Reports have it that since the 15th of this month, the spring rains have been enough to intermittently cue the gloryhole. Apparently this opening of the glory hole stands as a local seasonal milestone, like the coming of the robins back home or the breaking of the ice in the north. What is a gloryhole? The massive overflow pipe that stands next to the dam at Lake Berryessa. When the “lake” (it’s an enormous manmade resovoir wherein the hills have been filled with drinking water) breifly exceeds the level of the 28 story overflow pipe, the water spills down it in a sort of circular waterfall. It looks like a hole in physics. Below are pictures of the dam and the spillway during normal water levels, and after a rainstorm.

We will shortly know when war will begin. That war will happen is the obvious and insurmountable bad. The good is that Canada has conclusively announced that it will not be involved. Declaring ourselves non-complicit is one of those things that nobody entirely believes can be done until it actually is done, and then it seems so obvious. I am excited about it because I really think that the fact of a close (geographically, culturally, financially and strategically) partner of the US clearly stating it’s opposition will have an effect on the thinking of US citizens. To an American, it’s a lot like Wisconsin announcing that it won’t be sending any soldiers. It will make the possibility of considered resistance more concrete. I am also excited about it because it is my homeland, and whatever the state of democracy it still seems important to me that my consituency is voting against.

Finally, some first hand, uncensored reporting from the Iraq-Kuwait border. This is a mini-weblog being maintained by the group at boingboing to allow a CNN reporter to upload his personal reports and thoughts as he wishes. This is not the official line from CNN.

Links:

Hell No, Canada Won’t Go, Announces Prime Minister From the Toronto Star
Kevin Site’s direct reporting from the war (Look to the right hand column)

Saturday’s peace march in San Francisco rates high on the rally-o-meter. I’m told by folk who went to the previous couple that this was smaller in scale then the past marches, but that the atmosphere was really good. Speaking literally of the atmosphere, the iron-clad predictions of rain and near-freezing weather were enormously wrong, emerging from the BART into Civic Centre Plaza we were all met by blue skies and warm sun. The speakers were fine I suppose, but by far the best thing was the depth and breadth of the creativity shown by all the individuals who came in expressing their opinions. Wide, wide diversity of folk there. The march set off before the amplified yakking was officially done, which tweaked the organizers mildly but I think was just fine and appropriate, we weren’t there to be lectured at we were there make a little noise of our own. Unlike previous march routes which led mostly up Market St among the serious, borded up shops of cowering chain stores to arive eventually in Civic Centre and the heart of Bay Area political authority, this one got it’s start there and once spontaneous community coherence had been obtained, circled it’s way through some smaller, freindlier business and residential neighbourhoods where the store ownes simply protected their windows with “war sucks” signs instead of plywood and hung out and watched and cheered. All very nice.

I was packing analog film (see below) so pictures will have to wait a day or two but I will post some. I saw my first bona fide celbrity since arriving in California (not even my impromptu visit to Hollywood netted me any citings). Turns out though that Martin Sheen is a bit of a religious wackaloon. The much better speaker was the ex-airforce former president of San Fran’s stock exchange, who asked that people be gentle with him because of his lack of dissent experience but enthused about how good it felt getting arrested outside his former place of business yesterday in a direct action. “I’ve been getting a lot of calls from freinds from the service and from business” he said “asking what they should do. I say they should get out somewhere public and push a little past their level of comfort. I hope you will join me”. OK ageing white guy in power, I’ll think about it. I imagine we all will.

Title says it all really

I’m really diggin disposable cameras these days. Especially for travel and stuff like peace demos. They’re lightweight, fit easily in a pocket and under ideal lighting conditions the brand name ones can take crisp photos with excellent colour. If you shop around a little, they don’t cost that much more than the film that feeds conventional cameras, cost the same to develop, and it says on the box they’re recycled. The two best things is that they have no “start-up” time (even some compact film cameras take a couple seconds to extend their lenses) and they aren’t intimidating they way an SLR is, especially for use in ‘developing nations’. And you don’t have to worry about them being stolen when you’re travelling. Nice little things all around. Not reccomended for serious art photography, but come on now, how often do any of us do serious art photography? Nice little items all around.

Leaving was definitley a good idea. At the food co-op the wine manager was holding a little tasting. Yes, in California not only do they sell wine in the grocery store, you can actually end up a little drunk whilst still shopping. Lovely.

Also received this link from my boss. Nice to have a boss you agree with on larger issues.

A reporter’s take on the journalism award acceptance speech of veteran white house reporter and recent retiree Helen Thomas:

http://dailybreeze.copleypress.org/content/bog/thomas19.html

She seemed to have sympathy and affection for everyone but George W. Bush, a man who she said is rising on a wave of 9-11 fear ? fear of looking unpatriotic, fear of asking questions, just fear. ?We have,? she said, ?lost our way.?

This has been the most unproductive of friday afternoons, I’m sick of it, and I have learned in life that sometimes you just have to walk away. Thus, I am outy.

The morning was quite nice.

You won’t be hearing from me tomorrow, because I will protesting vigourously in San Francsico with 10, perhaps (quite likely in fact) 100’s of thousands of others.

Time for a little preemptive peace.

Yes indeed, things are moving fast here at Empty Room Blog.

As I continue to wait for my needed user account, I am taking certain steps regarding this webspace. As we speak, I am downloading the free ‘pmachine’ blogging software. I have already coughed up $5 to rent some server space to run the software at getmeonline.net. After doing so, I realized that they are based out of Dublin and Barcelona, which means it’s something like 7 in the morning there and my account ain’t going to get activated for a little while. Yes, that’s right. I am now waiting on account activations.

But progress is being made. I am conducting further reserach into the live-audio-stream. Once I have set up pmachine I have plans for a rotating photo, qoute and link gallery. And there may even be a name change in the works. Just as soon as I think of a better name.

Of course, all that depends on Mr. Lu and his imaginary friend (whose empty desk he pointed at as part of his “I need his help and he’s not here” plea when I angrily confronted* him earlier) taking a very long time processing my account indeed. But that’s not impossible.

*by ‘angrily confronted’, I guess I mean ‘knocked politley on his door, waited for a few undergrads to finish speaking with him, and then politely brought the subject up before thanking him for his time’. But next time I’m not going to be so easy to get rid of.

This post (the origins of which I won’t explain because I don’t understand, something to do with some venture capitalist’s challenge posted to AlwaysOn) is a long frightening nightmare to me. I don’t understand it but it disturbs and scares me and I want to expunge it from my brain.

Tim,

Founder
The Opportunity Services Group :: Have Fun to Get Ready
www.opportunityservices.com

original link

This must be a joke right? I mean, it has to be a joke right? “worth hundreds of trillions of dollars.”?!?
The webpage referenced (www.opportunityservices.com) is an endless font of business qoutes and graphs. Either this is the one of the most elaborate and subtley hilarious spoofs of the business mindset I have ever seen, or it is awesomely horrible.

James Howard Kunstler is an author whose books about urban design, and the decline thereof, my mom has read. He also writes for Orion magazine, such as this juiced-up rant on the half life of current American values. Good stuff.

Maul of America

“But something had gotten into me that day. Maybe it was the chain hotel I spent the night in, isolated in its free parking orbit from everything else in the universe. So I throttled up to rant-speed: “We’re about to send soldiers to Afghanistan,” I told them. “If one of them steps on a land mine over there, what will he remember, in his last moment, about the place he calls home? Will it be the curb-cut in front of Chuck E Cheese’s? Will he pine for the stacking lanes at the traffic light in front of the mall?”

“Siddown.”