http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/ What's on the minds of young leaders from around the globe? en-us http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/27572
What did *I* do at TIG? Mostly I was an ideas guy. I tried to come up with new features, and to keep the organization focussed on what it was, exactly, that we wanted to be doing. I pushed for us to have an apos;elevator pitchapos;, which is just a short way of telling someone what the organization did, in a very easy to understand way. I communicated with many members (Alex Stanley, Alexis, Taikod, and many more). I learned how to have fun again.

I made The Workshop Kit, which I understand more than 5000 of you have downloaded! w00t!

I helped hire Maria Lanza and Vanessa Currie who were/are both awesome! I believe Maria is now teaching sign language, and Vanessa is on the coast of India doing tsunami relief work.

I also got us funding to visit the TIG Slovakia office, in Kremnica, Slovakia, which was operated by Maya Lackova and Petra Machacova.

It was my first time overseas, and the trip of a lifetime. Thanks to Georg Branislav, we spoke at a conference called "Global Networks" in Bratislava, promoting TIG and "Hope Networks", which is essentially what TIG has always been.

I actually blogged all about the trip on this very blog, which at the time was called an "Update", because blogging hadnapos;t been invented yet. Incidentally, TIG Updates was half my idea and half Mikeapos;s idea. I proposed a tool that would allow users to post their thoughts and pictures, so that we (the 5 or 6 official TIG employees) could better keep up with what our members were doing. Mike had the awesome idea of making those posts public instead of having them only available to TIG Staff. Peanut butter + Jelly = Awesome :)

Anyway, Iapos;m ranting...

At TIG we always tried to think of ways to connect with one another, across the world, and without spending much money -- because we didnapos;t have any. Part of our mantra in those early days was "You donapos;t need money to create something worthwhile".

Unfortunately for me, I did need money to pay my rent, and to start paying off my student loans. Consequently, I had to leave my job at TIG after just a year and a half. Iapos;m glad that I was there for that time, though. It was one of the best times of my life. I met so many great people! TIG is a magnet for great people, like you!

Luckily for me, I didnapos;t give up my dream of changing the world, or helping make it better, when I left TIG -- and believe you me, TIG has been with me every step of the way.

After my fulltime work at TIG, I became an instructor of web development at Humber College, where I got to influence over a thousand young people. I told them all about TIG. I know that some of them joined, and a few of my students even got super involved in TIG! I was super happy about that, and still am.

After Humber I worked for myself for a bit, doing freelance web development... It wasnapos;t very fulfilling though, so when I got the chance to do a 6 month contract with Human Rights Internet through NetCorps, I jumped at the chance!

They sent me to Croatia!

Guess what I did as soon as I got to Croatia? I logged on to TIG and found Croatiaapos;s Most Active TIG Member, at the time. Her name was Irena Curin, and the pic attached to this post is of us at the Bosko Petrovic Jazz (Djez) Club near the main square (trg) in Zagreb, the capitol of Croatia. We got to be great friends while I was there, and spent many an evening drinking coffee and talking about the position of youth in the world.

My time in Croatia was THE best time Iapos;ve ever had.

Iapos;m so thankful for all the people there who made my stay enjoyable (Irena Curin, Dinko Cindric, Emina, Cvijeta, Danijela Babic, Tanja Rukavina, Darko Ljubic, Sandra Oskorus, Marko Strpic, Igor, Vesna, Branimir Sloser, Sonnet, The Rachels, Cassie, everyone at Mama Club, and many more).

When I got back from Croatia, the first thing I did was visit the new TIG office, just to say hello. Happily, I arrived just as Mike and Jen were announcing their engagement. What great timing! I was so happy to have been there for that.

Then I got a job doing web development downtown. Lucky me. Then I went to 4 of my best friends weddings. Then I broke my ankle and both bones in my lower right leg. Then I joined a choir, started taking boxing lessons, and learning guitar. Then my grandfather died.

Somewhere in those past 4 years I also dated a few lovely girls/women, and they know who they are.

That pretty much brings us up to date.
Iapos;m still in physio therapy for my leg, which is coming along nicely. I enjoy being able to walk again, even though I now have a bit of a limp. Walking is awesome. I love walking (now I do -- before it was just kind of ok).

Iapos;m sure the future holds a lot of cool stuff for all of us, so into the future we go!

Long Live TIG!]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2005 23:50:00 EDT http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/27572 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/4160
Historically, an Arhat was an enlightened disciple of the Buddha. In fact, the name literally translates to "holy person" or "saint". While Master Sunim gave lengthy reasons for giving other people their names, with deep existential meaning and all that, he gave me me this name because apparently, to him, I simply look like an Arhat :)Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, I suppose ;) I kind of like it too, cause I tend not to read into things anyway, so in a way, calling it as he sees it is perhaps the most zen name I could have received :)

Anywhooo... attached is an image of an Arhat that I found online...

fun day!

]]> Mon, 20 May 2002 00:57:00 EDT http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/4160 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/3317 my latest article on Shift.com was slashdotted! Oh boy! Now, I feel cool :)

Check out the debate on slashdot here

Other good things from today:
I received confirmation of more teaching hours next term! Yay!
Also, I danced for a little while at the bus stop. Got all mixed up in the "Bust a Move" that was playin' on my mp3 player :) hehe....

l8r,
d]]> Wed, 27 Mar 2002 17:09:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/3317 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/3284

---

Poetry gardening is the cultivation of the self which results in the perennial blossoms of wisdom, happiness, and insight.

---

I was at DigiFest for a bit the other night, for a debate "Can Technology Save Us?". Well, the debate started rolling and 1 guy said we should actually be asking "can WE save technology, cause it's getting out of hand... It drags us along and not the other way around"... Another person said "we can't do anything good for the world until we prevent people from being greedy, but people like being greedy so that won't happen"... And anotehr lady said "technology can't save us, only people can... Social movements for change... But they won't happen because people are greedy and lazy"....

Sooooooo, when I got up to the mic I said:
"I believe we can save technology, and we can be greedy and socially conscious at the SAME time. The reason things are so bad is because things are poorly designed, and people aren't picky about what they buy. We CAN save technology by being greedy and buying things... We just have to purchase with our minds and buy the best designed things. If we all did that, the things that didn't work well and the technology that pollutes or isn't cost-effective would get phased out quickly. No profits for the company means the technology goes away -- it's evolutionary capitalism. Plus, if people purchased mindfully like that, that basically IS a social movement... A movement not to sit back and take the crap that is dished out to us"... Or something like that.... :)

---

Smiles are good for bringing the inner to the outer, because usually if someone sees you smiling, they also start to smile. A person at the temple asked the Zen master, Sunim, Why is there a buddha statue? I like buddhism because we're not worshipping idols, so why is there a statue of Buddha? I thought he was just a man. Sunim replied "yes, he was just a man, but he was a great man and a great example -- he is not there for us to worship, but human beings have this tendency to look outside themselves for answers instead of inside themselves, so we have the statue there, outside, to remind them that we are all good, and that they should sit quietly like Buddha and find the answers within -- so it is not about worshipping the statue, but being mindful of what the statue represents"]]> Mon, 25 Mar 2002 15:50:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/3284 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/3267
1. Yesterday I bought a keychain that is a hard drive and can hold 32 floppy disks worth of information :)
2. I bought a "CD" called Shakuhachi -- sounds of the ancient japanese flute
3. I got my level 1 certification as a Reiki natural healer
4. I got a phone call from a collection agency saying they need $3000 by early April to pay off a student loan
5. I got a web design contract for $3000 that's to be done by April first, so that I can pay off my loan. Problem is I only have ten days to do it, and it's a 100 hour contract. Wheeee.
6. I'm teaching 66 Chinese exchange students how to use microsoft access, and when they all handed in their final assignments, I realized that not a damn one of them understood the assignment, and none of them asked me questions. Sooo, now I have to fail them all, or think up something ingenius to fix it.
7. Mark bought a Playstation2, so now I have one to play with :)
8. I also bought an ugly refurbished telephone that doesn't require batteries. I went for the ugliest one, because when you're already buying a refurbished phone, face it... It's gonna be kinda ugly... So I just went with Reeeally ugly. My old one has been dying in the middle of conversations.
9. I spent last night at a cool party sponsored by Shift magazine which was part of DigiFest in toronto... it was at an old warehouse and had a multimedia show by some of the experts in the field. It was great!
10. I have started dating a girl I went to university with. She is AWESOME. She's super-spiritual and actually shows some interest in how my tech stuff works (which is rare great)... Only problem is that she lives in London. This is why I need a car... ]]> Sun, 24 Mar 2002 10:29:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/3267 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/3265
1. Yesterday I bought a keychain that is a hard drive and can hold 32 floppy disks worth of information :)
2. I bought a "CD" called Shakuhachi -- sounds of the ancient japanese flute
3. I got my level 1 certification as a Reiki natural healer
4. I got a phone call from a collection agency saying they need $3000 by early April to pay off a student loan
5. I got a web design contract for $3000 that's to be done by April first, so that I can pay off my loan. Problem is I only have ten days to do it, and it's a 100 hour contract. Wheeee.
6. I'm teaching 66 Chinese exchange students how to use microsoft access, and when they all handed in their final assignments, I realized that not a damn one of them understood the assignment, and none of them asked me questions. Sooo, now I have to fail them all, or think up something ingenius to fix it.
7. Mark bought a Playstation2, so now I have one to play with :)
8. I also bought an ugly refurbished telephone that doesn't require batteries. I went for the ugliest one, because when you're already buying a refurbished phone, face it... It's gonna be kinda ugly... So I just went with Reeeally ugly. My old one has been dying in the middle of conversations.
9. I spent last night at a cool party sponsored by Shift magazine which was part of DigiFest in toronto... it was at an old warehouse and had a multimedia show by some of the experts in the field. It was great!
10. I have started dating a girl I went to university with. She's super-spiritual and not techie at all... Only problem is that she lives in London. This is why I need a car... ]]> Sun, 24 Mar 2002 10:25:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/3265 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/2538 Still need:
revised text from Jen.
1 pager on volunteers - Vanessa
1 pager on workshops -- Maria

Reviewed several documents for Vanessa.

Made great contact re: Media students for co-ops. Ask Amanda about this. Basically, we might be able to get some FREEEE Director peeps to create a CDROM for us for their course. OR to do various graphic design stuff (though they're not very webby)

Met with Vanessa Jen separately to review manual so far.
Was deined a small business bank account due to bad credit :(

Backed-up all my Outlook documents stuff to home computer, so that I can pass the laptop on to a fellow Tigger soon... hopefully just after I get a pocket pc (around feb 22? I could give it back sooner though)

Plan to see Dalai Lama talk in late April (on Vanessa's birthday), and to 'take the precepts' to become a full-fledged Buddhist get a Buddhist name in July.]]> Tue, 29 Jan 2002 11:43:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/2538 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/2532 Check out the original SuperGreg site here: SuperGreg

SuperGreg.com was shut down, so this is a mirror of the original. Be sure to view the video "Da Number One" near the bottom of the page, or you just won't understand the phenomenon.

The other day, my housemate was at work and someone upstairs yelled "SuperGreg", and someone downstairs replied "Numba One!"

Mark was like "WTF??" and they were like "You don't know about SuperGreg? Oh my...." It's like "All Your Base" all over again. Wheeeeeeeeee

but also... iSkip

]]> Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:12:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/2532 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/2528 By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the paths of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech.
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with the duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
that the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: In gladness and safety,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be,
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be born,
May all beings be at ease.

Let none decieve another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings;
Radiating kindness over the entire world
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The purehearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.]]> Mon, 28 Jan 2002 11:28:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/2528 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/2514 Sun, 27 Jan 2002 03:29:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/2514 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/2389 January 17, 2002

PIRATES USE NEW TOOLS TO TURN THE NET INTO AN ILLICIT VIDEO CLUB

DEREK MARTIN's selection of cable channels does not include MTV, but that has posed no obstacle to his enjoying the network's comedy show "Jackass." After a friend recommended it recently, Mr. Martin, 24, of Toronto, used a free software program called Morpheus to download an episode from another Morpheus user who had made it available to be copied over the Internet. It was so funny, Mr. Martin said, that he proceeded to copy all 24 episodes from the last three years, downloading nonstop with his cable modem while he was sleeping or at work.

"It only took me three or four days and no money, so that was pretty sweet," said Mr. Martin, who connects his computer to his television to watch his bounty on the bigger screen. "The other bonus about getting it off the Net is people have been nice enough to remove all the commercials."

The high-tech vanguard of entertainment consumers who initiated a global music-swapping spree with the help of Napster a little over two years ago is branching out into television shows and movies. Napster's service was limited to music, and it was shut down last year after a federal judge found it liable for contributing to copyright infringement. But Morpheus enables users to trade files of any kind, and an increasing number of them are filled with copyrighted video entertainment.

Simply by typing, say, "Star Trek" or "Shrek" into a search box, Morpheus users gain instant access to the media files that hundreds of thousands of other users have acquired - legally or not - and chosen to share. So a growing group of people like Mr. Martin are treating the Internet as a vast personal video library, albeit one with no dues or return policy.

The Internet's video catalog is already impressive, and it is expanding rapidly. The selection at any time depends on who happens to be connected to the Internet and running the software, for example, Morpheus, BearShare or LimeWire, that connects them to one another. More than a million users are usually online with Morpheus, and on a typical evening the download options include nearly every "Simpsons" episode ever broadcast; film classics like "Breakfast at Tiffany's"; episodes of "The Sopranos"; "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," now in theaters; and a wide selection of pornography.

"You see people trading movies today the way they were doing MP3's three or four years ago," said Kelly Truelove, a consultant in Redwood City, Calif., who has studied Internet file-trading and has found that the average size of files is increasing, an indication that more of them are video. "Movies and TV are following the same curve that music followed."

The exchange of movies and television shows over the Internet is not new, but until recently it had been largely limited to a core computer underground primarily interested in boasting. Passwords to download early copies of movies like "The Matrix" and "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" were typically distributed only for limited times in certain chat rooms, and often only to those who had files of their own to trade.

Secretive pirate groups still compete to be the first to "release" a film or television show on the Internet, with the optimal balance of file size and video quality, and any commercials skillfully edited out. But members of the old-school underground are aware of a wave of newcomers they disparagingly call "casual pirates" who are much more interested in free movies than the art of illicit copying and distribution.

The growing appetite of mainstream consumers for getting and sharing video files over the Internet is driven partly by the plummeting price of storage space: three years ago most PC's came with two-gigabyte hard drives barely big enough to hold one movie in addition to the programs and data files a typical user might need. Now 40- gigabyte hard drives that can store about 50 movies are standard in computers that can cost less than $1,000.

Many PC's now also come with CD burners, which can be used to archive video files. While movie files have traditionally been too large to fit on a CD, many of those making the rounds on the Internet have been compressed with new tools that shrink them to fit a CD's 650-megabyte capacity without a significant loss in quality.

For some users, such storage options change the calculation for whether it is worth the bother to download movies that can be rented at the video store and keep them available for others to copy in turn.

Several relatively new sources of unlicensed material are contributing to the rapid expansion of the Internet's illicit video-on-demand service. Inexpensive television tuner cards that can be installed on PC's enable users to record anything shown on television directly onto a hard drive and are now being used in conjunction with new software programs that provide computers with VCR-like features, making it easier to schedule and edit captures.

Digital video cameras equipped with Firewire, a technology that allows material to be transferred directly from the camera to a computer at high speeds, have made it easier to share the results of smuggling a camera into a theater. And computer programs that decrypt DVD's so that a movie ca! n be copied from the disk onto a PC are available on the Internet, though they are illegal in the United States.

The film and television industry, well aware of how the Internet has undermined the record labels' control over the distribution of copyrighted music, is on the case. The major movie studios have filed a lawsuit accusing Nashville-based Streamcast Networks, the distributor of Morpheus, of contributing to copyright infringement. The studios and the major television networks have made the same charge against SonicBlue, the maker of Replay, a digital video recorder whose latest model lets users remove commercials and send copies of recordings over the Internet.

SonicBlue argues that copyright law gives consumers a "fair use" right to engage in a certain amount of sharing. Streamcast contends that its product is simply a piece of technology that can be used for legitimate or nefarious purposes, just as an e-m! ail program or a Web browser is. The software enables people to trade video files like home movies or films that are in the public domain, for instance.

Napster has so far failed to prevail with either of those claims. But the new cases have new wrinkles: SonicBlue limits the number of people to whom a Replay user can copy files to 15. And unlike Napster, Streamcast says, it does not maintain an index of which users have which files.

"Morpheus is about empowering people with a way of directly communicating with each other," said Steve Griffin, chief executive of Streamcast, which licenses the technology behind Morpheus. "I guess the M.P.A.A. thought it would become a mainstream application or they wouldn't have sued a little company in Tennessee."

Whatever happens in court, however, the expanding use of the Internet to obtain copyrighted video material as well as music has sharpened fears among entertainment industry executives that they are facing a daunting cultural battle.

"There's a huge difference in what people think copyright is and what the corporations think copyright is," said David Rocci, the founder of Isonews, a Web site that tracks the availability of movies and television shows on the Internet. "I'm not so sure it's morally wrong for someone to go to `Lord of the Rings' in the theater two or three times and then download it because they like it."

But for Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, there is no doubt.

"We're fighting our own terrorist war," said Mr. Valenti, whose lawyers sent 54,000 letters to Internet service providers last year requesting the removal of copyrighted material from customers' Web sites. The association also regularly refers cases to law enforcement officials and assisted the Customs Service in an antipiracy campaign that included raids on college campuses last month. "The great moat that protects us, and it is only temporary, is lack of broadband access," Mr. Valenti said.

It is a moat that is rapidly evaporating. Because video files are so much bigger than audio files, the movie studios have long considered themselves less vulnerable to Internet piracy than the record labels. But with a cable modem or the fast connections many colleges now supply in student dormitories, a half-hour animated show like "Family Guy" can be retrieved in a few minutes, and programs like Morpheus make it easy to find what you want.

As a result, some entertainment consumers find it preferable to stockpile many hours of video that they can watch later, even if it means a slightly fuzzier picture.

"I use the Internet kind of like my personal VCR," said Rod Putnam, 42, an operations manager at a telecommunications company in Nashville, who downloads back episodes of "The Simpsons" and occasionally previews all or part of movies that he is considering going to see in the theater. "This is much more convenient for me."

Downloading high-quality video, even over a cable modem, is still exceedingly time-consuming. It can also end in frustration when a file called "Planet of the Apes," for instance, turns out to be an unidentifiable gangster movie, or the audio is out of sync, or it simply will not play.

But none of that deters Ogre, a 28-year-old who goes by that screen name and declined to give his real one for fear of legal retribution. A recent inventory of the computers that he shares with two housemates in Ann Arbor, Mich., revealed 23 episodes of "That 70's Show," 11 episodes of "Jackass," 15 "Saturday Night Live" clips, 18 installments of "South Park," all 11 of the "Enterprise" episodes broadcast so far, 20 or so episodes of the animated "Star Trek" series and one or two from the original show. Although they have networked several computers to achieve a whopping 300 gigabytes of combined storage space, one of the housemates recently transferred a cache of downloaded war movies onto CD's make more room on the communal hard drive.

The increasing video traffic over the Internet may indicate a consumer appetite for the fee-based video-on-demand services long promised by the entertainment industry. But it is not clear whether people will pay for what they are becoming accustomed to getting free. In a report on file trading last spring, Viant, a consulting group, estimated that about a half-million movie files were being traded daily over the Internet.

The surge in video traffic in recent months has been significant enough to overload the local networks at colleges like the University of Delaware, where network administrators responded by limiting the volume of files that students could download to one gigabyte per day - still a bit more than the size of an average movie.

"A lot of the Napster activity for us went unnoticed unless it was horrendous," said Susan Foster, vice president for information technologies at the university, who said she had warned about 500 students since September that they had exceeded the download limit. "The video was bringing our network to its knees."

The practice is beginning to spread beyond college students and computer geeks, just as MP3 music trading did two years ago. A Morpheus user who declined to give his real name and identified himself in an online forum as a 49-year-old car dealer in Houston said he downloaded movies ! about twice a week.

"A lot of movies are overhyped and they're not worth the trip to the theater," he wrote under the screen name 169mmm. "As for `Lord of the Rings,' I didn't get it until after we saw it at the theater. Once I had to get more Jujubes and Gummi Worms. So I watched the 30 minutes I missed on the ole PC along with the rest of it."

by Amy Harmon,
New York Times Technology Writer
---------------------------------
PHOTO by Taras Kovaliv for The New York Times
VIEW ON DEMAND Derek Martin of Toronto downloaded episodes of MTV's "Jackass" from the Web and put them on CD's like these. ]]> Wed, 16 Jan 2002 21:20:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/2389 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1628 Sat, 17 Nov 2001 17:32:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1628 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1568 -----------------------------
This will make you feel good......
THINK BACK...
I'm taking you back, way back into time......

Close your eyes....And go back....

Before the Internet or the MAC

Before semi-automatics and crack

Before SEGA or Super Nintendo...

Way back.......

I'm talkin' bout hide and go seek at dusk.

Red light, Green light

Playing kickball dodgeball until your porch light came on.

Mother May I?

Red Rover

Hula Hoops

Running through the sprinkler

Happy Meals

Wait......

Watchin' Saturday Morning cartoons Fat Albert, Road Runner, Smurfs, Picture Pages, G-Force He-Man, Wonder Woman Super Man Underoos

Playing Dukes of Hazard

Catchin' lightning bugs in a jar

Christmas morning.......

Your first day of school

Bedtime Prayers and Goodnight Kisses

Climbing trees

Getting an Ice Cream off the Ice Cream Truck

A million mosquito bites and sticky fingers

Jumpin down the steps

Jumpin on the bed.

Pillow fights

Runnin till you were out of breath

Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt

Being tired from playin'....

Your first crush......

Rainy days at school meant playing "Heads up 7Up" in the
classroom.

Remember that?

Kool-aid was the drink of summer

Totting your friends on your handle bars

Wearing your new shoes on the first day of school

Class Field Trips

When nearly everyone's mom was at home when the kids got there.

When a quarter seemed like a fair allowance, and another quarter a miracle.

When any parent could discipline any kid, or fed him or use him to carry groceries, and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.

When your parents took you to McDonalds and you were so cool.

When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home.

Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of drive by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! And some of us are still afraid of em!!!

Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo"

Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do over!"

"Race issue"; meant arguing about who ran the fastest.

Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly"

Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening.

It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.

Being old, referred to anyone over 20.

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was
cooties.

Nobody was prettier than Mom.

Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.

It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the "big people" rides at the amusement park.

Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.

Abilities were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare"

Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.

Water balloons were the ultimate ultimate weapon.

Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors.

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!!!!

Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from their "grown up" life...

I DOUBLE DOG DARE YA!!!!!!!!!!!!

I always knew looking back on the tears would make me laugh, But I never knew looking back on the laughs would make me cry. Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.

Love Is When You Don't Want To Go To Sleep Because Reality Is Better Than A Dream.]]> Wed, 14 Nov 2001 16:10:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1568 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1566 THIS, one of the most interesting things I've read in a while, from a chaos/complexity/holistic thinking systems/religious perspective. Very neat-oh.

I'm right with him up to the part where it gets to be about God's body and stuff... but I would continue to agree if he used different words instead of "God" and "Divine". I think External/eternal energy might be more appropriate.

This seems to be one of the earliest "systems thinking" papers I've read. Pretty cool for 1947-ish era, and today, though the ideas have been built on quite a bit since then.]]> Wed, 14 Nov 2001 14:34:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1566 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1520
1) Most blues begin with "Woke up this mornin'..."

2) "I got a woman" is a bad way to begin the blues 'less you stick something nasty in the next line: "I got a good woman/with the meanest fact in town."

3) After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes -- sort of. "I got a good woman/with the meanest face in town/Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher/and she weigh 500 pounds."

4) The blues are not about choice. "You stuck in a ditch, ain't no way out."

5) Blues cars: Chevys, Cadillacs, broken-down trucks. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs or SUVs. Most blues travel on a Greyhound bus or a southbound trian. Walkin' plays a major part in teh blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.

6) Teenagers can't sing the blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. Adults sing the blues. In the blues, "adulthood" means being old enough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.

7) Blues can take place in New York City, but not in Hawaii, or anywhere in Canada. Hard times in St. Paul or Tuscon is just depression. Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City are still the best places to have the blues. You can't have the blues in any place that don't get rain.

8) A man with male-pattern baldness ain't the blues. A woman with male-pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg 'cuz you skiing is not the blues. Breaking you leg 'cuz an alligator be chompin' on it is.

9) You can't have no blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.

10) Good places for the blues: highway, jailhouse, empty bed, bottom of a whiskey glass. Bad places for the blues: ashrams, gallery openings, ivy league institutions, golf courses.

11) No one will believe it's the blues if you wear a suit, 'less you happen to be an old black man, and you slept in it.

12) Do you have the right to sing the blues? Yes, if: you're older than dirt, you're bling, you shot a man in Memphis, or if you can't be satisfied. No, if: you have all your teeth, you once were blind but now you see, the man in Memphis lived, you have a retirement plan or trust fund.

13) Blues is not a matter of colour. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues. Gary Coleman can. Ugly white people also got a leg up on the blues.

14) If you ask for water and Baby give you gasoline, it's the blues. Other blues beverages are: wine, whiskey, bourbon, muddy water, black coffee. The following are NOT blues beverages: mixed drinks, kosher wine, Snapple, sparkling water.

15) If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, its a blues death. Stabbed in teh back by a jealous lover is another blues way to die. So is the electric hcair, substance abuse, and dying lonely in a broken-down cot. You don't have a blues death if you die during a tennis match or a liposuction treatment.

16) Blues names for men: Joe, Willie, Little Willie, Big Willie.

17) Blues names for women: Sadie, Big Mamma, Bessie, Fat River Dumpling.

18) Persons with names like Sierra, Sequoia and Rainbow can't sing the blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

19) Make yer own blues name (starter kit):
a) Name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.)
b) First name (from above) PLUS name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi etc.)
c) Last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)
Examples: Blind Lime Jefferson, Cripple Kiwi Fillmore.

20) I don't care how tragic your lifeis. If you own a computer, you cannot sing the blues. You best destroy it. Fire, a spilled bottle of Mad Dog, or a shotgun will work. Maybe your big woman just done sit on it. I don't care. Now go on.]]> Sat, 10 Nov 2001 19:21:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1520 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1506 Buddhism
Based on and developed from one man's search for meaning and purpose in life. That man was Siddhartha Guatama, an Indian prince, who gave up his life of ease to look for true happiness and meaning. He acquired this by following a 'middle way' rather than extreme asceticism. Having achieved enlightenment, the Buddha, as he became known, established the first Buddhist community (sangha). Buddhism doesn't present itself as a revealed religion, and doesn't believe in a personal deity.
----------
Derek:
It's my understanding that sangha means "spiritual community" which in this case I think is a community of people with similar values.

As for Buddha giving up his life of ease to look for true happiness and meaning and finding it in the 'middle way'... basically what that means is not seeing things in black and white opposites. You don't need to classify things and put them in different "boxes". Just accept them as they are, and roll with the punches. Sure, stubbing your toe hurts, but that doesn't make the rock that you stubbed it on evil... it just means that your toe will hurt for a while. Don't get mad at the rock. Move on... or better yet, move the stone to a safer place where it will be safe and other people won't stub their toes :)

>>Buddhism doesn't believe in a personal deity.

That's a bit of a misnomer too... Buddhism believes that everything has a "buddha-nature", which is a 'middle way' where it is not categorized. It is that thing's/being's true nature, unalterable by perspective or judgement, and it must be accepted and respected for that "Buddha Nature", so in a sense, to the Buddhist, everything and everyone is a deity. In addition, because no judgements are attached to things, no one is "better" or "worse" than anyone else -- everything is perfect because it is as it should be -- its true nature. Buddhists revel in the perfection of everyone and not a privileged few. They see perfection everywhere, not only in Saints. The Dalai Lama isn't revered because he's a Saint or anything, but because he's a cool guy who just happens to *really* "get it". ]]> Fri, 09 Nov 2001 13:15:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1506 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1493 The Disclosure Project". It was amazing. They had a Commander from the US Navy, and a Major from the US Air Force both testify that they have personally seen UFOs not from this planet. They even went so far as to say that they should be called "unacknowledged flying objects" because everyone knows they're there, they just aren't allowed to talk about it or keep any record of them. Who tracks them?

"There exists a shadowy Government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself." - Senator Daniel K. Inouye - Iran Contra Hearings

The Disclosure Project is a nonprofit research project working to fully disclose the facts about UFOs, extraterrestrial intelligence, and classified advanced energy and propulsion systems. The disclosure of the truth will have far-reaching implications for our society -- new technologies to end pollution and global warming, long-term solution to the energy crisis, and the beginning of an era of peaceful relations with other civilizations in space.

What do you think about this whole phenomenon? I have seen things I can't explain any other way. Have you?]]> Thu, 08 Nov 2001 01:11:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1493 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1463 Sun, 04 Nov 2001 22:44:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1463 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1427 Shift.com. It's their feature, main, big thing at the moment. I feel cool :) tee hee! (i included a link to TIG at the end of the article :)]]> Wed, 31 Oct 2001 16:33:00 EST http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1427 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1377
I thought I'd send you this story, because I find it an absurd plan to purchase 3000 new fighter jets when the current war against terrorism won't be won in the skies. It will neither be won by tanks and troops. The terrorists live amongst us, and until an agreement is reached with them (not by beating them) will they stop attacking us.

Please re-consider the spending of $200 billion on these jets. That much spending could end world poverty hunger, and bring fresh water to every town in Africa.

Sincerely,

Derek Martin

read yahoo article on jets here: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011026/pl/arms_fighter_dc_2.html]]> Fri, 26 Oct 2001 12:42:00 EDT http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1377 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1282
Does anyone in Toronto want to make a blues band? I can play harmonica, but I don't know any other musicians yet...

On another note, yesterday I was walking down the street and a homeless guy said hello have a nice day... didn't ask for change or anything and i walked bye... then i though, i have some change, i should give it to him... and so i turned around and walked back towards him and he curled up into a ball with his hands over his head...

Then when i handed him some change, he apologized and said sometimes when he says hello people kick him in the head... He was happy that i didn't kick him in the head, and said thanks a lot...

what kind of messed up city makes people think they're about to be kicked in the head! Jeez.]]> Fri, 19 Oct 2001 10:08:00 EDT http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1282 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1260
I¡¦m now on our Lufthansa flight on the runway in Vienna ¡V retrospective on yesterday and today.

Yesterday I thought we¡¦d slept in until 11! And was freaked out. I phoned Martin¡¦s room and told him to get it because it was already 11am. Many of us drank a lot at Branislav¡¦s the night before, so it seemed logical that we¡¦d slept in. Then he informed me that his watch said 8:20am. Oops. My 6 day old watch battery had died!

So, we all got up for breakfast anyway. Omeleta so syrom again ƒº, Cappuccino, Pomerancove dzus ¡V Mmmm. 65 Slovak Krowns ($2.10). We tried to go shopping, but found that there were no stores (post-communist country) ¡V only things like clothing places, and grocery stores. So we bought some coins at a coin shop ƒº Vanessa and I briefly went to a little art gallery, and it had this weird impressionistic yarn-art. Neat.

Then we went 380 feet down one of the old gold mines (shaft 4) in Kremnica (the heart of Europe, known for its gold mines in the middle ages). Kremnica was the first city to have a (hydro) electric lighted street. It was the Heart of Europe for Gold. It is now 6000 person town. The mine is the only one still producing in Kremnica. Usually they don¡¦t give tours as it is not open to the public¡K but for Canadians they made an exception ƒº

My hometown, Petrolia, was the first city to have a (oil) lighted street. It was the Center of Oil (black gold) for the world. It now a 4200 person town.

Then we went to a lookout point in the hills around Kremnica. Beautiful. Then we drove a bit to see the SCEI Keystone in a nice field near an old old medieval church/monastery. Then we walked through a forest where there was a collapsed mine that had killed 800 men (all the men in the town) and the town stopped mining for 100 years because of the tragedy. You could see holes in the side of the hill where parts of the mine had been before the side of the mountain fell off. Scary.

Then we had a break and hung out at the new office. Maria went home unexpectedly with the people from the OSA (very kind!!) because apparently I¡¦d mixed up when the flights were. I thought we were all leaving the next afternoon, but Maria had to leave super-early so had to leave the night before ƒ¼ Sad. Sorry Maria.

That night we went to a 1600s underground club. The bill for 12 people including food, champagne, wine, mixed-drinks, coffee, and beer was about $80 Canadian. Wow. Cool. Maya¡¦s dad had so much energy! We all left at 3am, but he stayed until 4!

-------

Saturday

Got up at 6:15 am and had a quick breakfast at the Hotel. Then we drove back to Bratislava to return the rental car. Then we drove to the airport in Vienna with Branislav¡¦s son. Caught our flight to Frankfurt, and then caught our connection to Toronto. On the flight we watched Cats Dogs Cats, and The Score with Edward Norton! Sweet flics ƒº In Toronto I caught a bus to Kipling Station, then a subway back to Christie station, and a taxi home. Got back to my house in Toronto a slim 21.5 hours after leaving the hotel in Kremnica ƒº Whoa. A trip friends to remember :)

The photo on the right is of the above-ground part of mine shaft 4 in Kremnica :)]]> Wed, 17 Oct 2001 13:39:00 EDT http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1260 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1259
Due to the fact that the “Minister of Somethingorother” wanted to stay at the hotel we were at, and they were booked solid, they asked me to share a room with Nick. No problem, just odd.

I didn’t do an entry last night because I was so tired that I fell asleep in my clothes watching German MTV. Yesterday we got up really early to do 2 workshops: the first one was at the Bratislava University of Technology and it was great/nuts. What we did was introduce ourselves and talk about TIG and its programs. Then Martin worked the projector while I taught about 30? people in a computer lab how to make a basic html page with links, images, headings, and image-links, and then how to create a geocities website and upload it. Great success! A faculty of architecture member even gave me his card after and we had a chat in his office because he’s very interested in partnering with TakingITGlobal in some way (testbed for TIGed?).

Then Georg and I hurried to rent a car for our upcoming trip to sKremnica. Then we rushed to a high school for another workshop.

We were given a large classroom with 30-50 students varying in age from 16-18 while Maya translated. Most knew some English but were too shy to use it. They would not talk. Very frustrating intimidating as a workshop leader. So we spoke about what TIG is and how we got involved and why #61664; also about the Slovakia Team and Slovakia.TakingITGlobal.org BUT we had NO computers or internet, so it was very hard. We didn’t know ahead of time what the workshop was to be on – turns out “IT Technology” was supposed to be our topic. Hard without computers.

We did some ice-breakers though (smile copycat) and eventually did get them interested in TIG SCEI. One student suggested an “essay post” area. Pretty cool. They all had fun. I noticed that after the smile game, the person who was my partner spoke more. It made her more comfortable.

Trip to Kremnica. Booked into the hotel, then went for dinner.

We had dinner at a fish restaurant with bears, badgets etc on the walls. I had some crazy turkey, chicken, and hotpepper sauté thing! Yummy! Vanessa had a whole fish! Yuck! Also, I “accidentally” had 2 stroberman 0.5 Litre 12% beers. I was looped. Fell asleep to German MTV again.

Woke up early and had an omeleta so syrom (cheese omlet) and some pomerancove dzus (orange juice) and kava (coffee) at the restaurant in the hotel. We walked a bit and saw Maja’s house. We then went to the TIG/SCEI office galler. HUGE!!! Impressive. Awesome! Wow. The ideal TIG office. Better than the one in Toronto.

Then we planned the workshop. WOW OK! So, like 150-200 people showed up, ages 60-80. Incredible. Georg introduced SCEI TIG. The Mayor of Kremnica was there and said a few words (which I couldn’t understand). We then introduced the ideas of TIG to them. I said something like “I see a lot of people here, and that makes me happy because it means your community is strong. Community is an important thing, maybe the most important. The great thing about communities is that people help each other when they need it. So that’s what we want to do with TakingITGlobal – connect many communities together to form a larger community that we’re all part of. So that we can help our global neighbours, not attack them.”

We showed the flash intro, did personal stories and how to join the site (using the projector) and how to do an update (they loved seeing their town on TIG Spotlight on Slovakia and Maya’s updates). The newspaper was also there. Sweet. The teachers showed great enthusiasm to Georg.

After that 1.5 hour session, we had a 5 minute break to stretch and re-arrange the room… getting all the benches and stuff out of the way for a workshop. What I haven’t mentioned is that for the whole time, we had much translation:

English->Slovak
Slovak->English
English->Slovak->Slovak Sign Language
Slovak Sign Language->Slovak->English

Of the 40 students who stayed for the workshop, about 30 were deaf. Holy language barriers Batman! BUT they were THE MOST insightful! Maybe because people rarely listen to their concerns and help them, so they saw this as “a big chance”. We did 2 icebreakers and talked about others’ interests and about what we can do together.

1st-> translate workshop kit to Slovak. 2nd ->create Slovak story page. It was a good way for them all to meet Maya. Yes they were quiet a lot but Maya said that was because no one ever asks students what *they* want – so they had to understand that we *really* did want to know what they wanted and help them achieve it.

After we had dinner, then we went to an organ concert at the big church/castle on a hill in the center of Kremnica. During the piece there was a pause and some people started clapping (incorrectly)… I thought Georg Cherry were gonna die! They had to try so hard not to laugh out loud #61514; Then we went for drinks and food at Branislav’s cottage, 10 minutes from Kremnica. It was such a beautiful place!

Also, I had time to develop a nice crush… Distance is a bitch.
When we left I gave her a nice hug, and one of those euro-kisses on the cheek.

Idea: TIG re-invigorates local physical communities through group interaction and cross-pollenation of ideas via the web. TIG strengthens communities and their futures by investing in youth.

The photo to the right is of us standing by the SCEI keystone in the countryside.]]> Wed, 17 Oct 2001 13:39:00 EDT http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1259 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1258
Breakfast 9:30am, shopping 10:30-11:30, conference 11:30-1pm, lunch 1-2pm, conference 2-4:30 -- I spoke briefly about virtual versus actual/physical. Heard ¡§Office of Subversive Architecture¡¨ „³ Very cool. 4:30-5:30 head home and change/shower. 6-7:30 dinner at the winery at the president¡¦s castle with the Canadian Embassy¡¦s 1st secretary and her secretary (from CIDA). She was interested in TIG SCEI.

8-10 pm drinks, pizza absinth @ bar
10-11:15 coffee outside under the laser beam!
11:30-1:45 workshop brainstorm (on video!)

Issues The Night Before Our Workshop:
We don¡¦t know what they want/need. They didn¡¦t request the workshop, so we¡¦re not filling a need per-se.
We don¡¦t have a clue as to how many people will attend.
We don¡¦t know what the space will be linke.
We don¡¦t know how we were advertised what they expect.
Their English isn¡¦t stellar / doesn¡¦t exist.
We don¡¦t speak Slovak.
They might not have net access for us to present our website.
We have no net access to prepare using our online workshop kit or to download TIG photos for powerpoint.
Turns out the laptop tv-out (NTSC) was incompatible with their PAL projector.
No floppy disks for file transfer.
No example workshops (maybe for different grade levels? Different self-consciousness factors?)
We didn¡¦t know what to do when no one spoke (need a ¡§tips for silent rooms¡¨ section on the site ƒº)
Low-bandwidth but huge graphics on TIG requires a text-version. Can we write a server script to ignore all graphics, because creating dynamic text only version?)

Maya Petra were AWESOME translators¡K we think¡K but we couldn¡¦t understand, so we don¡¦t know ƒº
Absinth was STRONG and bad, but then SWEET and YUMMY when I chased it with some cola!

This is a photo inside Branislav's cottage near Kremnica. He is roasting chicken on his open fire! Awesome! Georg is sitting chatting it up :)]]> Wed, 17 Oct 2001 13:39:00 EDT http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1258 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1196 Check out www.virtualhouse.ch

I made a comment at some point about an important distinction that should be made between the “virtual” world and the “real” world. The opposite of virtual is *not* actual, but “physical”. Virtual things and spaces actually do exist on a non-physical plane. Online relationships are real, with real emotion. They just aren’t physical. We cannot “un-exist” something. We cannot create anything that cannot exist. So, if we can see it or touch it or smell it, it is actual, not virtual. Come to think of it, I can even picture ideas in my head, so what is “virtual” anyway? Hmmm.

An observation: “Virtual” things will largely be used to augment/enhance physical things, or to extend abilities. It cannot replace physical things which require physical contact that cannot be replicated with a GUI representation (unless we get a holodeck). Example: a “virtual” chair would be useless.

Notes on the Office of Subversive Architecture (OSA) Presentation:
Methods: Analyse the situation exactly. What is there? How can we do something we haven’t done before? Can we implement some *new* communication? We should not just build objects, but we should start processes. By telling stories we should think out scenarios so that the we can create something that will continue on by itself. We should make desperate places engaging. We should change the way people look at things. “Subvert” the obvious/traditional/boring/un-engaging.

A thought I had: Nature and chaos and all environments are networks of interacting systems. Systems are also networks. So, really the world is also an “internet”, composed of meat, and protein, and fibre, while the “virtual world” is composed of bits, and electrons, and fibre-optics. Neat-oh.

A man made this comment: Up until about 1600, man was in harmony with nature. The 1600s brought with them industrialization and dis-harmony. In 1800 the world had a population of 2 Billion people. By 2001 this had reached 6 Billion, and it’s expected to reach 10-14 Billion by 2010. So, how do we divide space between nature and humanity? Humans need nature but nature does not need humans. How do we cope? Stop pollution? Is it possible to co-exist with nature again, in peace? It *will* require the cooperation of all sciences.

Accompanying this update is a photo of me and two beautiful ladies who attended our workshops. If you are reading this, please email me at Derek@TakingITGlobal.org I'd like to keep discussing the additions to the site you recommended! It was great to meet you :)]]> Wed, 10 Oct 2001 12:51:00 EDT http://derekmartin.tigblog.org/post/1196 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667