Notes

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South African Anti-Eviction Campaign: Organizer Speaks at Encuentro 5

Introduction by Suren Moodliar:

Ashraf Cassiem's Saturday evening presentation at e5 concerning the Anti Eviction Campaign that he coordinates in South Africa's Western Cape. Several people have written back trying to locate (or asking me to situate)
the Campaign within the traditions of South Africa's national liberation struggle and/or the global justice movement.

Two reasons for VisionsUnite: How life should be able to be lived; If we all knew about the major injustices

My friend Mary, sitting in front of her computer looking for a job, wrote me via instant message:

"i want to automatically find a job, one that leaves me the weekends or enough time to LIVE and do the work I love."

Barnraiser, Dutch, Roundhouse, Prarie, AroundMe

http://www.barnraiser.org

We are a network of people that have come together to give you the tools you need to share knowledge and advance open digital society.

PWGD/VisionsUnite collaborator?

traveling light

Not two weeks back from traveling Europe with two small bags – people were amazed I traveled with so little – and never feeling a lack, and immediately i've been carrying much more around with me-- at Grandpa's house now with a half-dozen books, sleeping bag, food... as well as the original two bags.

Must ruthlessly weed out the unneeded...

The Big Todo of October 18 2009

By Monday morning:
- Jonas last hurrah - webform downloads, etc.
- Book proposal
- CBS status update

Also needs working on today:
- Drupal core RDF
- Genarts
- Email responses to SCF people

The Intelligent Opposition to Equality

People with a (relatively) intelligent opposition to equality, and how (not?) to respond.

There is a problem-- I do identify emotionally with the left, even if my very simple economic theory is the most minor logical extension of normal and basically right-wing classical and even neoclassical economics.

If I'm to talk persuasively to all those who place themselves as libertarian and conservative, I need to get out of that headspace a little. It really has nothing to do with the actual economic facts or even much with the moral standpoint.

African-English-Spanish-Indian-American Hash Browns (also called potato curry)

Cooked a late breakfast for Shreya and our hosts, Ben and Chris.

3-4 medium-sized onions (net; had to cut out some bad parts), short slices
3 cloves garlic, small slices
2 small, 1 medium, and 2 large potatoes, sliced in thirds for boiling and then roughly sliced for frying
olive pomice oil, extra virgin olive oil, sunflower oil
turmeric, generous
table salt, very generous
a few chili pepper flakes
a few drops Tabasco sauce
covering of fresh ground pepper

My October Mix Tape will be about Home!

Simon & Garfunkle, Homeward Bound
Kingston Trio, Green Green
Roger Miller, Home where the whippoorwills call
Dirty Water, The Standells
In Them Old Cotton Fields Back Home
Don't it Make You Want to Go Home, Harry Belafonte

(For Mixes Across America Facebook group started by a friend of Manda's.)

Adams Family

On Thursday, wandering the streets with Shreya, I was shocked and outraged to learn that U.S. President John Quincy Adams was married in England, at a church near the tower of London (to Louisa Catherine Johnson at All Hallows Parish, Barking, London, England, to be precise).

The United Kingdom should not be poaching on our historical events. They have enough of their own.

Wireless spots (meaning street curbs) in Rome

Rome is strange. There are spots that get wireless internet, but the network connecting to seems to change each time.

The Via Piazza Venezia subway station on Via Napoleone III 35, for one.

Life goals: Wear an "I survived ..." t-shirt to my funeral.

Not sure what it should say i survived, if it should be what killed me or if it is more ironic to have something else. Also, probably probably cremation/memorial service or not dying in a way that leaves a recognizable corpse could make this more difficult.

No Hate Groups

Note: groups that attack a specific person or group of people (e.g. racist, sexist or other hate groups) will not be tolerated. Creating such a group will result in the immediate termination of your Facebook account.

This is good, and I'm glad that Facebook, given what they are as a private, for-profit, closed system has chosen to take this stance.

But this doesn't work for a communications infrastructure for a society.

You can't be shutting any group down because you don't like what they say.

To Do and To Bring lists

Couldn't find paper in my semi-reorganized room to start a list of Need before India— er, Europe so here it is, digital-style:

Need to Do

  • Clean room suitable for renting it out!
  • Process business cards into something
  • Mow front lawn
  • Get ONE patch in
  • Presentations

Need to Bring

  • Stefan's clothes
  • Three pairs of pants
  • Floss
  • Full toothbrush
  • Extra SD card?

sciatica aside

One of the reasons I did the NYC road trip-- a tossup until the last second, especially when the bus wouldn't work out because I missed the last feasible train into Boston -- the damn sciatica was too painful to concentrate on work. Pain is such an individual thing it is very hard to tell, but I am pretty sure i have a high pain tolerance and this thing is a holy terror.

How to learn another language

From Nate Curtis' brain and a book he has "How to Learn Any Language"

  • learn English grammar
  • basic grammar book
  • phrase book
  • read newspaper and magazine articles and young adult books with a highlighter
    • highlight any words you don't know
    • look them up in the dictionary
    • make flash cards with the words

Typing Tutors

My favorite of what I could find: Klavaro
http://klavaro.sourceforge.net/en/index.html

I disagree with their decision to not show the keyboard on the screen, because from my experience (never learning touch-typing until I switched to Dvorak) it is vital to not look at the actual keyboard to know where the characters are, but on the small netbook-style laptops at Shishur Sevay it is better to print the keyboard layout and mount it next to the monitor.

Review of three available on Ubuntu that ended up favoring Klavaro: http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/146602

words

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me."
As spoken by someone like G.W. Bush or Supreme Leader Khamenei: "I name thee Terrorist-who-should-be-beaten-with-sticks-and-stones."
"OK, there's a gray area."

Squash and celery stir fry

A vastly modified version of this recipe: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1850,155174-249199,00.html

STIR - FRY VEGETABLES WITH TOFU
1 bag baby carrots, sliced in halves, quarters, or thirds the long way
1 zucchini (6" long)
1 yellow squash
4 stalks celery
3 Tbsp. flour (won't do this again)
Sesame oil
Ground ginger
1 pkg. firm tofu (cut into 1/4" cubes)
2 c. cooked brown rice

In a large wok or skillet heat 2 teaspoons oil until very hot but not smoking.

Add carrots; and celery; stir fry with wooden spatula for 3 minutes. Add zucchini and squash.

Add cubed tofu.

My friends have great status messages

Two instant message statuses from this morning:

Dear Ashly, I like to have lesbians in my home, you may stay for as long as you like. Sincerely, Ian

And Mary, who posted a day before to Facebook that she is pretty sure all experiences are cherries and radishes ("I had forgotten how delightful both are, until today," she explained to me; "there is something really gorgeous about each"), knows how to put a plan into action:

breakfast: radishes and cherries

Complaints about PayPal

what's the problem with paypal btw?
you can put in any credit card you want on the fly

i personally dislike it-- and, i hope they changed this, but they used to reject credit cards *already associated with a PayPal account*
if you put the number in directly. Extremely stupid and un-user friendly

so you could log in first

do i strike you as someone who cares to remember which cards are hooked in to what?

hehe