Tears of Laughter by Christopher Turner

It was this quote that inspired us to call a hub in Game Neverending "Merry Gambols" and the book, Homo Ludens, was what inspired us to call the company "Ludicorp". Heather and Derek just gave us a Fetching Tag for Dos Pesos, and I'm asking them to put "Merry Gambols" on it.

Also, another great gift from Christmas this year: The Readymade book is now out. I gave a copy to my sister, a Readymade subscriber, and then was lucky enough to get one myself. Beautifully designed, and full of inspiring ideas.

Had lunch with Mike and Liz and arrived at the restaurant 22 minutes before the hour -- not by design -- and yet Mike said that he has a theory, borne out by experience, that if you arrive at a lunch place 22 minutes before the hour, the people from an hour before are leaving and the people arriving for the next hour haven't yet arrived. I will try this from now on.

I conjecture this doesn't work with dinner, since people tend to spend a longer time at the table at dinner, and unevenly: some people eat faster, others linger forever. With lunch there's the assumption that you have to get back to work and so can't hang out too long.

The 2005's 10 Sexiest Geeksarticle in Wired comes up completely blank for me.

Researchers at the University of Bath have found that girls routinely torture their Barbies, subjecting them to scalping, decapitation, burning and even microwaving.

I've always thought Barbies were unlovable.

One of the ghastliest news stories I've read in recent years was Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World, a story that appeared yesterday in the New York Times. A shy and lonely 13-year-old boy buys a webcam to try to meet some other teens, and no one shows up but a pervert who asks him to sit in front of his web cam for 3 minutes without his shirt on and he'll send him $50 by PayPal. This goes on for years until he's having sex with prostitutes live on his webcam for a paid audience of thousands, the prostitutes procured by his father, and is flown all over the country to visit his various molesters.

For mostly feminist reasons, I am against the casual acceptance of pornography, but its pervasiveness in our culture, especially in the past 10 years, teaches children that it is not only acceptable but normal to treat a person, even oneself, as a thing for use, a product for purchase. This story has really struck a nerve. Everyone I know that has read it was horrified, one friend sick to the point of nausea.

Consider giving something to the children listed at The Family Giving Tree. There must be other organizations like this too, this one is in the Bay Area. I just got a bunch of presents and it was the most fun I've had shopping for presents all year. It's different buying things for people who don't have much than it is for my relatives, who have all they could possibly need. And I loved seeing what the kids had requested. Electronic keyboard! Sleeping bag! Clifford the Dog Video!

Interview with Peter Watson, a former psychiatrist who wrote who seems very crabby, but in a good way. These questions struck me, especially in view of each other:

He then paraphrases English philosopher John Gray, who says "it is more sensible to lo0ok out on the world from a zoo than from a monastery. Science, or looking out, is better than contemplation, or looking in." This struck me as odd, coming from a former psychiatrist and a writer. He then goes on to discuss the novel:

I completely disagree. Not a lot of satisfaction! I think I might have to read his book. And the delamination of the inner life from collective action? I can't think of anything more terrible, it's like mindless automatons, The Borg, totalitarian regimes.

Another book I have been reading, sent to me by my friend Scott is The Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren, an evangelical Christian. Rick Warren's church, The Saddleback Church, has grown to tens of thousands of members distributed all over the country, but he came to prominence with The Purpose Driven Life, which itself got all over the news after hostage Ashley Smith read it to her kidnapper. Warren sells sermons to pastors all over the world through his web site at Pastors.com and his strategy of decentralization has enabled his church to grow at an enormous rate.

This is not my usual reading fare, not being an evangelical Christian myself, but it is an amazing book on building communities, which is, of course, one of my favorite subjects. You should see my Amazon recommendations now. The same day I received A Purpose Driven Life in the mail, my copy of Kiss and Make Up arrived. Huzzah!

Digs magazine #1 suggestion for "Hosting a divine dinner party without losing your mind" is "Limit the guest list to 12 and under". We had no fewer than 25 people to dinner which was amazing, and sat them all down. Digs Magazine also claims that "The dinner party is not a party party. Whereas the latter conjures up images of loud music, free-flowing alcohol, standing-room only crowds and raucous revelry, the former is, in many ways, its complete antithesis: the epitome of relaxed, intimate elegance", which did not pertain to this party either. But the thing that made it possible without anyone losing their mind was that Aaron planned the menu, shopped and cooked, and Aaron loves it. It was fantastic . 4 courses! 180 oysters! and 25 happy, sated, guests singing along to Paul and John's after dinner rendition of "Shook Me All Night Long."

If you pay any attention to the photos I post to Flickr, you may have noticed a painting in the back of a lot of pictures I've taken; it's by Charlie Roberts, and you can see some of his recent drawings at the Richard Heller Gallery in L.A. I can't find the show in the archives...maybe it's upcoming? Wonder if he's still living in Vancouver...I'll ask around.

I picked out a bunch of cool stuff that was posted today on the front page of Etsy, a great site where people sell the things they make. If you haven't been there, you must go. One thing I didn't include, since it had been picked last week, was the hambone, which, I think, would be perfect for a certain dog for Christmas.

They serve delicious scones at Samovar, the magic ingredient being the crystals of salt sprinkled on top with the oats. To hit a chunk of salt is a surprise, and the flavor of it blossoms on your tongue.

The same principle is at work with these Fleur de Sel Caramels, which we have become addicted to, and buy as presents for everyone we know.

I have low blood pressure, so I'm always craving salt. Not so fond of sugar, which is a good thing.

Why people should try Dharma Punx, a meditation group for weirdos, pariahs and punks, described as follows on Beyond Robson (which I found through the comments on a prior post). Robson, for those of you not familiar with Vancouver, is a shopping street which has, you know, Banana Republics and Diesel stores on it. It represents the mainstream there. The cool kids in Vancouver get their clothes at Dream at 311 Cordova St. or at Eugene Choo on Main.

I'm hoping some of my friends in Vancouver are still reading this so they can check it out and tell me what it's all about. The one thing I've always hated about meditation groups and yoga classes is how NPR and sanctimonious the people in those classes so often are. The best yoga teacher I ever had, back when I practised religiously (so to speak) was Joe Naudzunas, who was tough and no-bullshit, intolerant of flakes and preciosity, also raced motorcycles. Sometimes he missed class because he was in traction from a crash or two. He occasionally wore this wonderful t-shirt with a quote by Kevin Schwantz, the famous motorcycle racer: "All out till you see God, then brake/". So bring on the heavy metal asanas! I wonder if spiked wristbands hurt when you do handstands, grrrrrrr.

Completely failed to write a novel in November. I realized after I was on vacation that the last thing I needed was a feeling of obligation, so I ditched the project for the time being. But the good thing was that I dusted off the novel I was working on in 2003 to see what could be salvaged, and it was a lot better than I had remembered. So December has become my very local novel writing month.