded in a scene rather than in genes.”

- Kevin Kelly — The Technium post “Scenius, or Communal Genius”

[corner store] kareenazerefos.com

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:46:15 +1200

[corner store] kareenazerefos.com: beautiful prints and cards

Fictional stars get a makeover

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:57:58 +1200

Fictional stars get a makeover: I think this is just sad. I loved Scooby Doo and Strawberry Shortcake just how they were!

Spotted, A by D:Just Add New Zealanders. Look it’s manda!

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:03:48 +1200

Spotted, A by D:

Just Add New Zealanders. Look it’s manda!

A homage to "velvet touch" lettering from Design Observer

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:15:16 +1200

A homage to "velvet touch" lettering from Design Observer: & so help me if i don’t love this lettering with my whole heart! if anyone has any lying around that they would like to donate to a good cause please let me know!

How the Web Was Won: an oral history from Vanity Fair

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:14:43 +1200

How the Web Was Won: an oral history from Vanity Fair

Photos from Dan’s 30th on Darren’s Flickr - the...

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:33:20 +1200

Photos from Dan’s 30th on Darren’s Flickr - the theme was rockstars. I was Joan Jett, Darren was Jimi Hendrix. The White Stripes, Britney Spears, Robert Smith, Sid Vicious and Frank Zappa also attended (amongst others).

Haiku–Tue: All Haiku, All Tuesday

Tue, 27 May 2008 12:46:00 +1200

Haiku–Tue: All Haiku, All Tuesday:

Sneak’s latest idea has caught very well amongst my Twitter friends - writing tweets in haiku for an entire day every week will stretch our brains well, I expect!

You can also follow haikutue on Twitter to be kept up to date.

1 year anniversary

Mon, 26 May 2008 08:57:00 +1200

1 year anniversary: Yesterday was our 1 year anniversary of owning our house!

"My hope is that this new degree of public intimacy can widen the bounds of how we think of each..."

Fri, 23 May 2008 13:54:00 +1200

““My hope is that this new degree of public intimacy can widen the bounds of how we think of each other. Maybe if we saw each other as more fully realized human beings, business would be more human.””

- Derek Powazek - Not Just One Thing